Heist Society

by Ally Carter

  "Mr. Wainwright?" The secretary's voice came through the intercom, and the man on the screen moved. Lurched, really.

  "He's napping," Gabrielle said with a laugh.

  "So what do we need to know about him, Hale?" Kat said. "Besides the fact that he likes to doze off in his office."

  "He's a suit. He's concerned with typical suit stuff," Hale said, clearly an expert on the subject. "Donations, revenue streams"--Hale paused, and even the Bagshaw boys stopped to listen--"publicity."

  Glass surrounded them on three sides. Perfectly tended plants sprawled throughout the space, and Kat felt the high that comes from too much oxygen and possibility.

  "Our friend Romani has made life for Mr. Wainwright very, very difficult," Hale said with a smile. He leaned back in a wrought-iron chair, which Kat guessed was as old as the glass dome around them. "The official party line is what we've already heard--a prank, a mistake by the janitorial staff--the usual stuff."

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  "But unofficially?" Angus asked.

  Hale nodded. "The Henley is spooked."

  On the screen, the secretary was entering the office. She held a small pad of paper in her hands, was rattling off something about a black-tie fund-raiser, a faulty furnace, a new record for attendance, and the annual evaluation of the building's fire codes. And through it all, Gregory Wainwright kept nodding impatiently, desperate to return to his nap.

  "Scared . . ." Kat started. She stood. It felt very good to stretch, and as she walked, she asked herself how her father would rob the Henley. And then Uncle Eddie. And then, finally, her mother. But there was only one thief who had ever done what she was trying to undo, so in the end Kat tried to think like Visily Romani.

  "We're making it too hard," Kat said, more for her own benefit than anyone else's. "We're not stealing from the Henley. We're stealing at the Henley." She began to pace in long strides.

  "They're scared," she said, stopping, turning to Hale. "Right?"

  He nodded slowly and leaned forward, elbows on knees, and something in the gesture reminded Kat of her father. She pointed to the plans. "Then we give them reason to be terrified."

  An awed silence filled the room as five of the greatest junior thieves the world would ever know stared at her and uttered, "Smokey the Bear."

  "It could work," Simon said, nodding slowly.

  "It will work," Gabrielle added.

  Angus even raised his hand, as if Kat were a visiting professor. "Yeah, well that still doesn't explain how we're going to carry five paintings out of the most secure museum in the world--"

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  "Even if they aren't their paintings," Hamish reminded them again.

  "Without getting noticed," his brother finished.

  Kat walked to the window. She tried to see out into the night, but the glass had become a mirror in the darkness. Kat stared at their reflections, studied them all in turn.

  "So we get noticed."

  To call it a party would be a mistake. It wasn't a celebration so much as an excuse to blow off steam. But when Hamish found an old phonograph and a collection of ragtime records in the corner of the solarium, there was no doubt the music changed things.

  Maybe it was the scratchy sound of trumpets reverberating off the glass--maybe they were all a little drunk on the possibility (or perhaps the illusion) that this thing might actually work. But, eventually, Simon asked Gabrielle to dance, and proved he was surprisingly good. Angus challenged Hamish to balance a cricket bat on his chin for two minutes (which he did).

  And, through it all, Kat sat on an old chaise lounge, watching the party. Hale sat on the other side of the room, watching her.

  "So does he hate everyone, or am I special?" Kat didn't have to turn. She could see Nick standing over her shoulder, reflected in the glass. He threw one leg over the chaise lounge and sank onto the cushion beside her. She felt suddenly conspicuous, as if there were entirely too much them and too little chair.

  Hale looked away.

  "You never did answer my question, you know," Nick said. He took a sip from his drink. "This afternoon?" He cocked his

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  head in Hale's direction. "How long have you two been . . . together?"

  Kat pulled her legs under her, farther from him. "Oh, a while," she said, and then for reasons Kat would never know, she couldn't stop herself from smiling at the memory.

