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“We are in position,” Tenten whispered into her headset. Her voice echoed in the tiny speaker in Lee’s ear. “Neji, how’re you doing?”
“Just one moment more.” Even through the speaker, Neji sounded impatient. “Although, we could make a killing on the things I’ve found on the Director’s hard drive alone.”
“Quit poking around in there,” Tenten scolded. “You can do that from anywhere. We need to get Lee in and out as fast as possible.”
She leaned over the edge of the roof to glare at the van parked below, as though that would cow Neji into hurrying things along. Lee finished the last of his stretches and began double checking his gloves, the laces on his boots, the items in his tool belt. Everything had to go off without a hitch.
“A helicopter will fly over in two,” Neji warned them. “Take cover.”
The museum’s ornamental facade provided a decent hiding place at the north end of the roof. Tenten and Lee ducked under an overhanging protrusion of stone, gravel crunching beneath their boots.
The rhythmic whirr of the helicopter’s blades passed overhead, invisible among the low hanging clouds.The pigeons roosting among the stone carvings above them shifted and rustled their feathers.
“The security on this thing is hilariously overkill,” Neji drawled through the speaker. “Someone’s been watching too many spy movies. Who in their right mind breaks in through a skylight in a fifty foot ceiling?”
“We are,” Tenten reminded him.
“Yes,” Neji agreed lightly. “But no one else has Rock Lee.”
Lee beamed and Tenten slapped him on the shoulder.
“We’re clear,” Neji announced.
Lee and Tenten hurried out of their hiding place to crouch beside the massive dome of the skylight, glowing with golden light from within. Tenten unlooped the rope from around her shoulder and secured one end to a bar at the base of the window with a complicated knot. The window pane closest to them buzzed and then clicked. It swung open with only a gentle push.
Lee clipped his harness to the rope and turned to grin at Tenten.
“Break a leg,” she said cheerfully.
He flashed a thumbs up and then dropped through a gap in the glass.
The rope was black cord, slender but very strong, rough enough that it would have sliced Lee’s hands to shreds without the leather gloves. He lowered himself slowly past the elaborately carved, vaulted ceiling, the darkened arches of two rows of mezzanines, until his boots landed silently on the colourful tiles of the mosaic floors of the central gallery.
“I am down,” he announced into the microphone clipped to his collar. The rope began creeping upwards again.
“You’ll need to be quieter than that, Lee,” Neji reminded him. “I can black out the cameras and deactivate the alarms, but I can’t stop the guards from hearing you.”
Lee didn’t answer, knowing Neji would take his silence for an apology. He knew exactly where to go from here. Earlier in the week, he and Gai had visited the museum pretending to be tourists. Gai had worn an obnoxious souvenir t-shirt and insisted that Lee push his wheelchair, as he loudly explained the topic of each exhibit quite incorrectly. They had blended in perfectly.
He walked lightly so the rubber soles of his boots would make no noise against the floor as he slipped out of the central gallery and headed for the stairs. The gallery he was looking for was on the third floor, in the museum’s southernmost wing. It was also the most heavily secured.
“Neji,” he whispered, once he had exited the echoing darkness of the stairwell. “How am I for alarms?”
There was a pause, long enough that Lee started to grow uneasy.
“Something’s wrong,” Neji finally muttered.
“What do you mean something’s wrong?” Tenten demanded so sharply that Lee grimaced and rubbed his ear.
“The computer’s aren’t behaving quite the way they should,” Neji explained. “If I didn’t know better, I would think someone else was messing around in here as well.”
“What should I do?” Lee whispered.
“Proceed with caution,” Neji advised him. “I’ve disabled all the alarms and cameras in that gallery but I can only keep them down for five minutes before that in itself will raise alarms. You need to be in and out before that happens so I can put them back online.”
“No problem,” Lee told him, grinning as he hurried towards the gallery doors.The heavy steel fire door slid back with no resistance, the glass door beyond that swung open with a gentle push.
