A/N: Ownership of what?

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Dawn had arrived and the morning light suffused the compound. It was really a beautiful location. The modern white home was perched above the dark blue waves of the Pacific. The sun's early light made everything just a little softer. Sarah didn't notice though.

She climbed a tree on the edge of the compound. The rifle slung on her shoulder had make it an awkward climb, but she managed nevertheless. She had selected the tree well, as she had an excellent view of the entire east side of the compound from the high branch she had chosen and yet was well hidden by the foliage. She unslung her binoculars and used them to scan the house. There. There they were in the living room. The walls were almost entirely glass, so it wasn't hard to see the activity inside. In fact, the walls on both sides of the room were glass, and she could see the ocean clear through the room on the other side. She watched as Alahi's men frisked Chuck and Casey and emptied their bags, looking for the diamond. Not finding it, they were shoved into seats on the couch while Alahi began to harangue them, no doubt with threats about what would happen to them if they didn't tell him where the diamond was. A half dozen of his men stood around looking large and...well, large.

Fitting her bluetooth earphone into her ear, she pushed send on her phone, pre-loaded with Alahi's cellphone number. She watched him reach into the pocket of his bathrobe to find his ringing phone.

"Hello?" he said.

"Good morning, Peyman. Sorry to interrupt your sleep schedule." Her voice was pleasant and calm.

He paused, "Are these your men? These fake insurance men?"

"You get right down to business, don't you? No, good morning? How are you doing? You don't want to know my name or anything?"

"Alright. What's your name?"

She laughed and said, "I'm not telling you my name. What good would it do if I did? I'd just lie anyway."

"Ok, mystery woman. Answer me this, then. Do you have my diamond?"

"Well, technically it's my diamond now. Did you know, Peyman, that the diamond has never been bought or sold? Never. It's only changed hands as a result of theft, conquest or endowment. That's a crazy fact, isn't it? So, it's a little presumptuous of you to call it yours. But to answer your question, yes, I have the Nadan-I-Noor. How'd you catch my guys, by the way? I thought we had things pretty well in hand."

"You did. It was just bad luck for you and good luck for me. One of my men stepped outside for an early morning cigarette and saw your men. He alerted the rest of the force."

"You know, you should tell your guy smoking is hazardous to his health...tell him to read a paper once in a while...from the sixties."

"Amusing. But the fact remains that I have your men. Now I know you are going to tell me that you don't care about them and they give me no leverage over you, but the fact that you called me proves otherwise."

"Nope. I'm not going to say that at all. Those men are incredibly important to me. Incredibly important. I'm not going to bullshit you in the slightest about that. I want them back way more than I want the diamond. So, you and I, we will act like grown up business people. I return the diamond to you and you will release my guys."

"Just like that?"

"Yes," said Sarah. "Just like that. A straight exchange. Simple."

"Very well. Come in here now. Bring the diamond and you and your men can walk out after the exchange."

"Peyman...You may have an old-fashioned view of women...I don't know. But I'm going to give you a news flash here. You ready? Women are just as smart as men. Would you have made the same stupid suggestion if a man was calling you? Probably not. Think about it, Peyman. If I walk in there with anything less than a platoon of fully-armed Marines, I've given you both the diamond and one more captive. That would be incredibly stupid of me. We have to come up with a different plan for the exchange."

"So, what do you have in mind, mystery woman?"

"We pick a neutral site to do it. Someplace where neither of us will want gunfire. I don't want my guys shot. I don't even want your guys shot, if I can help it. A shootout in Los Angeles is a terrible idea for both of us."

"How about Chino Hills? The State Park there. There's an overlook. We can do the exchange there."

"Oh, come on. That's in the middle of nowhere. You wouldn't be afraid of a gunfight there. You weren't listening to me. I want someplace where we won't dare shoot each other...I know, The Chinese Theatre. Ten in the morning. It will be jammed with tourists. A nice safe place for both sides."

Alahi thought about it for a few moments and concluded it would work. "All right. Ten AM at the Chinese Theatre. Bring the diamond or you don't get your men returned. At least not in one piece."

"Right. It's a deal. I'll bring the diamond, Peyman. You bring my guys. But here's the thing, Peyman. And this is really true. I'm a bad thief. I'm just not good at it, as you can see. You want to know what my real skill set is? I mean my day job? When I'm not stealing diamonds ...trying to steal diamonds? I'm an assassin. Truly. I am...no bullshit. I kill people. And I'm really, really good at that. So, here's the thing, Peyman. I told you before those men are incredibly important to me. And they really are. I swear to you that anything that happens to them will also happen to you. Anything. I really need you to believe that, Peyman. I really do. Because it isn't bullshit. There is nowhere in the world you could hide from me and no amount of security that can protect you from me. I am going to bring you the diamond, Peyman. I am. But if you hurt them...if you double cross me..."

