Don't Pretend You Know Me
Chapter 3
Crime and Punishment
Annalise sat quietly, delicately eating the salad that was in front of her. Sephiria hadn't spoken yet and she guessed that her leader was waiting to see how long she could hold her innocent doll-faced facade, but Annalise never lost. So she continued to act the part she had been playing her entire life and simply sat there with her perfect posture and perfect table manners and continued to eat her lunch. Finally Sephiria put her fork down.
"You're a very good actress." She said softly as she stared into Annalise's eyes. Annalise smirked.
"But the show is over I presume?" She said just as softly. Sephiria smiled, although the message in her eyes was clear 'Continue to play games and there will be consequences' Sighing softly Annalise let her mask slip, her eyes losing that innocent light and her mouth lost the gentle smile as they were replaced by cold, calculating features.
"Care to tell me why having lunch with a celebrity is so important?" Annalise asked, normally sarcasm would be heard with a question such as this but Annalise was all business. Sephiria couldn't help but smile
"I just wanted to ask a few questions." She replied in an offhand tone, Annalise was slightly frustrated at her leader's manner but she was too good an actress to let it show. She simply gave the go ahead sign.
"As a leader I like to take personal interest with all the Numbers. I like to know them on some sort of personal level even though that can be very difficult in our business. I also like to understand why my subordinates came into this business in the first place, which is why you're here today Miss White. I don't understand you and that has to change." Now this seriously got under Annalise's skin. She's spent most of her life making it so no one can fully understand her and she couldn't believe that someone was going to make her change all that. But still, Annalise let nothing of her inner thoughts change the look on her face.
"Surely as a capable leader you already know everything you should, right?" Annalise countered, she saw a flicker of annoyance in Sephiria's eyes and she had to stop herself from smirking, so the fearless leader could be insulted. But then there was something else in her eyes and it took a second for Annalise to recognise it, it was the smug look from someone with a winning plan. Sephiria even chuckled slightly. Annalise was tempted to raise an eyebrow in interest but she stopped herself and continued eating, she also noticed that Sephiria hadn't touched her food which made her slightly paranoid because of the simple fact that any good assassin should have basic knowledge of poisons. But she shrugged off the thought; it was highly unlikely that she would be drugged without her noticing anyway.
"Of course I know everything, Annie." Sephiria stated calmly and Annalise nearly choked on her food from the shock of hearing her childhood nickname.
"I know that at the age of 10 you were adopted by a botanist and his wife, that it was your adopted mother who forced you into dancing, singing, acting and piano lessons and that you always had an interest in you adoptive father's work. I know which schools you went to, what your grades were, who you were friends with and even have videos of each and every performance of yours." Sephiria continued, still in that soft calm voice of hers and Annalise had to force herself from trying to kill the woman. Having every detail of her life documented was infuriating. But at least she didn't know about...
"And of course, even though it was a little difficult to discover, I know exactly what happened to your parents." And with that Annalise couldn't contain herself anymore and she slammed a fist on the table. She stood up, an icy stare on her face as she glared at her leader.
"Well if you know all that then why did you bring me here? What was the point?" She hissed coldly before leaving. As soon as she stepped into the limo that was waiting for her she mentally slapped herself, she had fallen right into Sephiria's trap.
Back at the restaurant Sephiria smirked to herself. It looked as if their newest member still had some lessons to learn but she was still perfect for the job they had given her. After paying the bill Sephiria stepped into the car that had pulled up.
"How did it go Sephiria?" The driver, Belze, asked.
"As planned. Although she will have to be restricted in her freedom for a while, she's rather unstable at times." Sephiria replied and Belze nodded his agreement.
Train swore under his breath, this job was supposed to be easy! But now, here he was running after an art thief without the help of his friends. He would have shot to stop him from running but there was one teensy problem, the stupid man had a very expensive crystal swan in his hand and if it broke man was he going to be in major trouble with Sven and the art museum. That and Train would have to pay for something that it would take his entire life to afford, as he only received a small portion of their bounty due to his bad spending habits.
Fortunately a large object fell from the building in front of them. The thief screamed as the object fell in front of him, but before it could hit the ground it changed direction and instead headed directly for the man! He screamed in terror and threw his hands over his head, throwing the swan in the air in the process.
The now flying object headed towards the swan before flying behind Train, flipping in the air and landing behind him. Good work hime-chi! Train thought to himself before suddenly accelerating. He would have shot the thief out of frustration a year earlier, but now he instead reversed his grip on the gun and slammed the butt of the gun into his temple and the thief fell onto the sidewalk, unconscious.
"Took you long enough to get here hime-chi! But you really have gotten faster in your flying!" He said grinning. Eve just scowled slightly.