“Be prepared to execute emergency escape maneuvers at a moment’s notice,” Neji said suddenly. “Alarms elsewhere in the building have been behaving strangely.”
“What do you mean by strangely?” Tenten hissed.
“The employee entrance at the south end went dark a few minutes ago,” Neji informed them. “And now, oddly enough, the climate control system is acting up.”
“Could it be a virus?” Tenten wondered.
“I’m not their IT guy,” Neji said. “Just be careful in there. Stay alert.”
“Got it.” Lee whispered. He slunk from the shadows behind one display case to the next. His reflection, dressed in tight fitting black clothes, a black cap pulled down over his hair, rippled across the glass alongside him.
It was at the far end of the gallery, a pedestal with a glass case on top. Large, red DO NOT TOUCH signs flanked the display card, a red velvet rope prevented visitors from getting too close to the glass. Lee had learned that the glass itself, as well as the pedestal, were alarmed. The slightest touch could set them off. Or at least, it would have done if Neji were not a genius. One of the smarter things the museum had done was ensure that the lock and closures for the case were mechanical, rendering them Neji-proof. All Lee had to do was open the case, remove its precious contents, and run.
Lee bent down until he was on eye level with the treasure within the case. For weeks, all Tsunade had talked about was carats, clarity and fire, and most importantly, monetary value. Lee hadn’t really cared about the particulars of his target, so much as that last thing: food in the mouths of those who needed it, roofs over their heads. Gai called him a modern day Robin Hood. But now, eye to eye with the thing, Lee couldn’t help but marvel at it. The Desert Star; a three sided pyramid of diamond, roughly the size of a plum, expertly cut into millions of tiny facets that seemed to fold in on themselves and multiply with every shift of Lee’s head, scattering rainbows across its surface as it refracted the lights along the top of the display case. Lee stood transfixed for only a few seconds before remembering Neji’s warning.
He raised his eyes, and froze in shock.
At first he had taken them for jewels in one of the cases on the other side of the display. Twin circles of jade or pale emerald. Then, they had blinked back at him.
Lee stood up slowly and the man on the other side of the display case stood as well. The green eyes blazed even brighter without the glass between them. A few strands of red hair poked out from beneath the black hood of his sweatshirt. Freckles dusted the bridge of his nose above a black mask that covered the lower half of his face. He was slender and agile looking despite his baggy clothes, and nearly a head shorter than Lee.
They stared at each other in silence for a long moment. The man made no motion, not so much as the tiniest twitch of his face, but Lee could see his own shock reflected in the stranger’s eyes.
Neji’s voice crackled through the speaker in Lee’s ear. “The climate control systems appear to be functioning normally again except for one vent in the gallery that you are currently standing in. It could just be a coincidence, but be on your guard.”
“I am not alone in here,” Lee whispered into his microphone.
“I’m sorry, come again?” Tenten asked.
“There is someone else in here with me.”
Silence.
With eerie calm, the other man raised his hand to his mask and whispered. “I’ve been compromised.”
Lee didn’t hear the response, but the man paused for a moment and then added, “I’ve got company.”
“ Who is in there with you?” Tenten demanded at the same time Neji snapped. “But that’s impossible.”
The other man popped a small speaker out of his ear and sized Lee up, his head tilted to one side. A tinny voice buzzed within the device.
“Who are you?” He asked. “What do you want?”
“My name is -”
“Don’t give him your name!” Tenten shrieked.
The man’s eye wrinkled at the edges, as though he might be smirking, and he replaced his earbud. “You can call me Ai.”
He pushed his hood back slightly to reveal the character tattooed in red on his forehead.
“Your name is Rock Lee,” Ai continued softly. Tenten gasped, Neji swore.
He pointed at one of the security cameras on the wall behind him. “Wave hello to my brother.”
“Lee, get out of there,” Neji hissed.
“If he has already seen my face and knows my name,” Lee said slowly. “Then I may as well finish what we came here for.”
Ai shook his head slowly. “I believe, Rock Lee, that you and I are here for the same thing. So it’s not going to go as easily as you might have hoped.”
