Dave frowned as he rummaged around inside a plastic carry-case at his waist, praying he'd packed it properly, and he smiled when he finally removed a multi-purpose tool. Going to one knee Dave selected the tool's screwdriver attachment and used it to carefully remove a keypad's cover panel. Selecting another attachment Dave began stripping the plastic shells of the wires he'd exposed, eventually tying three of the stripped wires together. The sealed doors of the large up-city tower silently opened, without any alarms going off, and Dave grinned to himself as he slipped into the tower.
The ground floor lobby and mezzanine was all glass panes and stainless steel and Dave inwardly sneered as he made his way up an isolated flight of stairs towards the security office. Taking a look around as he climbed the stairs it struck Dave that the up-city corporations were all supposed to be about transparency but the message didn't really apply where it counted. Reaching the security office Dave used his multi-tool to pick the lock and stepped into the room, turning slightly to admire the view the office had of the lobby below. Getting back to the task at hand Dave accessed the main security console, privately thanking his partner for having already put a set of credentials in the system for him to use, and overlaid footage from an hour before over the footage of him crossing the lobby.
Leaving the security office Dave made his way towards the nearest access point into a private elevator shaft he'd discovered after looking at the tower's blueprints. It had been built to go only from the building's private car-park directly to the top six floors, back when the tower had been intended for use as a hotel, but had since been locked down, likely so that attempts like the one he was going to attempt was thwarted. Entering the mezzanine's female bathroom Dave began counting the ceiling tiles, wishing it was his partner carrying out the heist instead of him, before gingerly climbing atop a toilet and popping a tile out of his place, cursing his height as he pushed the tile to one side in the crawlspace.
Hauling himself into the crawlspace, feeling his legs fruitlessly kicking the air, Dave took a moment to orientate himself before setting off towards the elevator shaft. He arrived at a grate blocking access to the shaft a few minutes later, using the time needed to remove it to psyche himself up for the next stage of the operation, before turning onto his back and working his way into the shaft. He leant upwards when he started to feel nothing beneath his back and carefully removed a pair of grip-gloves from the same case as the multi-tool, putting them on and wiggling his fingers to test the fit before extending the crampons built into the gloves and his boots.
---
The climb up the elevator shaft seemed to take forever, although a look at his watch put the lie to that belief, but Dave still let out a sigh of relief when he reached the fifty-seventh floor. One-handed he prised open the elevator shaft doors with the aid of a small hydraulic jack, hanging onto the shaft wall with his other hand and feet, before hurrying through the gap. The corridor he was in still looked more like something belonging in a penthouse than an executive office, with elaborate paintings and tapestries adorning the walls and a plush carpet beneath his dusty boots.
Walking along the corridor Dave paid attention to the doors and the names on each. The information he and his partner had uncovered had said that the fifty-seventh floor was used more as the storage area for the other executive offices than as an office. Stopping when he reached a door with the number '59' stamped on it Dave checked the smaller text beneath the number before shaking his head and moving to the next door in line. After repeating this several times he grinned when he found the door marked 'M - N', stepping into the room and turning on the light.
A dozen large filing cabinets filled the room, arranged around the outside of the chamber, and Dave crossed to the seventh cabinet, taking out his multi-tool. The lock on the cabinet was easy to overcome and Dave soon had the cabinet opened, staring at the drawers within. He knew which document folder he was looking for and began sorting through the drawers, carefully checking each folder's labelling before moving on. In the third drawer down Dave found the folder he wanted, the image of an amoeba prominently featured on the cover, and he pulled it from the drawer, tucking it into his jacket's voluminous interior pocket. Closing the cabinet Dave turned and left the office, remembering to turn off the light before scurrying back through the fifty-seventh floor towards the elevator shaft.
It took less time to climb down the shaft than to climb up and, after replacing the grate he'd removed, Dave was soon in the mezzanine bathroom, sliding the ceiling tile back into place. Returning to the security office Dave aggressively edited the camera footage, removing as much of himself as he could find, before shutting down the security console and almost sauntering out of the office and then the tower. Walking along the side of the road in front of the tower Dave got into a van that only just looked like it belonged there, producing the folder and handing it to the younger woman in the driver's seat.
"Just as the client ordered."
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