[Joel turns right, treading lightly. There's still a security patrol in this section of the building, and he's not planning on drawing their attention if he can help it. The decoder sticks to the door and within five seconds unlocks it with a soft beep. Joel eases himself into the dark room, pulling out the flashlight hooked into his belt.
The entrance to the vault is supposed to be somewhere around here, but none of the blueprints they could buy, steal, or wrangle had the exact location. He shines the beam over the room-- a CEO's office, by the looks of it, big desk, golf trophies, plaques. He starts out by looking under the desk for any buttons or panels, controls that might reveal a hidden room or door.
There's a gleam of light from under the office door, and Joel freezes, hearing the sounds of footsteps down the hall, a crackle of radio.]
They didn't see you on the security feed. [ Heine narrows his eyes at laptop screen. It's still looping normal feed... ] You sure they didn't just hear you punching people?
[ He tries to jam the guards' walkie-talkie frequency, but out of the corner of his eye he sees something that keeps him from continuing. ]
I've got company. [ He tries to relax into the seat, shutting down all connections to the security system other than the one to the camera. This is bad. ]
[Joel scowls, though Heine can't see it. He'd punched them quietly. Very quietly.]
That ain't it. Sounds like-- [But then Heine speaks again, and he can hear the creak of the door as the guards enter his room, flicking the lights on. Joel ducks under the desk.]
Ruthers said they'd spotted the one outside, but there's no sign of the second one...
[His shoulders go slack with relief. They don't know he's in here, and maybe they wouldn't check...]
Yeah, but where the hell are Johnson and the newbie? They're supposed to head over after Ruthers brings the hacker in.
[ Sounds like—? Heine scowls; he needs to know the rest of that message, but his attempt at looking casual seems to have failed. Two bulky men in suits come to stand next to his table, one taking off his sunglasses to get a better look. ]
Come with us and we won't cause a scene.
[ Still scowling, Heine turns toward them. ]
What are you talking about? You got some kind of problem?
[ Done with talking, one of the men grabs him by the arm. The other picks up his laptop, and off they go. Great. Heine is sure that Joel can hear everything they're saying over the comm, and he can hear some murmuring from a distance on Joel's end. ]
Hey! Let go. [ Making an attempt at seeming indignant, Heine struggles (half-heartedly) as he's hauled away from the cafe and toward their car.
Well, at least he didn't have to finish that salad.
The men drive him over to the facility, not responding to any of his questions. Not that he'd expected anything else. As they're bringing him in a side door toward what he assumes is a holding room, Heine mutters to Joel under his breath: ] Put the decoder on a wall. Any wall.
[Joel stays crouched under the desk, gritting his teeth with frustration as the guards make no move to leave. Instead, they stand around in the room, chatting about the latest football game and nagging girlfriends. In between a conversation about the best burger place in town and a new arcade that had opened up, he hears Heine's voice in his ear and grits his teeth in frustration.
Put the decoder on a wall.
But he's stuck here-- at least until the guards turn around. Still, they're running out of time.
Looking around, Joel spies a paperclip on the floor. He picks it up, dares a glance around the corner (the two guards looking at one another, and not him), and with a flick of his wrist sends it spinning away from him, to hit one of the trophies up on the cabinet with a surprisingly loud tink. Both guards look up, trying to locate the source of the sound, and Joel takes advantage of that split second of distraction to dart forward and stick the decoder against the wall behind the desk. As the guards stand around in puzzlement, he mutters into the mic.]
[ They're settling him in a bare-looking room, furnished with just two chairs and a longish table. Handcuffs are already on one of his wrists, the other cuff being hooked around the leg of the table, when Joel finally gives him the go-ahead.
There's no time to waste. He yanks out of the guard's grasp, kicking him in the stomach. The second guard is caught on the other side of the room, giving Heine just enough time to utter a voice command. He enunciates: ] Third—unlock.
