National 25 en route to Kuwahawi City
Zeldoten sighed as she watched the green-and-yellow highway sign go by again. Several lanes on either side of the large road back to the Kobbers' city of choice in the nation of Kuwahawi, but it was blissfully devoid of life. The getaway vehicle of choice for the two master thieves' wasn't completely unique in that part of the world, but it was both extremely rare and stuck out in even the biggest crowd. The Tiefling groaned; they'd have to abandon it somewhere safe before hitting the city and then hitchhike, fly, or walk to the city.
None of the options sounded good. Telling Nibbles about it would be even worse.
Every once in a while, an eyestalk would turn towards her expectantly. The crab knew a talk was coming; he just didn't know when. Zeldoten glanced back and sighed.
"Okay, you're right. We should have talked to Dean before running off," Zeldoten admitted, breaking the silence. "Now it looks even more like we're guilty."
Nibbles nodded.
"And...um...we also need to ditch the car somewhere safe. We can't be seen driving into town."
It was the familiar's turn to indicate unhappiness, slumping over slightly as he signaled a lane change, the car pulling off onto the next ramp. The street they were getting onto led towards a forest, perfect for hiding the vehicle.
"Don't you worry," Zeldoten said, patting her partner's carapace. "I'll text Sumireko to take care of it for us." She paused, thinking. "I'll text Miss Celestia. She'll keep it safe."
The duo grabbed all of the equipment they thought they'd need from the trunk of the car and hid the key to the vehicle. A quick text of the hiding place later and the two were back on the road, lurking in the shadows near the road back to town.
~
Nobody paid the teenage girl a second glance as she walked down the street with her Shimmer backpack. As long as she looked ahead and acted like the headphones in her ears were actually playing music, nobody would suspect her of being Zeldoten Renstim, not with the appearance-altering enchantment she had on.
"Alright, looks like the magic hat is working," Zeldo quietly muttered. "And even the Kobber cops don't know how to check for magic yet."
The duo serenely walked through town as they patrolled for their unknown enemy's presence. Zeldo's cell phone had run out of juice on the long walk into town and she'd have to break into an unused building to get time to rest and charge it. It was actually a bit thrilling, being back on the streets practicing old school thievery instead of sitting in the lounge waiting for people to give her de facto permission to rob people they didn't like. She HAD stopped by a hotel though - not the King of Beasts - to grab an armful of pamphlets, looking for notable locations that screamed "ROB ME".
Museums, theme parks, casinos, shopping centers...she poured over all of them while waiting at a McDonald's, as un-Kobber a place to eat as existed, in order to look through them all. The theme parks and shopping centers were instantly set aside; neither had sufficient concentrations of valuables to make the kinds of raids her imposter was making worth while. Why crash a truck through a wall or fence to rob a cheap carnival game or go up and down a concourse looting multiple stores? She didn't even bother considering zoos; animals might be valuable, but there was no way robbing a zoo could be possible with the resources she'd read her adversary having.
She also ruled out the casinos. They had large concentrations of wealth, but they also had a lot of their own security. The tech boom in the region caused by Azure Sea becoming Par Sea and investing in smaller companies had caused a lot of casinos to be able to acquire advanced security systems and even some Kawashiro non-lethal weaponry for affordable prices; they'd turned robbing the casinos into their own kind of gamble.
That left the museums. Underfunded public institutions that couldn't dream of affording better protection than some retired or off-duty cops doing part-time supplementary work. She started looking at the museums in earnest; one of them would almost certainly be the target. Or a bank would and she'd be wrong; that was certainly possible, but all the banks she'd been at were now packing advanced protection too after her own robbery attempt.
Science and technology were out. Their exhibits were more for education and demonstration and were unlikely to be in demand outside of where they sat. Natural history was a bit more likely; plenty of old, local artifacts. Exhibits provided by local groups under the sponsorship of the sage Wicasa though; anyone who knew the man - Zeldoten included - knew he was an intelligent holy man and probably had some kind of magics to protect the items under his stewardship, so she crossed that location out. A planetarium was ruled out, as was a museum of anthropology and arthropodology.
That left the art museum: likely an underfunded public institution full of valuable artworks that unscrupulous wealthy folks would pay a lot of money to have hanging on the walls of their homes for their exclusive enjoyment. Easy to transport, easy to fence. Zeldoten wiped a bit of drool from her chin; maybe she could find their buyers later and engage in some old-fashioned cat burglary for old times' sake. But no, now was not the time for a quick heist. Now was the time for action! Now was the time to save her reputation! Now was the time-!
"May I take your order?"
Zeldoten looked up. The line had emptied while she'd been looking at pamphlets.
"Um, yeah, I'd like a, uh, Combo #5 please."
Now was the time to order lunch.
No comments:
Post a Comment