Aurum Regium

Four days later, an island at unknown nautical coordinates:

Rain was falling from the sky in sheets and the sea was on a high tide. The soft patter of the raindrops was contrasted and yet complemented by the loud noise made by the crashing waves. Michael was standing on the balcony of a large and beautifully built house which faced towards the sea. He had a cup of coffee in his hand, and looked around him with an air of authority, as though he owned the place, which was absolutely true. He was the owner of a large chunk of the lush green, tropical island where the house was situated. This ownership was a legacy left behind by his parents, a legacy that he was carrying forward. The only other inhabitants of the island were tribals whose association with the family had been since they had first bought the island, generations ago, and permitted the tribals to live as they had been living since before the island came into the possession of Michael’s family. This act had touched the hearts of the tribals, and they had begun to see the family as a part of their own group. Michael looked different now, very different. His medium-length hair was combed with style, his beard was trimmed into a neat French cut and his eyes were shining. Gone was the man with the ruffled hair, tired manner and exhausted looks, the alcohol addict. The man who now stood on the balcony of the house was the definition of a smart personality. 

Michael was staring at the waves when suddenly, his attention was caught by the sound of someone entering the large sitting room behind him. Two people had entered the sitting room and they sat down on the comfortable couch. Michael walked in and sat on the large armchair facing the two people. He smiled a little.

He placed the now empty cup of coffee on the table and addressing the other occupants of the room, he said, “You obviously have a lot of questions and rest assured, all of them will be answered, the only condition is that you listen to what I am about to tell you with rapt attention and without any interruptions. By the end, you will know it all and it will leave you dumbstruck.”

The two looked at Michael with wide eyes, as though they could not believe what they were seeing.

Michael noticed their surprise and laughed a little. “Come on! Don’t look so surprised, although I do admit, I saved the ring thieves from the FBI.”

Indeed, the two people who were seated in front of Michael were none other than Brandon and Olivia, the ring thieves, who had been presumed dead by the entire world.

“Michael? You…You did this?” asked Olivia.

“But you’re a fed!” exclaimed Brandon.

“Answering your questions chronologically – yes and no. Yes, I planned it, all of it, although I didn’t execute the plan alone and no, I’m not an FBI agent, not anymore.”

Michael interlaced his fingers. “Now, as I promised, I would tell you everything, but you would have to be patient.”

“Well, start already!” said Brandon.

“One moment, there is one other person whose presence is currently required,” said Michael, and then raised his voice and said, “Come on in!”

After a moment, a man walked into the room. Motioning towards the man with his arm, Michael said, “Allow me to introduce you to Walter, or as you know him, Oliver.”

The man who had walked in gave a lopsided smile as he looked at the stunned faces of Olivia and Brandon.

“Oliver had kidnapped us, you…you aren’t Oliver,” said Olivia.

And it was true, the physical appearance of Walter had changed dramatically. His eyes were now sea green instead of the ordinary brown that they used to be, he did not wear spectacles, and the color of his skin was much lighter. He was clean-shaven and even his hairstyle was different, now it was relatively shorter than before, and the shade was halfway between brown and black.

Walter laughed, a carefree and childlike laugh. “I know! I’m not the same person, at least I don’t look the same, it’s all the magic of makeup.”

“What do you mean?” asked Brandon.

Michael interrupted and said, “Relax, all questions will be answered in due time. Now, let’s start at the beginning, shall we?”

And thus, Michael began his narrative, a narrative, the likes of which no one had ever heard before.

“To state the obvious, I was the one who planned all of it. Committing the heists, getting you out of prison, every single thing. I have been planning all of this for years, since a long time before I even joined the FBI. In fact, my true motive behind becoming an FBI agent was to work with Jefferson Brown. There were two reasons for the same, the first was to observe him, to scrutinize him psychologically as well as physically to understand how he reacts in situations and what his probable moves are, I had started profiling him even before joining the FBI, I analyzed each decision he took, each emotion he expressed and each order he gave but I was able to do this much better when I worked alongside him. The second reason was that I always needed to be two steps ahead of the FBI, I wanted them to do what I wanted, and I did not want any surprises. The easiest way to achieve this was if I was working the case alongside Jefferson Brown. I don’t like praising my opponents, but it would be unwise to ignore the fact that the FBI are quite good at what they do and I was able to manipulate the situation to my advantage at all times only because they did not know that the man they were after was the man they were sharing their plans with.

For years, I perfected every step of the plan by running simulations in my head until I felt nothing could go wrong. That was when I joined the FBI. My plan did not involve me making any moves in the first two years working with Jefferson because I had to gain their trust and thus, I had plenty of time to work on the second stage of my plan.”

“Which was?” prompted Brandon.

“Finding a partner,” said Michael. “I needed someone whom I could trust with my life, someone who was smart enough to be able to outwit the FBI and yet it had to be someone who was not even remotely associated with me. That was when I tracked down a person who was practically a ghost – Walter. He was the one person who fit all the criteria and whom I could trust, whom I do trust, as I would trust my brother. He was to play a pivotal part in the plan, and that part was the part of Oliver. He would be the one committing the robberies based on the plan I had made; he would be the mastermind of the plan in the eyes of the authorities. Next, I needed to find a partner for Oliver. You see, perfect as the plan was, I couldn’t risk the FBI discovering Oliver’s true identity, thus he was to change his appearance at all times through make-up and also, he needed someone who could be the face of the duo and make contact with the people whose services we required so that when the FBI pieced together the clues I wanted them to, and followed the trail, the identity they would uncover would be the identity of the expendable person.”

