The Thief and the Globetrotter

Chapter Nineteen: The Mastermind

Worse, Baz wondered if Diego saw how he looked at Rei. Baz was transparent and obvious, even when he didn't know how to feel about anything.

"I can't go home, D," Baz said, "I've just got to figure things out. Just a little time to think."

His chest tightened. The next step eluded him and the idea that the answer would just come to him in time seemed ludicrous. They were just words he said out loud, undoubtedly unconvincing to ever incredulous Diego.

"Is there shit you're good at that isn't getting into trouble?" Diego asked, softer than before. "Couch is a pull-out. You know that."

Relief seeped through him. Of course he knew, but he expected to be reprimanded, cursed for his bad judgement. His shoulders sunk, defeated in some way.

"So, what now?" Diego asked, "how are you going to get out?"

Baz wished he had a smart, clever answer. He could plan an exit strategy for an individual heist, but not the structure he locked himself into. If only he'd re-learned the skills to look into the future, struck a balance somewhere between seeing his whole life stretched out in front of him and thinking further ahead than one day at a time.

"I've got to figure out what to do with all this..." Baz gestured to the duffle bag, "and then... I guess I leave."

Jasper would find some other way to draw him out. They couldn't go back and forth forever, Jasper setting him up for failure and Baz desperately dismantling the evidence. That wasn't a way to live.

Diego's shoulders sagged.

"Where?" he asked.

Baz shrugged. "Anywhere that isn't Temperance." His eyes flitted briefly to Rei.

Wherever he went, it wasn't to go there, it was just to run away.

All three of them dropped down around Diego's little round table, looking into space instead of at each other. Baz tugged at his ring, sliding it up and down the chain.

"What if... you took all those artifacts and returned the favor?" Rei spoke carefully, looking up at him. She made herself small, keeping herself on the outskirts of a conversation that had been just Baz and Diego's.

"What?" Baz asked.

"It's Cheng who wanted more business for himself. Cheng let Jasper do what he wanted. What if we returned his trinkets to him?" Rei said, "you could get in. I have keys and the security code."

Baz blinked at her, considering the proposal. Keys were a luxury he wasn't used to. A security code would've done him just fine. It turned the suggestion not into a question of could he, but should he.

"Your solution to get out of the burglary business is to commit more burglary?" Diego was not convinced.

"So, no more 'leave him alone and he'll leave me alone'?" Bas asked.

Rei shifted, her eyes set in a new determination. It wasn't a suggestion she offered lightly. The mischief was gone.

"Cheng is a businessman. He should've considered risk versus reward more closely," Rei said, "it's just a matter of setting affairs in order. Then we go to France."

It was a sliver of retaliation. Like so many before them, Cheng and Jasper underestimated Baz. He would run, but not before sending the message that they were not immune.

"I don't know about this, man." Diego shook his head.

"I'd rather not strap you with a bunch of stolen souvenirs and a cat," Baz said, "Cheng's place is as good a place as any to dump them."

What was one more break-in? Cheng already knew Baz broke in everywhere else, what did it matter if Cheng knew it was him this one last time?

"And when exactly are you going to burgle this guy?" Diego asked.

More shrugging from Baz. "I could go tonight, if he's not home."

At some point, stress peaked and putting on his all black ensemble once again didn't faze Baz as much as it should have. What was one more possibly reckless decision heaped on top of a mountain of them? It was like tacking a couple dollars onto a million-dollar ransom.

Diego's face said no before his voice did. "Like hell you will. How many hours of sleep are you running on? Four? Five?"

Baz grappled for the answer. He didn't even know what the current time was. He didn't know when he crashed into Rei's apartment. He didn't know when he woke up.

"He passed out around 4am," Rei offered.

"And I called you at 10. Six hours of sleep. The last time your ass stumbled in here, you were hungover, drunk off Gwen Ferrero."

Baz winced, sinking into his chair. Gwen was a complication he let fall to the wayside so he could stalk Cheng to the ransom drop.

"Excuse me?" Rei said, which was probably a reaction Diego hoped for, an extra slap across the face for Baz's misjudgment.

"This is the kind of shit that gets you hurt, Baz. This is when you make mistakes," Diego said, "you can't just keep pushing until you break."

If anyone should've learned that, it was Baz. He shut his eyes, blocking out the expectant looks from Rei and Diego to hear himself think. Okay... one more day. Diego wasn't wrong. It wasn't the most irresponsible thing Baz was doing, it was just the thing Diego was most qualified to lecture him on.

"You were with Gwen yesterday?" Rei asked.

Her tone was an impossible one to read. Yes, he had, but what earned Rei's chiding? Was it that he gave into Gwen, his will bending easily to her classically beautiful charm? Was it that Gwen's father was presently dying?

"He slept with her," Diego provided. Whose side was he on?

"Did she give you one of these?" Rei leaned in, draping her arms around his neck, batting her eyelashes at him in a striking impersonation. "Won't you entertain me?"

Rei pouted ever so slightly. Baz felt his face burn red, not daring to sneak a glance at Diego.

They acted like Gwen played him, like she had convinced him that he enraptured her. She wasn't that good an actress. Baz was no more convinced of it than Rei or Diego were.

"Her father's dying," Baz defended himself, "we were drunk and feeling sorry for ourselves."

Rei's expression sobered, like she'd forgotten about Angelo lying in his hospital bed. Her arms remained limp over his shoulders.

"I'll bet," Rei said, her voice not committed to making it a joke.

"I wouldn't have been much use to her if you didn't decide to hide out in an apartment by the park." Baz said, shrugging away Rei's touch. "Anything else? Are we making a list of things I shouldn't have done?"

No one said a word and Baz stood. On another day, he might've shrugged off the mockery of his bad decisions, maybe even laughed along. Rei, his best hope, wanted to run away. His former employer wanted him arrested. It must've been easy to joke from where Diego and Rei sat. Sébastien Barret, master of the impossible, could surely find a way out of this one.

The impossible was getting tiring.

"I'm taking a shower," he said. He needed the respite of hot water and one place where no one would dare follow him or reason with him or try to call him.

The bathroom door slammed harder than he meant behind him. Diego's demands were as good as permission. Take a shower. Eat something. Get some sleep.

Then Baz could make his final move.