Chapter 5

Rogue looked expectantly at Mercy as she checked the items on the table. She had just finished identifying twenty gemstones – most real, but some fake – and labelling them with her assessment.

Since the wedding, Rogue had been immersed in further studies with the Guild in between preparing for the baby and fixing up the living room. As well as continuing her practice in other areas, Rogue had also begun to learn French, etiquette, bypassing electronics locks, and identifying gemstones.

"Well," said Mercy. "You did a lot better this time."

"Ahh," Rogue said, masking a wince. "Better, but not completely correct."

Mercy grinned at her and set aside three of them. "These are fake."

"Meh."

"Cut was wrong on this one," Mercy said, picking up another. "And clarity on this one. Don't worry, Rogue. It took me awhile before I had the hang of it. Takes practice, just like everything else."

Gambit's diabolical evil scheme was working well. The reaction of both parties to his stealing the security guards' pay was much bigger than he had anticipated, with the entire core of security guards deciding to stop working until their pay was sorted out and getting in with their union on the matter. The company bigwigs were blatantly refusing to pay them any 'extra' money, and their inability to come to any sort of understanding had forced them to hire other parties to take on security. The downside was that they had also asked the current payroll manager to 'take some time off', which meant that Gambit had to find another scapegoat in case he needed it. He'd half expected that to happen anyway, so he'd already been investigating others in the company he could frame. Framing wasn't normally his style, but he needed to hide that he was there.

Right now, in fact, in the security office as one of the five new guards hired in the last couple of days.

With all the chaos, it had been easy to slip inside as one of the new guys. Some planted paperwork (which he would later have to remove) with a stressed human resources manager, and his hypnotic charm just to tip the scales, and he had no problems convincing everyone he had a right to be there. Gambit was still playing games with the pay, though; if there was a high turnover of security employees, it was be easier for him to get away with a short employment time. After all, if all the new guys didn't last very long, no one could point a finger at him without pointing fingers at everyone else as well.

To top everything off, Gambit had also started causing general issues with the security system. With security personnel in such a state, it was understandable, even reasonable for there to be problems. The favourite issue was losing security feed, sometimes from one location, sometimes from multiple locations at a time. He also set off alarms and messed around with the security clearance of everyone who worked there. The point of this was threefold: One, he'd be able to cut out his appearances in the security feed without anyone thinking anything of it (too many new guards to keep track); two, it would cover up the events of the actual heist with no one being the wiser, and potentially even delay the theft being noticed; and three, the more stress the new guys had to deal with, the more likely they were to throw in the towel and quit.

Gambit eyed the lab in the security feed, and more importantly, the equipment inside. The next stage of the game involved a lot of waiting; there needed to be more security guard turnover before he could risk stealing the prize, but that was all right because it gave him all the time he needed to plan the final details of the theft itself.

The thing that made this job a four man job was the size and weight of the loot – a piece of equipment in one of the labs which would require two men to carry. The other two the job allowed for was someone to mind the security feed from the outside, and the last on the inside to open doors and other such details so that the men actually carrying the thing wouldn't have to. Gambit might have passed this job over because of the heavy unit, however, it had come to his attention that the unit wasn't what the client was after. The client was after a small device about the size of a peach inside the unit. Unfortunately, in order to safely retrieve it, the unit needed to be shut down in the correct procedure which would take six to eight hours to do. As it had its own power supply, the unit could be safely taken offsite to do it, which was better practice than lingering at the scene for hours on end.

But it didn't have to be shut down offsite.

All Gambit had to do was give himself the time to shut down the unit while he was inside, then he could just walk off with the prize, neatly tucked away in its special container. In the meantime, he would have to remain as inconspicuous and forgettable as possible. Not as easy task for someone as naturally charismatic and charming as himself – or someone with his unique eyes – but he was confident he could pull it off.

"And how is Rogue doing?" asked Jean-Luc as he leaned back in his chair.

"Mercy seems to think Rogue's doing all right," Henri replied. "Lock picking and pockets are significantly improved. She's still noisy walking –"

"I've noticed that myself."

"- but she's also good at grasping the basics of things, so for the most part it's a matter of practice. If it weren't for Remy's record, I'd suggest getting her out in the field doing a couple of jobs and getting some rank credits up. At this point, I see no reason why she couldn't make Journeyman next year. Well, aside from the stealth thing, that is."

"Oui," Jean-Luc said thoughtfully as he reached for his drink. "We'll definitely have to work on that one, especially if she's ever to make Master. At least she practices every day, which is more than I can say for some."

"Indeed. By the by," Henri said slyly. "Bella Donna ousted Thomas."

Jean-Luc spat out his drink.

"Thomas?" he repeated. "As in Pierre Thomas, the First Kill and Marius Bordeaux's right hand man?"

"That's the one," Henri replied smugly.

"How in the world did she manage that?" Jean-Luc demanded. "I thought he was so deep into the Guild it would take nothing short of a jackhammer to get him out."

"As I understand it, while he was on his annual holiday, Bella Donna arranged to have the mandatory retirement age reduced," Henri said. "Since he wasn't there to object, the, hmm, more opportunistic members of the council decided to take advantage and well, when he came back..."

