Quietly and gently, I pulled the hatch off and placed it beside me. I was on the rooftop of one of the most secure buildings in the country. I tapped the comm on my ear and whispered, "what is the status, Duke? Am I good to go?" There was silence as I listened to static. "Duke?" I exchanged a glance with my Sophia, wife, and colleague, bending low beside me. How could we lose contact with base? Was this mission going to be over even before it began? "Duke!" To avoid alerting security of our presence, I had to keep my voice to a harsh whisper. "It's done." The computer whiz's voice came over the comms. "All motion detectors have been deactivated." I let out a breath of relief. I knew I could always count on Duke. I exchanged another look with my wife. "Let us do this, baby," I said as I took hold of the harness that had been securely fixed to a sturdy post here on the roof. Then I threw the rope into the vault below. Without a word, Sophia and I slid down the rope into the quiet of the metal vault. "I can only cloak your presence for ten minutes," Duke was saying as we landed. "Then their system would realize I'm not supposed to be in it and shut me out. You have ten minutes--- sorry, it's nine minutes now." I cursed. But I had worked on a countdown before. Sophia and I were DSS agents, one of the highest level of crime-fighting agencies in Nigeria. She and I had fallen deeply in love, going against popular belief and because it was not against any rule, we eventually got married. Since then, we've been on multitudes of cases, really dangerous ones with lots of bullets flying around and bombs trying to destroy cities. And then there were cases where we had to apply stealth, just like this one we were currently on. And because of her, I enjoyed every single case we worked on. It had been one year of a happy married life. "You've got eight minutes, Samson," Duke said, mentioning my name. I ignored his voice as we stopped before the vault. I grabbed the wheel and spun it once. Then Sophia and I pulled the door open to reveal a wall covered in mirrors from too to bottom. And in this wall, there was a safe built into it. The safe looked ordinary, it's only remarkable features were its keypad that had glowing keys and a LED screen to see what you typed. "Well, well well…" I muttered angrily. "I didn't see this coming." "No one said anything about a safe!" Sophia gasped angrily. "I am just as shocked as you are, that safe is not in the blueprint we studied. It's either a new installation or they kept it out on purpose." Duke said hurriedly, "Samson adjust your bodycam so I can study it." I shifted so the camera on my body would give him a good view of the safe. "We're running out of time, Duke! We have less than seven minutes." I said. This was a very volatile case, one that could blow up in our faces if anything went wrong. This facility we had been into was a new generation bank. But the banking activities were only a front for its illegal activities like helping corrupt politicians and government officials contrabands, blackmail items, and ill-gotten funds. We were here to steal a list of all the clients that patronized the bank. So we could make them dance to the tune of the law. And the list was in the safe. "Okay." Duke came back on the comms, "I have seen this kind of safe only once before. And it is very tricky. You only get one attempt to open it, if you fail the safe automatically locks up and would not open unless by the company that manufactured it." "Ouch, that's bad." "And it gets worse." Duke continued, "the passcode is computer generated and it changes every two minutes. If you use a passcode from three minutes ago now, it won't work." "Shit." I cursed, I hated surprises like this. "How then do the people open it? They cannot have a list of passcodes as they are generated every two minutes. There has to be a way the people who bought the safe know the passcode before opening it." "Of course there is. But I don't know it, it's a trade secret and told only to the client upon purchase. You have to figure it out fast because you have less than six minutes." I studied the safe closely. A safe surrounded by mirrors. I didn't think the mirrors were there to beautify the place. They had to have a purpose. I placed my hand beside the safe and felt it give under my touch. I applied more pressure and a six-by-four section of the wall did a 180-degree turn, exposing a going hole in the wall. The hole was empty. "Jeez…" I muttered, "an empty hiding spot? What is going on here?" "Maybe it's not a hiding spot." She moved closer to the mirror. Its reflective surface was now facing the safe. And there were smudged spots on some parts of it. "Five minutes guys." Duke reminded us. "I think this is how the owners know the passcodes," Sophia muttered as if he had not spoken. "See these smudges, they are only located on the keypad area of the safe's reflection. Each smudge appears over a key. Which means after two minutes the smudges will rearrange themselves." "So when you punch in those keys in the pad, it unlocks the safe. That's brilliant. But in what order do we press the keys?" "That's simple. It has a pattern that shows how to go about it. I'll call it out for you and you punch it." "Okay, baby." "Four minutes, guys. And need I remind you that if this passcode fails, we're busted." "Shut up Duke." Sophia hissed, studying the mirror. She began to call out, "E." I pressed it on the keypad, there was a dull dial tone. "Q." I punched that as well. "7." On and on we went. It was a twelve-character passcode mixed with numbers and alphabet both upper and lower case. "And j." I pressed that as well and then pressed the 'enter' key. There was a loud hiss as we heard locks engage. I turned the knob and pulled it open. A single flash drive sat smugly in the confines of the safe. I took it and pocketed it at once. Then I slid the safe shut once more. Covering our tracks. "Guys, you guys have ninety seconds." Duke said, "that passcode had eaten into our time." "Let's get the hell out of here, baby," I told my wife. We hurried out of the vault and closed it as well. Turning the wheel and locking it. Our harness was still dangling from the roof. "Ladies first," I said. She hooked herself onto it and began to climb up to give me space. "Thirty seconds, hurry!" I hooked myself as well. Then I activated the automated system so it began to pull us up. We got through the roof and closed the hatch with five seconds to spare. "Whew…" I let out a deep breath. "That was cutting it close." "Yeah, right," Sophia replied, smiling at me. I could see she felt good about the mission, easy in and easy out. I felt good too. It's how we felt usually after a mission. "What you did down there with the mirrors was genius," I said to her. "Well, if you hadn't found it out I would not have been able to." "I'm sorry to butt in," Duke came on once again, "but do I need to remind you guys that you are still on the roof of the bank you just broke into? You both need to get out of there now! Leave the love talks for later." "We're on our way." I chuckled as we stood up. The hardest part of the mission had been accomplished. Returning to base would be a walk in the park. The End. Thank you for reading.< /sub>
Image by Brock Wegner
This story is written in response to the current weekly prompt Mirror. Do well to check it out.
Also, this would be the third story featuring DSS agents Sophia and Samson. And note that each story are not a continuation of each other but simply have the couple as a connecting factor. If you wish to read the previous stories featuring the agents, they are Marry Me, Sophia and Sophia and Samson in that order.
Feel free to contact me via my Discord handle below:
bruno-kema#1355