by Sophie Lark
As they passed the windows on the far wall, Luca squeezed her hand ever so slightly. The windows were locked and alarmed, but they had no bars on them. As the furthest point in the room from the gems, it was also the most distant from the four guards.
That was the exit point.
Lex and Luca walked back out of the viewing room, into the reception hall.
Music played, and a few people had started to dance. Without asking her first, Luca swept Lex into his arms and began to whirl her around the dance floor.
He moved with incredible coordination. But he was more than just precise—he had intensity and feeling.
He pulled her tight against his body, his hand powerful and insistent on the small of her bare back. She could feel the heat radiating off him where his leg pressed between her thighs. He manipulated her as expertly on the dance floor as he did in bed.
He dipped her and spun her and held her close until he had her aching and longing for him, to the point where, had it gone on any longer, she might have begged him to tear off her dress and fuck her right there in front of everyone.
But they still had so many more things to do that night.
So, they left the party, taking a cab back to their shitty hotel. They changed clothes. Then, each hoisting their own heavy backpack, they climbed on the motorcycle that Luca had bought that afternoon, in cash.
They rode to the depot where the armored trucks were stored.
This was the chink in the armor, the place where the security slackened at last. Because after all, who bothers to guard an empty safe?
Luca cut the chain link fence at the back of the lot. They slipped through, taking care to pull the broken links back into place behind them.
Only a single night guard kept watch over the whole building. He was holed up in his office, reading the newest John Grisham thriller in German.
There were no cameras down on the floor. All the armored trucks sat parked in a row, their drivers’ doors unlocked, their rear doors open. The keys were kept safe in a locked cabinet up in the office, under the eyes of the lone guard. But they didn’t need any keys.
Lex kept watch while Luca pulled his welding gear out of his bag. He made quite a lot of noise, but the guard was too far away to hear. He worked for several hours, sweating heavily by the time he was done.
He paused to let just a little air out of the tires, on all four sides of the truck.
“You’re sure that was the right truck?” Lex teased him.
“I’m sure,” Luca said, wiping the sweat off his face with the back of his arm. “I checked the plates at the party, and I checked them again now, and the VIN number, against the schedule for tomorrow.”
“Good,” Lex said, going up on tip toe to kiss him lightly on the mouth.
Luca grabbed her and kissed her much harder, crushing her body against his.
“Don’t forget this,” he said, passing her the spare scuba tank he had carried in his bag all the way from Venice.
21
Luca Diotallevi
Frankfurt
Even the best thief in the world can’t steal time.
Ally Carter
Luca returned to the Schlosshotel Kronburg around noon via taxi cab. This time he was alone, and he’d forged an invitation under a different name, Arthur VanBuren. He wore a simple gray suit instead of the tux, because it was a more casual afternoon reception. It gave him better mobility, anyway.
The strange calm had fallen over him that always arrived when it was time to actually do the job. He felt his senses sharpen a hundred-fold. He could see, and hear, and even smell the tiny details of the room with an acuteness unmatched in normal life.
That’s why it made him feel so alive, stealing things. The only thing that had ever come close to it was being with Lex. When she stood next to him, he experienced a very similar slowing of time and sharpening of observation. If he had been an artist, he could have drawn her down to the last hair on her head. That was how intensely she had impressed herself upon him.
But he couldn’t think about that now. Lex was counting on him to do his part of the job and do it perfectly.
He passed through reception without incident. The same rooms were open to the public as the night before. The castle was a little better lit during the day, but only marginally so, since most of the windows were situated so high up on the thick stone walls.
The guests were still dressed to the nines. Rich people loved to show off for each other.
Though Luca had a hefty balance stashed in various off-shore bank accounts, he had never considered himself rich, and he probably never would. He would never be a gentleman, by any definition of the word.
He was glad to see the crowds. That would make his job all the easier.
If he had known anything about German society, he was sure he would have recognized the cream of the crop, along with all the wealthy internationals: a couple of Saudi princes, the driver who won the last Formula 1 race in Monaco, and a pretty blonde Luca was sure he’d seen in French cinema.
He milled around the main hall for a while, sampling a few canapés passed around by the waiters and getting a drink from the bar. He was mostly watching the security team, checking to make sure they had about the same number on site, in roughly the same positions as the day before. He could see that they’d changed up their rotation just a little, probably to remain unpredictable to someone like him.
Luca had to admire their professionalism. He knew when he made his move, their response would be swift and precise.
He looked out the same window as the night before, to ensure the armored truck was parked in the same spot out back.
It was.
And it was the same truck as the day before, with the same plates. He had assumed that was the case, otherwise Lex would have texted him. Still, you always had to double-check.
Now he started moving toward the display room, where the jewels were housed. He could see the same head of security positioned in the doorway, the big bald guy with the eagle eyes. That was less than ideal. Luca knew the guy would probably recognize him from the day before, which would put him under additional scrutiny. He’d need to move fast once he was in the next room.
