Sneak Thief [Aywas World] [1/1]

[snarkhunt]

Title: Sneak Thief
Fandom: Aywas World
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Summary: At least 5k words for the January 2011 Aywas scavenger hunt that had to include the words custom crystal, exploding fish, and sandwiches (Aywas style). Ugh. I clocked out at a little over 11k words.

Sarah opened her eyes slowly and peered around, not recognizing the table she was now sitting at. She was in a room that stretched out for about twenty feet, decorated in heavy wooden furniture and sleek lines. There was nobody in with her, but she had the feeling of being watched, like there were actually people in the room, she just couldn't see them. Sarah repressed a quick shudder and stood up from the large wooden chair she had been first sitting in.

"Where am I?" she couldn't help but ask, feeling like the words were being sucked into the very walls. She shook her head and headed towards the doors that stood at the end of the room, twin doors with large golden handles that swooped downwards, like rushing waterfalls. Sarah paused for a moment to admire them and their design, running her hands along the sleek lines of water and the small etches of fish that was actually carved into it. It was a lovely door—in fact, on second thought, everything in the room was lovely, a sort of understated elegance that was apparent in every buffed surface.

She opened the door and stepped into a long hallway filled with what seemed to be ten other doors of various shapes and sizes. There was a blue round one and a red one so tall it hit the top of the ceiling. Another red door, slightly less red than the tall one, was wide enough to take up the space of two doors. Yet another door (yellow, this time) was so small that she could hardly think that anyone could fit except for maybe a very tiny child. A pink door was much the same, only instead of being small; it was so thin as to let nobody pass except for, perhaps, some cardboard.

Sarah froze by her set of doors and looked down at the floor like it could jump up and bite her feet. Was it her imagination that it seemed to move? No, no it wasn't. The floor, which had seemed to be made of wood, was flowing in a definite direction, a slow, steady pace that reminded her of those flat escalator like things one saw at airports.

Instead of stepping out onto the moving floor, Sarah moved back into the room she had first woken up in and closed the door. Briefly she leaned her forehead against it. "That is kind of crazy," she said.

"A little bit, yeah."

Sarah whirled around to stare at a man who gave her a cheery grin back and a cocked brow. He was tall, about a head taller than her, with a shock of red hair and bright blue eyes. He was also wearing a hideous bandana around his neck, and she resisted the urge to snatch it away from him and burn it.

"Sandwich?"

She blinked and looked down at the table which now bore a plate of… what apparently was literally sandwiches. Bread stuffed with sand.

"Why would I want that?" she couldn't help but ask, her nose wrinkling.

"I dunno." The man tucked his thumbs into the waist of his jeans and gave her what he probably thought was a winning grin. "Seemed like something interesting. It was being sold in a shop and I figured, hey, that couldn't really be a literal sandwich, could it? But apparently I was wrong."

"You bought something that was sand in bread?" Sarah rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, keeping her back to the door, just out of the way of the door handle. If the guy did anything fishy (well, fishier than buying literal sandwiches) then she was going to bolt for the hallway, moving floor and surreal doors or not. "Are you an idiot?" she asked, cocking her head to the side, "Are you always like this? Maybe you need a keeper." She paused, slightly horrified at herself. She was not usually this acerbic, but then again she woke up in a strange room in an even stranger house and there was this person in front of her that may or may not be the person who put her there—which made him some kind of kidnapper.

For a moment she felt faint before she banished that feeling with an annoyed push. There was time for dramatics. This? This was not that time.

"Who are you?" she asked, switching subjects quickly because she wanted answers and she wanted answers now. "What am I doing here? Why did you bring me here? If you are some kind of kidnapper, I tell you now that I will gut you before anything happens to me." She was only somewhat bluffing. She was not all that great with physically knocking someone down, but Sarah was not afraid to fight dirty at all.

The guy spread out his hands, his cheerful grin never wavering. "Hey, hey, I'm not a bad guy." He paused, apparently thinking over his statement, then said, "Well, all right, I am sort of a bad guy, but not the type of guy who kidnaps and murders people. More of a lesser, not as evil, bad guy."

She snorted. "Right, sure, all right, I believe you."

"You do?" He gave her puppy dog eyes.

"No," she said flatly, "I'm not stupid."

Sarah reached out for the doorknob, only to twist away in surprise as it turned by itself. She backed away from the door that was opening and laid her back flat against the wall.

Two more people entered the room. One was a girl that was younger than her, she looked like a child of about fourteen, with large green eyes and a wavy blond hair. The girl was in a cute white sundress and, strangely enough, especially in a house, was holding an umbrella—an honest to goodness umbrella and not one of those parasol type things that filtered out the sun's light. Next to the girl, dwarfing her by a couple of feet, was another man, large and rugged, like what you typically thought of was a mountain man, only he was not as scruffy. He had a closely cropped beard and dark chestnut hair and, Sarah could not help but sneak a peek, abs you could probably bounce a coin on. His features were somewhat rough and his dark eyes looked like they were pinning her to the wall and keeping her there.

She scowled at them both. "Did you kidnap her too?" she asked brazenly, pointing at the girl who twirled her umbrella and smiled at her.

"Hey now," the first guy, the red-head, said. "We did not kidnap anyone. Well," he amended, a sly little grin on his face, "maybe just you."

"We are not here to hurt you," the young girl piped up, her voice like clear bells. Her sweet face did not match the coldness in her eyes. Sarah looked around covertly for some sort of window she could dive out of, but red-head was in front of the only pair of windows in the room, and little girl and mountain man were in front of the door. She probably should have escaped when she had the chance, but who was she to know what was going to happen? Besides, she did not know the layout of the place or where she even was. What if she was in the middle of nowhere? Then even if she did run away she would either have to go back to her kidnappers or tough it out in the woods, and she was not the sort of person to do that.

Of course she was jumping the gun a bit. It was not certain that she was in the middle of the woods. For all she knew she was in the middle of the city and she just lost the best chance she had at escape. The thought chilled her to the bones and made her eyes just the slightest bit more frosty.

