Valkyrie heist

The **Valkyrie heist** was the heist of the Valkyrie, a safe located NPIB Prague. This was the biggest of the three heists in *Army of Thieves*, taking place between the other two and focusing on each character's honed skills.

## History

The second Hans Wagner safe targeted by Gwendoline's heist crew was the Valkyrie, housed in NPIB Prague. This time Korina would support Sebastian Schlencht-Wöhnert and Gwendoline Starr by electronically guiding them through NPIB Prague's security protocols. She led Sebastian through a series of evasive maneuvers to throw off any security that might be watching through the video feeds, though his apparent disappearance between cameras was noted by security all the same. Sebastian and Gwen reunited at the elevator to the Valkyrie vault, and at the bottom they were met with armed guards. Gwen fought them off and bound them, then Sebastian got to work on the safe. The process was made longer by a minor slipup that put the safe in a warning state, meanwhile the guards continued looking into Sebastian's disappearance in their recordings and noticed he'd merely pretended to unlock a door. They realized someone must be in their system to unlock it for him, indirectly detecting Korina's presence, and issued a soft lockdown until they could investigate.

Seeing this on her computer, Korina relayed the lockdown to Brad Cage, who launched "plan B" - a traditional bank robbery as a distraction. He donned a mask, knocked out several guards with tranquilizer darts, and began to order patrons and tellers around to fill a bag with cash. Sebastian managed to crack the safe, and he and Gwen used the chaos of Brad's robbery to flee with the other bank patrons. Brad made it to the van and Rolph started it up. Gwen and Sebastian were not far behind, so Brad helped Gwen into the moving vehicle. When it was Sebastian's turn, instead of helping him in, Brad threw him back into the street.

## Aftermath

The Czech police were quickly swarming the area, so Sebastian made a run for it. He found a man with a bike and tugged it away from him, using it to evade the police. They gave chase both by car and by foot, but he lost the cars in narrow walkways and the rest with the bike's superior speed, successfully making it onto a moving train. He made his way home, disillusioned at how his new life had ended and the realization that he'd have to return to his old one the next day. Arriving at home, he was surprised to find Gwen and Korina, who had split from Brad and Rolph and broken into his place to wait for him. They convinced him his adventure wasn't over, and the trio planned the final heist without the other two.

## Trivia

* Sebastian's phone time shows that he passes the security checkpoint at 5:15 PM. It's nearly 5:30 when security noticed Sebastian seeming to avoid the cameras, then 5:31 when Sebastian and Gwen arrive at the Valkyrie vault. The clock in the main lobby after this remains closer to 5:15.
	+ Sebastian uses a different phone when playing the music for the safecracking than he used to text Korina at 5:15.
* Czech police responded to a real call that required them to pass the film crew while filming the Valkyrie heist, and footage of the real police cars was used in *Army of Thieves*.

## References

Shay Hatten (writer) & Matthias Schweighöfer (director) (October 29, 2021). *Army of Thieves*.