by L J Branch
“What? No, it’s awesome!” Kat said brightly but it seemed Kat was alone in her opinion.
“Ignore her, love, she’s our version of a bookworm,” Jack said dryly. “It can be exciting if you’re an infiltrator like her and spend the whole day in a playground on steroids. However, if you’re an enforcer like me then you spend the day getting beat up as your teacher tries to teach you how to fight,” Jack said dryly and Abbie winced a bit at the idea of being a punching bag for hours on end.
“What about you?” Abbie asked Diamond curiously.
“If you’re an assassin or at least a first year one like I am, then you spend the day in a glorified philosophy class,” Diamond said as she took a bite of her food. “I was trained from an early age in combat but I am not supposed to fight as much as Frost. I need to survive long enough to get the important kills. That’s what I’m learning, how to kill. Though, before I can truly learn how to kill, I must first learn what a life means to me,” Diamond said though the last part was said as if she had quoted someone. “I fell behind in my reading last night and I need to catch up before today’s lessons, which is what I’m doing now,” Diamond said pointedly as she gestured to her phone. Her golden eyes had never once left its screen during the entire explanation.
“That’s Diamond’s way of saying she was worried about you two last night,” Jack piped up cheekily, which earned himself a swift kick from Diamond.
“Hey, wait, so you’re all in the same year, right?” Abbie asked suddenly. “Isn’t Kat younger than you two? How did that work out?”
“Your formal training starts the year you turn twenty but in Kat’s case, our guardian Vivi pulled some strings to get her admitted early,” Jack explained. “Unlike myself and Diamond who come from respected families, Kat’s considered an outsider but she’s a prodigy and Vivi didn’t want that talent wasted.”
“An outsider?”
“Yeah, like you would be,” Kat explained. “People outside of ‘the know’ who were brought in. Twelve families helped found the Guild, I’m not from one of them like these two, I was like you but I learned early on that I would be joining too.”
“She’s the youngest in our year, but definitely one of the best,” Diamond said before she glanced up at Kat with narrowed eyes. “Now if only she wasn’t so reckless.”
“So, you’re an adrenaline junkie by even their standards?” Abbie asked as Kat looked at her in confusion.
“Adrenaline junkie?”
“Ha! I like that, that fits her perfectly, love!” Jack said as Diamond nodded. Kat pouted and focused on her food instead.
“I’m not that bad,” Kat said though she was completely ignored.
“By the way, Abigail, my bank is one thing but Magnus Financial is run by the Mages’ Circle. They have a habit of mixing technology with the arcane arts,” Diamond explained. “They do so to keep up with the world’s continuously advancing technology.”
“Are you serious?”
“Always,” Diamond said dryly. “As you probably know, there are three major companies in the tech industry. You have Prosperity Industries, the Drakenova Corporation, and Hattori Tech. Prosperity Industries is controlled by the Mage’s Circle while the Hattori Tech is with us,” Diamond explained. “Mage’s incorporate magic into their devices to make them run faster, better. It’s really just a simple rune hidden inside the logo.”
“That…that explains so much,” Abbie muttered. “It’s no doubt those brands are the best in the market. The issue my friends and I have had was that Hattori Tech and the Drakenova Corp. progressed naturally, their devices evolved through innovation. Yet, P.I. managed to keep up with hardware that was pretty stale. I’ve jailbroken phones and other things from those brands before to make a quick buck and that always bugged me. It was like any changes in their hardware were just for show but somehow their products were harder to breach than even Hattori Tech’s,” Abbie said as she shook her head in wonder. “I guess now I know why,” Abbie said as she frowned. “They were cheatin’, though not too well, didn’t they just have a scandal about their latest phone blowin’ up?”
“Yes, safe to say that gave us an edge in the market,” Diamond said matter-of-factly. “The main issue now is that they’ve secretly released a new O.S. to their allies last month and every company in bed with them has become impossible to breach, including Magnus Financial. If we had attempted the job earlier when their security was still able to be breached then it wouldn’t be such an issue. Now, however, our deadline is approaching and it’ll take too long for the Guild to learn how to crack it.”