"Why did you kidnap me?" she demanded and let the back of her head thunk against the wall. "What do you want with me? I am not worth much and I would give you nothing but trouble," she threatened.

"Like we said," the young girl muttered, slightly exasperated. "We're not here to hurt you."

"And I just believe that you kidnapped me out of the goodness of your heart, huh?" Sarah spat out. "Like I would believe that. You are just a bunch of loons. Or goons." She then looked back at the sandwiches. "Or just plain idiots, who am I to know?" Though that would have been embarrassing, would it not? To be kidnapped by a bunch of idiots. The thought made Sarah burn with something mixed with embarrassment and pure fury.

"We just want your help," the mountain man spoke up next, his voice low and slow, like smoky molasses. Sarah turned her glare on him, though it seemed to bounce off him like light off mirrors.

"And this was the best way to ask, of course," Sarah snapped. "Kidnap a person, put her in a room in a crazy house, and think it is perfectly all right to hold her against her will. Way to go, you."

The red head laughed. "Right, like you are on the right side of the law most of the time."

Sarah froze and turned her head to give him an even look, even as her mind was racing. What did he know? No, what did they know? She did her best to stay under the radar as much as possible, and she did not like attracting attention at all. Her name was only known to a few select people, but even they would not rat her out—would they? If they did, if she heard that someone had, she was going to hunt that person down and exact brutal vengeance. The game was the game until someone, namely her, got hurt. And she was not the sort to want to get hurt, not for something that started off fun, got serious, and now she had investments in what she was doing and she did not want to stop for anyone.

"What are you talking about?" she said, calmly. "You guys are the loons who kidnapped me. I am just your ordinary girl that walks down a street. Sure I like to have fun every once in a while, but nothing dangerous."

The small girl laughed. "Like we would believe that of you, Ms. Cat."

Sarah froze. How many people knew that she was the Black Cat? A thief of certain renown (and it was not just pure flattery) that was perhaps one of the best of the business, even if she did not do many heists. Most of what she did was for the pure challenge of it all, or perhaps to make a large amount of cash that would sit in a tidy account. She fully planned to retire as early as possible and maybe go free lancing a little bit on the side, just for fun and never anything too serious.

"So you caught me." Even she knew when the jig was up. She uncrossed her arms and slouched, her eyebrow raising just the slightest bit. "What do you want? Money? To send me to jail? Though probably not the latter since you guys are not cops." No, not with a young girl like that, unless there was a baby face on the police force masquerading—no. The girl looked genuinely young, even if the look in her eyes was of someone who saw a few of the darker things in life. Sarah would, maybe, have felt bad for her, but you know what? Bad things happen to people all the time and there is little one could do for them. It was all well and good if she said that she felt sorry for the girl, but what would that change? Sarah liked to think of herself as a pragmatist. She did some charity things and underneath, aside from her little bits of thievery that hardly hurt anyone (well, except in a monetary sense, but she always stole from the ones who had a little more change than others, so to speak), she was a relatively good person. Not completely one hundred percent good, but who was? Those types of people tend to die early, and she was looking forward to sipping mojitos on a beach somewhere, well in her eighties. It was a nice thought and a nice dream, and it was something she was aiming for in a vague sense.

"We do not want money," the mountain man said.

Sarah looked at him. She said, in a dry, dry voice, "No offense, but if you are eating sand in bread, I think you need a little more change." She gave the red headed man a pointed look. He beamed at her and pushed the sandwiches aside, shrugging.

"We were not actually going to eat it," he paused, "Well, probably not. It is interesting though, you agree?"

"No," the young girl cut in, "We are not that strapped for cash. Rell over there is just a bit of an idiot."

The red headed man, Rell, apparently, frowned at her. "Hey!"

"No instead," the girl continued, "We have a proposition for you. A job, if you will."

Sarah cocked a hip and attempted a sneer in reply. "Right, a job. So, just for a job you guys kidnapped me and hold me here against my will."

"We would let you go as soon as you give us your answer," Rell said, circling around a chair and plopping down on it, elbows on the table and his chin in his hands. Somehow his loose posture and the casual way he was sitting helped Sarah to calm down a bit, like this really was not anything but a really crappy way to make a job offer. She should probably just turn them down for the hell of it, but she was not sure if they would let her turn it down so easy.

"First though," the giant rumbled, "introductions."

"Oh, right," the young girl said, tapping her umbrella against the floor. "Well, you see Rell over there," Rell waved his hand, "And next to me," she pointed at the mountain man, "Is Craig." Then she did a little dip and a smooth curtsy, Sarah just barely refrained from laughing. "And I am Isabelle, or Isa for short, if you would prefer."

"I prefer nothing," Sarah said, a little meanly, "I do not plan on sticking around for long."

"Please hear us out," Isabelle pleaded, her eyes large and warm in a way that Sarah knew was completely false. Sarah just laughed at her, and the little girl shrugged, like she knew that it would not have worked, but she had given it a shot anyway to observe Sarah's reactions.

Sarah relaxed, just the slightest bit. If they needed her expertise then they probably would not attempt to hurt her until after the job is done, or after she turned them down. In which case it would probably be best for her to agree right now and flee to a little country that would house her for a while. Or maybe she could go hide out in the fissures, where the aywas were mean and the air hot, but had several excellent hiding spots that she could hunker down in for a while.

"Go ahead," Sarah said, gesturing for the girl to continue. Isabelle smiled at her warmly and dipped her head.

"We just need your help for one job. A single, simple job, that should be fine, yes?" Isabelle moved away from the door, leaving Craig to stand guard. The small girl—and Sarah was recognizing the tactic, noting all the while that Craig never moved from his position and that Rell's chair was far enough back from the table for him to be able to get up and move easily—walked towards her, hands held out in an open gesture. "We would even pay you for your troubles, of course. We do not expect you to work for free, Ms. Black Cat."

