The Seal of Oblivion (14 page)

“Too true,” Laqiya admitted with a
sigh. “So what’s the plan?”

“There are four entrances once we
get over the gate, one on the front, one in the back, and one on both sides.
They’re all automatic meaning they’ll stay shut until we override the security
system. But that might take a while, so we’ll have to choose option two as
backup if it gets too late.”

“Which is?” Sakura asked.

“The roof,” Laqiya answered before
Plainshield even opened her mouth.

“How did you know that?”

“Where else would we get in from?”
Laqiya asked.

“And we get on the roof how?” asked
Sakura.

“Between Nightshield and Isis, I
don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” Plainshield said and then continued,
“From there we could go straight through the halls and get to the Egyptian
exhibit.
 
Unfortunately…”

Laqiya sighed and ran her hand
through her hair. “Let me guess, it won’t be that easy, will it?”

“Exactly which is why we have to
find an alternative route. Problem is these are some of the most complicated
and sensitive security systems I’ve ever seen,” said Plainshield turning the
layout around and looking at it from different angles.

“So you can’t have it figured out
by next Saturday?” Adria raised an eyebrow

Plainshield turned up her nose,
insulted by the implication. “Oh, I’ll have it figured out by then. It’ll just
take a minute and even then it might not go exactly as planned.”

Plainshield might have been being a
tad overconfident though, because the next day, she was stumped and not by the
security, but by a password to get into the system in the first place. Laqiya
looked over the book she was reading as Plainshield sat at the table in the
library of Al-Rana Palace the next Saturday. The cat woman was now leaning her
face on her arms on the table with an exasperated look.

“Still can’t get it?” Laqiya asked.

“I told you the security is
complicated. Heat sensors, motion detectors, cameras that detect movement,
voice activated lock pads, password keypads, finger print keypads and just the
slightest breach in the security like a pen dropping through a heat sensor
makes the place go on automatic lock down. That means steal and bars sealing all
exits and escape routes in twenty seconds flat,” Plainshield sighed.

“I already hacked into the main
computer system of the museum and found the way to turn off all the cameras,
heat sensors, and motion detectors. I know how to get past the password keypads,
and there’s a way to deactivate the voice recognition on the voice activated
ones so that anyone can speak the password, and passing the fingerprint keypads
are
easy.”

“So what’s the problem?” Laqiya
asked, putting her book down.

“I said I hacked into the main
security and that controls everywhere in the museum except one place.”

“Where?”

“The Egyptian
exhibit.
That place is a gold mine worth a fortune that would last a
family for generations. Roselyn actually has one of the largest Egyptian
exhibits in the world. It has a whole other security system in itself, and
that’s the one I can’t hack into,” Plainshield replied as she slid the laptop
up towards herself.

Laqiya was amazed at the speed
Plainshield was typing furiously at with one hand while using the other to
click on the screen every now and then. Soon she was hacked into the museum
security system. When she tried to go further, a username and password box
appeared in screen and she stopped.

“Is it really that much?” Laqiya
asked.

“That whole exhibit would furnish
and decorate your mother’s house if you wanted it too and that’s leaving almost
no room to sleep, cook, and add a cable television,” Plainshield said
seriously.

“I’ve tried everything and even set
my password find on it which automatically finds and types in all possible
passwords. Even ones so complicated you couldn’t even began to think of them.
It’s only a last resort really since I always end up finding the password.”

“Try the obvious,” Laqiya
suggested.

“The obvious?”
Plainshield asked.

“Yeah.
You
know.
Something simple.
Like the owner of the museum
and the phone number or something,” Laqiya asked.

“That’s too obvious,” Plainshield
said. “But…. Oh I know…
How about the name and number of
their biggest anonymous sponsor?”

“How are you going to find that if
their anonymous?”

“Not hard,” Plainshield said and
soon
ACCESS GRANTED
flashed across
the screen.

“Thanks for the help,” Plainshield
said as she began to inspect the system. She frowned.

“What’s wrong?” Laqiya asked.

