10.05: Soccer Kit Searchers (JP)

The Saturday afternoon traffic was awful, so it was gone three when Emma turned a black Mercedes G-class wagon into a trading estate. There were about twenty warehouse units and Kitmeister US's metal-sided box was one of the biggest. Most units were closed for the weekend, but there was quite a bit of traffic coming out of Kitmeister's neighbour which sold timber and doors.
“Could have done without the DIY fraternity,” Emma said, as she stopped the Mercedes in the access road leading towards the Kitmeister warehouse.
Sophie lowered an electric window in the back and studied the building, looking for security cameras and alarm boxes.
"I'm seeing a couple of old-school CCTV cams over the main door and side entrances,” Sophie said. "Burglar alarm box has the name of a company called Titanium Security."
As Sophie said the name, sat next to her Shakeel typed it into a laptop which was linked to a list of every police monitored burglar alarm in the country. The file also had a list of passwords, which were used when an alarm company detected a fault or did maintenance work.
Once Shakeel had all the details, Emma called up the local police station and spoke in her politest voice. “Hello, my name is Eileen Smith... I'm calling from
Titanium Systems. Our diagnostic software is reporting a fault with the alarm at Kitmeister US, Unit sixteen on the East Lane trading estate. One of our engineers will be on site in a moment and it may trigger an alarm signal at your station.” There was a slight pause as she listened to the speaker on the other end. “Not a problem, the deactivation password is DGCD 24425. Oh, I expect he'll be on site for two hours at most, but don't worry I'll give you another call when the alarm is fixed. You have a good afternoon too, officer."
Emma smiled as she dropped her phone into a tray by the armrest and pressed the button to open the back.
“Radio check," Emma said, as she pushed in an earpiece. "Emma, check."
“Sophie check."
“Noah check."
“Shakeel check."
“All OK," Emma said. "Someone might get suspicious if I'm parked here. So I'll drive out by that little kids' playground thingy we passed on the main road. Do
you remember where that was?”
“No sweat," Noah said, as he opened the front passenger side door. "Meet you there."
The three Xavier students stepped out and went around to the rear to grab their backpacks, Noah picked up a large hammer too. As Emma drove away the trio donned baseball caps and pulled hoodies over their heads.
Sophie took a can of spray paint from Shakeel’s as Noah deftly climbed the front of the building. When he got close to the alarm box, he felt a shift in the air as Sophie used her air control to muffle what he was doing. Although they had dealt with the alarm's link to the local cops the sound from the bell box would still attract attention. It was a simple climb for Noah, he used the hammer to knock the plastic cover off the bell box. This unveiled a standard arrangement of a large plastic siren, attached to a backup battery. It took two swift belts with the hammer to shatter the siren. The alarm's anti-tamper system was activated, but all that came out were crackling noises until it took another belt from the hammer.
‘Job done,’ Noah said, as he dropped down.
Meantime, Sophie had sprayed black paint over the lens of the security camera. She had established that there was a deadlock and an electric card swipe on the
door. She had the skills to override both, but they were supposed to be yobs, so she attacked with a crowbar. The double doors were made from a softwood and
Sophie punched a hole above the main lock with the crowbar's sharp end, then she pushed the hooked end through the hole and tried wrenching the lock out of
the doorway.
“You are such a girl," Shakeel said, as he pushed Sophie out of the way. He needed all his strength and bulk to rip the deadlock out of the door frame. He also got a slap up the back of his head from Sophie.
Both got a sharp rebuke from Noah.
The electronic lock was much weaker and it simply took a shoulder charge to burst in.
“Right, now what?” Sophie said, as Noah looked around a lobby with foam chairs and a fancy reception desk.
‘Shakeel, stay here and keep lookout,’ Noah said. ‘Me and Sophie will split up and search. We need to find a computer which can access Kitmeister's invoices. It's most likely to be in an office: accountant's, director's or something like that.’
Emma's voice came through their earpieces as Noah headed down a narrow hallway with a whiff of drains. "Noah, are you in yet?”
He touched his earpiece to activate a microphone.
'We're in.’
“It's all restricted parking," Emma told them. "Give me a call when you're ready and I'll pull up somewhere near that green mound thing by the estate entrance."
“No worries," Noah said.
He had reached an open-plan office, with three desks and a separate room at the far end. He jiggled the mouse on all the computers, hoping that one had been left on. He had no luck, so he went into the separate office, sat in a big leather chair and switched on the computer.
“It's all clear here," Shakeel said over the com.