"You wouldn't have been in that situation if you followed the plan." She scolded and once again Train felt himself wondering why a thirteen year old was scolding him as if he were the child. Train chuckled nervously and ran his hand through his hair.
"Yea, but it's more fun this way!" He said as if it were obvious.
"You really have been getting bored lately haven't you?" A voice behind him asked. Train turned around to reveal it was Sven.
"Sven! How long were you there! Did you at least think of helping me?" He said, only slightly angry and avoiding the question. Sven just chuckled and shook his head.
"Thought I'd let you get some exercise after all that lazing around in front of the TV you've been doing lately." He replied. And Train had to grin at that, it was completely true.
"Alright, alright! Can we eat now? I'm starving!!" Train complained, and his stomach growled rather loudly in agreement. Eve couldn't help but giggle at that and Sven gave her a funny look.
"What?" Was all she said while shrugging, and grinning. Sven sighed in resignation, he never won this argument.
"Fine, but I'm ordering for you Train, we need at least some money after this." He said and hopped into the car before Train could say anything, but he'd forgotten that Train would be in the car as well. So the entire way from the police station to hand in the criminal to the restaurant Train did not stop complaining about the fact that he should be ordering for himself until Sven caved, which he knew wasn't the smartest thing to do but at least it made his partner happy.
Rinslet Walker hadn't had many customers lately so when she received a call to steal a one of a kind necklace from a celebrity she had been happy to accept, almost too happy. This job was supposed to be easy, break into a mansion and steal a necklace. But it seemed that this celeb was pretty darn smart when it came to protecting their things as they didn't own a mansion but three apartments in different places across the globe and their belongings where constantly being shifted around, it seemed for certain jobs or events or something, but Rins knew better, this celebrity was almost paranoid about being stolen from and therefore had made a simple job incredibly difficult, not too difficult for someone with Rins' abilities but more difficult than she would like.
So Rins had spent the last week tracking down each item the celebrity owned- which was a lot by the way- and using that information to determine where the most likely place the necklace would be held would be. But of course she had spent three days before that to even locate the apartments in the first place. But, naturally, Rins had done it and now she was driving to the location of where the necklace was and- if her information was correct- the owner of the jewels would be in another of their apartments on the other side of the world.
Parking her car a few streets away she made her way through the busy city, this celeb just had to live in the centre of one of the busiest cities in the world. Striding up to the apartment building she made her way into the lobby like she had every right to be there, there was no point in attracting attention by skulking around when there were hundreds of people who lived in this building.
She rode the elevator to the top floor and stepped out, looking down both ways of the hallway, just in case. Positive that the way was clear she quietly walked to the last apartment on the floor, it was well past midnight and she didn't want to wake anybody up. She reached the door, and before picking the lock she once again checked around her to make sure no one was about to sneak up on her. Once again reassured she gently pushed her lock pick into the lock on the door, wiggling it around a little. Hearing the click that signalled that the door was now opened she sighed in relief, now it was time for the hard part.
The first thing she noticed about the apartment was how small it seemed, nothing like she had experienced with rich people before. Then she noticed that the seemingly small size was due to the massive amount of plants in the place. They covered the windowsills and they lined the kitchen counters and there was no table that didn't at least have three plants adorned on them. They hung from the ceiling and they lined the fence on the balcony. Further investigation showed that the plants continued into every room of the house, including bedroom and bathroom.
After the initial shock of all the greenery Rins noticed the furniture. It was all designer, all of the latest fashions and all very simple. If all the plants were taken away then there would be no extravagance, no personality in the way the house was decorated. What kind of person was this celebrity?
Shaking her head to clear it, Rins proceeded to search for her target. She started in the bedroom, which would be the most likely place. But unfortunately, the necklace was nowhere to be found in that room, so she proceeded to the dining room, then the bathroom, then the living and finally the kitchen. The necklace was nowhere in the entire apartment!
"Calm down Rins, it has to be here somewhere" She whispered to herself as she searched through a drawer for the fourth time. Then she felt something sharp in the back of her neck.
"You're right you know. Just not in the way you want." An emotionless voice from behind her said. Gulping, Rinslet turned slowly around and saw the kitchen knife pointed at her neck and holding it was the last person Rins wanted to see. Annalise White. And she was wearing the necklace.
A/N: Sorry this took a little longer than the other two but here is chapter 3!! I'd like to thank my reviewers and the comments and advice you guys gave, it always helps to be given a little advice :D So hopefully this chapter is better, it is longer even if only by a page and a bit but I kept my promise!
And more reviews will help me make it even better for next time so criticism is welcome although remember that this is still my first fanfic so please don't bite my head off ok?
And even though I probably shouldn't tell you this but there is a possibility of a cat fight, well a one sided one anyway. Anyway, next chapter is on its way although I don't know when I will be able to update, my writer's block might come back..... Anyway! See you in chapter 4!!