Chapter 2: Tricks of the Trade
After free lunch from Victor Sullivan, they agreed that tomorrow they would meet up and start to learn what they could from him. But first, they would need to tell Sam and have him come along just to make sure this guy wasn't trying to trick them or do something sketchy. Both she and Nate knew that telling Sam was going to be an argument waiting to happen since the older boy was quite proud, and the fact that they were getting instruction from someone new would burst his ego.
So the two of them headed home, trying to decide who should tell Sam and what exactly they should tell him. They went back and forth joking about how he was going to react, though most of the scenarios would likely be true in some form.
When they reached the grungy apartment, the door was unlocked leaving them to believe that Sam was already home. He'd been working like crazy lately to try and take care of them while she and Nate picked up whatever they could off the streets or out of someone's pockets.
Upon entering, Alex noticed Sam sprawled across the couch with slightly damp hair and some sort of bean dish in a bowl on his stomach. He looked up, eyes half-lidded and sleepy but a silly grin on his face nonetheless.
"You guys are back earlier than usual. Pigger man spoil your fun?" he asked, sitting up slightly.
She and Nate shared a glance, trying to figure out how to bring up the fact that they almost died but still happened to get the ring they'd came here for while meeting a new friend. Yeah it seemed like a lot to relay.
"No, but...we've had a pretty eventful day," Nathan started, taking a few steps forward and then pulling the ring out of his pocket, holding it by the string to show him.
Sam's eyes widened and he was suddenly wide awake, getting to his feet and spilling his dinner all over the floor as he hurried over.
"You got it?!" he exclaimed, taking it from his brother and looking over it to make sure it was real.
"Yeah! Right out of the museum," Alex confirmed with a smile.
"Holy shit! How did you even get it that easily?"
Nathan pressed his lips together, biting back an obvious smirk. "Well...it wasn't so easy. Might want to sit down for this, big brother."
Sam raised an eyebrow as the two of them pushed him over to the couch. Alex settled down on the bending coffee table across from him while Nate leaned over the arm of the couch, looking all excited and a little bit nervous at the same time.
"Soo me and Alex get to the museum, right? I wasn't sure if it was the right one, but we were looking and we found it. But there was someone else there, this guy... So we stood back, watched him for a minute... And he was fiddling with the lock, seeing if the key he had fit it. And it did. That was our ticket to get the ring," Nate started, smirking slightly.
"Whoa, whoa, someone else was trying to get the ring? Who was it?" Sam interrupted, sitting up slightly.
"Relax, I'm getting to that. Anyway, so we tail him until he's at a little street bar having drinks with a woman. I go up, do a simple lift and the key's ours. Alex and I high-tail it to an alleyway, but he noticed and cornered us. Wanted his wallet back, but we weren't about to give it to him. I slipped the wallet over to Alex when he wasn't looking and she got the key right out of it. He wasn't gonna leave without the wallet so we gave it back to him and we had it."
"That easy?"
"Not quite," she said with a shake of her head. "It gets better."
"As soon as the museum closed for the day, we headed inside. Climbed up through a window. Getting the ring was easy, but there was something else with it. A decoder. We were just about to leave, but the guy and his girl showed up with a bunch of goons. Tried to get it off us. Took the decoder, but we still had the ring. She wasn't playing so nice and the guy, Victor, he was telling her to take it easy on us. We used that as a distraction and got the hell out of there."
It was easy to hear the excitement in his voice as he recited exactly what happened as they ran away, gesturing wildly as he described how they'd run across the roofs and dodged gunfire. He got a little quieter as he told of the man that cornered them and how they almost had to shoot him, but Victor stepped in and took care of them.
"Dammit, Nate. You guys could have died," Sam muttered, running his fingers through his hair. Throughout the story, he'd been enthralled, but when he realized that he was potentially doing a crap job at protecting them, he became big brother.
"But we didn't," she offered, tugging a tendril of hair. "Sully, he said he would teach us some stuff. Made plans for tomorrow. But we wanted you to be there, make sure he's okay."
Sam stood up, looking flustered. "No. I've already taught you what you need to know. You don't need help from this guy."
"Sam, come on," Nathan huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. "He's gonna help us with the ring and the treasure. You know how long it took us to figure out the ring was in Colombia?"
"Yeah and so? We still found it. On our own."
She knew at this point he had no reasons to argue. He just was too proud, had too much of an ego to let someone else teach them what they wanted to know.
"Yeah well if you want to find the trail before someone else does, we should take this. Seriously. Come on," she pleaded, looking up at him with a firm, stubborn gaze.
The room was silent for a long while, and Sam looked away, clearly contemplating it. She crossed her fingers and studied his face for any signs of giving in. His nose twitched and she knew as soon as it did that he was caving. It was an odd behavior she noticed, but it meant good news.