“You only need to tell us if it's not," Sophie answered.
Noah drummed his gloved hand on the desk as the computer booted up. The machine asked for a login password, so he switched it off, plugged in a thumb drive and rebooted, he put the machine into set-up mode. From there he quickly
changed the computer's settings that it would boot up from his drive bypassing the computer's hard drive.
.oO(Now you're my bitch), Noah thought in his native tongue and he
rubbed his hands together.
The thumb drive was configured with a special cut-down versions of Windows which was customised to mirror all the host machine's settings and turn its hard drives and network into slaves. When it finished booting, Noah searched for accounting software, opened up Sage Accounts and selected the invoicing module. He had been taught a few things about accounting software, but Noah was no expert and felt out of his depth as he flipped through screens showing Kitmeister invoices, starting with the most recent. The problem was that the invoices had stock codes and said things like Kit 43566 size L QTY3 rather than something useful like orange and maroon hooped socks for a bad guy’s kids’ sokker team.
But Noah had noticed Kitmeister catalogues stacked up outside, so he grabbed one and flicked through pages of shirts, shorts, balls and shin pads until he came to socks. There was a double-page spread of SoccaAce socks, one colour, two colour, tricolour, striped and hooped. The order code for orange and maroon hoops was SAOM-followed by another letter depending upon the size.
Noah opened up the accounts program's search function and did a search for SAOM*, which ought to give him all the invoices with orange and maroon
hooped socks of any size.
14 Results Found.
If there was an option to print fourteen invoices in one go Noah couldn't find it, so he dumped the lot to the drive.
Noah touched his earpiece. "Looks like I've got what we came for," he said happily.
“Excellent," Emma replied. "Don't forget to make a mess before you leave."
“There's something else," Sophie said. "Noah, when you've got the invoices, meet me back here in the warehouse."
When Noah had all the invoices, he pocketed the USB key and jogged back the way he came. He passed Shakeel in the doorway and headed through swinging doors to meet Sophie in the storage and manufacturing area.
"Took you long enough," Sophie moaned. "Get a look at this."
Noah was tempted to tell her to kiss his ass but remembered he was senior on this op. He walked between rows of shelving stacked with packets of sportswear,
tracking Sophie's voice to a spacious area filled with the equipment used for making transfers and fixing them to football shirts.
Sophie stood along the back wall, pointing at rows of file boxes. "They're templates for designs," she explained. "I looked at the orders in progress, and each one has a code. If the code is on the invoices you've got, we might be able to find the template for the design that Hisako described."
“I've heard worse ideas," Noah said, and called the invoices up on his phone, as he had had the sense to make a backup.
Of the fourteen invoices, six included charges for printing sponsors' logos. Four of these were nowhere near where Hisako had been, leaving just two.
“Design code 1207-381," Noah said.
Emma Frost sounded slightly alarmed as she spoke through the earpieces. "If you guys have the invoices, why in the name of God am I still sitting here?”
“Give us a minute," Noah said. "We're on to something, but it'll be done by the time I've explained it to you."
The boxes with the design templates were all filed in date order. Sophie located 1207-381, but the logo was for a pen company.
“And the other one?” Sophie asked.
'0809-017,’ Noah said checking his phone.
As Sophie ran along the row of boxes, a man shouted, “What are you two playing at?”
He was beefy with cropped hair, dressed in a sawdust-covered sweatshirt carrying the logo of the timber place next door.
Noah's first thought was .oO(what happened to Shakeel?)
‘We're here doing work experience,’ Noah said.
"Do I look like a dick' the man said aggressively.
"Is it multiple choice?” Sophie asked.
“I went for a smoke and saw half the bloody lock ripped off the door. You guys better stay right where you are. The cops are on their way."
Before Noah could answer, the man heard footsteps behind and spun around. Shakeel launched a full-stretch roundhouse kick, catching him viciously in the side of the head. The man crashed sideways into a shelving unit and came out swinging, but while he was big he had no skills. Shakeel ducked under the fists, bobbed up and thrust his palm under the man's chin. His head snapped backwards and he crumpled to the floor in serious pain.
'Give me your phone," Shakeel shouted.
Shakeel was big for his age, but he had a boyish face and the man couldn't believe that he had been floored by two hits from a kid.
“Don't eyeball me, tubby," Shakeel said. "Phone, now." Shakeel took the man's phone and threw it up onto a high shelving unit.
Noah touched his earpiece. 'We've been spotted by a local. Bring the car in.
