- Chapter Twelve -

Man Is A Manuscript

Right-clicking the page to bring up a file dubbed as "Heaven's Mandate", the women selected the 'copy to' message and imported the data over to the USB she had inserted. Heaven's Mandate, apart from being the so-called right to rule, was the oh-so-clever codename the museum curator had come up with to house all the plans and schematics a thief would require to get their hands on the display in the new exhibit. Really the information could have been called 'Royal Pain In Her Ass' for everything she had to go through to get to the secure personal computer of the museum head.

"And that's that." Download finished and the job as good as complete, the dark haired beauty spun around to face the man that had hired her. Effective in any language, she flashed a dry smile before standing up, "I could act out the escape as well, but I think we've uncovered enough-" though hacking wasn't her forte, the woman was knowledge enough with technology to open up a window of the security footage, "-flaws for one day."

Part of her assault on the system had taken place in locations that wouldn't be filmed, such as the bar where she'd flirted the night prior to the fake heist with the janitor that had set up the course. It would be obvious that anyone low on the chain of command shouldn't be trusted with sensitive information, but she had still elected to prove her worth by demonstrating the fact. Other places that lacked proper surveillance included the ventilation and the ladies room, which were again normal places that any smart individual would have suspected to be prime targets. In other words, a necessary sacrifice.

Black and white not for a lack of funding, the woman watched herself shimmy through an air duct leading from the handicap bathroom to an access panel that could be fitted with a simple little device that could scramble signals and interrupt the live feed. Truthfully she wasn't entirely clear how available those little puppies were to the populace in general, but she could easily name five other professionals with similar tech in a single breath. Not that she was one to kiss and tell.

Coming forward to observe the scene were she had had to carefully tread along the service elevator to break into an outlet, the client frowned at the monitor and pressed the pause button. Body leaning close against the shapely curves of the female larcenist, hand grazing the thin fabric of her tight cinnamon top as he reached to point at the screen, thinking twice about it the curator shifted position and bumped against her. All of this before he had considered the keyboard, the client made a miserable attempt at hiding where his eyes fell. It was quite flattering, actually.

Innocent enough on the surface, without the visual aid of what was on the screen it would have seemed that he was just a wee bit irked by how many times his security had been outmaneuvered by an outsider. If one only cared to glance at the monochromatic screen, they could see immediately why he had chosen that moment to act. Even getting on in years, she still had an amazing ass.

"Ms. Frazer, you've done us a great favor." The accent was a tad heavy, but the man spoke great English. It was likely due to his profession, and she would bet good money that it wasn't the only other language he could speak. "Please, accept your payment with the museum's sincerest gratitude."

Chloe pressed him out of her personal space with the tips of her index and middle fingers, "I'll just take the money, thanks mate."

"Now that is indeed a shame. Are we not friends?" Observant, the curator had noted that there was a handgun strapped to her side in plain sight. He knew from the tapes how quick she could move, and he had the utmost confidence that he was faster. Pulling his own weapon from the hidden holster at his hip, she was in his sights before she had time to draw her own weapon. "Sadly we no longer require your services as we have already hired another professional to finish what you started. Yet I was so looking forward to getting to know you better."

Ross to thank for her next move, though she sincerely doubted that he would pull the trigger from the interactions they've previously had, the woman still erred on the side of caution and took another step towards the door. "I'll just see myself out then."

"Yes, I think that that would be best. My old heart can't take a moment more of the cruel temptation that is your beauty."

All bark and very little bite, the curator was an old friend of a former acquaintance that had previously hired her a handful of times, each job only entailing a fraction of a piece that fit into a bigger puzzle. Last time she had been brought in around the middle of a job - coincidentally enough just as Drake was being escorted out - and as she learned the following night only so much of what she contributed was used in the final defensive. To his credit, it was a smart move to hire multiple cheats and pickpockets so that no one had the entire security plan mapped out.

"Until next time, yeah?" As with that contract, she was being paid good money to run a mock trial to cover any blind spots to ensure that that wouldn't happen. Too bad more people weren't this paranoid, or she'd be getting paid twice as much.

Inclining his head, the curator allowed her to depart with one last lingering peek, "Fare well, Ms. Frazer."

Odd jobs for odd people. But with less work coming her way now that there were so many younger models in the field to chose from, she wasn't about to get picky about how she got her payday. Cutting out travel expenses (which naturally included hitting the nearest bar to celebrate another successful gig), this would more than cover her ass for the next couple of months. Several, if she was smart. Anyways, anything was better than having to turn to online piracy like some of her peers. There just wasn't any sport in that, so unless the proverbial belt had to be tightened that much, why bother?

