Heartbeat (Danny Rand)

Ten

          "I know you're in there, Green! Open the door!" A cruel, raspy voice shouts, jarring me awake. I quickly scramble off my couch and to the door, smoothing out my frizzy hair.

            "About time," Matt begins, looking at me and smirking slightly. "Rough week or something?"

            I subconsciously glance down at my wrinkled t-shirt and jeans I fell asleep in last night after finishing my last term paper and blush slightly.

             "Did you want something, Matt?" I demand, brushing off his comments.

             "Yes, actually. There's a very rich man I've been working with for a while now, and he made me an interesting offer." He smirks again, walking past me and into my house.

              "Oh, sure. Come on in," I mumble, closing the door and following after him. Why did I ever think getting involved with him was a good idea?

              "Basically, there's a valuable necklace on display in a local museum, and he wants it. He's willing to give us $50,000 each to steal it for him," Matt explains, rummaging around in my kitchen cabinets.

              "Based on the lack of food, I can't imagine you passing up an offer like that. Get out your computer or whatever and we'll figure out how to do this."

               I sigh but know he's right. My mom hasn't been home in days, and I know that if I do this I'll be able to take care of myself for a while longer. $50,000 dollars is nothing to scoff at.

               "Come on," I mutter, walking towards my bedroom. I pull out my laptop and sit down at my desk.

             "What's this place called, anyway? I'm going to see if I can find some blueprints," I ask, glancing over at Matt who's staring at my bulletin board covered in photos.

             "Who are all these people?" He replies, pulling one off. "I never pictured you as someone with actual friends."

               "None of your business," I snap, grabbing the picture out of his hands. Ironically it's from a couple of weeks ago when Peter, Sam, Ava, Luke, Danny, and I all went out and explored the city. We got a random person passing by to take a picture of all of us in front of some graffiti. We're all making ridiculous faces, and Danny has his arm wrapped around me.

               "It's just the Central New York Museum or something. I don't know what it's called off the top of my head," he growls, whatever playful mood he was in before suddenly disappearing.

                I start searching and quickly find it. Luckily it was the only museum that had an incredibly valuable neckless on sale.

             "Alright, it looks like there's a staff only entrance in the back of the building that has all of the security controls. I could try to override it from here, but I don't know how easy that would be. I can cut the alarm and automatic lock on the emergency exit though, so you won't have to sneak in through the front," I explain, showing him the blueprints. He nods once and turns to look at me.

                "I guess you'll just have to come with then," he decides, smirking at me.

              "What?" My eyes widen at the idea. I've never really done anything illegal before. I mean, sure I hack into stuff but actually physically being there is way different. It's way more personal and risky.

             "If you can't turn off security to the case from here, then you'll have to do it from in there. Now hurry up and get ready, I want to snatch this thing tonight," Matt surmises, a cold smile on his face. He knows that the only thing I hate more than working with him on stuff like this is getting my hands dirty.

               "Fine," I mutter, grabbing a small bag and putting my laptop and a couple flash-drives in it. It'd be nice if I had a more portable computer that looked a lot less suspicious, but I don't think anything like that even exists. After changing into an all-black outfit, a matching black mask, and putting up my hair in a bun so it was out of my face, Matt and I left.

             He had an expensive looking car parked in my driveway that we got in, and we drove until we were in a parking lot a couple blocks away from the museum. "Alright, we'll go in together and then we'll split up. You go to the left and disable the security, I'll wait and snag the necklace once you're done. After you disable it the alarms might go off, so run. We'll meet back here, but if I'm not here within two minutes of the alarm going off then leave. You can break me out of prison later, okay princess?" He explains, opening the car door.

              I nod, and we walk silently toward the museum. When we're about 10 feet away I pull out my computer and unlock the emergency exit. I sash my bag in the bush, slipping the two flash drives in my pocket, and we walk in quietly, careful not to attract any attention. Luckily there's no one around, although Matt's hand is hovering over his belt as if he's going to pull out a gun if anyone shows up. In all honesty, I wouldn't put it past him.

              Like he said before, we split up. I creep along the walls, trying my best to keep to the shadows and out of view of any security cameras. Even though I disabled them outside when I unlocked the door, you can never be too careful. Some older systems have a backup system that's wired through the camera and not through the building, and I can't disable them wirelessly.

               I eventually reach the door and carefully open it. It's unlocked, which I assume means that there's someone inside. It would be smart to just wait for whoever's in there to leave, but I don't have time. Matt's never been the most patient person, and if I take too long disabling the alarms and unlocking the case, he'll just smash it. Then we'll get caught for sure.

              I slip into the room and silently shut the door behind me, locking it. There's a man sitting at a computer, staring intently at the screen. He hasn't noticed me yet, but I'm sure he will if I don't do something. I do a couple of quick mental calculations, play through a couple scenarios in my head, and suddenly lunge at him.

              The noise was loud enough for the man to hear, but he could only turn around and stand up before I smashed into him, knocking us both to the ground. He flailed slightly, trying to hit the red emergency button under his desk, but I grabbed his arm before he could reach it.

         "I'm sorry," I whisper as I hit him as hard as I can, knocking him out. Before I can think about what I just did I brush off the slight guilt and get to work. I pull the drives out of my pocket, plugging them into the computer.

           It takes a couple minutes since I have to double check that I deleted my footsteps, but I finally take down the security. Since I can't disable the weighted alarm, though, one is still going to sound when Matt takes the necklace.

           I get up and start to run, and once the alarm starts to blare I run even faster. I make it out of the building, hearing footsteps pounding behind me. I reach down and grab my bag, not stupid enough to leave behind evidence. My legs move quicker than they ever have before as I silently pray that it's Matt who's behind me and not a cop.

            "Man, Ari, you're slow even for a computer nerd," Matt pants as he runs past me, grabbing my hand and dragging me along with him.

             My shoulder burns as he tugs me along but I run even faster. We reach the car and we jump in. Matt starts it and slams on the gas and we take off. I can hear the sound of sirens chasing us, but after a few sharp turns and swerves through traffic they're gone.

              "That was way too close," I breathe, a slight smile on my face. The rush I got from doing that was like nothing I've ever felt before, and I wasn't even the one that took the necklace.

              "I got it though," Matt replies, a smile on his face too. He must like the adrenaline as much as I do.