The SVE Club

25. Casing

Sunday afternoon, the entire SVE club was gathered in a large booth in a restaurant dubbed Ellie's Diner. While the reviews were somewhat mixed and the grub was nothing to brag about, Midas insisted that the reason for them meeting there was the view. Adjacent to the booth was a large window overlooking The Yard School's entrance.

    "This," Midas explained to everyone, "Is called casing."

    Six other faces watched him with varying degrees of interest.

    Rachel sipped her Pepsi, looking bored. "Okay. We all read Swindle in fourth grade, we know how this works."

    "What's Swindle?" Nate asked, pausing the card trick he was forcing Willow to participate in.

    Rachel chuckled. "Gordon Korman? A couple of kids break into this guy's house to steal a baseball card."

    "We're after something much bigger than a baseball card," Midas assured them. "Three things actually. A computer program and a serum for starters."

    "Whoa, whoa," Taro said. "Time out. Nobody said anything about stealing anything. I thought we were just gonna stroll in there, I don't know, break a few windows maybe?" He wielded a flimsy French fry as he spoke. Taro was the only one who had ordered something besides a drink.

    "That's the number three thing on our list," Midas said. "The chaos. We're going to bring spray paint, matches-"

    "Toilet paper?" Sam asked excitedly, louder than she had intended. A few diners glanced her way before returning to their own meals and conversations.

    Midas ignored her outburst. "We're going to leave our mark on ISH. And we're gonna make sure they know that non-powered people did it, too."

    "You're avoiding my question," Taro said. "We're stealing stuff?"

    "No. I'm stealing stuff. You guys are just going to help me out," Midas said.

    Evan stirred his water with a straw, looking quite troubled. "So, this is the real reason you made the team?"

    "Again, no," Midas said, growing agitated. "It's just an extra reason. Someone caught wind of the team. Someone I owe. This is stuff for him, not for me."

    Evan still stared down at his drink. "I'm still not sure about this. Taro brings up a good-"

    Midas pointed towards the exit. "If you're not onboard with this mission, there's the door."

Evan slumped with his elbows on the table. "Continue," he said reluctantly, waving a hand.

Midas pointed at the school entrance across the street. "I want you guys to take a good look at the gate over there."

    The club obediently gazed out the window. Whatever building was posing as 'The Yard School' was invisible behind the colossal, ivy-covered fence. A few discreet cameras guarded the closed gate.

"As of right now, this is the school's only entrance and exit," Midas said. "Does anyone know why?"

Everyone glanced at Rachel. She sighed and said, "The fence is impassible. You can climb it to the top, but even if you can get past the surveillance and the barbed wire, there's another fence just past it, and this one will fry you up. Think 'Jurassic Park' but way worse."

"Worse?" Evan asked.

"You wouldn't walk away from this electric fence," Rachel answered. "And even if you could, you wouldn't get far. A single touch would send a school-wide intruder-alert. This means we can't touch that fence with a ten foot pole. Even if Midas blew a hole in it, half the school would hear the alarm and come running."