"Call me Cat or Sarah," she interrupted. "Either works. No need for formalities." She was not about to let them hide behead a veneer of friendliness. Not when she did not yet get a measure of their operation. Were they only a three man team (four, if they counted Sarah in already)? Or were they part of a greater whole with more resources than Sarah counted on? She hoped not, but hope was for people who never looked away from the light. Sarah was a bit more pragmatic than that, or she liked to believe so.

"Sarah then." Isabelle smiled prettily. Sarah refused to let it affect her in any way. "Like we said, we just need your help in a single job. It would be difficult, of course, but we would not have needed your help if it was just something minor."

"First," Sarah interrupted, and by the frown on her face, Isabelle did not like nor was used to being interrupted, "I want to know what you are stealing. There are some things even I can not pull off. If you want something like a slashbot, you are out of luck. And some items do not take kindly to being stolen. A santas bag, for instance, would never stay in the hands of a thief. There is just something about the magic that the santas bag was made with that makes it absolutely impossible." And she had tried her hand with one once, a loosely (though now she knew why it was loose) guarded santas bag that she kept losing as soon she had put it down. Somehow it always returned to its owner, usually without the owner being any wiser. It was crazy and annoying and Sarah had wanted to scream at the time, but it made sense, something that powerful not wanting to leave the one it had been given to. So, yeah, there was some things that even Sarah could not touch.

"A custom crystal," Rell said, ignoring the look Isabelle shot at him. "It is just a custom crystal."

Sarah fell silent. "What kind," she asked eventually, already mulling over the possibilities. "It matters, you know. If it was just a dawn crystal, you would not even need me for that. In fact, you could just get one of those anymore for less of a price than what I would demand to be paid." She raised a brow. "So that rules out any of the chump change. What is it? Silver?" She went quiet. "Hybrid?" By the slightest shift in their expressions, she knew that she hit it right on the head.

"That is tough," she stated baldly.

"But not impossible," Isabelle countered.

No, it was not impossible. It was just highly difficult, though not nearly as difficult as some other items (but some other items could do such fantastic things that it was more of a surprise that they were actually around). And, well, she did not ever advertise this, but she might have once had a hand in lifting a hybrid custom crystal back in the days. It was, perhaps, the way she had obtained her own slith that was probably going nuts trying to look for her. Of course, obtaining that first hybrid crystal was why her knee sometimes ached when it rained, and a few very interesting scars in a few very interesting places. It was not something she cared to think about, though she would never have not have gone. The slith, that she affectionately named Ra, was her baby, and nothing seemed better than just curling up with him and stroking his head on her couch.

"No," she said finally, "it is not impossible."

"So you will do it?" Rell broke in eagerly, his curving grin making her smile back, reluctantly.

"Depends on my pay," Sarah broke in, saying this sternly because she was not going to be risking her hide on an adventure that was not even going to pay her. "If I do not like it, I will not do it." She shrugged. "Simple as that." She was not sure if they would let her go so easily, especially after telling her what they were about to do, but it would be even, in a way. She was a thief, they knew it, and they could use that as leverage. Of course she knew that they were thieves (or about to be, attempting to be) as well, which made the field a bit more even. Of course, on the other hand, they were keeping her locked up here, so who knows. Not so even now when she was locked up as some sort of prisoner.

"You will get at least fifty GP," Isabelle said.

"Not good enough," Sarah said flatly. "Eighty or I walk."

Isabelle's smile became a bit edged. "Sixty."

"Seventy-five."

"Deal." Isabelle nodded curtly. "Payment will be deposited in an account of your choosing once the mission has been completed."

Sarah laughed, her figure now boneless as it slumped against the wall. "Are you nuts? Thirty percent up front, seventy percent when the job is done. Works or not, and I will do my damndest to make sure it does, if it does not go well, I do not want to have wasted my time for nothing." When it seemed like Isabelle would protest, she added in. "Not to mention the fact that you people kidnapped me and then seem to expect that I should work for you for a pittance." She raised a brow. "I do not work like that. If you want things to go right, we do things my way. And you better try to curry my favor, or at least not get on my crap list."

"Fine."

Sarah looked at Craig in surprise, the man having hardly had spoken throughout the entire conversation. He was giving her and Isabelle a steady look and finally Isabelle sighed, a gusty sigh, and linked her arm through his. "Fine," Isabelle echoed, "Thirty percent up front seventy percent after you are done."

"Great." Sarah rubbed her hands and waltzed to the table, sitting in a chair near Rell. "First things first though—how did you manage to kidnap me and how did you transport me? If nothing else, Ra would have tried his best to take off your heads for this." If they knew about her, they would know about her pets, and Ra being the most prominent of them (not to mention the most protective), they would have had to get around the slith.

"Sleeping vial," Isabelle said, "but not as it is, but in spray form. We bombed the place you were staying at and made sure to kidnap you when everything else was down and out. It was not terribly difficult."

"No," Sarah said slowly, mulling this over. "That would not be difficult at all." She gave them a vicious look. "No, the hard part would be finding out who I was and where I lived in the first place. How did you do it?"

Rell laughed. "Think we would give away all of our secrets, girly?"

Sarah slammed her chair back and hissed at him. "And if you think I would let myself, willing let myself, be that vulnerable in the future, then you have another thing coming. You got to me somehow and I need to know if someone talked. And if that someone talked, I would have to do something about it." Her smile was cold and it seemed to ping something in Rell, since the man just gave her a serious look (for once) and nodded.

"Yeah, I get that."

"Rell!" Isabelle protested.

"Hey Isa, it is a legit question, you know?" Rell shrugged, a smooth roll of his shoulders. "And if she is about to be part of the team, then she has gotta know some things, right?" He frowned slightly, tapping his fingers on the table. The light from the window cast a deep shadow across the table. "Someone snitched, yeah?"

"Who?" Sarah demanded, her mind whirling with possibilities, and yet disbelieving all the same. You did not last long in this business if you snitched, at least not with the people she worked with. To do something like that, to sell her out, there was someone in her small circle of compatriots that pulled the trigger on her, and if she found out who…

"But it is not what you think." Rell frowned harder. "The guy snitched only because he knew we were not going to do much—just a job offer, really. That was what we told him, and we are trustworthy."