“How did you get in?” Lee hedged.
“Easy.” Ai shrugged. “There’s a security guard who didn’t make it to work tonight. No harm done, don’t worry, he’s just taking a well earned nap. My sister is working his shift for him. She let me in, I climbed into the vents, and my brother took care of the rest.”
“Not a bad plan,” Lee said appreciatively.
“Speaking of too many spy movies,” Neji grumbled in his ear.
“What about you, though? I’m curious.”
“Abseiling through the sky light while my friends look after the logistics,” Lee explained.
Pale eyebrows rose, the smirk deepened. “Impressive.”
“Lee, what are you doing?” Tenten snapped. “This is getting out of hand quickly.
Ai seemed to be listening to something in his ear as well.
“I can deal with it,” he and Lee said at precisely the same time.
They turned to size each other up again. Assessing for a long moment.
“Lee, you have exactly one hundred and seventy six seconds.” Neji’s tone was clipped. In the background, Lee could hear the frantic clack of the keyboard.
A strange voice crackled through the speaker in Lee’s ear. “Tell your friend to calm down. I can disable the failsafe that would trigger an alarm once the main security has been down for too long. You can leave safely. We didn’t see you and you didn’t see us.”
“The nerve!” Neji huffed.
“What makes you think we’ll just walk away?” Tenten snorted.
“Hurt my brother and see what happens,” a cold female voice snarled in the speaker.
“Hurt my friend and you’ll regret it,” Tenten growled right back.
“Everyone take it easy,” Ai said quietly. “He’s not going to hurt me.”
“I would prefer not to,” Lee agreed.
“We’re both professionals,” Ai told him. “There’s no reason this can’t be civil.”
“Agreed.” Lee nodded once. “I’ll take the Desert Star and you can have anything else you want.”
Ai shook his head slowly. “Other way around, Rock Lee.”
“Our client is paying us for the Desert Star specifically,” Lee told him. “Nothing else will suffice.”
“I may not have some rich client,” Ai warned him. “But the Desert Star is stolen property. I cannot return something else in its place.”
“Who is there to return it to?” Lee demanded. “One thief has stolen it from another for hundreds of years.”
“I don’t need to tell you that.”
“So we both want the Desert Star,” Lee summarized. “And neither of us are willing to leave here without it.”
Ai held up one finger, listening to something in his ear.
“He can’t shut down the failsafe,” Neji’s voice said in Lee’s ear. “And now he’s starting to panic. Hurry it up.”
“I have an idea,” Lee announced. “A challenge to decide who gets the Desert Star like gentlemen, and get us both out of here safely.”
“You want to make it more interesting?” Green eyes glittered almost as brightly as the diamond as they watched him. “I’m listening.”
“Lee, what the fuck are you doing?” Tenten hissed. “Tsunade will make mincemeat out of you.”
“Do not worry, I know what I am doing,” Lee reassured. “How much time have I got left?”
“Ninety six seconds,” Neji bit back.
“We can work together,” Lee said to the stranger. “They say two heads are better than one, so we can open this case, get out of here with the Desert Star before the alarm goes off, and then settle it outside.”
“How will we ‘settle it?’” Ai wanted to know. “I have no desire for this to get . . . messy.”
“A contest,” Lee told him. “Winner takes all, fair and square.”
“What type of contest.”
“Quit fucking around,” Ai’s sister snapped through their headsets. “We can decide that outside.”
“Fine.” Ai agreed. “Let’s crack this thing open.”
“I am good with locks,” Lee told him. “Leave it to me.”
He made quick work of the lock that opened the back panel of the pedestal. The pristine white casing swung open to reveal an intricate brass locking system. Lee set to work on it with an array of slim silver tools balanced between his fingers. The lock whirred, and hissed, and slowly began to move.
“How were you planning to do this?” he asked Ai.
“The same way,” Ai said. “It will go faster if I help you.”
Lee nodded in agreement. “Hold this one. Do not move it.”