  There are stories thieves don't tell--trade secrets, mostly. Or incriminating tales. Or mistakes too embarrassing to repeat. The story of Kat and Hale was none of those things, and yet it was one she never said aloud; at that moment she wondered why. She studied him across the room. He smiled back in a way that said, despite the music and distance, somehow he'd heard--somehow he was thinking the exact same thing.

  Hamish's right arm was around Angus's waist as the two of them tangoed past.

  "I still vote for Uncle Felix," Hamish was saying.

  "Did the man on that tape look like he had a bum leg to you?" Angus asked, his cheek pressed against his brother's.

  "Uncle Felix hurt his leg?" Kat asked, and Hamish shuddered.

  "Alligators," he said, stopping midstride. "Buggers are faster than they look."

  The Bagshaws both seemed to be studying her.

  "Smile, Kat," Angus told her. "It's a good plan. Uncle Eddie couldn't have done better."

  Hamish raised an imaginary glass. "To Uncle Eddie."

  Everyone echoed the toast, except for the boy beside her. "Who's Uncle Eddie?"

  Perhaps it was her imagination, but Kat could have sworn that the needle on the phonograph skipped. For a moment, everyone stopped dancing.

  While the whole crew stared at Nick, Hale smirked

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  at Kat, challenging her to describe the indescribable.

  "Uncle Eddie is . . . my uncle." Kat started like every good con starts, with a little bit of the truth.

  Gabrielle added, "Our uncle."

  " Yes, Gabrielle," Kat conceded. "Uncle Eddie is our grandfather's brother. He is oar great-uncle." She gestured to herself and Gabrielle. "The real kind."

  "Way to rub it in, Kat," Angus said with only a semi-mocking tone as he and his brother danced by. (Kat wasn't sure who was leading.)

  "The Bagshaws are sort of like ..." Kat struggled with the words.

  "Our grandfather worked with Eddie before he even moved to New York," Angus explained.

  "You ever hear of the Dublin Doxy Heist?" Hamish asked, eyes wide. "What about the time someone ransomed that little dog Queen Elizabeth was gonna breed all her other dogs with?"

  "And then she got the wrong dog back?" his brother finished. Nick shook his head.

  The brothers shrugged as if Nick were utterly beyond saving, and resumed their tango. Nick turned to Simon, unfazed. "How about you? How do you know this Uncle Eddie?"

  Simon rubbed his hands together. "My dad had a sort of cash-flow problem when he was at MIT, and that's how he met--

  "My grandfather," Gabrielle interjected as she reached for Simons hands and pulled him to his feet.

  " Our grandfather," Kat corrected as Simon tried to dip Gabrielle. And failed.

  "Who was Eddie's brother," Simon said, reaching for

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  the girl who was currently sprawled across a hard floor for the second time in three days.

  Across the room, Hale smiled slightly. "We can draw you a diagram if you need it."

  "No thanks," Nick said. "I think I've got everyone but you.

  "Oh." Hale smirked. "That's simple." Kat wasn't moving-- wasn't dancing--and yet it felt like her heart might pound out of her chest as she watched Hale lean farther into the shadows and say, "I'm the guy who happened to be home the night Kat came to steal a Monet."

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  CHAPTER 26

  Hale found her in the garden, staring at a statue of Prometheus that W. W. Hale the First had purchased in Greece and transplanted to Wyndham Manor sometime before the first World War.

  "I wouldn't tr
y stealing that, if I were you." His voice came from behind her, but Kat didn't turn.

  "The weight would make it hard," she said.

  From the corner of her eye, she saw Hale stop beside her, hands shoved into pockets, looking up. "You'd need a crane," he said. "Cranes are loud."

  "And big."

  "They leave nasty tracks all over gardens." Kat could almost feel him smile. "And quads."

  Not for the first time, Kat wanted to ask about Colgan

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  and the Porsche and exactly how he'd done it, but every good thief knows that the only job that matters is the next job. So Kat stayed quiet in the midst of the rosebushes and fountains and perfectly trimmed hedges that ran across three acres like a maze. She stood at the center of it, not at all surprised that he'd found her.

