The Cowan Job

Chapter 3 – We Have a Problem

Disclaimer: Whilst I do plan on adding the odd original character, a vast majority of what is here belongs to 'Ocean's 11/12' and 'The Italian Job'.

Thank you PrInCeSsFBi, S., ghj, xxcaribbean, and Kelly for reviewing.

"Livingston was able to calculate that the wall was put up some time in the past ten years." Rusty filled the team in, "in that time five other groups have attempted to steal from this museum, all failed."

"Hold on." Gordon stopped him, "So we can't get in because some guy set up a firewall?"

Livingston bristled slightly, "It's not a firewall," Rusty explained "It's bigger, like a two sided mirror, people on the outside can't get in, are reflected, but those in the inside can see right through it, chances are the electricians working for the museum don't even know it's there."

"But what does that mean?" One of the other guys prodded, Rusty suppressed the sudden juvenile urge to sigh and roll his eyes. Looking at the five clueless faces before him Rusty made a snap decision that he knew he would never regret.

"I means that we cannot get into the museum to do this job. You can all go home." He laid a hand on Livingston's shoulder to stop any protests on his part. At the back of the room John straightened out, clearly somewhat surprised by his decision, but Danny's face hardly even changed, as though this had been his very plan right from the beginning. Meanwhile the five clueless members had broken out in protest. "I'm sorry, there was no way we could have seen this," No one made any indication of leaving, "if anything else comes up we'll call you," Rusty promised.

Finally excepting what he was saying the room began to empty there were a few half-hearted goodbyes but mostly just glares. The more time Rusty spent with this lot the more convinced he became that he was right. As the door closed the other three men left in the room turned to stare at him.

"I can break that," Livingston told him, confident as Rusty had ever heard him. "I just need to know where it came from, the passwords are..."

"It's not about that," Rusty interrupted, "they aren't good enough, if we are going to do this we'll need a better team."

"And you'll need to speak to anyone who's tried to pull a job here in the past ten years."Livingston added. "If I know who did it I'll have a better idea of how to get passed it," He explained.

Rusty had just begun forming a new plan when John interrupted him "We don't have time for that." He sighed. Rusty was about to ask why but Livingston beat him to it. "Because my daughter's going to be married," his voice had an edge of exasperation in it, as though he had just been through this. Danny's eyes told Rusty all he needed to know, yes the conversation had been had, and yes they did have to go.

"We have time to speak to a few of the people though," Rusty concluded, "it's almost a week." Danny nodded, though John remained unsure. "I'll compile a list of everyone who's tried to steal from here in the past ten years, Livingston, see if there's any other way to narrow down the search." Rusty had grabbed his phone and left the room before John could argue that they might need to leave sooner.

The bar was stingy, and yet surprisingly full, perhaps due to it being the only bar in the area which didn't have a theme.

Danny spotted Riley Wilks the moment he walked through the door. He had never met the man before, but Rusty's contacts had told them where to look and having done his job for as long as he had it was never hard for him to spot an ex-con man.

Danny gracefully manoeuvred himself onto the stool next to Wilks, ordering a scotch from the barkeeper as Rusty took the stool next to him. The three man sat silently for a few minutes, the younger two with their eyes focused on the small television whilst Wilks sent them glares out of the corner of his eyes, until eventually he gave an annoyed sigh and pushed his glass away, turning to face them.

"I'm too old for this." He informed them gruffly, "What do you want?"

Danny didn't even look up at the man's agitated tone, instead he took his time emptying his glass before answering. "We'd like to ask you about your time in Bulgaria six years ago." His tone was light and anyone listening to the conversation would have assumed it was simply two men speaking of their travels.

"I retired." He clearly thought this conversation should be over, "and if you have done your homework properly you would know that trip did not go to well." The white-haired man hardly gave them a passing glance as he prepared himself to leave.

"Mr Wilks," Rusty stopped him before he could stomp off, "Did you set up the firewall." The man slowed down.