“That’s what we get for procrastinating,” Jack mused as Kat placed her face in her hands.
“It’s not our fault that we couldn’t find a hacker that didn’t try to take a stupidly large cut,” Kat complained, her voice muffled. “Seriously, one guy wanted fifty percent. Fifty! Not even Diamond gets fifty!”
“Maybe we can get an extension?” Diamond muttered and it was surreal for Abbie just how much the thieves before her treated robbing a bank as if it were a college project. It was then that it sunk in that to them, it might as well had been.
“You guys are givin’ me flashbacks, I almost forgot how much I hated school,” Abbie said with a laugh. “Still, that just means you have to cram. I can definitely hack it for you, the issue is that I need to get my hands on the new O.S. which will be next to impossible to find.”
“Maybe not,” Kat piped up as she pulled out her phone. They watched as she frantically searched for something before a smile threatened to split her face. “Here,” Kat said as she raised her phone and showed them an article that detailed an upcoming showcase and press-conference by Prosperity Industries. “I saw this awhile back. They’re preparing a new fleet of luxury cars, says they can switch between both land and air seamlessly. They’re going to have a demonstration and everything. What are the odds that the cars they ship over have the new O.S.?”
“The odds are good if they are trying to show off,” Diamond said, a dangerous gleam in her eyes that sent a chill down Abbie’s spine. “We get our hands on one of those cars, then we get our hands on a key into Magnus Financial.”
“Exactly,” Kat said proudly while Jack chuckled.
“We’re back to stealing cars? Feels like orientation week all over again,” Jack said. “Regardless, this works for me.”
“We’ll come up with an actual plan later,” Diamond said as they finished up their meal.
“Want to meet up at my place?” Abbie piped up. “There’s a garage for sale near it that might be helpful if you’re taking a car, plus all my gear is at my place and it would be hard to move it…” Abbie trailed off when she noticed that Diamond and Jack just looked at her with blank expressions while Kat’s smile somehow managed to grow. “What?”
“So, this is what happens when you live a repressed life,” Diamond wondered as Jack shook his head.
“Bloody hell, you’ve taken to the life of crime well, love. It’s a damn shame you weren’t sponsored by someone in the Guild,” Jack said as Abbie just looked a bit embarrassed.
“I…I’m just tryin’ to help, is it that odd?”
“Trying to help? No. Being so blatantly adept at it? A tiny bit,” Diamond said as she stood up from the table with her band. “There’s a story there, somewhere. That said, I never look a gift horse in the mouth. You’ve proven yourself not to be dead weight,” Diamond said as she went to a nearby wall and pulled off a painting. On the wall behind it, Abbie saw an all too familiar mark that made her grab her own instinctively.
“That’s her way of saying she likes you,” Jack supplied happily as he put away the dishes.
“Frost!”
“What? Dear, you know you need a kindness translator,” Jack said with a laugh as he stepped behind Diamond with Kat who glanced back at Abbie sheepishly.
“So, yeah, sorry I can’t walk you to the door, but you know the way out, right?” Kat asked which made Abbie nod. “Good, I�
��ll see you at your place then,” Kat said as Diamond placed her hand on the mark. Soon the thieves’ bodies were completely covered in ash before being seemingly sucked into the mark. Abbie stood alone in the penthouse for a few moments before she shook her head.
“What the actual hell did I get myself into?”
* * *
Santa Monica, Abigail’s Apartment
It was that evening that Abbie heard a knock on her door. When she opened it, she smiled when she saw Kat, Diamond, and Jack on the other side. Kat carried a pizza box as Jack held the drinks.
“We come bearing gifts!” Kat said with a grin that Abbie returned as she let them into her apartment.
“Good, I’m starvin’, I’ve been workin’ all day and haven’t had a bite to eat. Put it on the table,” Abbie said as they walked into the apartment.
“Wait, don’t you work at a diner?” Kat asked.
“Trust me, I’ve been in that kitchen. The last thing you want to do is eat there,” Abbie explained and the thieves couldn’t help but feel sorry for the woman who looked as though she were going to gag from the memories alone. “Shame because that plot of land would be perfect for any other business.”
