The Infamous Frankie Lorde 2, page 17
Entry Thirty-Two
Heading into the twins’ dinner party that night alone, felt a bit like walking into the jungle.
I’ll never admit it to him, but I would’ve felt better having Ollie with me. But for our plan to work, he couldn’t be here. He needed to be at the zoo.
And bit or not, it was the safer of the two locations.
Before going inside, I pressed the button on my earpiece and talked softly to myself.
“Ollie, what’s your status?” I asked.
After a few seconds of silence, I heard his side crackle and then he started to talk.
“Sorry, still getting used to this whole Mission Impossible ear-thingy, which, by the way, is freaking awesome,” he said.
“Focus, Ollie,” I reminded him, but smiled under the glow of the entranceway.
“Right,” he said, pulling it together. “So, got here fine. The back guard barely looked at me as I came through. The grounds are quiet. Well, the tigers keep growling at me, but besides that, it’s quiet. And dark. And creepy, if I’m being honest. Just waiting for your guy to show, and we can start whenever you give us the go-ahead.”
“Good,” I said, happy to hear things were going smoothly on his end. “Hang tight and be safe.”
“That’s the plan,” he answered, and then the line went silent again.
I took a deep breath and then pushed open the front door.
It wasn’t difficult to follow the sound of the party out to the terrace. Glowing lanterns had been set up all around, giving the space a fun, festive flair. And with all the lights shining, you could barely see the eyesore of a construction site just beyond the celebration.
Tables had been set up, and pristine white tablecloths covered each. Waiters walked around filling glasses with champagne and offering hors d’oeuvres, while music played softly in the background.
When I’d originally heard “dinner party” I thought there’d be maybe ten guests.
I was wrong.
There were about thirty people here.
And they all looked rich.
“Okay,” I said, adjusting the gown I’d worn for the night and then tipping my chin into the air. If I was going to fit in with this crowd, I had to exude a certain amount of confidence, superiority, and arrogance that came with wealth and power.
I had to walk in like everyone here should be honored that I showed up.
With that in mind, I began to strut around like I owned the place.
I said hello to guests as if they should know who I was.
Heads began to turn toward me and I acted like the attention meant nothing.
And then I walked straight up to Emma and Sam, who were standing in the center of a small group of people.
“Bonsoir, mes amis,” I said, interrupting a woman with short red hair midsentence. I leaned in and gave Emma a kiss on each cheek, and then greeted Sam the same way. “I’m sorry I’m late.”
“Not at all,” Emma cooed, before turning back to the group. “Everyone, this is Brigeet. She is the editor-in-chief of French Fur magazine. The magazine is doing an in-depth feature on us for an upcoming issue. Brigeet is also a new collaborator of ours. I’m sure you’ll all get to know each other better in the months to come.”
I nodded at everyone.
“Brigeet, this is Geo Ford,” Sam said, introducing me to an older man with silver hair.
The eccentric billionaire who wanted to hunt tigers for fun.
“Bonjour,” I said.
You vile excuse for a human being.
“And this is Thoya Vanderhook,” Emma said, motioning to a stunning blond woman standing next to an equally stunning blond man.
The supermodel turned designer.
“Un plaisir,” I said, holding out my hand to her.
A pleasure—to bring you down.
Then Emma and Sam introduced me to some of the others.
There was a member of the Mexican consulate. A titan of industries. The creator of some app. A socialite. A famous actor—the one you’re always reading about in the tabloids.
There were others, but they all started to blend together for me. Besides, I wasn’t really there to network. I was there to bring them down.
After we’d been seated for dinner—I found my nameplate nestled in between a former NFL quarterback and a YouTube influencer—I waited for the speech Emma and Sam gave welcoming everyone. And then right as the appetizer was being served, I excused myself to use the restroom.
Not that anyone was paying any attention to me anymore.
Fancy food tended to distract people rather effectively.
Slipping out of the formal dining room, I headed in the direction of the bathroom, but sailed right past it. Instead, I tiptoed down the hallway, noting Emma’s meditation room on my right and continuing on until I got to the end of the hall.
I stopped abruptly in front of the entrance to the Jungle Room.
With a quick look behind me to make sure nobody was coming, out of my sleeve I pulled the key Emma had been wearing earlier that evening and stuck it in the lock. It had been easy to take it from her—I’d simply cut the string from around her neck while embracing before sitting down for dinner. I planned to drop it back down by her chair when I was finished using it so she didn’t notice it had been gone.
Before turning the key, I punched in the six numbers I’d memorized after seeing Emma unlock the door before. I wasn’t sure if she was just super trusting or she assumed I wouldn’t dare read the numbers over her shoulder, but Emma might as well have just handed me the code.
With a deep breath, I turned the key and pushed open the door.
The hallway appeared empty. But I knew what was hidden from eye’s view. Taking the bag I’d stashed behind a plant earlier in the week, I retrieved my own pair of glasses that would allow me to see the lasers. Slipping them on, I was surprised once again by the elaborate labyrinth of red beams filling the room.