[ The decoder on the wall beeps again, much more quickly. The wall it's stuck against vibrates, then simply explodes. Alarms in the building go off immediately. Ignoring the cuffs around his wrist, Heine runs out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him. ]
All the doors are unlocking. Sprinklers are gonna turn on in ten seconds, move.
[ Security protocols should send the building into lockdown, but by using the decoder on previous security checkpoints, he already gained access to the system. The explosion and sprinklers are distractions; Heine assumes Joel will be able to get out of the area in time. Hopefully. ]
[Heine hadn't told him to expect an explosion, but Joel had ducked away in anticipation of some anyway. Tech geeks and their damn toys. The plan was to rendezvous near his location, but that was assuming that they could find the entrance to the vault in time to hack in and disappear before the guards found them.]
Vault's on the north side-- the wall's all lined with lead, but there's no way in. Think it might be next door, in the security booth. I'll meet you there.
[The security booth would ordinarily be swarming with guards, but the alarms had scared most of 'em out, and Joel easily gets rid of the last two, leaving their unconscious bodies fallen on the floor. He starts examining the extensive buttons and panels of the controls, but none of them makes any sense to him.]
[ North side—Heine takes a moment to reorient himself as he pauses at a corner. The building is well laid out, at least, and he sets off to the security booth at a jog. ]
On my way.
[ The jog turns into a run when a security guard shouts stop behind him. Heine's a fast runner, but the guards are well trained, and he has to book it down the hall, following his memory of blueprints to get around to the security booth.
He manages to lose the guard by ducking into an alcove and opening an extra door. Old tricks, but they work. He stumbles into the security booth, panting, to see the old guy looking at the controls, apparently nonplussed. ]
Let me see. [ Trying to shoulder Joel aside to get to the controls, Heine reaches for the panels. ]
[Joel turns as the door opens, shoulders tensing-- but it's only Heine, breathing hard. He lets himself get shouldered to the side with a grunt of annoyance.]
Whatever you're doin', get it done fast. That bomb of yours must've tipped off every guard and cop in the city.
[Unspoken: Which was stupid as fuck. He stands back, directing a glare at the back of Heine's head before turning away to listen for the sound of guards.]
[ Heine just grunts in vague acknowledgment, poring over the switches, buttons, and display screens quickly. There's an emergency override in place that's supposed to lock things down—he'd already dealt with that. Now, to get past the regular security and get them in...
...the random-sequence lock. Heine opens the system dialogue and stares at the sixteen spaces available for a passcode. The last login must be in the system history.
As he works, he's concentrating too much to hear the sound of some guards returning to their security booth, calling orders down the hall at others. ]
[Joel catches the footsteps coming down the hair and holds his breath, trying to time how long it would take for the guards to reach the two of them. Twenty seconds.... eighteen... sixteen.]
Hurry it up. We got guards coming. [He hisses it low under his breath, not wanting to alert them, but the screen is full of flickering and it doesn't look like Heine is even paying attention. Shit.
The door of the security booth creaks as the first guard opens it-- and then Joel is on him, yanking him inside and forcing him into a headlock. Even with one hand over the guard's mouth, the choking sounds and the squeak of his boots against the floor seem too loud in the room, covering up the clicking of the keyboard. The second guard comes in, and Joel lays him out with two quick punches to the jaw. Still, that wouldn't keep him quiet for long.]
[ Letters and numbers flash before his eyes; Heine thinks as quickly as he can, running protocols, possibilities. He's almost in when the door opens.
He glances over to the clamor, but is mostly unconcerned about it. ]
I'm almost in. Just leave him there. [ Heine turns back to the screen and finishes the process, finally, unlocking the inner chamber with a hiss of pressurized air escaping. ]
[Easier said than done. Joel glares a little at Heine as he finishes choking out the second guard. There's a row of red scratches down his cheek-- a lucky graze from one of the men before he'd gotten knocked out. Dropping the guard, he follows Heine down the gray steps leading into the inner chamber.]
