THIEF! Chapter 17
A Long Night Part 2: Meeting
Tonight would be the night, he knew. Tonight they would all come, including Raltan, whom he had found himself. And tonight, they would plan just how to get rid of Josen. He had always hated the man. Such a pure, noble, and uncompromising person should not exist. However, he reflected, soon the man would no longer exist.
He looked in his briefcase, shuffling through papers. He was checking for the evidence that connected them to the subject of their little meetings. It never hurt to be certain, and he wanted to make sure he knew everything transacted about this. Then his hand brushed something else, which was not a file record or report. It was hard, and cold, and as he wrapped his hand around it, the man smiled coldly. Extra insurance could never hurt, he had told himself. Though he had not recommended it to his partners, since any one of them might become troublesome in the future. And if that happened, he wouldn't want them to have one of these.
His grim speculation was interrupted as he saw something out the window. It was a group of kids, five, maybe six, each carrying a bag. They were headed towards his front door. Anticipating them, he got up and opened the door before any of them had begun to reach for the doorbell, much to their astonishment.
In the front was a girl with long, shining red hair and mischievous brown eyes, hid behind glasses. Those eyes sparkled wickedly, in a way that would have you checking to see that you still had all your personal belongings. Next to her was a short little girl, her face framed by blue and brown, wearing clothes that confirmed the attitude her deep blue eyes carried. And behind that girl was a tall boy with deep brown hair, and icy blue eyes. He carried a laptop computer case over his shoulder. To the left was a second boy, with sandy hair, and mild gray eyes, looking away, behind him. Behind this boy, he thought he saw another, smaller one, because he saw a flash of red near his pants, which were dark green, and of brown, a bit above his waist, like hair, though it was not quite textured correctly for that. But when he glanced again, he saw no one, and shrugged it off. The one who most caught his attention though, was the girl on the far right. She had short, messy auburn hair, and piercing hazel eyes. And though her face was carefully neutral, her eyes seemed to blaze into the depths of his soul as she stared at him. That single look was enough for him to know: for some reason this girl didn't like him.
All this he took gathered in a moment, for this man was accustomed to sizing people up. His eyes then went on to note that each of the kids had at least one pokeball at their waist. Trainers he thought. Though this would normally earn any other people more respect, you could never tell whether children were skilled or not, without witnessing them in action first-hand. "May I help you?" he asked, impatient to get back to his preparations. Then he saw that flash of red again behind the gray-eyed boy, and frowned.
She had seen him. Not in a dimly lighted room from on top of a bookshelf, and certainly not from photographs, because she knew that there weren't any of him in the house. Liana looked into the eyes of the man who had advocated killing another; he was standing here in broad daylight. A surge of hatred and disgust had filled her at the sight of him, but she had been careful to keep her face blank, lest she tip him off. But by his reaction, he knew anyway. Then she saw his eyes flick away from her, towards the pokemon hiding behind Bobby. Had he seen something? She had to keep his attention away from them. "We are here to meet with Allyssa," she said in a level voice.
His eyes shifted back her. Then he heard the other girl, the one in the front say, "Yeah, we're working together on a school project, and we agreed to meet here. Did Allyssa tell you about it?" The others nodded hastily. Were they trying to distract him? He looked at that boy one last time, but couldn't see any red. How very odd he thought. Well, the girl had mentioned something about a project for school recently Suddenly aware that they were all standing awkwardly outside, the motioned for them to enter. The three girls came in first, then the tall boy, and last that other boy. As that one went in, he noticed that there was a stripe of red down the side of his pants. And that must be it he thought to himself, content that the irregularity had an explanation.
"How did it go?" Allyssa asked. Up in her room, everyone felt relieved, especially Bobby. He had opened the door before Noctowl and Combusken had had a chance to get out of sight against the wall. That had caught them all unawares. But, as they filed in, the girls and Angel had obscured the man's vision of Bobby, giving the pokemon a chance to move undetected, and take up their position behind some bushes.
"It could have been better," Jenna replied before anyone else could say anything. They were all calming their nerves in Allyssa's newly refurnished room. They had each chipped in a piece of furniture (Dragon's coming from Bobby's house too) and helped the girl set it up over the past couple of days. The result was a bit mismatched, but comfortable all the same. Most of them ended up sitting on their own contributions, or on Allyssa's bed, which was the only item to have survived from her old room. Jenna unfolded her blueprint of the house.
"Now, we need to go over the plan one more time." Everybody groaned. Jenna had repeated her plan to them so many times it was drilled into their minds. But no one bothered trying to stop her either. They just tuned her out. "Combusken's outside playing sentry, and will relay information via Bobby about the police setting up, as well as the conspirators arriving. Now, the police probably won't come until after dark, and the other men certainly won't, so Noctowl's there to take that into account. It also can probably fly around and check the whole perimeter during the night without being suspicious. Dragon, after the men come, you'll go do your piece. Angel will be our technology wizard, as well as contacting the police if we need to do so, though Liana will do the talking. Allyssa, you're going to help us get in position for the final assault. Any questions?"
"Yeah, I have a question." Liana said. "All this is starting after dark. What do we do for the next hour or so?"
Soon after night fell, Dream and his father came with the police. The chief motioned for them to set up a perimeter just out of sight from the house. Then the two of them walked around the house. As they walked, they heard voices. But these were not the serious voices of businessmen, they were light and carefree. And then, turning a corner, they saw a light in a second floor window. Silhouettes moved animatedly in front of it, two of them. That's got to be Allyssa and the thief both father and son though simultaneously.
Bobby suddenly sat up straight. "They're here," he said. All eyes turned to him. "The police. They're here and they're setting up to surround the house." Everyone nodded, suddenly serious.
They saw both heads turn in another direction. There was at least one more person in the room! But who would it be? A co-conspirator? A friend? Who? "We need to find out." Dream's father said, almost to himself. "We must know in order to assess the risks this poses. But it's not as if we can simply knock on the door without spooking our target off."
Dream suddenly had an idea. "You can't, but I can. I can pretend to be a part of that group up there, who arrived later than the rest. He'll let me in, and I can find out just who's in there. We're going to figure out who the thief is and what's going on." So saying, he marched towards the front door, and rang the doorbell.