Hello there! I know I'm late again, but life's been complicated these past few days and I've hardly had time to breathe. Anyway, I really hope you enjoy this chapter, we're getting closer to THE meeting, so hang in there a little longer, okay? I promise you're going to like it. In other news, I've been drafting the chapters and the rest of the story, so now I can assure you that it will be very, very long. 100K-150K words give or take! So yay! I really can't wait for you to read it!
Anyway, I'm not sure yet, but I think I'll have some days off next week so chapter 5 should be up on time next Friday, but until then...happy reading and don't forget to share your thoughts!
Chapter 4
Magnus, Ragnor and Raphael had been outside the Le Joyau Prieux all day. Raphael hadn't been able to find out the exact time Magnus's impostor was going to commit the heist, so they had decided to be there very early in the morning to make sure to catch this person before things reached another level.
The exclusive boutique was located somewhere in the Upper East Side, so naturally hundreds, or better said thousands of people walked the streets at all hours, making their stake-out mission even more difficult. They had no idea how this person looked like, or even if it was a man or a woman, so anyone standing mere feet away from the store's door immediately became a suspect.
"What about her?" Ragnor asked, pointing to a girl who was standing right outside the boutique's front door. They had been discarding people all day, analyzing their behavior and sometimes even sending Raphael to talk to them. However, now that the sun had set the task was becoming more difficult.
"No, I don't think so." Magnus said, observing her. She was taking pictures of the window displays of all the stores. She looked like nothing more than a happy tourist trying to keep her memories of this city on a memory card.
"And what about him?" Ragnor pointed to the man standing a few feet away from her. He seemed to be busy making a phone call.
"I don't think so either, he's not dressed to commit a heist. Look at his clothes, my friend. He's wearing the brightest canary yellow pants I've ever seen! And that comes from someone who appreciates flashy clothes." Magnus said, pointing to his less than discreet bright purple shirt. They weren't wearing their usual clothes, they were disguised to avoid being captured by the cameras, but still, Magnus had chosen a rather flashy attire. "He couldn't be expecting to go unnoticed wearing that."
Ragnor and Raphael laughed out loud. That was true. To commit a heist of these dimensions, whoever this criminal was had to be very careful with the outfit selection. This city was surrounded by cameras, the more you could blend in with the scenery the better. That was why all crimes were committed mostly at night, it was easier to erase any traces when the sun was out.
"How would you do it?" Raphael questioned. "We've been here all day, so you've had some time to study the area and the store. If you were about to steal the diamond for real, how would you do it?"
Magnus looked at the store. It had been closed to the public all day since the staff had been getting everything ready for the event, but from his spot in the Italian coffee across the street, he had had a pretty good view of all the entrances, the security system and the general layout of the street, which was always key in any heist.
"Well, for starters I wouldn't have made the heist today. The exhibition is tomorrow, so it's obvious that the people responsible for it are going to be here all day making sure everything is ready for the event, so trying to break in at any time today is very risky and to be honest, quite stupid." Magnus said. "But having said that, I think a heist such as this one requires careful planning. I probably would have found a way to be part of their staff to have access to the vault and other areas, and be able to study them better. It's highly unlikely that they have the diamond on display without any sort of protection; I bet even the museum sent some private guards to be here 24/7 just to keep their precious gem safe and sound. But anyway, with that information on my side, I would have found the weaknesses in their security system and taken advantage of them. There's no such thing as the perfect security system, they all have flaws."
"And then?"
"Well, then based on that, I would have broken into the vault probably last night, taken the diamond and disappeared from the country before the FBI even had time to put a new price on my head."
Ragnor and Raphael laughed though they knew that Magnus wasn't kidding. A crime of this magnitude entailed a great sacrifice. Not only because of the riskiness of the action itself, but because after committing a robbery so great, you couldn't just go back to your normal life, you had to be extra careful and stay off radar for quite a while—sometimes even forever.
"Magnus, do you think that this criminal is going to disappear after this?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Because," Magnus sighed, "this person doesn't have to worry about keeping a low profile. It's not their name the one on the front page. If for some reason the FBI tracked down the sale they would get my name, not theirs."
Ragnor gave Magnus a sympathetic smile. It was obvious he hadn't thought of that little detail until now. Using someone else's name could be used not only to try to ruin someone's reputation, but also to protect oneself—it was a selfish act of self-preservation.
