Episode #2: Tilly at the Practice

Mar,10 2026

<-#1: Patrick's mistakes

I prick my finger and check my blood sugar level. It only takes a few seconds... 5.8. Perfect. No fog, no shaking today.

I was 7 when my family moved here. My parents thought that naturism would be the hardest thing for me, but I took it easily!

It's the small resort school that I am having the hardest time with.

I know most kids like that we have more personalized teaching. I certainly love that we are taught real things about life. How to manage a budget, how to socialize, and how to manage employees.

For me, it's normal, but some of the new students are impressed at how much school is more interesting here.

But what I, personally, struggle with is the inability to just be a wallflower. I know all the other students, which also means that should I date one of them, I would be stuck with my inevitable ex until I graduate. No, thanks.

I know they call me the ice queen, but they also know I have type 1 diabetes. I am not always in perfect control of my blood sugar. I can't just unwind like they do.

It's not an option.

Well, Cassian excused me from school, so I decided to take a stroll to the secondary community hall.

It's the one reserved for residents, the one that only opens with a fingerprint reader. I get in, and it's well supplied!

Video game consoles, all of them, board games, war games, and even a few arcade and pinball machines. During the day, Steffan is there, at the counter, reading a book, but in the evening and on the weekends? You can always find a few of us doing something around here.

"Hi Tilly, how are you?"

"Good Steffan. Are they repeating?"

"You know they are"

"Could I go watch? I got excused from school"

"Sure, they are in repetition space D"

I walk to "sanitation closet B", get inside, and the floor lowers, until I reach the underground corridor.

I check the parking lot, and my favorite electric ride is gone. Damn it. They are almost the same, but golf cart #11 goes just a bit faster for some reason.

I take #3 and ride toward the mountain. On the way, I try not to notice the kill slots, the booby traps, and the emergency doors. They will not trigger with me.

At the end, when I reach the base of the mountain next to the resort, the external door opens and lets me in the circular lobby.

The outer door closes. Only then does the cylinder rotate, aligning the inner opening with the corridor beyond. It's actually a single massive cylinder with a single "hole" in it. By rotating it, you can only let one of the doors open. The small size of the lobby really restricts how many potential invaders can come in at a time.

On the other side is the parking garage, another secure area. I get to another "airlock", a small corridor where full wall one-sided mirrors are on both sides.

Once again, I am only buzzed in on the second door when the first is closed.

Finally, I am in the complex. I salute a few employees, who all inquire about how I am doing. Each time Cassian recruits someone, presentations are made, and that employee cannot get any access until they have memorized the first name of every other employee, including their spouse and child.

We are all on a first-name basis. It feels weird to be the only one nude, well, topless, as I am wearing shorts. In the complex, employees wear a bulletproof uniform with extra chargers, flash grenades, fingerprint scanners, tasers, the whole shebang. But I am not one. I am just a teenage advisor.

Don't get me wrong, though. I know how to disassemble, clean, and reassemble any of those firearms, and I am rather good with them. My father taught me, but not just because he is my father. It's because he is responsible for weapons training when not on an operation.

"Tilly, they are in Practice Room D," Javier tells me.

"I heard! Thank you Javier"

I soon locate the door labelled Practice Room D Viewing Gallery.

It's not empty. Of course it's not. There are alternates, backups, spouses, and advisors in place to make sure everything goes well.

At least, in here, some of the people are nude, and others are in uniform. I blend well. I can be a wallflower...

They salute me by name, but once I sit, I am left alone.

I love how these rooms are organized. I know; I had a say in them.

Not only are we high over the practice room so that we see everything from a window above, but I also had monitors added in front of each of the seats with a keypad letting us see one of the 20 or so cameras in the room.

Good, they are about to make their escape. That means they will restart soon. I try to locate my father.

The "goons" all wear what are seen as almost identical, chaotically abstract masks, but we know the patterns. There, on the left.

Vexx laughs chaotically. "Stay down, we are leaving; no one will get hurt. Bananas!"

The lot practices their exit ballet, and within seconds, they are out the door.

The team returns, and masks are removed.

Cassian speaks up. "We gained 4 seconds. Great teamwork, everyone! John, do you think we can optimize the breach?"

John was a bank robber, and he knows all about how to gain control of the situation.

"Civilians need time to react. We can't optimize it fully"

"I was afraid you would say that. Does anyone have an idea how to win 6 more seconds?"

No one speaks up.

I grab the microphone on my armrest.

"Tilly from the gallery, " I say.

"Tilly!", says Cassian, looking up and locating me. "I am happy you are here. You have an idea?"

"You should do an express exit. Carl and Greg were at the back when you began your speech. They could rush the exit while you speak, so that they are not stragglers"

"Don't we need control from the back?" says Cassian.

"I missed the start, but normally you would bring everyone in front, so have the guys near the exit leave last"

He turns to his guys. "Why didn't we see that? Tilly is right; that's what we normally do. Why did I miss it?"

It's my dad, Jake, who speaks up. "Two cycles ago, we optimized the rear unit to bring the last bags"

"Right, thank you," and he turns to me. "The problem was the loading of the bags. We began bringing everyone forward, so I couldn't go faster"

I speak up. "Right, but then, why were they waiting for your signal"

He turns to Carl and Greg.

"Right, there is no need to wait; you are the bottleneck

"We normally wait for your signal, boss", says Carl.