“Is that right?” Diamond asked and she looked a bit thoughtful at that last bit of information before she shook her head. “Doesn’t matter, I’ve also gotten you something,” Diamond said as she handed Abbie a black cloth. “In the off chance, you ever need to keep your identity hidden.”
“A mask, huh? Do you guys have one?”
“Never leave home without it, love,” Jack answered as a black mask formed out of ash over the lower half of his face, a black embroidering covering its edges. “Though ours are a bit more effective, admittedly.”
“Really? Besides the design they look the same,” Abbie pointed out which made Jack chuckle. Kat quickly shared a glance with Jack as she left the room before suddenly returning with the lower half of her face covered by a black cloth that bore the same pattern as Jack’s but with a bright crimson color. One thing that Abbie noticed was that the woman’s electric green eyes seemed to glow brightly and she found herself being unable to look from them. “What the hell…” Abbie muttered, a disgruntled expression on her face as she looked at the masked woman. Deep down she knew she should have known who stood before her. It was obvious, she had just seen the woman leave after all, yet despite everything her mind refused to make the connection. “Jack, Diamond, why don’t I know who that is?” Abbie asked which made the masked woman giggle before her mask simply dissolved into ash, breaking the odd trance Abbie had slipped into. “Kat? What just happened?”
“Like Jack said, ours work differently than yours,” Kat began. “Our masks are just a small part of the overall uniform that hides our identities. Even if you should know who we are, if you aren’t in the Guild you won’t be able to put two and two together. There are a lot of important people, famous people, that work with us so keeping our identities hidden is a must,” Kat explained. “But…” Kat trailed off as the ash reappeared, green sparks dancing amongst it briefly before it formed her mask once more. Though this time Abbie could still reconcile the masked woman with Kat. “…If you actually see us putting on or taking off the mask, the effect stops working. Diamond will ‘reveal’ herself to you later today to make sure things go smoothly in the future.”
“That’s definitely a neat trick,” Abbie said before she turned to Diamond. “Thanks, even if it’s a regular mask, I appreciate it. I have a gift for y’all as well,” Abbie continued. “I know where we can get the cars.”
“Where?” Diamond asked as Abbie gestured for them to follow her. They followed her to her bedroom, where she kept her computer. When they looked at the screen, they saw that it displayed a map of Santa Monica.
“They’re gonna be shipped here in a couple of days,” Abbie revealed before she frowned a bit. “I guess if you can somehow intercept them before they get here, then there’s your ticket into Magnus Financial,” Abbie said before she sighed. “That’s about as much as I can do for you, I have no experience with that kind of thing.”
“That’s fine, you’ve done enough for now,” Diamond said quietly, lost in thought as she examined the map for a second. “If you wouldn’t mind, could you leave me here for a few minutes? I won’t mess with your computer, but I do need to think alone for a bit.”
“Uh, sure I guess,” Abbie said as Jack led her out of the room with Kat.
“You’ve helped, but don’t forget we are the thieves,” Jack joked. “And there is a reason Diamond is the boss.”
“She’ll come up with the plan in no time, your only job now is to help us with this pizza,” Kat said and as if it heard her, Abbie’s stomach seemed to growl in response.
“Sounds like a plan,” Abbie said sheepishly as Jack laughed.
“I’ll make Diamond a plate, you two just relax for now,” Jack said as Abbie and Kat sat down at her table while he fixed Diamond a plate and left. When they did so, Kat noticed a picture that showed two young brunette girls playing together in a garden. Upon closer inspection, she noticed that the shorter of the two girls looked very similar to Abbie.
“Hey, Abbie, you have a sister?” Kat asked curiously which startled Abbie before she noticed the picture that caught Kat’s attention. Kat blinked in surprise as she could have sworn she saw an angered expression flash across Abbie’s face but it had disappeared as soon as it showed up.
“An older one by two years, her name’s Haylen, we were inseparable when we were kids,” Abbie said with a small smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “She actually got me into computers.”
“You never mentioned her,” Kat said as she raised an eyebrow.
