Futuristic Being Good Doesn't Get You Paid (Reboot) IC

A couple hours after the meeting, Six was out on the street. She was dressed in ordinary civilian attire, topped off with her jacket and the cloth half-mask as it always was. Her equipment was still at home. Today was just window shopping.
Speaking of which, there was indeed one particularly good-looking perch atop an apartment building, ‘guarded’ by a doorman who clearly was not himself a ‘real’ security agent. As soon as she scoped out the spot, she left. She didn’t have as much scouting to do as the rest of them. She wasn’t going to be moving around much.

Lockwood
Sourcing caffeine
He had a point, she was, as usual putting her survival as her first priority. It was the thought of getting captured by the nercs that had made her adopt that attitude. It wouldn't take long to get an ID for her, whether it be off her cold, dead corpse or off her alive while fighting and cursing. And once the mercs and high ups reaslised what they had, or more precisely who, well it was game over for Lockwood. Do not pass Go. Do not advance to the next level. She wasn't going back to her old life to face the consequences. Which would either be prison, death or being forced to be the government's puppet spy. She'd rather take a suicide pill than that.

And she wasn't thrilled to hear that Shin possessed little to no climbing and parkour skills. It was generally that way with techies. No doubt the spook would have sufficient climbing skills. She eyed Shin up, trying to gauge his weight, adding for the tech he'd need to bring with him. He didn't look too heavy, and her circus training should be able to haul both of them around. "Duly noted. And I'm working on a team plan, but that always takes longer than making an individual plan." And she wasn't just saying that, Lock was working on something, ideas swirling around the neck of her head.

Lock nodded and followed him back down to street level, committing the street layout and buildings to memory. As she walked, her fett made no sound, despite the thick soled boots. She was also keeping an eye out for her other team members. A thermal perspective revealed a heat signature on a high rise roof. The sniper she presumed, most ordinary people would have no desire to be on a roof that high up without a good reason. She considered waving as a joke, but it wasn't worth giving up her position for the sake of a joke. And she had no desire for a bullet through her skull either.

Thankfully the cafe was the opposite of a Starbucks (Lock irrationally hated Starbucks). Instead it was a small locally owned venture with decor trying to make it look shabbier and older than it actually was. She placed her order, nothing special just a large, dark coffee and a spiced muffin. "Definitly, smells like it. They make the good stuff here."

Lockwood
With coffee, making small talk
Lockwood took her coffee and muffin and at his signal made her way outside with Shin. The food went into one of her coat pockets for some later point in the future. Hopefully she'd remember and this muffin wouldn't meet the fate of many others- a slow decomposition in the darkness of the pocket, only to see the light of day again when she grabbed it instead of a knife. 'This coffee is good' she thought, as she took a sip. She wasn't addicted to the stuff, like some people she'd worked with before, but she always liked to get a hit of caffeine when on the job, it just helped. And it usually led to opportunities for random chatter with her team mates.

She hadn't been expecting Shin to launch right into the 'how'd you become involved with this line of work' straight away, and the directness of his question amused her. Along with the fact that he hadn't even bothered to ask for some kind of name to call her by, not that she'd give the real one to him anyway. She hadn't given it to VIPER either, but they probably knew it. "It's a strange old story, but I was basically born into this life. I grew up in a travelling carnie troupe, circus folk. And this particular troupe had a side business of robbing rich people blind whole they were out at the shows. Started performing as a child, starting breaking into houses shortly after that. And from there I diversified to more challenging targets."

She shrugged as if it was the most normal origin story in the world. In her mind wasn't such a secret. Her VIPER codename advertised the fact she was a carnie after all. "What about you, how'd you get involved in this life?"

Lockwood
Locksmithing at an apartment building
Lockwood could tell he meant no malice laughing at her origin story. It was no doubt very different to anybody else's. Shed worked hard and trained hard as a child and teenager, probably moreso than any other normal kid. And she wouldn't change any of it for the world. Well....maybe one bit. "It was pretty crazy way to grow up to say the least, never a dull moment to say the least."

