Yay! I got an audition slot at Colburn in a month! Unfortuantely this means thatI will be practicing like mad and may not be able to update with any kind of regularity, butI will do my best...

Chapter 7

Bobby carefully climbed up the fire escape ladder, followed closely by Julia. Once they were on the grated landing he examined the window. It was a simple square frame and plate of glass, and there was a latch on the side that flipped sideways to keep the window closed. Noting that entry would be easy, he looked closely for any kind of security device.

"Latch'll be easy. Now, is there an alarm..." he mumbled. Julia watched closely from his right side. Deciding that there was no alert system connected to the window, he quickly pulled out his pocket knife, slid it between the window frame and the side, and carefully slid it up to push up the latch that held the window closed.

He slowly pushed it open. No noise yet. He stuck his head inside and looked around. Nothing. "Must not be a room they're using." He quietly climbed through the window, which wasn't that easy to do because his frame was so large and tall. He stumbled a bit and almost fell in headfirst before Julia managed to catch him by the belt of his pants.

Once they were both inside Bobby closed the dirty window on the setting sun behind them. The room was bathed in an orange light. They quietly crept across the room, and this time it was Julia who poked her head out of the door and into the hallway while Bobby drew his gun.

"All clear," she whispered back to him before she entered the hallway.

"Lets go downstairs first. Don't want to get cornered." They walked down the hallway and took a good look down the stairwell before descending. In the hallway below, they definitely saw people. There was movement going in and out of what looked to be a den or living room. There was no door, only an entryway.

"We need a distraction," Julia said. "We need to lure them out of the building."

"Why?" he whispered back.

"What else are we going to do?" she asked.

Bobby shrugged. "Just go in there..."

"And kill everybody in sight? They'd be on to us in a heartbeat! I'll sneak back out and create a diversion," she said, turning to go back up the stairs. But Bobby grabbed her arm.

"No, you could get caught."

"I'll handle it," she said, releasing herself from his grip and noiselessly taking the stairs 2 at a time. She almost seemed to float up them. Bobby sat perfectly still, crouched beneath the stairs.

Julia crept back into the room, out the window- leaving it open- and down the fire escape stairs. She quickly ran across the street and knocked on the door of the house adjacent to the brownstone. A man in a suit answered it. "Now," she said, holding out her hands.

The man disappeared momentarily before returning with some kind of kit with wires and a digital clock. He handed it to her and she quickly ran back across the street and ducked under the Saab parked on the curb.

"You can't blow Toulenc's car- she'll murder you!" he shouted.

"I'll pay her back, Gerry!" she shouted back before disappearing completely underneath the car. She reappeared and ran back across the street, and up the fire escape (she had so cleverly mentioned to Robert that in her surveillance of the house she noticed the window and the room that never got used). Just as she lifted her last leg over the railing and on to the landing there was a giant explosion and Marjorie Toulenc's Saab went up in flames.

Julia smiled and ducked back inside the building. "Always wanted to get that bitch," she mumbled as she ran back down the stairs to where Bobby was hiding under them.

He immediately saw about half a dozen people run out of the den room, down the hallway, and out the front door to see what the explosion had been. There was no mistake about it- it was an explosion.

"Now!" she said, grabbing Bobby by the arm and pulling him into the hallway. They rounded the corner, Bobby with his gun drawn, and found... the unguarded Margo Sapphire.

It was beautiful. Everybody says they love diamonds- diamonds refract the best- they're the densest- whatever... There's nothing like the pure deep blue of a Sapphire. And one of this size and perfection was not only a rarity; it was a freak of nature... but enough babbling about the rock.

Bobby kept a lookout while Julia went to look at the stone and see how to get it. While his head was turned she quickly entered the alarm passkey, disabled the motion-sensor, and removed the Sapphire. By the time Bobby had turned back to see her progress she had it in hand.

"How did you-" he stuttered.

"Dumb-asses forgot to set the alarm," she said.

Bobby quickly checked the hall again and they bounded off down it again, and were headed up the stairs when Julia tripped and screamed with pain. "Ah! My ankle!" she cried. The Sapphire lay 2 steps below her from where she had dropped

"Shh!" Bobby said, running back down to pick her up and carry her. As soon as he reached her however, a short stubby man rounded the corner into the stair well with his gun drawn. Bobby quickly pulled the trigger and fired the gun into the man's chest. Bobby then quickly reached down, picked up Julia and carried her up the stairs, leaving the Sapphire behind.

He slung her over his shoulder as he descended the fire escape stairs, ran a block with her to the car and practically flung her into the passenger's seat before running to the other side of the car, jumping in, and speeding off...