Sure enough, as he came through the doorway and gave his ID again at the second security checkpoint, the guard examined him closely, searching his frame for any obvious bulges, or anything out of the ordinary in his movements.
Luca actually did have a few bulges under his clothes, including a delicate little package in his breast pocket. Hopefully none of it was noticeable.
He made a slow circuit of the cases, making sure that the sapphire was still in its position in the main case.
Three guards were positioned around the display room at the moment: the big, bald dude in the doorway, and two more in the east and west corners of the room. Luca’s exit point was the window in the north corner, directly diagonal from the head guard, with the case between them. The two women working the check-in desk sat on the south-west wall, but Luca assumed they were working solely in a hospitality capacity and wouldn’t represent a physical threat.
The first thing he needed was a distraction.
Luca pretended to admire the exotic gems arrayed in the cases. Really, he was looking beyond them, toward the entrance of the room. He was waiting for just the right woman to walk in. Someone who looked nervous, excitable, with a flair for the dramatic.
The blonde actress came sashaying through the door, accompanied by two friends.
Perfect.
The actress was laughing and chatting much louder than necessary, gesturing wildly with her hands, which were bedecked with rings and bangles.
Luca waited until she was fully through the doors. The guards all glanced toward the three pretty women and their animated conversation. Luca slipped the box out of his breast pocket.
Inside was a small, brown field mouse. Luca released the mouse onto the carpet. He stamped his foot once, to encourage the little fellow to run toward the door.
The mouse scurried across the carpet, directly toward the actress’s skirts. She leaped out of the way, shrieking and pointing.
“Ahhh!” she screamed. “Une souris!”
While she was shrieking, Luca pulled a flare gun out of his coat and shot it directly towards the sprinklers on the ceiling. The flare exploded, filling the room with smoke and light. The sprinklers burst into action, raining down upon the partygoers and the cases.
Now all the women were screaming, and the men were shouting. There was a rush for the door. One of the guards was trying to escort people out in an orderly manner, but the other guard was trying to force everyone to stay inside. The big bald guy, however, was looking for Luca. Without actually seeing what Luca had done, he had singled him out as the most suspicious person in the room.
Luca had ducked down beneath the cases, but he knew he only had seconds at most. Reaching up, he cut the wire linked to the motion sensors.
Now all hell really broke loose. The alarm went off like a siren, piercing and continuous. All three guards rushed toward the cases, the bald guy at the front. He barreled toward Luca with the speed of a charging bull.
Luca abandoned the jewels at once. He sprinted to the north corner of the room, picked up a folding chair, and used it to smash through the window.
They were up on the second floor, but it was only grassy lawn beneath. Luca threw his suit coat over the window ledge to protect his hands, and swung out, hanging for a moment before he dropped down. Then he sprinted off as fast as he could, across the grounds.
Stealth and planning are the keystones of good thieving, but the most crucial skill is and always has been cardio. Here, Luca’s long legs did him in good stead. He could run a mile in four minutes, twenty-one seconds. Even over the rolling hills outside of the castle, in his dress shoes, he could run fast and long.
He was hoping that by now the other guards would have radioed to the boss to let him know that Luca hadn’t managed to steal anything from the cases. But when he cast a look over his shoulder, he saw that the big, bald bastard had followed him out the window anyway and was chugging after him.
Luca sighed.
He’d have to break a sweat, then.
Luca started running faster than ever, full out, toward the stone wall on the north end of the grounds.
To his credit, the bald guard gave his all trying to catch up to him, puffing and sweating like a locomotive, looking like he might have a coronary any moment. He was too short, though. It wasn’t even close.
Luca sprinted and leaped, grabbing the top of the ten-foot wall. He pulled himself up and rolled over it, dropping down on the other side. Then he jogged away, planning to disappear amongst the vast acres of woods and park land, before making a long loop back to the cafes and tourist shops of Kronberg.
Though he couldn’t see what was going on back at the castle, he knew that the security team, with their strict adherence to protocol, would be doing the following:
First, they would shut down the perimeter around the hotel, corralling all the guests in the large hall.
Second, they would open the display cases and secure the jewels in their bulletproof carrying cases.
Those carrying cases would be transported, under full armed guard, down the staircase to the armored truck, where the cases would be stowed in the vault-like carrying hold at the rear of the vehicle.
Then the truck would travel the twenty-two-minute route to the Bankenviertel, the business district where the Strauss vault was located.
The cases would be unloaded, the jewels taken to the vault, and the whole lot inspected to be sure that nothing was missing and no swaps were made.
Germans were nothing if not dependable. Luca felt certain it would all happen exactly as he expected.
In the meantime, Luca kept jogging. He’d gotten rather wet from the sprinklers, not to mention sweaty from his mad-dash run. His white dress shirt was filthy from the climb over the stone wall. He stripped it off and abandoned it in the first trashcan he came across, leaving only the t-shirt underneath.