Lock knew exact what he meant about doing something for the challenge and the thrill of it. That was the whole reason she'd started breaking into government facilities. The challenge and the massive adrenaline high of knowing that the police had no clue about what you were doing or how. So she had common ground with the hacker, which he also realised. That would make him easier to work with. "More alike then at first glance is for sure. You stick to tech and I'll do the dangerous stunts and we totally got this."

As she walked Lock made sure that her hood kept as much of her face concealed as was possible without arousing suspicion. She'd seen the cameras present both mounted on the walls and present on the drone. She climbed the outside stairwell with ease, taking the steps two at time, hands in her pockets. She knew she wasn't going to fall, her feet were firm. The roof access door was crusted with red flaws of rust around the edge from lack of use. She watched as Shin tried the handle of the door to the roof. It was locked. Not at all surprising.

Locks were her department, and her name. The surname was a sort of joke about opening doors, there were two ways to do it- to pick the lock, or to shatter the wood. Her speciality was the first, but that didn't mean she couldn't do the second. "Locksmithing with Lockwood." She remarked to herself pulling the picks from an inside pocket, stretched back her fingers and got to work. It was a basic enough lock, thankfully not suffering from rusting like the rest of the door. She manipulated the picks, hearing each of the pins click into place. It was unlocked in less than a minute. "Voila. I give you an open door."

Lockwood
Some weird ass abandoned apartment building
Lockwood rolled her eyes at that. "Sounds like the kind of show I'd watch, then bitch that it's totally faked and they aren't even holding the pick the right way." She smirked, knowing full well she would be that person if anybody tried to fake lock picking skills. Seeing that Shin was impressed with her skills she mad to smile slightly. Sure there were probably faster people out there, and it was a basic enough lock, but it was good to know that she was impressive doing it. "I've been doing this since I could grip a pick, so I would hope that I'd know what I'm doing by now."

Shins grin was enough to tell her he was just as adept in his craft as she was in hers. While Shin worked, doing whatever it was that techies did to bend the systems to their will, Lockwood scoped out the building from another angle, watching the flow of people back and forth. She heard Shin's exclamation of triumph after less than a minute. Lock hadn't been expecting him to be so fast, but VIPER did only hire the best and the nastiest at their craft. "Done already? VIPER certainly do get the best people."

As she considered the building and alternative exit strategies, something else came to mind. "Don't suppose VIPER have the fire evacuation protocols for this place? Or any other evacuation procedures that will lead to large droves of employees standing outside?" She had her scheming face on now,the basis of a plan forming in her mind.

Lockwood
Apartment rooftop
"Almost everywhere" she thought, there were some places flattery couldn't get you, such as our of supermax. But the point still stood, flattery usually ensured your teammate wouldn't knife you in the back and throw you in front of the bus. And she had been impressed, it seemed to Lockwood the more specialised she became in her areas, she more she became impressed with others' skills in their respective areas.

Shin produced the required documents and Lockwood went through them, her grey eyes flicking back and forth as she took it all in. A smirk began to spread over her face. Oh yes....this would be perfect. She could see that Shin's interest was piqued, he was bursting to know what she was thinking.

"Either an escape plan for if things go really bad or a distraction. Due to the manner of flammable, explosive and no doubt illegal substances in the building, the protocol for fire is to get everybody out of the building as fast as possible. And they don't bother to check ID to speed up the process, they have a lot of workers, most of them factory floor grunts." That part was particularly fortunate, they would only have to blend in as a worker, and not bother with stealing ID.

"The way I see it, we could cause a fire somewhere, like a lab or testing bay, somewhere where a fire could occur naturally causing a full scale evacuation. Upon any triggering of the fire alarms, off site fire crew are called in. And all staff are evacuated, even if the building is on lock down. If the merc alarm was to be triggered at the same time, there'd be fire crew, mercs and loads of workers all competing for space and making total chaos. If I'm reading this right, it provides the perfect opportunity to slip out." She explained. It was only about 60% of a plan, there were final details that would need ironing out, but os far It seemed workable, unless she'd missed something somewhere.