Thief of Sanguardia: Skeleton Key

"...And another one gone...and another one gone...another one...mmm...mmm...mmm." Kaia thumbed the volume higher on the music player wrapped tightly around her upper left arm. She loved this song and sang it on full blast under normal circumstances, but she wasn’t currently in the kind of circumstances you’d call normal. At this moment, she was suspended by climbing rigging and nylon ropes, upside down, one hundred and fifty feet in the air, everything in black to keep her hidden to any gazes from people passing below. It was well after the time when most good people of the world were snug in their beds, trying to get the energy to battle their way through another Tuesday in corporate America when they awoke tomorrow, but in New York City, people were everywhere at all hours, and so were lights. That could be a good thing...if you weren’t a thief, which Kaia was. At least, she was for one more job, and she had to make this finale count because her sister’s life depended on it. And reality was she couldn’t even contemplate failure. It wasn’t an option where her sister was concerned.

"Mmm...mmm...mmm...buh, duh, duh...bites the dust..." No use dwelling on the part of this that was out of her control. For now, she needed to focus on the job that would reunite her with her sister.

As she breathed in the warm night air and took in the street smells of the city below, she reminded herself that before she’d gone all straight-laced and clean-handed, this had been her favorite part of breaking and entering. The moment before she’d actually breached the place she’d cased, she liked the adrenaline rush as she stealthed her way in somewhere she wasn’t supposed to be and took things she wasn’t supposed to touch. Right now, she also reminded herself why she shouldn’t enjoy this feeling anymore, why it was wrong to want to steal. At least, that’s what her sister would say. Dammit! Aubrey better be okay.

Kaia’s chest squeezed tightly with the thought of her sister scared and alone. Her fists squeezed painfully around her tools at the thought of anyone hurting Aubrey. When the e-mail landed in her inbox, she’d known immediately who it was from, and she’d almost ignored it, like the fifteen others he’d sent in the last week. Thank goodness she hadn’t. She would’ve missed the new tactic her old boss Finn had decided to use to bend Kaia to his powerful will. She’d rapidly paged through his previous e-mails just to make sure she hadn’t missed anything. He was such an asshole, and after this stunt, it was time to wipe his smelly self out of her life forever.

She’d get this thing he wanted and take it to the Seagate Building by Saturday night, just as he’d instructed, but once she had her sister, they were disappearing forever. And if she never saw Finn McClaire again, it would be too soon.

Let’s get this show on the road. Odd as it was, when she was on a job, she often spoke to herself. Turns out, she was the only one who was sure to listen to her every word.

Determination steadied her nerves, and she went to work. Once she was level with the glass pane outside of the office, she stopped her descent. The object Finn had described would be found here, so she pulled out a large, round suction cup that adhered to the glass in front of her once she’d flipped the small, metal lever from one side to the other. Then, she pulled a glass cutter from her pocket, one she’d had specifically designed for these kinds of jobs. It wasn’t easy to cut through glass as thick as the window panes they put into skyscrapers. Fortunately, this particular cutter had a setting that heated the diamond-titanium blade as she cut, and as it turned out, the glass practically melted as the blade touched it. Heat had a tendency to reshape glass, usually over long periods of time, but with the right temperature, she could do it very quickly too.

She turned the music down on her player as she zeroed in on the job at hand.

Time to work.

She flicked the heat on and waited for the blade to warm up. Singing low, wishing she could belt the song like Freddie meant it to be sung, she gripped the suction cup tightly with her right hand and began to run the blade in a circular arc just below her head as she hung suspended. She continued around behind her thighs and stopped back where she started. It was a relatively small circle, enough to fit her body through. Of course, there might be a little squeezing when it came to her hips and ass, but she could do it. With slow precision, she traced around three more times, the heat of the blade radiating upward and making the handle almost impossible to hold. Yet, she gripped it tighter and made one more circle until she felt the glass giving just like she needed it to.

Deft fingers flicked the toggle for the heat into the off position, and she slipped it into the insulated pouch to keep the hot surface of the blade from making contact with her skin. Quickly as she dared, she continued to hold the handle of the suction cup while pushing slightly around the seam she’d created in the glass. She smiled to herself when she felt it begin to give. With a little more pressure, she felt the cylindrical piece of glass slide inward until it pushed free of the exterior window. She let the surprisingly heavy glass drop gently to the carpet with the suction cup still attached and, with her gloved hands, grabbed the edges of the opening she’d created, pulling herself through.

As predicted, she had to maneuver the rounder places on her body through carefully, but only struggled an extra second or two before she was able to tuck and roll into the room, trusting the climbing gear still attached to give her some support. Her feet firmly planted on the floor, she disconnected the gear and hooked it to a nearby desk leg so that it was within easy reach for a quick getaway.

