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Chapter 06
Botched
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The Wand was housed in its very own wing of the Museum. It was the only exhibit held within the wing. It was suspended by some form of a magical force field a few feet above a marble platform, on the marble fluted wall in front of the platform was a golden plaque explaining the bare outline of the Wand's history. The marble platform was surrounded by a fluted marble barrier with a steep drop around five feet straight down, there was around a three feet gap separating the plinth from the rest of the room.
The group stopped and stared in wonder as one of the most magically powerful artefacts in all of history was just in front of them. It was made even more awe-inspiring to those who were attuned to magic or had some small talent for it. Which was the majority of the group, they could each feel the wand pulsing and throbbing like a human hart, pulsing with arcane power it writhed invisibly to the naked eye as if wanting to be found and used.
"So, how are we getting the security field down?" Ace asked, "I don't see a security panel, nor do I see anything that can even be described as one." he was more focused on looking around the room than keeping an eye on the others when it happened.
"Jay, no don't." he turned, but it was already too late, the security field had blasted Jay down the hall they had come from and set off the alarms. Ace's knees buckled, and he covered his ears the high piercing wail of the alarms almost overpowering his now much more sensitive senses.
He looked up in time to see the others already begging to run the abject panic in their faces was plain enough to see. He pursued them staying far enough behind that if they tripped or got caught, he could make an independent run. Ace was surprised that they got to the security post with no security officers or guards in sight as they came to the main terminal Ace noticed the Guard was gone, and the phone was ringing.
Carlos stopped as the other three bolted for the door, he thought very fast knowing that the VK's would be the likely target if the mainlanders though this was a robbery attempt, he went straight to the security desk and picked up the ringing phone.
"Hello?" He answered calmly deepening his voice to appear older, despite his hard running he wasn't breathing hard. "Just a second please." He read the clip board quickly and entered the security override number, the Alarm shut down immediately. "yeah, no, no. it's a false alarm" he said talking to the person on the phone "it was a malfunction in the LM714 chip again." That seemed to placate the person he was talking to he chuckled at a joke then said, "say hi to the misses for me." Ending the conversation Ace knew that both the new and old guards were more than likely going to be there any second, if not for Carlos and his own quick thinking then they probably would have been caught.
Much to Ace's surprise Mal and her crew had hung back to wait for Carlos something he wasn't sure anyone else from the island would do. As the duo reached the rest of their group, they began to speed up their panting breath and fast footsteps the only thing cutting into the silent night.
As they ran past the final wall and approached the open road leading to the school, they began to slow down no longer running for their lives back to the School Mal made her displeasure with Jay known. She was summing up his own and the groups', as a whole, feelings for the so-called best thief on the Island.
"Nice work Jay now we have to go to school." There was a grown of annoyance from everyone but Mal was seething as they ran, it took less time to get back than they thought. They approached their windows slightly crouching to avoid anyone catching them to quickly they opened their windows nodding to each other they almost simulations re-entered their rooms.
Ace was much more tired than he thought he would be his hands shaking out of his control to stop. The adrenalin rush had worn off and he was hitting the wall like a wrecking ball. The fatigue almost got him before he could make it to the bed, he threw his hat at the wall and flopped face first onto the mattress.
It was with numb barely functioning fingers that he undid his belt he used his body weight to roll himself over so he could get the belt off. He took a second to summon some energy and tried to sit up to take his boots off, but his body was slow to move and even that most basic of movement had made his muscles protest and burn with aching fatigue.
He dropped the boots as he managed to pull them off each one hit the floor with a dull heavy thud. Once he had stripped what he could he allowed himself to crash back onto the bed, he grumbled for a moment about the insidious comfort of the mattress but even his immense paranoia had left him for the overwhelming feeling desire to sleep.
He closed his eyes and allowed the feeling to lull him to sleep.