"Trustworthy enough to kidnap me," Sarah said.

Rell shrugged again. "Nature of our business, yeah? No hard feelings and all?" Sarah gave him a flat look and he laughed. "Well, it was worth a shot. But girly, you should not feel so bad. He owed us a favor besides, and probably would not have cashed it in except that Isa over there is a real sweetheart and he kind of adores the pants off her—not in that way though," Rell said hastily, seeing the look in Sarah's eyes, "kind of like a daughter he never had."

"Simon," Sarah deduced with a slightly disgusted look. Simon was a good guy, well, for their line of business anyway, but there were some things… Well. He was weak against some things, but he was not all that bad of a person. Still, ratting her out like that, making her vulnerable like that, making her pets vulnerable like that (she could just imagine Ra's reaction once the slith woke up), well, it would take a while for her to use him again, or forgive him for that matter.

"Yeah, Simon." Rell twirled his finger in the air. "An upright chap for the most part, for us, anyway."

"Whatever," Sarah snapped, and motioned over Isabelle and Craig to come sit at the table. Both of them did with varying expressions on her face—Craig's was slightly amused, while Isabelle's was annoyed—but if Sarah was going to be part of this team, even temporarily, then they would have to get used to pulling the heist her way or not at all. She was not one of the best for nothing, and she did not get kidnapped and subsequently hired by this bunch for a lark in the park.

"So talk to me," Sarah said. "Tell me who you want to take the hybrid custom crystal from, and your preliminary plan." She looked at their blank faces. "You guys did have plan for if I did not take the job, right? Or were you planning on forcing me to take it anyway?" She gave them a tight grin as Isabelle immediately shook her head and Rell gave a slow smile. "Yeah, so either I am working with idiots, or I am walking right now, because something like this is not worth it if I am going to get caught because of a bunch of amateurs."

"We are not amateurs," Isabelle muttered. "We have a few plans, but a couple of them centered on a master thief and we could not think of one of them we would work with except for you. And getting you was difficult enough—it was nearly impossible to find information and it was more of a stroke of luck than anything else."

That made Sarah relax, just a little bit, though they could be lying to her all alone. Still, she thought, she would like to give them some benefit of the doubt, if only because it would net her a tidy profit. She pulled off something like this once before and it was not the easiest job, but she had pulled harder ones. It was a risk, a gamble, and it got her blood pumping, but if she thought for a second that something was not going to go right, that it was all going to go horribly wrong, then she would not hesitate to pull the plug and get herself out of there. At some point there is a line between acceptable and unacceptable, and it was unacceptable to be sitting in a jail cell with murderers and whatnot (she could see the irony, considering that she was herself a thief) or dead because someone got a bit too trigger happy.

"The guy we are stealing from has a lot of things," Rell said, "Big time collector, has three hybrid custom crystals all on his lonesome. We figure, hey, if we steal from anyone it has gotta be that guy considering. He does not need all that stuff, after all. I bet he hardly notices when one of them goes missing."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Sure," she said dryly, "I am sure that the guy with probably the best security system is the one to hit. Smart plan all around."

"I am afraid that this is nonnegotiable," Craig rumbled. "We are hitting Mr. Cristoff and nobody else. If you have a problem with this, please speak up now."

Sarah sighed. "Yeah, no, whatever." She had bested some of the greatest security systems in the world, and she had never heard of this Mr. Cristoff character, so he probably was not connected with some of the more unsavory elements in Aywas. All in all, a tougher opponent than, say, your regular average Joe, but your average Joe would not have scads of hybrid custom crystals lying around anyway. He was also not as bad as it could have been—if the man had connections with the underground as well as being filthy rich then she might have walked away, depending on how deep those connections are. If he had been a major player? No way. Not a chance in hell.

"Right," she said, having mulled it over. "Fine. Mr. Cristoff is going to find himself liberated of one lovely hybrid custom crystal because of yours truly." She gave the group at the table a crooked grin. "That being the case, talk to me. Tell me everything you know about this guy, about his habits, about his security system, and about his men. I want to know everything, and I mean everything. What his schedule is, the people he surrounds himself with, what trouble I might suspect." She cracked her knuckles and almost felt the adrenaline rush through her just at the thought of something about to happen. "This will be interesting," she murmured, "and if it all goes well, you will have your hybrid custom crystal, and I will have my money, and we will probably never see each other again."

---

Sarah eyed the exploding fish she was supposed to use with a critical eye. They were long fish, sort of like a tiny swordfish, with detonators inside that were set to explode on impact. They were beautiful devices that she used when she was feeling particularly playful and set to make things explode. Which she rather liked doing, making things explode, though one would think that a thief would be a little less flashy (and she was not, really, flashy) and a little more sneaky.

But in this case, with the security system that Mr. Cristoff rigged up, they were not going to get that hybrid crystal without a little flash and bang. Sarah would be lying if she said that she was not looking forward to it. Rell and the others, and Sarah had figured out that there was more than three of them, but it was not exactly a huge operation, and she suspected that most of the others were doing other jobs that had nothing to do with this one, had given her strange looks, probably disbelieving, but who cares? So it was exploding fish. So what if it was a little strange. She did not mind it at all, and the fish were kind of cute in an explody sort of way.

Honestly, just because someone got a little creative for once did not mean that she was going around the bend. In fact, it was better for a person to be creative, that meant that the stickier the situation, the most imagination she would have to be able to get out of things that were, perhaps, hazardous to one's health.

Sarah straightened up from where she was bent over the exploding fish, and lobbed it at a wall. It flew in a straight line—they were exquisitely balanced for a reason, after all—and stuck in, nose first into the wood. The fish began to blink and she backed away a safe distance with the bucket of other exploding fish, her hands covering her ears. Three, two, one, she counted silently in her head, before a loud explosion sounded and the wall collapsed. Sarah noted the even, round hole with a critical eye as she poked among the wreckage, a satisfied smile lighting up her face as she noticed that the bomb was just as potent as ever, and as concentrated enough to not bring down the whole building—not that she had thought it would bring down the whole building, because if she had, then she would not have been sitting in the same room in said building as the exploding fish.