Ai held the little tool in place, carefully balancing the tumblers of the lock.
“Pass me that wrench?” Lee asked. Ai had to lean across him to reach it, the back of his hood brushing against Lee’s cheek.
“Normally it takes six different keys to unlock this. Do you know where they’re hidden?” Ai asked conversationally. He reached into Lee’s tool belt without being asked to pass him another pick.
“I have heard rumours,” Lee replied. “In vaults under military bases, apparently.”
“Now that would be a heist,” Ai sighed.
“Yeah,” Lee agreed dreamily. “Especially if you could hit the museum before they even realized the keys were missing.”
They turned to look at each other. Ai’s eyes glittered greedily above his mask, crinkling at the corners in an expression that may have been more smile than smirk. Lee grinned back at him.
“Forty five seconds,” Neji shouted in their ears.
Without taking his eyes off Ai, Lee flicked his wrist and the lock released with a loud click and a hiss of air. The two stood up at the same time to watch the catches along the bottom of the glass case release.
“What now?” Ai asked. “Who takes it?”
Lee turned to him and held out his fist. “Rock, paper, scissors? Winner carries it until we get outside?”
“Get a move on,” Neji barked.
“Fine,” Ai agreed.
“Rock, paper, scissors,” Lee intoned. He threw rock, Ai threw scissors. Lee lightly bumped his knuckles with the side of his fist, miming crushing a pair of scissors. Ai grabbed his wrist, viper quick, and yanked him forward so they were nearly nose to nose.
“If you even think about a double crossing me, I’ll make you wish I had just killed you the moment you stepped foot in this gallery.”
“I would never do something like that!” Lee replied indignantly.
“This is no time to be defending your honour,” Neji shouted. ‘You’ve got seven seconds! Run!”
Lee snatched the diamond off its plinth, and zipped it into the front pocket of his vest. Tenten had reinforced it for this very purpose; the fabric was uncuttable, the zipper locked closed. The diamond was secure, next to his heart. Together they sprinted towards the gallery exit.
“What is that?” Ai’s brother said in the speaker.
“Wait, don’t touch it!” Neji called back.
“Oh, fuck.”
“Lee! Stop!”
Lee skidded to a halt just inside the gallery doors. He caught Ai by his hood and yanked him back at the last second.
“There is an additional failsafe we did not expect,” Neji explained while Ai’s brother continued swearing colourfully in the background. As soon as the Desert Star’s case is opened, an array of laser sensors is triggered. It can only be turned off from a control panel outside the gallery.”
“And the countdown?” Lee asked. “The other failsafe.”
“I can keep the cameras down for a few more minutes,” Ai’s brother told them. “But I can only buy you another ten seconds for the motion sensors.
“Can we get out through the vents,” Ai demanded.
“Nope. Whoever set up this laser array thought of that too.”
“I can get through a laser array!” Lee declared. “I am very flexible!”
“That’s true, he is,” Tenten agreed.
Ai cast an appraising eye over him. “I’ll remember that for later, but there’s no way you’re leaving me in here to take the fall for you.”
“I would not - !”
Ai held up a silencing hand. “Watch.”
He reached into the pocket of his hoodie and drew out a handful of fine powder. He flattened his palm and blew across it, like blowing a kiss. The dust rose in an opaque, shimmering cloud and billowed into the doorway. The lasers became visible, shimmering in the midst of the cloud.
“So many of them,” Lee said softly.
“Easy enough,” Ai shrugged. “Wait here.”
He disappeared into the fog as well, his shadow just visible bobbing and weaving among the blurred beams of light.
“Lee, the motion sensors for that gallery are coming back on line,” Neji informed him. “I can bring them down again in a few minutes, and your little friend should be safe. But whatever you do, don’t move. Don’t even blink.”
Lee shut his eyes to prevent the billowing dust cloud from stinging them and waited, barely breathing.
He heard Neji and Ai’s brother speaking in his ear, giving Ai directions to locate the control panel and disable the lasers. A click. A sound like an exhaust fan slowly winding down.
