The plan couldn’t be simpler however, the means where not so easy. Get in and get out without being detected was easier said than done. During their meeting, the gang decided upon another means to gain entry to the complex where the vault was located. Going via the bridge with all the armed guards was not on the cards in their ideals, so the route that they’d found out about from a disgruntled ex-security worker was preferable. The man had been laid off when a younger team took over the role of protecting the island and even after his many years of experience, he’d found himself surplus to requirements. Carrying his belongings and pride over his shoulder into the slums, he never forgot or forgave their manners and brash behaviour towards himself and his colleagues. So when a group of younger men approached him for help in infiltrating the island, he was overly keen to help them and knew just the route they should take to go unnoticed. He was going to meet up again with them in an area he had not visited in years, an area of town he hadn’t dared enter since his younger days as it had escalated in such a scale of brazen manner, it scared him a little.

“So where’s this dude? I thought you said he’d be here to help ya.”

“He’ll be here,” Vagrant nodded as he stood outside the stripper bar ‘Excite’ with Tiff as she partook in a break time cigarette, “don’t worry about that.”

Tiff shrugged and exhaled a smoke ring and watched it drift off to join the layer of smog over the sky. She enjoyed taking her breaks outside, regardless of the passers-by that would stop and stare at her in her work costume. It made her laugh to herself because there were plenty other scantily clad women and men in the area at this time of night. Not the best place to work or spend your hours but it suited Tiff as she didn’t have any morals nor wanted any. She enjoyed her career choice; she liked people looking at her and knew that she had the body for her line of work. Besides, Joke was the only one she wanted to touch her, those slobs inside could leer and stare all the liked; only he was allowed to hold her. And this man with her, Vagrant was a great bodyguard for these sneaky cigarette breaks outside. She knew he’d never let any harm come to her and in some way that made her all the more happy when passers-by stared. Tiff was content too that this man she stood next to as he looked out for the guest, would always talk to her face when she was at work and not at her chest that was exposed. Every girl in ‘Excite’ wore the same uniform or outfit if you could call it a uniform. Cut-off shorts, fishnet over the stomach and a bra that didn’t really work as one should do.

“Here he is.”

Tiff looked over at the old man approaching them from across the street, his eye catching a full gulp of her chest sitting on the bra and not in it. His cheeks flushed bright red immediately and he looked at the other man for escape. He wouldn’t be getting any sanctuary from these inside, Tiff thought.

“Vagrant.” The man extended his hand to the other and shook it. “Sorry I’m a little late.”

The taller man shook his head and nodded at the woman as she stubbed out her cigarette on the wall of the club and made her way back inside.

“No need for apologies. You’ve done nothing wrong by being late.” He smiled down at him and let him go inside first.

In a secluded booth, the men discussed the plan with fresh information from their assistant in the infiltration, Theo. He was full ideas for how they could do this successfully, even offering himself for another body in the job but shrugging off the idea as his age was not appropriate for such a daring task. He listened to the younger men and their suggestions, all of which were idealistic but not entirely out of the question. For an hour they covered all the cons of this mission, as Theo liked to call it, ruling out anything that didn’t feature. The route in question was underground tunnels that led from a warehouse in the docks, under the quay to the island. He had nearly choked on his beer when the youngest one asked about zombies lurking in any tunnels and found himself wondering where his own son was these days. This young man had a very creative imagination that was for sure. The others had nudged Bracky to be serious through smiles just as one of the dancers approached the table and asked if anyone wanted a lap-dance. Theo found his face flushed bright red again but thankfully due to the crazy neon pink lighting in the club nobody noticed. The tall girl smiled at him as she leant on the table, her breasts looking terribly inviting to the old man but he shook his head and turned away completely embarrassed.

“Maybe later.” Ska winked at the woman as she pouted through a smile and walked away.

“So, I think this route is perfect.” Theo cleared his throat and nodded at the others. “The only problem that I can see is the Cleaners.”

“The Cleaners?” Bracky looked over his vodka at the older man, chewing the straw that was in the glass as he continued his question. “What are the Cleaners?”

Theo leant on the table and over to the group, each of them echoing his pose and leaning forward to listen to him. The older man coughed to clear his throat again and spoke softly.

“The Cleaners are what keep these pathways free from debris and rodents. Rats are very fond of these tunnels as you can imagine, they’re free from humans; for the most part and they’re dry.”

Ska shuddered and rested his head on the table as he whined about his dislike for the long-tailed creatures. His friend in the cap patted him on the back and reassured him they’d take anti-rat weapons.

“Every four hours, they trek along the tunnels back and forth to keep them .. clean, hence the name. But my friends be wary. The Cleaners are not to be destroyed, if you were to blow them up then whatever volume of sea-water overhead will come crashing down and flood the tunnels.”

“So they’re, machines?”

Theo looked at Joke and nodded as he fiddled with his beer bottle.

“I suppose you could call them machines, they’re more like robots from some sci-fi movie.”

Bracky’s eyes grew twice their size as he polished off his vodka, his straw making a noise to alert everyone that he had finished. Letting go of the drinking device, he leant over further to Theo as he continued talking to them.

“I say robots, because they can sense when someone’s there; machines can’t do that!”

“Wait, they can sense you?”

Theo set his drink down and glanced at his feet. The Cleaners were going to be a hurdle for the crew, five of them in one tunnel was going to be too obvious for these mechanical beasts. He wondered which of the group would take the challenge now, knowing that there was a hefty barrier between them and the island.