"Good job, self," she praised quietly, a little smile dancing on her lips as she contemplated testing another one of her exploding fish. She had one hand in the bucket, grasping at the metallic fish, when the door burst open and Rell ran in, his face in a panic.

"What in the world is that?" He looked at her and then he looked at the dusty wall that had the large hole in it, and stared. "What in the world have you been doing in here? We gave you the room to help plan in, not to destroy!" The usually laid back man was pacing around the room, inspecting the hole, his face a sketch of disbelief. "What in the world did you use to make the wall explode anyway?" He whirled away from the wall and walked towards Sarah before pausing and staring, once again, at her bucket of exploding fish. "Are those fish? What in the world are you doing with fish?" He crouched down by the bucket, peering in. "Metal fish at that. Metal… fish…" he trailed off.

Then he started to laugh. "What in the world, metal fish? A hole in the wall? Don't tell me that those are bombs."

"They are my exploding fish," Sarah said primly as she took one out to show him. She snatched it back when Rell made to hold it, cautioning, "Hey, be careful. These little guys have explosion devices in them, so do not do anything stupid like knock it against anything. And definitely do not drop them. If you drop it, we might as well just close our eyes and wait to die." She frowned at Rell who shrugged and nodded. Then she handed one of the exploding fish over. "There is a delay trigger, but the delay does not last any more than a few seconds, so if you see the fish start to blink, start running." She pursed her lips. "Not that it would help, you would probably get caught in the blast anyway, but maybe you would not die, just get maimed a little bit."

Rell groaned. "What in the world are you doing with exploding fish anyway? I thought that this was supposed to be a little more covert than that." He looked at the fish from all angles and admired the sleek lines and the way the fins were positioned to make it more aerodynamic than anything else. The balance and heft were perfect to fling, though the fish were originally intended to be used with some sort of cross bow device—in fact, Sarah had one in her apartment, but she did not have it on hand and she was good enough of a shot that it did not matter for now. She would have to go fetch the crossbow later, or get someone to fetch it for her, but no matter. This was only a test anyway, for the real thing she would have her equipment—in fact, the rest of them promised her to get her equipment, to buy new equipment for her—and things would be all set. The exploding fish had been hidden in a place near enough by that she got them soon after she asked for them—though the quizzical looks of people wondering 'why exploding fish' was amusing, though she worried that they would have thought that they were toys and accidentally blow themselves up.

"We need a way to break into the vault," Sarah said, "It is not like there is a giant vent we could climb through and sneak in to get the hybrid custom crystal. It is not as easy as that. This would be faster. It will make more of a splash, but there is nothing we can do about that. We are going to have to do a snatch and grab."

The thought was only moderately painful. It made things riskier all around, but there really was not much she could do about it. Mr. Cristoff himself would not be anywhere near the vault at the time and as long as the distraction—though they still needed to discuss exactly what that distraction should be—did its job, then everything should turn out all right. Though, of course, she would like more of an assurance than 'everything should turn out all right'. But then again, she had made gambles with less of a chance than this job and she would probably continue to make more gambles later on. Not much she could do about it.

"I did not think we would be going in a giant vent," Rell said, his voice as dry as a desert. Sarah gave him a sunny grin (she could not help it, planning stages always made her rather cheerful) and he gave her a reluctant smile back. "We do need to talk about the distraction and the particulars about the snatch."

"Yeah, yeah," Sarah said airily. She lifted up one of the fish. "What do you think?" She made the fins move and the mouth open and close. "If I keep the mouth open, the bomb will not trigger on impact." She gave a Cheshire cat grin. "In fact, it will go off on a remote detonator, which is handy, do you not think so?" She closed the mouth of the fish and put it carefully back into her bucket of exploding fish. "I have a few other items, but nothing is as much fun to me as my exploding fish."

"Charming," Rell said, before sitting on the ground next to her. She rolled her eyes at him and sat down as well, placing her bucket well out of the way of any sort of thrashing limbs or accidental feet. One could never be too careful with explosives, no matter how much one loved them. She did not want to be blown into little bits scattered across the room, especially when Ra did not know where she was—Isabelle had promised that she would deliver Ra to her soon, but Sarah was still waiting and she could only hope that the slith would not go a little too crazy on her.

"So?" she prodded, seeing as Rell was a little too engrossed in her metal exploding fish and suddenly seemed to have lost the train of conversation. Sarah smirked slightly in amusement as he switched his gaze back onto her face. "That is right," she said, "Remember that you had to talk to me, right?"

Rell laughed and leaned back, elbows on the ground. "Yeah, we have to go over some of the plans. When do you want to hit Mr. Cristoff's place?"

Sarah shrugged as she dug into her pocket and began laying out various memos and papers that detailed Mr. Cristoff's plans for the next two weeks. They apparently had not been so difficult to obtain, and it was just kind of sad how regimented that man's life became once you get a little money (or, rather, a lot of money) and were running businesses all over Aywas. Made him a little bit too predictable, actually, which was all well and good for her and the rest of the team.

She dug into the pile of papers, flipping through them quickly as she absentmindedly said, "Pretty soon. You guys got a little lucky getting so much information, and it is just a matter of pulling the information together to find the optimal time to strike. It would have to be when the man is out of his house and at night, that is when the security is at the lowest, when he is not around." She spotted the time table for Mr. Cristoff and pointed at a date. "See here? For the next three days he is going on business to the mountains. Not quite sure what is up there, but there you go. An easy time window for us to use. A house sitting empty of all of his personal body guards and just the guards for his vault and such."

"So soon?" Rell frowned, leaning over the papers as he scanned them. "Do you not need a little more time to pull things together some more? In the scheme of things it might be better if you had a little more time to plan, we got you in kind of quick and Isabelle worries that you might not perform to the best of your abilities. If you get caught, if only you get caught, we are a little worried about the subsequent fallout."