"Fine," he muttered, sighing. "I'll come with you tomorrow. Guess he can't be that bad if he saved you."
His tone was strained and he grimaced slightly as he spoke, but he agreed. She shot a sly grin over at Nate, who returned it and they both high-fived. Sam rolled his eyes and picked up the bowl he spilled from the ground, scooping up the food into it and making his way to the kitchen.
"You guys go ahead and gloat. I'm going to bed."
She snickered and scooped up the ring that had been deposited on the table. Greatness from small beginnings. Looks like there would be greatness in their future, just like Sully said.
The next day came a lot sooner than Alex was prepared for. She was excited and ready to get started and so was Nate. Sam seemed less enthusiastic, as he barely wanted to get out of bed in the morning and dragged his feet to breakfast, but eventually they got him up and running. She got dressed as quickly as possible and soon they were heading out the door and down the street to the little pub where they said they'd meet Sully at ten.
Sunlight shone brightly down on them as they walked and it put an extra spring in her step. It wasn't too crowded in the streets since it was late morning, but soon enough there would be flocks of people buying products for lunch or out getting lunch and drinks. Sam snatched a piece of fruit from a cart as they passed, but no one noticed and they kept on walking until they could see the little pub just up ahead.
Sully stood near the entrance, smoking a cigar and wearing almost the exact thing he had yesterday except in a different shade. When he spotted them, he waved, not taking much notice of Sam until they were right in front of him.
"So there's three of you now, eh?" Sully asked as he flicked a bit of the burnt end off his cigar.
"Sorta. Sully, this is Sam. He's my older brother. Wanted to tag along," Nate said.
"Hey," Sam greeted stiffly, holding out his hand, to which Sully gladly took.
"Nice to meet ya, kid. You the one that taught them their tricks?"
Sam bristled slightly at being called a kid, but took the recognition as a bit of a compliment and puffed up a little. "Yeah. Wouldn't be able to get by without 'em."
Alex rolled her eyes in Nathan's direction and she earned a smirk in response. Both of them knew how proud he was being.
"Right. Well you might wanna take a lesson too," Sully retorted with a good-natured chuckle.
Oohhh. It took all of her strength not to burst out laughing at the disgruntled look on his face at the older man's words. Burn, Sam. Sully didn't even seem to acknowledge the fact he did something wrong, but he shot a sly wink over at her and Nathan. He knew exactly what he was doing. The crafty old man.
"Alright. So I've seen you do a simple lift," Sully said, gesturing to Nate. "But I haven't seen you do one. So go ahead, find a target and we'll see how you do."
She took in a deep breath and started to scan the crowd, looking for someone that would be easy enough but also not too easy. Several of the merchants could be good targets, so she chose a spice merchant and started to head over. She remembered that yesterday, Sully said something about Nate telegraphing all his moves, so she tried to go more naturally, browsing the carts and pretending to be a customer.
Once she reached the spice merchant, she picked up a few spices, looking at each of them. And once the seller turned for a moment, she dropped the little rucksack of spices and then proceeded to be as clumsy as possible, knocking several more over onto the ground. Her eyes widened and she looked to the merchant, who exclaimed something and bent down.
"Lo siento!" she apologized, bending down just out of his view to try and "help" him clean up the mess.
While he was gathering everything, she quickly backed up and grabbed for the money in the tin he was using to collect it. And as soon as she grabbed it, she finished helping the man pick up the spices, apologized once more, and then hurried away, back toward the group lingering nearby. Once she was with them, they slowly shifted out of sight and Sully gave her a grin.
"Not bad, kid. A little bit of an attention drawer, but not bad," he commented.
Sam smirked and gave her a high five. "Knew you could do it."
"Now before you get too excited, here's somethin' you oughta know. You're not bailing out quick enough. The approach is fine, but you're spending too much time recovering after the lift. Grab it and go. You gotta disappear. Don't bother helpin' them. And if you're picking up off someone's pocket, don't poke and prod their ass. That's why I knew you'd taken my wallet," Sully instructed, giving Nate a look.
She snorted, trying not to laugh too hard while Nate gave a sour look. Sam also hid his laugh behind a smirk.
"A little handsy now, are we little brother?" Sam joked, causing his brother's face to explode with a flush.
"Very funny, Sam," he grumbled, giving him a shove.
Sully chuckled and patted Nate on the shoulder and then looked to Sam. "Alright, kid, your turn."
Sam raised an eyebrow, clearly feeling a little offended by the name and also confused as to why he was supposed to go. "Me?"
"No, your identical twin," Sully retorted. "Yes, you."
"Thought you were just trying to teach them?"