A swift look around, and she had her bearings. An ominous, wooden desk stood a few feet away, no doubt positioned strategically to allow the executive who sat at it the opportunity to turn around and look out of the window any time he or she wanted. A stealthy approach to the desk provided a vague answer to the owner of the office. Framed pictures of a family clarified the owner of the desk was a male with a model wife and two children, a boy and a girl, both under ten. Not that it mattered, but she liked to get a sense of the people whose realm she was in. It helped her get an idea of where the valuables might be hiding.

This particular person seemed typical enough. He probably had a safe hidden somewhere in the room, probably behind a picture or maybe even in the floor. She glanced around the room, noting three doors, a sitting area with couch and chairs, and a wall lined with built-in shelves covered in books and various decorative knick-knacks. Her gaze swung back toward the doors, and she wondered where each one led.

One had to take her out into the building where offices of other employees would wind and cut through the space. Another was probably a private bathroom, and the third could possibly be a conference room entrance. These executive offices were pretty much all the same. She had time. She could explore each one until she found what she was looking for, what McClaire had sent her here for.

She made her way toward the built-ins, figuring it was as good a place as any to start and had just opened a cabinet, moved the contents aside enough to see behind them, and as luck would have it, found the safe she’d been looking for when a piercing alarm began to wail around her.

Dammit! Her heartbeat pounded. Finn was supposed to make sure that wouldn’t be an issue. He said he had someone who would shut off all the security systems of the building. Obviously, whoever that was, wasn’t as qualified as McClaire thought. Yet, as she heard the sound of cars below coming to a squealing stop, her suspicions began to grow. Wouldn’t it be just like McClaire to set her up so that he could continue to keep her under his thumb? She’d actually thought he might. Had prepared herself just in case but had hoped he’d do things the honorable way. Obviously, he was too bitter to keep it upright. He hadn’t liked it when she’d told him she was walking away from the business forever. Now, she felt sure he clearly manipulated the situation from the start.

Well, she wasn’t one to just sit back and let the chips fall where they may. She’d get what he requested, and she’d make him take it, whether he liked it or not.

With practiced skill and an ease she certainly didn’t feel, she went to work cracking the safe. The officers were no doubt getting into the building now, but as long as Finn hadn’t told them exactly where to find her, they’d have to search for her, which gave her a little time. Once she had the damn thing he’d asked for, she’d go back out the way she’d come in, except she’d use her climbing equipment to repel down the building to the ground. She’d done it before and could do it again.

The safe had a standard security system, electronic, with a code that could be hacked with the right equipment, which she definitely had. She hooked it up with practiced motions and turned it on. Within seconds the safe clicked and she pulled it open wide.

Inside she noticed folders of papers, a few racy photographs of a woman that didn’t match the framed pictures on the desk, and something she couldn’t quite make out at the back of the space. She swallowed and breathed through her nose to try to calm her racing nerves. This was all getting weirder and weirder, but she didn’t have enough time to get any more anxious than she already freaking was. Already, she could hear people in the distance, which meant they were on the same floor in the building. Her time for deep thought was clearly up.

Without any more deliberation, she reached inside and wrapped her fingers around the object. It was cool to the touch, even through her gloves, and as she pulled it closer, the shape of whatever this was began to grow clearer. She recognized it the minute she saw it in the dim light of the moon.

A key? Made of a thick glass with a skeleton head, and two teeth to unlock a door, it was only four inches long, and weighed about one pound. It looked like an old-fashioned skeleton key but created with glass instead of metal. This is what Finn wanted so badly that he went to the extreme of taking her sister Aubrey? It didn’t make sense, but she didn’t have time to contemplate the baffling nature of it. She had to make that hasty exit she’d prepared for.

Yet, as she turned away from the safe, she hadn’t taken two steps before she stopped short. Tongue firmly in cheek, she asked herself, What sorcery might this be, Merlin?

In front of her, a fourth door had appeared, and it seemed to...glow with a light blue color. Her hand began to vibrate, and as she looked down, she saw the strange key glowing with the same electric blue. As she watched, the blue inched up her arm, and a strange warmth engulfed her. She felt as if she were floating toward the door, and before she realized what she was doing, the hand with the key was reaching toward the lock below the round, brass handle. It was so ordinary, yet she could feel the momentous magic coursing over and through her as she pushed the key into the lock. It felt heady and powerful, like it was everything she could do, not to rush headlong into the heat of whatever this was. But she paused instead, the key sitting in the lock unturned. She reminded herself that rushing forward without completely thinking things through is how she’d gotten into business with Finn McClaire in the first place. And if she was being honest with herself, pretty much every bad situation she’d been in had come from whistling into any available opportunity that someone offered her. She’d promised to be more cautious and thoughtful. Maybe this was that kind of situation that she needed