Suppose you have a plan for dealing with 'em when we get out? [The question is mostly rhetorical. Joel's pretty sure that he'll be breaking some more skulls to get the both of them out, thanks to Heine's amazing plan involving attention grabbing explosives.
At the bottom of the stairwell, the floor pulses once with a faint red light that flickers and disappears. All the same, Joel recognizes it for what it is-- a laser grid.]
[ Heine has an exit plan. It involves the ventilation shafts. He'd assumed Joel could fit into them too, but now that he thinks about it, it might not be feasible.
With that in mind, Heine just shrugs in response.
By the time they get down to the lower level, Heine's beginning to feel more and more uncomfortable. Something's wrong. Breaking the code took less time than he'd expected, and if he knows anything, it's that nothing comes easy.
[Joel hands over the tinfoil without another word. Glancing back, there's no shouts or the sound of running feet, just the blare of the alarm-- miracle of miracles, they might not have any more guards on their tail. Joel could get rid of them, easy, but it'd be a hassle, and kick up a ruckus besides.
(And also, he wants to keep an eye on Heine.)]
Get the lasers, and I'll fool the heat sensor long enough for you to crack the safe.
[It's really amazing what some tinfoil and a little ice can accomplish.]
[ Without further ado, Heine folds up the tinfoil to form barriers for the lasers. He stretches out across the floor to put them in place, only nodding briefly to acknowledge Joel's statement.
There are still a few places that the tinfoil can't block, though. Heine settles back on his heels for a moment, eyes narrowed as he considers the best route. With no other warning, he rolls to the balls of his feet and steps into the grid, counting in his head every pass of the lasers, which places he can step into safely, which parts he'll have to avoid—a turn, long step, and he's past the grid. Pressed up against the wall, he slides his hand over the security block.
He has his own decoder, a more powerful one, and it works on the higher levels of security. He disables the laser grid, but Joel needs to figure out the heat sensor on his own. ]
[While Heine is skippy-doo-dah-ing through the laser grid, Joel is busy at work making a little cup out of the tinfoil, filling it with ice, and then wrapping the whole thing around the round black sensor of the heat monitor. It's a slapdash job that won't hold up to more than a minute or so of tampering.
Still-- out of the corner of his eye, he can see Heine moving through the laser grid, every step and turn measured and deliberate-- that ought to be more than enough time. His part in this is on hold until Heine got his hands on the Klimt. Joel keeps an eye out, but there's no sign of more approaching guards.]
[ With the heat monitor dealt with, Heine turns to the safe. Artemis 38-2000. Tough, but he can deal with it. Heine presses his hear to the metal and gets to work.
Cracking a safe is like finding something that slots perfectly into something else: something sliding back into place, where it was always meant to be. Heine's eyes slide shut as he focuses on listening to every click, mouth pressed into a thin line until the hears the final, heavy clack, and the sound of bolts sliding out of the way. ]
Done.
[ He casts a look back at Joel to see if he's watching, then opens the door without further ado.
Where there should be an almost priceless work of art, there's... nothing. Just an empty spot on the wall. Heine stares forward for a long moment, unwilling to believe his eyes for a moment. ]
[Joel's not looking in Heine's direction as he cracks the safe. Instead, he's listening hard for the tell-tale sound of footsteps down the hall, all the while counting down the seconds they had before the heat monitor would reactivate. Thirty seconds left.... twenty. He hears Heine finish up with the lock, open the safe door, and then..... nothing.]
What's the hold up? Grab it and go!
[He chances a glance back to see Heine just standing there in front of the safe. What the hell? They're running out of time.]
That ain't funny. [Not in the slightest. But it has to be a joke, right? Joel looks back to find Heine's red-eyed gaze fixed on him.]
Where did I-- [Oh hell no. Joel has to suck in a low, panicked breath to keep from shouting. Gotta keep his head.] Don't you bullshit me, thief.
