aircannonsinc Chapter 81, Act 1
Chapter 81, Act 1
On the ice cream truck at the crossroads, Royce had just finished a sale.
He stuck half his body out of the car and handed the child a strawberry-flavored ice cream, receiving three sticky coins in return.
"Thank you, sir!"
"No need to thank me, it's my job. Remember to watch out for oncoming traffic when you cross the street!"
Reus waved enthusiastically at the child's departing figure.
If Jennifer hadn't disappeared, if he hadn't taken the blame for Maroney's crime, he might have a son with a runny nose by now.
"Uncle Ben, aren't you getting a little too into the role? We're part of the plan. Once Wei gives the signal, we're supposed to drive this car into the bank gate. But look at what you're doing, actually running a business..."
Wearing a comical top hat, Oswald complained, then turned around and pulled out a handful of change from his pocket, counted it, and gave it to the customer.
"Here's your money, please take it."
"I can tell you're enjoying yourself too," Royce teased.
"Shut up, Uncle. You're the one who set the good example. I think we should have closed the shutters... Damn it, what kind of weird nickname is this? Every time I hear it, I feel like I've been cheated!" Oswald turned his gaze to Jason beside him.
"Red Hood Kid, you must agree with me, right?"
Jason, clutching a butter gun, was enthusiastically spraying patterns onto the cake. He was doing a cozy job, but the words he was spewing out were extremely filthy: "If you fucking never learn to be quiet, I'm going to break your spine, fold you up, and sew your damn asshole and mouth together."
"Let's do it!"
Oswald was furious and pulled out his gun, pointing it at Jason's temple.
"Oh? You want to kill me! Guess what he'll do to you after you ruined Will's plans?" Jason was fearless, grabbing the butter gun and pointing it at the little penguin.
"Really? You might not know, but Wei and I have a life-or-death bond! Even if I shoot you right now, he won't feel sorry for you! On the other hand, what are you planning to do? Splatter me with cream while I'm making a bloody hole in your face?"
Oswald, not to be outdone, retorted sharply.
In fact, Little Penguin clearly distinguishes between mission and personal grudge. He certainly wouldn't shoot at that moment; he only did so because he couldn't stand Jason's sour face.
To put it bluntly, most of the people in this team are "problem children," and many of them were in a hostile state when they joined. Getting them to put aside their disputes and work together to develop the fertile land of Maroni is not as simple as it sounds.
Reus, wanting to avoid trouble, took off his apron and went outside the car to smoke.
"The people aren't united; this administration will be difficult to manage!"
Just as Reus exhaled a smoke ring, his cigarette was confiscated by a hand reaching out from behind him.
"Smoke less, look how many cigarette butts are on the ground. Aren't you afraid of burning them before Maroni?" Qin Wei flicked the cigarette butt into the bushes after rubbing the embers out with his fingers.
Royce jolted awake. Even while smoking, he remained vigilant, yet he heard no footsteps approaching from behind.
"Boss, why are you back?"
"Stop talking, we didn't get the map." Qin Wei crossed his arms and bit his nails, looking preoccupied. "The bank's electrical grid system is far more powerful than we imagined. Mickey only bought us three minutes. In three minutes, we couldn't even search through a single room, let alone find the map."
"But what about B and C?"
"That's true, but I still feel it's a bit too early to lay all the cards on the table now..."
"Besides, we didn't come away empty-handed!"
Selena's voice rang out at just the right moment.
"The cameras inside the vault are arranged in a very regular pattern and cover the entire vault passageway. I asked Mickey to copy about one minute of recordings from each camera so that we could roughly recreate the vault map based on the images recorded by the cameras."
The cat thief picked up the conversation, waving her laptop in her hand.
The three of them pulled up the curtain of the ice cream cart and squeezed into the food truck, making the already cramped space even smaller.
Upon hearing this, Oswald exclaimed that Qin Wei was foolish.
"Piecing together a map by pressing camera lenses? Sounds great, but it's simply impossible!"
Little Penguin has a say in this; years ago, when he worked as a casino security guard for Richie, he was responsible for sitting in front of the computer screen all day watching the surveillance.
After only a few days on the job, he noticed an interesting phenomenon: although the monitor screens were labeled with sequential numbers, the images were actually displayed in a scrambled manner. For example, someone walking out of the top left monitor (number 1) might very well walk into the bottom right monitor (number 12).
He later realized that this was a deliberate disruption to prevent the monitor from viewing the footage as a TV drama.
Most buildings with built-in surveillance systems are arranged in this way.
Qin Wei opened his computer and clicked on the video file sent by Mickey. Just as Oswald had said, all 48 surveillance footage were scrambled.
Is it really only Dick we can rely on? Or rather...
Qin Wei turned to look at Selena, who was sitting right next to him.
Everyone looked rather grim after Oswald's nagging, but Selena was the only one who seemed unconcerned, looking around and even scraping a bit of cream from the small cake Jason had made and popping it into her mouth.
"Is it good?" Qin Wei asked.
Selena returned the smile with an elegant one.
"Sweets can stimulate dopamine secretion, who wouldn't like them? But I have to suppress this craving, otherwise I might not be able to run 100 meters in under 12.5 seconds if I gain any more weight."
"Such an abrupt transition... Are you trying to tell me you're fast on foot, that three minutes is enough for you to browse the entire vault?"
"Of course, the vault isn't a luxury store; there's nothing there for a thief to linger over." Selena picked up a pen and then the ledger on the table.
"I had two minutes left after I finished looking around, and I used that time to record the monitor numbers. You know, I'm very familiar with surveillance. If you don't want to deal with it in this line of work, you have to deal with GCPD."
32、5、18、6、4……
Selena wrote down 48 numbers in front of everyone, pressed the button on the ballpoint pen, and placed the pen on Qin Wei's upturned lips.
"Even cat thieves need a Plan B, right?"
She winked mysteriously at Qin Wei.
Based on the numbers given by the catwoman, Qin Wei reconstructed a simple map of the underground vault by comparing it with the surveillance footage.
He placed the finished drawing in the center of the plywood table, and four heads crowded around it.
With 4 corners, 12 forks in the road, and a total of 27 rooms, it's not exactly complicated, but without a map to guide them, they would have to search through each room one by one.
It has to be said that Selena did Qin Wei a big favor once again.
I'll treat you to dinner tomorrow!
"Forget about the meal, I just want you to answer one question honestly."
Selena smiled, her eyes curving into a sweet arc, but what was rather unsettling was that the corners of her lips showed no sign of turning up.
Our ancestors often used an idiom to describe this kind of expression—a forced smile that doesn't reach the eyes.
Qin Wei suddenly had a bad feeling:
"What's wrong? Tell me."
"I got drunk at the Iceberg Club before, and you brought me back."
"yes!"
"Who is the other woman sleeping next to me?"