Chapter 2
~Chicago~
Remy was watching a college age student on the other side of the train. He was studying hard and as the train lurched, he fell against a business man beside him. What Remy saw, and the rest of the train didn't, was the student pocket his wallet. He smiled. As they were getting off the train, he borrowed the wallet and dropped a business card in the man's pocket.
~
As Jamie walked out of the subway station, he reached into his pocket for the wallet. Feeling nothing but paper, he pulled it out. Nice Pull. Meet me at The Dancer's Pub. On the other side was Remy LeBeau. He sighed and headed for the pub. How the hell did he get himself into situations like this?
"Hey, saw your pull back there. Nice."
Jamie looked at him. "I know who you are, what I want to know is why you're here."
"You're either in or you're out, right now." Remy put an airline ticket on the table, his hand on top of it, covering the destination.
"What is it?"
"Job offer." The waitress came up and he tipped her, his hand still on the ticket.
"Las Vegas huh?" Jamie turned the ticket over in his hands.
Remy looked shocked. "Good. Very good. Dat's de best pull Remy's seen y' do yet. Bobby said y' were good, but didn't tell me how good."
"Guess he didn't tell you then?" Jamie's voice held a hint of anger.
"Tell me what?"
"I'm his son. He doesn't want me trading on his name though."
"Petit, if you can pull this off, you don't have to worry about that," Remy told him.
"I'm coming." His voice challenged Remy to protest.
"Bon. See you in Sin City kid."
~Wanda's house~
*Ding dong* Wanda glared at her door but got up to answer it. When it opened, it revealed Scott, Tabby, Evan, Jamie, Amara, Jean, Kurt and Kitty standing on her front step.
"What, did you get a group rate or something?" Wanda scowled at them. She grudgingly let them in and pointed them towards the backyard.
"Oh lookit the spread!" Tabby squealed, taking in the backyard. "You haven't done half bad, huh Wanda?" she flopped down on a lawn chair and stretched. Kitty and Amara also joined her.
"Hey Jean!" Tabby called. "Come join us!" Jean shook her head and headed for the food, grabbing some fruit and some champagne, perching on the end of a chair on the other side of the pool.
"Party pooper." Kitty waved Kurt over. "Fuzzy, can you pass me some wine? Thanks." Evan plopped down next to Tabby, forcing her to sit up.
"Haven't seen you in a while Tabs. How's life been?"
"Same old, same old Spyke. Boring without ya." She flashed him a smile.
"Now that's what's been missing…" Evan said. "Huh. Never would have thought." He tilted his head back, thinking. Suddenly he looked at Kurt, and they grinned at each other. Evan scooped up Tabby, as Kurt grabbed Kitty. They swung them around and released them over the pool, the two girls landing with a splash. The boys grinned and were off like shots. Kitty surfaced just before Tabby. Amara leaned over to give them a hand out. Jean was hiding a grin, and Jamie and Scott were laughing. "That's the sort of thing I expect from high school boys, not twenty five year olds." Tabby said, squeezing her hair out.
"What would high school girls do, I wonder?" Scott wondered out loud. Tabby and Kitty were gone before the sentence was finished, and the boys pitied their friends.
Jamie sat on one of the chairs towards the diving board on the pool, away from Jean and Scott who seemed to be very busy catching up on each others lives- if staring at each other and not saying a word was talking, that is. He'd heard about those two from his friends and acquaintances of his parents that those two were crazy about each other, but neither was willing to tell in case the other didn't reciprocate the feelings. Jamie watched the two out of the corner of his eye. A few minutes later he heard the other four come running around the corner and wished he had done as Remy, Wanda, and John had- disappeared. Evan and Kurt collided with him, the three of them falling on the floor. Then the seven of them got up and brushed themselves off, the five Jamie's not noticing the stares they were getting from the others. Tabby was the first to shrug it off, having seen weirder things before. The boys suddenly noticed how close the girls had gotten and were shrinking away from them in fear when Remy and Wanda appeared.
"Everyone alive?" Most nodded, Evan and Kurt were too scared to move.
"Sober?" Remy paused. "Close enough. What we are about to do is very dangerous and very profitable. If that isn't your particular brand of vodka, you can stay over tonight and leave tomorrow, no hard feelings. If it is, come inside." He turned and left, the others following him. Jamie stayed outside, looking over the now empty backyard and considering his next move. Wanda saw him and walked over. "You're Bobby Maddrox's kid, right?" He nodded, not sure what to say to her. "You like Chicago? Hear it's nice this time of year." he nodded again. "Oh goodie." she said, sarcasm dripping from her words. "Now get in the goddamn house." He ran, finding that his next move had already been made for him.
Remy looked around the room, noting that everyone had entered. He motioned John to start the slide, then had to hit him on the shoulder, as he was too busy playing with his lighter. "Ouch! What was that for mate?" Remy looked at him. John shook his head and reached for the slide remote. Clicking it on, he started staring at Amara, who was bored and using some of her fire to circle around her. Remy leaned down and smacked him on the back of the head, and he started paying attention again.
"This is the Bellagio." Remy told the others. *click* "And this is the Bellagio's vault, which we are going to break into."