"Well, I wouldn't worry too much about that." Raphael said. "If this impostor isn't someone from the FBI playing at being a criminal just to catch you, then I don't know how they intend to move that piece. It's virtually a suicide mission to try to sell it. No one in the black market is going to agree to do it. It's too risky."
"But isn't it worth?" Magnus asked.
"Hmmm, not so much when you consider how difficult the sale is. The commission must be high, no doubt about that, but there are way too many things to consider before taking the risk. The chances of getting caught before closing the sale are 8 to 10, so only someone very desperate would agree to do it."
"How much is it worth in the black market?" Ragnor asked.
"A rough guess? I'd say about 500 million dollars. Technically, its value is only 250 million, but after being stolen, these items tend to double in value, so who knows? It could even be more—it depends on the buyer."
"Why didn't we go after this diamond instead of the bonds, huh? We would have gotten twice the money with little to no work." Ragnor said.
"I'm not so sure about that."
"Why?"
"Because, as Raphael said, is practically a suicide mission to try to sell a diamond like this one and, besides, I didn't even know they were going to move it here. If I had known, maybe I wouldn't have been able to resist the temptation to go after it. It's very valuable after all."
"I would have never gone after it...you know what they say about it." Raphael said.
"Don't tell me you really believe in those stories, Santiago?" Magnus laughed.
"You don't?"
"No, those stories tend to be just a figment of someone's imagination to enhance the mystery and appeal of the stone. Having fantastic stories surrounding these pieces always helps to increase their newsworthiness and thus their value, you better than anyone should know that. You sell stolen goods for a living."
"But the stories are real." Raphael said.
"No, they are not."
"Yes, they are."
"No, as I have said-" Magnus was saying when Ragnor interrupted them.
"Stop arguing and better tell me, what stories are you talking about?"
"People say that the diamond is cursed." Raphael said. "Está maldito."
"Really?"
"Allegedly," Magnus argued, "they say it brings misfortune and tragedy to the people who own it or wear it, but I don't buy that for a second. According to the stories of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the original form of the Hope Diamond was stolen from an eye of a sculpted statue of the goddess Sita, the wife of Rama, the seventh Avatar of Vishnu. It is said that the people in possession of the gemstone suffered from the goddess' revenge and were destined to have bad luck and die. Of course, there is no evidence whatsoever that something like that has ever happened."
"Of course not, just a long list of people who have died when they've had the diamond in their possession." Raphael added with sarcasm. "You can google that fact if you don't believe me."
Magnus rolled his eyes, but Ragnor immediately fished his phone out of his pocket and started googling it.
"Ragnor, please don't believe all that bull-" Magnus was saying when out of the corner of his eye, he noticed some movement in the boutique—a man was leaving the store through the front door.
Magnus frowned. All the employees of the store had left about an hour ago, so only the guards were inside. And this man didn't look like one, he actually looked a lot like Magnus—at least from afar. He was tall, and well-toned. He was wearing a very elegant dark red suit and his hair was black with dyed colorful locks like the ones Magnus usually wore.
The alarms hadn't triggered yet, but somehow Magnus already knew this was the person he had been waiting for all day.
"It's him!" He exclaimed.
The man was walking calmly across 79th street, well, as calmly as someone can walk in New York, and making his way to Central Park, one of New York's most famous landmarks. It was clear that he was trying not to draw a lot of attention, but he was failing miserably, he looked nervous and in a hurry; Magnus knew that if he managed to get to the park before they could catch him, he would never find him again.
"Come on!" Magnus told his friends. "We have to catch him before he reaches Central Park!"
Ragnor and Raphael rose to their feet and headed for the door. The impostor was now half a block ahead of them.
"He's dressed like you!" Ragnor pointed out.
"I know!" Magnus exclaimed, already running to catch up. "We have to chase him and catch him! I need to know who he is!"
o-o-o-o-o
Alec was obsessed with finding the secret message behind the postcards, but so far he hadn't had any luck. For days he had tried everything, but neither he nor his siblings had found anything. All the postcards were from different places around the world and had been sent over the course of two long years, so their leads went from a series of unrelated dates and numbers to different places located on a map.
