Thieves, Scoundrels, and All Kinds of Riffraff
By Vfgirl
Ok, here's the first chapter. It might be a little slow, and none of the crew are in this one (yet), but I'm afraid it's quite necessary, 'cuz I need to set the foundations for the story.
And one last thing- Adrienne and Carey both belong to me. .O
Enjoy!
Chapter 1
The raucous squawk of the alarm clock sounded loudly throughout the small, dark room, startling it's occupant into a dull wakefulness. It took a moment for her to orient herself, trying to remember where exactly she was, and how she had gotten there in the first place. Then, a flood of memories rushed back, and she groaned loudly at the accompanying headache. The aftermath of her post-graduation celebrations hit her with full force, causing her to seriously regret giving in to the whiny persuasions of her friends to go clubbing the previous night.
At least she hadn't made any stupid mistakes while she was drunk. She turned around, and proceeded to SCREAM. There, lying in HER bed, in HER room, in HER apartment, was a total, complete stranger. And he was naked.
It didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened the previous night.
At least he's cute The thought popped into her head, uncalled for, and certainly unprompted. He stirred in his sleep, turning around to face her. And she nearly fainted. He was butt ugly. He had a nice body, and the back of his head was looked good, but he was definitely not what one would call handsome.
Despite all the noise, it was apparent that he was not going to return from the land of the dead anytime soon. It seemed that he was still dead drunk. Yanking the blanket over herself to protect her modesty, (which was rather futile, since her back was still exposed, and pointless, since the guy was still sleeping) she got up, and started to rummage through the clothes strewn all over the floor. Finding his pants, she searched until she found his Palm Pilot, a wallet with ID, and a cell-phone.
She immediately proceeded outside to give his roommates a call.
After she had made herself decent, and showered the smell of smoke and alcohol from herself, she started to clean up the place, and was just about done when the doorbell rang. "Coming!" She hollered in response, and made a mad dash for the door.
Sure enough, it was the person whom she had spoken to over the phone. "Uh, hi." He said nervously. "I'm Paul? I'm here to pick up Tom, my roommate."
He looked up and down at the woman standing before him. She was on the small side, with short, slightly curly hair worn in a cute pixie cut, and she looked at him through a pair of stylish wire frame spectacles. Despite the puffiness around her almond eyes, and the obvious fatigue showing in her face from the previous night, she was rather attractive, with her delicate features and her slim figure.
"Yeah, hi." She said, leaning forward to take his hand in a handshake. "I'm Adrienne Li, the person who called you. Tom's in the room. If you'd come and help me, I'll be more than glad to get rid of him."
Once Paul had left with Tom, Adrienne finished up with the cleaning of her small studio apartment, and proceeded to enjoy a small breakfast after popping in two aspirins to alleviate her pounding headache. She opened up the San Francisco Times, and the title on the headlines immediately caught her attention.
"WEALTHY ENTREPRENUER CONTRIBUTES SUBSTANTIAL SUM TO ANTI-MUTANT ORGANIZATION"
Adrienne scanned the articles, and when she had finished, she put down her newspaper, and stared thoughtfully off into empty space. She had an idea.
After a few moments, she got up and walked over to her phone. Picking the receiver up, she began to punch in some numbers.
Halfway across the city, in a luxurious penthouse apartment, a cell phone rang. A slim Chinese man dressed in nothing but his pants, cooking breakfast, put down the saucepan from where he was standing in front of the kitchen stove and hurried to pick up his phone.
He wedged the small cell phone between his neck and his shoulder before returning to his cooking. "Talk." He said into the phone, his voice matter- of-fact.
"Is this any way to greet your little sister when she calls you?" purred a female voice.
Sighing, Carey Li, big brother to Adrienne Li, walked back to his stove and started to toss the omelet into the air. "Hey, Addy. What's up?"
"I've got an idea." Carey's heart skipped a heat.
"Oh no."
"Oh, yes. And it's a big one, too."
Carey felt a sudden need to bang his head against the wall. "And how's that supposed to make me feel better?"
"Let's see- we remove a big bunch of high end, and potentially dangerous black market goods from the hands of terrorists, we bankrupt a couple of them in the process, we bring a bad guy to justice and show the world just how much of a creep he is, and we get a lot of money in the process. Pick your favorite." Adrienne rattled off a list of reasons.
"And let me guess, the means to such wonderful ends aren't exactly what you'd call legal."
"You're the professional scoundrel here, Da Ge."
"No."
"At least let me present my case."
"No."
"Meet me at the Jade Dragon at 12 pm today, for lunch. We'll talk some more there." And she hung up.
"No, no, no, no, no." He turned around and sat at the makeshift bar, laying his head on his arms. "I always get sucked into her crazy schemes. Always."
Then again, you've never had that much of a problem coming up with your own trouble, have you?
