Night was beginning to fall as Venus made her way through the foothills that served as Mountain Cat headquarters, heading straight for the old castle. Checking behind her one last to make sure that she wasn't followed, Venus disappeared into a small opening in the outer wall of the castle and made her way inside. There seemed to be no one else around, at least not in the general area where Venus was at the moment. As she walked past the crumbling statues and fallen pillars, Venus considered what had happened earlier in the week.
Her and another Mountain Cat had begun to discuss a heist. Not just a normal robbery, either. They were going to rob a nobleman blind. Venus had taken the past few days to do some research of her own, and after careful consideration she had picked out a target. There was a rather large, extravagant mansion around twenty miles outside Arca, the home of Lord and Lady Bracken. It was a nice mansion, to say the least. Venus had overheard a drunken nobleman talking about it in Arca the other day, and had gone to check it out for herself.
There was a wall surrounding the entire property, with a large gate in the front that had two guards positioned in front of it. From what she could tell, there were even more guards on the inside. The house itself was placed in the center of the property, surrounded by gardens. It would be no easy task to break in, but that was half the fun.
Returning her attention to what she was doing at present, Venus made her way to the meeting spot. It would appear her soon to be partner wasn't there yet, so she would wait for him in silence. The were set to meet as soon as it was dark, and the sun was just about completely gone from the sky, so Venus had made it there just slightly ahead of schedule.
It wasn't that he wasn't there. He just wasn't around to be seen. Crowe was sharpening the daggers on his belt, running the whetstone along the edge of the blades. It was a decent way to pass the time, and one never knew just when they might need a sharp blade. But blades were a dime a dozen. It was how you used them that made all the difference, and Crowe was never one to be wasteful.
He waited until it was dark enough and he looked down at his perch, viewing Venus below. He quirked a grow and swung down from the gargoyle's roost, he'd been sitting behind, falling just beside her and landing gracefully on both feet. "Bout time you showed up," he said, looking her over speculatively. "I was beginning to think you weren't going to show. Name's Crowe."
He stuck out his hand to clasp wrists and he gestured his head to the fading light outside. "You've got the mark, then? Save me half the trouble."
"Venus." She said by way of introducing herself. Taking out a rolled up parchment and placing it down, she added, "I've picked a suitable mark, yes, but it's going to take some more investigation, and some careful planning."
Venus unrolled the parchment to reveal a semi-detailed map of the estate, complete with the wall, gate and gardens, as well as the house. "This is just a rough sketch, but it will give us an idea of what we're working with."
She pointed to the gate on the map. "From what I've seen, there are two guards kept in front of the gate at all times. I wasn't able to stick around long enough to time when they switched shifts, or look into patrols around the wall, but I was able to see quite a few more guards on the inside."
"All right then. What about the family? Who are they? What do they do?" Crowe said, eyes assessing the detail of the map and recognizing it as the Bracken estate. He didn't know much about the people inside, but it was a decent establishment and from the gilded plate on the guards armor alone, he knew they were stacked.
But little else. Did it really matter? They were loaded, all they needed was to get in, out, and be on their way. But to Crowe, it did. The more you knew, the better they could prepare for what was ahead. It was just the two of them after all.
"This is just the information I was able to gather off the streets, but Lord Bracken was apparently once a great military commander who has now retired. Lady Bracken is the typical noble housewife." Venus said.
"Though retired, Lord Bracken misses his military lifestyle, and practices his swordplay during the day. The lack of use for it has left him out of practice, though, and he's not as good as he used to be." Venus continued, thinking for a second before she went on any further. "I've heard he practices with his guards, so that might be an easy time to sneak in if we can figure out his schedule."
"Then we ought to watch, and wait and see, won't we?" Crowe said, offering a smile and gesturing back to the map. "Have you found any weak spots in the wall? Places were the patrols seem the lightest?"
Venus pointed to one point in the back of the estate. "The wall at this point is in worse shape than the rest of the wall, but because of that has more attention from guards."
Venus then pointed to two other points on the map, one on the far right side, and one on the left towards the front. "Here and here are stronger points in the wall, but if you time it right they're blind spots between patrols, and have no guards watching them directly."
"I have an idea," Crowe said, noting the different parts in the wall. He walked around to examine the map from the other side, pointing down to two separate parts where she described the blindspots in the patrols.
"We separate, take two different routes and meet up in a secluded area. Maybe here, in the bell tower. Then we can slink our way down to the vault, rob the fucker blind, and get out without a hitch. If we go in together, and get out together, they can come at us in one mob force. Split up, and they have to split up their men. But better not to get caught altogether, yeah? I would say so."
Venus thought over the plan, and then nodded. "That works. I was unable to get close enough to know how many guards are positioned around the actual house, so if you're spotted make not to lead anyone to the bell tower. Though I'm sure you know what you're doing."
Venus pointed to an area just in front of the bell tower. "There's a garden here with a lot of large trees, and good ground cover with shrubs and other plants. If worst comes to worst, it would be a good place to try and lose some unwanted attention."
"Pray for the best, prepare for the worst, eh?" Crowe said with a grin. He nodded to Venus and gestured to the map again. "So when do you want to start? I'm assuming you had an idea in mind."
"I was thinking we'd start as soon as possible. I'm waiting to pick up a shipment of materials tomorrow, so will two days from now work for you?" Venus asked as she began to roll up the map.
"A few days to warm up, why not?" he said with a grin. "But for now, a drink, what d'ya say? Unless you've got something else to do."
"That's fine with me." Venus said. She didn't drink a lot, but every once in a while it could be nice. "Where at?"
"The bar inside the Scratching Post is just fine with me," he said with a nonchalant shrug. "Unless you had another place in mind. Besides, seeing someone a little tipsy, at least gives me an idea of what you'll be like on the job."
"The bar here is fine." Venus agreed. She put the map away and then smiled at Crowe. "Let's go, then."