Aurum Regium

Jefferson looked at Michael with astonishment. He said, “What do you mean you cannot remember?”
“I mean I have seen his face before. I just cannot remember who he is,” said Michael in a strained voice.
“Have you met him before?” asked Sam.
“No, I don’t think so, I just know his face, probably from a photograph,” said Michael.
“That means one of two things,” said Jefferson.
“Which are?” prompted Brandon.
“Either the man is very famous and had his photograph in the papers, which is highly unlikely, as, if that was the case one of us would have also recognized him. The second case is that Michael has seen his photograph in some old case file of his. Any other source would not have triggered his memory under such circumstances, if he had seen the man in a personal photograph, he would have known the man personally and it’s impossible to forget someone like that. On the other hand, if he had just met him somewhere, it is highly unlikely that he would have remembered his face till date.”
“Then old case file it is,” declared Brandon
“Old case file? He must have worked a ton of cases!” exclaimed Olivia.
All of a sudden, Michael seemed to be nervous. He said, “Actually I’ve not been very busy for some time, and if I vaguely remember the man’s face, that means the case must have been one of the last cases I worked on, I’ll check the files.”
Jefferson nodded and said, “Good, now Olivia has a plan that all of us are unaware of.”
Michael immediately understood what was going on. “I don’t even want to know what it is about.”
Olivia said, “Before Jefferson refused to hear my plan, I was about to tell him that I wanted to call Alice Williamson pretending to be the thief and tell her that her son’s collection would be stolen.”
“Son’s collection? Why?” asked Michael.
Jefferson looked meaningfully at Sam. “Sam, why don’t you go and help Michael with his old files? And don’t tell him what Olivia’s plan was.”
Sam grinned as he left with Michael. After they were gone, Olivia said, “I suppose I won’t tell you the time when I would have called the wife?”
“Of course not, I already forbade you to do it,” said Jefferson.
Brandon said, “Enough of this game, tell me you’re going to hold up your end of the deal.”
“I am.”
“We need a guarantee,” said Olivia.
“I am the guarantee. If you help me get the thieves, I will get your sentence reduced.”
“Sentence reduced? I want to get out of there!” exclaimed Brandon.
“And you will, but after some time, and be thankful that you are getting out at all,” said Jefferson and walked away.
Now Brandon and Olivia were left alone. Brandon said, “They call us thieves and we are the ones being cheated.”
“And they call themselves officers of the law,” scoffed Olivia. “They don’t know anything about justice.”
Brandon looked at his wife and said, “I missed you, a lot.”
“So did I and don’t worry, we’ll be together soon, and free,” said Olivia in a hopeful voice. “And maybe even…”
“Don’t say it. Please don’t, it’s painful. It’s best if we stay away …for all of us,” said Brandon.
Olivia just nodded.
Brandon said, “Let’s just hope we catch these guys.”
“We will, we have no choice,” said Olivia darkly.