“It’s complicated,” Plainshield
said running her hands through her hair. “The only way to unlock the doors is
from the main computer system inside. The floors are heat sensitive and I need
another password for that. Then there are heat sensors and motion detectors…
everything.”

“Then hack it from your computer
before we leave,” Laqiya suggested.

Plainshield chuckled. “You
obviously don’t know a lot about computers. It’s not that easy. Thankfully I
won’t have to go through a lot of trouble… The museum has one fatal flaw in
their security.”

“What?”

“There are five main exhibit rooms.
The room with the staff piece is in the middle of the four rooms and contains
the most valuable items. Their flaw though, is there is no security in the
room. All the security is in the surrounding rooms and around its perimeter, so
unless you knew how to disable it all, you can’t get in the staff room because
you can only get in from one of the four doorways on each wall from the other
rooms.”

“And that means…” Laqiya asked
confused.

“I just need to get you all into
the hallway,” Plainshield said.

“How long we talking?

“Not long at all if I map out all
the paths you can possibly take. I can monitor you from inside, just in case.”

“You don’t trust us to be quick and
efficient?” Laqiya asked.

“When it comes to teenagers, the
words ‘quick’ and ‘efficient’ never go together in the same sentence.”

“Must we wear black?” Sakura asked
a day later at their ‘sleepover’ as she pulled at the black jeans they had all
agreed to wear. “I have something that would look much better.”

“We’re going to be breaking into a
museum. We really don’t want to attract any attention,” Nightshield said
leaving no room for Sakura to argue.

“Everyone ready?”
Plainshield asked.

“As ready as anyone would ever be
if they were about to break into a museum,” Sakura replied.

“What about you Plainshield?”
Laqiya asked.

“Almost…” Plainshield replied
typing away on the laptop. “There all done.
Ready Isis?”

Isis closed her eyes and rubbed her
head. “I think so. I’ve never teleported a group this big before.”

“Well, there’s always a first time
for everything,” Plainshield said closing her laptop and putting it in its case
before grabbing hold of Isis’s shoulder. “Make sure you teleport inside the
gates. I already turned off the lawn security.”

“No one works graveyard shift?”
Isis asked.

“Who stays awake on that shift?”
Nightshield asked. “Ready?”

Isis nodded, and Laqiya saw a swirl
of gold roses. Then her feet lifted off the ground, but only for a second
before they hit the ground again right on the inside of the gates to the
museum.

“It’s this way,” Nightshield said
making her way across the lawn to the side of the building.

“Here,” Sakura said taking what
looked like a two cell phones out her pocket as they followed. “It’s some type
of walkie-talkie, but it works like a cell phone without the call waiting
stuff. The number’s already programmed. Just press talk twice. I gave one to
Plainshield before she left.”

“Plainshield’s gone already?”
Laqiya asked looking around and indeed not seeing the woman.

“There’s no ladder,” said Sakura as
she looked up the ceramic finished walls.

Laqiya looked up. “It’s not that
high… Can you make it up there Isis?”

Isis shrugged and stepped back a
little before making a running jump to the top. She landed wobbly, but managed
to steady herself.

“Okay. Chasity, you fly Sakura and
Adria to the top. Nightshield will take me,” Laqiya said.

Chasity didn’t complain about being
bossed around for once and did so, while Nightshield grabbed Laqiya around the
waist, warned her not to move around too much and leapt onto the roof. Laqiya
felt her stomach lurch at the sudden movement and then landing on her feet.

“You could have warned me,” she
snapped at Nightshield.

“Sorry… Next time brace yourself.”

She glared at Nightshield, but it
was hard to maintain while she was trying to fight the urge to throw up. The
little walkie-talkie vibrated in her hands. Laqiya walked away from the edge of
the roof.

“Plainshield?”

“Hello Laqiya.”

“Where are you?” Laqiya asked.

“There’s a camera on the door of
the roof you’re on. I’m watching you right now.”

“You left it on?”

“I’ll erase it later,” Plainshield
replied. “Get a move on. It’s a miracle no one has seen you yet.”

“Let’s go,” Laqiya said to her
friends.