How sweet, Sarah thought with a touch of dryness, he was worried about her. Well, not worried about her personally, but rather worried about what would happen if she would fall into the other side. After all, Sarah had no personal loyalty to this group, in fact, if anything, she was still a bit peeved about the entire kidnapping thing. They should have gone through the proper channels and had gotten in contact with her before going to such desperate measures. In fact, she wondered why they had not, even if she was supposedly hard to get a hold of, if they got to Simon and got her details, it would have been an easy jump from that to just giving her a call.

"Do not worry," she said finally, "I doubt that I am going to get caught and even if I did, there is not much you guys can do about it afterwards." She gave him a pointed look. "Or you better not do anything about it afterwards. I get caught and you better not send someone to take me out. If that happens, I will have you know that I have several just-in-case policies in place, and that as soon as you guys let me roam around, I had cashed in several favors." This was not a bluff, and judging by the slightly sour look on Rell's face, he knew that as well. "But do please remember what you are paying me to do," she said finally, smiling a little. "I am one of the greatest thieves on Aywas, and you are paying for the privilege."

"Why thank you my lady," Rell said sarcastically. Sarah just laughed and dipped her head in reply. He gave her a crooked smile. "So we are hitting the place in three days?"

"Three days," Sarah affirmed. "We will spend the next two days gathering supplies and finalizing plans, and hit on Thursday." She gave the broken wall a cat like grin. "It will be fun, Rell, do you not think so?" At his laugh Sarah could not help but chuckle a few times herself. "And by that time you guys would have gotten Ra to me," at his raised eyebrow she smiled. "Do you think Ra as just some sort of security blanket? The slith is a partner himself and he makes for wicked backup," now she gave the sweetest of smiles, "with his claws and all, they are very good at rending his prey and enemies—and mine, besides—to pieces."

If Rell paled just a bit, Sarah did not comment on it, instead just laughing to herself deep inside. He deserved that, she thought, not in the least bit repentant. In fact, she wished that Isabelle and Craig were here to hear that as well, but she supposed that beggars could not be choosers, and that the two had left to get the preliminary supplies needed, not to mention picking up Ra who would give them more than a little bit of trouble.

"I hope not to need Ra's specialized services, of course," she said primly, tucking her legs underneath herself. "I do hate to put him in any kind of danger." She sent Rell a little smirk. "Though if afterwards you do not pull through with the rest of my money…" she trailed off and laughed as he rolled his eyes at her.

"We will get you the money after we get that hybrid custom crystal in our hands," Rell said. "Do not worry about that. There is no chance we will stiff you, we have a little more honor than that." He laughed at her disbelieving face. "Truly we do. Even if it does not seem like it at this time, Isabelle would never try to trick you like that."

"Yeah," Sarah muttered, "But coming into a girl's apartment and using sleeping vials on everyone inside it is all good, huh?" At Rell's silence she shook her head. "I thought so. Whatever." She changed the subject, not wanting to dwell on the past, especially if she had to be working with this group. Bad blood all around, but tensions between them during the job might make for some deadly mistakes, and Sarah was not a pro for nothing. Her failure rate was miniscule and she preferred to keep it that way, thank you very much. "So, what else did you need to talk about?"

"The distraction," Rell said finally, letting himself be diverted from the original subject with a knowing look in his eyes and relief on his face. "I wanted to know what you wanted us to do with that." He frowned at the wall. "I do not think explosives can be used, however. After all, we do not want the police on us."

"I am not an idiot," Sarah said mildly. "It will have to be something simple and not so suspicious that the guards would immediately sound the alarm." She sunk deep into thought, thinking over and discarding several scenarios. "It depends on how good these guards are," she said finally. "Mr. Cristoff is definitely not an idiot, but the guards might be a little lax from not doing much." She gave a wry smile. "Being a guard is somewhat boring work, after all."

"They are professionals," Rell said, "but it is not like they are some sort of special ops. No hyper vigilance, Mr. Cristoff depends more on his state of art security system than the man power."

Sarah frowned. That security system was going to be a bother, yes. The man used some of the latest technology to wire his house, and tripping it might trip a silent alarm and the police would be on them like flies on honey in no time. The thought was irritating, not to mention just a trifle disquieting. "How about this," she said finally, "We send a pair of men, or maybe a couple, drunk out of their minds and asking for some help from the house. Something like that anyway." She gave a short twist of her hand. "It does not have to be fancy, but it has to occupy at least half of the force—how many are there, actually?"

"Not all that much, four men on patrol that switch off every hour or so."

"Right," Sarah nodded, "Not so bad then. The distraction does not have to be major, in fact," she said slowly, "It better seem rather ordinary and just the slightest bit annoying. It has to, however, consume the guard's thinking and they need to get a handle on it personally, even if it is just to hold the girl's hair over a toilet as she pukes into it."

Rell wrinkled his nose and Sarah laughed. "Gross," Rell said. "Still, I get it. Simple, but, well, distracting."

"Yeah."

"So that will not be so bad. The worst part is the security system. Do you have any ideas on how to get past that?"

Sarah grinned. "For that, I am going to need Ra." She thought of her slith fondly and could not wait to see him again. She did not like to be parted from him for long, nor he parted from her for long. She had raised him from a small hatchling and he was the most special of her pets, and not only because he was a hybrid of exquisite coloring.

Rell raised a brow, his face disbelieving. "Your pet is going to help you on this heist? He will be able to do something about the security system?"

Sarah buffed her nails. "I do not know about you or your pets, but mine are both lovely, sweet, and utterly talented."

---

Ra launched himself from the ground and towards Sarah, winding his long body around the girl as he nudged her hard with his head, causing her to splutter out a laugh. "Ra!" she cried out, hands already running alongside his head and patting his smooth skin. "Looks you got here in one piece, buddy." She cast a glance at the disheveled Isabelle and restrained her grin. "Though you guys look like you ran into some trouble."