"No I did not, you should be more thorough." When neither responded he continued "It was set up almost ten years ago, it just gets updated every few months, you're looking for an expert." Grabbing his coat the man walked away before Danny or Rusty could object again.

"So"

"Yeah"

Danny signalled the barkeeper for another round "Is there anyone?"

"Not alive."

"Perhaps John had more luck." The look Rusty shot at him said more than words could. They sipped at their drinks in silence. Right from the beginning they had hated walking off jobs, but it was looking increasingly likely that they were going to have to make that choice.

The far too bright sun shining onto the street did nothing to help the feeling running through him, which he wished he could blame on paranoia. I t had been almost a week since he had seen anyone. He had kept tabs though, and knew that the other guys hadn't gone home yet, but he also knew he couldn't call on them just yet, if ever.

He wasn't so naive as to believe that he was the first this had happened to, not that the knowledge helped at all, it wasn't as though he could call on anyone to get any of his predecessor's stories.

At the end of the alley he turned right; there was no break in his step even though he had never been in this area before and currently had no plan as to how to get to where he needed to be. There was a large man sitting outside a small café watching him. No doubt it was meant to be subtle, but these men weren't as well trained as they thought they were. The older man's eyes kept shifting to someone outside his line of sight. Not wanting to alert them that he knew they were there he continued forward moving straight into a large group of tourists. He forced himself to continue walking, waiting until he was completely surrounded by excited young people trying to practice their poor Italian, before he picked up his pace. The blooding pumping through his body shouldn't have affected him so severely. He had experience thinking through it. But this was worse, more intense than it ever was before, making the sound of his pulsing blood ring in his ears and his forehead to break out in perspiration.

He moved towards the first small alleyway he saw. It was dark and the entrance was well hidden by the numerous stands set up before it. For not the first time he took a moment to thank people for their simple interests in things such as crafts and markets. Some of his simple pleasures were found here as well, in particular the way that the smallest of alleys could have so many exits off them; this alley was a perfect example. He took the second left; consecutive firsts could kill a man.

He sped up to a run. Wonderful and dark as alleys may be they didn't last forever and did lack the protection stray people wandering about, making a shooter think twice, in case one of them should wander in front of a bullet. He wouldn't wish that on anyone else, he didn't want to go through it again himself.

Sooner then he'd have liked, the man found himself at the end of the interconnecting alley web. He was in a small concreted courtyard. It was empty, save the small old water tap sitting in the centre. The areas silence was broken by a sound of footsteps behind him. Breaking his rule he moved to the first alley of the courtyard and started working the lock on the first door he saw. It opened much easier than it should have. He moved quickly through the townhouse, appalled at the stupidity of the owners for not updating their lock in the past twenty plus years as he searched for a safe place to watch any activity in the courtyard below.

Taking a risk that he knew he was likely to regret, the man moved towards a window, being careful to leave a little of himself visible as he could. The large man he had seen at the café was already down, there as well as another younger man. They were speaking to each other in Italian and of the few words the man could hear, he understood very few of them. Before anything was even beginning to make sense both men fell silent as another joined them.

He could not have been much older than the others but was far better dressed. He gave a few short orders which sent the others running whilst he walked calmly to the centre of the courtyard, and started looking around for open windows.

The man quickly withdrew and moved to the other side of the small town house. A quick sweep out the window told him it would be possible to scale the building to the next window, from there it would be possible to move to the next building.

Sliding the window open quietly the man continued to scan his surroundings as he moved quietly to find his footing on the small ledge. Pulling himself into standing position with the window the man started slowly itching towards the left, and was relieved to find that it was not as far to the next window as it had looked from inside.

The man's fingers had just touched the next window when he was distracted by a noise beneath him. His head turned quickly in reaction to see where the noise had come from. His foot slipped on a small rock lying on the ledge and lost its placing on the ledge and with no time to recover himself, he fell.

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Elle-05