Chapter 7

"Breaking into the Louvre"

Under a cover of the darkness thanks to the night sky, Jackie and I drove towards the Louvre museum where we believed that Origami was going to make his move. Having just managed to persuade Jackie into believing that I wasn't a thief anymore, I felt that he could of a least developed a trust for me in a sense. At the same time, the Louvre was a place that I never managed to break into until tonight. For years, I wanted to steal something from here and for a moment, the adrenaline was rushing through my body.

"Breaking into the Louvre," I said with anticipation as Jackie and I were crouched on the roof. "I have been planning this in my head for years."

"Remember, we are here to catch Origami," replied Jackie. "Not to steal anything."

My face turned sour for a moment as I felt that Jackie was starting to slip back into the old Jackie before we stripped down to our underwear back at the apartment. Of course, given the fact that Jackie was Jade's uncle, he was still being the protective uncle that he was.

"Don't you trust me?" I asked. "Didn't our striptease get through your head?"

"No, it did not," he replied. "That was very embarrassing when we did that. The only time you should be in your underwear, Viper, is in your own time."

I wanted to give Jackie a piece of mine right there and then, but we both knew that there was a thief that needed to be captured, so we focused on the task at hand. Looking down into the museum, we could see that there was only one guard on duty and once he passed by, we lowered some rope into the museum and we climbed down quickly and quietly, waiting for the guard to leave the room. However, once he was gone, we initially looked to each other that the coast was clear. Unfortunately, it turns out we had a third member of our team with us.

"Jade!" gasped Jackie, who saw his niece dressed in black like us. "What are you doing here?"

"Tch, like a daytime tour with uncle was fun," she retorted. "How do you think I would handle a nighttime tour? I actually told Uncle I was meeting you at the Louvre."

Jackie was soon back to his old ways as he pointed the finger right at me. Once again, he was accusing me of being a bad influence.

"You are a bad influence," he said crossly, pointing right at me. I wanted to do another striptease right there and then as a way of getting him off the accusation wagon, but I couldn't because Jade was there.

"Moi?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. Already exasperated, Jackie decided to simply carry on and Jade and I relented.

Soon, we came to a vault in the Louvre that was guarded by a large steel door. From all my experience as a thief, I could see that the security system needed to be cracked. So, I raised a hand against the panel and the small door opened to reveal a red button that glowed brightly.

"Ah ha, right where it is supposed to be," I said and I pressed it, opening the doors and they revealed a large room with a whole assortment of Far East art dating back thousands and thousands of years. In the center of the room was a large urn and almost immediately, Jackie began to suspect that Origami was hiding in it.

"Be careful," Jackie whispered as we crouched around the room in a quiet manner. "Any one of these paintings could be Origami. So be incognito."

Just then, Jade crouched over towards the urn when all of a sudden, the urn moved as a shroud of paper was forming around it and soon, the paper was turning into a fold up man.

"There he is!" cried Jade as our sudden movements then triggered the alarm and its deafening sounds were now being heard throughout the Louvre.

Realizing that we were now on him, Origami pushed another large urn towards Jade and Jackie and while they were struggling to keep the other large urn from falling on top of them, I jumped into action and blocked the entrance to the main hall of the museum as the doors were closing behind me.

"You are not going anywhere," I said, getting myself ready for battle. Just then, Origami charged towards me and I soon began to charge towards him as we leapt into the air towards each other.

Suddenly, he managed to slip past me and race to the doors just as they closed on each other, trapping us inside. But that was the least of my worries as the other large urn was starting to get the best of Jade and Jackie.

"Bad day, bad day, bad day, bad day!" cried Jackie as he and Jade were about to be crushed.

Of course, I had to make a choice to either stay and help Jackie and Jade or try to catch Origami and retrieve a priceless painting. Normally, this story would feature me making the right decision in helping Jackie and Jade. However, I decided to continue giving chase and then raced past them. Timing its movements, I karate kicked my way through the doors just as they were closing behind me leaving Jackie and Jade inside.

"Viper!" cried Jackie as I heard the sounds of pounding coming from the other side. "I knew she would betray us!"

Feeling slightly insulted after hearing that, I pushed open the doors and scowled at Jackie when I saw him.

"I heard that," I said, folding my arms in disgust upon hearing something like that.

"See, Jackie," replied Jade, walking over to my side. "I told you Viper is a good guy now."

Jackie wanted to respond deep down, but he couldn't as we continued to make our chase on Origami. We raced through the museum and had just gotten outside when the same detective and officers from earlier in the day soon arrived and their lights were flashing right in our faces.