“I’m compromised,” Ai’s sister’s voice hissed through the speaker. “I passed one of the other guards and I recognize him.”
“Recognize him?” her brother demanded.
“From the bank job last year. He was the guard there.” She whispered. “I don’t think he saw my face, but I can’t be sure.”
“Oh fuck, get out of there.”
“All of you get out of there,” Neji ordered. “Now!”
Lee opened his eyes as a hand clamped around his wrist.
“We’re clear, but we need to run,” Ai whispered.
“Right!” Lee bounded forward as quickly as his long legs could carry him. “Tenten, throw the rope!”
“Rapunzel, Rapunzel,” Tenten sang through the speaker, laughing.
“The same guard on duty at two different jobs in two different cities,” Ai panted, struggling to keep pace. “Someone’s onto us.”
“It happens.” Lee shrugged.
“Not to me,” Ai snarled. “I’ve never been caught, not even once.”
“And we are not getting caught tonight either,” Lee promised. The arches of the third floor mezzanine, came into view ahead of him. He didn’t slow down or break stride as he turned to grab Ai around the waist.
“Lee! What - !”
He leapt across the bannister, sailed across the open space above the gallery’s mosaic floor and caught the rope with one hand. They slid, the robe biting into his gloves, heating the palm of his hand. He tightened his grip on Ai, who had thrown both arms around his neck and was holding on tightly enough to nearly choke him.
“Tenten! Go!” Lee hissed at his microphone. An engine whirred to life somewhere above them and the rope began moving steadily upwards.
“Warn me next time,” Ai gasped, his eyes very wide and very close to Lee’s.
“Next time?” Lee laughed. “I will admit, it has been a pleasure working with you.”
“Likewise,” Ai smirked behind his mask. His hood had fallen back in their mad dash to reveal a tousled mess or red hair. It was far too distinctive, too easily recognized. Lee wanted to pull the hood back up for him but didn’t have a free hand.
His knuckles bumped against the window ledge and the winch motor died.
“Tenten,” Lee called softly.
Tenten appeared in the window frame and reached for Lee’s wrist. Lee hoisted Ai upwards.
“Him first.”
Tenten sighed and reached down to grab him and haul him through the frame. Lee pulled himself through after.
Ai walked a few paces away to the centre of the roof and looked around, he turned to Lee and folded his arms. Lee stepped across to face him while Tenten wound up the last of the rope. She slung it over her shoulder, repacked the winch into her duffel bag and turned to watch them.
“Go on, Tenten,” Lee said without looking back. “Make sure the others are in place. He and I can settle this ourselves.”
Tenten nodded once and ran for the fire escape. Once she was out of sight, Ai pulled his mask down around his neck to face Lee directly. Even with the mask still on, Lee had guessed that Ai was a very handsome man, but with his face lit by the soft glow from the street beneath them, the night breeze playing in his hair, he was almost otherworldly.
“The challenge,” Lee began, his mouth suddenly dry.
“I have an idea,” Ai replied. He reached out and grabbed Lee by the collar, yanked him forwards. Lee stumbled and an arm hooked around the back of his neck, a pair of lips crushed up against his own, desperate and demanding. Lee knew this was crazy, knew the sensible thing to do would be push him away; he knew this and yet he kissed him back anyway. As soon as Lee kissed him, Ai’s dark eyelids fluttered shut, his mouth gentled and moved in a slow, experimental deepening of the kiss. He sighed softly and the hand that had gripped Lee’s collar relaxed and slid down to his chest. Lee’s hands found his waist, bulky with tactical gear and tool belts, then slipped into a space on his lower back where Lee’s gloves and Ai’s sweatshirt were all that stood between skin and skin. The other hand rose to cradle the back of his neck. Even through his gloves, Lee was sure his skin was soft as velvet, his lips certainly were. It made Lee suddenly self conscious of his own chapped and chewed on lips.