“Chasity, you keep watch from the
above,” Adria said and the woman took to the skies muttering about sky patrol.

“I’ll keep watch from up here,”
Nightshield said crossing her arms standing on the edge of the roof.

“Chasity Pearl is out here. Why do
you need to stay?” Laqiya asked.

“Although I’m fully confident in
Chasity Pearl’s abilities, it wouldn’t hurt to have a little back up,”
Nightshield said.

Laqiya couldn’t tell if the woman
was being sarcastic or not.

“Besides, I’m not sure if Chasity
Pearl can see in the dark,” Nightshield added.

Sakura stuck her hand in her pocket
and took out another phone like device. “Here you go Nightshield. It’s the same
one we have,” Sakura then frowned. “Or should I give this to Chasity Pearl?”

Nightshield glared and snatched the
phone out of Sakura’s hands.

Adria went over to the window and
pulled on it. “It’s locked.”

“Thank you for pointing out the
obvious,” Nightshield replied.

“Well then since you’ve got the kitty
claws, why don’t you come over here and open it?” Adria asked.

Nightshield didn’t respond and
gently shoved Adria out the way to pick the lock. It clicked, and she opened
the window.

“Down we go,” Isis said grabbing
hold of Adria and Sakura before they could argue and jumping through the
opening.

Isis looked back up to Laqiya.
“You next.”

“Are you nuts? I’ll kill myself,”
Laqiya said looking through the opening.

“You’re the one with all the forces
of nature. Between all nine of them, you’ll be fine,” Isis said to her. “Let’s
go.”

Laqiya groaned and closed her eyes.

“You will kill yourself if you
don’t open your eyes,” Nightshield warned. “You’re not afraid of heights are
you?”

“Heights are one thing. Jumping is
another,” Laqiya said and then jumped before she lost her nerve, landing neatly
in her feet in a crouched position.

“Can’t I go in with them? I want to
be a part of the action too,” Chasity Pearl said swooping low to the ground.

“You’re the only one who can fly
and we need you to—” Chasity Pearl cut Nightshield off.

“To scan the perimeter and make
sure no one’s approaching the museum from outside the wall,” Chasity Pearl
finished looking annoyed. “I understand mother. I’ll do it right away.”

“I swear,” Isis sighed. “Those two
will be the death of each other.”

“Where are the flashlights? It’s
dark in here,” Sakura muttered shakily.

Isis handed her one of the two
hooked onto her belt.

Laqiya stepped forward a bit and
then stopped when she felt it. What it was, she didn’t know, but the hair on
her arms was standing on end again. If she didn’t know better, she could have
sworn she heard someone, a chuckle at their cute, feisty antics. Laqiya
shuddered at the thought.

“The Anaxars are coming. They’re
waiting on us to find the staff piece because they can’t get it without me for
some reason. I think it’s protecting itself,” she said instinctively.

“How would you know?” Isis asked.

“I can feel them near. They’re
watching us, like they always have been.”

“You think they’ve been waiting for
us to do something all this time?” Isis asked.

“No doubt,” Nightshield said from
where she was still on the roof. “It’s a trap. We should go.”

“No,” Laqiya said feeling more and
more like she wasn’t quite all the way in control of her words and actions. “We
spring it. Just make sure you and Chasity are on the lookout for them, and you
listen out Nightshield.”

Nightshield only nodded slowly in
response before Laqiya turned to the rest of them. Sakura looked scared, Adria
ready for a fight, and Isis was calm and cool as ever. She took out the
makeshift cell phone press talk twice and put it to her ear.

“Where are you guys?” Plainshield
asked as soon as she answered.

“We’re right below our opening
window. You ready?” Laqiya asked putting the phone on speaker and hooking it to
her pocket.

“Everything’s a go. Camera’s on
where I want them to be. Floor and heat sensors off…” Plainshield trailed off.

“What?”

“Nothing.
I just thought I saw something on the camera,” Plainshield said. “In any case,
I’ve mapped out your path. You’ll have to be careful though. I’ll tell you what
to watch out for in each room. Trust me. You don’t want to set off these
alarms.”