So far, they knew for a fact that there was no connection between the dates written on the postcards and any other major event that had happened on the same day in history; the dates coincided only with the crimes committed by Magnus. They also knew that the message wasn't hidden in the different locations. They had tried to use the coordinates of the places to find a crossing point and even connected with lines all the sights to see if they formed anything, but neither the coordinates nor the lines had yielded conclusive results. They had turned out to be just a bunch of random lines and markers on a map with no connection whatsoever.
"Maybe if we shared this with the rest of team they could help us solve it." Jace suggested.
Alec had decided not to share his theory with the rest of the team because even though he was confident about it, he knew that it did look a little crazy to think that one of the most wanted criminals would leave a message to one of the top FBI agents through a series of silly postcards.
"Jace, no one's going to believe me. How many times have I suggested that Valentine and Magnus aren't working together?"
"I don't know, enough times."
"And how many of those enough times have they believed me?"
"None."
"Exactly." Alec said. "We can't just tell them that I think he left me a message. I don't want dad to think I'm crazy and get me off the case. This is important for me."
"Fine." Jace sighed, making it loud enough to show his discomfort and frustration.
Alec couldn't blame him, though, he better than anyone understood how his brother felt. He was tired and frustrated too. It seemed that try as they might they were unable to make even a little progress in the case. This theory of the postcards had sounded good at first, but now even Alec was starting to think he had made a huge mistake. He had thought he knew Magnus, he had hoped that in his arrogance the criminal had been bold enough to leave something there for Alec to find, but apparently that hadn't been the case.
"Alec?" Izzy said.
"Yes?"
"Hmmm, I was wondering if you'd mind if we call it a night?" She asked tentatively. "I know you want to find this message and we want it too, but it's Friday, big bro, it's late and we sort of already have plans."
Alec looked at the clock for the first time in hours. It was, indeed, a bit late, 7:42 p.m. to be precise. He hadn't even noticed how quickly the day had slipped away. It happened to him all the time, though. He started to work a case and lost track of time, that was one of the symptoms of being a chronic workaholic.
"Okay, yeah...you can go."
Izzy and Jace breathed a sigh of relief, and Alec rolled his eyes. Working late on Friday wasn't that bad, was it?
"You don't have any plans for tonight?" Jace asked.
Alec refrained himself from rolling his eyes for the second time in a span of less than ten seconds and just shook his head. What kind of question was that? Of course he had no plans, when did he ever have any plans? His siblings knew him well enough. Alec was what might be called the epitome of a hermit.
"Well, you can come with us if you want." Izzy suggested. "Thanks to your wise advice, Jace is now on speaking terms with Clary again and we're going to see Simon's band. They have a gig in Brooklyn. It could be fun."
"Simon? The goofy friend? Why are you going to his concert? Are you dating him now?" Alec asked, his overprotective big brother self speaking for him.
Simon was Clary's insufferable best friend and since day one he had shown some sort of interest in Alec's sister. Alec didn't like the guy much, but then again, he didn't like any of the guys who were trying to woo his sister. Yeah, he was a jealous older brother. The same had happened when Jace had introduced him to Clary. He couldn't help it, he just wanted the best for them. And sue him, but he didn't think anyone could ever be good enough for his younger siblings.
"Not yet." Izzy said. "We're just hanging out."
Jace burst out laughing and Izzy shot him some killing eyes.
"They are dating, aren't they?" Alec asked his brother.
"Yeah, you could say that."
Izzy rolled her eyes at them and just gathered her things, deciding to ignore them. "We're not dating, but think whatever you want, I don't care. Now, Alec, are you coming with us or not? I still have to go get ready and I don't want to be late."
Alec shook his head. "No, thanks. I'd rather go home and catch up on some sleep."
"Are you sure?" Both his siblings asked.
"Yeah, go have fun, you know that concerts aren't my thing." Alec said. "I'll see you tomorrow for lunch and you can tell me how bad it was."
"You can count on that." Jace said, high-fiving him with a smile. He didn't like the Simon guy either, though, as far as Alec knew, it was for very different reasons.
"You two are just jealous of him." Izzy said. "When he's famous and his band is giving concerts at the Madison Square Garden we'll see if you keep making fun of him."
Alec and Jace just laughed again.
"It's good to know that at least he'll have one groupie when that happens." Alec said. "Now go, I thought you didn't want to be late."
