A Summer With a Thief

Chapter 2

A Thief was hard enough to catch, let alone a small one who had managed to disappear on a plane, in the air. Then you add on the fact that we had to find her supervisor, who we didn't know anything about, that made it nearly impossible. Luckily impossible was something we didn't believe in.

I watched as the people on the ground started to clear out, the last ones to go looking forlornly at the plane and then baffled at the sky, where there was no tornado. They left too though, and the airport was suddenly free of people. The static of the intercom crackled for a minute. Then the pilots voice came on.

"We are landing but we have received word that... no one is to panic..., but we can not unload until danger is past. Thank you."

The pilot sounded too tired to be scared or explain what danger we were all in. But that was fine with me, because it didn't matter. I almost looked around before remembering that we wore working against professionals.

"Is anyone showing the signs?" Alex asked in my ear

"No." I said. "Alex, we're working against professionals. They're going to know not to freak out or seem too calm."

"Then why'd you have me stop the plane from unloading?" She asked.

"Because. I need to ask some people some questions." I could almost hear Alex roll her eyes with her next words.

"Right. Ask them all out to tea. Not like we're tracking a master thief."

"Alex, we all know you're jealous that this girl is a queen of thieves and you're not. Just let Elliot do his thing." This voice in my head was new, and came from the com as well. It was Laura, who was kind of like Berig's second-in-command.

"She's not a queen thief." I said. "She's the princess who murdered her parents to get the throne."

The com was silent. For Alex's sake, I wished I would've taken my words back.

I advanced along the isle, looking for the perfect person to interrogate. My eyes were drawn to the man who had been sitting by the Princess. I crouched down next to him.

"Is the seat next to you taken?" I asked. He looked at me in disgust, and then at the empty seat next to him.

"Nope." He said, his words slurred. I smelled the sweet fragrance of Laye leaves. I glared and tried to ignore the putrid sticky smell of sugary petals.

"Urgh! Is he Layed?" Alex groaned in my ear. "He sounds just like Berig does before a high-security mission." I flicked my earpiece off again.

I had been about to walk away, but I rethought it after hearing Alex. Normally, Layed people can't do anything that's not incredibly foolish, but considering the stunts we pulled off with Berig in charge, while Leyed, proves otherwise.

"Have you ever seen this girl? I asked pulling out a quick sketch I had done. He shook his head. I sighed, and turned the page over, which showed a figure wearing a hood, no features at all. He stared at it blankly for a moment and then his eyes almost lit up.

"Yeah. I 'ave seen that one. She was sitting right here jabberin' all to 'erself the whole ride, until she wasn't."

"Was she answering herself too?" I asked. The man looked at me blankly.

"Was who answering herself?" I sighed. A small tap on my shoulder caused me to twist around. A woman sat behind me.

"No. The girl wasn't answering herself. It was really quite real. As if she were talking to someone else. But no one was there..." The way she said it made my skin crawl, but I pushed that away. The woman had deep teal eyes and shoulder-length hair with natural-looking beach waves. I smiled at her and nodded my thanks.