We need to be ready for a fast exit.’ Then he let go of the earpiece and tore into Shakeel. ‘What the hell are you playing at? You were supposed to be on lookout.’
“It's a long drive back,” Shakeel explained. "I needed to pee.”
'How old are you, five?' Noah shouted. ‘Couldn't you just whip it out and pee against the wall?'
Shakeel shook his head. "It was a number two and I can't ride back to campus with a shitty arse."
'OK, that's too much information,’ Noah said, torn between being annoyed and laughing.
A triumphant shout made Noah spin around and see Sophie holding a stencil outline for a cartoon character shaped like a slice of bread and the name Homefield Bakery beneath it.
'Holy crap,’ Noah said jubilantly, before touching his earpiece. ‘We've definitely cracked it. We hef the logo. The square cartoon man was a sandwich.’
“I'm pulling into the estate's main entrance," Emma said. "Kick up a quick storm and I'll meet you out front in two minutes."
Sophie the stencil design and Shakeel heard the man from the wood shop groan, but he didn't look like he was up to much more than that, so he let him be.
'Make sure we've got everything,’ Noah said.
As the trio headed out they created a wave of destruction, knocking printers and screens onto the floor, scooping stuff off desks, tipping over a water dispenser and ripping plants out of pots.
Sophie managed the most spectacular piece of damage by lifting up an office chair and shattering the glass partition behind the receptionist's desk.
Noah was first out of the building and alarmed to see a posse of four blokes striding purposefully across the car park towards him. They were all big, and all
but one wore safety boots and the wood shop's distinctive green sweatshirt.
'Oi-oi!' the one in the lead shouted. "Stop walking right where you are."
“Thieving little bastards," another added.
Noah turned back inside and shouted, "We've got company."
Sophie raced out, closely followed by Shakeel, who held a yucca plant like a spear.
“You poofters can't catch us!” Sophie shouted, making a wanking gesture as she started running after Noah.
Shakeel wasn't as fast as Noah and Sophie, but he still had an edge over the chasing pack. Noah pushed through a waist-height hedge and reached the approach road. He saw Emma driving the Mercedes into the trading estate's entrance about a hundred metres away and realised they had a problem.
To get to her they would have to get through the four men, two of whom appeared to be brandishing lengths of wood.
“They're old and slow," Sophie said contemptuously.
“Put your stuff down and wait for the cops," one of the men shouted.
“Arse holes," Sophie shouted, shaking her fist in the air as she led a charge.
Noah wasn't convinced that taking on four well-built men was a sensible course of action.
As Sophie launched a two-footed flying kick, Shakeel brandished the yucca plant like a lance and used it to fend off a bloke swinging at him with a two by four
plank. Noah was a few metres behind and faced a mad-eyed guy who had circled behind Sophie and Shakeel.
“Stay there," the man ordered, as he swooshed a plank of wood through the air. "Wait for the cops or I'll give you a good kicking."
“Make me," Noah said as he kept jogging.
The man swung with the plank, but Noah kicked back explosively. The plank shattered against the sole of his trainer. He caught its pirouetting end out of the
air and swung it around, belting his opponent hard across the knuckles. As the man stumbled back, Noah dropped him with a kick in the guts.
Up ahead, Shakeel had triumphed medieval style with a yucca plant lance. Sophie's opponent was crawling away holding his stomach, while the fourth man didn't like what he had seen and was running for cover.
Emma pulled up fifty metres away. She blasted her horn and shouted into her earpiece.
“Move your arses, the cops will be here any minute."
Sophie got in first. Shakeel climbed in the other side and rather than faff about opening the front door Noah dived in quickly beside Sophie. Emma set tyres squealing as Noah pulled closed the door. They flew across the car as she launched into a high-speed reverse, followed by a squealing handbrake turn.
“Not exactly textbook," Shakeel said, as Emma slammed the car into first and sped off, “but that was the best ruck I've had in months."
Emma sounded cross as she blasted her horn and cut across two lanes of traffic. "Please tell me that amidst that carnage you got the invoices."
“I've got them on a thumb drive ," Sophie said, “and Noah took pictures.”
It was only as Noah reached around to put on his seatbelt that he considered the clump of muddy roots resting in his lap, stretching across Sophie's knees and
ending up with spiky leaves sprouting up around Shakeel.
‘Why hef you still got the bloody yucca plant?' Noah asked.
“I'll find a new pot for it when we get back to campus," Shakeel explained. "I'm thinking of naming it Claudia."