Charlie rang up just as she was about to pull out of the museum parking lot.

"Hello, love." It was a standard enough greeting, too simple to read into it. After what had transpired last week in Concordia, it was safer to not put too much into things. Besides, one never knew when the line was being tapped and conversations no longer were private. Charlie understood that, surely.

Glass tinkling in the background, it was tough to say if the man was at a pub or doing his own dishes. If it were the former, she was jealous that he was already able to relax, and if it were the later Chloe wished that she could have been there with her camera to take a picture. "Took ya long enough, mate. Been getting calls off the hook from you-know-who about you-know-what. I'm half-considering changing my number."

He did, but sounded none too pleased by her nonchalance. Or perhaps he was hearing her impatiently thrumming her fingers against the sleek leather steering wheel and mistook her eagerness at the notion of a back roads joyride for annoyance. Truth be, if there was a reason to be short-tempered with her colleague, she couldn't recall what it would have been. Looking at things from his perspective, she supposed that she couldn't blame him for coming to that conclusion, however that was just the way things had to be. Unless of course she was just over-thinking the whole thing and he was merely on about either Nate or Elena hounding them about Cassie's birthday. It wasn't cute the first time, and now it was just getting plain old. Although she understood to a degree why Elena was making such a fuss.

"I'm actually just about to leave." By now she could have been halfway to the place downtown, or even seated at the counter if traffic was favorable. "As for your little dilemma, I got mum and dad off my case way back. I don't think my present is going to make her parents too happy, but what kind of aunt would I be if I didn't get the birthday girl something that made her parents cringe?" Cassie was a good kid and would probably accept whatever she was given with grace, but it was always fun to watch her parents squirm when they had to explain why they were taking the gift away for a few years.

Charlie snorted, "Only you could find something to top last year."

Nate practically died on the spot when he saw his ex's gift to his young daughter, and not from laughter. Screen cap still the background on her phone (on days she wasn't bored and scrolled through the contents for fun), the look on his face was priceless and worth every punishment Elena doled out. What made it even better was the fact that she had been followed up by the girl's actual uncle presenting the preteen with the same exact thing her father had ended up getting. That fizzle far overshadowed the stigma of her own present.

"What are you getting her then, if you're so bloody perfect?"

Better able to resist the temptation to torture Elena and Nathan through their daughter, Charlie's present was like to be practical, but still something that one would actually enjoy getting. Knowing the person he was shopping for, he had a knack for figuring out just the thing before he even got the payment information down - in fact, he was so spot on that his was always the present Chloe most looked forward to on her own birthday.

Shit, that was a good gift. Eyes brightening with just the lightest touch of envy as she briefly paused to muse what it must have been like to have so many that loved unconditionally from the start, Chloe shook the hollow pangs away and resumed her thrumming. It didn't do to dwell, she was a big girl now. "Well it won't traumatize her parents, but I suppose that she'll thank you for it."

"Glad you approve." They were beyond admitting to one another little things like the fact that he had only called to get her opinion before grabbing the present, but it wasn't hard to guess.

"So, Chloe," ripping the woman out of her reverie and bringing her smack right into the middle of the same sorts of messes that his younger brother had a penchant for starring in, Sam Drake had the audacity to snatch the bottle out of her hands, "please tell me that you know a thing or two-"

Rude of him to just steal away her rum like that, being stressed from the threat of his deal going belly up before it could even get off the ground was no excuse. "I do. But you'll never know about that, mate." She and Sam never had - nor would they ever - that kind of relationship, but it was still fun to mess with him. The Drakes just made it too easy! "Not for all the rum in the world, Casanova."

Too smart to not understand the reference, he was still at a loss for why she would chose now of all times to make that kind of a crack. Hands shaking just as bad as they had when he and Nathan were closing in on the islands that led to Libertalia, there was no nicotine to calm them, Victor was MIA, the surfer was still trying to get in a private word, the booze was too warm for his taste (although at least there was something to drink), and the girl was by far even worse at making him worry than his little brother ever had been. The brunette would have known if he had said something to leave the impression that he had come on to her, so the Aussie must have been making a dig at the fact that he had been spending so much time at the side of the heiress. If that was the case, he found the opinion to be in poor taste - there was nothing suspect about sticking by a sick child that was on the mend and had no one else there for them.

