Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2004 17:33:04 -0700 (PDT) From: Flcl flcl Subject: rafello the raven son of jack the wolf chapter 10: The Dane The glorious rise of Nikki the Dane. This is where things turn. I love this chapter. I really enjoyed writing it. Its pure fun and action. If you have any comments send them to neptunewolf05@yahoo.com all comments are welcome. Enjoy to the fullest! Chapter 10: The Dane At 8:00pm, A red Maybach pulls up in front of the Auburn City Bank. It's crowded outside of the car, people with cameras and microphones, despite the snow on the ground. The tall, thin chauffeur wearing a black suit and cap with a red shirt and tie gets out of the car and walks to the back door. He opens the door. Immediately, two huge security guards get out and clears a path. After the path is cleared, a lady steps one foot out of the car. One could only see her dark blue, sparkling shoes followed by her matching blue dress. She steps completely out of the car and adjust her full length fox fur coat. Her body is beautiful and very thin. Her face is old and almost gaunt. If it wasn't for her extensive make-up, she would show all 65 of her years in her face. She lights a cigarette and puts it to her mouth. She has a small wooden case in her other hand. The guards make her a wide path to the door of the Gothic architecture of the bank. The guards open the door. She walks in. Behind her is a cameraman and a reporter. The Lady gives them special permission to follow her. The owner of the bank comes out to greet her. "Well hello, ms. Nwokedi! We were expecting you. It's a pleasure to have you here. I'm ms. Chance, Marva Chance. Walk this way please." Ms. Nwokedi followed Marva to a private vault behind the front counters in the back of the bank. It was were the bank held exceptionally expensive items, including Rafello's cut of the gold which he sold to his father. The cameraman has to turn off the camera until they get in the vault. They both sit down. The cameraman and the female reporter follows them in. "You can have your interview when ve are finished." ms. Nwokedi says in her French accent. She then sets the wooden box on the table between them and opens it. She takes out a black velvet and pours out its content. There is a large, blue gemstone and several diamonds. "This here is one of the worlds largest Sapphires weighing in at around 56 karats. It was found in my South Africa mine two weeks ago. I want you to keep it safe while I'm here on my winter vacation." Ms. Nwokedi says as she fondles it in her hand. Natalia Nwokedi is a 65 year old French/ Russian woman who discovered Diamonds 10 years ago and recently found sapphires near the same mine. Her wealth made The Chance family look like peasants. She recently bought 50 acres of land near Auburn City. She always travels with at least 10 diamonds. She calls them "good luck" charms. She is fluent in English, French, Russian and Japanese. The whole world knows her, she's as famous as any rap artist. Even though she comes from an aristocrat bloodline, she donates heavily to the people all around the world. They make their transaction. "Your jewels will be safe here. We have the best armed guards watching it 24/7." "I really hope so. I would hate to have this city in ruin over my lost gems." Natalia warns. Marva swallows her spit. The reporter gets her very exclusive interview with the multi-millionaire. Ms. Nwokedi has only had 5 interviews for the public in her life. She wanted her privacy, that's why she moved to the remote area outside of the city. No one knows exactly where it is. She gets back into the red Maybach limousine. Police guide and protect the car from the front, sides and rear as they drive off into the winter night. * * * "WHAT! ARE YOU CRAZY!" Rafello yells at Hige who is sitting facing the large picture window of Eli's luxurious apartment. The sky is clearing, the sun is rising. "You serious, Hige? This is really big. I don't know if we can pull it off." Eli says calmly. He picks up an apple and takes a bite out of it. The juices drip down his chin. Eli wipes it off with the sleeve of his sweater. "Man its cold in here." he goes on to say. "Now look guys, you know I always made every mission worth while, this could be the most lucrative assignment you could possibly ever do." Hige says. "The guy who hired us says he needs it quick. "What does a guy need with a 56 karate sapphire and 10 diamonds anyway?. . . Wait, `guy who hired us'? You mean you already agreed without us?" Ra asked. "He made us an offer I couldn't refuse." Hige said. "How much Hige?" Ra asked. He was starting to get upset. He was a hit man, not an international, professional thief. Hige had them steal things for the Kitsune gang and for few "clients", but nothing that would cause international problems. Ra and Eli killed countless people, they were guns for hire. But they just didn't kill just anyone. They had to be overall "evil" or "antagonistic" for Ra and Eli to just kill them and collect a payment or even a ransom. Thugs, drug dealers, wanna be gangsters, and criminals with a large ransom were their targets. No amount of money would make Ra risk going to prison. He