Your Average Teenage Fugitive

Prologue

Do you know this girl?
Clarissa Grace
*No Image*
If you know of any information, please report directly to Maple Ridge Sheriff
Your Efforts will be rewarded greatly.

Clarissa stared at her own "Wanted" poster, which were spreading like a wildfire all over the small town of Maple Ridge. Someone was bound to find out her name eventually, and word would surely get to the police soon after. Thankfully, the officers who had shown up to the crime scene hadn't been fortunate enough to get a clear shot of her face. Thinking back to that night, Clarissa shuddered. She couldn't bear to remember how she had been betrayed by her own father...

~~~ The Grace's Casino Heist~~~

"We're in!" whispered Clarissa's father, Jason. With another crank of the crowbar, the skylight's glass popped clean off. Clarissa helped Jason remove the glass and set it off to the side. Jason tossed Clarissa a black duffel bag. Inside was a rope, pulley system, and a titanium strength clip. It was her job to find a place to secure the rope so that it would hold her as her father lowered her down. She found a beam attached to the chimney that looked sturdy enough. She hooked the clip onto the beam and gave the rope a swift yank. The beam held sturdy. Clarissa slipped off her over-shirt, revealing her harness. She clipped herself in and signaled to her dad that she was ready to drop in.

"Remember, you're looking for the central safe. It holds the master key to every machine in the Casino. The manager empties the machines every Saturday morning, so tonight is the best night to rob the most money possible from them." He pulled the last few spare pieces of equipment out of the duffel bag and handed it to Clarissa. "Fill this with as much as you can. Once you're set, clip back in and I'll tow you up. Understand?"

Clarissa nodded. The instructions weren't much different from every other heist they'd been on. How hard could this be?

"One last thing," added Jason moments before Clarissa dropped in. "This place has an astonishingly high tech security system. Be cautious of every move. Good luck." They synced their earpieces to each other, and Clarissa began her descent.

Every time she dropped into a building she got the same bubbly, excited feeling in her stomach that she did when she was 7 on her first heist. It was always like the calm before the storm. The relaxation before the daunting task ahead.

Her feet gently touched the ground and she unclipped the rope from her harness. "I'm in" she said through her earpiece. "Where to now?"

Her father gave her instructions on how to navigate through the casino to the main office which held the central safe. She was cautious of every move, every footfall, every corner she encountered. Navigating the darkened casino was like trying to escape from a labyrinth.

After what might have been a 20 minute trek, she found the office. She tried the doorknob. Locked of course. To be frank, she would have been surprised if it weren't. She pulled her lock-pick out of her pocket and went to work on the lock. It was a fairly simple lock for such and "high tech" casino. They could invest half a million in a new security system, but they couldn't spare for upgraded locks? Clarissa chuckled slightly at the thought.

It took her no more than a minute to bypass the lock. She heard the ever satisfying "Click" of the doorknob, and she was in. She gaped at the array of security monitors and control panels.

"Dad, I may have struck gold. All the controls for the surveillance system are in the same outpost as the safe. If I can shut this down, I can make my way through this place with ease."