Summary: A gang of thieves team up to find the Forgotten City of Eisenhower but they need the last piece of the puzzle that was kept by a white bread picket fence girl.
PROLOGUE:
Two figures in black were climbing the bricked building in the middle of the night. They were quiet and easily hid themselves from the stationed patrols in the corridors, eventually reaching the top where red lines were panning around the room like disco lights. A quick banter ensued of who was to dance across the room to switch the lasers off. One of them started crossing the room, taking careful little steps, evading the patterned-lasers until he was standing in the middle of the room where he froze when he saw another thief in black, carefully picking the lock of the glass cabinet that contains a prized possession they came for.
"Chloe, wow what a surprise. You're here too." Nate greeted.
"I'm not surprised you're here at all. You're always where the greatest treasure is. Means I'm in the right place." she blurted back.
There was a click on her end and they watch her take the shiny little object from its glass display. "Come on, there's 8 pieces of this treasure. The 6 sides of a square and keys. You need all of them to find the treasure."
"And I reckon you already found a piece for yourself?"
Nate shrugged, grinning at his fellow thief already on her way to the vents. "I don't want to brag but as a matter of fact, I do have a piece... or two."
"Charming, Nate."
"Then we'll steal it from you later." there was a voice coming from the opposite vent. Nate turned and saw Harry waving his gun around before making the shot at the display glass. Immediately the alarms started to blare.
Chloe was already out of sight and Harry disappeared into his own vent. Nate ran back to his brother's side whilst avoiding the lasers still
"She was working with Quinn!" Nate exclaimed.
"You should have seen that coming, Nathan. It's Chloe we're talking about." Sam tells his brother as they make a run for the window.
"Chloe? The Viper?" Sully spoke over the earpiece.
"Yeah Sully, that Chloe. She's working with Quinn." Nate confirms, climbing down the tall building. They can hear the sound of footsteps and gunfire inside the building. Whether Chloe and Harry were being chased, they couldn't care less.
"Harry Quinn? The Punk?" Sully asked.
"Oh not you too Sully. Why are you surprised?" Samuel interjects.
"Well if you know these two well, there's no way they could have found the pieces themselves."
The brothers jumped into the terrace and hops to another terrace of the building beside it, they see Charlie Cutter running towards a different direction, bagging with him a book and another puzzle piece.
Nate bangs on the window to get his attention. Charlie merely waved at them before going towards another room, completely disappearing from their sight.
"That answers that question. Charlie Cutter is working with them." Samuel shared to the group.
"The Librarian? Why is everyone in a party and we're not invited?" Sully blurts.
"Don't take it to heart, Sully. I bet they're bored without us." Nate turns his back on the window, taking lead and running to their rendezvous point.
"Just they wait. We'll crash their party." Samuel adds and Sully chuckled over the earpiece.
There was a sound of the gun clicking and Nate takes a step back. He and his brother raises their hands up, looking at Rafe who had a gun pointed at them.
"Guess who crashed ours." Nate whispers to his brother.
"Ah, Rafe the Razor." Samuel addressed him casually. "You're a little too late for collaboration. It just ended."
"Next time we can give you a call so you won't miss it next time. But hey, tonight we all need to go home, get our beauty rest and talk again in the morning." Nate supplied.
But Rafe was already used to their antics. He knew their style and he is absolutely sure he wasn't late at all. Confidence was booming from his smirk. The gun he held was a big boost of his ego, pinning the brothers where he wanted them to be. He had the situation under control.
"You done?" he didn't really mean to ask.
"Why, do you need permission to say something?"
Rafe scoffed. "I know about the treasure. I know that you need all 8 pieces to find it."
"Wow that's great Rafe!" Nate mocked, sarcasm was all over his face. "But you know you could have just shared that on your feed. We'll be able to see it."
"And we can share it to our friends so they'll know too." Samuel felt the need to stoke the wood and rile up Rafe.
Rafe mocked a laugh. These two just won't stop talking to save their own skin. All forms of lies and flattery just to get in his head. But he's better than that and he knows them all too well to actually fall for it. This time his gun locks on Nate and Samuel steps between his brother and the gun.
"You can let me join the team or you can both end up in prison." Rafe warns. He was wearing a tux and he had a visitor's card clipped to his pocket. Between him and them, the brothers are sure they'd be arrested while Rafe walks home free.
