All Gone

by Joel Goldman

  Cassie dug her hands in his hair and yanked his head back and smashed her forehead into his nose. The cartilage crumbled and his blood washed over her cheeks. Aramis yowled, released his grip and backhanded her across the face, knocking her to the ground. Dazed, she looked up at him, scooting backward at the sight of his gun pointed at her head. Blood ran from his ruined nose. He pinched his nostrils, staunching the flow and wiped his face with his sleeve.

  “You don’t know who you’re fuckin’ with you manky bitch but you’re sure as hell gonna find out. Now give me your goddamn phone or decide that it’s worth dyin’ for.”

  Cassie handed him the phone. “You won’t get away with this,” feeling foolish for trotting out the cliché but unable to think of anything better.

  “That’s where you’re wrong, Missy. We’ve got all the bases covered. You tell that to the gaffers at the Library and Global fucking Security and tell them if they even think about doin’ anythin’ but payin’ the money, they’ll never see the Magna Cartas again in this life or the next.”

  FOURTEEN

  LOOKING IN THE BATHROOM MIRROR in her hotel room, Cassie studied the dark welt blossoming on her cheek and began to tremble. It was an involuntary reaction stirred by fear and anger. She hated it but accepted it, grateful that there were no witnesses to her moment of weakness.

  The shaking passed. She examined her bruised face again. Makeup might cover it but if that didn’t work, she’d blame it on walking into the bathroom door in the middle of the night. She pulled off her top and looked over her shoulder at the reflection of her back in the mirror. Splotches of black and blue were puddling from her shoulders to her waist.

  She put her top back on and called Gunnar from her laptop using the secure videoconference network he and Prometheus had designed.

  “Va! What happened to your face?”

  “I had a chat with one of the gang that stole the Magna Cartas. He’s a real charmer. Calls himself Aramis. He admitted that he’s part of the gang that stole the Magna Cartas. And he knew my name and that I work for Global Security. What’s worse is that he took my phone. How big of a problem is that?”

  “No problem at all. I can track the GPS chip in the phone and I can save whatever is on the sim card to our cloud server and then erase the card remotely. But the phone has to be turned on. Let me check.” He paused for a moment. “And yours is still on. Give me a second.” Cassie heard him humming in the background. “Done. I’ve sent a kill signal making it useless. Do you have another one of our phones?”

  “Yes.”

  “Try not to lose it.”

  Cassie considered whether to ask her next question but couldn’t think of any way to avoid it. “When you said you backed up my phone did you mean that everything that was on it is now on Prometheus’ server?”

  “Is that a problem?”

  Cassie crunched her eyes. Her body flushed and her cheeks burned. She hadn’t felt so foolish since her mother read her diary out loud when she was ten years old. “Maybe…sort of.”

  “Maybe, sort of what?”

  She took a deep breath. “A friend of mine sent me a picture that I’d really rather no one else saw, especially Prometheus. Can you delete it?”

  “Not without looking at it.”

  “Oh, come on, Gunnar! Give me a break!”

  He laughed. “Hey, I have to know which one to delete. Hang on. I’ll have a look…Va! That Jake Carter knows how to wear a towel.”

  “I know. He must have been drunk.” Cassie chewed her lip, hoping Gunnar would buy her excuse.

  “Very drunk. You’re right. You don’t want Prometheus seeing this. I’ll wipe it off the server.”

  “Yeah, about that…”

  “Don’t worry,” he said, laughing again. “I’ll send it to your new phone but you owe me.”

  “When have I not?”

  FIFTEEN

  IT WAS JUST AFTER 8 a.m. when Cassie found Sarah St. James in her office glued to her computer with a second monitor connected to it. Sarah took one look at her, gasped and covered her mouth.

  “Good God, Cassie. What happened?”

  Cassie grimaced. “I ran into the bathroom door in the middle of the night.”

  Sarah stood and came around her desk for a closer look. “That’s what my mum used to tell me when my dad slapped her around. I didn’t believe her then and I don’t believe you now.” Cassie turned her head away. “You were in a fight, weren’t you? Was it about the Magna Cartas? Please tell me you’re alright and that you didn’t call the police.”

  Cassie stepped past her. “I’m fine. It’s nothing for you to be concerned about and I didn’t call the police.”

  Sarah folded her arms over her chest. “Don’t treat me like a child, Cassie. There’s too much at stake.”

  Cassie studied Sarah. Her jaw was set, her shoulders were square and the determined look in her eyes said she was anything but a child.

  “I had a not very polite chat with one of the gang of thieves when he caught up with me on my morning run. I broke his nose and he gave me my new look. He calls himself Aramis. He’s not one of the guards. I don’t know where he fits in but he let me know they’re serious about destroying the Magna Cartas if we don’t pay the ransom.”

  “How’d he know about you? I thought your firm was supposed to be experts at this sort of thing.”