"True", says Cassian. He thinks. "Ok, so let's have you in charge of the end, Carl. When you near the front of the bank, Jake will see you coming, and say my name. That will start the end."

"That would work", says Carl.

"Ok, we reset, but, Tilly, Jake, and Carl, thank you all. Let's take it from the top"

Not only is the team reset, but also the fake civilians. I notice Tom, who is technically an accountant, in the room. Paul from team B plays the assistant manager. Gregor is the bank manager.

Now, Gregor and Greg have the same name, Gregory, so they got different "nicknames" to avoid confusion. Like, I am the only Tilly, but we have two Julies, so one became a Jules.

We had 3 Jakes, so my dad kept his name, and the other two became Jack and Jacob.

I watch the practice, and I see that Vexx hits Jack, who plays one of the hostages. That's new. It wasn't on the plans.

Jack even replies to Vexx, which is completely unusual. Meanwhile, the team is working hard. What is this plan?

I know not to interrupt a practice, but I turn to Melanie. She is Jack's wife. She is sitting next to me and is nude, as she is technically a hairdresser. I like her, which is why I sat next to her.

"Mel?" There is another Melanie in the town.

"Yes, Tilly?"

"Why is Vexx hitting a hostage?"

"Oh no, it was decided this morning that Jack will be at the bank. The confrontation will serve as a point of focus for the hostages and help with crowd control. It's a fake hit"

I nodded. It's a good idea. Not one I would have thought, but doesn't it burn Jack with the police?

Right, Jack is a trainer. He doesn't go on operations normally. He can plan a normal civilian at least once.

The operation goes on, and I am impressed how the team is running things like clockwork, while Vexx is mainly taunting the personnel.

Luke and he basically frisk every "civilian" while my dad handles the opening of the vault.

It's rare that we attack banks, but this isn't a normal one. The goal isn't just the money in the vault; it's a specific security deposit box with confidential information in it. That's the real goal.

The few millions stolen will be the focus of the media, and people will not realize that one of the deposit boxes was stolen.

These boxes need two keys. The bank manager will be relieved of his keys early in the operation. The other one will be picked by Greg, a master locksmith who can pick or bypass any lock.

The advantage of picking over other destructive entries is that when the police come in, they will have no idea that a security box will have been opened, and we know for a fact that the owner would never reveal they had their document stolen.

The money wasn't even the main focus. A nice bonus... But not the main focus. It was the diversion.

I sat through 4 more practices, each with some improvements, until everyone, including me, gave a thumbs-up.

That's when, finally, variations came in!

What if the police reaction to the panic button was faster than anticipated? What if one of the civilians was armed? What if the bank manager didn't have his keys on him and pretended not to know where they were?

A few stumped them. Seriously. "SWAT was present in the area" is always a killer. The missing keys... aren't as bad as I thought they would be, provided the main vault door was open.

And that, we knew how to ensure!

On each heist, some of the hostages are part of the crew. No one will know, of course. And they all carry fake IDs so the police are never clued in on what happened. Who cares about the hostages? They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But, they can keep tabs on the other ones. Discourage the lone hero; calm down those who are scared. Sometimes, they can even share how Vexx never hurts innocents.

And yet, the SWAT team practice begins. It's always the most chaotic part, with heavy weapons taken out. Rocket launchers, anti-tank missiles, and heavy shields to protect the crew going to the armored truck used to escape.

But the reality is that this plan was never used. It's been understood that if SWAT arrives before escaping, it's game over. End of the line.

I listen to them and grab the microphone.

"Can I have a minute?"

Cassian stops everyone.

"Tilly needs to speak. Everyone listening?"

They nod or say yes.

He looks up. "Go, Tilly"

"I remember the briefing on SWAT in the city. They only have one team on standby, and the second needs 15 to 20 minutes to mobilize"

"Indeed, we aren't worried about the second team", says Cassian.

"What if we didn't have to worry about the first one?", I say.

"What do you mean?" says Cassian.

My dad even speaks up. "Yeah, baby, what are you thinking about?"

"Well, normally, we don't worry because we hit low-priority targets, but a bank is something else. What if we get SWAT on the other side of the town a few minutes before we breach?"

"They will mobilize team 2", says Cassian.

"Which takes 15 to 20 minutes. We need 7 to 12 minutes. I say, send team 1 on a hostage crisis close to their HQ. Once they are on location, it's harder to redirect"

Cassian speaks up. "That idea... It might be brilliant. What does everyone say?"

He asks for everyone's opinions on my idea. Everyone seems to think that this is a good plan. Peter already has police training, adding more detail.

"I don't think they can abandon a scene. I mean, they will rely on patrol units until Team 2 arrives, thinking we will keep the hostages for hours. They don't know we are doing a smash and grab and have enough firepower to keep normal units at bay"

I thank him via the microphone, but then Cassian does too.

"Tilly, can you stay after the practice?" he says.

I agree, and they keep on going. It takes a good hour before he joins me in the viewing gallery with my father. Everyone else had left in the meantime.

"That was great thinking Tilly"

"It's my job"

"It is. And you go above and beyond. I have an external team I could send. I'll pay them for a specific mission in mind, with a prison bonus if caught"

"But they will get caught," I say.

"Tilly, do you know why I stay in contact with the hardened criminals in the city?"

"So you know what they are up to"

"And if they are in jail, well, I know what they are up to"

I smile. It's so simple.

<-#1: Patrick's mistakes