[Heine must have stashed it somewhere-- maybe even moved it from its place in the safe while he wasn't looking. Fuck. He'd beat the answers out of him before wringing this guy's skinny neck.
Just then, the heat detector begins a steady, insistent beep under his hand, followed by shouting from down the hall. Time's up.]
"Thief"? [ Heine backs out of the safe, eyeing the laser grid he's going to have to cross again. He can trip the alarm now, it doesn't really matter. ] Like you're not here to do the same thing. Don't tell me you wouldn't have—
[ Goddammit. He lets out a heavy sigh, dodges most of the lasers on his way back, and comes to a stumbling stop next to Joel, shooting him an angry look. How can he stand there and accuse him like he's not the one who took the painting in the first place? Even as the noise down the hall approaches, Heine gets up close—probably too close, but he's pissed now. ]
Why would I take the painting and still let myself get dragged in here? I could've ditched you in the beginning and gotten you caught.
[Too close is right. Joel takes full advantage of the opportunity to grab a fistful of Heine's shirt and yank him up, slamming him into the wall.]
Hell if I know. Maybe you reckoned your chances would be better with someone to be your bait, huh?! [Beep beep beep. goes the heat detector and he's out of time. Instead of beating Heine to a pulp, he dumps him on the ground next to the heat monitor.]
You'd better get us the hell out of here, right now.
[ Heine snarls audibly when he's thrown against the wall, leg immediately lashing out to try and knee Joel in the stomach. ]
How would I—let go of me!
[ When Joel does, though, he lands on his ass before he manages to get to his feet again. Oof. ]
I'm getting myself out of here. [ If Joel follows, then he'd better not get in his way, and maybe afterward he can interrogate the man properly. Heine gets back into the guard's control room. He'd locked the system back up when leaving, but after the first time, it's a lot easier. As he's getting started, though, one guard bursts in through the door.
Dammit. Fortunately, it's a small entrance and only one person can come in at a time. Heine kicks him across the jaw hard. When the guard reels, Heine bodyslams him with his shoulder, trying to force him out of the doorway. ]
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Go right. Use the frequency decoder on the door at the end of the hall—number 402.
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The entrance to the vault is supposed to be somewhere around here, but none of the blueprints they could buy, steal, or wrangle had the exact location. He shines the beam over the room-- a CEO's office, by the looks of it, big desk, golf trophies, plaques. He starts out by looking under the desk for any buttons or panels, controls that might reveal a hidden room or door.
There's a gleam of light from under the office door, and Joel freezes, hearing the sounds of footsteps down the hall, a crackle of radio.]
--the hell? Thought you were keeping 'em busy.
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[ He tries to jam the guards' walkie-talkie frequency, but out of the corner of his eye he sees something that keeps him from continuing. ]
I've got company. [ He tries to relax into the seat, shutting down all connections to the security system other than the one to the camera. This is bad. ]
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That ain't it. Sounds like-- [But then Heine speaks again, and he can hear the creak of the door as the guards enter his room, flicking the lights on. Joel ducks under the desk.]
Ruthers said they'd spotted the one outside, but there's no sign of the second one...
[His shoulders go slack with relief. They don't know he's in here, and maybe they wouldn't check...]
Yeah, but where the hell are Johnson and the newbie? They're supposed to head over after Ruthers brings the hacker in.
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Come with us and we won't cause a scene.
[ Still scowling, Heine turns toward them. ]
What are you talking about? You got some kind of problem?
[ Done with talking, one of the men grabs him by the arm. The other picks up his laptop, and off they go. Great. Heine is sure that Joel can hear everything they're saying over the comm, and he can hear some murmuring from a distance on Joel's end. ]
Hey! Let go. [ Making an attempt at seeming indignant, Heine struggles (half-heartedly) as he's hauled away from the cafe and toward their car.
Well, at least he didn't have to finish that salad.
The men drive him over to the facility, not responding to any of his questions. Not that he'd expected anything else. As they're bringing him in a side door toward what he assumes is a holding room, Heine mutters to Joel under his breath: ] Put the decoder on a wall. Any wall.
