It was clear which three of the twelve doors in the control center were dedicated to the mechanical discipline. Each was made of a glasslike substance that allowed an observer to see a multitude of gears and levers that ranged in difficulty from door to door. The first—and by extension the simplest—had six keyholes with moderately difficult tumblers. Breaking this first layer of protection would activate a control disk connected to a series of gears that worked in a complex spiral pattern toward the center. Once all six control disks were properly aligned, another layer of protection would be unlocked, allowing the would-be conqueror of this door the chance to break through a final twenty-one tumbler lock.

  Takumi admired the lock’s craftsmanship, cementing every possible action and consequence in her mind as she approached. It wouldn’t be easy, but the experienced thief was well aware that anything worth protecting this well was also worth the payout. The trap was easy enough to see; if the person breaking through this door tried to adjust the gears before disabling the six sets of tumblers, the tension on the pins would increase so significantly that opening the door without the actual key would be impossible. She would need to defeat all six locks before touching the control disks if she wanted to make progress.

  But that was just the first hurdle. A good look at the gears showed that any mistake or overcorrection would cause a lever to slide into the final lock and make it impossible to get her rake deep enough into the tumbler to push the last six pins. It was a phenomenal trap, and one she wasn’t sure she could beat so easily. In the back of her mind, she worried that if this was the barrier that kept her from the first set of prizes, how difficult would the last door be?

  Takumi sighed, pushing thoughts of future challenges out of her mind before approaching the first lock. From a pocket sewn into the small cloth at the small of her back, she pulled the tightly rolled cloth bundle that held the tools of her trade. They hadn’t allowed her to keep the set she tried to smuggle from Earth, but a good thief is never long without her tools. Practiced fingers danced across the handmade tools before slipping a short hook from its sleeve.

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  The hook slid into deep into the keyway, giving the master lock pick a perfect mental map of the pins inside the plug. It would take time, but not as much time as media often portrayed this art taking. After a moment of thought, she slipped a tension wrench from her toolset and set it inside the keyway, putting pressure on the plug as she raked her hook across the simple three pin lock. A quick twist of her wrist later, the plug turned and the first of six locks disengaged.

  The next five were similar, each slightly increasing in difficulty until the last nearly defeated her. She knew success depended on her ability to pick the lock on the first try or suffer a more difficult task in the near future. When she finally disabled the lock, the six tumblers sank into the doorway and completely changed her understanding of the second challenge.

  Now, the six distinct spiraling set of gears each had one less cog in the machine. When she stepped back to examine the puzzle with fresh eyes, it was with a newfound appreciation for the complexity of this test. Luckily for her, there was more than one mind in the control center that understood basic mechanics and how to achieve the goal they sought. Between her dexterity and Rodney’s mind, the pair aligned the gears without triggering the trap that would make the attempt impossible.

  “Do you have a tool long enough to get all twenty-one?” Rodney asked, standing off to the side as she examined the next problem.

  Withdrawing her long hook from the keyway, she turned to the man with a mischievous smile. “They build this last lock with the same key depth as the other six, except this time they layered the pins much closer together.”

  “And that makes it harder?”

  “Significantly.”

  It would be another hour of fine adjustments and extremely precise movements before a loud cluck from the final tumbler signified the job’s completion. The entire housing turned, and it sunk into the glasslike substance as seams appeared and stretched from floor to ceiling in a W pattern. They watched as two distinct sections pulled away from each other, half sinking into the floor as the other rose and vanished like it never existed.

  “I hope you’re ready, Rodney.” She said, a proud grin fully displayed on her face. “We’re about to see technology mankind has never seen before.”