"Halt!" called the detective, running over towards the three of us. "You are all under arrest!"

"You don't want us!" I cried, trying to prove my innocence.

"You want the foldup man!" added Jade, who was trying to not be the youngest person in France to ever be arrested. Of course, the detective was not taking this very lightly and wanted us put away as quickly as possible.

"Oui, Oui, the foldup man. That's a likely story," he replied non chantey. "I have heard about it for the last time."

"No, no, he is right there!" cried Jackie, pointing in the direction of Origami for them to see. A police light was soon placed in the direction of where Jackie was pointing and for the first time, the detective was getting a good look at Origami, who was now flying away out into the distance with the urn in its talons.

However, Origami didn't get very far as the weight of the urn caused him to fall down into the pool below and reveal to be Kasahara, causing the initial suspicions of the detective to be banished.

"It is a fold up man," he cried.

"The urn is too heavy for him to fly away," added Jackie who then gave chase to Origami, followed by the detective and his officers.

Jade and I stayed behind as we watched them give chase, as she debated it was either a good time to join in the chase or wait until we were needed.

"Is this one of those times where it would be best to wait before jumping in?" asked Jade, remembering what I had said to her earlier in the day. But this time, I had a better answer for her.

"No," I said quickly and soon, we joined the chase. Just then, we saw Origami attempt to get into our car and when he found that the door was locked, he took a finger and used it to open the door like a key.

"Good thing my passport and purse are back at the apartment," I thought to myself as we managed to break into a police van and join the chase.

"I'm not stealing, I'm borrowing!" I called to the law enforcement as Jade and I sped by in the van.

After a moment, we finally caught up to our car as we saw Jackie trying to block the view from Kasahara, who driving the car at full speed. Soon, we came onto a road that leading towards the Eiffel Tower. The traffic at this time was downright treacherous as the car soon came in the direction of a large delivery van. While the car had avoided the van with ease, Jade and I were not so lucky as we avoided the van with only seconds to spare. When we eventually found the car, we saw that it had crashed into the side of a tour bus with Jackie's uncle inside. Jackie then came out of the car with the urn in his hands as he raced into the police van and we sped off, determined to put some distance between ourselves and Kasahara.

"Stealing a police van?! Shame on you!" cried Jackie, but I was not in the mood to listen as I still had to pay attention to the road in front of us.

"Didn't you just steal that urn from Kasahara?" I retorted, trying to pay attention to the road in front of me.

"That is different!" cried Jackie, placing the urn against my right side. But, just then, he looked back towards the rear of the van and came across Origami, now back as a bird again and charging right towards us from the sky.

"Here he comes!" he yelled as he saw Kasahara change again, this time as a blanket of paper that caused me to lose my sight of the road in front of me.

"I can't see anything!" I called to Jackie as I struggled to see what was in front of me. After a moment, Kasahara lost his grip on the van and he came off to reveal that we were heading towards one of the legs of the Eiffel Tower.

Fortunately, I slammed on the brakes just in time and brought the van to a full and complete stop. Unfortunately, we did hit the side of the leg with a little force and the airbags were deployed. However, we weren't hurt very much, which was a good thing.

"Jade!" called Jackie as he raced over towards us. Jade and I were dazed for a moment, but then our attention and focus on our well-being was soon interrupted when a sharp strand of Origami paper came in between us, then another and another. Jackie could tell that Origami was on top of the van trying to strike us with the paper. He knew then and now that Origami needed to be stopped immediately. Fastening the urn to his body with rope, Jackie was going to lead Origami into a trap with the urn as bait.

"Viper, look after Jade, call the police!" he ordered as he crawled out the side of the window. This brought about some confusion in my eyes, but Jade was determined to set me straight.

"Wait," I said confusingly to Jade. "Did he just ask me to look after you?"

"Duh, Jackie likes you," chuckled Jade.

"How about that?" I said, smiling up at Jackie as he led Origami along the sides of the tower. I knew at that moment once again that my early tactic of seducing Jackie may have gotten through to him.

A little while later, Jackie returned as the cops arrived on the scene. Origami had been captured and Kasahara was soon back to his old self and handcuffed by the police as the detective glanced over at me one last time before leaving with Origami.

"Guess he too sees I am not a thief," I thought as Jackie joined me and Jade.

However, I knew that my brief time in Paris would soon be coming to an end and that we still had some stolen artwork that needed to be returned.