13 days until the job

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"You tested those drives before placing them on the scanner, right?" I ask Monique as I watch her tapping away on the computer.

"Yes, Alicia."

"And the durability? Will it be affected by rain? Or hail? Or bright sunlight?"

"It's the end of winter, Alicia."

"Is there any chance it might get rusted in the sewer? Cuz it's humid down there."

"It has a stainless steel case with rims filled with dehumidifiers, okay?" Monique says, and I can sense irritation in her voice now.

"What about-"

"Okay! Maybe you should go and check on how Blaise is doing," Monique says loudly before focusing on her computer again.

Rude.

"Blaise, any progress on the layouts?" I ask my dear hacker who blatantly ignores me as she focuses on the firewall which she is trying to break through.

Rude-er.

After fifteen minutes of me sitting in the corner with a puffed up face, the printer starts running and about eight A3 sized pages of blueprints come out.

Oh well.

Don't ask, control, don't ask, control...

I can't.

"You made sure to not alert their security system in any way? Our IP is anonymous right?"

"Are you going to ask me this for every time I open my fucking computer?" Blaise asks me with an irritated voice. Her eerie blue eyes have that look in them again, like she wants to pickle and sell my brain.

I'm just being cautious, sue me.

I take her answer as a yes.

Suddenly a coat gets thrown in my face. It smells incredibly musty. Nothing like the sewer I had been inside though.

"Thanks Minnie," my voice gets scuffled by the thick coat.

"We leave in ten minutes. Go pee-pee or poo-poo, drink or eat or whatever, then meet us outside," she says.

I rip the coat off my face, "You're a bitch."

"I take it as a compliment," she says while fidgeting with the lose strand of the Nirvana t-shirt she's wearing, her jet black hair tied into two adorable space buns on top of her weirdly small head.

"You shouldn't, wait a minute," I scrutinize the t-shirt, "THAT'S MY BAND T-SHIRT!"

Minnie is already out the door, "Thanks for lending it to me bestie!"

I pick my ass up from the futon I had been sitting on and Blaise makes a sound, which suspiciously sounds like a sigh of relief.

"Finally she will let us work in peace," Blaise says, still typing away on her keyboard, not even looking up from her screen.

"She is like one of those cats who sit on their owner's keyboards and don't go until someone else is there to take care of them," Monique comments.

Ouch. I thought Monique liked me.

"I'm right here, you know?" I deadpan.

"For real, that's why I prefer lizards as pets, they eat away the moths for you, Useful as hell," Blaise continues, as if she didn't even hear me.

"Too bad, bitches can't really take care of lizards," I comment, wrinkling my nose at Blaise.

"Who's asking you to take care of my lizard?" Blaise says, without looking up again. I just flip her the bird which she probably didn't even see and leave the room to the sound of Monique's laughter.

****

Exactly ten minutes later, after having an episode of existential dread while I thought about how I am a tiny spec of dirt in the entire universe, I am standing outside the house, in my NASA hoodie and jeans and Vans, not wearing the hoodie Minnie had graciously thrown on my face, I am standing outside the villa, waiting for Yuri to get the car.

The white Cadillac parks beside me, it's front right wheel an inch away from the tip of my Gold Coast Vans.

The window of the passenger seat scrolls down, and the door of the backseat opens up.

Yuri says, "Get in loser, we're going shopping."

But.

At the same time, Elara starts singing, "Jump in the Cadillac, girl let's put some miles on it."

Now both of them turn towards each other with accusatory glances as I calmly jump into the seat behind Elara, while Minnie is clutching her stomach, laughing.

I fully expected them to mess up.

"We were gonna go with the Mean Girl's line!" Yuri shouts at her, "Why did you do the Bruno Mars song?"

"My mind told me to do it, you know, because of the Cadillac!" Elara raises her voice as well, "We would need a Lexus or some fancy car without a roof for the Mean Girl's one!"

"Now we fucked it up and can't try it ever again!" Yuri sighs, twirling the long strands of hair she has in front.

Elara taps her elbow, "That's okay Yu-Yu only these two have witnessed it, we have eight more people to try it on."

Yuri shakes her head, "Pandora and Blaise will not be amused."

Elara frowns, "Neither will Ariadne."

"Aw man."

"Yeah...can we have this sob session on the way to the gallery?" I interject.

Yuri turns to me, flipping her dark hair around in a dramatic fashion, while her dark blue eyes stared into the depths of my inner soul.

"How can you dismiss our emotions like that you tyrant? Don't you have a conscience?"

Oh no, not again.

Elara joins in, holding the back of her hand on her forehead like a damsel in distress, "No one understands the sorrows of the lasses of unfortunate timings and misunderstandings."

Minnie decides to join in to the dollar store soap opera as well, as she sniffles "How is it possible to survive in this world of neglect!"

Yuri then sighs and looks downward, making weird crying noises, "This world is not made for pure souls like ours."

Oh Lord help me.

Take me back to Blaise and Monique.

"Our souls belong with the pheasants, soaring happily in the wind," Minnie dramatically looks out of the closed, tinted window.

"Oh the sky holds no sorrow! Only endless freedom!" Elara looks dramatically at the sky as well.

This all started on a beautiful sunny day when I was slicing up a mango, when Yuri began accusing me of taking an innocent life, then Elara and Minnie and Cassandra had joined in and painted me as this evil tyrant who takes away people's freedoms.