"Us? Run into trouble?" Isabelle spat out, trying in vain to clean out her dress as she attempted to arrange herself to a presentable appearance. "It was not trouble we ran into, but getting your slith was like trying to contain a tornado." She grimaced and made a face at Craig who was smiling broadly, though he looked just as bad, if not worse, than Isabelle. "Your pet nearly rent us to piece."

Sarah shook her head and dropped a kiss on Ra's nose, the Slith still curled up around her like a giant plush blanket. "Nah," she said, "If you guys had not said that you were bringing Ra to me, then the damage would have been a lot worse." She looked at them, a faint smile on her face. "In fact, you might have been itty bitty pieces on the floor. Ra's claws and teeth are not just for show, after all." Ra made a hissing sound, like he was agreeing with her, as he reluctantly unwound from around her and stepped back, still pressing his head hard against Sarah's side. She patted it, reassuring the slith to her presence.

"Sorry I was away," she cooed at the slith who stared up at her with woebegone eyes. Ah, she never could resist Ra when he was acting like this, and she cuddled his head close to herself. "It was not on purpose, I just got a little kidnapped and taken hostage and finagled into a job." Ra seemed to understand part of what she was saying, as the slith turned his head towards Isabelle and Craig and growled, causing Isabelle to take a step back. "Nah, it is all right," she told Ra, tugging his eyes away from the duo by the commanding tone in her voice, "So do not bother them, okay?"

Ra sniffed disdainfully and nudged her shoulder. He truly was a gorgeous slith, all red and black and gold edging. A work of art, really. His golden eyes shone with fierce intelligence, and his sleek body was smooth and supple, a sign of a truly well cared for slith. Sarah spent a lot of time making sure that Ra got the attention he needed, and it showed clearly in his appearance and good temperament (well, for the most part. Ra could get a little crabby if he thought that Sarah was being insulted or in trouble or… well, in general, things to do with Sarah that Ra did not like).

Sarah finally lifted her eyes from Ra as she looked towards Craig. "You got the rest of the stuff I asked for?" At his nod, she broke out a delighted smile. "Good, good, I could have done it without the stuff, well, most of the stuff, but Ra was truly indispensable."

"I do not understand," Isabelle said, frowning lightly. "How is it that your pet is going to help you break through Mr. Cristoff's security system?"

Sarah gave Ra's mane a rough caress. "Ra's long, but he is rather thin, thinner than I am, even." She gave her body a rueful look and laughed as Ra nudged her stomach. "And he is really handy at getting through small spaces, no matter how much room he seems to take up right now. He will be able to get in easily enough and get out even easier, and carry some of the stuff I need to scramble various signals with him. Most signals just do not seem to register Ra for some reason, I am not sure if it is in a slith's physiology, or there is just something about Ra, but it is a really handy tool." She batted Ra's snout away from her shirt since he was delicately lipping at the edge, like he was wondering how it was going to taste. "So he is an integral part in getting rid of the security system and letting us slip in easily. He is also good for a fast escape." She patted his side. "He might look skinny, but he is strong enough to haul me out if need be, and really rather fast at doing so. Just think of him as extra insurance."

"For yourself," Isabelle pointed out with a wry look. "I suspect that anyone else going in with you would be left in the dust to rot."

"Yeah, maybe," Sarah said, shrugging a little. "I can not do much about that. And for all of his strength, there is a limit to it. I do not know how well he would fair carrying two people instead of just me. It might be possible, heck, it is probably possible, but the speed at which he gets us out would be greatly decreased. It is a good thing that we probably will not need him for a quick getaway. Not if everything goes according to plan."

"Good," Craig said, looking thoughtful. "That is good. So we are all set now."

"Yup." Sarah stretched her arms, working out the kinks in her back. "Setting the stage, now all that is left is the execution."

---

The house was quiet. It was less of a house and more like a mansion, which made things both easier and harder for Sarah. At least with Mr. Cristoff out of the way she did not have to deal with a hysterical house owner on top of that—that, and his being away meant a good chunk of security going away as well. She had done some reading on the man, who was richer than sin and flaunted it frequently. He bought things and never did much with anything but just let it rot at his house, which was not necessarily a bad thing, Sarah had similar magpie tendencies, but something about the way he gloated made the entire thing stink. She was not at all adverse to stealing from him, in fact, depending on how difficult it would be to liberate the hybrid custom crystal, she was looking forward to perhaps knicking a few other items that would not be missed. Much.

The distraction had worked like a charm. Three out of the four security guards were with the couple, both drunk out of their minds (she was not entirely sure if they were faking or not, but if not, then she applauded their dedication to the job) and hurt. Not hurt enough to need an ambulance for (which would be bad), but hurt enough to acquire attention from the security guards. The fourth one she was now shadowing, making sure he was going on the route that he was supposed to be, and pleased with the results.

Ra had snuck in earlier with various equipment. At any second now the slith was going to disable the security system, which would probably trigger an alarm of some sort, meaning that she was about to be on borrowed time. She would have to be as close to the vault as possible, find the hybrid custom crystal, and liberate it before the police came. She could have continued without Ra tripping the system, but that ran the risk of getting her face plastered on cameras that she could not see, and well, that was a greater risk than the coming police.

The security guard checked the vault as she hunkered down beside a statue, praising the deplorable spending habits of the truly elite who just sort of threw expensive things all over the place—expensive, big things in which it was rather easy to hide behind. The man she was shadowing had not seemed like the brightest bulb either, which made her job infinitely easier.

As he opened the vault door the lights flickered, which was the signal that Ra had pulled down the security system and she was now living on borrowed time. Sarah ran up behind the security guard struck him at the temple as he was turning around at the sound of her footsteps, knocking him down and smiling a little as he fell with a wordless clatter. She knelt beside the body and felt for the pulse, which was strong and steady, and so clasped the man's hands in handcuffs, as well as his feet, and left him there. If he managed to regain consciousness before she was done, then he was not about to mess up her plans. It was extra little details like that that helped to make her the best, and her policy of minimal casualties (and by minimum casualties she meant she never killed anyone, just destroyed a lot of personal property) meant that she held a code of honor that made her more trustworthy to her compatriots. It was a win/win situation except when the others thought that she was weak, but usually a few bombs changed their mind quickly enough.

