The veil of night creeped further up the city buildings, encasing them in shadows. Deep in the darkness, something shifted. It was the silent movements of a practiced criminal.
The midnight hour meant the street in front of the gallery was bare. Not a soul strolled down the sidewalks.
Despite restricting their movement to the darkness, the shadowy figure still concealed their identity. They wore a thick suit of reinforced armor. Surprisingly, thanks to its extremely unique design, the would-be heavy suit bore little weight at all. This was necessary in this line of work.
On their hands, they wore skintight fingerless gloves. Around their wrists, a silver electronic watch. It acted with multiple functions, including as a secure direct line of communication between their team.
Lastly, to top it all off, the figure wore a mask. It resembled the head of a zebra, but was a deep black and made of diamond plated material. Not only was it a measure of defense, but concealment.
The figure was clearly of malicious intent. On top of the concealing gear they wore, the figure carried multiple weapons. As well as a few grenades, both a pistol and knife were holstered in their belt.
Currently, they were attempting an extremely high risk operation. They'd never taken on an art gallery before, but after researching the plentiful rewards, they deemed the heist necessary. The most challenging component though?
They were going in solo. No team this time.
This wouldn't stop them, however, as they scurried through the shadows as they began executing the mission. They'd looked at hundreds of floor plans for this gallery before ever coming near it. They'd analyzed the security systems, learned about the guard schedules, piqued the most valuable of the artwork. They knew everything there was to know, because lack of preparation was a criminal's downfall.
The easiest access point into the art gallery was through a side alleyway. There, a door led straight from the outside into a bathroom.
The criminal moved swiftly, running into the alleyway, hugging the wall. When they got to the door, they moved to their lockpick, fidgeting with the knob until they finally got it to open.
Once inside, in one swift motion, they unholstered their pistol, and headed out of the bathroom. They were in a common area of the gallery now. They slid behind a plant, out of sight of the cameras. With a few shots, silenced by the pistol, the figure eliminated all of the cameras within a matter of seconds.
They stood up now, able to look around the room with ease. Noticing a few walls of paintings in the center, they recalled what area they were in. They quickly moved to the paintings they deemed most valuable. However, it was just before they reached for it that they remembered the additional level of protection the paintings had - laser sensing.
Having narrowly evaded detection, they worked their way through a few more rooms, clinging to walls and shooting cameras. Finally, they got to a room with a door labeled "Staff Only". Once more working with incredible speed, they kicked the door down and fired a few shots, aiming right for the unknowing security guard.
He slumped in his chair, blood seeping from his chest and pooling at the ground. The criminal stepped over the red stained floor, moving first to the camera computer. They looked over it, realizing they needed to hack into their servers in order to deactivate the cameras.
Thankfully, they were skilled in this field as well. They opened a terminal, and began to type away, toggling multiple applications at once to make sure everything was working properly. Finally, they set up the last automation, and it was set to run for another eight minutes or so. In the meantime, they shifted their focus to the other side of the room, where the lasers were controlled. When they approached the control panel there, they realized he needed a key. However, they knew just where to find one.
They walked back over to where the guard's corpse sat, barely hanging onto the chair at this point. They hoisted him back up by his shoulders, patting him down. When they got to the pockets, they found a stained walkie-talkie, half eaten granola bar, and most importantly, a key.
They dropped the body once more, bringing the key back over to the terminal. They turned the key, disabling the lasers. Now, all that was left was to wait for the camera hack to finish. While each minute was infuriatingly long, it finally finished. They closed the terminal, disabling the computer. They grabbed their pistol from the table, walking back out into the gallery.
However, when they exited the room, they were met with a word. A frightening word, most certainly. A word they weren't used to hearing.
"Freeze!"
They stopped dead in their tracks, obedient despite their upper hand in skills. They slowly began to raise their arms.
"Drop your weapons!"
The pistol clattered to the ground as they released it. They were now able to see that two special police officers surrounded them on both sides, aiming their own pistols at them. They were not used to this. They were never caught. What had gone wrong? Their stealth was nearly flawless, so how did they find them? It didn't matter at this point, though, because one thing was for certain.
"You are under arrest! You have the right to remain silent!"