How to train a Thief

Prologue.

"Think fast," 

Erin threw the backpack into my face. It was surprisingly light. It always was before we went in. It was getting out that was the problem. Each Heist planned required the dimensions of each item, the weight it consisted of, the materials it is crafted from and most importantly, its value.

I spun around promptly and caught the bag in my left hand before it hit my face. Before leaving I inserted a small ear piece into my ear and after turned a small handset on.  

The backpack was spray painted black everywhere and it had magnets replacing the zips which made opening the bag less clamorous.

 I tested out the communication device by tapping onto the microphone.

"Solid." Erin confirmed. 

He always told me not to mention any real names over radio or someone might tap into them and listen. Same goes for locations, landmarks, time...

Erin grabbed me by the shoulders and looked deep into my eyes before he spoke.

"In and out. Got it?" 

"In and out."

Before I could blink he was already on the roof of the manor. His footsteps ever so silent.  

I followed in his footsteps, climbed onto the fence, then cat a leap across onto the frayed brick window skirting. 

Some hand laid bricks from decades ago purposely hung out than the rest of the others in a pattern for style, but most thieves saw them as a sturdy access point.

I leapt higher and higher with every brick that stuck out of the wall before finally heaving myself on top of the tiled roof.

Together we scampered across the rooftop of the large Brooklyn Manor. I knew exactly where I was heading, the amount of footstep pressure  I need to apply, the angle at which I step on each tile to make sure none break but, most importantly, dare I not make a sound.

I held my breath as I cat crawled across the weak tiles, calmly manoeuvring  towards the planned location. 

Three hundred and seventy-three tiles across from the east lay a broken tile which covers the manhole for the Manor to the third story. Opening the cover would trigger a silent alarm which would ultimately alert the authorities of the presence of an intruder.

Erin has it covered. As usual.

Once I reached the broken tile, I crouched down and looked around for Erin. 

A bright green laser burnt into my eye for a split second before I instinctively looked into the shadows.

I did not see anyone, but then that would ruin the point of hiding, right?

Carefully I made my way across towards the darkest shadow. I knew he was crouched there, but I couldn't see him. It was dark and eerie outside. Fog built up in the distance concealing the eastern country side and separating the manor from the great city towards the north-west region.

The black tiles on the roof looked as fragile as glass and had, over time, developed green moss that corroded its original beauty, yet some may perceive its new look as caprice and part of the heritage so most would go against cleaning the tiles for that matter.

"Something's wrong," Erin whispered into my ear.

Never did he ever talk during a heist. Usually 'in and out' meant no verbal communication at all during the entire time. But nonetheless I replied softly.

"The time..." 

I looked at my watch and realised that it was 8:01pm. The manor lights to the two bedrooms facing the south side were still lit. After weeks of scouting, eight o'clock was the time the manor's occupants had succumbed their body to sleep. 

Suddenly the lights turned off in both bedrooms almost at the same time and the sound of someone entering their bed soon became the sound of them snoring away.

It would be almost impossible to describe the agony of the anxiety thieves feel when something is out of place. Even a feather that moves a quarter of an inch to its right would trigger an alarming response. 

Especially to Erin.

Usually he would abort the heist and call it a night, but he too for once seemed reluctant to quit.

I followed his figure towards the broken marked tile and gently begun lifting some tiles to create a small slit a boy and a girl could fit through. Inside, layer after layer of fibreglass insulation cramped the large roof.

The man hole cover was right below us as planned and I let Erin take point.

He pulled out a small magnet and attached it to the solenoid that held the alarm trigger in place. The magnet forced shut the solenoid and stopped the trigger from triggering the silent alarm.

He tied a long rope to one of the beams suspending the roof before removing the lid and letting me abseil down slowly and quietly.

After, Erin gripped hard my right hand and begun lowering me down when out of nowhere foot steps begun to echo across the hallway. I lost grip of the rope and begun sliding down the rope. I squeezed hard and felt my hands get rope burn, but I stopped just a few meters from the floor. There were no lights or else the man walking would have seen a girl hanging 3 meters from his ceiling. 

The foot steps got louder and louder and I began climbing the rope back up, leaping to grab onto Erin's hand.

I did not dare look down. I just stared into his eyes as I hung off his arm perilously trying not to fall into the obsolete estate. I kept looking at him and he unquestionably gestured with his index finger to not make a sound. 

Great fatigue built up in my forearm as I hung.  All was so quiet, yet in my mind there was a hurricane of anticipation. 

Did the man see me? Why was I feeling so emotional all of a sudden. I felt a large tear develop in my right eye and drip down my cheek before falling towards the ground. 

The tear dart impacting the floor reverberated throughout the Manor and it made my heart beat stop.

silent night. Not so silent.

A thief's armament is silence, once disturbed he is no longer a thief, but a stagnant man, led to his own demise by his feeble mistakes.

Erin's hand gripped even tighter and without thinking I looked down towards the man directly below me. 

He stared right at me...