Jace and Izzy said their goodbyes one last time and walked out of Alec's office. Alec took a deep breath and sank into his chair. Without his siblings there, it was easier to realize how late it really was. The FBI headquarters were completely empty. No one was left, not even the coffee guy.
"Great." He muttered under his breath when he realized that that meant he'd have to go fetch his own cup of coffee.
Resigned, Alec walked out of his office and headed for the coffeepot. However, the damn thing was empty. He hated, and loved, when that happened. He hated it because he didn't have time to waste, he just wanted to go back to work, but he loved it because that meant he could actually prepare the coffee as he liked it—very strong. So he put enough scoops of coffee grounds and leaned against the wall to wait for the coffee to be ready.
While he waited, he used the time to think about Magnus, about the new case connected to him, and about the Bureau's theory of the alleged alliance between him and the most wanted criminal of all time.
He knew they were wrong about that, there was no way that Magnus and Valentine were working together. First, because their styles were completely different, and second, because they weren't after the same things. Yes, both were talented and liked money, but Alec knew they were exact opposites. Magnus also liked art, and overall all pretty things, and he did what he did because he liked to have a good life. However, Valentine was just obsessed with power and he thought money could bring him the glory he craved. Two minds with such different ways of thinking, despite how brilliant they could be, if they joined forces, couldn't work together.
Both criminals were egocentric, they liked the recognition that doing what they did brought them, so Alec simply couldn't see them making an alliance. It was impossible, like, who would be the boss? Magnus would never agree to work for someone else, let alone for someone like Valentine, and Valentine would never let a young criminal to take away his 'rightful' place at the top of the criminals pyramid. Maybe the Bureau refused to see that, but Alec didn't. He wasn't as familiar with Valentine as he was with Magnus, but he knew neither would agree to work for the other.
"If only I could prove it." He whispered, pouring himself a cup of coffee.
This case had proved to be more difficult than anything he'd ever done. For years he had gone after Magnus without much success, but that hadn't stopped him from becoming one of the best agents in New York, however, now with Valentine in the mix, his career was at stake. The Bureau couldn't afford another failed capture mission, this time they wanted both criminals alive and behind bars no matter the cost, so if something went wrong Alec knew he could lose everything.
"What a mess." He sighed and returned to his office to obsess over the series of postcards again.
He couldn't explain why he was so sure that Bane had left something for him there, but something within him told him he was right. Call it intuition, or something else, but he knew he had to find it.
"What is it, Bane? What?" He whispered, rereading for the umpteenth time all the messages that Bane had left for him through the years.
None made any sense at all, generally, they just mocked Alec's inability to catch the criminal or were flirty innuendos or compliments that had managed to make Alec blush and get mad more than once, but nothing out of the extraordinary. They were just a bunch of words written with the sole purpose of driving Alec insane. He couldn't expect to find anythi-
"Wait." Alec said, feeling the beat of his heart quickening.
Magnus's handwriting was irregular, it had always been. He tended to randomly capitalize some letters throughout the text, but up until now, Alec hadn't even considered that little detail as something important.
"Could it be that easy?" He wondered.
Maybe those capitalized letters weren't just a happy coincidence, maybe, just maybe, they were the key to the message.
"Of course!" He exclaimed. And with a renewed enthusiasm, he grabbed a piece of paper and began to copy the letters. He knew he had just found the message, now he just had to figure out a way to read it.
o-o-o-o-o
It turned out that following the impostor hadn't been as easy as they had first thought. When the man realized that Magnus, Raphael and Ragnor were approaching him from behind, he ran down the street and tried to get to the park as fast as possible. They tried to keep up with him, but it was very dark and the man was fast, so when they realized, the impostor was already on the edge of the park.
"We have to split up!" Magnus shouted, while still running. "If he gets deeper into the park we'll never catch him! If you find him knock him down or do whatever you have to do to immobilize him! I need to talk to him!"
Raphael and Ragnor nodded and ran to opposite sides.
There were a lot of people walking around the park, so Magnus kept running, following the main path and trying not to tear his eyes away from his impostor. Because now he was certain that this man was actually an impostor and not an undercover FBI agent. He had known it from the moment the man had decided to flee rather than to catch him. If this had been a trap, Magnus would already be handcuffed and on his way to jail. So now, he only had to catch him to discover who he really was and why he was doing all this.