The brothers exchanged looks.
"What's going on there? What's taking you boys so long?" Sully was getting impatient waiting for them.
"We ran in with Rafe here, wants to force himself into the picture. Think there's space for him?" Nate replied. Rafe was aware either way that he was talking with Sullivan.
"Depends how fat he wants his pockets to be."
Rafe couldn't have heard what Sully had said, but he's sure they were talking about their cuts. It's always about the money when it comes to these conversations. "25. Equals." he offers.
"We do all the hard work. You just wave the gun around. You just get 5." Samuel countered. Rafe didn't budge, the gun still pointed at Nate.
The sound of the guards' voices getting louder. It was a time-pressure decision.
"Okay, 25. But you need to help us get all the pieces or you get no-" Nate wanted to negotiate but then Rafe picked up from his pocket a photo of another piece of the puzzle.
He showed it to them with ego radiating from his grin. "Yes, I found a piece too, Samuel. We can talk about seeing the real thing once we've agreed with having me as an official member of the team."
"Yes, yes, okay. But we need to go." Nate agreed, gritting his teeth. His brother was still mentally against the idea of having Rafe around but it wasn't like they had a choice.
Rafe puts the gun away and stepped aside, letting the brothers run and escape.
The three were inside a fine room, their gear and guns scattered on the bed as they crowd together around the table, putting all their pieces under the bright lamp where they can examine it. Rafe was with them. Regardless of the awkward aura and the unwelcoming presence, they still sat together. Eyes never leaving the pieces on the table.
"Where's Sullivan?" Rafe asked, noticing one member was missing from their round table.
"He's buying us food. For some reason he's a generous volunteer tonight." Nate replies.
"You scared being alone with us?" Samuel grins.
Rafe stares at him for a good long minute before he turns to Nate. "Nathan, just do your thing and talk about the treasure."
"Okay so there are 6 sides of a box. Up down, left, right, front and back." Nate begins to explain.
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6." Samuel supplies. "When you look at these plates under the sun, you'll see the numbers glow. Like a piece of a dice."
Rafe remained unimpressed, arms crossed, waiting for the actual treasure reveal in boredom. "Let's pretend I'm interested with all this shenanigans. Can we skip to the part that matters?"
"These shenanigans is what's keeping people like you from the treasure, Rafe. Eisenhower won't make it easy obviously. But since he's a game master, a dice is a vital part of a boardgame. It could be related." Nate tried to explain to him. He didn't have to, but he felt obligated that everyone in their team knows a bit of what they're dealing with.
Rafe leans back, "Fine. So there's 6 sides. Why are all the pieces summed to 8?"
"That's what we're still figuring out. We need Eisenhower's journal but the other team has it."
The door opens and they all stared in surprise when Sully enters the room along with the team they thought they'd have to steal from.
"Sully, what's going on?" Nate was at a loss for words.
Chloe blew him a flying kiss as a greeting. But the three stood behind Sullivan for protection. "None of us will obviously give up on our pieces. Instead our only option is to work together." Sully explains.
"Expect to be backstabbed." Samuel said out loud.
"It's gold or no gold." Harry says.
The 7 of them were probably the most stubborn thieves in the world. And none of them are going to give up any of their pieces for the benefit of another thief.
"There's 7 of us now. It'll be hard to divide the loot." Rafe started to calculate.
"There's 7 members of Eisenhower's group. Each of them carrying equal gold as Eisenhower does." Charlie explains. "Each of them has about 10 billion gold in their sacks. According to the journal at least."
"What do you say, Drake? Do you want to dance about stealing from each other or just throw everything on the table and work together?" Harry offers.
"We don't really have a choice but let's say we do accept... do we have all 8 pieces of the puzzle?"
Everyone now raises their own piece. Sully walks over to the table to raise his own shiny little piece. One on each hand. Nate started to count.
"7 pieces." Samuel said out loud.
"We're missing one piece." Chloe mentions.
"Looks like we still need to find one last piece." Harry shrugs. "Anyone has any ideas where it could be?"
Nate was deep in thought. Everyone else were. Until Chloe steps up. "I might have a clue. Nate, do you remember when we were in France?"
"Yeah?" Nate answered, ignoring the disapproving look he was receiving from his brother and Sully.
"There was this white bread picket fence girl who had this shiny little object around her neck."