Part 2

I parked on the side of the abandoned, dirt road.

According to my tracker, the art thieves had fled to the woods at the edge of town. About a ten minute walk from the dirt road.

I stuffed my hair under my baseball cap, got out of car, grabbed my duffle and started walking.

After 10 minutes, I saw a cabin with its lights on.

'That has to be it.'

I got on all-fours and started crawling.

Once I was under the front window, I peaked in to see the three male thieves and a brunette woman. They were just talking and laughing.

Suddenly, the one in the hakuma look towards the window.

I immediately ducked down and crawled around the corner of the cabin.

I peaked back around the corner when I heard the window being open. Hakuma man stuck his head out and looked around.

"Hey! Goemon! What's wrong? You see something?"

Goemon looked around a bit more before saying, "It must have been a raccoon or some other animal."

He ducked back into the house and closed the window.

A few moments later, the light flicked off.

That was when I realized I hadn't been breathing. I took a deep, but quiet breathe.

I checked my watch. 1:00 a.m.

'30 minutes ought to give them enough time to fall asleep.'

1:30 a.m.

Go time.

I dropped from my hiding place in a tree and snuck around to the front of the cabin.

I noticed that there was no lock on the door so I, gently, pushed the door open and tip toed in.

2 of the thieves slept on the bed that pulled out of the couch. The other 2 were sleeping on the floor.

I looked around and saw only one other door, besides that front door.

I started tip toeing along to the door.

Suddenly, the floor creaked below me.

I froze.

I heard someone rolling around in their blanket while mumbling something about someone named Fujiko.

Then, they stopped moving.

Their snoring resumed.

I took a deep breathe and continued to tip toe.

I, slowly, turned the door knob and pushed the door open.

The room was pitch black.

I closed the door behind me.

I fished my small flashlight out of my duffle and clicked it on.

And the first thing I saw was my painting. In a frame. Which was nailed to the wall.

I whipped out my pocket knife and flipped out the smallest but sturdiest knife I had.

I started working at the nails, spinning them out of the holes.

To my surprise, it was a lot easier than I had anticipated. It was also as if the nails had been greased so that they would, easily come out.

I slipped the painting from the frame and looked at it, searching for any damage.

Everything looked fine. 'Time to get the hell out of here.

That's when I felt something cold and hard press to the back of my head.

I heard the safety of a gun click off.

A gruff voice said, "Don't move."

I let the painting fall from my hands and held my hands out to the sides, making them think that I was unarmed.

The lights clicked on.

'Now!'

Whipped around and slammed my fist into the back of the gun mans hand, knocked the revolver right out of his hand. I didn't waste anytime grabbing his wrist and swinging my foot around, slamming it right into his side. I twisted myself under his arm and tugged him over my head, sending him right to the floor.

With that, I kicked the man's gun away and brought my elbow back, slamming it into the face of the female who was trying to sneak up on me.

I turned around just in time to see the hakuma man try to bring his katana down on my head. I leaped back, dodging the fatal blow, but the katana did manage to slice the front of my body suit; my bra was the only thing that was keeping me from completely falling out. The swordsman barely gave me any time to think before he charged me, thrusting his sword at me. I threw myself into a back bend, just barely missing the blade. I planted my hands on the ground and kicked my feet up, kicking the sword out of the man's hand. I stalled in mid-air before slamming my heels right onto the swordsman's shoulder, sending him, face first, to the ground and landing me back on my feet.

One more to go.

I threw myself into a spinning kick, aiming right for his face. He caught me by the ankle much to my surprise. I felt something brush against my thigh as he shoved my leg away, spinning me in the opposite direction. The next thing I new, I was facing him again. His face was about and inch from mine. His arm was wrapped around my shoulder, holding me tightly. The gun from my thigh holster was pressed to my back while his gun was stuck right it the middle of my bulging cleavage.

The smirk on his face clearly state how very pleased he was and he didn't have to say a word.

'Crap.'

I was tied to a chair.

They had confiscated everything from me; my pocket knife, my duffle, which they search thoroughly. The only things I had in there were my sketch book, a change of clothes, and living essentials.

Everyone was spread out around the room. The swords-man sat in the corner, meditating.

The gun-man kept looking my stuff over.

The woman was leaning against the front door of the cabin.

The man who had caught me was sitting in a chair right in front of me, smirking his face off. He had my tracking fingernail in his hand and kept rolling it around.

He has been asking me questions all night and I simply refused to answer.

"Let's try this again; who are you?"

Silence.

"Why do you want the painting?"

Silence.

"We know you were at the museum when we tried to steal it. Why didn't you try to stop us?"

Silence.

Suddenly, the female spoke up. "Give it up, Lupin. She's not gonna tell us anything. Just kill her, dump the body somewhere and let's get out of this town."

"Come on, Fuji-cakes. You know that's not my style."

The swordsman broke his silence. "Maybe not, but it may be wise to, just this once, make it your style."

Lupin turned back to me and smirked, saying, "Nah. I'll think she'll come around sooner or later."

Just then, the gunman said, "Hey, Lupin, you might want to take a look at this."

Lupin went over to him and saw what he was looking at; my open sketchbook.

"Hey, isn't that…?"

"Yup."

"So that means…"

"Yup."

Lupin's smirk returned to his face as he walked back up to me. He gave a flourishing bow and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Shade Timmons."