Thief's Honour

Chapter Twenty- The Basilica

It was the day of the heist at last. Madeleine awoke to Damien nearly breaking her door down to wake her. "Get up!" He yelled. "You'd better not be fucking late!"

"I won't," Madeleine yelled back, making herself a cup of coffee while she got ready. She wore a lightweight black jumpsuit that would allow her maximum freedom of movement, underneath one of Zena Fay's more casual outfits. She was carrying black leather gloves as well, to prevent her from leaving any fingerprints.

She took a cab to St Peter's Basilica. They were six blocks away, so according to the plan Aric had left the hotel ten minutes ago, and was walking to the church. He would arrive after Madeleine did. Ayden was taking a bus, and would be arriving with a group of tourists five minutes after Aric. Then he would ditch the tourists, and they would sneak away to the secret entrance to an angel base.

Damien would be monitoring their progress from the hotel. He insisted that it was too dangerous if he was anywhere near the church while the heist was happening, although Ayden had muttered, when he was gone, that he probably just didn't want to get in trouble if they got caught. Aric had agreed with him.

"We're the perfect scapegoat. None of us are demons. The thief, the most important player, isn't if a race that has any affiliation with Hell whatsoever. No one would think Damien was involved."

It sounded depressingly plausible. Madeleine knew that if things went wrong, they would be thrown under the bus so fast they would probably have concussions from the impact, but she didn't want to think about that.

When she arrived at the church, she sat in a pew, pretending to pray. She would be praying for real, but she doubted God would help her steal from His own angels for a demon, and she didn't want to tip Him off. She didn't know if He could actually hear prayers, but she didn't want to take chances.

Aric and Ayden each arrived on time, and the three of them snuck away to a statue of Jesus.

"I still can't see it being this easy," Madeleine told everyone.

"The angels probably don't want to go through miles of security either." Ayden shrugged.

Madeleine climbed up onto the pedestal, accidentally kicking it. "Son of a bitch!" She gasped, grabbing her foot in pain.

"Are you okay?" Ayden asked. "Do you need something? I don't have much, but I do have some chocolate," he offered.

"Why the fuck would chocolate do a damn thing?" Aric demanded.

"Yeah, give me the chocolate," Madeleine replied, "You can never go wrong with chocolate."

Ayden handed her a chocolate bar. She ripped the wrapper off and ate the entire bar. Aric climbed up on the pedestal, and pressed the cross on Jesus's cloak. He and the entire wall moved aside to reveal a secret passage. The secret passage they were looking for. 

They climbed inside, and the statue moved to its original position behind them, covering their path. Madeleine removed her slacks and jacket, now wearing only the black jumpsuit.

They walked cautiously down a long, dark passage. Ayden snapped, and a small light appeared, allowing them to see a few feet along the passage.

"Damien still hasn't told us what we're stealing," Madeleine pointed out.

"Maybe it's the only thing in the room we're looking for," Ayden offered.

They came to a door. Ayden approached it and started muttering, doing whatever he needed to in order to make sure it was safe.

Finally, Ayden opened the door, and motioned to them that it was safe to proceed.

They followed him through to a brightly lit hallway, and they made it halfway down before a pair of angels turned the corner.

They pressed themselves flat against the wall, and Ayden wove a spell of invisibility over them. They waited for the angels to pass, before continuing. Ayden had explained earlier that he couldn't hold invisibility spells the whole time, or he would be too drained to get rid of any of the angels's enchantments.

After ten minutes of sneaking around in the same fashion, they reached a door. Ayden broke the enchantments on it, and they walked through, to see...