“Yeah, they can sense a group of three or more life-forms.”

Vagrant spoke up for the first time since Theo had entered the club. He’d been too keen on listening to the knowledgeable one than mar the air with his low tones.

“I daren’t ask, but what happens to these life-forms they uncover?”

Everyone turned their heads to Theo again, expecting to hear what they heard but had to hear it from someone who knew for definite.

“They destroy them.”

Spider lay in his bed that night, staring at the ceiling and going over everything that had been said at the booth. Theo certainly knew his stuff and the plan, as close as it was to completion, was still missing a vital part. Who was going to brave the tunnels to dodge the Cleaners? Darkness and rats didn’t scare him at all; he’d never been one to be afraid of things like that, but being destroyed by a machine; no, by a robot, that did send a shiver up his spine. Ska was out, that was sure; his phobia of rats would make him useless upon running into any of them in the tunnel, or even the dread that they’d appear would cause Ska to be a nervous wreck. Joke said he didn’t mind going but after Tiff had caught wind of the robot part, she became fearful and pleaded him not to go on this ‘suicide mission’ as she called it. She wasn’t too far off, Spider agreed, whoever went down that tunnel was on a fifty-fifty with his life. Vagrant had volunteered, good ol’ Vagrant. Nothing seemed to scare him, not even machines with intelligence and a bloodlust for intruders. That left Bracky, who after the mention of robots couldn’t wait to get down that tunnel, regardless of his mild paranoia of zombies lurking around a corner. Spider knew that the young sci-fi fanatic would be safe with Vagrant, but somewhere in his head he felt he should be the other one to go. Theo had suggested that they could enter the tunnel in groups of two and then one to be undetected, which still was a possibility but Ska was still very unsure of this idea knowing the inhabitants had pointy fangs and hairy bodies. Spider turned onto his side and ran over the plan again and again in his head.

“Who goes?” He closed his eyes. “Who goes first?”

“I’ve told you man,” Ska looked up from the floor and his comic-book he’d borrowed from Bracky, “I don’t mind going in later if the first two take out all the rats!”

Spider opened his eyes and looked at his friend. He was right, the first party could be rat killers or chasers. According to the map that Theo had brought with him, the tunnels had two turn off sections that led to dead ends. Storage bins he said, for debris cleaned up by the machines. These would be perfect for dodging the Cleaners, if they could time their arrival right and miss their sweep by an hour. Apparently they maintain a straight course down the tunnels unless they sense intruders. Theo told them that the debris collected by the Cleaners was picked up by human workers of the island later in the day from the storage canisters on the back of the machines. He found himself wondering if anyone else had tried to enter the tunnels before them and if these ... robots had disposed of them in these canisters. Spider looked at Ska again and sat up on his bed.

“You remember what Theo said about those storage bin areas?”

“No, please.” He struggled against the taller person’s hold on his shoulders as he was pinned against a wall that was covered in posters for call girls and boys. “I don’t want one. I told you, I’m broke!”

Her fingernails dug into his jacket’s material and she smiled down at him. He was so cute when backed into a corner, she’d always liked this one; he was so nervous and shy around the girls.

“I’ll give you a freebie.” She lured him in with her voice and heavily mascara’d eyelids that hung heavy over her brown eyes. “C’mon lil’ fella... it won’t hurt.”

He squeaked a giggle and squirmed under her hold, desperate to get out of this situation and outside to where Joke and Tiff were waiting for him. His eyes turned to jelly and couldn’t stop them from dropping down and gazing at her chest that, due to her ‘Excite’ uniform were on full display. He often wondered why when the thing holding them up would come off at some point during their dancing anyway.

“No please Jazz, I’ve got to go!” Bracky tore his eyes off their treasure and to her own, “Time’s a-wastin’ and all that ja... haa hahah.”

Jazz, Jazmine to her mother and sisters stood up and let him go, turning only her head to watch him scamper free and out to the street where his friend Joke and her friend Tiff were waiting for him in the drizzle. Folding her arms and drumming her long fingernails against her biceps, she smiled a knowing grin to herself and knew that she’d get him one of these days. If not him then that other one she had her greedy eyes on, she always took what didn’t belong to her and they usually agreed after some of her powers of persuasion.

“You alright Bracky?” Joke looked back towards the inside of the club, waved to Jazz and smiled as he turned back to his friends. “Not your cup of tea?”

Bracky shuddered heavily and covered his face as they started to walk towards Spider’s for another talk about the plan. Tunnels and robots, sounded like a strange work of fiction but it had perked Bracky’s interest more and the more he heard, the worse it got for him backing out. There had to be something in the stories he’d read over the years about fooling a robot, they were hunks of metal after all. Joke was also thinking about the plan as they walked towards the derelict area where his friend stayed. Rats and machines that destroy you. He glanced at Tiff as she walked beside him in her normal attire and underneath his warm jacket. She’d been terrified about what she heard on the front of robots and death and he could completely understand her doubts. He wasn’t massively keen on getting blown up either! But to get to the vault and take what they wanted to be happy for longer than a week. Joke was sure that the group could manage this heist, he had no doubts in their abilities or his own. He would just have to lie to Tiff and not tell her he was going to go ahead with this. Thankfully the day they’d lined out for doing this, she was going to be visiting her cousin.