Some distance away, Sam had just finished Explaining to Michael what Olivia planned to do and why she had planned to do it. Once he was finished, Sam took a deep breath. It had been quite a long explanation.
Michael said, “So I guess those two are being helpful after all.”
“Yeah, I guess so, anyway, let’s thumb through these files.”
Michael nodded and they set to work. Before his problem with alcohol had started, Michael had worked on quite a few cases, and going through all of them was some task. The easier way would have been to search the digital records but since all they had was a sketch based on the description of an old man who was not very fond of observing details, the digital search would not have been fruitful.
While working, Sam said, “This almost reminds me of the painting from London.”
“What?” asked Michael.
“Don’t you know? Oh, I think you were on holiday or something, your parents were shifting. It was over a year ago, someone stole a few valuable paintings from the London Art Gallery. It was an almost impossible job, like this one.”
“Now that you mention it, I did see the coverage on the news. You think it was the same thieves?”
Sam thought for a moment, then said, “No, I don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
“Because they challenged Jefferson, it doesn’t make sense to commit a robbery in London if you want to challenge a federal agent in the USA.”
Some more minutes passed in silence, until Sam found what they were looking for.
“Here we go, this is the guy, isn’t it?”
Michael took the file from Sam’s hand and studied the photograph. Then he nodded with satisfaction. “Now, I remember, Calvin Dowers, small-time actor turned drug dealer and murderer, he’d been given a death sentence, but he escaped during a prison transfer.”
“But that was all when he was very young, quite some time ago, how did you get to work on this case?”
“There was some new lead, he was involved in a gang murder or something, but he got away again and since then, he had completely dropped out of the picture.”
“Until now,” said Sam.
“Until now,” agreed Michael. “Come on, let’s get this to Jefferson.”
The two agents walked up to Jefferson’s office and knocked on the door. Receiving the permission to enter, they opened the door and Michael placed the file on Jefferson’s desk.
Jefferson picked up the file and read it. “Calvin Dowers, now I remember him. He was the one who escaped during prison custody. You sure it’s our guy?”
“Positive,” said Michael.
“There is just one thing that bothers me, why would he be interested in a jewel robbery? The only things he was interested in were drug dealing and extortion.”
Sam said, “We can ask him that when we catch him, let’s get his address and get him.”
“No,” said Jefferson.
“What?” asked Michael with disbelief. “He’s one of the thieves.”
“Exactly, he is one of the thieves, even if we go and get him, we might end up alerting his partners and lose him and we don’t know which one of them may have the diamonds.”
“Then what do we do?” asked Michael.
“We keep this quiet. This is an advantage, we now know the identity of one of the thieves and we know his name. We try to locate him and then tail him so that he leads us to his partner or partners.”
“All right, we’ll get on it,” said Michael and he and Sam were about to leave when Michael stopped and said, “Where are Brandon and Olivia?”
“They are planning to do something we are unaware of,” replied Jefferson.
Michael and Sam smiled a little and left, they knew perfectly well what that meant. But only if they knew about the precautions Oliver had taken to make sure that the FBI couldn’t track him or Calvin, they would have realized that the job was much harder than they thought.

Evelyn’s apartment:

Rob was staring at the television screen. That was not unnatural. Most of the kids his age loved the TV. The odd thing was what he was watching. He was watching a documentary about astronomy. His sister came into the room and sat down beside her brother. She had just returned from her job at the Grocery store, and needless to say, she was tired.
Evelyn said, “Another documentary about stars? Seriously?”
“Yep, since you won’t get me a good telescope, I have to watch these documentaries,” said her brother, with his eyes glued to the screen the entire time.
“I told you, Rob, we don’t have enough money to spend on those things.”
“Oh, please! You are too old, you wouldn’t understand.”
Evelyn looked at her brother with astonishment. “Old? I’m twenty-five.”
“Fourteen years older than me, that’s a lot.”
“Fine, let’s just watch TV.”
After a moment of silence, Rob said, “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“I know we can’t afford the telescope, yet I ask for it repeatedly.”
Evelyn ruffled her brother’s hair and said, “You are my brother, you can ask me for anything.”
In that instant, Evelyn made up her mind to do anything that she could to get her brother a telescope. That was the least she could do. They almost never went for a vacation or even went to an amusement park. She knew her brother wanted to, but they couldn’t, and then all he asked for was a telescope, she could at least get him that. These were Evelyn’s thoughts, on the other hand, her brother was feeling very guilty. He was ashamed of the fact that he could not control the impulse to ask for a telescope and his demand had forced that expression on his sister’s face. It was the expression that she got when she had to deny his requests due to their shortage of money. It was bad enough that she had to work, even today, and rather than celebrating, he had made matters worse. He hated to see his sister with lines of tension on her forehead and the sadness in her eyes. He knew he had to do something about it.
“Do you know what a group of fish is called?” asked Rob.
“A school,” said Evelyn.
“Correct, but do you know what a group of young fishes is called?”
Now Evelyn was baffled. “I don’t know, what?”
“A preschool,” said Rob and burst out laughing.
Evelyn laughed too, and that sound was as good as music to Rob’s ears.

