Lion's Den(On Hold)

Chapter-12 The Elite Group Clubhouse

It’s been two days since we met Nate. There has been no word from him after our initial discussion about Dominic. Diana and I have pretty much been busy with performing our duties at the station.

There were a few notable cases that needed attention immediately, especially the increase in cases of deaths caused by rash driving. We were tracking the vehicle numbers to catch those culprits. Fortunately, the Terranova have stopped their attacks temporarily as their sole concern would be to get their captain back.

As for Dominic, we have no idea who he intends to collaborate with since Nate hasn’t communicated on it yet. It was close to the end of our twelve hour shift when my phone pinged. It was a message from Nate.
‘Meeting at the safehouse in an hour.’

Diana peeked into my cabin and with a simple nod, we both left back home. After changing up, we headed for a restaurant close to the safehouse. With some food in hand, we left our bikes and walked to the safehouse.

We cautiously entered the safehouse, it was always a custom of ours to be careful since an incident in the past almost cost our lives.

Mistakes happen and Nate had accidentally left behind his ID while hacking which the enemies used to lure us into a trap. They were waiting for us in the safehouse. Diana noticed and jumped to me pushing us both down to the ground but got shot, she still has that scar on her back. The bullet merely grazed her so we were miraculously able to escape.

Nate also escaped but we fell into the ambush before he could warn us about it. We almost lost him as our partner after the incident but with Diana’s persuasion and my request, he carried on as our hacker. He became watchful after the incident so he calls us back if there’s even the slightest hint of danger. That was why we had our guns on the hold always.

“I managed to hack into their servers. They did have the proposals in it. But before I could download them, someone extracted them out. What that person did not know however, was that I was watching them with those CCTVs they had in the office.”

“You viewed their office? Was Dominic there?”
“No not until later, his associate was there to handle to situation and he took the contents from the server into an USB. Afterwards, he handed it over to Dominic when he arrived. I logged out of the cameras before they could find out that someone saw what they were doing.”

“Well, we atleast know something for all that trouble.”
“Trouble, yes. Our safehouse was almost compromised again, they were so close to getting my location. They had a good security system but my code is infallible so they couldn’t figure out about the cameras.”

Diana let out a low chuckle but covered it with coughs. She always tries to loosen him up after that incident. I know that our job screams seriousness but too much of it could cause bad health.
Nate simply rolled his eyes while I shook my head smiling.
“Chill out Nate, we trust both you and your codes.”

Nate brushed us off and pushed a paper which had something that looked like a layout. It was a blueprint.
“What is this?”

“This is a blueprint of ‘The Elite Group’ clubhouse. It will be newly launched within a few days by none other than Dominic Knight.”
“So this is where we…”
“Yes, steal the USB from Dominic.”
“We are using the crowds as a camouflage?”
Nate nodded.

“It is a new division of income for the knight corp. It was approved last week. The opening is to be held on next week’s Wednesday night. Dominic Knight will personally come to oversee it. The elite group was to be initially given the highest priority in this clubhouse but later, the entire ground floor was agreed to be open for the general public. The top floor is only for the elites and VIPs though.”

Nate pushed another part of the blueprint which gave the top floor of the clubhouse. It was more like a fancy mansion with a swimming pool.

“The exterior is similar to a fancy hotel with the swimming pool in the backyard. The ground floor has a bar, dance floor/disco plus DJ section, visitors lounge on two sides and restrooms to the right. There is a hidden area on the left side with a staircase leading to the top floor with tight security. You cannot climb up the stairs without an ID. That part for later. Now…when you enter the top floor, it splits to two paths. One leads to the VIP section lobby and past it is the gaming area, a special bar with grill, the club with balcony facing the front and then the restrooms with sauna. On the other side is Dominic’s personal space. He has an office, a multipurpose room/hall with a long balcony facing the backyard pool, a gym and the restroom with sauna.”

“Wow, talk about being rich…”
“Perks of being a cunning and successful businessman. Back to the strategy, Dominic does not attend any parties directly and will retire to his personal space once the clubhouse is open for business. That is when you two will be sneaking in to get the USB off of him.”

“Wait, what surety do we have of the USB being on him?”
“There is now a threat of the information being stolen, so there is high likelihood that he will keep it with him. I will try to find out but you need to get in there no matter what if we wish to get something out of this.”

“What do you think Diana?”
“I think we can do it…Nate, what about getting past the staircase?”
Nate pointed his finger to an adjacent staff room and I could understand his plan. He wants us to pass through security as a staff member, the fake IDs he makes works like a charm every time.

“As you can see, you both need to get through to the top floor as staff members with fake IDs. But, you cannot show your faces so you both need to be men. Diana will have to disguise as a guy so that you need not show you face much. You are the captain so it’s vital that Diana stands as the frontal responder. A cap would help keep your face out of view. Gabriel will have another agent supply the wig and dresses while I prepare the IDs. Dominic is really particular about his wardrobe according to reports. So, you can use the image of laundry guys as an excuse to go to his wing.”

Diana was familiar with dressing up as a guy, we had some cases which required sneaking in like this one before.
“That’s it?”
“Not quite. His security system…it’s a hassle.”
“You hacked the system in his office, why not here?”
“I tried to hack into the office system once again and failed. There are special alarms and SOS signal transmitters newly detected with motion sensors which can trigger in a case of unnecessary movement.”

There was dead silence. Nate was our expert hacker and him not being able to break through could raise many problems. We would be sitting ducks in there if Nate was not available to assist us. But that wasn’t the exact problem.

The security system could trigger alarms when we try to steal or when we try to suppress Dominic from alerting his men. Nate knew that we were sceptical of the mission but continued the briefing.

“They have activated a new security system in both his office and clubhouse. I am still trying to find an appropriate code set, we have a good amount of time still so I will try till the last minute to force my way in.”

“And if you don’t?”
“You both will be connected with me so I will be able to lead you but nothing more. No visuals. No warnings. It would be best if you both memorize the blueprint from top to bottom.”

“Really hope you do”
“Looks like you’ve met your match, Nate” Diana commented standing up.
“Maybe… come here everyday from now till the party. We can discuss and hold walkthroughs of the step sequence thoroughly.”
“Okay.”