Page 45 of Seven
The painting was still in the vault in the basement, but at eight sharp it would be transferred upstairs, into the smaller vault next to the gallery to make its grand entrance later.
I felt jittery just thinking about the target's reaction. Oh, he was in for a real treat. Compliments of the client.
I waited, counting every exit, every camera, every idle glance from the staff.
An hour before the painting's move, I drifted toward the kitchen, slipped out a side door, and made my way to the basement. The only sound here was my own shoes.
At the downstairs vault, the guard was new. He slouched, scrolling on his phone, oblivious to the world. I gave him a nod, flashed the badge, and told him I was there for an unscheduled check because we had a potential security breech. He shrugged and returned to his game.
Once inside the vault, I used the same hacks as before.
Meanwhile, Viper was supposed to hack into the guard's comms and call him elsewhere. I wouldn't be able to communicate with Viper from inside the vault, so I had to rely on his plan of creating a distraction on the main level to pull all the security away from the basement level.
But Viper always came through.
I had a fifteen minute window starting—I glanced at my watch—now!
When I exited the vault, no one was around.
"You're sharp," I told him as I rushed to the utility closet.
"Always at your service, boss."
I muted the mic as I started to remove tiles to retrieve the forgery.
"Twelve minutes to go," Viper chirped in my ear.
I sped up. Tiles were not the problem. Being fast inside the vault would be the real challenge.
"Ten minutes to go."
I was on my way back to the vault when I heard a beep in my earpiece.
"What the fuck is this, Viper?"
"Eeeeeeh," he drawled. "Looks like we have company. It's my RFID reader."
"Hundred feet?"
"Approximately. Bogey's on the stairs."
"Get rid of him."
"Okay." The line cut off and Viper was gone.
I had no time to waste. I entered the vault, shut the door behind me and got to work.
I didn't know if Viper managed to ward off whomever was on the way down. I had to rely on his skills.
My pulse spiked as I swapped the paintings. I checked the signature, the fray on the upper left, the smudge on the lower edge. Rolled and slid the original under my jacket.
Perfect.
The whole thing took less than five minutes.
Now I just needed to get out of here. I checked my watch. According to our plan I had two minutes left before the safe time pocket ran out.
Fuck.