A hotel in NYC:

Calvin was sitting alone in the room. Oliver had told him to stay behind, in case something unexpected happened. He had just told Calvin that he needed to take care of some things and had left. Calvin wanted to go with him, he didn’t want there to be anything that he didn’t know, but he had no choice. Oliver was the one with the entire plan, he needed him. But that was about to change soon. Very soon. Once they had pulled off the next robbery, their loot would be enough for him to spend his life in luxury. So, Calvin had made a plan of his own. He was going to sell out his partner and take the money for himself. Not the most original of plans, but definitely one of the most beneficial. Calvin was not a man who troubled himself with things like moral code and loyalty, the only thing he cared about was the money he had and the life he was going to lead.
Calvin still remembered the day he had met Oliver. He had been sitting in his run-down apartment when he had received a message from an unidentified number with explicit instructions to go to a café. He had ignored the message, but then he had received another message, this time it said that it was a once-in-a-lifetime choice, and the correct action taken would make him rich enough to not worry about money ever again. That promise changed his mind. He had reached the café at the indicated time and that was where he had met Oliver for the first time.
At first, he had been skeptical as Oliver had told him that he had an idea for a two-man job and all he needed was a crook who could act well. Although Calvin had been quite enraged at being called a crook, he was quite impressed by the man who had managed not only to find him but also get enough information about him so as to know that he had tried his hand at acting before pursuing a career in crime due to financial issues. He had agreed to hear the plan, and when he did, he hadn’t hesitated in saying that he was in. The plan was nothing short of brilliant and it was the definition of ingenious. He especially liked the part where he had to impersonate the guard. That was the correct utilization of his acting abilities, which was something he was extremely proud of. But soon he had realized that Oliver was keeping things from him, not telling him the entire plan. In a way, it was good for Oliver, since if he had told Calvin the entire plan, Calvin would not have hesitated in killing him and getting the diamonds just after the completion of the first robbery. He had killed for money before, and he was not one of the people who would hesitate to do it again.
Suddenly, the door of the room opened, and Oliver entered. He said, “Show me the uniforms.”
Calvin got up and went to the cupboard in the room and extracted a small bag. Inside were two uniforms. Oliver took them each in his hand and then held them up in the light. He said, “We need new shirts. Cheaper ones. The pants would do, but the shirts would stick out.”
Calvin sighed and said, “These look exactly the same.”
“Yeah, they do, but when there is direct light on them, which there will be, the quality of cotton is highlighted. The difference in the fabric shows and we don’t want that.”
Calvin nodded and said, “I’ll get it done.”
Oliver shook his head and said, “I told you, Calvin, we cannot afford mistakes, the man we are up against is quite good at what he does.”
Calvin paused. There was a question which he had always wanted to ask Oliver, but he never had. Now was the time to do it. “What’s your beef with the guy anyway?”
Oliver looked at him and his eyes were unusually bright, even from behind his glasses. “That’s none of your business. You want the money? You’ll get it only if you do what I say.”
Calvin was not stupid. He could sense when things were about to get out of hand. “I’ll get the shirts done,” saying this, he exited the room.
Oliver took off his glasses and ran a hand over his forehead. That was a mistake. He looked at his hand and then ran into the washroom.

Williamson Residence, NYC:

Jack had reached home, and he was now standing in front of his father, who was seated in an armchair facing his son. There was a curious mix of irritation, anger, and concern on the senior Williamson’s face.
Harold said, “Do you know what you have done?”
Jack did not reply, he knew exactly what he had done, but he didn’t say anything. Now was not the right time.
“You have cost the company a lot of money and you have also made a dent in my reputation of never backing off from my word,” said Harold, answering his own question.
Jack was smart, he knew his father was not the kind of person who could stay angry with a person after they realized and accepted their mistake.
“My apologies Dad, but I just wasn’t feeling up to it, I believed it would be better if I shifted the meeting to a later date rather than compromise the deal.”
Jack was right. His father had not been expecting any apologies, but when he got one, he could not help but let go of his anger.
“It’s all right, but from the next time, try to think about the consequences of your action before you take one.”
Jack agreed in a responsible manner and left the room. He did not waste even a single moment and went to the garage straight away. He needed to check on the Animalia.