It Happened One Heist

The Dowager

Monty quietly exited the dojo. He had hoped his time in meditation would provide him some clarity on what had just happened between him and Maggie. Sadly, he had no such luck.

All these years he thought he had successfully detached himself from his humanity, and that included any inkling of affectionate desires. She kissed him, for reasons that baffled him, and yet he didn't pull away. He actively encouraged it.

And it made no sense. Why would he have such feelings for someone who had attempted to steal from him and antagonized him so? He couldn't deny she had been a great asset to him. Did he actually find her charming? Or attractive?

He thought back to the night that they returned from the museum heist, when she had gotten sloppy-drunk and allowed herself to be so vulnerable in his presence.

That she... trusted him. And why did he find that so humbling...?

No! Stop!

He didn't want to think about it. He needed something else to distract him.

After a shower and changing into his lounging attire, it was time to get back to work.

He threw the library doors open. There must be an easier way...

His records on all the treasures had been left in neat piles on his favorite work table. He sifted through the dossier he had on the Jade Wine, hoping it might lead to a clue about one of the other artifacts. He did the same for the folder on the Iron Staff, and still turned up nothing new.

He set the dossier down beside him as he rubbed at his furrowed brow. It was taking them far too long to search for these artifacts one-by-one, and his injury had only set them back by another several weeks. He was growing impatient.

He then remembered the Monkey King Amulet and its unusual disappearance.

After he failed to acquire it, the amulet had been returned to the Palace Museum within the Forbidden City with far tighter security after how troublingly easy it was for the likes of him to have broken in. As of a month ago, the amulet seemed to have vanished under most mysterious circumstances.

He retrieved his laptop from the shelf that he kept it on and pulled up what information he had on the amulet's disappearance.

According to multiple news sources, neither Chinese nor international authorities had any kind of lead as to who might have stolen it.

He opened a video file of the security footage from that night. At first there wasn't anything out of the ordinary with the legendary jewelry sitting in its display case. However around midnight, of its own volition the amulet began to glow. It glowed brighter and brighter until it was blinding. Then the security feed cut off, and hadn't been restored until after the investigation the following morning.

Monty opened the crime scene photos. The display case that held the amulet had been shattered and the treasure gone. Shards of glass were spilled across the floor, as though the case had been destroyed from the inside.

Monty put his hand over his mouth. Puzzling, indeed. There was no sign that the amulet had combusted, as the mysterious glow seemingly indicated. There were no shards of the jade it was made from or scraps of the gold ribbon that it was tied to.

Monty scowled, scanning the image of the aftermath thoroughly for some kind of clue. Anything.

But then he noticed another museum artifact in the image. An ancient but seemingly ordinary gourd. It was safely in its glass case, but knocked off of its wire stand and laying on its side. None of the other artifacts in the room had been disturbed, so why that one?