"Well then it should be no problem for you if you're such the expert."
Damn. Sully knew just how to manipulate Sam to do what he wanted. All he had to do was puff up his ego a little bit or deflate it enough for him to want to prove himself. It was genius and she had a feeling she might try these tactics on her own.
"Psh, I guess," Sam murmured, cracking his knuckles and then slowly sliding out of the alley.
She and Nate scurried forward, peeking out from behind the wall to watch. Sully stood a little behind them with his arms crossed, looking a bit amused as Sam strode confidently into the bazaar.
His target seemed to be a rug merchant. The merchant was already busy with another customer. Sam took this opportunity to quickly snatch what he could before turning away from the scene, making it look rather flawless. With his hands in his pockets, he strode back toward them, a smug smirk on his face and his chest puffed up with pride from the easy lift.
"How was that, old man?" Sam asked with a smirk, leaning against the wall.
"Not bad, kid," Sully admitted, though he didn't seem like he was going to back down. "But you might want to start being more alert and less cocky. Almost got noticed. Even experts like you could learn a thing or two every now and again."
Alex covered her mouth with her hands to stifle a laugh a Sam's face got red and he huffed.
"Loosen up," Sully chuckled and gave him a pat on the back. "Now come on, let's head to another area before they figure out something's going on."
The four of them headed down the street and she took a glance at the eldest Drake, rolling her eyes slightly and then falling back a few steps. Without warning, she launched herself on his back, keeping herself steady with her arms around his neck.
"Ugh, damn, Alex. Did you eat and extra meal this morning?" he jabbed, peering at her over his shoulder and smirking.
"Shut it, Drake. You're just weak," she taunted. "And pouty. Maybe you should chill out and try to stop being so arrogant."
"Hey, I'm just the best and I'm not afraid to show it."
"That's debatable." She snorted.
"What? I'm about to disown you as my fake little sister, Lewis," he threatened, loosening his hold on her so she was only able to hold on by her arms around his neck.
"Try telling that to Nate. You'll lose that one."
"Yeah well..."
She let go and slide off his back, landing on her feet and taking a few quick steps to catch up. "Just try to be a little nicer, yeah? Maybe learn something. Remember, he saved our lives."
Sam let out a sigh and looked down at her, shrugging his shoulders. "Alright, fine."
A devious smirk lit her features and she bumped him with her shoulder. "You're too easy."
He merely rolled his eyes and huffed, giving her a shove back. Even if the three of them weren't the most well-off, she wouldn't have this any other way. They were all like family and that was really all she wanted. Well that and adventure, which they had plenty of since they left the orphanage.
The rest of the day went pretty smoothly and she and Nate learned a lot of things that Sam hadn't known or taught them. She could tell that he had started out trying to be more civil and open to Sully, but by the end of the day, he was just as pouty and annoyed as he had been at the start of the day.
They departed from Sully at around five and headed back to their shabby house for dinner. More rice and beans. Of course, she was getting used to it but it was still pretty bland to eat almost every night. Once in a while, they would have some other things, but with their pretty poor budget, it wasn't that often.
Tonight was actually one of the nights that the three of them ate together and though they didn't have a formal dining table, they made do, with Sam taking up the couch and she and Nate using the coffee table as the sat on the ground across from the older brother.
"Listen, you two. I really would rather you not go back to see Sullivan tomorrow," Same murmured, letting his fork drop in his empty bowl with a plunk.
Alex raised an eyebrow. "Why? He's pretty cool. Taught us a lot that will help us with money."
"I just don't feel right about the guy."
Nate snorted. "You're just mad because he knows stuff you don't."
She snickered and shrugged a little. "He's got a point. You were so grumbly by the time we were done."
"Yeah, well he was being pretty arrogant, don't you think?" Sam huffed, clearly getting flustered.
"And you weren't?" she countered.
With an annoyed sigh, he set his bowl down on the table and stood. "I'm taking a shower, wash the dishes would you guys?"
He didn't hesitate to make a beeline for the bathroom and she held in a laugh, scooping up his bowl as well as her own. Nathan brought his own bowl and they headed to the sink. She started to scrub and he rinsed, the two of them remaining silent for a moment before he broke the silence with the words she was just waiting to hear.
"We're still going to see Sully tomorrow, right?"
A grin split her lips and she looked over at him, eyes sparkling with mischief. "Of course we are."
A/N: Ahh guys I'm super sorry for the wait! I've been insanely busy with my other stories and school but now that the semester is almost over I'm going to be a writing machine this summer! So hope for many updates! :D I hope this chapter was good! Things are really gonna start picking up in the next chapter and their first ever treasure quest will be introduced. Hope you guys enjoyed and thanks so much for sticking with it despite my crappy updating schedules xD