and Eli would get life or worse for sure. "25 grand a piece, including me." Hige said. Ra looked Eli. They both had smiles from ear to ear. This was a lot of money since the business was kinda slow, only about one hit a week. "You did the right thing. That gem will be in his hand in 2 days as long as he has the money already waiting for us." Eli said. "Good, good! I knew you two would want it. The guy really wants those gems. The guy even sent us a care package." Hige says as he shows them a large box. "Ra pulls out his knife and cuts the box open. There is a note inside. "I would like to thank you guys in advance. The Kitsune does excellent work. I know you will get it to me, but I have one thing to add: you have to do this quietly. There must be no evidence. I've made this package to make sure you keep quiet. I've included sleeping gas, sleeping darts, smoke bombs, all black outfits, you know the whole stealth thing. I've even put in an exact replica of the gems. Don't get them mixed up. They were kinda expensive replicas. Well hope you have fun. Ha, ha, ha. If you have any questions call me, hige should know the number." ~ Anonymous That night, Ra and Eli went to the bank and made observations. The Gothic architecture of the building made it easy for them to hide in the shadows. There was only one window, a skylight in the lobby. It was heavily guarded. The bank had two guards at the front door watching over the new metal detectors. About 8 guards walked the lobby's floor, each had a different line or routine they would walk. They would walk to one point, stop look around for 5 seconds, then make a left about 20 feet, look around and then make another left or tun down a hallway. They repeated this cycle for about 5 times before they changed the sequence. Ra noticed that there were about 3 cycles. It was air tight. It even included a trip to the bathroom. There were 3 guards behind the long front desk and there was one stationary guard in the middle of the lobby. He was the one that looked up at the skylight every few moments. It was as if they were expecting to be robbed. Eli made pretended to make a deposit under a fake name while Ra stood against the wall pretending to read a newspaper. The stationary guard approached him. "I'm sorry but you cannot stand here. Your blocking the heating vent. Please have a seat near the back of the lobby if you are waiting on someone."The white guard said. Ra took a look behind him. The vent was about two feet high and two feet wide. `This could be useful.' he thought to himself. Eli got out of line. "I'm sorry, I've seem to have forgotten my ID card at home." Eli said to the female teller. "Its ok, just don't forget it next time." She said. Eli turned around to leave when the teller said, "Uh, you forgot this." Eli turned around to pick up the piece of paper. It was her phone number. "Uh, sorry, I'm gay." Eli said as he refused her number. He walked away. "That's because you haven't been with me." The bank teller said not caring that she was heard by everyone. Eli didn't turn around. He just yelled back to her, " I have a boyfriend." as he walked over to Ra and gave him an open mouth kiss in the public lobby. That night, Eli and Ra were geared up. They had on all black. Ra had already presented the information including how many cameras there were and how man and what kind. Hige told them to turn up the heat when they got there. He found out that the cameras they used at the bank were outdated and not good at high heat. It was 12:01am. Ra and Eli were behind the back parking lot of the bank. Eli, the sharpshooter, took out all of the extra bright lights rendering the cameras useless. The winds were strong. A storm was coming. They walked across the recently plowed parking lot to the building. Ra shot 3 of the four guards with sleep darts. They were going to be out until sunrise. Eli shot the last guard as he opened the security entrance. They were surprised to find that the guards in the security room had left to check the lights. They possibly blamed the black out on the snow or high winds. Eli found the fuse box and turned off all of the lights. The generators cut on, but they both new the generators could only power the important things like the three vaults. Every other camera was shut off automatically. Ra and Eli quickly ran out of the room into the nearly dark hallway. They could hear the guards running back to the security room from the front public lobby. Ra pointed out the huge old vents. They both got in. The guards ran right by. Ra leaded Eli through the vents until they got to the one in the lobby. It was nearly dark in there also. The stationary guard ordered for six of the men to go to the vaults, two for each one, while the remaining three guards stay behind. They all had flashlights. Ra and Eli could see them run out of the room. The lights running off half the power were almost useless, everything appeared dark brown. As soon as the six guards left Rafello kicked open the vent and threw a stun grenade. The three guards couldn't respond. They hit the ground with a resounding "THUD". They got out of the vent and headed behind the counter. Ten armed guards rushed in the lobby. Ra