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Heist - Prologue

By Sanada

***

The night was proving to be a quiet one. Just like every other night before hand. Nothing ever happened here in the museum. Nothing exciting and new; just a bunch of objects sitting in their cases collecting dust. How dull.

The sensory pot lights came on as the chital walked down the hallway towards the back of the museum. At least his break had taken the sting out of a long night, getting to talk with a few other friends he had on the security team. They all had similar thoughts about this job and each of them had been craving something new, something exciting to happen. A burglary or something, anything to liven up the night.

A burglary, the buck thought to himself as he rounded the corner, pulling on the lengthy beard he had been growing at the end of his muzzle. As if anything like that would ever happen.

A cursory check of his watch reminded him of his fate for the next four hours, standing guard over the 'sunset ruby', a gemstone worth somewhere in the millions. The beautiful stone had been the Indian Museum of Natural History's latest acquisition, and according to the curators who normally roamed these halls during the light of day, it had been well worth acquiring.

The beautiful red rock seemed to catch even the tiniest of lights in its multitude of facets, reflecting and refracting the luminance in all directions in a fiery crimson hue. It was where the stone got its name from, the brilliant light emanating from the rock reminiscent to an evening sky. It was a beautiful object and the guard had heard talk of some of the richest nobles in the country offering a large portion of their wealth for the stone. Of course, the museum had declined the offers.

"It's merely a stone," the chital muttered to himself as he rounded the corner.

His footfalls echoed throughout the corridor with every step and he stopped his patrol at a window, admiring the landscape before him. The night sky was dotted by thousands of twinkling stars, the moon hanging motionless amongst them, shedding its luminance over the city of Delhi. The city was quiet at this hour and only a few lights remained lit in the tallest of the buildings. Quiet; peaceful, boring.

He moved away from the window, dragging his hands across the cool glass along the walls as he walked, making his way towards the ruby, situated down the next bend. Just as he was about to reach the turn however, the lights began to flicker and wane, before falling silent. The hallway was cast into darkness, barely lit by the moonlight filtering in through the arching windows.

He blinked and looked around the dark room. Suddenly, everything became much more sinister, shadows elongating themselves along the walls and down adjacent corridors. The chital's hand went to his night stick just in case, but otherwise he remained at ease. The emergency backup generators would kick in any second now.

The seconds turned into a minute and that minute into three and still the lights remained powerless. He shook his head and reached for his radio, bringing the machine to his lips while a finger pressed the button to activate it.

"Is everything okay over there?" he asked. For a few seconds he heard nothing but the ear-wrenching grind of static until a voice answered back.

"Yes, but the generators aren't kicking in. I think you might have gotten your wish, the night may just be a bit interesting."

"Perhaps," he replied back and pulled out the night stick attached to his hip. A sigh escaped his thin muzzle and a calloused hand pulled on his beard again, wondering just what in the world was going on. First things first though, he had better check on the ruby.

The buck stumbled along in the darkness, blindly feeling his way around the corner. At the far end of the corridor he could just barely make out the shape of the fanciful glass display case that housed the fist-sized gemstone. His hard black shoes echoed throughout the hall with every step, and a short walk later, he was before the case. Everything appeared to be in order, just as it did the last time he had made his rounds.

"I figured as such," he muttered to himself and turned to start back down the way he had come. His pointed ears suddenly twitched then, registering a slight scuffle of noise coming from the overhead balcony above him. The chital turned quickly, nightstick at the ready as he peered eagerly into the darkness overhead.

A searing pain pierced his forehead for a split second. The weapon slipped from his grasp, clattering to the floor noisily, followed by his body as blackness overwhelmed him.

***

The shot had been clean and perfectly aimed. The security guard stood dumbfounded for a second longer, his jaw hanging open in silent protest before crashing to the floor, his antlers cracking against the hardened stone loudly.

The assailant winced at the noise and ducked behind the railing of the second floor balcony, his eyes peering out into the darkness, enhanced by the night-vision goggles resting upon his snout. There was no movement down the corridor and a cursory check of the ground floor pronounced the same. The mysterious figure breathed a sigh of relief and lashed the rope he held in his other hand onto the railing before hurling it over the edge. The cord tumbled to the shadowy ground level as he slipped the silencer equipped pistol back into its holster before climbing over the edge of the railing.

He fell to the ground floor and stepped cautiously over to the body lying motionless on the ground. The dark form shook its head sadly and quietly dragged the body over to the wall.

"Sorry bud," he whispered quietly into the corpse's ear. "You were in the way though and we couldn't have that. No hard feelings."

With the mess off to the side, the burglar moved over to the case holding the brilliant ruby. A hand went down to his waist and withdrew a small set of lock picks from a compartment on his belt. He carefully placed the small brass instruments off to the side before reaching up to the collar of his black suit, clicking a small button at the corner. The tiny beep that echoed out from the communicator sounded like a shotgun blast in the silent hallway and he flinched.

"Security systems down?" he whispered into the microphone and a sultry female voice answered back.

"They are taken care of. Red and I are already moving back to the rendezvous point," she said and the thief nodded to himself.

