Previous: Thief in the Water Chapter One
Thief in the Water
Chapter Two
I'm not the best person to take on a car ride. It used to be before the Great Impact I could just lay back and fall asleep as soon as the wheels hit the road. Now though, something about being in a dry metal box surrounded by dry ground is just off-putting to me.
"Oi, you mind NOT kicking my seat?"
It's not exactly an enjoyable experience for anyone else in the car either. I apologize to Baxter and decide to turn my attention to Calvin in the passenger seat.
"The buyer's going to meet us at the site, right?"
"They're waiting for us as we speak," Calvin says, looking up from his computer to look out the window. "They might have a few extra grey hairs than the last time we met at the rate Baxter's driving around, though."
"Just being cautious is all," Baxter replies, unfazed by Calvin's remark. He points at me in the back of the van. "I don't trust this bloke to be anywhere near a car when it comes to a job."
"The sky was falling, if you don't recall, Baxter," I rebuke. "The fact that I landed in the river and not a damn hole in the ground is a godsend."
Add that to the growing list of why I don't like cars. The moment where I'm making my big getaway after robbing a bank, alien debris decides to start raining down on the city and causes me to drive into the river. In reality it was the perfect cover for ditching the cops, but I ended up getting gills out of it.
"Alright, we're here."
Baxter parks the van in front of an open airplane hangar. Inside I can see a single limousine with three men waiting in front of it.
"Let's get our money, boys," I say, carefully grabbing the bag that contains the stone tablet.
All together, we get out of the van and walk inside the hangar.
"Good morning, gentlemen," I call out, my voice reverberating across the hangar walls. None of the men return my greeting and instead keep standing like statues in front of the limo.
When we get close enough, the man in the middle speaks in a stern German accent, "Do you have the item?"
"We do," I say, opening the bag and letting the German see the tablet. "But if it's all the same to you, I'd like to do this face to face with our employer, not his middleman."
The German's eyebrow twitches, which I can guess to be a repressed scowl, but calmly knocks on the limo's window.
The limo door opens and my employer, a man who I would guess to be in his mid-fifties and wearing a suit that costs five times what he's paying me, steps out. He smiles at me approvingly.
"You're reputation precedes you, Mr. Turner," he says. "My corporation hired you only three days ago and here you already are with our package. Very impressive."
"I aim to please, sir," I say, taking the tablet out of the bag. "Now, for my payment."
"First, I'm afraid we'll have to prove the tablet's authenticity," the employer explains.
One of the men steps towards me, hand held out for the tablet. Reluctantly, I give him the stone and he walks back to the employer. I expect him to inspect the tablet closely, but instead he gives the man a short nod and the man breaks the tablet over his knee in one swift motion.
"What the hell-" Baxter steps forward threateningly but I stop him, my interest peaked.
Like a stone fortune cookie, the man pulls out a piece of paper from the broken tablet and hands it to the employer. As he reads the paper, the employers smile widens until he finally folds it up and puts it in his coat pocket.
"It is genuine," he says, happily. "Well done, gentlemen, very well done. How would you like your payment, cash or electronic transfer?"
Ten minutes later…
I watch as the limo pulls out towards the main road as we walk back to the van.
"That has to be the weirdest thing we've ever had to steal," Baxter says. I nod, silently trying to think of what was on the paper that made it worth 500 thousand dollars.
"We got paid," Calvin happily replies, "that's all that matters to me."
I lag behind to look at the limo one last time, my thoughts still racing over what the paper was. Calvin and Baxter are already in the van when I look back.
"Well come on then, Ed, let's-"
BOOOOOM!
The van explodes in a giant fireball, the blast throwing me backward as I cover myself from the shrapnel. Debris falls down from the sky as I lay on the tarmac, ears ringing.
I look back at the fiery remains of the van, any trace of my friends completely burned away by the bomb. The sound of my breathing fills my ringing ears as I just stare at the smoldering van.
What the hell was on that piece of paper?
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