"-about patching head wounds?" Tilting his head to the side with a queer look on his face, he took a throaty swig before passing it back a good ounce too light. It crossed his mind to spill the rest of the golden contents on the ground, but aside from being the kind of jackassery that certain former affiliates would pull, that would have been counterproductive to his own interests.

Head wounds were a tricky business at best, and in her long career there thankfully hadn't been too many encounters with that particular malady, so there really wasn't much she could say. Wrap the injury tight, clean of the affected area when practical, keep the bandages changed; so long as the teen was unconscious it was impossible to improve the current treatment. From what the getaway driver could tell, that girl appeared to be getting the best available treatment.

"Can't say I can help you there either, mate." Rum swishing around in the glass container and getting less and less voluminous as they passed it to and fro, there was only one thing she could think to do to kill the time. "But this ought to help."

Rotating the bottle in her hands thoughtfully before bringing it to her lips, the dark-haired temptress took a sweet sip from the amber liquid and let it wash down the back of her throat before licking away the additional drops that collected at the corner of her mouth. Charlie told her once that she had a bad habit of over-sexualizing everything she did to the point that it didn't even matter who was in the room with her. She wondered if he wasn't wrong about that... Technically he hadn't been the first to bring it to attention, merely the latest.

Oh, Charlie.

Everyone seemed to have that one person that they could depend on, could get into the absolute worst of brawls with and still walk away as close (if not closer) as ever. For her that seemed to be a toss up between Nadine and Charlie, and Nate obviously had Elena, but who was there for Samuel Drake at the end of a life-threatening ordeal? Obviously he was close with his brother and had Victor, but she didn't want to contemplate the depths of those relationships. No, what she wondered as she slid a little further away from reality was if her comrade had someone close that could be trusted to take a bullet and then snog. Ideally it would go beyond that, however she wasn't about to tell anyone how they ought to live their life.

"I get wanting to make sure that she'll be okay, but why are you making such a big fuss over that girl? I could offer you a job right now that could pay just as well, so what is it that's making this so personal for you?" Perhaps that was something coming from the same woman that declared she was done running and willingly risked her own life for an entire village full of people, however that had been her turning point. For Sam, so far as she knew, that hadn't happened yet. Sure there were talks about him and Sullivan leaving the business for good, but she never believed that the ex-con's heart was in it, not for a single moment.

What was keeping him around?

Truthfully there were a few things that the veteran thief could have told the woman to satiate her curiosity, could have told anyone that asked, but he was still trying to figure it out for himself. Whatever he had thought he shared with Rafe had died on that island, and there was never anything more between him and Bai than a few meaningless tumbles, so it was highly unlikely that he was so invested in saving their daughter for the sake of the past. As for the promise of Chloe cutting him in on more generous deal, that was a distinct possibility, yet even knowing the odds of success in this case, it was worth sticking it through to the end. All the same, that didn't mean anything for what kept him glued to the girl's side while she was in recovery.

Able to explain only fractions of the overall reason, the blonde kept approaching the former convict half-heartedly in an effort to strike up a conversation that would ultimately lead up to his involvement. Being rid of Logan not quite as high on his list of priorities as he made it sound in the scheme of things, it would have been better to just get it over with so that the surfer could get on his merry way, yet he'd proven to be useful so far. The one time he almost let it happen, Sam was just too distracted to listen. He thought he heard something about responsibility and doing the right thing, but even if he had been up to paying attention those ideals would have just made him roll his hazel eyes.

Lips whistling over the rim, she was watching him attentively. Chloe wanted an answer so badly that she was even willing to share to help ply it out of him. "Go on then."

Cautious of what trap was being laid for him, Samuel took the bottle and an additional swig, but he still was no wiser about his own motivations. The silence stretched on as he nursed away his inhibitions - it wasn't his intention to get all touchy-feely with Dr. Frazer, he just wanted to not have to think at all. Unfortunately before he could get to that point, he'd have to get to a place where blurting these things out was less of a concern and more of a certainty. It was all well and fine for others to bear their soul, but he didn't savior being smashed against the stones for the first passerby to pick up the pieces.

"When I saved her," belching as he offered the woman the medicine to all the world's problems, Sam felt less like he was talking to a friend and more like he was in confession, "in the pool, she was so delicate." Remembering the way the heiress had felt in his arms, he was prompted to continue as the walls crumbled around him one by one, "The only time I saw something so fragile was... when my mom died..." A memory floated from the haziest depths of the darkness to the forefront of his mind, but he didn't want to see it again. It was too painful. "..."

