Reality Heist by Geordi Riker (e manga reader .txt) 📕

Smithsonian in this dimension is anything like the one in mine, a general hack isn't going to cut it. They'll have trollware and spiderware, the rent-a-cops of the digital world.”

“What happens if you run into those?”

“Doesn't matter. Brandee, you sound more than capable to handle that aspect of this heist.” Skip brings the group back on topic, “As it stands, we need to do some reconnaissance. Checking for exits, counting the windows, timing how long it takes to get from point A to point B and out. Fortunately for us, we don't need to worry about getting caught...”

“Hate to spoil the mood,” Jesse raises his hand slightly, “But-” he stops as the waitress comes  over to us.

“What can I get for y'all today?” she smiles toothily. She's not ugly, but she wouldn't be on America's Next Top Model either. Her blonde hair is pulled away from her face, but a few bangs have sprung loose of the low pony tail. Her cheeks are slightly sunk in, and wrinkles are beginning to form around her eyes and on her forehead. If I had to guess, I'd say she's around 45ish. Her name tag reads 'Melinda Shwartz'.

“Pancake breakfasts for the lot of us,” Skip says quickly before Ky can say anything. She shoots him a dirty look, which he ignores.

“Alright, and what would you like to drink?”

Jesse finger-points a gun at each person as he says what they'll have, “Chocolate milk, Orange juice, water- seriously Amaar, you've got to drink something other than that someday-apple juice, coffee, I'll have a chocolate milk, and Brandee...” he trails off as he looks at me expectantly.

Chase speaks up before I can order, “Be careful, because from now on, whenever we come here, that's what you get stuck with. Russian whiz kid over here-”

“-is not actually Russian, and likes to be on top of things once in a while,” Jesse cuts him off.

“I guess I'll have chocolate milk then.”

The waitress never loses her cool, or writes anything down, “Alright, I'll be right back with your drinks.”

As soon as she's out of earshot, Skip turns to Jesse expectantly, “You were saying?”

“We have to keep on our toes for this one. Forcing it is not an option.”

A collective groan rises from the group. Jesse raises his arms in a placating gesture.“Hey, sorry for saving everybody's butts back there. I'm sure that you'd all rather deal with the Black on your own than be shoved into default mode and having to tread lightly for the next few slides.”

“I still don't think that there were any Black. I think you were just paranoid, as usual.”

“You know what, Ky? My ability, my rules. Rule number one: If there's a Black around, get the heck out of there.”

“I still don't see how it's you who got that particular trait.” Ky grumbled darkly as she looked off to the side.

“Alright, so we pull out all stops on this one," Skip says. "Everybody goes hard and fast, don't let anyone see your actual faces before and during. After's risky, but safer than the other two. Chase, Jesse, Brandee. You three go in on recon, find out what you can, give Brandee enough time to find what she needs. Amaar, you're going in as a intern. We'll pull some strings, bribe the other student by paying his loans to let you in.”

“Nothing like a free education to put people in a giving mood.”

“Shut up, Chase.”

The waitress arrives with two trays with our drinks on them, placing the coffee in front of Skip, the chocolate milks in front of me, Chase, and Jesse, and giving Ky the orange juice. As soon as she leaves, Ky trades with Dutch, who immediately pours some of the alcohol from his bottol into the glass, swirling it around as an attempt to mix it.

"Before that though," Skip continued, "Once Chase gets Amaar in, the three of you need to go shopping. I'll make a list of things we'll need for the job. Your outifit's your own problem, but that should get fixed as soon as possible. Ky can easily be a Guard here, but there's no way that you'd pass that sort of scrutiny."

“What'll the three of us be doing?” Ky asks after taking a sip of the juice and pulling a face.

“We'll be on gear duty once the place has been completely scoured for cover identities and we've come up with an exit strategy.”

“Is that going to involve a military base?” Ky asks excitedly.

“It may, depending on what we need in order to get into the vault. It's a pity telekinesis isn't that strong of an advantage.”

Pancakes are placed in front of us. “Is it just me,” I speak up, “Or is it like some sort of rule that we eat as soon as we get into another dimension?”

“Called 'filling up the tank',” Chase explains, “Sliding is disorienting, so the best thing to do is get your body as adjusted to a new dimension in as little time as possible. Fastest way, for most of us mortals,” he shoots Dutch a pointed look, “Is to get something to eat, preferably something that's virtually a constant, like pancakes. Now, there may be the odd exception where another thing can take the place of food as a familiar thing that the body is accustomed to. For Dutch, that's his concoctions, the stronger the better.”

“Problem is,” Dutch splutters, his words starting to slur, “Is that I can't remember much drinking.”

