Chapter 67About Brave Burglars

We continued on our way to the orphanage. In my Mind's eye I saw a large, looming building, either Gothic in design or like an old hospital. Perhaps one evil guard at a large gate leading into the inner court. The windows would be black, ominous and taunting. Dogs barking and an electrified top-fence.

It wasn't far from the truth.

Oh alright, I was completely wrong.

It was a simple old two-floor school building with proper lighting and no more than a reception desk at the entrance. It actually looked quite modern in a way. Double glass windows, lighted corridors, cameras. Very secure too. I wondered if Kai was up to the task of breaking in here. I felt excited, it was the second time I was about to break in somewhere. I had to contain myself.

"Now to find the rear entrance." Kai smiled at me as he noticed my excitement.

We walked around the building and noticed a proper steel door as an emergency exit. Opened.

Cigarette butts gave little to guess as to why it was open.

"Just like expected." Kai grinned and winked at me. "They're not important enough to be watched by anyone else. And who doesn't want their smoke-breaks outside of any camera reach."

I smiled. "This makes it easier."

Kai nodded. "But we're not done here yet. I need the key if we want to get out. So let's see if this is the same security system as I found."

He picked a short cable from his backpack and plugged it into the inside of the door-frame. It seemed there was a small plug available near the scanner which would be completely unavailable if the door was closed, from both sides. Kai grinned though, I guessed he must have found something good.

It was.

"We're very lucky tonight. The last used access is a open level pass. And it's a simple response code on a RFID chip." He looked at me expectedly.

"That means what?"

"It means I need two seconds to copy it."

He picked something from his bag that looked like a transparent credit-card with some metal wires running near the edge. He put it next to his computer and smiled. He handed the pass to me and motioned toward the door. I didn't expect it to work really. I mean, could it be this simple?

I moved it in front of the card-reader and was surprised to see a green light. It really worked! Kai packed his stuff back in and looked around to the state of the building.

"I hope there will be dead areas in the zones with camera's. This could be very tough otherwise."

I nodded, I started to understand a little where his real worries were. It wasn't getting in that was the problem. It was getting out unnoticed. With all the technology used for tracking people, fingerprints were less and less important. You had their route through the building by their access logs, and their faces on camera. And of course, depending on the security around, even their weight and complete hand-print. I was hoping this wasn't the case here though. To be honest, I still felt very giddy, like a sneaky cat burglar for the first time.

We weren't sure what to do so Kai suggested we go to the basement, where, usually, the data center was stored with minimal security.

Minimal meaning in this case it was another card-reader and a camera. Though in this case the camera was slightly more annoying. Aimed at the entrance.

Now to think of a way to get past this. Things got a little bit more pressing though as we heard footsteps behind us. Kai and I had stayed silent, both vocally and physically, for most of our stay inside to avoid being heard by anyone accidentally. And the pace of the footsteps sounded like they were just going here like 'usual'. Not for investigation.

Maybe this was our chance.

Something was odd about the footsteps. They sounded a lot lighter than they should. Perhaps a young woman? We hid back in shadows near the stairs where we hoped no one would see us. There wasn't really a proper hiding place but I had already experienced people don't really look where they're not expecting anything. In a way we're very blind like that.

The footsteps got closer.

And as soon as I saw him I had to stop myself not to gasp. It was one of the people who I had seen two nights before in the circle. And not one I was expecting.

It was the boy.