[Csjarrat]

The gecko grips to the old brick as you put each hand against the wall and test the strength of the adhesion.
Focussing in on your inner strength, the you feel the mana infuse your muscles to a huge extent, bulging them perceptibly against your clothing.
With care to keep your noise levels down, you haul yourself up the side of the building, cresting the roofline and ducking through a hole in the half-rotten wooden hoardings.
With a little further effort, you find yourself prone on a reasonably large flat roof. Sections to your left have sagged down, filled with an inch or two of rainwater, but it's the old air-conidtioning unit that catches your eye most.
an very quiet audible hum registers in your earbuds as you dial up the enhancement, the spatial recognizer confirming the direction of the noise in your image link.
Even in the near pitch-dark, you can see a thick insulated power cable snaking its way out of the rear of the unit, through a puddle and over to a weatherproof interface panel next to the roof access door.
Considering the state of the roof and building in general, the unit and interface panel looked awfully new...

[Scawire]

Once Mantis got into the ally way he decides to call up his Spirit helper. Thanks for coming to me and my friends aid could you use your concealment power on me and Knives. As Mantis gives his request to his helper he Mentally pictures Knives and his position in his head so He Spirit aid knows who Knives is. With the command sent Mantis pulls back into the shadows of the ally as best he can and watches Knives position as best he can, eyes and ears open.

[Csjarrat]

___Scawire___
Ducking into the alley, your nose is assaulted by the stench of years of accumulated piss, rotten garbage and god knows what else as well.
You tuck in behind a large bag, half-kicking a large sheet of half-rotten corrugated cardboard as you go.
Calling forth your spirit, it shimmers and coalesces into a ghostly form beside you.
As you wish...
It crosses the street, moving with purpose towards the location it expected to find Knives in, before moving around randomly as if searching for something it could not find.

[Lumen]

Knives lays motionless on his belly for a minute taking in his surroundings.  *Smith said it would be guarded so if this is it I gotta be careful.  No room for foul ups.*   Done with his mental pep talk he planks up onto his hands and toes.  Keeping low to roof Knives slowly scuttles through the puddles over towards the interface panel.  Once he's closed the distance he eyes the panel closely and wracks his brain thinking of all the ways this panel could be rigged to ruin his night.

[Csjarrat]

Your mind begins to race as you approach the cabinet, any number of security measures could be put in place on a bit of kit like this. The easiest and cheapest one you could think of would be a pressure sensor, triggering an alarm when the access panel opens and releases the weight on it. You knew they were in place in shop fronts up and down the Old Smoke, they'd caught out your pals as they jimmied doors open and ruined a couple of break ins when they'd been rigged up to a silent Matrix hot-line to the pigs.
There could be anything fancy in there too; light sensors, motion detectors, hell, even a thermal sensor would register someone being too nosy in cabinet's contents if it was sensitive enough.
Crawling through the puddle had overloaded the worksuit's meagre damp proofing and you were now sodden all down your front and up your arms and lower legs. You tried to keep low as much as you could, keeping your kit out of the water as much as you could, but it wasn't easy.
The insulated power cable snaked through a secure and weatherproof metal fitting into the internal aspect of the cabinet, with an inspection panel directly above it.
It was oddly secured with a huge metal padlock and a thick width of steel rope rather than any fancy gadgets, but you assumed there might be more gadgetry awaiting you on the inside...

[Csjarrat]

___Mantis___
After a couple more minutes of frantic searching, the spirit's ghostly form vanishes from view

[Lumen]

Knives moves around to kneel in front of the panel, having studied the target closely he stretches his neck to both sides then unzips his kit.  *No big deal mate, just another lock like the hundred others yer trusty picker has bested.*  Pulling out the autopicker he ever so gently lifts the padlock to get a better look at keyhole.  With the still hand of surgeon Knives guides the devices with a meticulous care that one probably would not expect from a blaggard street thug from the East End.

[Csjarrat]

lockpicking roll (autopicker rating) please

[Csjarrat]

It takes a couple of seconds, but re-positioning and tweaking the position of the autopicker eventually results in the satisfying *click* you were hoping for.
Shortly after the happy *clunk* your mana field flickers, giving you an uneasy sense, almost the shivers that everyone talks about as "someone walking over your grave"

[Lumen]

Knives inhales sharply as the lock pops and a shiver takes him.  He breaths outs slowly and away from the panel.  *Keep it together mate.  Ya done good but it's just the beginning.*  Slowly he sets the autopicker back in his kit then carefully removes the large padlock and sets it down gently in front of him.  He leans in and closely inspects where the steal rope meets the panel and the edges of the panel itself.

[Csjarrat]

The steel rope is thick enough that you'd need hydraulics or a welding rig to cut it, and the heft of the padlock shows that someone spent really good money on it; there's no way you'd be able to destroy the lock without some serious equipment.
The access panel sits flush to the joint and there is too little ambient light to see into the recess properly. Without a light source you'd have to open it blind and hope for the best

[Scawire]

With the vanishing of his spirit from view Mantis does his best to take a look around the road by the ally he is in to see if there are any major threats. Hopefully no but best keep an eye out on the ground level. I need to get something to deal with my bad climbing skills, maybe a spell or two to help out. Mantis peeks out the side of the ally to see what the road houses.

[Lumen]

*Fuck all I haven't got the tools or the talent to pull this off but it's got to get done.   Just go real slow, be real careful,  and pray your bloody ass off.*  Knives exhales oncs again away from the panel and holds the air out,  better to still his hands.  He gently raises one end of the rope to allow him to open the panel without removing it.   Then he goes about slowly opening the panel.   All of his attention is focused solely of this panel, he searches for the slightest trimmer or sound to alert him that some trap may lie hidden.   He prays that he's quick enough and he draws mana down into himself to reach his peak of reaction and dexterity.

[Csjarrat]

__Scawire___
You stick your head around the corner of the alley, keeping out of the weak orange light cast by the old phosphorous streetlight. The road is deathly quiet, the hobo seems to have settled down at the far end of the street having finished raiding through the bins.
Faint traffic noise from the distant main roads and the hustle and bustle of the market district a few blocks away carry on the still evening air if you really strain for them, but it appears as if this aspect of the slums is as derelict as it appears to the eye.
The spirit startles you out of your concentration I have done as you wish, though your friend was not where you said he would be, I apologise for the delay. As a matter of interest, from what am I concealing you?

[Csjarrat]

__Lumen__
The access panel door squeaks open slowly, metal grinding on metal hinges as you try to minimise the noise.
In the stillness of the evening air, it sounds like death-metal, but you know it's only because you're hyper sensitive and your audio enhancement is dialled up to the max.
A few blinking LED status lights welcome you as the squeaky panel comes to rest, the lights belying the presence of racks of electronic equipment concealed in the air con unit, casting a very weak glow inside the access panel bay.