It Happened One Heist

The Countess

The thieves had their chance to rest up. The night of their next heist was fast approaching. Monkey Fist donned his robe and searched the castle for his partner.

She was neither in the parlor, nor the library, nor her room. His monkey ninjas were seemingly nowhere in the castle either, so he descended to the dojo, suspecting that they were hard at their training as usual.

As he entered he looked over towards the reed mat and his suspicions were correct. Except this time in the center was Maggie, dressed in a black tank top and sweatpants and engaged in blindfolded combat.

Monkey Fist was surprised to see that she had some martial arts skill of her own. Her technique rang familiar as it had more sweeping motions than that of kung fu or ninjutsu, and it was rhythmic in that it looked more balletic than combative. It was almost mesmerizing, but it didn't make it any less effective. Despite her being blindfolded Maggie was able to dodge and block almost every move the monkeys threw at her. Her opponents didn't hold back with their attacks, yet she still kept them on their toes with each cartwheel, flip and sweeping kick.

At first Monkey Fist wasn't sure how she could do that while unable to see, but then he quickly took notice that Maggie was keeping up her rhythm by snapping her fingers. He raised his brows, as once more she was putting her echolocation to excellent use.

He casually stepped off the platform and onto the mat, the monkey ninjas standing down at their master's arrival.

Snap!

Maggie sensed another challenger approaching.

"Oh-ho! Trying to sneak up on me, eh?"

She made another sweeping kick only for Monkey Fist to grab her foot before her heel hit his chin.

Maggie was slightly stunned as he just held her there in an awkward position on only one foot and two hands. With her thumb she lifted her blindfold.

"Hi, Monty," she smiled.

"Capoeira, if I'm not mistaken," Monkey Fist observed.

"Yep," Maggie confirmed. "When I was studying vampire bats in Brazil I had some time to learn." Her elbows started to wobble from the barely-balanced position. "You can let go anytime now, thanks."

And so he did with a slightly teasing smirk, allowing Maggie to get back on her feet.

"I haven't known many who knew capoeira," Monkey Fist admitted.

Maggie pulled her blindfold off and grabbed a towel she had left folded on the wooden platform. She patted the sweat from her forehead and remarked, "Really? I would've thought since you're the martial arts master..."

"Well, I might have seen some demonstrations when I've visited Brazil. I just..." Monkey Fist once more had to push back thoughts of that slash-and-burn nightmare. "... hadn't the time for it." He cleared his throat. "You'll have to give me a demonstration sometime."

"With pleasure." Maggie draped her towel over her shoulders and asked, "So what brings you here? Business or pleasure?"

"Business. I narrowed the location of our next target. And since you're so keen on committing burglary I thought I'd let you do the honors."

"Oh, that's so sweet of you. So where is it?"

"The Middleton Museum of Art. Next week they plan to showcase an exhibit in the west wing called 'The Treasures of the Jade Emperor.'" He retrieved from his robe pocket a brochure on the exhibit.

"Oohoohoohoo..." Maggie giggled with an excited shiver. "We're not gonna steal the whole exhibit, are we?"

"Don't be foolish. We'd need a whole battalion of monkeys for a heist of that caliber. Besides, I've seen these treasures before in Beijing. Almost half of them are forgeries," Monkey Fist stated with an amused smirk. He unfolded the brochure and pointed to a photo of a standing Buddha statue. "Note the detailing of the drapery on his garments here. How it doesn't cling to his figure so and actually mimics the folds of cloth. It's far more reminiscent of the way Greek sculptors depicted clothing."