He could feel that Ai was standing on his tiptoes, pressing up against him. His tongue flicked against the seam of Lee’s lips and Lee gasped. Ai paused to nibble at Lee’s lower lip before slipping his tongue past to lick at the back of Lee’s teeth. Lee groaned and copied the movement, his grip tightening around the back of Ai’s neck, fingertips in his hair, which he imagined would be soft as well. He wished he could have had time to take off the gloves. Ai’s mouth was warm and slick, and tasted of cinnamon candies, as spicy and sharp as he was sweet. Lee’s head swam. His feet were floating somewhere above the gravel on the roof. He was anchored to the earth only by his hands on Ai’s back and Ai’s lips against his. He forgot about the weight of the diamond in his pocket; a fortune beyond imagining. He forgot about the heist, the danger, the van on the street below where his friends waited to make their getaway.
“Lee,” Ai whispered, and Lee chased his name into Ai’s mouth.
Alarms blared beneath them, flashing red lights and wailing sirens. Ai stumbled backwards out of Lee’s grasp, grinning. His teeth were sharp, his lips pink and wet.
“Right on schedule,” he whispered.
“What? We have to get out of here,” Lee insisted.
Ai held up his hand and something sparkled between his fingers briefly before disappearing into his sleeve. Lee brought his hand to the pocket at the front of his vest and found it still sealed but empty.
“Here’s your challenge then, Rock Lee,” Ai called, backing away. “Catch me if you can.”
He stepped backwards over the edge of the roof and fell. Lee shouted and lunged after him. Ai was gone. The museum wall was blank stone and dark glass. The damp concrete below shone dully under the street lights, deserted. He had vanished, seemingly into thin air.
The alarms in the museum below him kept ringing, down the street an answering siren screamed. Lee suddenly remembered where he was and what he was doing. Static crackled in his ear.
“. . . blocking the goddamn signal,” Neji’s voice growled, distorted and distant. “Lee? Lee, are you there?”
“On my way down,” Lee gasped.
The rest of what Neji said, and Tenten’s shouting, were lost to static as Lee flew down the fire escape, his feet barely touching the stairs. Still two floors above the pavement, he flung himself over the railing and dropped to the ground. Pain shot through his ankle, but not nearly enough to stop him from running. A van screeched around the corner and the door was thrown open. Lee leapt through into Neji’s outstretched hands and Tenten slammed the door after him. In the driver’s seat, Gai whooped and stomped hard on the gas pedal with his good foot. The van shot forwards fast enough to throw its three passengers to the floor among the twisted wires and blinking lights of Neji’s computers.
“Welcome back, Lee, my boy!” Gai roared. He took a corner on two wheels.
“Did you see anyone else?” Lee demanded. “Another vehicle leaving the museum?”
“We’ll check later,” Neji said, staggering to his feet and returning to his bank of monitors. “For now we need to get as far away from here as we can.”
“Who were they?” Lee asked. “I need to know who that man was.”
“We don’t have a name, not yet anyway,” Tenten began slowly. “I called Tsunade while I waited for you and she’s heard of them, but figured it was only rumour.”
“He said he had never been caught,” Lee recalled.
“That would explain why I can’t find a mugshot,” Neji grumbled. “I assume his brother found your mugshot and that’s how he knew your name. Which means they know we were here too.”
Lee winced and pressed his hand over the empty pocket again.
“Lee,” Tenten whispered. “Please tell me you’ve still got it.”
Lee met her panicked eyes and then looked down at the floor. He unlocked the zipper and opened the pocket. The diamond was gone, he had known that already. In its place he found a small square of white paper with the character “Ai” drawn on it in red ink. He stared at it for a long moment, as though it could answer his questions.
“We failed?” Tenten asked softly. Neji stopped typing abruptly.
“No,” Lee whispered.
“But he has the diamond. You lost,” Tenten said.
Lee yanked one glove off and raised his fingertips to his lips, still tingling with the taste of cinnamon. He looked down at the character on the little slip of paper again and took a deep breath.
“This is not over.”