Thief's Honour

Chapter Twenty Four- Enigma

Damien had wasted no time, teleporting them to Canada and hiring a private jet to fly them about a mile away from Enigma's main facility, built into an isolated area of the mountain range, miles away from any hint of civilization. Damien had then opened a portal to transport them even closer to the entrance, where they had a clear view of the door and the guard station.

"So, how do we get in?" Damien demanded.

Madeleine sighed. "Normally, I would have stolen one of the official Enigma SUVs, and then driven it up to the entrance, before telling them that I was here to see the Boss. Unfortunately, nothing about this situation is anything resembling normal."

"Who's the Boss, anyway?" Aric asked.

Madeleine shrugged. "The leader of Enigma. No one really knows anything about him. He doesn't even use a proper name."

Aric scoffed. "You've never found anything out? Did you even try? Didn't you find the whole secrecy thing a little weird?"

Madeleine shook her head. "Not really. I didn't care about anything except the next job and the size of my paycheque. Besides, I don't use my birth name, either. Anonymity makes you harder to catch."

At that moment, they were interrupted by a black SUV driving past their hiding place. Damien snapped his fingers, and the SUV sputtered and stopped. When a pair of men, each in their late thirties, climbed out of the vehicle to investigate the issue, Damien and Aric jumped them and knocked them unconscious. At least, Madeleine thought they were unconscious. Damien's victim was disconcertingly still.

"You were saying?" Damien threw a smirk at Madeleine as he climbed into the driver's seat. Aric joined him in the front, sitting in the passenger seat.

Madeleine rolled her eyes, opening the back door and climbing in behind them. "This is still nothing even remotely resembling normal."

"Whatever works." Damien shrugged.

Aric laughed. "We're stealing back a really powerful jewel that you just handed to this guy. There is no way to make this situation normal."

They drove the rest of the way in silence, all the way to the guard station right outside the entrance door.

"State your name and business," the guard on duty ordered, sounding bored.

"Um..." Damien faltered, probably realizing that he couldn't exactly announce that the son of the Devil himself had stolen a vehicle to infiltrate this base in order to steal a jewel in their possession that Enigma's best thief, who had incidentally led them to this location, had stolen for them in the first place. And being unable to come up with an adequate lie in time.

Madeleine groaned internally. They were off to a great start. "Madeleine Hart. I'm here to see the Boss," she replied briskly, leaning forward into the front. She had a stellar reputation, here. No one would dare stop her. Especially not if the Boss wanted her.

"Miss-miss Hart?" The guard stammered in shock. "We'd been told you were killed!"

"As you can see, I am clearly not dead, as I am sitting in front of you now, waiting to be let through in order to discuss some extremely serious business with the Boss," Madeleine snapped, "Now stop wasting my time and open the door, or you can explain to the Boss why his best thief was late in meeting him, and then find yourself a new job."

"Or wind up in a ditch, see as you know too many important secrets about Enigma, it's bases and its employees," Aric added threateningly.

"Right- of course. My apologies, Miss," the guard nodded, and the door slowly opened.

"That's more like it." Madeleine smirked, and sat back in her seat, letting the overconfident façade drop the moment she was out of the guard's sight. "Now what?" She muttered, as Damien drove through the door to the parkade.

Damien smirked. "Now the fun part. Everyone seems to think you're dead, for some reason-"

"Could it be because when the Boss called me, you told him that I- what was it?- that I was not going to be available ever again, that I had been well-taken care of and then made some weird allusion about a corpse. And then you broke my phone," Madeleine suggested.

"I think I'd said it was difficult to threaten a corpse," Damien admitted. "In my defence, though, I did buy you a new phone. And your supposed 'death' may work to our advantage, now."

Madeleine sighed, opening the door and climbing out of the vehicle. "If anything goes wrong, let me handle it. I know how things work here. I know how everyone thinks."

"With their heads," Aric joked, winking at her before he and Damien followed her to an elevator.

"The jewel will be in the Boss's office, if it's here. He'll either be displaying it because he's an arrogant bastard, or hiding it in the safe hidden in the wall behind his desk, because he's paranoid that someone will come to steal it," Madeleine informed them.

"Like us," Aric pointed out.

Madeleine grinned wryly. "Like us, but less knowledgeable about the layout and workings of Enigma. He would never expect to discover me stealing anything from him."

The elevator dinged, and they walked out, following Madeleine's lead down two hallways, to a black door at the very end. Madeleine took a deep breath, and slowly turned the doorknob.