Guardians of the Edge: Last of the Portal Keys

Chapter Three : Target

The target floor was the most challenging. Antoinette's trusty hand-held used the cameras in the main museum sections to watch the night guard complete his hourly round before settling himself beside his partner to take in the basketball game.

An hour, Aiden thought to himself with a smirk. Give me ten minutes.

He pushed his confidence firmly aside as his father's voice rang in his head.

An arrogant thief has a long time to tell tales in prison, Eric said.

Aiden knew better than to get cocky. All of his training taught him better, including the museum tour they'd taken the day before.

A prepared thief is the best thief of all, Eric said.

Aiden had done his best bored teenager routine, pretending to text the entire time while he used the opportunity to scan for more security than appeared on the blueprints. While they had been assured the plans were current, the Trents refused to take any chances.

Always do your own recon, Eric said. The only person a good thief trusts is the good thief.

Aiden agreed, especially in this case. The man who hired them, the man they met the night before in the abandoned warehouse of their choosing, instantly gave him the creeps. Despite the large, lean man's regular, even handsome features, something about Tremaine's almost black eyes and thin lips sent off warning signals in Aiden. And although their employer had been courteous enough, deferential even, and anxious to have them take the job, Aiden learned from his father to trust his instincts about people.

The only good job is a job you choose yourself, Eric said.

Aiden raised his concerns with his parents who took him seriously. They always did.

"Should we say no?" Antoinette's long, slender fingers brushed through his blond hair almost short enough to be called a buzz cut. His beautiful mother always seemed so big to him, larger than life, but he'd easily passed her in height two years ago.

Aiden shrugged. "Something tells me he's holding back."

Antoinette and Eric shared a look before Eric shrugged.

"Your feeling." His father's dark green eyes shadowed by thick black hair and heavy brows pinned Aiden, but with respect. "Your decision."

He hesitated. The job was a big one, lots of money and an easy target. Is that what's making me nervous? He asked himself. Or what?

With a shake of his head, Aiden sealed the deal. "And give up such a sweet prize?" He laughed.

His parents laughed with him.

Aiden felt another shiver of goosebumps run through him, bringing him back to the present, as his father slid the door open, but this case of the shivers was fed by cold, not nerves. The blast of chill from the steadily churning air conditioning had lowered the temperature in the main hall by a full ten degrees. He checked his watch's thermometer. Make that eleven. He looked up and into Antoinette's blue eyes. They sparkled like gems in the dim light. He could never resist his beautiful mother and found himself smiling back, knowing she'd see the smile in his gaze. Aiden pointed toward her face and the curl of blonde hair escaping her black skullcap. With a wink, she tucked it back inside before turning to follow Eric into the museum.

Aiden knew their time was limited, guard-free hour or not, a fact rekindling his need to hurry. The dry ice pellets would melt in ten minutes. They had to be done and out by then. With a long, deep breath, he followed his parents.

Eric had already crossed the back end of the lobby on swift, silent feet. Antoinette was almost across when Aiden emerged. Easing the door closed behind him, he shadowed them, sparing one quick glance toward the other end of the lobby. The guard desk wasn't visible but the sound of the game echoed through the stone hall joined by the voices of the two men. The motionless cameras focused on the door to the main gallery both blinked amber. All clear, Aiden met his parents by the door to the prize and moved in to do his job.

He repeated his performance from the floor above, this time forced to drill through the wall behind a painting. Despite knowing they'd planned for everything, Aiden couldn't help but feel tension tighten his shoulders, making his back ache. Eric removed the art while Aiden produced a thick silicone sock to encase the drill and bit. It would burn out the motor of the drill by the time they were through, but the job would be done in relative silence. Antoinette crouched below them with a soft piece of cloth and nodded.

Aiden centered the bit slightly above the power point indicated by his hand-held, drill at a downward angle. He hoped his father missed the last-minute twitch of the bit as Aiden's fingers betrayed him to nerves. Unwilling to be the weak link and knowing he had a job to do, he hit the power button of the drill. More good fortune was on their side as the noise from the guard's basketball game masked the soft hum. The two men even obliged further by roaring over a missed basket. He felt the drill heating up through the silicone, stinging his hands, and pressed harder. This execution was longer, nineteen seconds, and they ticked by ever so slowly.

The moment the bit hit its reach, the drill died. Aiden stowed it, silicone sleeve and all, into his pack and retrieved a fresh tube of pellets as Antoinette folded up the cloth, giving the floor a swipe for good measure. The electrostatic properties of the special sheet lifted the last of the dust.

We were never here, Aiden thought. He waited for Antoinette's nod, then dispensed the tiny spheres of dry ice into the hole in a steady, even flow. Eight seconds. He stowed the canister in his bag, replacing it on his back and settled the painting in its former place. By then his parents had disarmed the proximity sensor on the door and they were in.

