The nights with a full moon were the greatest. Victor looked up at the night sky as the trucks rolled towards the warehouse and saw the moon in its full glory. Victor always loved the full moon. There was just something about the moon casting her soft silvery rays that makes these nights things of beauty and joy. This will be a good night. Victor could feel an energy that wasn’t there before. He looked at the passing streets.

The sun had set hours ago, and the streets were quiet. The daily flow of vehicles had slowed to a tickle and Victor was slightly surprised by it. He would have expected this if this was the King’s, but the Northern Barrows was the industrial district of Velocity City. By right, there should always be vehicles going in and out of the area, but his trucks were almost alone on the road. Things in the city were worse than he thought.

“Showtime.”

The call from the driver took Victor from his musing and he put on his domino mask. Victor tapped on his earpiece. “Owl-girl. Status report.”

The hacker answered immediately. “Cameras are down. Alarms are off. Turning off the security drones now. You have thirty minutes.”

The driver stopped at the front gate with the other trucks close behind. Two of Victor’s men got out and ran to the guard post. They were dressed in the costume of his crew, a black balaclava mask, a black tactical vest wore over a long-sleeved red shirt, and a pair of black pants. Victor looked on as the two men entered the guard post. The lone security guard inside looked grim but he stood aside as one of his men pressed the button to open the gates. According to the plans the Crew received, the gates were not connected to the security network of the warehouse and was on a different network. It had to be unlocked manually. An added security measure that would have worked if not for the inside man the Crew had. The gates opened, and Victor gave his men a nod. His men began the beating as the trucks drove towards the warehouse.

The four trucks stopped at loading dock and Victor stepped out. His men came out and followed him to a door at the side of the building. The tiny light above the door was green, indicating that the door had been unlocked. Victor opened it and entered the warehouse.

“Twenty-seven minutes!”

Victor shouted as his men ran past. His men split up according to plan. Three of his men rushed to the far end of the warehouse with all the backpacks and opened the crates situated there with a pair of crowbars. According to their inside man, crates with smaller items were placed there and Victor was happy to see that the information was correct. Two men were stuffing their backpacks full while the last oversaw bringing the bags to the truck.

His remaining men ran to other crates and placed the anti-gravitational force disks on them. The disks cost a pretty penny and the crew didn’t have many of them, but they soon proved their worth as the crates began floating. The men began pushing the crates towards the trucks. When the crates were pushed into the vehicle, they detached the disks and the crates landed onto the deck. The men then reused the disks on the remaining crates. Rinse and repeat.

As the leader of the group, Victor oversaw everything and was slightly bemused by how serious everyone was. This was hardly his first heist, but things were very different from how he remembered. Before he went to prison, he would have been one of the men doing the stealing and he remembered the banter he would always get into with his fellow thieves. Talking nonsense and spewing bad jokes was one of the charms of the job, but things were very different now. Everyone was deadly quiet now. Everyone was more … professional. Victor almost laughed at how much things had changed. The henchmen nowadays were so professional it was almost funny. He guessed that’s why people considered villain support a real job nowadays.

“Two minutes.”

The call from Owl-girl was the signal Victor was waiting for.

“Two minutes left,” Victor shouted. “Everyone into the trucks.”

“There are some crates left.” One of his men told him. “We still have time.”

He sounded young. Greed was a common rookie mistake. Not that Victor wasn’t tempted. Victor looked over the warehouse and it was still full of crates. Time to set a good example.

“No need to get greedy. Get in the truck.”

To his credit, the young henchman didn’t argue and got into the truck immediately. Victor wondered if he should start learning the names of the people working for him. He had no idea who the young henchman was.

The truck slowed at the gate to pick up the two men left at the guard post and Victor saw the motionless security guard. His face was awashed with blood and both his arms looked broken. He didn’t care how badly hurt the guard was. As long as he was still alive, Victor had kept to his side of the agreement.

“System is resetting. The security is back online. No alarms. They don’t know anything yet.”

Victor tapped on his earpiece and replied. “Good work. We are on our way back to the lair.”

The drive was tense. At least, it felt that way to Victor. Despite what Owl-girl said, he kept expecting something to go wrong. Victor found himself scanning the streets for any signs of trouble, but only the sounds of passing traffic could be heard. No sirens, no one flying overhead, no sound of anyone breaking the sound barrier. No one was chasing them, but Victor only relaxed when they entered the King’s. They were now in his territory.

Driving on the side roads, they passed through the empty streets and reached the abandoned warehouse. There was a single entrance and as the trucks went inside, two of his men jumped out to close the doors. The lights inside the warehouse switched on. A hidden door at one of the walls opened and a woman in a white business suit walked out. Her face was totally covered by a white porcelain mask and Victor couldn’t help but smiled at her presence.