A Summer With a Thief

Chapter 1

      I dialed a quick number on my phone, still watching the seat where the girl had been sitting. I tapped my toe impatiently on the floor. The number didn't even ring. I rubbed my temple with one hand, and reached up to my ear with the other. I found the small plastic device and flipped it on.

"-If you ever get back alive, I will-"

"Berig."

"Elliot, where are you!?"

"On the plane."

"The plane home? Why was your earpiece off?"

"Yes." I must have looked crazy, as I was making no attempt to mask my talking like I normally did. "Berig, I need you to hack into the plane's database and look for a passenger sitting in seat 5F."

"Why don't you just call up your anti-government buddies and ask them to hack into the plane system?" I sighed.

"Berig, I've told you before, They're not anti-government. They are the government. I'm here to protect the Ambassador, and I know why she needs protecting. I didn't even need to introduce myself, and she already was ranting on about the Canada Empire."

"Okay, okay." Berig interrupted in my ear. I glowered. "5F is to a Miss Cassidy English Burlington. Sixteen years old." He paused for a moment. "Hmm. That's strange."

"What is it Berig?"

"Well, I looked at it... and her certificate definitely says she's sixteen. But I did a check on her person. And I found two. They have different pictures, but the face matches. However, the other one says she's twelve."

"Read me the twelve year old one." I told him.

"Cassidy English Burlington..." He paused again. "an orphan having claim a tragic story of two parents, who abandoned their four year old daughter and changed their names, living off the books so no one could ever find them again. Cassidy was found and adopted by the Burlington's who tried to help her find her birth family, the English's. To no avail, the girl finally settled down with her adopted family and currently has high academic levels and many in-school, as well of out-of-school, extracurricular camps and classes." He stopped again. "That's it, Elliot. That's all I can find. I've got her adopted parents, though. They haven't got a lot either. You do realize what this means? Elliot, why were you so concerned about this kid?

"Because the ambassador's briefcase is gone, and it had a very important peace treaty found within."

"Oh." He said. "Well, I think we both know who did it. Time to go catch us a thief."

"Cassidy didn't do this alone." I said.

"Oh? How do you know?"

"Because I get the feeling she's actually a good kid."

"A good thief?"

"No." I paused. "A good kid. Who hangs out with the wrong crowd."

"Who thieves."

"I thought you'd learned to trust my gut feeling." I said.

"Oh. you have a feeling." He said sarcastically. "And you think I care, why?"

"You've been chewing on the Leye leaves again." I growl. "I want to talk to Alex."

"Yeah, well you can't. She's not here." A new voice cut in, this one female.

"Just because I'm not there, doesn't mean I don't exist." It said. "Elliot is right, Berig. You don't think straight when you've been Leyed."

"Alex, that's not a word." I said.