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Put the decoder on a wall.
But he's stuck here-- at least until the guards turn around. Still, they're running out of time.
Looking around, Joel spies a paperclip on the floor. He picks it up, dares a glance around the corner (the two guards looking at one another, and not him), and with a flick of his wrist sends it spinning away from him, to hit one of the trophies up on the cabinet with a surprisingly loud tink. Both guards look up, trying to locate the source of the sound, and Joel takes advantage of that split second of distraction to dart forward and stick the decoder against the wall behind the desk. As the guards stand around in puzzlement, he mutters into the mic.]
You're good to go.
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There's no time to waste. He yanks out of the guard's grasp, kicking him in the stomach. The second guard is caught on the other side of the room, giving Heine just enough time to utter a voice command. He enunciates: ] Third—unlock.
[ The decoder on the wall beeps again, much more quickly. The wall it's stuck against vibrates, then simply explodes. Alarms in the building go off immediately. Ignoring the cuffs around his wrist, Heine runs out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him. ]
All the doors are unlocking. Sprinklers are gonna turn on in ten seconds, move.
[ Security protocols should send the building into lockdown, but by using the decoder on previous security checkpoints, he already gained access to the system. The explosion and sprinklers are distractions; Heine assumes Joel will be able to get out of the area in time. Hopefully. ]
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Vault's on the north side-- the wall's all lined with lead, but there's no way in. Think it might be next door, in the security booth. I'll meet you there.
[The security booth would ordinarily be swarming with guards, but the alarms had scared most of 'em out, and Joel easily gets rid of the last two, leaving their unconscious bodies fallen on the floor. He starts examining the extensive buttons and panels of the controls, but none of them makes any sense to him.]
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On my way.
[ The jog turns into a run when a security guard shouts stop behind him. Heine's a fast runner, but the guards are well trained, and he has to book it down the hall, following his memory of blueprints to get around to the security booth.
He manages to lose the guard by ducking into an alcove and opening an extra door. Old tricks, but they work. He stumbles into the security booth, panting, to see the old guy looking at the controls, apparently nonplussed. ]
Let me see. [ Trying to shoulder Joel aside to get to the controls, Heine reaches for the panels. ]
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Whatever you're doin', get it done fast. That bomb of yours must've tipped off every guard and cop in the city.
[Unspoken: Which was stupid as fuck. He stands back, directing a glare at the back of Heine's head before turning away to listen for the sound of guards.]
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...the random-sequence lock. Heine opens the system dialogue and stares at the sixteen spaces available for a passcode. The last login must be in the system history.
As he works, he's concentrating too much to hear the sound of some guards returning to their security booth, calling orders down the hall at others. ]
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Hurry it up. We got guards coming. [He hisses it low under his breath, not wanting to alert them, but the screen is full of flickering and it doesn't look like Heine is even paying attention. Shit.
The door of the security booth creaks as the first guard opens it-- and then Joel is on him, yanking him inside and forcing him into a headlock. Even with one hand over the guard's mouth, the choking sounds and the squeak of his boots against the floor seem too loud in the room, covering up the clicking of the keyboard. The second guard comes in, and Joel lays him out with two quick punches to the jaw. Still, that wouldn't keep him quiet for long.]
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He glances over to the clamor, but is mostly unconcerned about it. ]
I'm almost in. Just leave him there. [ Heine turns back to the screen and finishes the process, finally, unlocking the inner chamber with a hiss of pressurized air escaping. ]
Let's go.
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Suppose you have a plan for dealing with 'em when we get out? [The question is mostly rhetorical. Joel's pretty sure that he'll be breaking some more skulls to get the both of them out, thanks to Heine's amazing plan involving attention grabbing explosives.
At the bottom of the stairwell, the floor pulses once with a faint red light that flickers and disappears. All the same, Joel recognizes it for what it is-- a laser grid.]
