The Shipping District

After a decent walk through the darker side of town, Alec arrived at the truck site. Sure enough, it was fully loaded down, judging from how low it was riding. Quickly overcoming the lock, he popped in. Checking the cab, he quickly found the false storage on the underside of the passenger seat. Removing the tiny contents of the compartment, Alec checked his mirrors. Confirming that no one was in the area, he stretched out across both seats. Pulling one of his sharpened ceramics, he considered the duration of the trip. Thinking it to be too much effort, he slipped the tidy little items neatly into his pick belt and replaced the ceramic.

With a couple of motions, Alec had the truck started and on its way to the Domicile. Upon arrival, he unloaded the crates into his storage area, and returned the truck to its original location, leaving the rather unusual crowbar diagonally across the driver's seat, as agreed. On his way back to to the Domicile..."Hm...hungry. I should get something to eat...just in case I need greater stores this evening. Lugging that crap will be hard work."

Alec Devereaux 18 years ago
Blending in with the poor lighting around the shipping district, Alec slipped easily into predator mode. Striding through the darkness, he quickly found a mark...from the looks of him, a site manager for one of the warehouses left alone to lock up after letting his crew off for the evening. Scoping the area and doing a bit of estimation, he quickly scaled the fire escape on the opposite side of the building. Extending his senses, he listened. Along with the city sounds, and activities from the nearby warehouses, his suspicions were confirmed - his target was alone in the upstairs office area right next to the fire escape. Waiting for the sound of his retreating footsteps, Alec gloved up, stood upon the escape rail and vaulted up to the roof, making no more noise than that of a landing bird. Walking along a building seam over one of the main supports, he moved to the opposite side of the roof, and scanned for anyone in the area. Smiling, he noted no one in a position to see any interaction proximate to chosen intercept site. Double checking, he also noted the lack of exterior surveillance on any of the nearby buildings. Most freight areas and warehouse districts didn't bother - most of their goods were too bulky to steal without backing up a rig to the place, and in this day and age the freight strippers were much diminished due to greater integration and cooperation between local police and the highway patrol.

As the aging man...a muscular man, to be sure, but with the added weight of one that has been lucky enough to have upped his station and earned a desk job from his less prosperous roots, headed to the corner of the building, Alec took his position. Crouched three stories above the man's head, he silently fell, feet first. Angling his fall so that his heel would strike the back of the man's skull, Alec relaxed - too much stiffness could kill the man, and make his own fall hurt more than necessary.

Timing his flexion, he waited...adding his leg muscle slightly to his own silent falling velocity. His heel connected neatly with the man's skull, who fell on his face right beside him. Rolling on top of the larger man from behind, Alec takes a quick nip from the back of his neck. The man makes a slightly startled, slightly moaning sound through Alec's strong fingers, but quickly goes slack as his already groggy brain loses the blood flowing to it that it desperately needs in order for him to maintain consciousness after such a concussion.

Focusing his freshly tapped blood to curing the ills of the fall - a slight hamstring pull from the kicking leg and some bruising on his rear and lower back, Alec searches the man. $68...he left the class ring and the engraved watch - too easy to trace, and it would make the man less likely to file a report. $68 wouldn't be chicken scratch to the man, but his sentimental trinkets were safe, and he wouldn't have the loss of face. A guy like...Gregory Mullar probably was on the football team with some guys who became local PD, and would take some guff for getting clubbed from behind. Taking Greg's keys, he made an impression of each into the leather of the man's wallet with his strong hands, scoring the leather with the markings on the key heads to remind him what they might match. Scattering the credit cards and personal effects...including the images of a quite comely wife and daughter and a somewhat handsome son built like a freight train.

Not envying the man the headache he'd have in the morning, Alec rubbed a nearby broken pallet board along the contact points on the man's head and neck. Arranging the bits so that, upon waking, he'd assume he had been clubbed by pallet wood, Alec blended back into the shadows and headed back to the Domicile, ready for some heavy labor.

The shipping districts were his favorite - so few of the locations had external video feeds or decent electronic security...there was just very little you could steal from them by hand, so aside from portable and valuable raw commodities like electronics and the riches of the earth...everyplace else was pretty much free food and scratch.

Ah well. Someday the humans might wise up.

Alec Devereaux 18 years ago
Alec headed back into his storage unit. Taking his standard crowbar from the wall, he methodically began prying the boards from the heavy crates, stacking the lumber by size along one edge. After a couple of hours of board prying, he had a fair stack of lumber he'd have to figure out what to do with. Always the difficulty with crates.

Taking his time with the reassembly of some of the gear, he selected the key engraver first. Slipping out the pressed images of Gregory Mullar's keys, he pondered the set, and took to putting the machine back into working order. lugging the parts to his workroom. He was pleased that he would have enough room in the Domicile for both his workroom and sleeping quarters - some of the machines didn't produce the most pleasant of smells. Reassembling the key engraver, metal presses and lock assembly took quite awhile...he would have to leave the rest for coming evenings. Double checking the automatic locking devices behind him, he headed back to storage to make sure everything was closed down there as well.

"All work and no play makes Alec a dull boy...what to do next."

Looking at his dusty and dirtied clothes, shower took the head of the list. He headed back to his room.