Chapter Text
Samantha felt a silent grumble build up in her throat as she was stirred awake by the sound of her phone ringing, lazily grasping for it and squinting her eyes to read both the time and caller through the light of the screen. ‘The hell do you want Woodall…?' She thought to herself as she answered, putting it on loudspeaker as she usually did so she could tap out morse responses. “You better have a good reason for calling this late Malcom…” She tapped on the flat top of the drawers near her phone’s microphone, waiting a bit before repeating the taps, knowing how difficult it was to translate morse code over a phone call.
“Sorry Sam.” Malcom’s response soon came through, “But we need your help, urgently. It’s about Knuxina.” He told her, with her sitting up slightly. Urgent huh?
“Go on.” She tapped in response, opening her drawer to grab a fresh set of clothes just in case.
“She’s been arrested. And it sounds like the SWAT captain that did her in is intending to force any conviction she can. Likely going to try for something large enough to mark her for death.” Malcom explained, “I don’t think they’ll even consider accepting a bail bribe. No matter how big. We’re going to need to break her out, probably tomorrow morning.”
“So why you do need me?” Samantha questioned, although she already had a good idea as to why she’d been called.
“We don’t have the manpower to break her out and steal back her stuff.” He answered her, “Xina’s being held in a Super Max wing of the Tau Penitentiary. We’re going to have to go loud from the chopper to get her out of there. I wouldn’t put it past Ito to do something about Xina’s gear if we leave it behind. That’s why I’m calling you Sam.”
A tiny smirk crossed Samantha’s lips, “Need the service of the Thieving Ghost?” She responded, glancing to the small emblem she used as a calling card, engraved on her drawers. “This is gonna cost you Woodall.” She tapped out in addition, a little disappointed he couldn’t see her teasing grin.
“Name your price Sam, we’ll pay it.” Malcom said, “Tomorrow, earlier the better.”
“You got it.”
Samantha adjusted her shades, glancing up to the sky to the approaching helicopter. She raised her phone, tilting it carefully to catch the sunlight and use it as a heliograph, mostly to tell Brandon and Malcom that she was in position. She soon raised her hand and flashed a thumbs up, before slipping around the building.
Thanks to her extensive network of agents in the Eclipse City underworld, she knew practically every weakness of every government owned building in the whole city. Sneaking along, she soon found her target, a poorly secured ventilation system, one that she could easily dislodge and use as an opening. Silently, she popped the vent cover and pulled herself up, making sure to prop it back up behind her to avoid suspicion. Crawling through it a bit, she waited until she was perched just above a security office; retrieving an EMP Burst Grenade from her supply pouch and checking her earplugs were secure in her ears. One blast of the disruption would temporarily shut down the facility’s whole surveillance network, not a soul in law enforcement would know she’d gone in or out.
Samantha smirked to herself, pulling her burner brick phone out, and sending Brandon a message, “ghost in the machine”. Her sign to her brother, or anyone who hired her service for a parallel operation, that she was just waiting for the first strike to allow her to act under the cover of chaos.
Upon the sound of a distant explosion from the upper floors of the building, and the panicked scramble of the surprisingly small amount of security staff within the room, she made her move, dropping the grenade through the vent opening she was peering through, before dropping a flashbang in after it, averting her gaze and mentally counting a few seconds to the point where the flash would have detonated. She pulled open the vent cover, dropping into the room and making a run for the hallway. Completely unseen. Now all she had to do was make her way to the evidence hold.
Normally, she’d be grateful about not encountering any resistance; but considering her reason for not needing to hide was a result of anyone she encountered already being a freshly murdered corpse… Samantha’s blood ran a little cold. ‘This… This ain’t good…” She thought to herself, hearing discussion as she neared the hold. Stopping outside and crouching in a shadowed corner to listen.
“This the one.” She heard a male voice say, along with what sounded like the attaching of a portable drill to a doorway. Taking a chance, she peeked around the corner carefully, able to catch a glimpse of a small team of people; all dressed in the Stride gang’s trademark black and purple attire.