I’d always known that snagging Emma’s key would be an easy grab for me—people thought that placing something on their person kept it safe, but it just wasn’t true. Not for a seasoned thief at least.
That said, I hadn’t been confident that I’d also have the time and opportunity to steal her phone, too, that operated the lasers.
So, in the end, I’d decided I’d just have to go oldschool with the lasers, and navigate them.
Just inside the door, I pulled my dress up and over my head, revealing the full body suit I was wearing underneath. I placed my heels and dress on the floor near the door and then slipped my hands through the straps of my backpack and secured it to my body.
Turning once again to the hallway of lasers, I began to chart my path to the other side. During my first heist, I’d only had to worry about lasers that hovered just above the floor. Here, they weaved around the whole room, which would take far more planning and care.
Like a chess player, I worked out my path ahead of time before approaching the first beam.
Then I took a step. Right over that first red line. Followed by a crouching position with one leg extended out to the side, before rolling my body down toward the floor, almost brushing it with my stomach in the process.
I dove over the next one, curling my chin toward my chest as I performed a forward roll.
But as I went to stand up, I realized I’d built up too much momentum and started to fall toward the next set of lasers. I sucked in my stomach and managed to stop a quarter of an inch away from the alarm.
I didn’t breathe again until I’d settled back onto my heels, my balance fully intact. When I was sure I was steady, I looked at the next batch of red lights. They were all so close together that it would be impossible for me to get through.
At least from the ground.
Luckily, I’d prepared for this.
I pulled out the grappling hook launcher—the same one we’d used on my first heist—and held it overhead. It made a pooft sound as it sprang up toward the ceiling, and then there was a satisfying crunch as the contraption embedded itself into the drywall.
“She shoots, she scores!” I whispered, then breathed out loudly mimicking a roaring crowd.
I chuckled to myself.
Dad would’ve loved that.
But Dad wasn’t here.
I was.
And so was Ollie.
Ollie!
I touched my earbud.
“You there?” I asked Ollie.
“Who is this?” Ollie asked.
I rolled my eyes as I pulled hard on the rope that now hung from the ceiling, making sure it would hold my weight.
“Very funny,” I said unenthusiastically.
Ollie chuckled. “What’s up, Buttercup?”
I paused.
“I told you that’s not going to be my call sign,” I said.
“Well, I’m not calling you Master of the Universe,” he argued.
“Why not?” I asked jokingly. “It fits.”
Ollie snorted.
“What do you want?” he asked finally.
“Just checking in,” I said, attaching two handheld grappling hooks to my belt.
These weren’t just plain old grappling hooks though. These were souped-up grappling hooks that Dad and I had commissioned from one of the best gadget guys in the industry to create. As far as I knew, only four were ever made.
Dad had two.
At least he had at one point.
They might actually be in some government building, inside an evidence bag somewhere right now.
The important thing was, I had the other two.
“Your little surprise got here about fifteen minutes ago and now we’re just working out logistics,” Ollie said. “He’s a pretty cool dude. Bat-crap crazy, but cool.”
I laughed.
“Sounds about right,” I said, climbing up the rope until I was just inches away from the ceiling.
I retrieved one of the grappling hooks from my belt and slipped the handle between my fingers and gripped it a couple times in my hand.
Oh, how I’ve missed you.
Then, I leaned out and placed the device up against the ceiling a foot away from me. I pressed the green button on the handle and felt the grappling prongs spring out and attach themselves to the ceiling. Slowly, I lowered my body until I was hanging from the device.
A foot above the alarms.
“What are you up to?” Ollie asked me, like this was a normal phone call.
“Oh, you know,” I said, glancing up as I took the other hook and held it out in front of me and embedded it in the ceiling as well. “Just hanging around.”
“Cool,” Ollie said.
Suddenly there was the sound of commotion in the background where Ollie was. At first I figured it was just the typical noise that came along with transferring wild animals into new cages.
I was wrong.
“What are you doing here?” a gruff voice said loudly. “Who are you?”
There was shouting, some scuffling, and then static as Ollie’s line went dead.
Entry Thirty-Three
“Ollie!” I shouted frantically. “What’s happening? Freaking answer me!”
After twenty agonizing seconds, the other line crackled back to life and I could hear Ollie breathing hard.
“Ollie?” I asked, my heart hammering in my chest. “Was that…Cap’n Bob?”
Somehow I’d managed to keep my grip on the hooks during all of this, and was still hanging—shaking now—from the ceiling.
“Frankie?” Ollie asked, sounding far away.
The relief I felt was almost electric.
“Ollie!” I exclaimed. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Ollie said, still breathing hard.
“What happened? Did Cap’n Bob show up? He wasn’t supposed to be on the grounds at night.”
“Well, he was tonight,” Ollie muttered under his breath.
“I can be to you in ten,” I said, looking back the way I’d just come.