“I…try not to think about my family,” Abbie said with a sigh. “They’re an interestin’ group, to say the least. They’re powerful and the way they use that power can be questionable more often than not. She and I were close as kids, her protectin’ me from every little thing. Now, however, she’s the exact opposite of me. She’s cold, efficient, and cruel,” Abbie said with a frown. “You know, in many ways, Diamond actually reminds me of her,” Abbie said before catching herself. “In a good way, I mean!”
“It’s fine, love, Diamond’s a dangerous woman and has an attitude to match,” Jack said as he returned. “If you think the three of us got along when we first met you’d be mistaken.”
“Really?”
“Oh yeah,” Kat said with a laugh. “Jack and I were cool, we were raised together. That said, you could almost choke on his angst. He had like no emotion and talking to him was like talking to a wall,” Kat said with a look of disgust on her face. “If you told me a year ago this man could smile, I’d put you in a nut house.”
“I was not that bad.”
“You totally were, you had to be the most emo person I’ve ever met,” Kat said with a laugh. “I swear flowers died near you,” Kat then shook her head while Abbie looked at the man in shock, he seemed like such a happy individual, a slightly older and male version of Kat at times. “Then there was Diamond, she can seem distant at times toward you but that’s nothing compared to what we had to deal with. She was, without a doubt, the biggest bitch I have ever encountered in my life. Before our initiation into the Guild, we all spent a year living together at her place. Listen, Abbie, if there was just one more day added on to that? Someone would have died.”
“Don’t act like you didn’t come with your own set of problems,” Jack said and Kat stuck her tongue out at him. “This girl entered her rebellious phase and never left it, her sole reason for existing seemed to consist of pissing off everyone around her. When we were forced to live together, she and Diamond fought so much that I realized that Sartre was right, ‘Hell is other people’.”
“So, what happened? You three seem as thick…as…thieves…” Abbie trailed off as the irony of that statement sunk in. “Please pretend I didn’t just say that.”
“Not happening,” Kat said with a smirk wh
ich made Abbie groan. “As for what happened? Well, we became a band. Our hearts were linked together and at that moment everything changed, I guess,” Kat answered with a shrug.
“We could feel how our words and actions affected each other, we gained understanding,” Jack answered before he gestured toward Kat. “Kat became more considerate when it came to her actions.”
“Jack, here, got his head out of his ass and realized he wasn’t the only person in the world,” Kat said bluntly and though Jack looked annoyed, Abbie noted that he didn’t deny it. “He learned to love,” Kat said this time with a softer expression as Jack smiled a bit.
“And Diamond?” Abbie asked before tensing as she felt a hand on her shoulder.
“I stopped being alone,” Diamond answered matter-of-factly as Abbie glanced up at her in surprise. “I have a plan,” Diamond began. “And we’re going to need your help. We know the location of the cars. The issue is that they are in a cargo container and are being shipped in with other merchandise from P.I. So that’s where you come in, we need you to identify exactly where the cars are being held. Can you do that?”
“I should be able to, but you’ll need this,” Abbie said before pulling out her phone. “Get this next to a terminal at the docks and I can get all the information you need, the problem is that those tend to be guarded,” Abbie stated with a frown only for Diamond to wave off her concerns.
“That’s why we have Kat.”
* * *
Santa Monica, Docks
A guard sat at a desk in a room that overlooked the hundreds of cargo containers found on the docks. In the distance, a blue container with the letters “P.I.” could be seen being lowered from a ship. The guard, however, paid no mind to that as he watched a boxing match on the terminal.
“That’s it, Rose! Bob and weave!” the guard shouted to the screen, completely ignorant to the shadow that crept toward him on the floor. A masked Kat rose from the shadow and stood silently behind him before she pulled out one of her cards. The word “Sleep” appeared on its blank side before she placed it in front of his face. The guard jumped in surprise but nearly immediately found himself falling unconscious when the card released a black smoke and dissolved within her grasp. It was then that Kat dragged his body away before she returned to the terminal and placed Abbie’s phone next to the computer. Kat quickly started up an app and watched in satisfaction as a familiar white rabbit appeared on the screens of the phone and the computer.