Nate rarely had ever mentioned his past to her, no matter how drunk he'd gotten, so she could only imagine how closed off Sam was on the topic. Sparing her friend what she could, Chloe pointed out the positive of the situation, "She can't be that fragile if she pulled through this whole mess." Despite Sam missing it, the girl had woken up for a small time and had even managed to get some solids down on her own. She had been too weak to speak much, but the danger seemed to have passed from what they reckoned. "Granted, it was barely, but what matters is that she'll see another day." Face contorting with emotion that he would never speak, Chloe realized once again that Nadine was right: I am a selfish dickhead.

Grateful for the shift, they had spent too much time on the topic of the conversation to drop it entirely. Since Logan hadn't been sworn to secrecy, it wasn't technically much of a secret, however that didn't make it seem like any less of a confession when he confided, "It was the damnedest thing, but my boy," effect of the rum getting more powerful and more pronounced, it seemed a foolish waste of effort to avoid the inevitable truth, "he told me that when I drove us up here, she called out for me. For me. Maybe that's why I feel so responsible for her." Yeah, no, he just didn't like that word.

There was something to that theory, she could admit, but when her fellow thief voiced his thoughts her mind raced straight to the alternative. "Or maybe you should just pay her a proper visit when she's up and about. I can keep your little mini-me busy for twenty minutes." Did she wink? Because it felt like she winked.

Again, really? The girl was just that, a girl! "You're unbelievable. She-"

"Yes, yes, she's only a minor and barely older than your niece." Chloe almost referred to Cassie as she normally did, as everyone's collective niece, however this time her point would have been better appreciated by her audience if she kept it technical. Waving it off, as the teenager was close enough to adulthood this was an appropriate talk to have. "Do the both of you a favor and put that all aside for a moment. There isn't a little part of you that doesn't want to...?" Trailing off, she smiled suggestively.

Blood coursing to a simmer, the grizzled brunette didn't care if she was a woman or not - if Chloe even mentioned that Dells was a replica of an old flame, he swore to Christ he was going to punch her in her smug face. He went head-to-head with Nadine when the situation called for it, and this was no different. "I'm not having this conversation."

Chloe, on the other hand, was very interested in having the conversation. In fact she was quite keen to see where this was going to go, although judging from his reaction, she had a good guess. "Oh, come on, it isn't that hard to just admit that if she were a little older, you'd be all over her, is it?" Seeing that he wasn't budging on the issue, she smirked, "It is that hard for you to admit!"

"I'm not having this conversation." Repeating himself, a darkness crept across his face.

"Fine, not another word, mate." Chloe wasn't done with this, not by a long shot. She had seen what the elder Drake was capable of first-hand, but the rum had long since eroded trivial things like better judgment. Getting up from one of the four cots that had been forced into the low-ceilinged space, the woman moved with a memorizing sway to get rid of the empty bottle. For the life of her, she couldn't say who had gotten the last drop, but she did know who was going get the last word. "Now I see why you won't cut the surfer loose - you need the distraction to keep yourself busy."

Arm lashing out with lightening speed, the rebuttal would have been more intimidating if Sam hadn't hit his head on the rusted crossbeams when he rose. Stumbling through air and with nothing else to catch his fall, his only option had been to grab Chloe. Dragged down before she realized what was happening, somehow his hand had gone from her wrist to the curve of her back. Peering down into his eyes, breath hitching in her chest when she studied the flecks of cooper that contrasted with the teal-gray, she pushed his hand off and rolled off the man.

Refusing to look in his direction, Frazer instead moved into a sitting position that left her staring at the doorway. The bedpost was digging her her back at the angle she had taken, and her head was being bowed forward by the stack of blankets and sheets that had seen better days, but it was still more comfortable than straddling her ex's brother. "If that's your game, I think you'll have better luck next door."

Unknown to the pair, they were being watched by a pair of blue eyes. While it was one thing to hear Mr. Drake start to open up about his own mother drama, listening to the two going on about whether or not he had any deeper interest in the heiress was getting to be too much for Daniella. Slinking off before she was discovered lurking in the doorway, she backtracked to the medical bay. Glancing around the room, she decided to bang against the sink and counter on her way back out to alert them that she was up.

Oh. My. God. OhmyGod, ohmygod, ommigod, practically hyperventilating even in the depths of her mind, the heiress just couldn't wrap her head around the exchange between Mr. Drake and Ms. Frazer.

He...