Sarah ran into the vault and nearly stopped at the sight of all of the items that littered the area. There were other custom crystals there, a few silver, a lot of gold, a handful of blue, that made her nearly green with envy. There were also a large pile of breeding coins left out carelessly, and she soundlessly stepped towards them and pocketed a handful, knowing that Mr. Cristoff would not miss even that amount. After all, she never told Isabelle and the others that she was only going to be lifting the hybrid custom crystal after all. A girl had to have a little fun on the side, otherwise she was pretty much working for chump change. That was part of the reason why she agreed to the plan so quickly, because she knew that there were other items in the vault that she wanted to get her hands on. She suspected that Rell knew this, though maybe Isabelle did not. No matter, if Rell knew, then he had probably told Isabelle long ago, and if Isabelle had known long ago and had not said anything to Sarah about it, then she must have silently condoned the fact.

Sarah sighed after she was done with the breeding coins, wanting to explore the vault, but knowing she had limited time. With a nearly soundless thump, Ra landed next to her, and she turned to look at the slith with a pleased smile. "Good job," she whispered to it, letting his whiskers tickle her hand before she placed some of the breeding coins she picked up in the pockets on the rig that was placed around his back. Ra shadowed her, much like she had done for the guard, walking wherever she had walked and keeping his head up, listening for any sound of running feet.

"Hybrid custom crystal," Sarah chanted, "Hybrid custom crystal, where in the hells are you." She scanned the surrounding area, before her eyes settled on a case with the three hybrid custom crystals inside. Sarah gave a pleased grin and moved towards the case, frowning slightly when it was apparent that the case was not glass. She hit it once and grimaced when the material did not break.

She gave a quick glance at Ra, and Ra obligingly slammed a heavy paw on top of the case. The case did not wobble in the slightest. This… was not expected. In fact, this was throwing her off schedule, and Sarah quickly shook her head. "We do not have time for this, Ra," she grumbled and pulled out an exploding fish. She ran with Ra to the other side of the room and then lobbed the fish at the case with the hybrid custom crystals in it, the fish planting perfectly into the base of the case and blinking.

The hybrid crystals would be all right, Sarah thought. They were hardy things and something like a little explosion was not going to dent them—or so she hoped. The material burst open and there was a lot of smoke, which she waited to die down before stepping forward and hoping with all her might that the custom crystals were all right. Nobody in Aywas knew what the crystals were made of, and less of how to make the crystals. They just show up randomly or a visiting god deposited it on a lucky sod, and it was like a crapshoot and nobody knew much about them. If anyone did, they were keeping their mouth shut, which Sarah thought was a good idea, since the gods would probably not take too kindly to someone messing with their things. Kaz especially, Sarah thought with a shudder.

But the hybrid custom crystals looked all right, so she stepped forward and snagged one, gazing at the other two wistfully. She would have probably grabbed the other two, but the crystals were rather large in size, and Sarah did not want to get bogged down, especially with the police nipping at her heels. She hurriedly put the hybrid custom crystal in the pack with Ra and they ran out of the vault, already hearing the sound of sirens echoing in the distance.

Sarah chose a room that faced the back of the house and she ran into it, throwing her exploding fish in front of her. She jumped out of the hole that the explosion made, snagging Ra's mane and pulling herself up across his back as the slith ran into the night, snaking through the grounds as sirens wailed. Sarah could only hope at this time that the distraction that they used was long gone, because she sure as hell was not going to stick around to help them.

"Easy as pie," she murmured to Ra, who made a pleased noise back. Sarah whooped as they left the house grounds and let the sight of the house fade behind them.

---

"Here you go," Sarah said, patting the hybrid custom crystal. As Rell held out his hands she raised a brow. "My money?"

Rell rolled his eyes, but Isabelle was the one who started talking. "We deposited the rest of the money into your account. It should all be there safely." Sarah gave the girl a curt nod and pulled out her phone, checking her account and seeing that all of the money was placed safely inside it. She gave the tiny group a pleased grin and nodded her head.

"Nice doing business with you," she said cheerfully.

"A pleasure," Isabelle said stiffly, "Though I did happen to see that the vault was missing more than just the hybrid custom crystal." Sarah searched the other girl's face, trying to figure out if the girl was entirely displeased or uncaring. She could not see much on the face until Isabelle broke out in a reluctant grin. "I suppose," the girl continued on, "that since we had not specified as to whether or not we cared what happened to the other items, we will just let it rest and not even ask for a cut of the share."

"Of course not," Sarah said, sensibly shifting the coins still stashed on Ra's back. The slith crooned at her and rubbed his head against her side. "I did go in there alone."

"But we were the ones to provide you with the intel."

Sarah said, in her most casual voice, "I suppose we are even for you guys kidnapping me and holding me against my will." At the slight flinch on Isabelle's face, she just barely stopped the victory from showing in her eyes. Instead she settled for a quiet, "I thought so," and swung her leg across Ra's back once again. "If you want to hire me again, send word." She gave the group a slight glare. "If you kidnap me again, I will have to break my own personal policy of never killing anyone. Get me?'

Rell laughed. "You are an interesting girl," he said.

"I live to please," she said dryly. Sarah shook her head and gave a small smile. "I do not want to see your faces for a little bit though, so if you are already thinking of another plan," and by the look on Isabelle and Craig's face, it was apparent they were already plotting amongst themselves, "look me up after I take a nice vacation. Any time before that and I can not swear that you will make it out in one piece." She gave a rueful smile. "You would make it out alive, but probably not in one piece."

Sarah nudged Ra with her heels and the slith began to bound away, both of them riding away from the crazy house and the crazy people. She did not really want to know what they were going to do with the hybrid custom crystal. In fact, Sarah thought it was decidedly none of her business what they did with the crystal. It worked out well that way.

She was going to sleep a long time when she got home. Sarah could already imagine the warm sheets and the soft pillows and the fading into oblivion.