She ducked back into the shadow, frowning to herself. ‘Stride…?’ She questioned, as she swapped her shades out for a less sleek set that contained a small set of binoculars embedded in them as a trade-off, ‘Why the hell…?’ She peeked around again, looking a little closer with the zoom and managing to see they were drilling open a small safe. ‘Not one for a Super Max…’ She noted, feeling a slight bit of relief. The last thing she wanted to need was to fight trained gangsters on what should have been a simple recovery mission. As much as she hated it, she had no choice but to keep hidden, hope they didn’t manage to spot her on the way and fucking PRAY that the damage of her EMP kept the security systems down long enough.
Her heart raced as time slowly passed, their drill was noisy. If it wasn’t for the commotion she hoped Brandon and Malcom were causing on the upper floors she’d expect the corridor to be swarmed with cops. But despite the noise, there was no one.
She peeked around again at the sound of the lock breaking, watching one of the gang members roughly pull the safe open, gathering a small cache of weaponry and equipment. “Now we bust the boss out!” He said, turning around, slow enough that Samantha was able to swiftly duck back out of site; holding her breath to stay completely silent. “Then we mutilate whichever bastard put her here in the first place!”
Samantha watched as the gang left the hold, not daring to emerge from the shadows until they were completely out of sight. ‘Shit that was close…!’ She took a breath, slipping into the hold herself, proceeding back to the vaults holding the possessions of the facility’s Super Max prisoners. ‘Block B… Inmate 24… There.’ She found the vault she was looking for, fishing a few tools from her pouch and getting to work, focusing intently on the quiet clicks of the lock as she worked at it, fast enough to avoid wasting her dwindling time, but delicately enough to avoid screwing up.
In a short bit of time, she was able to pull the vault open, ‘Gotcha…’ She thought as she quickly gathered up Knuxina’s equipment, stashing the smaller bits into her pouch and pockets before putting their bag over her back. ‘Now get the fuck out.’ She told herself, tossing a sheet of paper with the text, “Gone With The Shadows” and a doodle of her calling card emblem on it into the vault before heading to the door.
Thankfully, the corridor beyond was still deserted. Unfortunately, her sabotage to the security was clearly reversed, if the repetitive movements of the security camera systems were anything to go by. ‘Shit…’ She cursed, getting her normal smartphone out and loading up an app, one provided to her after managing to get in the good graces of some incredibly shady characters. ‘Come on… Come on…’ She thought as she ran through some ranges, trying to find the right one. ‘Which frequency are you bastar- Ah ha!’ Her face lit up slightly as her phone showed her the building’s active camera feeds. ‘Ground floor… West quadrant… There.’ She found the cameras for the hall she was in, swiping her thumb across to glance at the building map. ‘Vent system… There…’ She noted, swiping back, ‘5 cameras between…’ She said, glancing up to the one closest to her, making sure her phone was showing her the feed from it. ‘Potential blind spot…’ She observed the feed, glancing up occasionally to judge things from her perspective. ‘There… Timing… 8 second intervals.’ She flicked between the cameras, judging if her predicted blind spot was as blind as she thought, watching for a while before being satisfied that none of the cameras could see it.
She watched the first a bit longer, waiting until it was in the right position for her to run to the spot she’d marked out, crouching in it. The process of observing and acting repeated, her mind growing numb to the repetition, but her senses on alert, to make sure she didn’t fuck up and get caught on camera. Making it to the vent system, she carefully pulled off the cover and slung Knuxina’s bag off her back. She’d have to push or lug it through, she barely fit in such a cramped space on her own.
It took her a while, but she finally made it out to the sunlight, carefully checking around before loosening the vent cover and slipping out. ‘Phew…’ She wiped her brow, looking up to the sky. ‘Now I just get this shit back.’ She thought to herself, a small smile coming over her face, ‘Payday is just around the corner haha!’ She grinned a bit, slipping out of the property borders undetected and beginning the walk to her brother’s hideout.