"Scales? Are the back-up systems out of the way?"

"All taken care of boss," said a gruff voice from the other end of the communicator. "There ain't any way in hell these guys are gonna get the machines up and running anytime soon. Those charges really did the trick I think."

"Good work. I'm about to grab the stone. Everyone else, head back to the rendezvous point. I'll meet you all there shortly and we can get out of here," he said quietly before shutting the communication down. Everyone had done their job perfectly, as was expected. It always brought a small to his lips when he thought how harmoniously they worked. It was all up to him now, the only thing remaining was to swipe the gem and make a hasty exit.

He immediately set himself to work at the lock with the picks, selecting one in particular and sliding it into the key-lock of the case. The very tip of the lock pick was bent in such a way that it could easily fit the contours of the lock, allowing the burglar to lift the pin mechanisms inside of it into place. It didn't take long for him to push the first three pins into their respective places with the hook, but one remained just barely out of reach and he was forced to switch the long piece of metal for a different one, with a wavering head at the end of its body.

He gently reinserted the pick back inside and snapped the final pin into place. With his second paw, he pulled the tension wrench from the set and slipped it inside afterwards. He smiled while he twisted the diminutive shaft in his hand, the telltale click of the lock opening perking up his ears.

He breathed a sigh of relief, even allowing his bushy black tail to wag happily as he slipped the lock picks back into the belt compartment. Carefully, he lifted the casing off of the pedestal it rested upon and placed it on the floor before withdrawing a pouch from his pocket. Opening the dark velvet bag, he dumped a similar looking ruby into the palm of his paw and placed it inside the case in exchange for the real one. To any trained jeweler, the duplicate was an obvious fake, but to the security guards? None of them would even be able to tell the difference, despite some obvious flaws.

With a devilish grin, the canine burglar slipped the real stone into the pouch and stored it away safely before placing the glass casing back in its original position. The glass latched into place securely and the thief was thankful that he wasn't going to have to relock it himself. Just in the nick of time too. His ears twitched to the sound of footfalls coming from the far end of the hallway, around the corner. It was time to go.

With a cocky grin, the thief hoisted himself back up the length of the rope, coiling the length around his arm and slipped into the darkness with a wag of his tail.

It was all just another day at work to him.

***

The thin, raven-haired man frowned at the sight of the chital, a clean bullet hole through his head. At least the kill was quick and probably quite painless, but in the end someone was dead. The human turned away from the scene to regard the team of investigators behind him, all listening to the german shepherd barking orders at them. The man scowled at his fellow inspector and stepped away from the grizzly scene to inspect the jewel known as the 'sunset ruby'.

"Unimpressive," the man spat, wondering why anyone would pay any sort of amount to display the dull rock in their museum. The stone was completely lackluster, nothing like he was told it should be. Idly, he wondered if it was all just scam to attract more people.

The museum had contacted the police shortly after the security team had stumbled across the dead body of one of their own. The Indian police had spent only a few hours investigating the crime scene and had found nothing, not a single trace as to what had happened at all, aside from the lifeless corpse of the deer. As such, they had turned to Interpol and thus, the man had been sent here along with another inspector and a team of investigators.

"Sloppy," Claus Keir muttered as the police placed the lifeless chital's body into the black body bag, zipping it up. The buck's antlers remained outside of the heavy material, being unable to fit within the confines of the covering. The human had little tolerance for those around him; more so if they were not part of his own team, and that included those outside of Interpol. They merely served to get in the way of his work.

"Any ideas, Claus?" asked the german shepherd, whom had come to stand beside him, drawing the brooding man from his thoughts. Claus looked up, sneering at him, his thin arms crossed over his chest. The canine just shook his head at the sight. "Christ, sorry I asked. I don't like working with you as much as you don't with me, but the chief put as together so we may as well make the most of it."

"I don't need your help, Rieker. I am fully capable of handling this incident myself," Claus spat and the dog frowned, shaking his head before moving away. Claus flashed him an evil grin before storming off, leaving his fellow inspector and his team to all the work.

"You're lucky I've got a high tolerance to your ego," Inspector Rieker muttered quietly before turning back to his team. A smile replaced his sullen expression. At least the shepherd's own team was pleasant to work with. They had a lot to do before they could head home and it was best to get started right away.

"Just more crap to pile onto the 'DF File' it looks," Rieker said and his team chuckled dryly, the gravity of the situation weighing down on all of them. "Well guys, let's get to work. I want to get back home as much as the rest of you do."

The team spread out, some heading down adjacent corridors, others heading to the generators located within different parts of the building. The canine inspector moved up to the display case, a hand resting upon the top of the glass as he looked at the ruby inside, the crimson gemstone resting on a delicate looking pillow.

The edges of the stone seemed imperfect, and the inside seemed cloudy and murky. Something didn't seem right.

Inspector Rieker just shook his head, a bemused smirk crossing his muzzle.

"We'll find you, one day," he whispered more to himself than anyone. His eyes drifted towards the large windows, watching the hustle and bustle of the city beyond the glass panes. The crooks were out there, somewhere. They had eluded them so far, but one day they were bound to slip up.

One day.