"Stop! Stop!" Magnus exclaimed, in an attempt to stop the man or distract him. He was gaining advantage over Magnus. "Please stop! I need to talk to you!"
The man turned around and let out a laugh. "Good luck with that, Magnus Bane." He said, running faster and significantly increasing the distance between them.
"Great." Magnus muttered, quickening his strides and trying to catch up. Not only his plan hadn't worked, but this man, whoever he was, had recognized him, even with the disguise. So he had to catch him or come up with something else to stop him pronto. It was incredible, but this man ran like a freaking cheetah and dodged people like a snake. Magnus knew that if things continued the same way in the next couple of minutes or so, he was going to lose him. Where were Raphael and Ragnor when he needed them the most?
Fortunately for Magnus, the universe conspired in his favor and something got in the way of his impostor, making him stumble over his own feet. Magnus seized the opportunity to finally catch him and face him.
"Who the hell are you!?" Magnus asked, grabbing the man from his coat and pushing him against a tree, preventing him from escaping. "Who are you and why are you copying me!?"
The man didn't reply and just let out a mocking laugh.
"Tell me who you are!" Magnus said again. "Speak!" He demanded.
He needed to know who this man was and why he was doing what he was doing. Now that they were face to face Magnus was one hundred percent sure that he didn't know him. This was the first time he ever saw him. And he was sure of that because Magnus was very good at remembering faces, and no doubt he would have remembered a face like this one.
The man was handsome, not Magnus's type, but he couldn't deny the appeal. He had a very pale face with high cheekbones, strong jaw, green eyes and long eyelashes. He was tall and muscular, and his hair was black, so black it didn't even look natural. It was as if he had put coal in his head or something.
"Why are you trying to ruin me!?" Magnus asked, pressing his arm against the man's throat, choking him and forcing him to speak.
"Ruin you?" The man said, coughing but using the same mocking tone he had been using. "I'm not trying to ruin you, on the contrary, I am making you look good for once. You should be grateful that we have decided to use your name for this."
"We!?" Magnus inquired. "What's this!? Who are you!? And who are you working with!?"
The man just smiled and Magnus lost his patience. It was clear that he wasn't going to cooperate. "Where's the diamond?" He asked instead, looking into the man's pockets with his free hand. But apparently the impostor didn't have it with him. There was no trace of the stolen piece.
"You won't find it."
"Where did you hide it? I know you have it!"
"I'm not going to tell you."
"Fine, don't tell me, but you'll have to tell the feds." Magnus threatened him.
"Are you going to call them?"
"Yes."
The man laughed again, but this time his laughter was diabolic—evil. Magnus felt chills all over his body. "And what exactly are you going to do after you call them? Surrender yourself? Don't be stupid! You and I both know you can't call them, and do you wanna know why? Because you, unlike me, are on their blacklist. I have nothing to lose."
Magnus wanted to kill him, but he took a deep breath and tried to calm down. The bastard was right, he couldn't call them, but what he didn't know was that there were always different alternatives. "I could always tie you to this tree and then make an anonymous call to let them know that you stole the Hope Diamond. I can assure you that they will be more than happy to add you to their blacklist and put you behind bars."
"All that sounds very good, but there's a little something you're forgetting."
"What?"
"I didn't steal the diamond." The man said, feigning an innocent tone. "You did." He added, taking Magnus a bit off guard and throwing glitter into his eyes.
Magnus closed them as fast as he could, but it was too late, the glitter was already in his eyes, and the man was seizing the moment to escape.
"Damn it!" Magnus exclaimed, trying to open his eyes to catch the impostor again, but they burned as if someone had thrown salt or pepper on them.
He had never thought of glitter as some sort of weapon, but today, thanks to his impostor, he had discovered that it was actually very powerful. It could incapacitate an enemy for a couple of minutes. Minutes that were more than enough so that anyone could run away.
"Are you alright?" Raphael and Ragnor asked. They had just arrived to where Magnus was. Both were still trying to catch their breaths.
"Yes, I just need water for my eyes, the bastard dared to throw glitter at me." Magnus complained.
"Did you catch him?" Ragnor asked surprised.
"I did, but he managed to escape."
"Did you find out who he is? Do we know him?" Raphael asked.
Magnus shook his head. "But I know something, my friends, he's not working alone."