“Calvin,” muttered Olivia.

“Precisely. Glad to see you are catching on. I could not just choose any person for that job, it was a job that involved a considerable risk, the risk of death. So, I researched to find the dirtiest and most horrible criminal I could find, someone who would not be mourned nor remembered rather, people would be glad to get rid of him. I found that person in Calvin, he was involved in nearly all the crimes which are committed by people who have no moral, supplying drugs, even to minors, extortion, kidnapping, torture and multiple murders, that was Calvin’s resume. He had been arrested and he had got the chair, but he escaped during prison transfer. He was the perfect candidate for the job and thus he became Oliver’s partner.”

“And then they stole the diamonds,” said Olivia.

“Not quite. There were still two things to be done. Did you hear about the robbery in the London art gallery, over an year ago?”

Brandon’s eyes went wide. “You were the one who stole the paintings?”

“Yes, to carry out the plan, I needed funds and those could not be obtained in any legal way and thus I planned and committed the robbery. At that time, I could not take the risk of Walter getting exposed, which is why, I did it myself. Took an off from work saying that my parents were relocating, which was partially true, because they already had relocated, but still, I went and committed the crime, sold the paintings, and thus obtained the necessary funds for the job.”

Brandon nodded approvingly, “That was smart, committing a robbery to finance a robbery.”

“Merci,” said Michael in a perfect accent.

Olivia said, “You said that there were two things, what was the other one?”

“I had to portray myself as an alcohol addict. It was hard, since I detest alcohol, and as far as I can remember, there have been only five occasions when I have actually ingested alcohol but I had to make the others believe it so I began acting as though I had the same signs, I used to keep myself awake at night to make sure that I looked the part, then there were a few actions and voila, I was an alcoholic. I let this continue for another year, when I realized that all the pieces were in their correct positions, and it was time to bring the plan in action.”

“So, you committed the first heist, Les morceaux de Lumiere,” said Olivia.

“No, they committed the first heist,” said Michael motioning towards Walter “And it all went well, now, you know how we committed it so I won’t waste time repeating that, but everyone was surprised as to how the thieves managed to get the thumbprint, the truth is that it was my doing. I had secretly picked up the glass which David was using for his drink, and I safely kept it in the bag that I was carrying. And I was also the one who had suggested that they get an extra guard so that Calvin could impersonate him and gain access.”

“And I got the print from the glass and converted it to a synthetic and reusable form,” said Walter.          

Olivia shook her head sadly and said, “That is what Claire used to do.”

Walter looked at her oddly, but he did not say anything.

Michael shot a glance towards Walter and then continued, “Now, the fun part was the car. I had to inform Jefferson about the next robbery and humiliate him at the same time so, through my contacts, I got the car registered to a shell corporation but instead of giving a dummy address, I gave the agents the address of the location I wanted them to go to.”

“That was where you had spray painted the Rafool Edmunds thing,” said Brandon.

“Exactly. In fact, I was the one who had suggested that we follow the paint clue so that we could obtain the face of one of the thieves, Calvin. That was where you came in Brandon, and I must say, that was a splendid sketch you drew.”

“Thanks.”

“Moving on, the only clue I gave the agents was that we were going to rob Harold Williamson’s collection next. My plan centered on causing as much of a stir as possible, I realized what better way to gain attention than exposing that the son of a well-known millionaire possesses a valuable and illegal collection and then steal it. And it worked, although Jefferson kept it quiet at the beginning, which was something unexpected, but still, I never said he wasn’t smart, but my goal was the source of my profound motivation.”

“And you succeeded, you managed to steal the collection,” said Brandon with a hint of admiration in his voice.

“We did. We used Calvin as a distraction, while Walter conveniently stole the collection. Getting him in the venue was a bit of a snag as it had to be done without pointing any suspicion towards me, but I gave cover to Walter as he caused the little riot and entered the property,” said Michael with a little smile.

“And then Walter kidnapped us,” said Olivia.

“Yep, he kidnapped you and then broadcasted an edited video as a live feed to fool the world and make them believe that you had died while you had just been knocked unconscious by darts. He is very gifted with computers, he can do anything and everything with technology, that is how he edited the video with such perfection that everyone believed it, even the so-called video experts.” 

“And then you got us here and kept us as prisoners,” said Olivia.

“It had to be done, it was for your own good.”

Brandon looked at Michael with a raised eyebrow, “For our own good? Care to elaborate? We are in the dark here.”

“You have been watching the news.”

“But that only tells us that you got away with the diamonds, that doesn’t tell us what happened.”

“All in good time,” said Walter.

“You don’t get to shut us up, not anymore, you kidnapped us! Who do you think you are?” asked an enraged Olivia.

Michael looked at Walter and a silent understanding seemed to pass between the two. It was time.

Walter said, “I’m Claire’s son.”