“No,” Ollie said quickly. I could tell he’d had to force himself to say it. “No, let me handle this. You just focus on getting the stuff there.”
“Are you sure? I can always come back here later—” I started.
“No, you can’t,” Ollie said. “You know you’ve only got a certain amount of time before somebody comes looking for you. This is my job and I’ll take care of it.”
“But—” I began to argue.
“Trust me with this, okay, Frankie?” he said, sounding very un-Ollie-like.
“Okay,” I said with a grunt as I pulled the hook in my back hand out of the drywall and swung forward, attaching it in front of me. As I picked up momentum, it looked a bit like I was swinging across monkey bars.
Disconnect the back hook, swing, connect to the ceiling in the front. Disconnect the back hook, swing, connect to the ceiling in the front.
“Call me if you need me then,” I said, nervous that Ollie was in over his head.
That we both were.
“Will do,” he said to me.
After that, his side of the mic went flat.
When I finally reached the other side, I swung back and forth a few times before releasing the handheld hooks and dropping to the floor in a crouching position, the devices still in my hands.
I wanted to stress over what was going on with Ollie, but I couldn’t do anything about it here. So, I turned my focus back to what I could control.
And I pushed open the Jungle Room door.
The whole room was dark, with the exception of some glowing orbs located strategically around the space. Each one was a different color and cast an almost eerie tone across the room.
“Grrrrrr.” a tiny growl escaped one of the baby tigers.
My head swung in the direction of the sound and I was relieved to see that all four of the cats were locked inside their cages.
“Good kitties,” I said quietly as I crossed the room to the glass aquarium that held the anaconda.
I pushed through the plants that hid most of the snake’s habitat and peered inside. All I saw were large branches and logs, some rocks, a lot of foliage and—there! A flash of moving yellow back in the corner.
I began to make my way down the length of the enclosure, pushing aside plants to try to find the entrance to the snake cage. When I finally found it, I hesitated.
Was I really going in there with a twelve-foot-long anaconda?
Just as I was contemplating this, the snake slithered up, appeared to climb the side of the glass and looked straight at me. And then its tongue darted in and out like it could taste my fear.
I swear, it was saying, Come on in. I promissssssse I’ll be nice.
Yeah, right.
Then, just to the side of the snake, I noticed something else. Something that was even more incredible than the creature in front of me.
It was green and sparkled in the light and was the size of a stamp.
Holy crap.
I leaned forward and smacked my forehead against the glass clumsily.
“Ow!” I exclaimed, pulling back and rubbing my head.
I leaned in again, slower this time and tried to see through the fog my breath was making on the glass.
That was an emerald.
A huge emerald.
One that had to be worth a small fortune.
I turned my head a few inches farther to the right and saw a crystal clear diamond roughly the same size. And then another. And another.
Smaller gems littered the bottom of the cage as if they were pebbles on a beach.
Yep, I was definitely going in there.
While I’d been taking stock in the millions of dollars’ worth of rocks inside the tank, the anaconda had continued to move around its cage. The snake’s head was now about five feet away from the entrance, and I felt like that had to be far enough for me to do what I had to do next.
I pushed the large handle upward in a semicircular motion until I heard it click and felt the door give just a little.
My eyes never left the snake and I breathed in relief as it didn’t seem to react at all to the noise.
“Good girl,” I said quietly. “Nothing to see here. Just keep slithering.”
As I continued to talk to it, I pulled out a pre-filled needle, popped off the top with my teeth and spit it out on the floor next to me. I tapped the side to make sure no air was trapped, watched as a tiny bit squirted out, and then sunk the inch-long tip through the snake’s tough skin.
If the anaconda felt it, she didn’t act like it. Just went on her way, moving around the tank like nothing was different.
I closed up the door again and stood there, my hand on the glass as I watched her.
From what I’d learned at The Farm (a lot of the animals showed up beyond freaked out and often needed some help relaxing) it could take up to fifteen minutes for a tranquilizer and sleeping agent to fully kick in. Until then, I just had to wait.
I touched my earpiece.
“Ollie, you there?” I asked. “What’s going on?”
Nothing.
“Ollie? Is everything all right with Cap’n Bob?”
All I got from the other side was silence.
Butterflies began to move around in my stomach.
I hadn’t felt great about leaving Ollie to deal with the crisis on his own. And now that he wasn’t answering, I wished I would’ve listened to my gut and abandoned this mission to save his.
I contemplated leaving right then, but the logical side of me knew it would be pointless. If Ollie had been caught, then we weren’t going to get the animals out. Not tonight, at least. And I wasn’t going to change that by charging in there after the fact. At least if I finished what I was doing here, we’d have money to do some good when this was all over.
I turned my focus back to the yellow creature in front of me. She’d stopped moving as far as I could tell and a clear film had covered her eyes. Since snakes didn’t have eyelids, they couldn’t close their eyes when they slept, but the film of skin shaded their corneas when they did.