"The only thing that will make me feel happiness again is a Vanilla Bean Frappucino," Yuri says, looking up at the dried up tree in our backyard.

"Yeah, I don't think I will ever feel the same if I don't feel the heat of an Iced Americano down my throat," Elara says, running her fingers down her throat exaggerated way and then curling her fingers in her brown curls.

Heat of an Iced Americano?

"Ellie you fucked up," Minnie whispers.

"Ahem, I mean I want to feel the heat of happiness which the coldness of the coffee brings to my sad body and withered soul," Elara corrects herself.

"Good save, good save," Yuri whispers.

I roll my eyes, "If I buy all of you Starbucks will you shut up?"

Minnie tilts her head to the side, "It will help thaw the ice of injustice."

I close my eyes and take a breath, "Take us to the drive-thru first, then we'll go to the gallery."

I get a collective "Yay!" as a response.

****

"Ooh sheepies!" Yuri claps excitedly as we stare at the painting we're about to steal. I shift uncomfortably in the magenta blazer I had been forced to wear as I look around at people giving weary glances to my driver. It's not every day you see a twenty one year old toddler.

"The Flock," I read it's title. How can such a basic painting be worth so much?

The painting has a bunch of sheep roaming around a meadow full of flowers during sunset. My inner Shaun the Sheep fangirl approves.

And it was like those paintings...Of the babies which look like old men, in that same color contrast and shadows...

Elara checks the painting out carefully, "Looks like a seventeenth century style piece to me, won't have as high of an estimated value as the previous ones. I'm gonna guess around three-fifty to four hundred grand at max."

"But don't we always go for a price higher than the last one?" Yuri asks.

I fold my arms across my chest, "Yes, talk loudly, tell the entire world of our plans."

I put on the glasses and turn the scanners on. Instantly a blue screen appears in front of me, scanning piece by piece, the painting.

"Beauty, eh?" A man wearing aviators, a white sweater and a blue scarf walks up right next to me. I rip the glasses off my face and hand them to Minnie from behind my back who walks away with Yuri and Elara in tow.

His entire attire screams 'Snobby artist with daddy issues'. Everything on his body looks branded, and something tells me he isn't faking it.

He hands me a flute of strawberry champagne.

"This was my first ever painting, now my most prized one," he says, then takes a brief sip of his champagne.

My insides are jumping around in panic. There is a reason I hired not one but two grifters!

Oh god I really I need Allie or Cassandra right. They were supposed to be here by now!

Suddenly a hand slips through mine and I give a surprised glance to Alby who smiles at the snobby artist with daddy issues, "Oh I've always loved such works, you know, late Renaissance style like those of Michaelangelo."

The dude's strange brown-green eyes light up, "True, the Sistine Chapel will always be a timeless masterpiece."

"You're being so basic!" Cassandra appears at my other arm, "Botticelli was the man. Michaelangelo gets a lot of credit for making paintings he didn't even like!"

The man's stance changes, "Right?! Botticelli had a great talent for texture!"

"The Birth of Venus is my favourite piece ever!" Cassandra laughs.

"But still, Botticelli can't beat Vermeer when it comes to texture. The Girl With The Pearl Earring should be so much more worth than the Mona Lisa!" Alby steps up her game.

"Our gentleman's painting has all of those traits, to be honest," I speak up, casually stroking his sweater clad arm.

"I have had so many offers for it, my agents thought it would be best to auction it," the artist says staring at his painting lovingly.

Not for long buddy, not for long. He then gasps a little and turns to me and Alby.

"It's happening next week! You three seem to have an intense appreciation for art, you should definitely come!"

"Oh no, please, we don't want to intrude!" Cassandra says, putting a hand gently on the dude's bicep.

"Please, you would just make the place all the more lively," he then produces an invite from his jacket pocket. It's a plus two invite, great!

"It's such an honor, to attend an auction for the infamous Angelo Perucci, we will definitely be there," Alby smiles at him warmly, curling a lock of her ginger wig around her finger with a flirtatious glint in her warm brown eyes.

Angelo Perucci gives us a two finger salute, "See you there then, ladies."

I turn to my grifters in shock, "Oh. My. God. This made everything so much easier. We don't have to steal guests identities on this one!"

Minnie comes back to my side, she had blended into the crowd, "Blaise knew he would be here at this time. We kept diverting his way towards you. I then sent Allie for assistance because you looked like you were going to lag."

I can't hide the surprise in my voice, "This was planned?"

"You bet your cute ass it was."

I fold my arms across my chest, "Why the fuck was I not informed?"

"We have all seen, that, the more aware you are of the situation, the more you fuck things up," Minnie says simply, while sipping some more strawberry champagne.

Oh well there's no denying that.

****

Now Yuri, Minnie, Elara and me climb into the Cadillac and drive to the front of the art gallery to get Cassandra and Alby. We plan to go to Chinatown and eat our hearts out. And try not to get tapeworms.

When we stop, near Alby, Elara says, "Get in loser-"

But.

At the same time, Yuri sings, "Jump in the Cadillac-"

"DAMN IT YURI!" 

Always fun to watch.

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Hello lovely people! I hope you liked this chapter! Another backstory coming up in the next one so stay tuned.