Verse 20: Operation: Langston Lift-Off

The whiteboard in the Loophole Club room now looked like something out of a heist movie. Malik had drawn arrows, circles, stick figures with night-vision goggles (unnecessary), and a rough sketch of Professor Langston that suspiciously resembled a potato with eyebrows.

Noah leaned against the desk with a half-eaten protein bar. “Okay, okay. Back in focus, Loopers. Let’s talk Langston.”

He pointed to a blurry photo of Professor Langston mid-yawn, taken from a suspiciously low angle.

“Elena?”

“This is a classic smash-and-skim,” she said. “Langston leaves his debt phone in his office under lock and key every night. We have a forty-five-minute window before the janitor rotation starts. We get in, find it, take some screenshots and get out clean.”

“Why do we need this again?” someone asked.

Malik answered, cracking his knuckles. “Langston’s official mid-semester report is coming up. Word on the street is that he fails everyone in his class. It’s a scheme to get us to pay for retakes. I don’t know about you guys but I can’t afford to 400 Kraps to retake an exam.”

“Fuck No!” voices shouted.

I nodded slowly. “That’s illegal, right…shouldn’t we just report this to the administration instead of all this?”

Shelia, cheering next to me spoke, half laughing. “Trust me, it’s been tried before but he always has an answer for everything. He even goes as far as to replace the students' reports with fake bad versions.”

“She’s right, bro,” Malik came, putting his hand on my shoulder. “No chickening out. Yo, once you’re in…. you’re in.”

“Why do I feel like I just joined a cult?” I muttered.

“Cult’s a strong word,” Malik said beside me. “I prefer... aggressively curious community.”

The tall girl with the white NONSENSE hoodie raised her hand. “To be fair, this started as a bet. But now we think someone’s using Langston to test... something. We don’t know what. Yet.”

Someone in the back yelled, “He’s definitely a puppet!”

Another added, “Or he’s just broke and weird!”

Noah held up his hands. “We don’t jump to conclusions here. Unless they’re dramatic and make great PowerPoints.”

He went to the whiteboard and wrote in smooth handwriting, almost calligraphy: OPERATION: PHONE SWAP.

“We need a plan to get inside his office without tipping him off. Malik and Elena already tried pretending to be lab techs. It didn’t work out.”

“In my defense,” Malik said, “we didn’t know about the cameras.”

Elena joined Noah upfront.

“If this is turning into another chaotic mess, I’m not helping,” she said. “We’re already on thin ice with campus security.”

Noah didn’t flinch. “Don’t worry. This time we have everything thought out.”

Elena looked straight at me for the first time that night. “And you’re really getting involved in this?”

The room quieted a bit.

I hesitated, then shrugged.

“Good.” She sat back down, but didn’t look away so fast this time.

Noah cleared his throat. “Anyway. We’ll test the phones this Friday during Langston’s office hours. Three-person team. Distraction, observer, extractor.”

Three teams were assembled from the newcomers.

Team Distraction was to run interference outside and included Malik and Sheila.

Team Observer included Remy, a dude who wore sunglasses at night for no reason and the girl with the NONSENSE hoodie named Keish, who was glued to her phone.

Team Extraction was Elena and me. Because of course it was.

Remember that scarf I picked earlier? I basically volunteered for this, and I guess so did Elena.

“Best combo for stealth and brainpower,” Malik shouted.

Elena didn’t react, just adjusted her ponytail and said, “Let’s get it over with.”

Yay, go team.

PHASE ONE: DISTRACTION (failing miserably)

From the hallway outside Langston’s office, we heard chaos erupt down the corridor. Malik’s voice rose above the others.

“Professor Harrison told me I could vape indoors if the windows were open!”

Someone slammed a locker. Sheila let out a high-pitched laugh that sounded just unhinged enough to call campus security.

It was right after those sounds that I realized something about this plan doesn’t make any sense. Why the hell would Malik and Sheila be running interference? I have known them for a few days and they’re not the quietest of the bunch.

I turned to Elena as we crouched near the office door.

“You sure about this?”

She pulled out a paperclip. “You ever pick a lock before?”

“Uh, no.”

She handed me the clip. “Then congratulations. You’re about to level up.”

PHASE TWO: Extraction (in progress)

The lock clicked open faster than I expected, only I had nothing to do with it.

“Where did you learn that?” I whispered.

“My grandma used to lock her candy drawer. I was seven and determined.”

We slipped into the office. It was dark, smelled like lemon disinfectant and mild regret. The shelves were stacked with unreadable books like "Economic Thermodynamics" and "The Emotional Impact of Accounting."

Elena moved like she’d done this before. “You check the desk drawers. I’ll hit the file cabinet.”

I opened one drawer and immediately closed it.

“Why does he have three stress balls and a pack of candy in here?”

“No time, Davis.”