  "He stole fire from the gods," she said flatly, pointing at the statue.

  Hale sighed. "The Visily Romani of his time."

  In comparison, even Arturo Taccone didn't seem like such a threat. The music had been turned up and was floating through the glass and out into the night. Inside, someone was laughing. And Katarina Bishop was standing with Hale in the chilly air, watching his foggy breath.

  Hale's hand found hers. It was big and warm around her cold fingers. It felt like it belonged there. And then, just that quickly, it was gone, and Kat found herself grasping crisp, cold paper.

  "I found these, by the way." Hale studied Kat's face as she looked down at the manila envelope that she had hoped to never see again.

  "How did you ..."

  "Under the rug in your bedroom, Kat? Really?" He laughed. "For an excellent thief, you really are a terrible hider." She didn't open the envelope. She already knew too well what was inside. "The one of me is especially nice." He turned his head. "It captured my good side."

  "I didn't notice you had one."

  He smiled. "Oh, I think you noticed." He stepped closer. They were almost touching as he said, "A little bit." "Hale--"

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  "If I kill Taccone, would that help your dad?" Hale asked, and Kat was too tired to gauge if he was joking. "Marcus would do it," he added. "I've always told him his job description was up for modification. Or Gabrielle? She's got this nail file-- thing's like a switchblade."

  "And you've seen a lot of switchblades on Martha's Vineyard?"

  "Hey, the Yacht Club loves a good rumble."

  It was funny. He was funny. Kat wanted to laugh. She tried to will herself to do it. To dance. To be the girl she'd tried--and failed--to be at Colgan.

  But instead she inched away from the very kind, very funny, very handsome boy who had followed her into the dark, somehow bringing the music with him.

  "Why are you doing this, Hale?"

  "What?" he said. He was still too close.

  "You could do anything," she said softly, looking down, wanting him to hear her but not see her. "Why are you doing this?"

  His arm was warm against hers. "I always wanted to do the Henley."

  "Can you be serious for a second?" "Dance with me."

  "What?" she asked, but his arms were already going around her waist. He was already holding her tightly against him.

  "Dancing. Come on. You can do it. It's a lot like navigating through a laser grid. It requires rhythm." He moved her hips to the beat of the distant music. "And patience." He spun her out slowly and back toward him. "And it's only fun if you trust your partner." The dip was so slow, so smooth, that Kat didn't know it was happening until the world had already turned

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  upside down and Hale's face was inches from her own.

  "Count me in, Kat." He squeezed her tighter. "You should always count me in."

  In the hours that followed, a simple kind of peace fell over Wyndham Manor.

  Marcus and Nick disappeared inside their third-floor bedrooms. The Bagshaws fell asleep in the solarium while the phonograph played and the party continued in their dreams. Gabrielle did her nails and, for practice, picked Simon's pocket--twice--before going upstairs and crawling into bed.

  Only two members of the party did not find easy sleep.

  Kat sat at the base of the stairs for a long time, looking at the pictures, reminding herself of exactly what was at stake.

  Uncle Eddie was on his favorite bench. Gabrielle was still more beautiful than any one person ever had the right to be. And Hale was right, Kat had to admit: Taccone's picture really did capture his good side.

  But it was the picture of her father that Kat looked at the longest. She studied the familiar square, the people in the crowd. Amelia Bennett was there, in the background, and somehow Kat felt relieved, remembering that someone was still watching over her father, even if she couldn't. But then Kat saw someone else.

  She fought the urge to curse or feel like a fool. Instead she sat quietly and said, "Oh boy."

  Hale was the only other person still awake. He'd gone into the pantry and closed the door. Standing among the cans of tomato sauce and bags of flour, he pulled out his phone and dialed a number.

  "Uncle Eddie," Hale said slowly. He took a deep breath. "I think I need your help. Who do we know in Paris?"

