"Let's grab some sushi." Jake said as they passed a restaurant.
"Not now." Nick Bennett walked ahead at a brisk pace.
"Come on, man. You can't come to Tokyo and not try the dragon rolls."
"We're here to work, remember? Not for your stomach." Nick reminded his partner.
"Maybe you're here to work, but I'm here for the sushi." Jacob Frank had been Nick's partner for almost two years now. The two were as close as brothers, but still held opposing viewpoints on consuming raw fish wrapped in seaweed. Jake and Nick worked together for Interpol, the international criminal police organization. They tracked down criminals at large and, on occasion, flew half way around the world in the attempt.
"Seriously, Bennett. You work too hard. You've got to stop and smell to cherry blossoms. You know, try the local cuisine, exchange some culture." Jake winked at a few passing local women.
Nick pulled open the door to Sato Industries Headquarters. "Let's just get inside before you manage tick off some local fathers."
Interpol had been called in to investigate a break in at Sato Headquarters that happened a few days prior. Although there were many priceless prototypes around the building nothing had been taken. What was really usual though was that the thieves just appeared on surveillance cameras on the hundred and fourteenth floor. There was no video of them entering or leaving the building. The thieves appeared from the elevator and then proceeded to scour the empty floor, never attempting to steal anything at all. They then reentered the elevator but when the elevator reached the lobby, they had again disappeared. Nothing was taken, nothing was moved and seemingly, they had never been there. Yet the cameras showed that they had.
"Thank you for coming, gentleman." Mr. Sato himself had come to meet the Interpol agents. After shaking hands, Nick and Jake searched the hundred and fourteenth floor for clues as to how the thieves, who weren't really thieves at all, had vanished. They watched the videos several times but came up short.
"On the phone your assistant said that nothing had been taken." Nick said.
"Yes. It was very strange. Nothing had even been touched."
"Sir, with all due respect, why bring Interpol into this when there hasn't been a crime?" Jake asked.
"A precaution. Who ever these people are, they went to great lengths to break into this building and it couldn't have been without cause. My head of security is worried that this may be just a first attempt."
"You believe they'll come back?" Jake asked.
"Yes. That is the fear. We had hoped that Interpol might find something we had missed."
Nick regarded the video once again. Two silhouettes moved across the cameras scope, clothed completely from head to toe. "Without a clear image of the face we have no real way of identifying them. And these don't seem like the type of people to leave fingerprints."
"All we have is the audio." Mr. Sato admitted. "I've had my best people try to enhance it but not much of it is useful. We believe one of the thieves is named Visily Romani."
Nick's gaze shot towards the businessman. "What did you say?"
"Visily Romani. The thieves mentioned the name several times while searching the rooms."
Jake looked quizzically at his partner. "That mean something to you?"
"It did. A long time ago." Nick's mind was drawn back to a vision of striking blue eyes.
"Care to share, Bennett?" Jake asked.
He dismissed it with a wave. "It's not relevant."
When the two Interpol Agents had finished their investigation Mr. Sato invited them to dine with him in the company's in-house gourmet restaurant just a few floors bellow.
As they ate the sun set on the skyline of Tokyo and the city came to life. Thousands of bright lights illuminated the black night. Jake and Mr. Sato discussed some of the city's main attractions while Nick gazed out the window. Skyscrapers towered hundreds of stories above the pulsing crowds of people bellow. Tokyo was a city of glass giants.
The conversations halted in the dinning room as outside the window, shattered glass fell from above. Everyone's utensils paused in confusion.
"What was that?" Mr. Sato's brow furrowed in concern.
"It came from a few floors up." Nick processed the information faster than Jake and was up and running before his partner had time to blink. "Come on!" Nick shouted over his shoulder.
Jake groaned as he put down his delicious wine to run. "I hate my job."
The two men bolted up four flights of stairs to arrive at the same floor that had been broken into a few days prior. Immediately they noticed the shattered window. Wind whipped through the space, sending papers flying through the air like panicked birds.
It took Nick's eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness of the night. Then he saw them. Two figures dressed in black had zip lined from the window to one in the adjacent building. They disappeared from sight just as Mr. Sato had reached the window.
Nick had to yell over the violent winds. "Mr. Sato, what building is that? Who owns it?"
"It's the Ochi Bank." He replied, obviously confused.
"Sato Industries wasn't the target, Sir. Then bank was." Jake clarified for the dazed man.
"What do we do?" He asked.
"Get to the roof." Nick yelled and he was off and running again.
"What? Why?" Jake asked. Then he spotted the helicopter nearing the roof of the bank. "Oh, that's why."
Nick broke open the roof door with his shoulder and moved towards the south side. The helicopter circled the bank, waiting impatiently. Appearing from an air vent, Nick could see the two figures in black climbing onto the roof with large duffle bags in their arms. A man and a petite woman sprinted across the roof towards the waiting chopper. The violent winds whipped the hoods off of their suits as they ran.
Seven Years. The last time he had seen her face was seven years before that night.
Katarina Bishop had come through his life like an uncontrollable hurricane. In those weeks Nick had spent in her presence, she had swept him into her insane world and changed him forever. After she disappeared, the evidence of her passing, the broken branches and rain soaked soil, lay all around him. But time passed, the trees grew new branches, the sun dried the earth, and there were times when Nick wondered if it had all happened. Had he really been in the eye of the hurricane, or was it just a dream?
It was during those times that Nick sat at his desk for hours, long after everyone else had gone home, and he held the case file in his hands. The Henley robbery. One of the best, cleanest heists the world has ever seen. Nick didn't reread the file; he already knew every word and detail it contained. Instead he just held it in his hands. It was physical proof that she existed. Kat was flesh and blood. He had touched her skin and kissed her lips. But she moved like the winds of a storm. Never still or constant. Seven years ago Nick Bennett realized that no matter how badly you want to, you can't catch the wind.
There she was. A silhouette against the backdrop of the city's nighttime glow. They stood on two different rooftops, a hundred feet away from each other, but Nick could feel her on his skin. She turned in his direction and stopped. At that moment he was sure. He knew she could see him through the dark night and chaotic flashing lights. In an instant, it was seven years ago, and they stood together in the back halls of the Henley museum. Some memories never fade or lessen.
They were a hundred feet apart, and worlds away from one another but Nick could swear her sharp blue eyes bore into his. Nothing but air stood between them and yet Nick had no way of getting to her. She was so close. So very close and still he could not reach her.
Breaking from the trance, Kat ran towards the edge of the roof and jumped. For a terrifying moment her small being was suspended over the blazing city of glass before Kat landed in the chopper. Once again, Nick watched in torment as Katarina Bishop, one of the most wanted thieves in the world, disappeared off into the corners of existence where he could not hope reach her.
Kat's icy blue gaze had pierced through Nick's beating chest and embedded itself into his blood. He knew then that he would not, could not endure another seven years of chasing shadows. Nick would find Katarina Bishop. He had to.
I'd be lovely to hear your thoughts so please leave me a review. I'd love to put some names to the numbers on my stats so even if its just to say hi I would greatly appreciate it. -Niephora