3 hours later, both Li siblings were eating lunch at the Jade Dragon restaurant. One of them was thoroughly enjoying herself. The other wasn't. Carey sat in his seat, miserable, watching Adrienne indulging happily in all-you-can-eat dim sum. She seemed to be even more gleeful today, probably due to the fact that Carey was paying for lunch. He could just feel the hole in his pocket growing and growing.
"So, how was graduation?"
"Wo yao ne ge feng jiao, hai you siew mai, he zhe pan har gow." She finished ordering her chicken legs, siew mai and prawn dumplings before turning to answer Carey. "Oh yeah, it was absolutely fantastic." She drawled, the sarcasm plain in her voice. She paused, and then added an afterthought. "Even though you weren't there."
He groaned inwardly. "If this is about paying me back for not showing up for your graduation, I'm sorry, but I was busy."
"Yeah, right." She snorted derisively. "But this isn't about that. Believe me, if I was gonna make you pay, you'd be in a lot more pain than you're in right now." She took a sip of tea, and then continued. "What I've got in mind is something really, really big. So big that there're no way I can pull it off myself. Heck, even if we were working together, we still wouldn't be able to do it."
As much as Carey hated to admit it, his interest was piqued. This really did sound big. And Adrienne was not one who tended to exaggerate. "I'm listening."
"There's this guy holding a big charity event at his place 8 weeks from now, and part of the event's itinerary includes showing off his big house, and all the valuables and antiquities in it. Everybody knows just how rich he is, so I'm counting on there being lots of gold and valuables in his personal safe underneath the house." Adrienne paused to take a sip of tea, before continuing.
" It's also common knowledge that he's a big crime kingpin. And I've got a tip that there might be-" she glanced around, checking to make sure that no one else was listening. "-'Other stuff' at his place that night. He's expecting a shipment of high end military weapons that weekend, and he's planning to hide them somewhere on his property, because he's planning to hold a black market sale that night for some of the World's Most Wanted."
"So that 'charity event' isn't really a charity event."
"Not completely. There'll be as many international terrorists there that night as there are legit people who want to contribute to a good cause. The charity event will still be going on, but it's mostly a cover for a black market weapons auction."
Carey massaged his temples. He felt a headache coming on. "And let me guess. You want us to steal all those weapons, right?"
"Not the weapons. I don't want to have anything to do with those weapons. The government's involved with all that, and it's a dead end trap."
"Well, that's where all the real money is. You're not going to get much from robbing him of gold and antiques." Carey frowned, leaning back against his seat. He was beginning to doubt Adrienne's plans.
She sighed, and shook her head. "You haven't heard the rest of my plan yet. We wait until all the stuff gets bought, and-
"-Then we get the money that they're paying him with." Carey leaned back. Honestly, his sister astonished him. It took incredible nerves and brains to think up an idea like that. "It's brilliant. And because all the money is obtained from the black market, the notes are untraceable. And gold is untraceable, too. Artifacts and antiques are a little more difficult, but if sold on the black market, it becomes nearly impossible to discover who introduced it."
"At the very worst, we don't take the antiques. I don't want to take any stupid risks." Said Adrienne, her tone serious and to the point, a rare occurrence for somebody such as herself.
"So, don't keep me in suspense. Who is it?" In response to his question, Adrienne held up the article that had inspired her brainchild that morning for him to read. The table quickly dropped off into silence as he scanned the words under the headline. His eyes then rapidly grew wider, and his jaw dropped to the ground. Then, just as suddenly as he had grown quiet, Carey laughed out loud. "HA! You know how stupid your last line sounded? Do you know who exactly you're trying to rob here? Can you even begin to fathom the kind of power that this dude has?"
"I know. And it's because of that power that he's grown complacent. He won't be expecting this."
"The reason why he doesn't take as many security measures as everybody else is because he KNOWS that he'll be able to hunt down anybody who tries to rob him. You'd have to practically disappear off the face of the earth to escape his clutches. This guy has spies, allies, allegiances, money, satellite systems, everything is state-of-the-art, including his private, personal safe. He's practically undefeatable, and he knows it. And have you forgotten, my dear sister, who will be at the party?! The First Lady!! Secret Service will be swarming all over the place! It would have been hard enough to pull the heist off without them, but with them around, it's gonna be Mission: Impossible."
"And that, my dear brother, is why we're going to be able to pull this one off." She punctuated that sentence by taking a big bite into a prawn dumpling. Smiling, she chewed slowly and looked him in the eye.
One last question. Please?? The criminal in him begged to be able to ask just one last question. Before he could object, THE question popped out of his mouth. "What's the expected take?"
Adrienne finished chewing, and she swallowed. "From the kind of weapons he's planning to sell, I'm thinking at least 50 million, easily double that amount if everything gets sold, which at this point in time is practically guaranteed."
Carey paused, and then sighed with defeat. "Alright, I'm in."