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  3 DAYS UNTIL DEADLINE

  WYNDHAM MANOR, ENGLAND

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  CHAPTER 27

  In her dream, Kat heard the music. It was louder there, away from the garden, echoing off the glass walls and tiled floors. She looked for Hale, but he was gone, lost among the Henley's crowd. She craned her neck, searching. But the sun streaming into the room was too bright; the music was too loud. And yet, no one was dancing. "Hale!" Kat called. "Gabrielle!"

  Something was wrong, Kat knew, but it was too late to stop it... to stop ... something.

  "Hale!" she called again, but his name was drowned out by the sound that echoed through the atrium: a roar like thunder, followed by a flash of lightning. But outside there was only sun--no clouds, no storm. And yet inside it was raining. A dark cloud formed, blocking out the light as people ran and

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  cried and screamed. But Kat stood still beneath the pouring rain, staring through the parting crowd at a woman near the entrance in a bright red coat and patent leather shoes, staring back at her.

  "Mom?" Kat's voice was barely audible over the approaching police sirens, the museum's blaring alarms. "Mom!" Kat cried again. She pushed against the sea of bodies, following the woman outside.

  And just that quickly, the sun was gone. Night had fallen. The rain began to freeze, and her mother's red coat stood out against the white blanket of snow that covered the city's streets.

  "Mom!" Kat called, but the woman didn't turn. "Mom, wait for me!"

  Kat ran faster, trying not to fall, but the snow was too deep; her hands grew cold. And in the distance the alarms were still ringing.

  I should hide, she thought. I should run. But instead she followed in the woman's footsteps, searching for the red door, the red coat.

  "Mom!" The snow was coming faster now, covering the footprints. "Mom, come back!"

  Snowflakes clung to her lashes, ran down her face like tears, while the sirens grew louder, closer, pulling Kat from a dream she didn't want to leave. She reached out as if there were a way to hold on to the snow, to the night. But the noise was too loud. Kat opened her eyes--she knew her mother was gone and she could not follow.

  She reached for her bedside table and turned off her alarm. She closed her eyes, hoping the dream wasn't gone for good. But her room was already bathed in rare rays of British

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  sunlight; her duvet was heavy and warm, tucked around her in the soft bed. Kat thought of the woman in the red coat, and knew why she hadn't waited.

  There are some places daughters aren't supposed to follow.

  So Kat rolled onto her back, stared at the ornate ceiling, then sighed and said, "Phase three."

  When Kat finally made her way downstairs, Marcus was standing at attention
beside the open patio doors, a plate of toast in one hand, a walkie-talkie in the other. Simon sat at the center of a long table, surrounded by laptops and wires. But it was Nick who drew Kat's attention as he sat at the head of the table, flanked on either side by Hale and Gabrielle.

  "Don't ever ask a question when the answer is no," Hale told him.

  "Don't ever break character--not even for a second," Gabrielle added.

  "You should always be in control of the conversation," Hale said.

  "Your mark should always think he's in control of the conversation," Gabrielle said in turn.

  Kat knew that speech. Kat had given that speech.

  "And never, ever--" Hale started, but Nick had turned toward Kat, smiling.

  "Good morning." He seemed utterly at home, at ease. "Someone got her beauty sleep."

  Gabrielle looked at Kat's wild hair and wrinkled pajamas. "That's not exactly beauty." She smirked at her cousin. "No offense."

  Before Kat could respond, spirals of dark smoke swirled up from behind the long stone fences that crisscrossed through

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  the fields in the distance, and a scratchy voice boomed from Marcus's hand.

  "How was that?" Angus sounded entirely too pleased with himself.

  Gabrielle gestured upward with her thumb, so Marcus pressed the talk button on the walkie-talkie and said, "Bigger."

  Nick glanced at Hale. "Don't you have neighbors?" he asked.

  Hale ignored him. Instead, he leaned closer to Kat. "He isn't ready," he told her. "I should do this."

  Kat shook her head. "Wainwright knows your voice." "I can do the accent."

  Kat smiled. "Like you did the accent in Hong Kong?" Hale exhaled loudly. "I can do the accent better this time."