The Library of Powers

Chapter 12 - part 5

Ivory reached down and placed the mask back on the brow of Chase's nose. He was out cold, as was the woman, who Jackson could only assume was Samantha.

"I didn't want it to end like this," she whispered. She looked at Jackson, as if for affirmation, but found only a cold stare. her head darted down.

"Ivory," Jackson started.

"Urbanity," she corrected.

He shook his head. "No, I'm talking to Ivory right now. We can't call the cops on classmates of ours. They aren't bad people."

Ivory scoffed. "Not bad people? They're robbing a museum, Jackson. Stealing priceless art," she looked at the art around them. It was paintings of oranges. Each and every one. "At least, I think."

Jackson racked his head for a reason that would convince her. She did have a point, but on the other hand, they had been nice to Jackson. Was that selfish of him, even immoral? That he didn't want people who were nice to him in jail. That he didn't want children in jail? Maybe he just wasn't seeing something. Or maybe, and he found this more likely, he was just doubting himself. He thought back to his meeting with Melanie, and how she had told him Sam and Chase were planning something big. If this was it, where was she? And why hadn't she warned him? That was the plan, to reconvene when Melanie knew what the job was. If she wasn't here, that meant...

"We can't arrest them, or we'll never know what their big job was. Melanie was onto something. A huge score. And if I had to guess, it's something that involves more people then just them. And in that case, it's something that can be continued without them." Jackson argued, trying to appeal to Ivory's sense of scale.

"Let them go for a later setup? That's risky," Ivory rebutted.

Jackson took out his phone, and snapped a few photos of the two unconscious villains. "If we mess up, we just show this to the cops, and lead them to the two."

Ivory paced across the halls and back, mulling over the consequences. "Okay," she said, "But I'm gonna have to put one of these on them." She held up a roll of green yuck stickers. The very same she gave to Jackson. Ivory knelt beside Melanie, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a smartphone. As she held it up water drained from the case, a product of her umbrella. "Oops." She went to Chase and reached inside his pocket instead. Chase had one of the really bulky cases meant to protect the phone from being dropped. Taking the case off, she attached a sticker to the inside of the case. After rubbing to activate it, she put the case back on his phone and phone back on his person.

"No one ever removes their case," she mumbled to herself, happy with her handiwork. Jackson had to admit, it was a smart idea.

"So we just leave them here?" he asked.

"I mean, I guess," she answered.

"They're not gonna wonder why they weren't arrested?" he asked.

"I think they'll be more happy to not be," Ivory explained, but still thought of a way to fix Jackson's problem. "We could hide the paintings they stole in a janitors closet, that way when they wake up it looks like someone else took their score."

"Sounds good."

They got to her plan, gathering the paintings and finding a suitable place to hide them. After they finished, they headed back to the room they started in. Jackson thought more about their plan, and the only way he could come up with for it to backfire was if when Chase and Sam woke up they for some reason went into the room Ivory and he were keeping guard. 

Unfortunately, Jackson had missed something else. Not that he could have predicted it. The man with the gun made sure he wouldn't.

The two of them re-entered the room they were keeping guard, only to find the reset button not in the glass case, but the hands of a man in a leather jacket. A man seemingly of Korean descent, with slicked-back black hair, with a mischevious glint in his eyes, with a cocky smile. And, of course, with a snub-nosed revolver.

Both of them knew who he was. In fact, all three knew who each other were.

But still, the man introduced himself. "Jackson Reil, don't you dare enter the Library of Powers. I'm a quick enough shot, I ensure you. Ivory Coldstone, if you even reach towards that umbrella on your back, your friend over here is good as dead. No, I'm not aiming for his kevlar suit, but for his head. And I won't miss."

The two of them stopped. Ivory because of the present danger, Jackson because this man knew his secret. Ivory slowly raised her hands onto her head. Noticing, Jackson followed suit.

"Smart kids. Now, even if it's just a formality, let me introduce myself. I'm Guy Harding."