threw another stun grenade into the throng of officers. A few of them ran, but most was knocked out. Ra grabbed one of the knocked out security guards and took his key cards, keys and communicator. He must have been new because he had all of the codes written down on an index card. They made a break for it. They ran for the third vault. It was down one hallway behind the teller's desk, through two other doors and behind another desk, the desk where Ms. Nwokedi had her exclusive interview 3 days ago. Ra and Eli incapacitated all of the guards down that corridor. This room was Marva's office. There was pictures of her everywhere. Ra stopped and looked. Eli paid no attention to the pictures. He was too busy putting on his rubber gloves so his fingerprints wouldn't be found. Ra just stared at the pictures. There was Marva, Jack, Marlette, and many other family members in various pictures. Rafello looked behind the desk. There was what seemed to be a recent family picture. It was recent because he wasn't in it. Nikki stood next to Jack with a smile on her face. It was what she wanted. Ra snapped out of it as he looked at the clock next to the picture. It was 12:20am. Ra knew marva very well. He knew that she kept a spare key to a Jack and Marlette's private vault which she never saw. He had only saw the inside of that vault once, when he was a kid. He saw Marva put the spare key in the cushion of her easy chair in her house. "She must have done the same with the key to this vault." Ra said. "What?" Eli asked. "She hides keys in strange places." Ra said as he walked over to the biggest chair in the room. It was behind the desk. Ra pulled it out and took the cushion off. There was a set of keys taped to the bottom. Eli took them off and tried each one until he got it. Thanks to the "first day on the job" security guard, they had all nine sets of codes to vault three. It opened easily. Ra ran in and went right to the box labeled, "Natalia Nwokedi". They replaced the gems with the fakes and left out of the room. They doubled back to the security room. Eli grabbed the video from the VCR labeled " Mara's office/ vault 3" and left out the security exit. They drove off in Eli's Monte Carlo. It was a good night. They got back to the apartment. Hige was waiting for them. "So, how did it go?"Hige asked. "Smooth as ice cream." Eli said as he took off his mask and gloves. Ra was doing the same. "The guy called. He wants it now. I'll send it to him. I'll come back with the money. . . tomorrow. I know you two like to do. . . `things' after a mission." Hige said. "Cool. Come by tomorrow morning. We can all watch the news together." rafello said. Hige left with the gems in the black velvet bag. He delivered it to the guy. It was 1:30 in the morning. He came back to the apartment at 8am. They were in the shower when Hige opened the door with his key. "Must have had a `sticky night' last night.' He thought to himself. After 20 minutes Ra and Eli got out of the shower together and got dressed. They came out and joined Hige on the couch in front of the T.V. They turned to the news. "Breaking news! It seems the Auburn City Bank was broken into last night. This is live coverage. Lets speak to one of the guards that were there. Our crews are already there." The news anchor said. "Yeah, last night all I remember was walking down the back hallway during the black out when I heard a loud noise in the lobby. I ran over there and that was it. Heh, I just woke up 5 minutes ago. The really strange things is that nothing was stolen."The guard said confused. The drugs had not completely worn off yet. "You heard it hear on Fox 2 first. We'll have more coverage on this throughout the day. Stay tuned." Ra and Eli were victorious. They celebrated all day at the local gay bar, " The Full Moon" downtown. Hige always went with them to gay bars even though he wasn't gay. After drinking all day and parting at the bar he started to question weather or not he was gay. * * * "Your hired. I want my gems back soon or I'll have to level this town." Ms. Nwokedi said at the large desk with the picture window view. "Don't worry. I'll have my best on the case. I'll call her in now so you can meet her. She's my daughter, Nikki Chance. Nikki come here!" the man yelled. Nikki came into the room. She was a lot thinner thanks to her training and looked more like a woman in her tight dress with no sleeves. She had a M16 in her hand. "You called?" Nikki asked. "Yeah, I want you to meet the infamous Natalia Nwokedi. She wants you to find who stole her gems last night. She went to check them, they were fake. A real professional took them. It would be a really good first mission for you to kill the guy or guys and return the gems. OK sweetie."Jack said. "Good! I finally get to use all of this training." Nikki said. "It also pays 10 thousand dollars." Natalia said. "I would appreciate it if you made the one responsible for this suffer." " Let me formerly introduce myself. I'm Nikki the Dane." In the next chapter Rafello meets Nikki the Dane and sparks fly when she announces that Jack has Cancer and has only a few months to live. Who will take over the Family Mafia? Rafello? Nikki? Or someone else?