  Cassie didn’t deny Sarah’s criticism. “We are but these guys are good. They had someone watching the Library when I left last night and he took my picture. They knew who I was, where I worked and where I was staying before dawn this morning.”

  Sarah thought for a moment. “No comfort in that, is there.” She paused. “You broke his nose? How?”

  “I head-butted him.”

  “What is that?”

  “I smashed my forehead into his nose.”

  Sarah covered her mouth. “Oh, dear God. That sounds awful.”

  “Worse for him than me. Don’t worry. I handled him.”

  Sarah tilted her chin up, surveying Cassie’s face again. “So far, I’d say it’s the other way around. Maybe we need more help, maybe a…”

  Cassie bristled. “Man? A big, strong man to scare the other big, strong man? I’ve fought that battle too many times with men who thought I couldn’t do the job because I was a girl. And they all underestimated me.”

  Sarah blushed. “I’m so sorry. You’re right of course. It’s the same for women here.” She clenched her jaw. “I wish I’d have taken a swing at that pig Ian Thorpe when he tried to grope me. I took a self-defense course a few years ago but in that moment, I forgot everything I’d learned.”

  “Don’t feel bad. There’s a big difference between the classroom and the alley.”

  “Or the library. Maybe you can give me a quick refresher just in case Aramis the Ape returns to the scene of the crime.”

  “Sure, if we get a chance but I doubt you’ll need it. First rule – keep your client out of the fight. As for guys like Thorpe, it’s the same everywhere. There’s no getting used to it or getting over it but you should never have to put up with it. We just have to keep proving we can do the job. I know I can do mine and I know you can do yours so let’s do them. What are you working on?”

  Cassie followed Sarah to the other side of her desk to look at the computer. The main monitor was divided into four quadrants, each displaying a frozen frame from a camera feed.

  “These are the feeds from four exterior cameras, one on each side of the building, and they cover every possible exit.” She pointed out two doors and two windows visible in the frames. “I’ve paused each feed at midnight on the morning of the robbery. We can fast forward through them until we see someone.”

  “How many more cameras are there?”

  “There’s four hundred twenty-five in all.”

  Cassie winced at the prospect. If the exterior cameras didn’t pick up the thieves, they’d have to review all the videos to try and trace their movements inside the library. She loo
ked at the second monitor, which displayed a live feed from inside the Magna Carta exhibit.

  “What’s this for?”

  “Peace of mind. There was an incident yesterday with one of the visitors jumping the barrier, getting right up to the display case. If someone who knew what they were looking at were to examine those documents too closely…” She shook her head at the very idea.

  “The reproductions look great,” Cassie said, knowing that she’d feel the same way in Sarah’s place. She pulled up a chair and they settled in to watch the long hours of security footage, hoping to catch a break.

  SIXTEEN

  JAKE ARRIVED AT THE British Library as soon as it opened. The long line of people waiting to get into the exhibit made him question whether he’d guessed wrong about Cassie’s case. Either she wasn’t trying to recover the Magna Cartas or the ones on display were fakes.

  Though he liked the binary outcomes, he realized there were other possibilities. Someone could have threatened to disrupt the exhibit or vandalize the Magna Cartas. But he doubted Prometheus would have sent Cassie to London on such short notice for something like that, not because it was too mundane but because it didn’t require Cassie’s special skill set as an asset recovery specialist. And those possibilities didn’t fit with the question he’d heard Cassie ask Prometheus over the phone – All four of them?

  When Jake reached the PACCAR Gallery, he wasn’t surprised that the display cases held Magna Cartas, whether they were originals or replicas. He scanned the gallery, doing the same kind of analysis he did in a poker game, studying the cards on the table, watching the players, predicting the odds each had a better or worse hand than his own. Instead of a felt-covered table, he was reading the room.

  He noted the security cameras, motion detectors and the two guards, one at the top of the stairs and the other near the display cases. If the Library was worried about an attack on the exhibit, there would have been much more security. The guards looked bored. The Magna Cartas appeared legitimate but he wouldn’t have known if they weren’t.

  Poker players had tells that gave away their secrets. Jake wondered if a museum exhibit did as well.

  He took his time, making his way slowly around the gallery until he was back at the display cases. The guards hadn’t moved, even to listen or speak to the radios pinned to their shoulders. None of the conversations he overheard included mention of any problems with the exhibit or concerns about security.

  He climbed the stairs, stopping to talk to a short, squat, pasty-faced guard rocking back and forth on his heels. His nametag said he was Lyman Bransford. His eyes were puffy and red, the way Jake’s looked after an all-night game.

  “Big crowd,” Jake said.

  Bransford looked at him. “Aye.”

  “Must keep you on your toes.”

  “Aye.”

  “Must get tiring standing here all day. You look like you could use a day off. Get some sleep, if you don’t mind my saying so.”

