9.12 – Pax

A/N: Aaaaand this is where I run out of queued posts. I still haven’t installed The Sims 3 on my new laptop because I lost the code for my Supernatural expansion pack, so I can’t register it on origin. Let’s hope I find it soon… 

A few days later

“This is the team?” GK cast an unimpressed glance up and down the table, his pale eyes resting on me last. Sometimes I hated sitting directly across from him. It meant I had to watch him silently judge every person in the room. “One burglar, one assassin, one… me, and three trainees?”

“I’m not-” Caesar began to protest, but Morrigan quickly cut him off.

“Chase is not just some trainee. He’s the best getaway driver we have.” At the moment Chase was completely spaced out, rolling his bread back and forth on his plate.

GK rolled his eyes. “He’s childish.”

Caesar decided to jump into the argument again, insisting that he too was a ‘real burglar’ and not a trainee. As they all bickered, Jacks leaned over and whispered, “Isn’t it funny watching them fight?”

“We don’t seem like a good team,” I muttered back.

“That’s because I haven’t said anything yet.” He settled back in his seat and rapped his champagne glass. “Alright, enough. You can quarrel all you want here, but when the mission comes I expect each of you to do your part, minimal talking. That includes you, Blackwood.”

Caesar pouted, but for once didn’t say anything.

“Our mission is an assassination-robbery,” Morrigan continued. “While Chase waits in the car, I go in and kill the old wealthy CEO. The rest of you enter through a second-floor window with Jacks and take everything of value.”

“GK guards the hallway. Blackwood takes the master bedroom and bathroom, plus the office. Link and I take the other rooms.” Jacks finished the mission brief and raised his glass. The rest of us did the same, toasting to the mission.

I nearly spit out my first sip of champagne when Caesar elbowed me in the ribs and loudly whispered, “This is gonna be great! I’ll show you exactly how a proper burglary is done.”

“Good luck, newbie.” Morrigan gave me a (friendly?) pat on the head as we left the table. “The first mission is the most terrifying thing you’ll ever do, besides initiation.”

With that, she slipped down the hall and disappeared into her room. The mission would take place around 1:00AM, so we had time to rest. “Initiation?” I turned to Caesar, who looked a bit wobbly. He had drunk more than the rest of us.

“Oh, it’s a blast. You get to prove you’re actually committed to the gang.” He hiccuped and stopped in the middle of the hallway to sit down on the stairs. “Mine was to rob my former boss and then kill him. Not trying to brag, but I didn’t even have to kill him. I just felt like it.”

Somehow, I doubted that. “Is that a normal initiation? Rob someone?”

“Yeah, rob or kill someone you’re familiar with.” Caesar squinted and shielded his eyes from the overhead light. “But Jacks had the coolest initiation. He got to kill a unicorn.”

“A unicorn?”

“That huge black one that used to guard the Palace.” He stretched and yawned, his jaw cracking as he did. “Man, I’m tired. See you tonight, Link.”

***

I couldn’t sleep that night knowing that Jacks was responsible for killing my favorite unicorn. I’d known he was head burglar, but not that he was a killer. And a good one at that. Unicorns were notably tough to kill. I underestimated him.

And even though he threatened me into joining the gang, I didn’t want to kill him. These people were the only ones who could understand what it was like to murder Duncan’s innocent baby. We were evil, and we would be evil together.

Around 12:30AM Jacks came in and found me already up and dressed in the standard black jacket of the burglars. Together we dragged Caesar from his room and met the other three members of our team in the entryway.

Chase expertly zoomed us through the quiet streets, zipping through abandoned backroads and creeping up behind our target’s house. Morrigan noiselessly opened the door and crept to the house, picking the lock on the front door with ease. She was in.

“Now,” Jacks hissed. GK, Caesar, and I followed him as he scaled the side of the house, nearly floating upwards with how easily he found handholds. GK was close behind him. On the other hand, Caesar and I were left to awkwardly scale our way up. Jacks already had the window open by the time we got up to the second floor.

We stepped into a nursery. Caesar left to scout out his assigned rooms without noticing the sleeping toddler in the crib. Jacks and GK had gone down the hall to raid a guest bedroom. I crept around the nursery, lifting random blanket piles and hoping I would find something more valuable than a dirty diaper. Eventually I found an envelope filled with a stash of emergency money.

“Who’s there?” A lamp by the door suddenly flicked on, casting an orange glow on the face of an elderly woman, the CEO’s wife.

Oh shit. I stumbled backward, slamming into the crib as I did. The girl inside blinked up at me and instantly started bawling.

“Fucking hell!” I heard Jacks yell from the hallway. “How did she get in there? Kill her!”

The old woman turned around with a gasp. GK appeared at her back and sunk his knife deep into her neck. Tossing her body aside, he strode over to the crib.

I moved to block his way. “You can’t-”

“Anyone who saw us has to die. Including her. That’s how we’re never caught.” He started to push me aside.

