Hong Kong Heist [AHS book 2]

17th step

The conversation between NJ and the night guard are in Chinese, but for obvious reasons I wrote it in English. I tried to make it clear by using simpler phrases than Namjoon would normally use.

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Namjoon focus

­"Bailong, my friend," Namjoon greeted the old night guard and leaned over the counter, placing a bottle of golden liquor next to him.

Tricking the man like this was twisting his guts, but Yoongi had assured him that if everything went well, no-one would be harmed. And Namjoon had seen the hacker's point. If they were able to exchange the hair needle without Choi noticing, the only thing Bailong would have to mask was the alcohol incident at his working place. And given that the drinking had gone unnoticed once, Namjoon was reassured that the night guard could handle it.

Two black eyes in an unhealthily red-blotched and puffy face looked at him with a warm smile.

"Mr. Kim. On your way to the club?" the man asked him and pushed up the sun shield of his uniform basecap. Why a night guard needed a basecap was still beyond Namjoon, but he would refrain from asking.

"Yes. I have a new mix for the party tonight," he said and held up the flash drive.

Bailong's eyes, that had been locked on the whiskey, widened in interest. Perfect.

"I don't know if it's good," Namjoon tried to push the guard into the right direction.

"What genre?" the security man asked while his eyes flickered over to the bottle again.

"A mix of club music with traditional Chinese music," he explained to the man. Technically, it had not been him assembling the tracks but Yoongi. The hacker had produced the remixes and the attached trojan over the last three days, being completely emerged in the work and forgetting about Taehyung and him. So, the rest of the group had spent their time on the roof terrace and in shopping malls, enjoying the time off.

"Interesting," the security guard said, and the thin eyebrows rose higher.

"Want to listen?" Namjoon asked, pretending to be unsure of the music he pretended to have produced.

"Sure," Bailong said and Namjoon handed over the flash drive. This man was not made for a security job. Who would take a random flash drive and shove it into the system he was supposed to protect? Not even Namjoon could be friendly enough to cause such unguarded behavior. The man must be either more stupid than Namjoon had assumed or simply desperate for company. It was probably the last one.

Then again, Namjoon knew from the time in the police force that high-security systems had more advanced malware detectors than normal people could purchase, so there was probably no reason for Bailong to be overly cautious of a flash drive. There was probably an automatic scan run over every device that was plugged into the system. Hopefully, Yoongi had thought about that.

The first sounds pulled him out of his thoughts and made him listen as well. This was not bad. He would have never guessed that a mix of traditional and club music could be this exciting. Substituting the baseline with bass drums was a nice idea. More than nice even with the hypnotizing beat they were playing.

"This is great," Bailong told him with an astounded face, and Namjoon wondered how a lonely nightshift-working, almost hitting the upper bound for middle-aged, man would know that, but he pretended to be pleased.

"I hope the guests will like it, too," he replied and took back the flash from the other. Yoongi had said that playing one song was enough to get him in, so Namjoon assumed his job was done.

But Bailong's longing eyes reminded him of the alcohol, and a rather smart idea struck him.

"You interested?" he asked, pointing at the bottle. "It's a 1972 Excalibur." The liquor was obscenely expensive, but they had to make up a believable image for him, and a drink the man could buy in every grocery store was nothing to impress or to wake interest with.

"It must be really good," the night guard said, trying to not sound desperate, but Namjoon could see how much Bailong was restraining himself, and it was a sad picture. The man needed help.

"It's for my VIP customers," he lied. "But I can bring a bottle someday." This was his ultimate excuse to come along with alcohol on the night of their big pull. He would also make it his goodbye present for moving out. He would go in with all or nothing on the night of the robbery.

"Oh, Mr. Kim. That's not necessary," Bailong tried to be moderate. The man probably meant it, or probably did not. It was hard to find out whether Chinese meant to decline or were just nice. Weird culture that. But Namjoon would come anyway.

"See you," he bid his goodbye and took the bottle to leave.

Now he only had to explain to Yoongi that they needed to prep this bottle instead of the cheaper one. Well, it was not like they would be drinking this anyway.

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Short chapter, but the next one will be longer.Promise.