Jean-Luc laughed.

"I have no idea if Bella Donna plans on changing it back again later but..." Henri shrugged. "She's appointed Gris Gris in his place."

"Well, that was to be expected," Jean-Luc said thoughtfully, "but I bet it didn't go down too well with the other councillors."

"I don't think they know yet."

"You've been finding things out before they do, again?"

"But of course! What kind of right hand man would I be if the Assassins knew what they were doing before I did?"

Jean-Luc laughed. "One of these days, I'm going to find out who your contact in the Assassins Guild is."

"You've been saying that for years."

There was a knock at the door and Jean-Luc called for them to come in.

"You wanted the preliminary report for the Top Ten list, sir?" said the young woman.

"Ahh, oui," Jean-Luc replied. "Merci, and pass on my thanks to Eloise as well."

The young woman agreed and turned to start back out the door when Jean-Luc spoke again.

"Is this right?" he asked, frowning at the paper.

"Sir?"

"Why is Remy in second place, not first? That's quite a sizable point difference between him and Rogue."

"The numbers are correct, sir," the young woman replied.

"Does this include the job that Remy is currently on?"

"No, sir. We haven't counted any jobs we haven't gotten the paperwork for."

Jean-Luc was silent while the young woman shifted from foot to foot.

"Will the job he's on put him into first?" Jean-Luc asked.

"I'm afraid I don't know, sir," the young woman said. "Going by the estimated score for that job, no. However, Gambit is in the habit of scoring bonuses on jobs... It'll be close."

"I see."

The woman gave a nod and quickly departed. Henri reached out his hand for the paper and Jean-Luc gave it to him with a deep frown on his face.

"I thought we'd figured out that Rogue would get third position," Jean-Luc said.

"So did I," said Henri as he looked at the ten names on the list and their associated points. "I can't think why... huh."

"Something occur to you, mon fils?"

"Rogue's points. They're a lot more than what we... oh merde."

Jean-Luc said nothing, but looked at Henri with raised eyebrows. Henri put the paper down on the desk and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"We only took into account the points for the Assassins job," Henri said with a groan. "We didn't even think to take into account all the points she'd earned doing all the other jobs she did beforehand."

Jean-Luc picked up the paper and looked at it again. He nodded slowly.

"You're right," he said slowly. "We didn't take that into account. Well now, that certainly explains the difference."

"Which means Remy's really got to nail the job he's on now," said Henri, "or he's going to miss out on setting the record."

Jean-Luc was silent for a moment.

"Do you really think he can pull off a four-man job?"

"Honestly? He let me in on his planning, and on the surface I think he's found a way to make it work," Henri said seriously. "But there's an awful lot that can go wrong on this one, and he's running short on time. It's going to be tight."

"Bon," Jean-Luc said with a slight smile. "That boy thrives on challenges and high stakes, which means he'll probably pull it off. I would have been more worried if you said you thought it was going to be a piece of cake."

Henri laughed. "You might be onto something there, Père."

This was it. Tonight, Gambit was going to take the prize.

First things first. He arrived to work on time and discovered that there was a new guard on staff. The others were becoming increasingly incensed and stressed about the whole money / buggy security tech issues, just like he planned.

While Gambit was on his first patrol of the evening, he made sure that the security feed died as he entered the part of the building with the laboratories. The lights were cut as well, just to be on the safe side: his ability to see in the dark prevented this from becoming a hindrance. He entered the lab in question and made his way to the unit. Quickly, Gambit began the shut down procedure according to the instructions the client had provided. Prior, discreet examination of the unit told Gambit that the instructions should be accurate, as well as a charming discussion with one of the scientists who had been up late on more than one occasion.

Gambit was out of the lab and well past the laboratories by the time the security cameras came back on, and upon his return to the security office, Gambit discreetly removed all footage of his patrol in other areas of the base.

It was a bad evening for the security feed. It kept going down all evening at erratic intervals.

"I don't know how much longer I can deal with this," said Gambit to the other personnel in the flawless Boston accent he had adopted for this role. "Not getting paid enough to deal with this crap."

"Not getting paid at all," muttered one of the others.

"I hear you," said another.

Gambit made sure to hit the personnel files during one of his patrols and removed all evidence of his 'employment', whether hard copy or electronic. He regularly checked up on the unit, making sure it was shutting down correctly.

The unit had shut down by the seventh hour and as soon as that came to Gambit's attention, he retrieved his special container. Because of its size and less than discreet appearance, Gambit had been forced to hide it away from the lab and the security office. When he killed the feed, Gambit knew he was on a timer to get the container, get to the lab, open the unit and retrieve the prize, and hide the container away again until his shift was over. In preparation, Gambit had timed how long it took for the guys to get the feed back again, and used the shortest time to practice with. The only thing he couldn't time or practice was actually removing the prize from the unit, so he had to allow the bulk of the time available to do that in.

