“I hate this,” Jay says, quietly but forcefully. It feels wrong to be missing one of their gang, to have deliberately left behind one of their gang. Especially Carlos.
“He’ll be safe there,” Evie insists, though she reaches out and grips at Jay’s vest. She doesn’t like it either, having Carlos somewhere else, out of arm’s reach.
Mal lets them have that moment–she’s worried about Carlos, too, the way an alpha would be about one of her pack, not the same as the other two do–before saying, “It’s for the best,” concluding the matter. No more bringing it up, if they don’t focus on the goal then leaving Carlos behind will have been for naught.
Evie purses her lips and Jay’s expression twists into a scowl, but they fall into line obediently. Mal doesn’t mean to be so harsh, but she doesn’t gentle her tone. They’re all a little on edge considering what they’re running from, and for all the the least of Auradon is still better than that on the Isle, hiding out in a cramped, seedy motel room is less than what they would prefer.
Mal’s already done a cleaning spell on the room–twice–but she’s still hesitant to use the bed. Evie had nearly shrieked when she opened the door to the bathroom.
“Lamp first,” Jay decides, not out of any personal desire but out of experience–in comparison to the other items, the lamp is the easiest. Currently held in the Agrabah embassy, the theft of the lamp would have to be handled within house–the Agrabah embassy doesn’t have to and wouldn’t report the theft to Auradon authorities. The lamp is easy to transport without being magically connected to a particular person and, beyond historical value, it doesn’t have much importance over all. Stealing it would only be a scare for the embassy security, retrieval of the lamp would be a very low priority.
“We’ll need to do some recon in person,” Evie says, fingering the edges of her magic mirror which is currently displaying the blueprints of the embassy, “They have a ward of some kind that prevents me from looking inside the building, though as soon as someone steps outside I can get information on them. I should be able to give you a full roster on the staff within a few days.”
“And any big events that are being held at the embassy–galas, press conferences, whatever,” Mal adds, drawing out a larger copy of the blueprints on several sheets of paper, to better map out the heist.
“Like a ball?” Evie asks, voice soft and wondering–not completely over that childhood dream.
“More people means more potential witnesses,” Jay warns, doesn’t quite argue, “And the security increases.”
“But it also means a built in distraction and a greater cover–with so many people, even if the theft is discovered there are too many witnesses,” Mal contradicts, “It was just an idea,” she concedes, “since we don’t know what security is actually like, it may be better to do it some other way. We’ll keep our options open.”
~
A/N: I wanted to progress on this story, but I realize this part is very ~expository dialogue~ heavy.
JackSGreyson Says 