The glass wall along one side of the room exploded into sparkling crystalline shards as a heavy rifle slug came through it. On the wall behind Alahi was a painting of Alahi himself. In the painting he was standing with his fists on his hips head up and looking to the horizon. A brave heroic pose painted as if he had the torso of a superhero. The slug took out one of the eyes of man in the painting. Everyone in the room hit the floor. The second slug took out the other eye. There was no sound of gunfire, now that the glass had been broken there was just the whistle and thud of the slugs hitting the wall behind the painting. The next four slugs impacted in the crotch area of the painted Alahi.

Then there was silence. The only sound was the heavy breathing of the cowering men. Into the silence came Sarah's voice from the cellphone Alahi had dropped. "Peyman? Peyman?"

Still laying face down on the floor, he took the phone from the carpet and put it to his ear. She said, in a different voice, one that was stone cold and redolent with menace, "Don't try to screw me."

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Hollywood Boulevard is much longer than the limited section known to all of Los Angeles's tourists. The Walk of Fame, with its iconic stars embedded into the pavement is only fifteen blocks long, but draws thousands of tourists a day to walk along its length and view the stars at their feet dedicated to luminaries of the various entertainment industries.

In the midst of that hubbub was Grauman's Chinese Theater. First opened in 1927, it was dedicated as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Landmark in 1968. It was designed in a faux Chinese style with two tall coral red columns on either side of the entrance holding up a bronze roof. It is a working theater, with ongoing movies and, especially noteworthy, movie premiers.

It may be most famous, though, for the footprints and handprints of movies stars in the concrete of the building's forecourt. The forecourt itself is an oval area mostly enclosed by ten foot tall curved walls. Along one long edge of the oval is the entrance to the theatre itself and opposite that is the opening to Hollywood Boulevard. The memorialization in stone of the hand and footprints began in 1927 with Mary Pickford and continues to this day. One of the reasons Sarah had selected this spot for the handover was the tourist traffic. Every tourist who visited the Walk of Fame, on the sidewalk right outside the entrance to the Theatre, came in to the forecourt to view the footprints and handprints. The crowds would likely impart an element of safety.

At 9:30 in the morning, Sarah and Carina were already in the forecourt.

Earlier in the day, they had had a conversation about what Sarah proposed. Sarah had said to her, "I need to know that you are ok with this. We might lose the diamond to Alahi. I'm gambling with the stone. We might fail at our mission. I don't know. If you want, I'll go by myself so you can have deniability. I don't want you in trouble with the DEA, if you..."

"Stop it, Blondie. Just stop it," said Carina impatiently. "I'm with you. I'm going in to get Casey and Chuck back. Even if you weren't with me, I'd do it anyway. I couldn't give a rat's ass about that goddamn rock. I've never seen you happier and I'll be damned if I let that little shit Alahi screw that up. I'm with you one hundred percent, so just stop talking and let's do it."

Now each of them held a map of the prints on the ground. While it seemed they were merely wandering around to see the sights, they were in fact hyper aware of their surroundings and all the tourists next to them. If Alahi was smart, and they had no real evidence to support that assumption, he would have men here to recon the site just like Carina and Sarah were reconning the site before the meeting. They didn't see anyone likely to be with Alahi, though.

There was a typical collection of tourists. Young couples. Families with mis-behaving children. Retirees. Starstruck young people. Intermixed with them were a smattering of locals trying to sell something to the tourists. And police watching the assemblage and keeping an eye on things.

Sarah stood looking down at Jimmy Stewart's hand and footprints set in place in 1948, after he was already a war hero in addition to being a movie star. She remembered Chuck telling her about Stewart's war record and the fact that, by the time he left the Air Force Reserves in the 1960's, he was a Brigadier General, just like Beckman.

In her ear she heard Carina say, "Look alive." She glanced at her watch. It was 9:55. Alahi was right on time. His large black SUV pulled to the curb with a second identical one right behind it. Alahi's men began to get out. Two of his guards first, followed by Alahi himself. A chubby older man was with him. He crossed the threshold into the forecourt area and looked around. Two of his men stayed near the rear car, but the others disbursed around the oval area, intermingling with the tourists. There was no sign of Chuck or Casey.

Sarah waved at Alahi. He gave a curt nod in return. She approached him. "Where are my men?"

"Where's my diamond?"

She reached into the pocket of her jacket and showed him the stone in the palm of her hand. Closing her fist around it, she repeated, "Where are my men?"

Alahi nodded to his men standing by the cars. The back door to the car opened and Chuck and Casey stepped out onto the street, flanked by the two large men. They appeared unhurt. Their hands were bound in front of them, but covered with their jackets, so as to disguise the fact and avoid undue attention. Each of them held his backpack in front of him. She nodded to them and received nods in return. Inside, she felt a surge of relief and joy at seeing him...them, seeing them, she corrected herself.

Alahi pulled back his shirt, revealing a golden gun tucked into his waistband. "Don't try my patience, mystery woman. You may think you are dangerous, but I have some very dangerous friends myself."

