Chapter 88: The Obvious Solution Part II

Chapter 88: Chapter 88: The Obvious Solution Part II

Killian continued concentrating.

The first locking bolt shifted.

Clunk.

Penelope stared at the vault.

Another sound followed.

Clunk.

Then another.

One by one, the enormous locking bolts began retracting from the reinforced frame.

Killian could feel pressure building behind his eyes.

His ability wasn’t exhausted.

The difficulty came from precision.

One mistake could alter something he hadn’t intended to touch.

He slowed down rather than rushing.

Erik noticed.

Killian was being careful.

That alone told him something important about the ability.

Atom Manipulation wasn’t simply destructive.

It could be precise.

Potentially extremely precise.

The implications were enormous.

Erik said nothing.

There would be time to think about that later.

Another locking bolt moved.

Clunk.

Only one remained.

Killian found it.

Focused.

Then manipulated the metal.

A deep mechanical sound echoed throughout the basement.

CLUNK.

The final bolt retracted.

Killian opened his eyes.

The electronic security panel beside him remained red.

According to the security system, the vault was still locked.

Erik noticed immediately.

"The system doesn’t know," Erik said.

Killian looked toward the panel.

"No," Killian replied.

Kai’s eyebrows rose slightly.

"That’s useful," Kai observed.

Very useful.

Killian removed his hand from the steel.

Then he reached for the enormous handle.

He turned it.

The mechanism rotated.

Ben stared.

"It worked," Ben said.

Killian pulled.

The vault door slowly began moving.

Metal groaned against metal as the enormous reinforced door swung outward.

Nobody spoke for several seconds.

Then Kai slowly raised one hand.

He smacked himself lightly on the forehead.

"Ohhhh. Right," Kai said.

Everyone looked at him.

Kai gestured toward Killian.

"We have abilities now."

Ben stared at the open vault.

Then he nodded.

"I forgot all about that," Ben admitted.

Kai immediately pointed at him.

"Exactly."

Penelope looked between the two men.

Kai caught her expression.

"Don’t look at us like that," Kai told her. "You were prepared to go searching for security credentials too."

Penelope opened her mouth.

Then she closed it.

Unfortunately, he was right.

They had spent the entire night deliberately avoiding their abilities whenever possible.

Their powers were new.

Their limits were unknown.

None of them wanted to become dependent on abilities they barely understood, especially when they didn’t know how quickly their energy recovered or what consequences overuse might have.

They had fought their way through the jewelry district using conventional weapons because they knew how those weapons worked.

A machete wouldn’t unexpectedly exhaust them.

A blade wouldn’t suddenly stop functioning because they had depleted an energy source they didn’t understand.

Somewhere along the way, conserving their abilities had become instinctive.

Apparently, too instinctive.

Kai shook his head.

"We spent twenty-two years solving problems without supernatural abilities," Kai said. "We’ve had them for one day. I think we’re allowed an adjustment period."

Ben nodded.

"That sounds reasonable."

"Thank you," Kai replied.

Penelope crossed her arms.

"You’re both just trying to make yourselves feel better."

"Yes," Kai answered without hesitation.

Ben nodded again.

"Definitely."

Penelope laughed.

Erik glanced toward his younger brother.

"We weren’t going to spend hours searching the building," Erik pointed out.

Kai looked at him.

"How long did it take you to remember Killian could manipulate atoms?"

Erik was silent.

Kai waited.

Erik looked toward the vault.

"Long enough."

A slow grin appeared on Kai’s face.

"That’s what I thought."

Erik gave him a calm look.

"Would you like to continue discussing this, or would you like to see what’s inside?"

Kai immediately turned toward the vault.

"I’ve completely lost interest in this conversation."

Ben laughed quietly.

Penelope smiled.

Killian watched the exchange without saying anything.

There was an ease between the siblings that he wasn’t accustomed to seeing.

Erik carried himself with the same authority Killian had noticed from the beginning, but Kai didn’t appear intimidated by his older brother in the slightest.

He teased him openly.

Challenged him when he felt like it.

Erik tolerated far more from Kai than Killian suspected he would tolerate from almost anyone else.

Penelope was the same.

She argued with Erik.

