The Royal House | Chapter 2 | The Heist

The next four days went by quickly. Ace laid out his plans for shutting down security. Queen secured two invitations to the auction. King did, well, whatever it is that King does. I holed myself up in my apartment, working day and night on my forgery, covering up an old painting of mine. Every day, the four of us would meet back at the warehouse, updating each other on our progress, and running through our plans countless times. Everything had to be perfect.

Finally, Thursday night rolled around, and I donned my black suit and red bowtie, provided by Queen. Subtlety really doesn't suit her. The car picked me up outside of my apartment. As I opened the door and got in, I rolled my eyes. "You do realize that I'm going to have to find a new place to stay, since you know where I live currently?"

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to get away from me, Mr. Dupont." She handed me my invitation. "And I'll be calling you Max for the rest of the night. Being married is fascinating, don't you think?"

"I'm sure it is, but this is a charade, Queen."

She laughed merrily. "My name is Catlyn, my dear. Don't forget, we're married."

"Still a charade." I sighed, running through the plan one last time as the car carried us to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

***

Queen and I walked into the museum and handed the usher our invitations. “Welcome, Mister and Missus Dupont. You’re at table fourteen. The silent auction will begin at seven.” We thanked him and walked through the metal detector after putting our phones and wallets through the terminal.

***

“King, you’re on wait staff. There’s one metal detector in the kitchen, right before you enter, so no weapons. You need access to Mr. Corsair’s salad. We won’t have any way to communicate throughout the op, so we need to follow the plan.”

“Why do I have to be in the kitchen? Why can’ she do tha’?”

“Queen is the distraction. You said it yourself, you draw attention away from everything in the room to yourself. That’s what I’m relying on. As soon as we walk in, Queen and I will go to our table, and at 5:47, I’ll move towards the east hall.”

***

I gave Queen a kiss on the cheek, stood up, and walked toward the restroom, taking the first hallway on my right. I came to the target vent, took out the plastic screwdriver I had brought in with me, and took off the cover. Removing my tuxedo to keep it clean, I climbed into the vent in my familiar, skin-tight suit, following the route Ace had laid out for me.

***

Ace grimaced. “That’s great and all, but even once you get to the vault, there’s two guards at the door, a passcode that changes every minute on the minute, not to mention the alarms hooked to the frame of the painting, the pressure sensors attached to the canvas, and the biometric lock you have to get through which needs DNA from Francis Corsair.”

“It won’t be easy-”

King chuckled. “I’ll get you what you need, mate.”

***

I checked my watch. The hands moved to show 6:00 and I removed the vent above the two guards, dropping down between them. The one on my left tried to pull a gun, so I punched him in the gut, causing him to double over, and turned towards the second guard, kicking him in the head to knock him out. The second guard ran for the alarm, so I tackled him, putting him in a chokehold on the way down to make him pass out. I took his wristband and walked over to the vault door and entered the passcode that was displayed. At 6:03 the elevator door opened and Queen walked in, handing me a vial. “My dear husband, you really shouldn’t pick fights with other men.”

“Oh shut up.”

***

“The biggest problem,” I tapped the vault blueprint, “is getting the painting off of the frame. There’s no way to do it without setting off the alarms, and that will lock down the vault, trapping myself and Queen inside it with the hundred million dollar painting.”

Ace looked up from his laptop. "You can leave the alarms to me. I've been hacking since I was old enough to... Well, hack, I suppose."

***

Queen took the frame off the wall and I pulled out my plastic knife to cut the canvas as close to the frame as I could. We stretched my forgery over the frame and put it back on the wall just as the power flicked back on. I rolled up the painting and put it under my vest, walking out of the vault with Queen by my side. Three more security guards got off the elevator. “They’re trapped in the vault. We’ll inform Mr. Corsair that his collection is safe.” Queen and I got on the elevator and pushed the ground floor button.

***

“King, once you’re done with everything you need to do, pull the car around front and be ready to take us to the rendezvous with Ace. There we’ll split up into four separate cars and meet back at the warehouse.”

King looked at me oddly. “Why do we have to spli’ up? Why not jus’ take the van all the way back?”

Queen sighed. “Isn’t it obvious, darling? If, for some reason, one of us is caught, taking the same car all the way would lead them right to where we are.”

Ace pulled out a map. “I’ve calculated the best routes for each of us to take. We’ll arrive at the warehouse about twenty minutes apart, making it seem as though we have no connection. Then we’ll deliver the painting to the Royal House the next day.”

“Alright. Let’s do this.”