“Inspector Grim, the extra security measures are finished.” Said a young officer who had just approached Grim. “We were able to get some more policemen from the chief and they allowed us to finish much sooner then expected.”
“About time,” Grumbled Inspector Grim, although he was inwardly pleased. Now his plans were finally going smoothly. It was about time that everything went his way. “I will go check on it to make sure everything really is finish and you can go back to your post. This time we really will catch Phantom Thief Rose.”
“Yes sir.” Said the young officer as Inspector Grim stalked off through the exhibit. The young officer watch professor Grim leave before turning and heading toward the primary exhibit room where Crown of the Skies was being kept. The officer took off the hat and long hair fell down the officer’s back. The woman smiled as she reached the doors to the exhibit room and she swung them open.
The room lit up, displaying the Crown of the Skies which was covered with a dazzling array of gems, all of different colors. What was missing however was the police officers that were supposed to be stationed here. A few minutes ago a young officer had arrived and told them all that Inspector Grim needed there help finishing the extra security features.
The woman glanced at her watch and then up a back over at the Crown. It was still a few minutes until the designated time. She approached the case and slide a glass cutter out of her pocket and placed it lightly onto the glass.
“Phantom Thief Rose, you’re early.” Said a gruff voice from behind the woman. She smiled and turned her head to see Inspector Grim standing behind her. Police officers were poring in through the door behind him. “You almost had be fooled but I expected you to pull this sort of stunt. I told my officers that if they got any strange orders that they were supposed to double check it with me, one of my men which who had called away from here found me and told me what happened.”
Phantom Thief Rose straightened and slipped the glass cutter back into her pocket before turning and facing Inspector Grim. She raised her hands to show that she was unarmed. “Now Grimmy, your getting better. I’m almost proud of your growth. Just last month I managed to slip past you in disguise and you didn’t even notice. Now look at you.”
It was a sweet, sicking voice. Inspector Grim however just smiled at her, “Arrest her boys.” The police officers began to surround her when there was beeping sound that caused them to stop moving.
Phantom Thief Rose looked left at her watch which was now beeping and said, “Look at the time. Sorry to cut the date short but I’m afraid I have a theft to make and I can’t waste my time playing with you Grimmy.” Then the power to the building suddenly went off. There were shouts and people bumping into each other. Then the sound of breaking glass and running feet.
Inspector Grim fumbled out a flashlight and turned it on. There, in front of him was a shattered display case and a distinct lack of a crown. “You fools, go after her, she can’t have gone far.” While he was shouting the power flipped back on and they were able to see again, just in time to seem Phantom Thief Rose dashing out through one of the exhibit room exits.
Inspector Grim shouted into his police radio, “Phantom Thief Rose is in the building, lock the building down now. Don’t let anyone out of the build, not even me, until we had secured the crown.” He head more shouting on the other end before he finally go a conformation that they wouldn’t let even a mouse out of the building without making sure that it wasn’t the Phantom Thief.
Phantom Thief Rose was hiding in a broom closet while she heard the thumping of feet outside of the door. It was sort of embarrassing to hide in a place like this but nobody ever checked them so they made an excellent hiding place. She was making use of her time by changing out of the police uniform disguise and into proper clothes for a Phantom Thief. They were loose and black and flowing and very comfortable. She didn’t know how the police officers stood their uniforms, they were all stuffy and Rose would rather die then have to wear one of those all day. Phantom Thief clothes on the other hand were something she wanted to wear all the time, pity she had to wear normal clothes most of the day to hide her identity.
She threw the pile of police clothes on top of the tied up, struggling form of the police officer that she had tied up and hide in her not long ago when she had initially stole his clothes. “Thanks for letting me borrow them.” She said as she pulled out a small piece of paper. She then pulled out a black pen and wrote her name on the piece of paper before dropping it on the man’s head. “Here, have my autograph as a reward.” She liked to imagine bubbles of hearts appearing over people when she did this, it was nice to be popular.
The shouting and stomping feet were silent now so she slipped out of the room and began enacting her plan for magical escape effort. With the crown stashed in her black bag that no proper thief would be without she returned to the scene of the crime. The room was now empty, it was easy to lead the police officers around, especially Inspector Grim who always though so much of himself.
Rose tapped her watch several times and the waited. Just one more minute. Then Inspector Grim burst into the room again. “Ha, trapped are we Phantom Thief. Can’t get through all the exits because of all the guards to you try hiding here and hope we don’t find you. This time Rose, I’ve got you.”
“Yes, you have me just where you want me. In the middle of exhibit, far from all the exits. However will I escape.”
“I see you have an apt grasp for the situation.” Said Grim with a smile. Rose almost hit him, could that man understand sarcasm when he heard it.
Then she tapped on her watch. There was a blaze of sparks that surrounded her, causing the officers that were closing in on her to fall back and shield their eyes. Once the sparks vanished so had Phantom Thief Rose. In her place was a perfectly round hole in the floor. Inspector Grim didn’t wait a second before bounding forward and jumping down into the hole in the floor. Unfortunately the hole was Phantom Thief Rose sized so Grim was forced to squiggle and squirm before he finally managed to fit through the hole and drop into the sewers below the exhibit.
“I won’t let her escape that easy.” Said Inspector Grim as he chased after the barely seen form of Phantom Thief Rose. Yet he wasn’t able to keep up with her. He ran, holding his flashlight in one hand. He kept having trouble keeping up with her and eventually he lost sight of her in the darkness and ran blinding down the tunnels hoping he made the right turns.
After he had passed, Phantom Thief Rose slide out between the crevice between two pipes and took a few deep breaths. That man had more endurance then a monsters and she doubted that she would have been able to outrun him. Luckily she had scouted out this section of the sewers before hand and found several good hidey holes that she could fit in.
Turning and going the other direction as Inspector Grim she quickly found one of the exits to the sewers and climbed the ladder up. Pushing the manhole out of the way she pulled herself up onto the pavement and pulled off her night vision goggles, only a fool would run around in the sewers using only a flashlight.
As she slide the cover to the manhole closed she heard a voice from behind her, “That was quite impressive. You did a good job at losing him and I almost lost you at several points.” Rose spun toward the voice and began planning different escape routes. Now that she was outside the exhibit there were plenty of different ways to escape and she could easily improvise.
“What do you want.” She asked back. She could seen a silhouette in the shadow between the building but wasn’t able to see anything else. The only thing she knew was the the speaker was probably a woman given the voice.
“Don’t worry, I’m not here to stop you. I’m from a different district and I just wanted to ask you some questions.”
“And that, is how I meet Phantom Thief Rose.” Said Lynn with a certain amount of pride. “I had tracked her down to get information on if she knew anything about the thief of the Euclidian Key. I knew it was possible that it had been Harold that had activated it but since I wasn’t able to find him I decided to look into the possibility that it had been a theft. Of course Phantom Thief Rose wasn’t able to find me any information but it was still a memorable encounter.
“Cool,” Said Emiray, a look of wonder in her eyes, “Did it really happen like that? Now I want to meet the Phantom Thief too.”
Lynn smiled at Emiray, Lynn guessed that even Emiray acted like a teenager sometimes.
“I FIND THAT STORY IMPROBABLE. YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT HAPPENED INSIDE THE EXIBIT SEEMS TOO THOROUGH. HOW DO YOU KNOW THE THOUGHTS OR BOTH INSPECTOR GRIM AND PHANTOM THIEF ROSE.” Lynn just stared an R08 and the robot didn’t continue that line of questioning.