As he approached the more populated areas at the edge of the park, with all the restaurants and shops and coffee houses, he slowed to a walk and tried to finger-comb his hair back into a state of respectability.
At the nearest shop, he bought a cap, sunglasses, and a t-shirt that read “Ich Mach Foto.” Putting these on, he walked around for a bit, getting himself a water and a latte.
Once he was sure nobody was following him, he took a cab back to the city center, then hopped a tram to the little hotel where he’d been staying with Lex.
“Had a good day sightseeing?” the desk clerk asked, as Luca came strolling in.
“A very good day,” Luca agreed.
Back up in the room, he switched on the television, flipping around for a channel with English news. He spoke a little German, but not enough to understand everything.
As he waited, he scrolled through local Google news reports on his laptop.
At last, he found what he was looking for:
Attempted Theft at the Schlosshotel
And then, on the television, he heard:
A priceless sapphire tiara was stolen this afternoon from an exhibition of the famous Strauss “British Collection”. It’s unclear whether the piece was taken from the Schlosshotel, where the exhibition was being held, or if it was taken en route to the Strauss vault. The German police are calling it a “Houdini-like disappearance”, with the tiara vanishing, while the rest of the jewels remained. Police aren’t ruling out the possibility of an inside job.
That last bit made Luca chuckle. The big bald bastard would be furious if his own team got blamed.
Now there was nothing to do but wait.
Luca was relieved to hear that only the diadem had been taken. He had been mildly concerned that Lex would clean out the lot.
Of course, he wouldn’t blame her for doing it—he’d been tempted himself when he’d seen the rest of that gorgeous loot. But that would have turned attention in the wrong direction. Best not to get too greedy.
His other fear he didn’t want to articulate at all, not even to himself.
So, Luca took a shower, ate some dinner, and waited.
He waited until dark.
Then he drove his motorbike back up to the armored car depot. He waited outside the lot, on the far side of the chain-link fence.
He waited and watched, his anxiety rising by the minute.
He wasn’t afraid that Lex had gotten caught—his confidence in her abilities was absolute.
He was afraid that once she’d gotten the piece, she’d taken off. Abandoned him. Disappeared.
That would break his fucking heart.
He tried not to look at his watch. He just stared at the empty lot.
His stomach began to sink lower and lower.
Just wait, he told himself. Trust her.
At last he saw a figure running toward the fence. She slipped through the chain link, where he’d cut it the night before, carefully folding it back into place behind her.
Lex ran up to his bike, grinning, but also wincing a little.
“God damn, am I stiff,” she said. “Fourteen hours in that little box. I couldn’t even turn over.”
“Did you have enough air?” Luca asked.
“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t,” Lex said.
He wrapped her up in his arms and hugged her hard.
“What is it?” Lex said, looking up into his eyes. “Were you worried I wouldn’t get it?”
“No,” Luca said, “I knew you would.”
“What then?”
“I just…I’m just really happy to see you.”
He kissed her. He swept her up in his arms and kissed her again and again. He wanted to pick her up every time that he touched her. He wanted to carry her away with him and never let her go.
They rode back to the hotel together, Lex sitting pillion behind him with her arms wrapped tight around his waist. They
slipped through the quiet city streets, the wind in their faces and the lighted street lamps casting a golden glow over their skin.
Once they were back in the room, Luca stripped off Lex’s clothes and lay her down on the bed. He got a bottle of lotion and started rubbing out the knots all over her back, shoulders, arms, and legs, from her hours in the cramped position within the truck. His hands were warm and strong, just as skilled at relaxing the tense parts of her body as they were at picking locks and cracking safes.
This is what they had done:
Luca built a false floor within the truck. Knowing that the security guards never rode in the back, it only had to be good enough to pass a visual inspection. He made the hidden compartment as small as possible, so as not to raise the floor too high. It was only ten inches tall, just barely enough space for Lex to lay flat on her back.
He shut her inside with the scuba tank to provide her with extra air if she couldn’t get enough circulation.
She waited in the truck while it drove from the depot to the Strauss vault, while the jewels were loaded inside, and while it drove to the Schlosshotel.
She could have made the theft on the way over to the hotel, but the problem was that it would have focused too much attention on the truck. That was the true purpose of Luca’s diversion.
Once the jewels were inside the castle, Luca staged his bungling attempt at stealing them. The point was to create as much noise and confusion as possible. And of course, to initiate the pack-up protocol, so the gems would be taken back to the Strauss vault.
After they had all been stored inside the armored truck once more, directly over Lex’s head, then she made her move. During the twenty-two-minute drive, she popped up the false floor, as quietly as possible so as not to alert the drivers up front. She took the tiara from its carrying case, but she left the other pieces. Then she hid beneath the metal flooring once more.
Once the truck arrived back at the Strauss vault, the British collection was carried inside and examined. Luca knew that the missing sapphire would have been noticed at once.