"Smash and grab." Jamie said.
"It's more complicated then that."
"Well, yeah." Jamie said. "Obviously."
"We have to get through the cages, which is going to take more than a pretty face. Then down the elevator, which can only be moved by vocal and retina recognition-"
"Which we can't fake." John put in.
"And if we try to manually override it, we get locked into it until casino personnel show up. But after dat is the easy part. Just two guys with Uzis and de most elaborate vault door ever created by man or mutant."
"We also have to get in there without being seen by the cameras." John added.
"T'anks mon ami, forgot 'bout dat." Remy said.
"But here's de good news- de law says they have to have enough cash and coin in dere to cover every chip on the floor. Not a whole lot during the week, but on fight nights at Pietro's casino there's 160 million, easy."
"Any questions?" he asked. They all shook their heads.
~~~
"First order of bus'ness." Remy told them. "Know who y're dealing wit'. Dat means, Evan, dat we need to know everyt'ing about ev'ryone workin' at de casino. Y' got y'r work cut out for y'." Evan nodded in understanding.
Evan settled in his seat at the casino table. These guys didn't have a clue how to play and the house was winning all the time. He didn't notice the woman walking by until she sat down at the table. She waited until the current round was over, then placed five hundred chips on the table and watched as Evan dealt her in. When her turn came around she put one card down and picked another up out of the deck, placing another hundred chip on the pile. Three of the players folded, with the remaining two and Evan staying in. Three turns later, the pot was much bigger and there was only the woman and another man left in the game. Her turn and she upped the ante again, the last person dropping out. She gathered the chips and started to get up when Evan flipped her cards over. She had a pair of twos, while the last guy had had a straight. Evan whistled to himself. She knew how to bluff, that was for sure. He stole a look at her and caught a glimpse of white before she turned completely and all her say was the back of her auburn hair. The table left and new people replaced them, and Evan was too busy to think about her much.
~~~
"Okay, we need to build an exact replica of the Bellagio's vault." Remy said, catching the bundle of materials John tossed at him.
"Practice?" Amara asked.
"...Something like dat."
~~~
"Kurt, Kitty, transportation." Remy told them. "You up to it?"
"You betcha," Kitty said, winking. "Come on Blue Boy, let's get this party started." She grabbed his waist.
"Wait!" The two looked expectantly at Remy. "Don't forget- vans."
Kurt gave a three fingered wave and the two *Bamf*-ed out.
"I'm gonna regret this," Remy said to thin air.
Kurt and Kitty landed in a car lot. "So, which one do you like better?" Kitty asked, pointing at two different vans.
"Well, they both have large-" Kitty smacked Kurt's head.
"Finish that sentence and you're a dead elf."
"I was just going to say they both had large engines," he protested. "Hey let's get both!"
"Deal," Kitty said. "You take the far one, I'll take this. Keys will be under the floor mat on the passengers side."
"How do you know that?" Kurt asked.
"Duh. I'm a female criminal."
"Oh."
At 2 am that morning, John was roused from a rather nice dream about his fire princess by wild hoots and squealing tires. "What the hell…?" he said to himself. Getting out of bed, he went to his window and peered out. He saw two white vans crisscrossing across the large driveway, heading for the garage. Groaning, he flung the curtain shut and went back to bed, his pillow clenched firmly over his ears.
On the other side of Wanda's mansion, Remy to was woken by the noise. Cursing a blue streak, he ran downstairs in his houserobe and reached the garage just as the Kurt and Kitty did. He waited for them to get out of the vans, then started laying into them.
"What the hell do you think you are doing?" he asked them furiously. "Do you want to get us all thrown in jail before this heist even gets started? You're lucky the cops haven't showed up!"
"It wasn't luck," Kitty said indignantly. "We only went crazy out in the desert, and then here."
"Twice?" Remy's eyebrows shot up. It was NOT a good look for him.
Kurt moved closer to Kitty. "Chill Remy. You'd think you've forgotten what it's like to be a young thief."
"I've been a t'ief my whole life," Remy growled. "Ain't no way I could ever forget that. Now get in the house, and if you pull another stunt like this…" Remy didn't get to finish his sentence before Kurt and Kitty disappeared. He slumped against one of the vans. "Why do I feel like a father?" He asked himself. He then looked up to the sky. "Why me?"
~~~
"Alright Jamie, there's only one guy who knows the codes as soon as they are changed." John told him the next day as they were building their vault.
"Who, Maximoff?" Jamie asked, startled.
"Right. Learn to love his shadow." John informed him.
"What, all I get to do is watch the guy?" Jamie pouted.
"Gotta walk before you can crawl." John said. Remy gave him a look.
"Switch that," was all Remy said before heading over to oversee another part of the operation.
"Hey Red, how's it coming?" Remy leaned up against the doorway.
"It's not the least accessible system I've ever seen, but it's close." Jean told him. "I don't suppose there's a closer access feed I could tape into?"
John showed up behind Remy and shook his head no.
"Then it's a black bag job. Do they employ and in house technicians?"
"Two. And one of 'ems lonely." John said.