Hidden In Plain Sight: Chapter 4

Artemis slowed to a walk and checked her watch. 23 minutes 15 seconds. “Sub 8 minute miles. Not bad Biscuits.” She reached down and scratched behind one dust brown ear as he panted contentedly. She never knew what their Saturday morning pace would be. Sometimes Biscuits was excited and they would run two 6 minute miles before he decided he was done. Other Saturdays he wasn’t really into it and they run-walked 11 minute miles. Today was a middle of the road kind of day. Artemis took the little water bottle off of her running belt, which always made her feel like Batman, and took a sip before removing the collapsible bowl from another little pocket on the belt and giving the rest to Biscuits. They had been following this routine on Saturday’s for close to a year now. Two or three miles at Biscuit pace, then a walk to the bakery for a double espresso mocha and a giant cinnamon roll. Biscuits much preferred the cinnamon roll eating part of the routine to the running part. Artemis enjoyed exercising and really always had. Her favorite ways to exercise were jogging on sunny days and some amateur rock climbing. She had started using the weights in Steven’s some as well and thought she was getting pretty strong. At least that’s what the “gym bro” that always offered to spot her kept saying. After one of her weight sessions he had cornered her by the water fountain talking about some kind of supplement he had been taking and getting “an insane pump”. She had escaped into the girls locker room that she never used and ended up finding a community board posting for a free yoga class put on by one of the students on campus and decided to attend. Although it wasn’t the same type of heart racing feeling she got when climbing or running, she had grown fond of the slow burn and mind quieting of a good yoga session. She had been adding some open air yoga to the end of their Saturday runs and Biscuits was not a fan. He cried and whined like he had been tied to the tree without food or water for days instead of 10 minutes. Looping the leash around the bottom of a bench they had stopped by, Artemis firmly told Biscuits “down.” The dog blinked at her and sniffed something in the air before collapsing onto his side, pink tongue lolling out of his big square head. Artemis scoffed and rolled her eyes at her ridiculous best friend. She stepped out into the patch of sunlight that was shining through the snow-spattered trees and moved into her first pose trying to center herself and control her breathing and heart rate. Her mind returned to what she had been thinking about during the run, and really for the last few weeks. How to go about becoming an accomplished art thief.

She had renewed the flat for another semester over a month ago, and things had been pretty quiet since. Her classes were wrapping up with finals happening next week. She didn’t actually take the finals of course, but if she got the chance she was pretty sure she would nail them. After finishing with Steven’s gymnasium she had been reassigned to cleaning The Damn. Built around the same time as the Kincaid building, The Damn was a fantastically named art museum on campus donated by Lord Richard K Dammé. Its formal title was actually “The Richard K Dammé Museum of Art and History”, but the students referred to it lovingly as “The Damn” or “The Damn Museum.” The Damn was another one of the gigantic granite buildings on campus with high domed ceilings, creaky wood floors, and innumerable mysterious locked doors. Artemis had come to the conclusion after her first shift of cleaning that she had to break in and take something.

The first order of business was how to get in and out of the building without anybody knowing, which was proving challenging to say the least. But hey, If it was easy everybody would be an art thief. Artemis had her keys for cleaning, but the security system kept a record of who opened the doors and at what time, so swiping into the building at an odd time was out of the question. Walking around the building with every move, except for the occasional bathroom break, caught on camera only allowed for so much snooping while she was worked. What she needed was a good map. As the art museum was another one of the historic buildings on campus, Artemis took a guess and had broken into the History Departments archives one night a week earlier. The history building was one of the remaining buildings on campus with external surveillance only. Getting in undetected was as simple as popping the lock on a shrub hidden basement window when the building was empty and climbing inside. Getting the blueprints wasn’t much more difficult. As it turns out, the history department kept all the historic buildings' blueprints in a well labeled box stacked on a shelf in the meticulously well ordered basement. It was like walking through a new grocery store searching for familiar items. After a few minutes of observation she got the idea of how things were categorized and found the box she needed. Rolling out the blueprints for the art museum, as well as a few of the other old campus buildings, she snapped a picture of each with her phone before rolling them back up and returning them to where she found them and leaving the same way she got in. It went off without a hitch.

Map in hand, Artemis’s next task was identifying building security for possible weak points. There were numerous cameras on each floor and Artemis was sure these cameras were far better than the cameras on campus she had become so proficient at circumventing. Along with the cameras, there were electric door alarms that would go off and alert campus security as well as local police if the alarm was tripped. Open a door that isn’t supposed to be opened and there is A LOT of explaining to do. The displays themselves also had some kind of electronic security system. While cleaning a few of the cases Artemis had noticed a wire running down the edge of the glass, on further inspection she found the wire led to a white plastic box with a blinking red light. Artemis decided it was best to not bother with these cases, or any item currently on display for that matter.

Going through her yoga poses, her breath making it appear as though she were on fire in the chilly winter air. Artemis stared blankly at the granite fortress glistening in the morning light. Her “when” was pretty easy. She would be pulling the heist next week on Christmas Eve. Security would be thinnest and most distracted, and the weather was supposed to be dry and cold. The “how” still annoyingly eluded her. She had come to the conclusion that breaking in and stealing something from the main floor would be nearly impossible, and she wasn’t willing to risk getting caught. She took a breath and moved to a new pose, her body inching from one position to the next, a cloud forming around her stocking capped head as she slowly released a breath. Her next idea after the main floor was to try and infiltrate the basement like she had done so easily with the history department. Checking the blueprints though there was no sign of a basement window, and upon inspection she found this to be accurate. To get in the basement she would have to break into the main floor of the building, make her way unseen to the south east corner, deactivate the security alarm to get into the stairwell, and then pick the lock on the vault-like door. It was a possibility if these were dire circumstances, but these were far from dire circumstances. One bad key stroke on the alarm, poor timing with the guards rounds, or any one of the endless other things that could go wrong and her and Biscuits would be trading their cozy flat in for a cell at the county prison. Artemis exhaled and slowly moved into Vriksasana, or tree pose. Pulling her arms up over her head she stretched tall and took in another big breath full of air. As she grew taller her eyes climbed the old building. If she couldn’t get in the bottom, maybe she could climb in through the roof? Green eyes scanning the snow covered white dome roof, she noticed what appeared to be an ornate railing encircling the base of the spire that rose another story or so off of the top of the dome. Bingo. Why have a railing if there was no way to get up there? This would require more research, but seemed like a promising adventure. At first glance, scaling the outside of the building up to the dome didn’t look like it would be too much trouble. There was another building a short jump away with a fire escape all the way up to its roof that she would use to get up the first three stories. The next two or three stories that comprised The Damn’s domed roof was another problem that still needed to be solved. The best case scenario was that there was a maintenance ladder superimposed on the outside, but well camouflaged as to not ruin the buildings aesthetic, that led from the flat roof up the curve of the dome to the base of the spire where she suspected there might be a door that led into the top of the dome itself. What would she do when she got into the dome? Artemis didn’t have the foggiest idea. That however, was a problem for another day. Today’s problem would be climbing The Damn to see why there might be a railing up there. With one final breath and a pained howl from Biscuits, Artemis gave in.

“Alright we’re done with yoga.” she said with fake exasperation. “Let’s go to the bakery.” She untied Biscuits and looked back at The Damn one more time over her shoulder, one lock of black hair escaping from her cap and falling over her face. “I’ll see you later.” She thought with a sly smile, “but first breakfast.”