Thursday marked the second heist—the fake one. While less physically risky than the first, it was just as crucial to Emz’s overall plan.
That morning, Emz ran on the treadmill in the apartment's small gym, mentally reviewing his logic. He couldn’t afford to falter now or overlook anything. He had the painting—check. That was a big piece of the puzzle. But unless he managed to disassociate himself from the theft, he was a dead man walking once Petrovi? came for him. The plan had to shift the blame squarely onto Drexler and his crew.
What did they know? What did they think they knew?
They likely believed they were secretly tracking his every movement and had caught wind of his supposed preparations. They would have seen him arriving at the Gemini Building at 9 p.m. for three consecutive nights, with subsequent visits to Sanna’s apartment. That must have reassured them—he seemed to be going through with it. But on the later nights, he’d also thrown in a detour to the international train station. That twist was intentional, designed to make them uneasy. With his apparent stay at home on Wednesday, they were probably debating whether he was chickening out or gearing up for the theft that night—Thursday, the final day of their ultimatum.
Given that they hadn’t stormed his apartment or tried to contact him, Emz figured things were on track. Tonight, they would assume he was going ahead as planned. He’d show up at 9 p.m., but from their perspective, what happened after that would be uncertain: Would he deliver the painting and bolt? Or simply disappear with it? That ambiguity should push the twins to act a bit more recklessly.
A lot was riding on this, but the logic seemed sound.
Emz finished his run, towelled the sweat from his face, and headed back upstairs to his loft for a shower. Everything was ready; now came the hard part—killing time until the evening. The hours crawled by, each one filled with unsettling thoughts of missteps and what-ifs.
Finally, at 6:30 p.m., he stepped out of his building with the tracker in his pocket. As the cold air hit his face, he thought, Game on, bitches. He didn’t bother looking for the cream-coloured car; he knew it would be there. The earlier-than-usual time should confuse the twins and ramp up their anxiety.
He walked briskly to the nearest Metro station and boarded the first available train. From there, he made several erratic line changes, ensuring he wasn’t being tailed on foot and forcing any car trailing him to make frantic turns aboveground. The Metro flowed directly from point A to B, but cars were bound to the streets gridiron design and the mercy of traffic, giving Emz a bit of time from direct sight once he emerged topside.
His final stop was the north side of Norton Park, on the corner of Nicks and Camus—only a couple blocks from the Drexler-Kunstgalerie where this mess had started. Pure coincidence, but Emz couldn’t help but find it a bit strangely connected.
Luki’s van was waiting nearby, parked on time with characteristic precision. Thank you, Luki, Emz thought, grinning as he jogged over.
Luki stood in the doorway, holding a small drone with a jumbo sponge attached to serve as the payload. Without a word, Emz handed him the tracked clip. Luki slid it into a slit in the sponge’s end, secured it with adhesive spray, and then placed the drone carefully on the pavement.
Pedestrians passed by, oblivious to the operation. Emz’s nerves stretched taut, anticipating the cream car at any moment. After a few agonising seconds, the people passed and Luki launched the drone. It buzzed to life and hovered up to chest height, before drifting over into the park’s treeline and settling in place, hidden in the gloom. Luki monitored it on his mobile screen while the two men climbed into the van with the door closing behind them.
Instead of rolling off smoothly, the van stayed parked, allowing Emz to peer out through the heavily tinted windows and spot the cream car speeding toward them on Camus street.
As the cream car drew close to the location of the drone, still hovering just out of sight in the dark park, Emz signaled to Luki to send it on its way. Through his mobile, Luki guided the drone, keeping it at chest height as it drifted south and slightly east through the manicured greenspace.
The cream car pulled up so close to the van that Emz could see the twins inside, frantically leaning forward, trying to spot Emz in relation to their tracker readout. They were, however, facing the direction of the hard to see drone, which was steadily moving away from them at a brisk pace across the dark park. The twins began gesturing wildly, clearly arguing over what to do.
Emz couldn’t help but grin at their panic, secretly enjoying the childish thrill of watching them from just meters away, hidden behind the dark window.
Quickly, the twins decided to turn the car around and retrace their route, heading east along Camus, likely planning to circle the park to the south, thinking Emz was walking through to exit on Fitzgerald street.
Luki instructed the van to follow the cream car while Emz watched, trying to imagine their conversation. As soon as the pale car indicated to turn south onto Quatro, Emz gave Luki the signal for the next phase. Luki maneuvered the drone out on the southside of the park, hovered briefly on the kerb, then lowered it slightly into the road. He switched the drone to a pre-programmed route, sending it west along Fitzgerald, simulating the idea that Emz had just hopped into a hire car.
The cream car turned onto Quatro with the van close behind. Emz could see more frantic discussions between the twins, their heads swiveling anxiously as they argued, punctuating their points with angry jabs of their fingers.
“Good, stay frustrated,” Emz murmured to himself.
The drone zipped along Fitzgerald, weaving through traffic, while the twins were stuck behind slower-moving vehicles. By the time they turned west onto Fitzgerald, the drone had already passed the length of Norton Park. It moved up one street in front of the InterContinental Baltic City Norton and continued west on Elliot, staying out of the twins' line of sight. The drone repeated this evasive maneuver around Theatre Mile, then headed west on Dickinson before finally turning south on Bowie to arrive at the entrance to the Gemini Building by 8 p.m., still visually undetected by the twins, who were pursuing only via the readout from the tracker.
