Chapter 30
THE LAND OF THE LIVING
SEVEN
"Elijah is in position." Atticus's voice comes through the earpiece, gruff and focused.
Here we fucking go.
Without weeks of careful planning, we agreed that the only way to succeed tonight is to do this loud.
My favorite way to do things.
It also makes a statement. We reenter the art theft scene with a proper bang and a giant fuck you to Ambrose. Our collection had several Modiglianis, so it absolutely makes sense that we'd want this one. It also makes sense that Ambrose would want to expand his stolen collection from the artist.
Or at least, that's how I rationalized it to Atticus when he mentioned how using intel so quickly might lead to suspicion.
This sort of thing may not be the end goal, but fuck if it won't be like Christmas morning once I get that vault open.
"On the move," I announce, yanking my mask over my face as I slip from my perch high in the rafters of an exhibition room.
I've been here for hours, waiting patiently for Atty's green light, and it's downright delicious to move my stiff muscles as I swing free from my hiding place to the adjacent wall and climb down to the floor.
"Hold," Atty barks, and I flatten myself inside the opening to the main hall. "Coming now. Twenty seconds."
As he says it, I hear the footsteps of the patrol guard approaching and rise to the balls of my feet, electric with unspent energy.
Come on, come on.
"Ten," Atty says, and I lick my lips.
"Five."
I shake out my hands, wait until the guard passes the opening to the hall, and then step out. He can't even get out his gasp of surprise before I have my arm around his neck, bicep flexing as he fights uselessly against my hold.
"Easy, Sev," Atty warns in my ear. "No deaths."
I control my strength, dragging him into the exhibit hall, lowering him to the ground as he goes limp. I check to make sure he's still breathing.
"Get the key card, move. You have one minute until the next rotation."
I catch my reflection in the glass covering a large gouache by Henri Matisse. The Ghostface mask looks as dope as I thought it would and I make finger guns at my reflection.
"Seven, focus. And I'm never leaving you in charge of masks again."
"But you look so good in your skull mask, Daddicus."
"Sev." He draws out my name, and I sigh, adjusting the mask before I move down the hall double time, pausing for only half a sec to moon Atticus watching me through the hijacked camera feed.
"Real mature, asshole."
I swipe the card on the reader to the main elevator, then swipe it again inside to hit the button for the underground level, where Eli should already be waiting in a full security uniform. I hike my pants back up, tighten my belt, and adjust the shotgun across my back.
"Showtime, Sev. Make it good."
"Always do."
The elevator door opens, and I swing the shotgun from my back, step out of the elevator, cock it, and aim at the first nonliving thing I see, which is a wall of employe du mois portraits.
Frames explode and glass shatters, and the guard in the hall fumbles for his radio and his weapon like he can't decide which one he should be reaching for.
When I aim the still-smoking barrel at him, he decides neither is the best option.
Smart man.
I gesture with the shotgun that he should get on his knees, and once he's there, muttering something unintelligible in French, I use the butt of the gun to shut him up.
"Two more, approaching right. Five seconds."
I count it down and fire into the ceiling as they're about to come around the corner down the hall. They immediately back up.
"Use the gas," Atty says. "We don't have time."
"I've got it," Eli finally pipes up in my earpiece, and there's a short cut-off screech and the buzz of a Taser. By the time I'm around the corner, the guard is on the floor, and Eli is standing over him.
"Nice work."
"Thanks."
"I've disabled the silent alarm," Atticus announces in the earpiece. "But someone will have heard those shots. It's only a matter of time before they make the call to the authorities. You have five minutes if you're lucky, and it'll take at least three to get you out of there without being caught."
I pull Eli's mask from where I had it hooked to my belt and hand it to him. "Good thing I only need thirty seconds."
"Leading the way," Eli says, some pep in his step as he tears off the uniform shirt, leaving himself in a simple black tee, and pulls on the mask with the glowing red smile and matching X's for eyes.
"Other guards?" I ask as we rush back the way he came.
"Dealt with."
Eli doesn't like fucking with people half as much as I do, so I know he wasn't exactly thrilled with Atticus's suggestion to dose them all, but it was the path of least resistance.
He jerks his thumb behind us as we walk. "The only reason that guy wasn't out, too, is because he drinks decaf. Heart problem."
"Should've put him out of his misery," I joke. Mostly.
Elijah snorts.
"This isn't playtime," Atticus grumbles in my earpiece.
"Oh, lighten up, Daddicus. This used to be fun, remember?"
I pull my earpiece out and toss it to Eli as he leads us into the vault room, where there are three snoozing guards surrounded by spilled coffee.
"Damn, Eli. Ice cold. Love it."