Gambit approached the turn off on his patrol and hit the button that would disrupt the feed. Instead of taking the normal patrol route, he veered off, retrieved the container from the fire escape (the alarm had long been disabled) and ran for the lab. He unlocked the panel on the unit - he was glad that it was opaque; that should help delay notice of the theft - and reached inside with a full glove and a pair of glass tongs. Gambit winced when, on the first attempt, the tongs slid off the prize, but undeterred (not to mention on a timer) he tried again. It wasn't until the third attempt that Gambit managed to grasp the prize and swiftly, but carefully, put it away. Then he attached a small battery unit and attached it to the wires commanding the lights on the unit. It took him only a moment to set things up so that the lights that were supposed to be on would still be on come the start of the next work day. Finally, Gambit shut the unit up, bolted back to the fire escape where he hid the container once again, and then raced to the place on his patrol where he needed to be by the time the feed came back on.

Afterwards when Gambit erased his presence from the footage away from the eyes of his 'colleagues', he was quite smug to find that he'd timed things perfectly. While he waited out the rest of his shift, he activated a virus he'd written to ensure that the security problems would continue after he 'quit'. The last time Gambit manually killed the feed was on his way out. He retrieved his container and departed the premises. The second last thing he had to do was disrupt the pay a final time in a couple of days. He'd selected the General Manager for his scapegoat; the man was a pain to work for, few actually liked him, and no one would be the slightest bit surprised if he turned out to be the villain. He also had both security clearance and enough technical aptitude that Gambit felt it would be believable to those investigating.

The last thing Gambit had to do was deliver the prize and actually get paid. He figured that was probably fairly important.

Eloise handed Rogue a thick bundle of paper, neatly held together with a bulldog clip.

"Do it at your own pace," Eloise was saying. "We would much prefer you take your time and understand what's there, then rush and cram for a deadline and know nothing more than how to take a test."

"My, there's a change from high school," Rogue replied with a slight smile.

Eloise was about to reply, when her door opened after a brief knock and Gambit's head poked through the gap.

"Eloise! Just the person I was looking for!" he said.

"Remy!" Rogue exclaimed as Gambit stepped inside.

"Roguey! I didn't expect to see you here," Gambit said, grinning at her. "You were next and last on my list of people to track down."

"Oh really?"

"Oui, 'cause I planned on spending the rest of the day with you. And possibly the rest of the week."

Rogue laughed as Gambit approached Eloise's desk with a folder in one hand.

"Looking for me, hmm?" Eloise asked. "And why might that be, Remy?"

"This," Gambit said, handing over the thick folder, "is the report, with two days to spare, for the job I just did. Tell me I'm awesome."

"Oh, you're awesome all right," Eloise said dryly as she took the folder. "It was a simple B&E. You shouldn't have generated this much paper."

"It was a simple B&E if you had four people to do it," Gambit replied. "For soloing, a little thinking outside the box was required. I think this has been one of my most profitable capers in a while. Well... other than that little job that took me to California June last year."

He winked at Rogue and she smiled.

"Mmmhmm," was all Eloise replied.

"Anyway, I can see that you're very busy," Gambit went on cheerfully. "So, as Roguey shouldn't be in on the scoring anyway, I'll just take her off your hands and let you get to work."

He held his hand out to Rogue and was momentarily taken aback when she stood up and he could see a decisive 'baby bump'. Gambit knew that at six months she'd definitely be showing, he hadn't seen her in three and the sight came as quite a shock. While he recovered, Rogue looked at Eloise, who gave her a slight nod. Rogue took Gambit's hand and they left Eloise's office.

"I missed you," she said.

"I missed you too, ma chére," he replied. "What's that you've got there?"

"Hmm? Oh this?" Rogue said, lifting up the thick bundle of paper. "Eloise thought it would be a good idea if I did some study into credit card and identity fraud. You know, tips and tricks, what to do, what not to do, what to look out for, stuff like that. The job went well, I take it?"

"Oh it went well, all right," Gambit said gleefully. "I cleaned up and cleaned out. They haven't even noticed it's gone yet."

Abruptly he caught Rogue in his arms and pulled her in for a deep, passionate kiss.

"I want you," he said as he trailed his hands over her stomach. "That's not going to be a problem, is it?"

"No," Rogue replied with a slight smile.

"Bon."

He kept one arm around her waist as they continued on their way to the other side of the Guild Hall. They crossed paths with few others on their way, stopping only for the occasional 'bonjour' and for the elevator once they reached the LeBeau wing. The bedroom door hadn't even closed completely before clothes started coming off.

He kissed her and laid her down on the bed. His stomach grazed hers and just as things were getting started, abruptly he stopped. Gambit caught Rogue's smiling face.

"Did... did I... was that..." he stammered.

"Yes, the baby just kicked."

"Dieu! How long has that been happening?"

"A month or two."

"And you didn't tell me?"

"I sent you pictures of the ultrasounds."

"I know. I appreciated it," Gambit replied, his face the picture of amazement.

"Sorry, I should have thought to tell you he'd started kicking."

"He?"

"'He' can be applied to boys and girls in this context," Rogue said. "I'm sure as hell not going to refer to the baby as 'it' or 'he/she'."

Gambit chuckled and kissed her again. Rogue was then amused (but no less appreciative) when Gambit proceeded to make love to her at a much slower, gentler pace than what she had been expecting him to do.