The only way to get into the building, nine year old Hamish thought, was the skylight. There was no other possible way to get in through the windows, and no way were he and his brother, Angus, getting in through the front doors, even if they picked a lock to do it.
"Angus?" Hamish whispered into his 'borrowed' headset. "What's the stats?"
The elder Bagshaw's voice echoed through the speaker. "Four shifts of six-hour guards, pressure alarms, randomly hidden lasers, and face-recognition cameras at twenty-seven different points around the gallery."
"Whoa... You got all of that from our inside guy?" Hamish raised his eyebrows into the darkness.
"If by your 'inside guy' you mean Dad, then yeah. He did tell me all that."
The youngest Bagshaw rolled his eyes. "OK, so how do we get inside? I was thinking the skylight."
Angus' voice was filled with barely contained amusement. "Brother, we are on the same wavelength."
All they had to do was get into the manor house, and they'd get their prized possession: the computer hard-drive, that lay in the clutches of the manor's manager. The manor served as a museum of sorts, and the father of the Bagshaw boys had given an antique desk to the manager recently. Little did he know, the desk contained a hard-drive disc in the small compartment underneath it. That hard-drive held every single piece of information they knew about all of the famous galleries, museums and palaces around the world. It was a file they were still working on, and if anyone found it, Hamish and Angus would probably be thrown in prison for plotting heists.
"You won't get in through the skylight." A small voice said behind Hamish, "You have no ropes, and your brother is in the line of one of one of the guards patrols. If he doesn't move he's going to get caught."
Hamish turned, startled. There, hanging upside down from a zip-line, was a petite girl with black hair tied in a pony tail, and bright, inquisitive eyes. "How did you..."
"How did i know you were here? Or how did i know what you were up to?" She stayed hanging upside down, her hands on the zip-line at her waist. She looked like a spider; a dainty, vulnerable spider, who had every right to be hanging from a tree, upside down, in the middle of the night, outside a grand manor house that two brothers were trying to steal from.
Hamish cleared his throat. "Both, i guess."
The girl smiled mysteriously. "Do you know, that my friend Simon's dad is awesome with computers? He saw every bit of information you guys put together in that hard-drive, and now, my dad and my uncle want it. So, i came here to steal it from the museum. Simon's dad recently found a piece of CCTV footage showing you and your brother sneaking down here with a map, and two headsets that looked stolen. I decided that stealing it back might be a likely thing you were doing." She shrugged, oddly calm.
Before Hamish could say anything, the girl glanced around. "You'd better tell that brother of yours he's going to get caught if he doesn't move in the next thirty-four seconds."
Hamish, knowing it wouldn't be wise to leave his brother where he could get caught, but he also knew it was a risk to trust the unknown girl. He decided it was a risk he was going to have to take.
"Angus, get out of there; you're going to get caught in twenty-eight seconds if you don't move. Meet at my position." Hamish said urgently. The girl nodded as if that was a good idea.
As Hamish and the tiny girl waited, she asked him, "Do you want it back? The hard-drive?"
Hamish nodded, somewhat sheepishly. "It's quite important. We've collected that information over the past two years with our dad."
The girl nodded back, and grinned. "I can get it back for you. When your brother gets here, wait another four minutes, and thirty-six seconds, and I'll be back. I promise."
Hamish nodded, and waited for his brother, as the girl unhooked herself from the zip-line, and jogged towards the manor. He could still see her as she ran silently up to the front doors, before turning left, where the youngest Bagshaw knew was a window. Hamish watched as she fiddled around with the window, before pushing it up and slipping inside. He waited another minute, before Angus appeared. "What's going on?" He asked quickly, crouching next to his brother.
Swiftly, Hamish relayed everything that had happened to his older brother, and watched as his brother face turned to one of surprise. "She got in?"
"Yeah, i did."
Both Bagshaw boys turned to see the same small girl standing there. In her hand, she held a disc, that both the brothers recognized immediately. A smile spread on Hamish's lips. "Can we have it back, or are you taking it for your uncle?"
The girl considered for a minute. "Do you know what? I think you two would be great for my world. How would you two like to join me and my crew? Heists, stealing, re-stealing, that sort of thing?"
The brothers looked at each other, then grins spread across their faces. "Hell, yeah!" They chorused quietly.
She smiled. "So, what are your names?"
Hamish grinned. "I'm Hamish Bagshaw, and this is my older brother Angus. What about you? What's your name?"
The tiny black-haired girl smiled. "Me?" Her smile stretched into a grin. "My name is Katarina Bishop."
