Author Games: Caper Crew

The Mark

Three years ago a joyrider off the coast of Carthage finally located the long-lost wreck of the infamous Cinder Kiss, the one and only ship of the dread pirate Captain Celosia. Previously thought to be an old wives' tale, the Cinder Kiss was a scientific discovery beyond the wildest dreams of countless fields; marine biologists, archeologists, and historians alike flocked to the site to begin the painstaking process of retrieving and preserving what remained of a living legend.

Although the public clamored for news and unconfirmed rumors ran amok across the internet, the recovery process was slow, and it took time to remove centuries of calcification from what remained. Without any news (save for the occasional scientific article), the twenty-four hour news cycle eventually moved on from the discovery of the Cinder Kiss and took the attention of the public with it...

...Until a sudden startling announcement on a seemingly normal Monday afternoon after two years and three-hundred forty-two days of radio silence. Scientists are finally ready to show the salvage of the Cinder Kiss to the public in a week-long special exhibition at the famed Eupemian Institute's Museum of Maritime History. That alone would be monumental, but the next bombshell is nothing short of biblical: that alongside the crumbling cargo and rusting cannons will be a temporary display of what has been recovered of Captain Celosia's hoard, an entire century's worth of stolen historical crown jewels and gold now worth more than one and a half billion dollars.

The Eupemian Institute aren't fools, aren't slouches; they protect over a hundred fifty million artifacts among the twenty buildings in their interconnected museum complex on a daily basis, and many of those items have such cultural and historical value that their combined net worth is inconceivable, let alone a mere billion. Sure, they've never had a single exhibit worth so much in easily liquifiable assets, but the Eupemian Institute has a sizable endowment at its disposal. Some might call the new security measures they're installing overkill for a single temporary exhibit, but there's not much they wouldn't be willing to do to secure one and a half billion dollars.

Then again, there's not much a thief wouldn't be willing to do to get their hands on it, either. That's where you come in.