Chapter 25: Past Crime, Present Plans

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After a frigidly cold trek through the desert and stopping behind an almost 30 foot tall saguaro cactus because of a restroom break from Spike, we were in the metal shell of the Jackal HQ. Not the biggest room in the mansion, but it was spacious, with a section closed off for bedding, and another for a kitchen area. I don't know why they had a giant computer in the middle of the room, but they had a GIANT computer. Almost as big as a cinema screen, but the keyboard? It was average. I just pulled over a folding chair and rested my arms against the backrest as Zero typed lines and lines of code into the computer.

Zero: Did anyone question why I know this coding?

Me: I always thought you were the guy that went in without a plan.

Zero: Tell that to the High Brooks Hotel incident. Spike scoped it out for a week, and then we went for it.

Spike: Basically going in without a plan is what you're actually meaning. What he ACTUALLY means is that our target was on the seventh floor luxury apartment. We impersonated as... let's just say he had a taste for the illegal goods.

Emma: We posed as drug dealers selling him coke and speed.

Spike: Yeah, that. Anyways, we get to his apartment and knock on the door. Walk in, greeted with glasses of champagne and cigars, along with a couple armed guards.

Zero: I found the video footage, if you want to watch. I compiled a recording of every single recording device that captured our attack on him. Wanna see?

Me: I guess. But I have a question.

Zero: Shoot.

Me: Well, can I break the fourth wall?

Zero: There's only four walls holding us from the frigid air of the midnight hour of the desert. Why break one of the walls?

Emma: A fourth wall break is when something happens during a movie or game that is gestured to the audience that tells them that the character that wants to talk wanted to talk to them, but the other characters don't know.

Spike: I got this definition from Wikipedia. The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imagined wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this "wall", the convention assumes, the actors act as if they cannot.

Me: And some characters break said wall by noticing the audience and talking to them. Anyone remember the Deadpool game? Wade broke the wall all the time. Ten Theres Pokémon Talk, where Squirtle always broke it for a variety of reasons in a variety of ways. And then there was-

Zero: ENOUGH! I got the footage. Now shut your fucking traps and watch.

I looked at the back wall, clearly behind me.

Me: You better be watching this. This is important to the plot line.

Spike: What are you doing?

I spun back around and rocked on the chair.

Me: Breaking the fourth wall.

Ivan: That only happens when it's a movie or video game.

Emma: Well, comics and cartoons do it sometimes.

Zero: There's no fucking camera. Now shut the fuck up and watch.

Video visual and audio incoming.

We all stared at the computer. It showed the four Jackals push open the door to the apartment and step inside. Very flamboyant, to say the least. A coffee table made out of hard Redwood, famous paintings hung along the walls, and even ash trays on said coffee table made out of SOLID GOLD. All four of them fell down onto the leather couch, and Zero lit a cigar and stared up at the ceiling. Spike slid the black leather case onto the table and poured himself a glass of champagne.

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