Stealth and Deception #5, Wednesday Morning,

[badassbutler.livejournal.com]

After getting another handwaved e-mail to come to the Danger Shop, the students would have found if littered with doors. Lots and lots and lots of doors.

"Good morning class," Alfred said as they entered. "Breakfast and caffeine are over there. Get some, sit down, and we'll talk about infiltration. Now there are many types of alarms and many ways of keeping a person out of a door. But we who are exceptionally sneaky do not worry about such things as locks or alarms, do we?

"As I said before, the types of locks and alarms are limitless. And some of them require some very specialized knowledge and tools to break. Therefore, today we are only going to talk about one, the one with the most useful applications."

Alfred held up a rolled up black cloth and let it unroll, revealing a line of well kept tools.

"Today, class, we're going to talk about lockpicking."

So saying, he went into his lecture

After finishing, he took a sip of tea from a nearby cup and pointed to a table. "On that table are lockpicking sets. These aren't holographs, they're real lockpicking sets I obtained for you, and they are yours to keep.

He gestured to the doors behind him. "Have fun, class. I'll be here if you need any hands on assistance. And don't be afraid to ask."

He glanced down at his notes. "Oh, and will Miss Santos see me after class?"

_{[[The OCD, she is up, so have fun! I'll be absent for a good part of the day, so forgive me if I don't respond for a while.]]}

Comments

[union-jane.livejournal.com]

Seras picked up one of the more complex-looking locks and examined it delicately, trying not to disturb Nadia's work.

"Just trying to see if there's any way to tell if a lock's been picked," she explained, "But, I expect you'd need a magnifying glass or something..."

[nadiathesaint]

"There might be very small marks on the pins from the pick, but that's all I can think of."

[union-jane.livejournal.com]

Seras nodded.

"I've heard that people who get really good at this can do a well made lock in under thirty seconds. But, it still seems kind of impractical, to me. Sort of a last resort type thing."

[nadiathesaint]

"Picking locks is impractical?" Nadia stepped up to another complex lock and started working. This one took a bit longer, almost a full minute. Lots of tumblers, and the shift was very, very subtle.

[union-jane.livejournal.com]

Seras shrugged as she watched Nadia at work.

"Well, firstly, there's the tools, themselves. I mean, sure they're easy to hide, but couldn't anyone with a decent metal detector find them if you were caught and searched?"

[nadiathesaint]

"Not if they're made of the right material. Aluminum, for instance. Plus, there are certain articles of clothing, like shoes, which tend to have metal in them, anyway. Plus, you could use them as jewelry, or hair pins."

[union-jane.livejournal.com]

"Aluminum, shoes, and hairpins," repeated Seras, "Good to know."

She shrugged.

"Still, it seems that if a person were really clever, he'd be able to put himself in a position where he didn't *need* to use the lock picks...."

Seras trailed off, furrowing her brow.

[nadiathesaint]

"But being prepared and knowing how to use them is very important. And sometimes, you just plain have to use them in order to be as subtle as possible while infiltrating a location."

[union-jane.livejournal.com]

Seras nodded and listened intently. Alfred wasn't the only expert on the premesis, after all.

[nadiathesaint]

And Nadia was very glad that someone realized that, at least.

"Though, when it comes down to it, locks like these are almost entirely reserved for low level, internal security these days. You're much more likely to find electronic locks on anything that's really important."

[union-jane.livejournal.com]

"Is there a way to pick those?"

[nadiathesaint]

"There's no lock that you can't get into, if you've got the right tools. But electronic locks require different sets of tools. Machines to read the data from the lock, or intelligence on the combination, or a mechanism to short the lock out."

[union-jane.livejournal.com]

"So...locks are basically a really crap way to keep anything safe."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia shook her head. "Locks are fine. They keep the vast majority of the population in or out of where you want them. But when it comes down to it, there's not much that will stop a determined professional with access to the right tools and schematics."

[union-jane.livejournal.com]

"'Not much'. So, it's not impossible," said the future police officer.

[nadiathesaint]

"After spending time on this island? I'm not willing to say that anything is impossible."

[union-jane.livejournal.com]

Seras grinned.

"I like those odds."

[nadiathesaint]

"Best security system you're ever going to get?"

[union-jane.livejournal.com]

"I'm guessing it's not alligators in a moat...though, maybe if they were ill-tempered and had 'lasers'."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia shook her head. "Never letting anyone know you have something worth taking."

[union-jane.livejournal.com]

Seras nodded.

"But, what if it's something that you need other people to know about? Like the key to a code? Or a cure for some disease? Those are valuable. Some people would think they were worth stealing."

[nadiathesaint]

"Then you have to accept the fact that it's going to be vulnerable and use what you've got. Or distribute it widely enough that it becomes easily accessible and thus no longer valuable."

[union-jane.livejournal.com]

"I guess it's a mercenary old world, then," said Seras with a short laugh. She crossed her arms.

"Good think I asked Pip for lessons, really."

[nadiathesaint]

"Sounds like it. Don't worry too much, though. For the most part, people will get tripped up by locks like these."