  “A day off?” Bransford scoffed. “Not likely since today’s my first day and it’s been a long one. Came on at midnight and I’m pulling a double. Not that I mind, seeing as how I’ve been on the dole for two months and the missus was driving me bonkers about it.”

  “A double shift, huh. That’s tough duty especially with an exhibit like this. I imagine somebody’s head would be on the block if anything happened to the Magna Cartas.”

  Bransford gaped at Jake. “Who said anything about that? It all looks tight and tidy.”

  Jake shook his head. “Not me. But the Magna Cartas must be worth a fortune. Hell, they’re priceless. I mean where are you going to get another one, right? The security has got to be airtight.” Bransford nodded. “I mean, if it wasn’t, if there was any kind of problem, there’d be a lot more of you guys keeping an eye on things. Am I right?”

  “Don’t ask me, mate. This is my first go at security guarding since I got out of the army. I just go where they tell me.”

  “Boy, I know what that’s like. It’s crazy, though, for you to have to pull a double on your first day. How does that happen?”

  Bransford rolled his eyes. “It happens when three blokes walk off the job and never come back. At least that was the talk when I clocked in.”

  “Ouch. When did that happen?”

  “Night before last, right before the exhibit opened.”

  “And you got stuck picking up the slack. That sucks.”

  Bransford shrugged. “Not for me, mate. Gets me out of the house and puts a few quid in my pocket so I can pay my tab at the pub and answer silly questions from the likes of you.”

  SEVENTEEN

  CASSIE AND SARAH fast-forwarded through as much of the video as they could, slowing to normal speed whenever someone appeared on the screen. They zoomed in on faces, frame by frame, identifying each guard and making notes of when they were seen at different locations in the library. They were slowly creating timelines for everyone that had been in the building the night of the robbery.

  “Looks like all of them were doing their jobs, sticking to their assigned areas,” Sarah said.

  “Except we know that Pugh, Galloway and Bristol-Clarke didn’t. None of them were assigned to the sub-basement levels but we know they were there.”

  “It’s too bad there aren’t any cameras on those levels. The only way we even know they were down there is because of the keycard records.”

  Cassie pushed her chair away from the monitor and ran her hands through her hair. “And that’s the last sign of them. After that, they disappeared or put on their invisibility cloaks and walked out the front door.”

  “Makes no sense.”

  “Not yet, but it will.”

  Cassie glanced at the monitor showing the PACCAR Gallery and did a double take. She scooted forward and gripped the monitor with both hands.

  “No…”

  “What? What is it?”

  “It can’t be.” Her jaw dropped as she watched Jake climb the stairs from the gallery floor and stop to talk to a guard. “How did he…how could he…” She stood and slapped her hand against the side of the monitor. “I’m gonna kill him…”

  “Kill who?”

  “Him,” Cassie said, pointing at the monitor.

  “Oh, my. He’s too good looking to kill,” Sarah said, turning her head toward Cassie only to realize she was out the door and down the hall.

  Cassie found Jake strolling through the busy main hall of the Library. She watched him collide with a Korean tour group and apologize as he wedged his way past them, putting him face to face with her.

  “Cassie! What are you doing here?” His eyes widened when he noticed the swollen bruise on her jaw. He reached for her cheek. “What in the hell?”

  She batted his hand away. “It’s nothing and don’t pull your accidental tourist routine with me. What are you doing here? And don’t tell me you were looking for a good book to read.”

  “Actually, I do need to renew my library card but I’m afraid they’ll make me pay all my overdue charges. That stuff adds up after a while.”

  Cassie folded her arms over her chest. “This is serious, Jake. I’m not kidding.” He just stared at her, a mischievous grin spreading from the corners of his mouth. Cassie’s lips began to quiver as she choked back a laugh until she couldn’t help herself and gave in.

  “You really are impossible.”

  “But in an endearing way.”

  “That’s not the word I had in mind. Am I supposed to believe that this is just a happy coincidence?”

  “And if it isn’t?”

  “Then you should leave.”

  “Why? Because we can’t possibly work together?”

  “We’re not having this conversation.”

  “Don’t you even want to know how I found you?”

  “No.” Cassie glanced around and saw Sarah approaching from across the hall. She pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes. “I don’t believe this.”

  “Cassie, ther
e you are,” Sarah said. “You ran out so quickly, I wanted to make sure everything was alright.”

  Jake stuck out his hand. “More than alright. I’m Jake Carter. Global Security. And you are?”

  “Oh. Sarah St. James. I’m the curator for the Magna Carta exhibit.”

  “Then we’re all in the right place,” Jake said. “I’ve been assigned to work with Cassie.”

  Sarah looked at Cassie. “I didn’t know there were going to be two of you.”

  “Neither did I until I got the call this morning,” Jake said. “I was in Paris wrapping up another case and they told me to get here as quickly as I could. Don’t worry. We’ll get the Mag…”