Head in the Clouds

Chapter 17: The Plan

Deidre's eyes scanned the paper while Ko rooted around in her fridge. The floorplan of the building was so boldly printed in front of her that she was sure there had to be something wrong. She looked for any burnt sections, any discrepancies the thief could use to set her up. When she couldn't find any, she became more skeptical of the blueprint itself.

"Are you sure this is it?" Asked Deidre cautiously. Her finger tracing over the white lines.

Ko slammed the fridge door shut and narrowed his eyes angrily at her. She met his gaze but wasn't that intimidated by him.

"Do you have any idea how much effort it took to get this?" He asked lowly.

"A lot, I imagine," said Deidre.

"Not at all," he corrected, "Getting this thing was child's play. You know why?"

Deidre didn't respond.

"Because I live for this shit," he informed her. He planted himself on the chair right beside her, "I've been snatching anything I can find straight out the womb. If you want something stolen, chances are I've already stole it."

He held up the ring she had been wearing just moments earlier in his own hand.

"Don't disrespect my craft," he warned.

She snatched the ring from his hand and placed it back on her own finger.

"You're a drama queen," she muttered, turning back to the pages, "Do I need to be aware of how you came across this thing?"

"Nope," he replied, "As long as we get this back in the king's study before Thursday, we should be good."

Deidre's eyes widened, "You got this from the king's study?"

"Yeah," he replied smugly.

She didn't bother asking how turning back to the plan before her, much to Ko's dismay, who really wanted to brag about sneaking into the study.

"If we come through the side door we can follow this corridor down to the elevator," Deidre plotted aloud, "but we should take the stairs instead. There'll probably be guards at and around the elevator. The staircase also seems a lot closer to the door side door."

"What makes you think there won't be guards at the stairs?"

"I'm not," she stated. She brought her knee up to her chest and placed her chin onto her knee, "but it seems like this is a less densely populated area. You see, the inmates are kept here, so there'll logically be more guards here than the stairs. Plus, it seems to lead to a tiny room. That's probably just a maintenance closet, so we can infer its the safest route."

"Right," agreed Ko stupidly, "I was just thinking the same thing."

Deidre was too focused on her plan to pay attention to Ko. She looked at the second sheet that revealed the second level.

"We'll keep moving until we get to that last door," she said, "It seems like it's double sealed."

"Two doors, huh?" Ko said more to himself than her, "A welcomed challenge."

"There's no third blueprint," she pointed out, "Whoever made these didn't want anyone to find the last floor."

"Or it doesn't exist," offered Ko.

"It does," insisted Deidre, "My dad wouldn't lie to me. He wouldn't want me to be killed."

It was hard to face, but she still hadn't completely abandoned the idea that her father may now hate her for what she may have been exposed to. She didn't mean to be there, but Ko dragged her into this.