Through Hell and Back

Chapter 3

Three o clock at night, Museum of Florence. These were the two noticeable features on the museum. The massive bronze title sign and the clock that hung out front. Yes, those are the common things that people would notice. But maybe a slightly more obscure detail people may miss is that there was a faint shadow behind the clock tonight. The hunched over shadow disappeared around the edge of the tower. If you listened closely you could hear a very small buzzing sound. A drill. Dante, fully dressed in black with a skull cap on his head, was bent over the air vent and was rapidly unscrewing the screws. Once all four screws were out Dante lifted the grate and placed it to his side. Dante then pulled out some sort of gadget out of the pack he was wearing on his back. He hooked himself up to it and then placed the three-pronged hook on the edge of the concrete around the grate. Dante then dropped into the hole. He had studied the schematics of the museum perfectly. He fell and fell until at the last second the cord was pulled tight. Five inches off the ground. Dante unclipped himself and landed lithely on the floor. He backed himself up against a museum exhibit so he was out of sight. Dante began to root around in his backpack. Finally he found what he was looking for. He stuck a device to the side of the wall. Creeping slowly, he made his way to the gem exhibit. There were many precious gems but he was looking for one in particular. Dante had a clever way of going about things. The gem exhibit was almost never looked at anymore. Ever since the Museum of Florence began hosting traveling exhibits permanent ones were very rarely looked at. Another detail that made Dante's crime easier is that the attendant who made sure everything was in place before opening was a man who had worked here for over six years with no robberies. That made the attendant a very fat, very lazy man. Dante had monitored this man and had figured out sometimes the attendant didn't even check all of the displays. And another smart trick Dante had picked up on the streets was that people will miss the wallet but not the spare change. So Dante didn't go for the six ounce diamond in front of him. He went for smaller ones like a ruby or an emerald. Those would bring a large amount of money and no one would miss them. In fact, Dante speculated, he could steal most of the gems here with little risk and make about five-hundred more euro then he could if he stole just the diamond. He had almost gotten all of the gems in his pouch when he heard footsteps getting closer. Crap, Dante thought, the guard must have been in the bathroom around the corner when I broke in and is just getting out! Dante checked his watch. It should have been another twenty minutes until the next guard came around the corner. So Dante improvised.

The guard rounded the corner and looked into the gem exhibit. The guard nodded his head in approval and kept walking. Then he stopped. The guard rushed back and looked into the exhibit. Glass shards were littered all over the floor. The guard cautiously walked into the room, staring at the mess on the floor. Someone must have- that's as far as the guards' train of thought ran. Dante had hidden behind the door and had hit the guard in the back of the head with his drill. The guard slumped to the floor. "So much for not being noticed for a while," Dante grumbled to himself. He dragged the guard into the corner of the room, finished putting the gems in his bag, and then left his finishing touch. Dante pulled a bandage wrap out of his bag and dropped it at the guard's feet. Now for the final problem with every break-in. Getting out.