Mocked Kai.

And neither brother seemed remotely surprised by it.

This was a side of them Killian had never seen before.

Then again, he had never truly known them.

Before everything changed, Penelope Wolfe had been little more than someone Killian occasionally encountered through business and mutual connections.

Hardworking.

Private.

Distant.

She rarely attended social gatherings unless necessary and seemed far more interested in work than building relationships with people outside her family.

That was the woman Killian remembered.

The woman standing several feet away from him now was different.

Or perhaps she wasn’t.

Perhaps he had simply never known enough about her to see this part.

Penelope suddenly looked toward him.

Their eyes met.

Killian looked away naturally, turning his attention toward the open vault.

Penelope didn’t think much of it.

She barely knew Killian either.

She knew the composed man who carried himself with an almost military discipline.

The man who observed before speaking.

The man who remained calm when everyone around him panicked.

There was still much about him she didn’t understand.

But there was no reason she needed to understand it tonight.

They had more immediate concerns.

Namely, the enormous vault standing open in front of them.

Penelope stepped closer.

The emergency lights from the corridor illuminated only the first several meters inside.

Rows of secure storage compartments lined the walls.

Reinforced cabinets occupied another section.

Metal shelving disappeared deeper into the vault, filled with sealed cases and secured containers.

Then Penelope saw what rested farther inside.

She stopped.

Gold bars.

Not one.

Not ten.

Rows of them.

Stacks of gold bars rested inside reinforced storage sections, each one reflecting the dim emergency lighting.

Penelope’s golden eyes widened.

Oddy completely lost control.

’HOST!’

Penelope nearly flinched but managed to keep her expression relatively normal.

’Yes, Oddy.’

’GOLD!’

’I see it.’

’SO MUCH GOLD!’

Penelope walked into the vault.

Kai entered behind her.

He stopped several steps inside.

"Well," Kai murmured.

Ben followed him.

His eyes widened as he took in the contents.

"That’s a lot more than I expected," Ben admitted.

Erik entered next.

Unlike the others, his attention immediately moved beyond the gold.

He examined the secure compartments.

The sealed cases.

The labels attached to several storage sections.

"Don’t touch anything yet," Erik instructed.

Penelope immediately looked at him.

"Why?"

"We inventory before we collect," Erik answered.

Penelope stared at him.

Erik stared back.

"There’s gold," Penelope pointed out.

"I can see that."

"A lot of gold."

"I can also see that."

"And you want to count it?"

"I want to know what else is here," Erik clarified. "We didn’t fight our way into a commercial vault just to grab the first shiny object we saw."

Kai looked toward Penelope.

"He has a point."

Penelope looked betrayed.

Kai shrugged.

"I enjoy being alive more than I enjoy agreeing with you."

Oddy had a different opinion.

’Take everything.’

Penelope mentally agreed.

’That’s the plan.’

Oddy became immediately delighted. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Erik walked deeper into the vault.

"Gold isn’t necessarily the most valuable thing stored here," Erik continued. "There could be loose gemstones, investment-grade diamonds, platinum, palladium, private collections or secured inventory that never reached the showroom."

Oddy’s excitement somehow increased.

Penelope followed Erik.

"Fine," Penelope said. "We inventory."

Kai raised an eyebrow.

"That was surprisingly easy."

Penelope glanced back at him.

"Then we take everything."

Kai nodded.

"There it is."

Ben laughed.

Killian remained near the vault entrance for another moment.

He looked down at his hand.

Opening the vault had taught him something important.

Atom Manipulation was capable of far more precision than he had previously tested.

He hadn’t destroyed the locking bolts.

He hadn’t broken the door.

He had manipulated individual components hidden inside a larger structure without significantly affecting the materials surrounding them.

That changed his understanding of his ability.

He didn’t yet know how much.

Killian lowered his hand.

He would experiment later.

Right now, they needed to finish what they had come here to do.

He stepped into the vault.

Behind them, the massive steel door remained open.

Several floors above, beyond reinforced walls and thick security glass, the dead continued gathering outside the jewelry store.

The group had reached their destination.

They had survived the streets.

They had opened the vault.

Now they needed to collect what they could and leave before the situation outside became impossible to escape.