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With that in mind, Heine just shrugs in response.
By the time they get down to the lower level, Heine's beginning to feel more and more uncomfortable. Something's wrong. Breaking the code took less time than he'd expected, and if he knows anything, it's that nothing comes easy.
At least with laser grids, he knows what to do. ]
Give me the tinfoil.
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(And also, he wants to keep an eye on Heine.)]
Get the lasers, and I'll fool the heat sensor long enough for you to crack the safe.
[It's really amazing what some tinfoil and a little ice can accomplish.]
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There are still a few places that the tinfoil can't block, though. Heine settles back on his heels for a moment, eyes narrowed as he considers the best route. With no other warning, he rolls to the balls of his feet and steps into the grid, counting in his head every pass of the lasers, which places he can step into safely, which parts he'll have to avoid—a turn, long step, and he's past the grid. Pressed up against the wall, he slides his hand over the security block.
He has his own decoder, a more powerful one, and it works on the higher levels of security. He disables the laser grid, but Joel needs to figure out the heat sensor on his own. ]
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Still-- out of the corner of his eye, he can see Heine moving through the laser grid, every step and turn measured and deliberate-- that ought to be more than enough time. His part in this is on hold until Heine got his hands on the Klimt. Joel keeps an eye out, but there's no sign of more approaching guards.]
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Cracking a safe is like finding something that slots perfectly into something else: something sliding back into place, where it was always meant to be. Heine's eyes slide shut as he focuses on listening to every click, mouth pressed into a thin line until the hears the final, heavy clack, and the sound of bolts sliding out of the way. ]
Done.
[ He casts a look back at Joel to see if he's watching, then opens the door without further ado.
Where there should be an almost priceless work of art, there's... nothing. Just an empty spot on the wall. Heine stares forward for a long moment, unwilling to believe his eyes for a moment. ]
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What's the hold up? Grab it and go!
[He chances a glance back to see Heine just standing there in front of the safe. What the hell? They're running out of time.]
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[ Heine walks into the safe proper, confirming what he'd seen from outside. ]
The painting's not here.
[ Fuck, fuck, fuck. He steps out of the safe, eyes fixing on Joel. No one else could have... ]
Where did you put it?
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Where did I-- [Oh hell no. Joel has to suck in a low, panicked breath to keep from shouting. Gotta keep his head.] Don't you bullshit me, thief.
[Heine must have stashed it somewhere-- maybe even moved it from its place in the safe while he wasn't looking. Fuck. He'd beat the answers out of him before wringing this guy's skinny neck.
Just then, the heat detector begins a steady, insistent beep under his hand, followed by shouting from down the hall. Time's up.]
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[ Goddammit. He lets out a heavy sigh, dodges most of the lasers on his way back, and comes to a stumbling stop next to Joel, shooting him an angry look. How can he stand there and accuse him like he's not the one who took the painting in the first place? Even as the noise down the hall approaches, Heine gets up close—probably too close, but he's pissed now. ]
Why would I take the painting and still let myself get dragged in here? I could've ditched you in the beginning and gotten you caught.
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Hell if I know. Maybe you reckoned your chances would be better with someone to be your bait, huh?! [Beep beep beep. goes the heat detector and he's out of time. Instead of beating Heine to a pulp, he dumps him on the ground next to the heat monitor.]
You'd better get us the hell out of here, right now.
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How would I—let go of me!
[ When Joel does, though, he lands on his ass before he manages to get to his feet again. Oof. ]
I'm getting myself out of here. [ If Joel follows, then he'd better not get in his way, and maybe afterward he can interrogate the man properly. Heine gets back into the guard's control room. He'd locked the system back up when leaving, but after the first time, it's a lot easier. As he's getting started, though, one guard bursts in through the door.
Dammit. Fortunately, it's a small entrance and only one person can come in at a time. Heine kicks him across the jaw hard. When the guard reels, Heine bodyslams him with his shoulder, trying to force him out of the doorway. ]
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