Gaspard's truck was about the same size as those used by the guards they just fought. He brought it to a stop in a nearby intersection, waiting for Dante and Mattia to get on before taking off.
"Mission accomplished!" Said Ricardo. He was still in the process of gathering his drone but didn't let that get in the way of celebrating their victory.
"I will send you the schematics later," Mattia said. "You have one week. Better have my car back in shape by then."
"C'mon man, you know I had to do it."
"No, you didn't."
Dante listened to the conversation absentmindedly while staring at the suitcase in front of him. He turned it around and wiped the blood covering the locking mechanism.
A small screen displayed a simple number pad. According to the intel they received, to open the white suitcase one has to enter a six-digit pin. The problem was that, if the wrong pin were to be entered three times in a row, the screen would freeze for an entire week. Obviously, no digital lock was safe from hacking, especially ones that provided a standard port for outside connections.
"What's wrong, kid?" Gaspard asked.
Ricardo and Mattia had gone silent and were giving him strange looks. Realizing they were concerned about him, he tapped his suitcase and smiled.
"Was just wondering if I got the right one."
The truck was silent for a very long second. Sighing, Mattia wore a faint smile.
"I guess the odds are in my favor."
He had retrieved two suitcases, after all. That gave him a 50% chance of having picked the right case.
"Nope, it's definitely the one we got." Said Ricardo. "Just you wait. I will open it now."
He put on his headset once more and pulled a cord from its side. He was about to connect it to one of the two ports beside the lock screen on his suitcase when Gaspard grasped his arm.
"Our job is to deliver the suitcase." He said.
"Exactly." Ricardo grinned. "It said nothing about decoys, or if we should open them or not."
Gaspard fixed him with a stern gaze then sighed. "Just… leave no trace. Got it?"
"Alright!"
Beaming with excitement, Ricardo plugged the cord and leaned back in his chair. His smile gradually widened, turning into a grin that reached his ears. In just a couple of minutes, a click was heard from the suitcase.
"Got it!"
He raised his fists in celebration then leaned forward, wiggling his fingers with the same wide grin. Gaspard tried to keep his eyes on the road but couldn't help glancing beside him. Mattia and Dante peeked their heads, both sharing the techie's anticipation.
"Alright, here we go!"
Ricardo opened the suitcase and found… nothing. No, something was indeed inside the suitcase, but it wasn't anything resembling a relic excavated from some ruins in the wasteland. It was just a simple cylinder made of metal, no different from a tin can.
"It's a fake!"
Breaking into a fit of laughter wasn't the reaction the others expected from him. The tin can was probably added to mask the difference in weight between the real suitcases and the decoys.
Two bikes caught up with the truck and settled right behind.
"You're already opening the goods!!?" Marcel, riding one of the bikes, approached the passenger seat and shouted at mohawk-man. "C'mon! Couldn't you wait till we got back!!?"
Maria said nothing, apparently still salty about her earlier loss.
"Like hell we're gonna wait!" Ricardo shot back. "Mattia! Let's go with yours next!"
"You sure?" Mattia gave Dante a glance. "Shouldn't you go for his first?"
"I'm betting my whole cut that both of yours are duds!"
"Alright, if both turn out to be decoys, I'm forgetting you cooked my ride."
"Alright!"
"Wait!" Marcel interrupted. "Stream it to the rest of us, at least!"
Gaspard nodded at the suggestion. It was fine when the first case was opened, but he couldn't watch the ones in the back and drive at the same time.
"Alright, I get it!"
A drone came flying from the front of the car and landed on backseats. When the filming started, Mattia took the cord from Ricardo's helmet and plugged it in the suitcase on his lap.
CLICK!
The lock was undone in no time. With a smile, Mattia grabbed the corners of the lid and pulled them up. The instant the contents came into sight, Ricardo pumped his fists and shouted
"Another fake!!!!"
That leaves only two.
"Hey," Dante spoke up, interrupting mohawk-head's celebration. "If I win, what do I get?"
The bet those two had involved him by default; if the suitcase he got turns out to be the real one then it could be said that he won as well.
"C'mon kid, I'm betting on you and you want to steal my prize?"
"Hey, I wouldn't mind some extra cash." Dante grinned.
Ricardo paused, staring at him for a moment. Guessing what was going through his mind was far too difficult, seeing that he didn't have eyes. One could still tell what he was feeling by the way his mouth moved, and when it arched into a grin it was clear that he was enjoying the whole thing.
"Well, it's not like I will be the one paying!"
They turned to Mattia and he met them with a resigned sigh.
"Fine," he scratched the back of his scruffy hair. "I will give you half my share of this gig."
"Alright! Let's go ahead and open it now!"
Though Mattia still had one more suitcase, he didn't mind and let them continue. Ricardo pulled the cord and tossed it in Dante's hand, the latter plugging it into the suitcase right away. The hacking began, and just like the previous time it only lasted a couple of minutes. An audible click announced its end.
"Alright, kid," Mattia patted him on the shoulder. "Let's see what this relic those corpo bastards are so obsessed with."
Curling the corner of his mouth in a half smile, Dante pulled the lid up. The item inside came into sight, and once they saw it, their eyes shot open. One look was all it took to recognize that what they were looking at was indeed the relic they were tasked with stealing.
Sitting in a mold of soft Polyurethane Foam was a silver disk. It had a diameter of ten centimeters, about the size of one's palm. The edge was engraved with peculiar symbols, and at the center, a circle no less than Eight centimeters in diameter glowed with a soft white light. Despite supposedly being a relic from a time long gone, its design gave the impression of it being a piece of tech of some kind.
"Holly hell…" Ricardo muttered.
No one in the crew had seen anything like it before yet they all felt it: the destructive power residing withing that small item.
Static noise filled Dante's ears, gradually drowning the sounds in his surroundings, isolating him from everything else. The strange relic, it was calling for him, demanding that he takes hold of it.
Unbeknownst to him, his right hand was moving, rising, and reaching for the strange disk. Just as his fingers were about to touch it, a star fell from the sky and crashed right into the vehicle he was riding.