Strange Aeons [Book 1]

3.The Heist

«Fuck the uncle, fuck the niece, fuck the evening and, most of all, fuck that fucking giant bird!» Banshee slammed the door open, throwing all the stuff she had gathered from the Frenchman's apartment right on the table. «And fuck ye, Chico!»

«Hey! I distracted her!» he protested, unable to close his ripped-off shirt and with his belt still lost somewhere in Eva's apartment. «and I was able to search the place!»

«If ye think that this one counts as "taking one fer the team" ye're sorely mistaken!» Banshee replied, sitting down after grabbing a bottle of whisky. Vopros took his vodka, and Chico grabbed some tequila he had snatched from the caterer's reserve.

«Calm your tits, would you? Why so mad, loca? We have tons of information now!» even more relaxed than usual, Chico gulped down a good shot of tequila, before lazily taking up an art book.

«Yeah, but no way to navigate them! Look at all this stuff! I grabbed everything I could, but who knows if I grabbed the right stuff?»

«We know music box not in Eva's house, we know they give it away. But I no think they gave it as gift. They say "hidden in plain sight."» Vopros recapped, with a serious tone that changed the rhythm of the whole situation.

«Why hide something in plain sight and not put it in plain sight in your own home?» Chico asked, flipping through the flyers on the table. Banshee tapped her chin with her index finger, as always when she was thinking.

«Because people know that they see something like that in your home, that's it.» Vopros replied, looking inside his bottle as if everything was clearer through vodka. «But they see it at someone else home, they don't connect it with you, they don't look at it.»

«Aye, but if ye give it to a mortal, and it's something ye mustn't open, we know well how this ends.» Banshee chimed in. «And ye give it to a Mage...»

«Nah, if you don't even trust your family with it, imagine trusting someone else in the Order. Not even the fright of the D'Yves name could keep a Mage from opening a Pandora's Box.»

«The question remains, why haven't the D'Yves already opened it?» Vopros muttered.

«Who knows? They're crazy! Besides, you need a Virtue or a Vice to open a Pandora's Box, and the first are sworn never to open them. Getting a Vice to work with you is always a hairy matter. Maybe the D'Yves just haven't struck a good enough deal with anyone, yet.» Chico shrugged.

«A what what?» Banshee asked, mindlessly.

«Virtues and... you know what? Get yourself a book, niña¸ I'm not your tutor!» Chico snapped at the half-assed interests, picking up a document-sized envelope.

«Woah! Shouldn't ye be all chill now?» she replied. But went straight back to serious when she saw Chico's face. «What up?»

He had extracted some papers from the envelope and was looking at them, frowning.

«I saw something in Eva's study. A printed invoice for "an object of great historical value". It was addressed to Justin D'Yves.»

«The big creepy chief of the family?» Vopros asked, his eyes stuck on a flyer.

«Him. Clearly, I thought better to forget anything with that name on, and fast. But you got eso.» Chico put the sheet on the table. It was the print-out of an invoice, from Justin D'Yves, for "an object of great historical value".

And it was addressed to the Boston Historical and Archaeological Museum.

«So, Eva gave something to... her Uncle... Jesus wept, I Mage-raced one of the top-shelf mage bosses?» Banshee did feel something down her spine.