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Though the twins in the cream car rushed to catch up with what they believed was Emz, he was actually inside the Norton Arena. The van had not followed them onto Fitzgerald; instead, Luki had instructed the vehicle to drop them off at the arena's entrance. Both men had joined a lively crowd, making their way into the stadium to watch a hockey game. They sat in prime central seats, surrounded by fans in team scarves, hats, and jerseys, cheering for the home team, the BC Pirates, who were facing the Hockey Punks Vilnius. Though Emz and Luki appeared to be absorbed in the game, wearing team scarfs themselves, their attention was fixed on Luki’s mobile screen, which he gripped low and angled just for their view.
Luki had directed the drone to ascend vertically up the side of the Gemini Building, adjacent to where the guest elevators ran. The drone continued its climb, darting over the penthouse overhang to drop the tracked jumbo sponge onto the small aerial delivery pad. Once the package was released, the drone flew off westward, eventually crashing into the cold waves of the bay, and sinking from sight. Its mission was complete.
The techie then switched his device to the Gemini Building's control interface and commanded a service robot to collect the jumbo sponge from the roof. The robot transported the package to the penthouse floor and positioned itself in the alcove outside Petrovi?'s apartment. Luki then opened a side window on his screen, displaying a selection of building cameras, and focused on the main lobby feed.
Several residents, guests, and staff were milling around, but none were the twins. Emz began to worry that the twins might not be anxious enough to enter the building. He had hoped the earlier start to the usual routine, combined with the stressful, erratic driving, would push them into action. Just as he was about to admit that he might have miscalculated, the small screen showed the twins entering the lobby. They scanned the room and then took a seat on the sofa, watching the elevators intently.
Emz couldn’t help but grin.
Just then the BC Pirates scored, the crowd erupted into cheers, and the sound of booming horns filled the arena. Emz stood and cheered, caught up in the excitement.
After a moment, he sat back down and gave Luki the signal to send the communication.
Inside the Gemini Building lobby, a member of the concierge team read a message on their tablet before searching the room. Her eyes quickly settled on the twins. “Excuse me, Madison and Morgan?” she asked politely.
The twins, startled, stood and walked towards the concierge desk.
“Yeah?” Morgan replied cautiously.
“A Mr. Drexler has sent word that he’s booked a table at the Gemini restaurant and will meet you there,” the concierge explained, pointing toward the elevator bank. “You can take the elevator to the first floor and head left; the ma?tre d' will be waiting to escort you to the table.” She smiled, finishing the interaction and returning to her tablet.
The twins exchanged a look of hesitation. After a brief, silent moment, they agreed to head for the elevator. Once inside, they pressed the button for the first floor, but the elevator instead ascended directly to the penthouse.
“What the hell’s going on?” Madison cried, frantically pressing the controls in an attempt to stop the elevator.
Morgan's eyes were locked on the mobile device displaying the tracker. “Nah idea, but he’s up there right now, stealing the painting.”
“Is Sanna helping us get in?” Madison asked.
Morgan shrugged. “Yeah maybe. We need to check in with Drexler.” Then, noticing a change in the tracker’s readout, Morgan drew their gun. “Get ready, he’s on the move!”
Madison quickly followed suit, drawing their own gun as the elevator slowed to a stop. When the doors opened, they were met with a long corridor bisecting the penthouse floor. Alcoves on either side led to two luxurious apartments, and at the far end, two service elevators—one of which was just closing.
“Quick, he’s getting away!” Madison shouted, sprinting down the corridor, with Morgan right on their heels. They passed the alcoves and reached the far end, slamming the button to summon the other service elevator. The screen above indicated it was stopping on multiple floors first on its way to them, frustrating their progress, while the elevator they believed Emz was in descended swiftly to the ground floor.
Unbeknownst to the twins, Luki was remotely controlling the building's systems. In addition to slowing their called elevator, he also registered an unauthorized access error on Petrovi?’s apartment door.
Finally, the elevator doors opened, and the twins rushed in, slamming the ground floor button in frustration as the delays mounted, and Emz seemed to be slipping away.
In the small rear lobby of the Gemini Building, American porter Michael glanced up as the lift doors slid open, revealing a building service robot equipped with a hard floor cleaning unit. Michael barely paid it any attention as the robot began methodically sanitising the floor, its movements exact and efficient as it worked its way across the lobby.
It was two-thirds finished when the second lift opened, and the twins stepped out in a panic, guns raised, scanning the lobby. The robot quickly retreated against the wall, clutching the cleaning unit tightly to make room for them.
“Where is he?” Morgan demanded urgently, their eyes darting around the area.
“Who?” Michael replied, his gaze fixed on the barrel of the nearest gun.
“The black man who came out of the other elevator?” Morgan pressed.
“There was no black man in the elevator. No man, no woman. Nobody at all,” Michael quickly replied, his voice quivering.
“I told you,” Madison said to Morgan. “The tracker stopped working halfway down. He could’ve gotten off at another floor.”
As tension mounted, the building’s AI, Gem, spoke over hidden speakers in a calm, rich tone: “Weapons have been detected. Building security and the police are on their way.”
“We have to go!” Madison shouted, grabbing Morgan and pulling their twin through the back entrance into the night.
Shortly afterwards, while Michael contacted the front desk to report the incident, the service robot finished washing the lobby floor. It carried its cleaning unit through a side door into the janitorial area, removed the dirty water tank, and emptied the dark, filthy liquid down a drain. After draining, it pulled a soaked sponge from the tank, dropped it into a large disposal bin, rinsed the tank, reattached it to the unit, and stored the unit away.
