The Vanguard Vixen

Sides (Two)

Hayley softly strode through the empty lobby of the bank. She could have run or even jumped, and her shoes would have made only the slightest noise against the carpet below. She had suddenly felt a need for the utmost caution though, when Four's voice had come through the comms.

"One, there isn't anyone here."

Hayley was still catching her breath from the exhilarating trip down, and she couldn't really say much.

"What?"

"It's empty. No guards, no personnel, everyone has just, disappeared."

Four's voice had risen to a fast panicked tone by the end of the sentence. Hayley was glad Four had been smart enough to make this particular link only to her. She, unlike the rest of the team, Two inclusive, although he was a grown man and a war veteran, had enough composure to freeze hell over. Twice. 

So even when Hayley came across the accountants and the tellers crammed into a small room, all whimpering in fear, some crying even, she didn't flinch. Even when she discovered one of the safe doors was ajar and all the security personnel had been knocked out and hidden there, she never faltered. Their weapons were missing, but none of the items in the safe had been touched.

So not another thief then.

That made it so much worse. Hayley could outclass and outthink almost every common burglar, robber and pirate (the last one wasn't really too hard) but this was next-level heist stuff. The kind of thing she would do. Up ahead, from the largest safe in the bank-the exact one Hayley and her team were here for, came the murmur of voices.

Hayley crept along the wall till she was right behind the titanium door so she could listen clearly.

"I put it in here somewhere. In one of these steel boxes."

The first voice she recognised from several advertisements and press conferences. Vincent Alba, a man whose absence was feared to be the start of the Second Great war.

What was he doing here?

Of course, this was his bank, one of the hundreds of branches of the Mainstream Finance Bank spread out all over Vanguard. Still. Unless he had faked the attempt on his life or he had been kidnapped or something. Hayley wasn't sure which, but the second voice zeroed her in on the latter.

"There are seventy-three steel boxes in here! If you think you can buy time by pretending not to know which one has those lists, I can jog your memory."

That was followed by the clear sound of a gun being cocked.

Someone wanted something from Vincent Alba from what Hayley had picked. Almost everyone did, although that was for the money. Everyone wanted his money, except for Hayley. She was here for something else, but someone had beaten her to it.

The lists.

Six months ago Hayley had been contacted by an anonymous character online. Athena. This person had divulged some discrete information, locations of very sensitive stuff, asking Hayley to help 'retrieve' them. Hayley had tried to pretend to know nothing, but Athena had assured her, she knew everything about Hayley's team of thieves.

Hayley preferred not to be called a thief. She thought herself to be more of a...professional retriever. Hence her team name, the Retrievers. Apparently, Athena had got word from one of Hayley's previous clients and wanted some things done herself. Only that these weren't small-scale jobs like the ones before. She wasn't retrieving century-old family heirlooms from museums or taking back confiscated boxes of random stuff,(Hayley never did bother to check what was in them) here she was going against Vanguard itself.

Army protocol files, secret defence blueprints, and even once a report on extraterrestrial missions. The pay was high enough for Hayley to risk it. She got to finally be able to afford her own VR set, although there was no space in the house for a complete station, so she had to settle for the glasses and a tiny desk squeezed into a dusty closet. Most of the money went into the tools and gadgets her team used, and the occasional pass under the table when an official got too stubborn. Her family never asked questions, not while she paid the rent.

Of all the tasks she did for this Athena, only one had been drastic enough to nearly take the life of one of her team members. Seven was still in hospital after suffering multiple gunshot wounds. A break-in at the Mainstream headquarters, right next to the Harbor hadn't been the smartest of ideas. But Athena had given alarmingly precise data on security rounds and systems from both the Maimstream HQ and the Harbor. 

Instead of the usual situation where Hayley made the plan, Athena had made it this time. Hence the flaw that nearly ended all their lives. It was a tiny chip that the Retrievers had stolen, and unlike prior times when Athena offered Hayley a glance at what it was she was taking, this time there was no mention of what was on that chip. But from the ferocious reaction of the security, it must have been invaluable.

Athena had given her enough credits that Hayley could suspend her team's activities for three months and still not feel a dip in the weight of their pockets. Right up until a few weeks ago, and here they were.

"Hey."

Hayley stumbled backwards so quickly that she bumped her head on the door. Her vision swam. There was a woman behind her who had appeared out of nowhere. In her state, Hayley could only make out the light grey eyes. Her hearing was still perfect though.

"Hayley Grant. Father and daughter in the space of a week. What are you doing here?"

Hayley pressed a hand to the side of her head. No blood, but a nasty swelling that hurt like hell. She pulled herself up by the locks on the door.

"You know who I am?"

"Oh I know everything about you," Vivian replied. "You're a clever girl. So surely you remember who I am."

Hayley's vision cleared.

Oh.

"Vivian Renault."

Vincent Alba took the chance and ran for it. Vivian turned, raised the pistol and aimed, and then fired.

He crashed to the floor, motionless.

*****
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