Digsite #12

“Sidewinder to Skylark. 10-44. Over.”

A crackle echoed over her personal comm-link line, the touch screen a dim glow in the waning light. She cupped her hand briefly over it until the light dimmed. “Skylark,10-2. Over.”

“I’m three yards away from the target location.”

She lifted her head, peering out from the broken pile of concrete and rebar, towards her target location: Digsite #12. Her hand lifted up, thumbing the heart-shaped locket she always wore. It was a good luck charm, if luck even existed anymore.

“I’m going to get in close. 10-3. Over.”

“Copy that Sidewinder, 10-23.”

The transmission cut out. Sliding back down her goggles, Sidewinder lifted her fingers to the dial on the side. She slid it two notches up. Her line of sight became blurry as the lenses zoomed in, then clarity was restored. She could see the tall electrified grid fence encompassing this construction zone. But there were no Spotters. No drones. So that left two options:

They had only set up the fence that day with no time to also set up security

Security was lax enough here that there was nothing valuable to guard. Yet.

Sidewinder tilted her head slightly to the left and switched to X-Ray Vision. There was a soft beep as her surroundings darkened, then lit up again in shades of black, blue and white. The metal of the fence, the surrounding structures and two Spotters around the back became visible. Well shit. There went an easy in-and-out. Sidewinder waited an extra two minutes to see if the two would move before coming to the conclusion they were deactivated. Stationary Spotters would not be a threat unless an alarm was tripped. She was better than that. So shutting off her goggles and pushing them up her head, Sidewinder decided that now was the time to act.

She crept across the gravel, wincing at every crunch beneath her hand-me-down boots. Crossing the open stretch of road felt like walking across the Pacific Salt Flats, each step being a mile and taking forever. But finally, she made it. The fence loomed over her head. Signs were hung at the laser-locked gate, yellow symbols with holographic stick men enacting a terrible fate that would befall any trespassers. A hum in her ears told her everything she needed to know, and she pulled out her shock-absorption gloves. They were stiff, thick rubber coated in malleable plastic. To Sidewinder, they were an absolute pain to grip things with, given how inflexible they could be. But they’d keep her alive. Making sure her knee pads and arm guards were also secure, she braced herself, then slid her fingers between the metal of the gaps and hoisted herself up.

She felt the faintest jolt rush through her body but little else; her gear did it’s job and kept her from electrocution. The metal rattled and hummed dangerously as she scaled it. Sidewinder angled herself so her face was as far from the metal as possible. Last thing she needed was to almost get there and end up fried! And if crossing the alleyway was comparable to the Pacific Salt Flats, this was climbing Monte Pico. But finally, after an eternity (really only three minutes maybe), she scaled up the fence to the top. Now then, Sidewinder only had to swing herself over and crawl down a bit. That was the harder part. Taking a few breaths to steady herself, she gripped the top of the fence and swung her leg over. The rubber sole collided with the metal, causing it to rattle loudly. She froze, clinging precariously onto the fence in an uncomfortable position. She waited with baited breath, listening for anything that could be considered a threat.

Whir click! Whirr click! Whirr click! Whirr click!

Cursing in her head, Sidewinder swung her other leg over and scaled down to where the signs were posted. The metal rattled, and stung a bit but she forced herself to stay perfectly still. Hanging on like a cockroach on a wall, she waited for the sound to go away, for the danger to go away. It was coming from the right. She looked towards it in the twilight, seeing the faint outline of the enemy bobbed past the canopies and fold-out tables and the square-ish shape of inactive furnaces; the shapes were disjointed through the gaps in the electrified fence. But she still saw them: two Spotters, square and jet black and eerily uncanny. They pranced around the corner, passing her by. She breathed a sigh of relief as they jogged around the other side and vanished from sight. Immediately she jumped down, foregoing caution. Sidewinder was already out of time as it was!

She headed for the big insulated dome in the middle, marked with the distinctive logos of Devela-Corp and tugged off her gloves, sticking them back into her utility backpack. Grabbing her code-breaker lockpick from her pocket, Sidewinder grabbed the USB cable and plugged it into the side of the laser lock. It powered on, and she began to turn the dials, watching the screen while keeping her ears open.

Whir click! Whirr click!

Oh crud. That was from inside the fence’s perimeter! How’d they get in? No, no time for that now. Sidewinder twisted the dials a little faster. The sound of their steps grew closer with each passing second. Then, her code-breaker lockpick beeped: ‘Success! Unlock Initiated’ . With a flurry of motion, Sidewinder unplugged the device, slid the door open and darted into the insulated dome, sliding it shut. Five seconds later, she heard the sound of the Spotters right outside, passing by without hesitation. Sidewinder breathed a heavy sigh of relief. That had been too close of a shave.