“She’s a kid,” I protested. Images of Duncan’s dead baby were swimming in my head. “She won’t remember anything.”

GK snorted. “She won’t remember the traumatic night her grandparents were killed? Look at her. She’s old enough to remember. We can’t take any chances.”

He shoved me aside (a bit harshly) and plunged his knife into the crib. The crying stopped. I sunk back against the wall, breathing hard. GK gave me a funny look. “Chill. It was just a baby. You didn’t even know her.”

He started for the door, only to find Jacks standing in the doorway. His eyes fell on the crib, then lingered on my face before turning to GK. “You’re pushing it,” he growled.

“Pushing- That’s standard procedure!” GK thrust his arm at the crib, then pocketed his knife. “You’re the one that wanted to do this.”

“I know, but it had stipulations- Forget it. We’ll discuss this back at the mansion. Find Caesar and help him get the loot in the car.” Jacks pushed past his bodyguard and grasped my arm. “Come on, Morrigan and Chase are waiting.”

***

“That was awful,” Caesar stated. I nodded my agreement. We were both awkwardly slumped on the couch, waiting as Jacks and GK argued in the office. Morrigan and Chase were counting our profits. “Normally it’s much more fun. If I’m honest, smaller groups are better. Less chance of getting caught.”

“How long will they take?” I glanced back at Jacks’ closed door.

“Who knows… Could be hours.” Caesar crossed his arms and slumped lower. “They could be fucking each other in there and we’d never know.”

“What?“

“Oh, you didn’t know Jacks was…? Eh, it doesn’t matter. I doubt GK would fuck anyone here. He despises us all.” Suddenly Caesar shot up in his seat. “Hey, you can teleport, right?”

“Yeah. Why?” I asked.

A devilish smile spread across his face. “So you could teleport both of us out of here? We could go do our own small robberies. I’ll show you how fun it really is.”

I was about to refuse, but then I reconsidered. It would be fun to rob – not kill – people on our own. What better way to pass the time? “Sure, why not.”

***

Third person POV

“I’m not apologizing. I did what we always do.”

“Yes, but did you think first?” Jacks leveled his gaze at his bodyguard, who was not the slightest bit fazed. “He just killed a little girl himself. He joined us because he thinks we will somehow convince him that his actions were justified, because we are killers. And then he saw you kill a little girl, which reminded him of what he did. Now he doesn’t feel comfortable here.”

GK sighed and drummed his fingers on his knees. “Link won’t leave. He has nowhere to go.”

“We don’t know that. I’ve told you before: we can’t risk losing him.”

“Don’t you think-“

“Stop talking.” Jacks rested his head on his hand. “Leave Link to me. You can work on what his initiation will be. And don’t do anything that will make him hate us even more.”

GK replied, “He doesn’t hate us. He hates me. If you want him to like us, let him do what he wants. Just make sure everything is justified and the rest will fall into place.”

***

Link’s POV

Caesar and I continued our mini-robberies for a week. It was a good way to relieve stress with the added bonus of making money. And Caesar wasn’t really as bad as he seemed. Sure, he was a bit cocky, but that made him even more fun to do robberies with. He exaggerated everything.

“Man, how many cats did that lady own? There must’ve been a thousand!” Caesar bounced up the stairs and dropped the sack of jewelry we’d stolen on my bed.

“There were only three,” I laughed. Pointing at a gold chain necklace in the bag, I said, “Will they sell?”

“Oh yeah. They’ll sell beautifully.” He held up a tiny blue gem suspended on a silver chain. “Might give this one to my mum though.”

There was a thump by the door, and when I turned to look I found Chase. He was rubbing his toe. “Stubbed it on the door frame,” he said sheepishly. “But uh, Jacks wants you in his office.”

I rolled my eyes at Caesar. “If he yells at me for these little burglaries, it’s your fault.”

Jacks’ office was simple and tidy. His desk was suspiciously bare. I thought back to Caesar’s earlier comment and I really hoped nobody had ever… done it on this desk.

He beckoned me to sit. “Let’s be honest: you didn’t enjoy your first mission.”

“Not really,” I admitted. I was pretty sure he already knew that anyway. “I still don’t know why you had to kill the girl.”

“I apologize for that. It’s just… policy. I wouldn’t have made you come on that mission if I knew the couple’s granddaughter would be staying with them. I don’t want to push you until you’re ready.”

I shifted awkwardly in my chair, trying to stop myself from asking a question I already knew his answer to. But I had to hear it. “Do you… think it’s alright to kill someone if their father murdered your family?”

“Absolutely. Blood demands blood. It’s justified.” Jacks’ gaze was intense, and I suspected he knew exactly who I was referring to. Then his stare softened. “I want you to come on another mission. No children this time. No assassinations. Is there anything you need to help you prepare?”

I thought for a second. “It’d be nice to have a book or something that tells me how to use magic in crime. I know all the spells, just… I can’t apply most of them to a burglary.”

He nodded slowly, running his fingers over the desktop. “I’ll send a message to the library. They’ve got to have something.”