The girls and I waited until an hour before closing before heading back to the museum. This time when we went, we wore another disguise. We entered the museum and headed to the section where the opening party would be held. The employees had the room sectioned off as they went back and forth setting up for tomorrow night. There were a group of guards who were standing around getting their orders from a guy who seemed to be in charge. We needed to memorize every guard’s face that worked in this museum. It was hard at first to keep their faces in memory, but after several walks around, we knew every guard that would be on duty.
After we were done, we headed to restaurant that had the push open doors. Close by, there was a souvenir store that also had push open doors. We decided it would be best to split up and head in different directions and then meet up once we were in the clear. Once we had the escape route, we took turns practicing our escape onto the streets. We did this until it was time for the museum to close. On the way back to our hotel, we talked about how the heist seemed more possible. Everyone would be in too much of a panic once the lights go out, which would create the perfect distraction for us to take the painting. We just had to make sure that we would be able to get close enough.
We arrived back to the hotel and started on our stretching exercises. Anything could go wrong tomorrow, and we need to be prepared to make a run for it. The stretching lasted about thirty minutes. When we were finished, we sat around the coffee table trying to think of a place to hide the painting. The four of us wanted to purchase a vault, but that would be too risky. Once this painting went missing, every bank and vault would be searched thoroughly. We also knew there was no way we could buy any property without arousing the attention of our parents, and the people who were after the painting. We finally decided to take the painting back to school where the girls agreed that it was best that I would keep an eye on it, since after all it was more important to me than them. Since Taylor took art class, she said she would be able to give me one of her extra painting cases. Once she gave me that, it was up to me to decide where to hide the painting on campus. I didn’t want to keep it close to me just in case we ended up being found out, but I didn’t want it too far out of my reach either.
Once we were done, the four of us headed off to bed. Gathering my overnight bag, I headed off to take a shower. I didn’t know how tensed I was until the streams of hot water from the shower began to massage my muscles. I stayed in the shower for a couple more minutes and then I got out. Yuri was already dressed for bed as she sat on her bed, painting her toenails. I tossed my towel on a chair and headed over to the nightstand to grab my phone. There were no missed calls or text messages. Sighing, I tossed it back on the stand and climbed into my bed.
“Micah hasn’t called you?” Yuri asked.
“No. He’s probably busy.”
“Doing what? He’s at school. Everyone is away for the break. How busy could he possibly be?”
“Can we just give it a rest?” I said.
Yuri shook her head as she put her nail polish up. “No we can’t give it a rest. Micah’s up to something. I can feel it and I know you can too. If you want, I can call Jamie. She’s staying at the school during break.”
“Who’s Jamie?”
“Just a freshman who has devoted her life to serving me. Well at least until I help her win against Ashley Donovan for freshman court.”
“The last thing I need is for Micah to have a run in with one of your spies. No thanks. I’ll be fine. Like I said, he’s probably just busy.”
Yuri got off her bed and headed towards my bed. She climbed up on the bed and stared down at me. “Autumn, we’ve been best friends since forever and I’ve never once seen you get like this over a guy. Talk to me. What’s going on?”
“Yuri, I said give it a rest.”
I turned my back to Yuri as I waited for her to leave. After sitting there for a few more minutes, she finally made her way back to her bed. I knew without looking at her that I’d hurt her feelings. It wasn’t intentionally. There were just some things that I couldn’t talk about. Yuri wanted to talk about Micah, but there wasn’t too much I could say. Micah had a fake life for safety purposes, and I couldn’t jeopardize that for a little girl talk, no matter how hurt I was about his sudden distance. Before I had left on break, everything had been fine. He acted like it was going to be torture to be away from me. Now he was acting weird and wasn’t returning my phone calls. Sighing, I realized how stupid I was being. So what if Micah didn’t return my calls. He probably was busy. Besides, this is the first time he has ever done something like this and I’m pretty sure he wasn’t doing it on purpose. We had only been dating for three months and already I was becoming one of those “girlfriends.” I wouldn’t be like that. I trusted Micah and he trusted me.
Yuri got up to turn out the light and ten minutes later she was sleep. I laid there in my bed trying to get some rest, but couldn’t. Getting up, I tip toed quietly out of my room, closing the door softly behind me. I walked into the joined living room and was surprised to see Taylor was still up.
“Couldn’t sleep?” She said glancing up at me.
“No. What are you doing?”
She was sitting in front of her laptop with her headphones on her ears. “I was listening into the incoming and outgoing phone calls from the museum. I didn’t know they had that much activity after hours.”
“I didn’t either.”
I sat down on the sofa next to Taylor as she handed me an extra pair of headphones. I plugged them in as we both listened. Most of the calls were the guards abusing their privileges by making phone calls saying goodnight to their children, talking to their wives, or talking to their wife’s sister. Taylor left to make us a bowl of ice cream. She came back with the bowls as we ate and made small talk. We were just about to decide to give up the phone surveillance when a particular call came in. It was the Queen demanding to speak to someone named Gill Roberts. As we listened closer, it turned out to be the man in charge of security. We listen as the Queen spoke in frantic whispers. She told him to make sure that his guards were in top shape. They had gotten a tip that “they” were after the painting. At the mention of “they,” Taylor and I gave each other glances. The Queen never went into detail about who they were, but only that the head security knew what to do. He promised her that the painting would stay in the right hands, and then the phone call ended. We waited to see if he would make another phone call, but he didn’t.
Taylor shut down the computer and then turned to me. “Who do you think they were talking about? Do you think it’s the same person that’s after us?”
“I have no doubt that it is. The thing I want to know is how the Queen knows about them.”
“I don’t know. But it’s clear they are prepared for the painting to be stolen.”
I stared off toward the window where night skyline of Paris shined through our window. “Well we can’t let all their hard work and manpower go to waste. Can we?”
I turned to Taylor who smiled over at me. We both then turn back to stare out the window. Tonight, the streets of Paris were quiet. Tomorrow, it wouldn’t be.