By Vfgirl
Ok, here's the first chapter. It might be a little slow, and none of the crew are in this one (yet), but I'm afraid it's quite necessary, 'cuz I need to set the foundations for the story.
And one last thing- Adrienne and Carey both belong to me. .O
Enjoy!
Chapter 1
The raucous squawk of the alarm clock sounded loudly throughout the small, dark room, startling it's occupant into a dull wakefulness. It took a moment for her to orient herself, trying to remember where exactly she was, and how she had gotten there in the first place. Then, a flood of memories rushed back, and she groaned loudly at the accompanying headache. The aftermath of her post-graduation celebrations hit her with full force, causing her to seriously regret giving in to the whiny persuasions of her friends to go clubbing the previous night.
At least she hadn't made any stupid mistakes while she was drunk. She turned around, and proceeded to SCREAM. There, lying in HER bed, in HER room, in HER apartment, was a total, complete stranger. And he was naked.
It didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened the previous night.
At least he's cute The thought popped into her head, uncalled for, and certainly unprompted. He stirred in his sleep, turning around to face her. And she nearly fainted. He was butt ugly. He had a nice body, and the back of his head was looked good, but he was definitely not what one would call handsome.
Despite all the noise, it was apparent that he was not going to return from the land of the dead anytime soon. It seemed that he was still dead drunk. Yanking the blanket over herself to protect her modesty, (which was rather futile, since her back was still exposed, and pointless, since the guy was still sleeping) she got up, and started to rummage through the clothes strewn all over the floor. Finding his pants, she searched until she found his Palm Pilot, a wallet with ID, and a cell-phone.
She immediately proceeded outside to give his roommates a call.
After she had made herself decent, and showered the smell of smoke and alcohol from herself, she started to clean up the place, and was just about done when the doorbell rang. "Coming!" She hollered in response, and made a mad dash for the door.
Sure enough, it was the person whom she had spoken to over the phone. "Uh, hi." He said nervously. "I'm Paul? I'm here to pick up Tom, my roommate."
He looked up and down at the woman standing before him. She was on the small side, with short, slightly curly hair worn in a cute pixie cut, and she looked at him through a pair of stylish wire frame spectacles. Despite the puffiness around her almond eyes, and the obvious fatigue showing in her face from the previous night, she was rather attractive, with her delicate features and her slim figure.
"Yeah, hi." She said, leaning forward to take his hand in a handshake. "I'm Adrienne Li, the person who called you. Tom's in the room. If you'd come and help me, I'll be more than glad to get rid of him."
Once Paul had left with Tom, Adrienne finished up with the cleaning of her small studio apartment, and proceeded to enjoy a small breakfast after popping in two aspirins to alleviate her pounding headache. She opened up the San Francisco Times, and the title on the headlines immediately caught her attention.
"WEALTHY ENTREPRENUER CONTRIBUTES SUBSTANTIAL SUM TO ANTI-MUTANT ORGANIZATION"
Adrienne scanned the articles, and when she had finished, she put down her newspaper, and stared thoughtfully off into empty space. She had an idea.
After a few moments, she got up and walked over to her phone. Picking the receiver up, she began to punch in some numbers.
Halfway across the city, in a luxurious penthouse apartment, a cell phone rang. A slim Chinese man dressed in nothing but his pants, cooking breakfast, put down the saucepan from where he was standing in front of the kitchen stove and hurried to pick up his phone.
He wedged the small cell phone between his neck and his shoulder before returning to his cooking. "Talk." He said into the phone, his voice matter- of-fact.
"Is this any way to greet your little sister when she calls you?" purred a female voice.
Sighing, Carey Li, big brother to Adrienne Li, walked back to his stove and started to toss the omelet into the air. "Hey, Addy. What's up?"
"I've got an idea." Carey's heart skipped a heat.
"Oh no."
"Oh, yes. And it's a big one, too."
Carey felt a sudden need to bang his head against the wall. "And how's that supposed to make me feel better?"
"Let's see- we remove a big bunch of high end, and potentially dangerous black market goods from the hands of terrorists, we bankrupt a couple of them in the process, we bring a bad guy to justice and show the world just how much of a creep he is, and we get a lot of money in the process. Pick your favorite." Adrienne rattled off a list of reasons.
"And let me guess, the means to such wonderful ends aren't exactly what you'd call legal."
"You're the professional scoundrel here, Da Ge."
"No."
"At least let me present my case."
"No."
"Meet me at the Jade Dragon at 12 pm today, for lunch. We'll talk some more there." And she hung up.
"No, no, no, no, no." He turned around and sat at the makeshift bar, laying his head on his arms. "I always get sucked into her crazy schemes. Always."
Then again, you've never had that much of a problem coming up with your own trouble, have you?
