Elusive As Smoke

Chapter Three:

December 17, 2007
Denver, Colorado


The trap was set. The FBI had leaked a rumor that a diamond necklace had been stolen from a wealthy family and now resided on a Colorado estate. Instead of it being the real necklace, however, it was a fake one with a tracking device planted in it.

The FBI was hoping that Smoke would steal the necklace and, if for some reason managed to escape from the building, they would be able to track his progress and apprehend him before he could get rid of the necklace. The plan was positively fool proof. There was no way Smoke would even make it to the forged necklace. The place was swarming with highly trained FBI agents. No one got though these men.

***

This is going to be easy, Smoke thought as the cameras and sensors were jammed. Smoke stayed in the shadows inside the building and foudn the way to the room that held the necklace. Smoke was through the security system in less then thirty seconds. And these are the best agents in the world? Smoke smiled slyly, the security is positively laughable! A teenager could pull this job.

Smoke was out of the building with the necklace in five minutes. The planning for this heist had been rather simple. The blue prints of the building had been accessed easily and after that it was just like walking into the grocery store and having to manuver around all the many customers, their carts, and their kids. Or as the saying goes, it was as easy as taking candy from a baby.

This had truly been the easiest job Smoke had pulled in ten years, not since those early experimental years. Those experimental years had been the ones that had tested Smoke's ability, it was before the beginning of a legendary career...

***

The cameras blinked for a moment and then reset themselves. When agent John Brown looked at the screen after it had flashed, the necklace was gone. He sat there agast for a moment or two, wondering how it could have been there one second and be gone the next. No security had been breeched and no one had even noticed that someone had come and gone. How was this possible? Someone had done the unthinkable.

"Shields!" Brown yelled as he'd been instructed to do when something happened. Of course he was supposed to call when he saw the legendary Smoke come into view of the cameras. Footsteps behind him confirmed that he had been heard. Shields came up and looked at the screen. It only took one glance to see the necklace was gone. The look of rage on Brian Shields' face was unmistakeable.

"Get the GPS up!" Brian yelled to one of the techs in the observation room. "How accurate is it?" He asked trying to reign in his temper.

"It's accurate within two feet, sir. The tech-Brian couldn't remember his name-said nervously. He'd obviously never experienced his rage before. "Don't worry we'll catch him." The tech seemed anxious to give him something to be hopeful about. Considering what had just happened, he needed all the hope he could get.

The little dot on the scrren finally stopped moving and Brian gave the order. "Move! Subdue him! If you do any damage at all I will personally break your fingers!" He yelled after the agents that were leaving to apprehend the elusive Smoke.

Ten minutes later he got a call from Agent Sidney Rhett. "Sir," she said in a voice that spoke of a wounded pride. The poor girl had drawn the short straw and now had to break the news.

"Did you get him?" Brian asked.

"No, he left the necklace in a box on the side of the road. He even left a note for you." Rhett said trying to make the situation better then it really was. Everyone seemed to think that a little good news was going to improve his mood. The only thing that would accomplish that feat was if they caught Smoke.

"He left a note?" Brian asked, incredulous and still trying to control his anger. "How do you know it's for me?"

"It has your name on it." Rhett said cautiously. She'd figured out that a cheerful attitude wasn't going to work. She'd just have to roll with the punches on this one.

"Bring it in." He said through clenched teeth, not even realizing that his hands dug into the back of the leather chair in front of one of the desks.

***

Mr. Shields,

I must say, I am dissapointed with your secutity. The entire job took ten minutes and twenty eight seconds to complete. Civilian homes take longer then that. You really do need a new security advisor.

As I told your Special Agent in Charge, I work alone. I am willing to help you in your efforts to stop this smuggling ring, but I will do it from a distance. I have a reputation to uphold, as you very well know. If I reveal myself to you then I can no longer boast that I have never before been seen. More information will be forewarded to you soon.

Smoke

The message was typed. There was no way to identify who it came from. There weren't even fingerprints on the document. Smoke had typed it right after he'd come out of the building, how else would he have known how long it took to get in and out.

Ten minutes and twenty-eight seconds was a depressing number, Brian realized as he read the message again. He'd thought that their security had been top notch, apparently he'd been wrong. This is what I get for settling for second best, Brian thought. Marcus had been out of town and unable to advise him on the project. Next time he would wait until he could help.

The message unleashed an infinate number of questions into Brian's mind. How did Smoke get through the building without being seen? How did he fiddle with the cameras without them detecting it? All these questions and so many more would haunt Brian for the rest of the week...