I kneel in front of the vault door, registering that it's a Fichet Bauche and immediately knowing how I have to do this.
Eli opens his mouth to say something, but I hold up a finger. "Sevvy has to work now. Please hold."
The noise won't bother me much since Jules taught me how to do it by touch instead of sound, but using both helps.
Which is why I bust out the stethoscope Atticus fitted to a pair of rubber-tipped earbuds for me and push them beneath the hood of my mask and deep into my ears.
Then I prop my phone against the vault and hit the stopwatch button.
Pressing the stethoscope to the door, I start.
The metal dial is cold and has just the right amount of resistance to motion.
That'll make it more of a challenge, but I love working with this type of locking mechanism.
I practiced on the flight over since it's been a while, but this sort of skill doesn't really ever leave you. It's like riding a bike.
I fight to calm the sound of my own pulse in my ears. Normally, not much of a problem, but I'm fucking stoked we're doing this. I thought after Eli… I didn't think we'd ever get back to this.
I take a few precious seconds to force my heart into a slower rhythm so I'm not distracted by the pulsing in my fingertips. Then, I'm moving the dial.
Right…tick.
Then left…tick.
Around twice to the right, and…tick.
Back to…
…there.
The satisfying metallic knock of the lock disengaging rattles through me and I glance down at the phone.
"Fuck yeah, you see that?"
"Twenty-nine seconds," Eli tells Atty through the earpiece with the kind of high in his voice he only gets from this sort of work.
He tosses me back my earpiece as he opens the vault.
"New record," I announce as I remove the earbuds and push the earpiece back into place.
"Congratulations. You have three minutes."
Elijah swiftly removes the Modigliani from its plexiglass case, eating a minute we don't have, but it'd be too bulky to carry as is.
"Why aren't you moving?"
"Moving!" Eli announces, carrying the frame through the vault door. "Route?"
I throw the shotgun over my shoulder and take out the pistol loaded with rubber bullets instead. So much less fun than real ones, but I guess we can't go around killing people who don't deserve it.
"Down the hall, take the first right, twenty paces down there should be an emergency stair exit on your left. Take that up two flights and exit onto the second floor, turn left, and go straight. I'll buzz you out the emergency exit past the sculpture exhibit."
"Got it," I reply, moving through the halls to open the doors for Eli since his hands are full. The Modigliani is huge, and his knuckles are white where he grips the frame.
"You good with that?" I ask. "We can swap."
"I've got it."
"Police have been dispatched," Atticus says. "Ninety seconds out."
We're to the door in under a minute, and it buzzes under my hands as I swing it open to an array of red and blue lighting up the sky in the distance.
"Black van, two blocks south. Run."
I check, but there isn't a soul near this exit, so I pocket the pistol, take one side of the frame from Eli, and together, we run.
Halfway into the first block, Eli breaks into a laugh, and when I look at him, I know that beneath the glowing red smile of his mask is a real one.
And I can't help it, I laugh, too, even when the frame of the Modigliani starts to loosen and creak under my grip.
"Oh shit," I say between laughs as the van comes into view, trying to find a better grip as Atticus throws the door on the side of the van open and gets out to help us maneuver the frame in without damaging it. His skull mask making him look even more deadly than he already is.
We manage to slide it in and then I notice the street camera overhead. The reason for the masks.
"Wait. One sec!"
I stop Atty from rushing into the van, jerking him back and Elijah in with my other hand until I have them with my arms around their shoulders.
"Smile!"
Eli laughs and when Atticus realizes what I'm doing, he lurches out of my grasp with a groan, and steps up into the back of the van with a growled, "Move your asses. Let's go."
I'm around the van in seconds and into the driver's seat as the doors all close.
"Follow the route on the GPS. Do not deviate," Atticus says as I pull away from the side of the road, and make the U-turn.
"You got it, Daddicus."
Eli is still laughing quietly in the back, and it reminds me of our first-ever solo job without Jules. Fuck, did we ever make a mess of it, but we managed. And afterward, when we escaped despite the odds being abysmal, we'd all laughed until I felt like I was going to piss myself.
I wonder if he's remembering that right now, too.
A low chuckle joins Eli in the back as I drive us away from the scene of the crime.
Atticus's laugh goes from barely there to loud enough to wake the dead, and I know this is it. We're fucking back.
This time, it wasn’t about the art.
Maybe it never was.
Tonight was about proving we can still do this. That Ambrose didn’t break us and we’re still The White Rose, even without the collection. Without Julian.
This is about taking something back.
"God damn," Atty says as his laughter trails off, and we make it onto the main highway without incident. "I forgot what it was like…"
"We all did, bro. Welcome back to the land of the living."