“The guy has a brain the size of an acorn in there,” Jesse grins, “Most of it devoted to the singular thought 'more booze'.”

“Hey Pina Colada, don't believe a word these two say. They're just jealous that I don't need food as often as they do.”

Chase pats his gut, “Her name is Brandee, and this little fella here begs to differ with your infinite wisdom.”

"i still think that I should be going with you tomorrow," Dutch complains. "Who else is going to be able to find the perfect look for the rookie? We obviously can't let her dress herself for much longer, that's jsut a recipe waiting for disaster."

I open my mouth to snap off a retort, but Skip's already talking. "We need you charged and ready depending on who it is that we're going to be getting the gear we need from. Brandee is just going to have to rely on Chase and Jesse's help for this round."

Jesse, noticing the shade of red that my face was turning, gave me a slight nudge. "They're just messing with you. come on, eat up. Once we're done here, we're going to have the real meeting where ever we crash."

We dig into our pancakes with gusto.

Signal Bad. Connection Good.

Skip lands us a couple of rooms in a motel, and another good-natured argument ensues on who goes where. Apparently, it's a given that me and Ky will share the same bed. The argument is over having one or two guys set up with us, and who it should be. In the end, it comes down to straws when trying to figure out which two guys. Chase and Jesse draw the tallest straws, and so head with me and Ky into our room.

“Let's shoot for some pizza!” Jesse exclaims as he studies the drab, inoffensive decor. Ky claims the bed further away from the door.

“Are you serious, Jesse? We just spent the entire day refueling, and you're still hungry?”

“Yeah, well, the night is young, right Dee?”

“I'm gonna sleep.”

“It's only seven, though.”

“And I have been up for  the past thirty-six hours. And so, I'm gonna go to bed.”

I brush my teeth with a toothbrush and toothpaste Dutch snagged from the drugstore. Apparently, the guy can turn invisible at will, which explains why he randomly appeared in the tunnel, why Chase's light passed right through him. It's pretty cool. I always thought that invisibility was a lame power, but you save so much money if you just take stuff. Anything he touches disappears, including something the size of a grocery cart full of goods. The fridges of both rooms are now full of drinks, snacks, and cheese.  But he said he started feeling guilty ages ago about using his abilities like that, so he always leaves a little gift for the cashier that he would have had to have stood in line for.

I curl up on the side of the bed facing the wall. My exhaustion conquers my inability to fall asleep in the midst of the ruckus the other three are causing.

When I wake up, the room is pitch black and the other three are out cold. Slowly, I pull myself up to see the time: 3:15.  I slept for eight hours. It doesn't feel  like it was enough. I lie back down and close my eye, only a little bit darker than the room.

I feel like it's  summer. It wasn't this warm when I went to bed. Slowly, I open my eyes again and wait for my eyes to adjust to figure out what's going on. Not only am I under all the blankets, but Ky has flipped her half on top of mine, so neatly and precariously that it seems like she did it like some sort of prank. I try to fall asleep.

But my brain won't cooperate and I just lie there for what feels like ages. Eventually, I open my eyes and glance at the clock again: 3:16. I hiss in frustration. I need more sleep than a piddly eight hours.

It soon becomes apparent that I'm not going to fall back asleep any time soon. Instead, I try to slide quietly from the tangle of blankets. If Ky's awake, she doesn't acknowledge me, which is just fine. I dig out my tablet from my bag and feel my way to wards the bathroom.

My toe slams into the wall, and a small yelp of pain escapes my lips. “Shit!” I hiss in the darkness, hopping on one foot while my hand grips my little toe tightly to try to deaden the pain.

I limp into the bathroom, flip down the toilet seat, and get comfortable. There's been something about the tablet that has bothered me since that night at the fancy house where I first entered Kan Kaku and met Hiyori. That was also when I had actually messed around with the tablet.

The crack running along the one side of the screen doesn't seem to have affected the capacity of the tablet to function. The tablet hums as the components whir to life, electrons shooting through silicon parts to send commands telling the operating system what it should be doing. The same screen welcomes me, just like last time.

Except now I know what I'm doing. Quickly, I access a function on the tablet that I hadn't noticed at first last time, represented on the 'desktop' as an eye. The holographic display shifts out of focus before reforming to show a list of files under the heading 'Recently Updated'. Above that is a search engine, to help track down a specific file. My eyes skim over the files listed even as I type my search key into the database.

The files themselves mean nothing to me. Titles like “Operative 67”; “Royal Squadron- Current Assesment”; “Royal Squadron- Branch 32 Mark 654.98 HYTE 7”; “4537- Current Assignment”