Thread: Caught Between [LeatrixSage x Mr Quixotic]

Nimble fingers spun the dial clockwise, making the gears grind as she made sure the wheels were disengaged before she set the bell-end of the stethoscope next to the dial to listen. Outside the wall of windows to her left it was raining. Again. That was New York for you. I miss the sun, she though as she held her breath and turned the dial unhurriedly counterclockwise. click CLICK The drive cam notch slid under the lever arm and she smiled as she flipped the dial 180 degrees and parked the wheels. One down, six more to go. It had always come so easily to her. A safe was like a woman, if you treated her well and touched her just so shed unveil all her secrets and expose all her most vulnerable places to you. Maybe that was why Val was so good at getting into them. click CLICK Two down. The idea that there was any way she could caught picking a safe this easy was grating on her nerves and she hadnt even gotten it open yet. Of course, there were extenuating circumstance involved. Under normal conditions, Valentina Ricci would have spent a couple weeks posing as a temp before meeting the boss for a midnight tryst when the building was empty, drugging him well a sideways glance to the right had her smiling at the middle-aged woman snoozing away on the floor a few feet away. There were quite a few things different about this job. click CLICK Three. The primary difference was that it wasnt a job. She wasnt getting paid for this. Oh no, this shame was a quick ticket to free, armed security. Shed considered simply turning herself in, but that news would get to the wrong ears far too quickly. Viktor Curic was lucky enough to have friends in both low and high places. Val was not so lucky. click CLICK Four, nearly there. Okay, if she was honest, it was her own fault she didnt have friends. Val was a thief, and a hacker, and she was damn good at what she did but, theres no honor among thieves. Anyone that said otherwise was either lying or selling a con. Usually both. Cons required more working parts than she liked to deal with, more points of failure. Teams made mistakes, let you down, ripped you off, stabbed you in the back and shed do the same, given half the chance. She had, actually, which was why Curics people sniffing around. click CLICK. Thunk There it was. The anti-theft had been triggered. When she set the wheels, a silent alarm would be triggered, not that the police response would get there before she was waist deep into whatever was inside. Just about five minutes, Val sighed, steeled her resolve, and set the wheels. There was a little electric tick, and the silent alarm was running. Now, for the big finish she had to pretend that she had no idea there was a silent alarm, and that she was not a professional, or Val Ricci. Her arrest would be a death sentence if she was taken under her own name. Of course, the name shed been using the last few had been compromise as well, otherwise there wouldnt have been men in her hotel this morning looking for her. There was no time to go create another identity, not when hed already tracked her all the way up the east coast. She really should have taken up that one guys offer to make her some spares what was his name again? click CLICK Six, the last one. Val gave the dial a little jiggle, held her breath, and cranked the handle down. Steel slide against steel as the latch fell, and the safe door swung open. Grinning with self-satisfaction, Val reached inside the safe and brought out a pile of files to spread over the massive desk in the center of the room. She tossed some papers around and went back for more. Just some good old corporate espionage, nothing fancy or advanced. Shed claim to have been threatened by a competitor that had been stalking her ever since shed gotten the temp position. They told her what to do, how to do it, really, she was scared for her life and had to call her husband whod been out of state on business. They said theyd kill him. Shed cry, her mascara would run, and the more hysterical she would get, the fewer questions theyd want to ask. They might not even double check her name before she got to make a phone call. Flashlights zooming around and illuminating the blinds that were closed on the office windows that faced all the little cubical opposite the big-desk-in-the-corner-office -with-the-great-views gave away the NYPDs most recent fail at being stealthy. Val gave her cheeks a few, quick pats to get them nice and red, messed her hair to be sure she looked good and wild, and took a few deep breaths. The door wasnt locked, but an officer came smashing through it anyway, which she took as a cue to throw up the papers in her hands and scream. Get down on the ground! one of them shouted from behind the safety of a sea of blinding flashlights held over firearms, all pointed in her direction. Typical. Im not armed! Val shouted back, Im sorry, Im so sorry! Cue the tears. On the ground, now! a feminine voice? Women were getting into everything these days. Male cops had more empathy for a female suspect. Women never have sympathy for other women. Empathy, maybe, but not sympathy. Theyre going to kill my husband! she shouted back as she got to her knees and laid down on the rough carpet. It really was awful, all grey and dingy, and the bristles were rough against her cheek. She might actually get rug burn if she wasnt careful. Not disappointing her, the boys in blue arrested her quickly, packed her up into a cruiser, and immediately delivered her into an interrogation room. Less time in a cell meant less time that she could spend behind bars with people Viktor could easily have paid to kill her while she was handcuffed. The fact that she could get out of them wasnt really reassuring in this particular instance. She cried. Her mascara ran. And they all became so uncomfortable that they gave up and just watched her from behind the glass for a while. The next time one of them stepped in and she asked for her phone call, they were so relieved that she wasnt sobbing uncontrollably that they said yes just to keep her calm. It was exhausting, but if they didnt have any information, there was little that could find its way back to the devil that was chasing her tail. One dirty cop was all it took, which was why she was going to do the one thing she never dreamed she would even attempt. How long ago had he given her his card with his personal number written out in confidant angles on the back? Chances were that he might not even have the same phone number anymore. An officer led her to the painfully old phones that still hung on the wall, dialed the bogus number she gave them, and then walked away. As soon as they were out of site, she tapped the little button that rested under the receiver five times in quick succession. Hello? a voice popped up on the other end. Hello, operator, Im having trouble dialing a phone number, one of the numbers doesnt seem to be working. Yes, of course, the operator was happy to help, and patched her over. Val tucked the little card back into her shoe while the phone rang. It took longer than she would have liked. Everything came down to this. Either she would be in protective custody that was put in place by a man who was rigidly unbuyable, or by some easily bought NYPD officers that simply couldnt be trusted. When the ringing finally stopped and a familiar voice asked who was calling, she let out a breath she hadnt realized shed been holding and her heart started to beat again. Marshal, she used his title rather than his name. Its Val, Valentina Ricci. She paused to let that sink in, and to collect her thoughts before charging forward. I decided to take you up on that offer you made a few years back. Ill give you Viktor Curic on a Silver platter. All you have to do is keep me alive.