3 hours later, both Li siblings were eating lunch at the Jade Dragon restaurant. One of them was thoroughly enjoying herself. The other wasn't. Carey sat in his seat, miserable, watching Adrienne indulging happily in all-you-can-eat dim sum. She seemed to be even more gleeful today, probably due to the fact that Carey was paying for lunch. He could just feel the hole in his pocket growing and growing.
"So, how was graduation?"
"Wo yao ne ge feng jiao, hai you siew mai, he zhe pan har gow." She finished ordering her chicken legs, siew mai and prawn dumplings before turning to answer Carey. "Oh yeah, it was absolutely fantastic." She drawled, the sarcasm plain in her voice. She paused, and then added an afterthought. "Even though you weren't there."
He groaned inwardly. "If this is about paying me back for not showing up for your graduation, I'm sorry, but I was busy."
"Yeah, right." She snorted derisively. "But this isn't about that. Believe me, if I was gonna make you pay, you'd be in a lot more pain than you're in right now." She took a sip of tea, and then continued. "What I've got in mind is something really, really big. So big that there're no way I can pull it off myself. Heck, even if we were working together, we still wouldn't be able to do it."
As much as Carey hated to admit it, his interest was piqued. This really did sound big. And Adrienne was not one who tended to exaggerate. "I'm listening."
"There's this guy holding a big charity event at his place 8 weeks from now, and part of the event's itinerary includes showing off his big house, and all the valuables and antiquities in it. Everybody knows just how rich he is, so I'm counting on there being lots of gold and valuables in his personal safe underneath the house." Adrienne paused to take a sip of tea, before continuing.
" It's also common knowledge that he's a big crime kingpin. And I've got a tip that there might be-" she glanced around, checking to make sure that no one else was listening. "-'Other stuff' at his place that night. He's expecting a shipment of high end military weapons that weekend, and he's planning to hide them somewhere on his property, because he's planning to hold a black market sale that night for some of the World's Most Wanted."
"So that 'charity event' isn't really a charity event."
"Not completely. There'll be as many international terrorists there that night as there are legit people who want to contribute to a good cause. The charity event will still be going on, but it's mostly a cover for a black market weapons auction."
Carey massaged his temples. He felt a headache coming on. "And let me guess. You want us to steal all those weapons, right?"
"Not the weapons. I don't want to have anything to do with those weapons. The government's involved with all that, and it's a dead end trap."
"Well, that's where all the real money is. You're not going to get much from robbing him of gold and antiques." Carey frowned, leaning back against his seat. He was beginning to doubt Adrienne's plans.
She sighed, and shook her head. "You haven't heard the rest of my plan yet. We wait until all the stuff gets bought, and-
"-Then we get the money that they're paying him with." Carey leaned back. Honestly, his sister astonished him. It took incredible nerves and brains to think up an idea like that. "It's brilliant. And because all the money is obtained from the black market, the notes are untraceable. And gold is untraceable, too. Artifacts and antiques are a little more difficult, but if sold on the black market, it becomes nearly impossible to discover who introduced it."
"At the very worst, we don't take the antiques. I don't want to take any stupid risks." Said Adrienne, her tone serious and to the point, a rare occurrence for somebody such as herself.
"So, don't keep me in suspense. Who is it?" In response to his question, Adrienne held up the article that had inspired her brainchild that morning for him to read. The table quickly dropped off into silence as he scanned the words under the headline. His eyes then rapidly grew wider, and his jaw dropped to the ground. Then, just as suddenly as he had grown quiet, Carey laughed out loud. "HA! You know how stupid your last line sounded? Do you know who exactly you're trying to rob here? Can you even begin to fathom the kind of power that this dude has?"
"I know. And it's because of that power that he's grown complacent. He won't be expecting this."
"The reason why he doesn't take as many security measures as everybody else is because he KNOWS that he'll be able to hunt down anybody who tries to rob him. You'd have to practically disappear off the face of the earth to escape his clutches. This guy has spies, allies, allegiances, money, satellite systems, everything is state-of-the-art, including his private, personal safe. He's practically undefeatable, and he knows it. And have you forgotten, my dear sister, who will be at the party?! The First Lady!! Secret Service will be swarming all over the place! It would have been hard enough to pull the heist off without them, but with them around, it's gonna be Mission: Impossible."
"And that, my dear brother, is why we're going to be able to pull this one off." She punctuated that sentence by taking a big bite into a prawn dumpling. Smiling, she chewed slowly and looked him in the eye.
One last question. Please?? The criminal in him begged to be able to ask just one last question. Before he could object, THE question popped out of his mouth. "What's the expected take?"
Adrienne finished chewing, and she swallowed. "From the kind of weapons he's planning to sell, I'm thinking at least 50 million, easily double that amount if everything gets sold, which at this point in time is practically guaranteed."
Carey paused, and then sighed with defeat. "Alright, I'm in."