She pulled a glow stick from her utility belt, twisting the top and shook it. An eerie orange light filled the bubble, revealing it’s wonders inside: shelves upon shelves of artifacts from this recent dig, hidden in grey plastic tubs screen printed with the digsite number and a serial code. Sidewinder pulled out her folded note, checking her hastily scrawled numbers. Sidewinder lifted her glow stick and held it up against the boxes. She scanned each one for the correct serial code sequence, #12 89240. She made her way down, steps slow and careful, creeping almost down the rows of metallic shelves. Five minutes ticked by, the tense atmosphere rising each time she heard the Spotter’s patrol draw near. This was taking too long. She should have been out of there by now!

And then there it was. Two shelves up, the grey tote with #12 89240 printed bold and black on it. With a breath of relief, Sidewinder clambered up the metallic shelves. She grabbed the handle of the tote and yanked, drawing it to the edge before hopping down and sliding it out of it’s spot. She was careful to catch it, careful of the noise it made as she slowly set it down. The label on top read, ‘HAZARD - DEVELA-CORP DANGEROUS GOODS’ and unlocked the lid. There was a soft ‘hiss’ as it opened, revealing the wonders inside.

“Jackpot.” Sidewinder gasped aloud without thinking, pulling out To Kill a Mockingbird. “Eat it, Devela-Corp!”

She began to slip the books into her bag, making sure to only select the ones she’d memorized from that list provided prior to this heist. All of these were valuable, but unfortunately this was a solo mission; Sidewinder had to pick and choose based on what she was able to carry back to the library. Once the right books were taken, Sidewinder snapped the lid back on and locked it, before hefting it up and trying to slide it back into place.

Whir click! Whir click! Whir click!

Oh no. No!

Sidewinder shoved the tote onto the shelf in panic, making a tremendous amount of noise in the process! She dropped her glow stick and scrambled to run around the other side of the shelves, climbing up and waiting, attempting to muffle her breathing. One, two, three, four - ! Four of them. That’s how they were able to get through the fence. Security had managed to hide extra Spotters among the equipment. They had to have been installed earlier that day! Which meant … Son of a bitch. This was planned! They’d set this up so she’d be caught. Through the spaces between the totes, she watched as one stopped right above her glow stick, and there was a flash. Photo evidence of the break in.

Her knuckles were going white against the cold, hard shelving. Sweat beaded down her brow. Sidewinder dared to glance down and saw a Spotter cross directly below her, shining a beacon ground level first. She knew they’d be increasing the width and length of the beacon in minutes when they didn’t find her. She was trapped.

… But Sidewinder had her code name for a reason.

Sliding on her goggles, Sidewinder turned the dial and checked to see if there were any security personnel on site yet. None. Good. She still had time. She scanned the fence line and also didn’t see any drones - they must be solely counting on the Spotters to do their job. Rubbing her thumb over her locket, Sidewinder shut off her goggles and slid them up, her elbow knocking against a tote. She winced. Dammit these things were - ! And suddenly, she had her idea. It was risky, but, if her heist was going to be a success, it had to be done. Any chance worth taking was worth it for the greater good.

She shut her eyes. She waited, and listened. Sidewinder paid close attention to the distinctive sounds of the Spotters down below, and when they were close enough together, Sidewinder lifted her hand. She pushed, with all her might, against one of the totes to her left. It slid, slowly, outwards, inching along until finally, finally it fell! There was a tremendous crash as it hit the ground. The Spotters immediately all ran for it, shining their beacons around where it had fallen. Sidewinder had already landed and was racing back to the door. She made it outside, racing across the open, the books encumbering her weight. The digsite was illuminated by the bright advertisements that Devela-Corp posted nearly everywhere.

Whirr click! Whirrr click whirrr click - !

The outside ones. Sidewinder forgot about the Spotters outside! She skidded to a halt, realizing she was trapped. There were Spotters behind her and Spotters in front of her, divided by an electrical fence. Her mind raced. The fence… the fence! That’s it! Sidewinder ran for it, but went for a spot where she’d be visible!

“Hey! Hey over here!” Sidewinder bellowed. The Spotters followed the sound of her voice, both outside and inside of the perimeter. She slid on her gloves hurriedly, watching them gallop at a breakneck pace. “Yeah that’s right, closer… closer…”

At the last possible second, Sidewinder pulled a Hail Mary and twisted around, leaping and grabbing the fence, pulling herself up! The Spotters ran into it, shaking her and nearly caused her to plant her face into the electrified metal! But she twisted her head back, gasping, hearing loud ‘pops!’ as the Spotters short circuited upon colliding with the fence on both sides.

Sidewinder laughed, victorious, and clambered up the chain link with a soft whoop. She swung herself back over and jumped down, landing with a slight stagger. She stared down at the twitching Spotters with a keen grin.

With her fist raised, she backed away as she spoke, declaring; “When people have knowledge, they can outsmart you, you stupid tin cans!”

Sidewinder turned and ran across the street, to the alleyway as sirens echoed in the distance, fleeing Digsite #12 with her loot, back to the library Above her, Devela-Corp’s advertisements for a streamlined city flashed, as if trying to illuminate the fleeing thief with little success. They buzzed like the electric fence behind her. The printed words chanted a mantra:

For the greater good.