Masters of the Sky

Chapter 1 The Heist (Part 2)

Then, several things happened at once.

A muffled gunshot sounded, and the man before Celia fell back with a bloody hole in his forehead.

The gas bombs dropped to the floor with a loud clang, and the green vapour quickly filled the air, making the other guards cough violently. Still, they managed to fire their rifles.

Celia fell flat on her stomach and put on her breathing apparatus.

The gunfire was cut short, and the loud thuds indicated that the remaining guards had collapsed.

She waited a few seconds more for good measure and stood up. As the green gas slowly thinned out, Celia confirmed the three motionless bodies on the ground. But one of them was accompanied by a fast-growing pool of blood.

Celia scrunched her nose. "You shouldn't have killed him, Zed."

"He would have hit you," a calm, low voice, muffled by the breathing mask, replied. 

"I would manage if only someone would have moved faster," she grumbled, turning to Vash, who had just slid down the rope from the catwalk.

Noticing the accusatory glares from crewmates, he shrugged. "What? They are down, no?"

"Yes, but it wasn't exactly quiet. Let's hope the gunfire won't drag the Law Enforcers to our heads." Celia nodded to the other woman. "Make it quick, Lyra. I don't think we have much time."

"On it, boss!" The Disruptor strode toward big metal doors, and her long fingers quickly traced over several mechanical locks. "Oi, there's an additional alarm. How very nasty of them!" She slid goggles on her eyes and grabbed a tool that looked like a small pistol. When she pulled the trigger, a metal net splashed at one of the mechanisms, and the electric charge ran through the surface, frying the electrical circuit. Lyra waved the smoke away. "Now that will need a good fix to work again."

"Stop showing off and get a move on," Celia prompted, looking down the hallway, revolver in hand.

The Disruptor took another tool from her belt and started fiddling with several locks that clocked open. It took only a couple of minutes, but Celia felt all the hair on her body standing up. They were running out of time. She felt it in her gut. When the door finally opened, she rushed her crew inside.

The depot was a big square chamber full of wooden boxes with numbers on their sides. The only light source was a lone lightbulb in the ceiling, casting eerie shadows everywhere.

"So, which one has the weapons we are looking for?" Abner asked, rolling his moustache and looking around with a troubled expression.

"Look for the E101 code," Celia instructed, already going through the crates. "Make it quick."

They scattered to cover more ground, the flashlight dancing between the piles of crates.

"Come on, come on," Celia mumbled, moving to the back of the room. All sorts of weapons were stashed here, but there was no sign of the new prototype they were after. She was so close to calling the whole thing off when the glimpse of red caught her attention.

Intrigued, she went to the last row of boxes, where a smaller metal case sat on top with the lid slightly ajar. When she turned the flashlight to it, it gave an unmistakable red glow.

"No way!" she whispered, heart hammering in her chest. She gently lifted the lid and looked at a pile of beautiful raw red crystals.

"I found them!" Lyra called excitedly from the other side of the room.