She handed him the diamond and he immediately handed it to the chubby man next to him. The man turned his back on the crowd of tourists and put a jeweler's loupe into his eye. He began to examine the stone.

While he was doing that Sarah said, "Golden gun? Seriously? Have you seen too many James Bond movies or something? Do you realize how ridiculous that is? Just the weight of the weapon alone. How long can you keep it on target at full extension? No really, it's a real question. And gold is a soft metal, it's going to scratch really easy. Personally, I would be embarrassed to..." She realized she was channeling Chuck and his verbose approach to confrontation, but that realization didn't seem to bother her too much.

The jeweler turned back around and said to Alahi, "It's real. This is the Nadan-I-Noor."

Alahi took the stone back from the jeweler and dropped it into a pocket of his jacket. He gestured toward the cars and the large men standing near Chuck and Casey gave them light shoves in the direction of Sarah.

As they were making their way through the crowds of tourists, Carina made her presence known. She had held back with one hand on the butt of her weapon in case things hit the fan. Now that it looked as if the exchange had been made successfully, she came out of the crowd and approached Sarah and Alahi.

"Hi, Peyman," she looked miserable, as if she might cry at any moment.

"Carina?" Alahi was genuinely surprised. "You two are together? Well, I have to give you both credit for persistence. You steal the fake and come back the next night for the real one. Didn't work out too well, but good try, ladies."

"Peyman...I'm sorry...I'm sorry...I didn't..." Carina started to cry. Tears were streaming down her face and she was sobbing a little.

Sarah reached for her arm, "Carina..."

Carina shook off Sarah's arm. "Stop it...you don't understand...he's...Peyman is..."

She stepped forward and embraced Alahi, crying into his shoulder and saying, "I'm sorry, Peyman. It was work...I had to steal it...I'm sorry...Had I known what you were like I would never have signed up for this job...I didn't know, Peyman...I know you can never forgive me...I wrecked that...I'm sorry..."

Alahi was trying half-heartedly to get her off him, but she had wrapped both arms around his neck and was holding on tight, still crying and babbling about her regrets. Sarah stepped forward to help pry her arms off the man and the three of them scuffled around a little bit. Eventually, she said to one of the larger bodyguards, "Hey, a little help here, huh?"

Together Sarah and the bodyguard pulled Carina off Alahi. She disengaged saying to Sarah, "He's so good in bed...It was the best sex I ever had...You have no idea..."

Smiling a self-satisfied smirk, Alahi reached into his pocket and pulled out the diamond, assuring himself it was still there. He said, "Goodbye, Carina." He turned to Sarah and said, "Learn this lesson. Do not attempt to interfere with me again. This time worked out peacefully, but the next time may not." With a serious nod, he motioned for his men to accompany him to the SUV's. They drove off.

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Sarah, Casey, Chuck and Carina were sitting in a booth in Mel's Drive In, a retro Fifties-style diner on North Highland Avenue, less than a block away from the Chinese Theatre. A gum chewing waitress, with a fake Hollywood smile, approached the table and said, "Coffee?"

"Yes," said Sarah. "Four coffees. And water please."

Chuck and Casey were quiet. The mission had failed and it had done so because Sarah had traded the diamond for them. Chuck felt guilty that he had been the cause their first mission failure, even though he couldn't think of what he should have done differently. He was sure Casey would tell him. But then Casey said, "There are trackers on those cars. Chuck and I put them on when we went in as the insurance guys. We put trackers on all the cars in the driveway. Our intel says he's handing over the diamond today. If we can interrupt the handoff, we can figure out a way to get the diamond back."

Chuck said, "Yeah, let me see if I can get them up." He took out his phone.

The waitress retuned with menus, four mugs of coffee, four empty glasses and a large plastic pitcher of water. She gave each of them a cup of coffee and put milk on the table. She was pouring out the water for each of them when Sarah said, "Could you please leave the pitcher of water? We're all thirsty."

"Sure, honey. No problem. I'll be back for your orders after you've had a chance to look at the menus."

"Thank you," said Sarah.

The woman left the water pitcher on the table. From her jacket pocket Sarah took the fake diamond Carina had stolen the day before and, with a tiny little smile, lowered it into the water of the pitcher. Looking at Chuck and Casey, she let it go. It sank through the water and hit the bottom of the pitcher with a small click.

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A/N2: I have a buddy who is a diamond dealer. He is skeptical that a fake diamond would float. Even so, I used that method for verifying the authenticity of a diamond in this story as I thought it was sort of cool and dramatic. My friend didn't have any fake diamonds in his offices to test, but I can tell you without any doubt that real diamonds sink.

A/N3: Anachronisms. I got in trouble on a previous chapter when I mentioned a landmark that hadn't yet been opened at the time my story is set, so I'm paying more attention to that now. I know Grauman's is now the TLC Chinese Theatre, but it wasn't at the time. Mel's Drive In was open then, however (but, my son gives it a poor review if you are thinking of eating there).