Aiden's whole body shuddered as he entered the room, his tension leaving him as they finally came in sight of the prize. The room itself was at maximum cold, just the way they wanted it, the museum's wireless technology vulnerable to their attack. Wireless systems ran on batteries. And batteries were notoriously unreliable in the cold.

The two motion sweeper cameras at the door were also displaying amber, thanks to Antoinette and her overrides. Aiden gave her a mental high five, knowing the real thing would have to wait. The vibration and proximity sensors in the wall behind them had been neutralized by Aiden's drill and dry ice pellets, the batteries drained of life by the freezing temperatures. Antoinette's remote transmitter four floors above overrode the system's need to inform the guards the sensors were no longer functioning. As far as they knew, it was five by five.

Aiden's only real concern was the curtain heat and vibration sensor he drilled and froze from the floor above. The sensor had a fifteen-foot radius centered over the prize. He barely registered the motionless cameras in the far corners, also directed at the case in question. While he knew he did his own job to the best of his ability and training, he was still anxious enough to please his parents. He worried about his own skills for a heartbeat.

He needn't have. The sensor remained silent, as ineffective as its counterpart. Aiden hung back as instructed while Antoinette and Eric moved forward, ignoring the priceless treasures lining the walls of the room, headed for the case at the back. Aiden didn't even look at the other objects. To him, as to his parents, it was never about what they could steal. It was always about what they had been hired to steal. The prize was all that mattered.

Never steal for yourself, Eric said. That leads to greed. Let other people covet. Keep your eye on the prize.

Aiden watched, wishing he was the one to snatch the prize. His parents were more than happy to teach him the ropes, to bring him on jobs, give him tasks to fulfill. But when it came to the prize itself, they still hadn't allowed him the chance to finish the deal.

A flare of frustration lit his anger for a moment. He was ready. Aiden was sure if Antoinette had her way, he'd have been the deal sealer on one of their jobs already. But Eric was boss when it came to jobs, had the final say. And while Aiden knew there had to be a team leader, he just wished his father would trust him as much as Aiden trusted Eric.

There's plenty of time, Eric said. Practice makes a perfect thief.

Aiden breathed through his irritation, knowing it wasn't doing him any good. He turned off his emotions as he let his natural awareness guard his parents from anything unforeseen. Aiden heard the guards laughing in the distance through the heavy wooden door, registered the hum of the A/C, the soft ticking of a timepiece somewhere off to his left. Clear of threats, he watched as his parents dealt with the last hurdle.

A frown creased his forehead as Aiden followed his mother's approach of the prize with his gaze. Just as she reached it, she stumbled. Hesitated. Eric froze, stared at her. It took her a moment, a very long and painful moment in Aiden's focused little world, before she shook her head and moved forward again.

Aiden refused to let his mind speculate on his mother's slip-up. He'd never known her to be anything less than elegant, graceful, perfect. Whatever happened, she was over it, back to her normal flawless performance. He considered how he'd almost dropped the drill bit upstairs and his frown smoothed away. He was a little old to be thinking his parents were invincible and didn't have their own "oops" moments.

A 4X4 inch pad rested under the prize inside the glass case. It was simplicity itself for Eric and Antoinette to suction onto the shell and lift it free. But the proximity sensor needed to be disabled first. Eric slid free his backpack, pulling out tools, employing Aiden's trick by rolling onto his back, drilling into the pedestal before applying the freezing pellets. Aiden watched, bouncing softly on his toes in eager anxiety as Antoinette gave the thumbs up and the case was free.

Perhaps if he hadn't been so focused he would have missed it. A lesser thief would have, certainly. His parents were so intent on their jobs, he was sure they didn't catch it right away either. But it was his duty to keep them safe, to guard them while they completed the grab. And yet, the slow, gentle tingle growing within him matched the soft glow beginning within the prize and seemed, at first, a hallucination, perhaps. An oddity in his limbs from the icy air conditioning or an aftereffect behind his eyes caused by nerves. Before he could say a word about it, even react to the strangeness, the prize flared to life, the glow throwing so much heat through the room Aiden winced back. He caught a glimpse of his parent's shocked faces as the glow enveloped them.

As suddenly, the light vanished. Aiden blinked, fighting to regain his night eyes as sparkles shifted and whorled across his vision, heart hammering so loud in his ears he couldn't hear past his own pulse. It only took seconds, but it seemed an eternity while he fought off the last of the afterimage and stared in disbelief.

The prize lay on the pedestal, the glass case resting on the floor beside it. Two black backpacks sprawled nearby. But his parents... they were nowhere to be seen.

Aiden froze for a moment, disbelief warring with growing fear and confusion. This had not been in the plan. He looked around, frantic terror growing inside him like a living thing, choking off his air and his ability to think, act, breathe.

Inexplicably, without a trace or a whisper, their flawless plan collapsed.

Eric and Antoinette were gone.

***