FALLEN ─ marvel

III. The Basement

Chapter Three
Soroya

Caden's living area hasn't changed, but his basement has. The basement of the tavern is used as Caden's office, his bedroom, his kitchen, and his storage space. There used to be doors that lead into each of these rooms, but apart from the storage room, everything is out in the open now. It looks a lot like a studio apartment, but three times the size. The expensive decorations and furniture is consistent to what I remember: a large leather chair is behind a great dark wood desk for his office, with large matching wooden bookshelves behind it lined with boxes filled with unknown items. His bedroom has zebra print blankets and pillows with a chandelier above it, and this bedroom now connects to the kitchen. The kitchen looks pretty normal other than the glass swan in the middle of the counter.

We are all in his office area now, staring down at a layout of the British Museum that he has spread out over his desk. Caden is sitting in his large chair, lounging in it as he explains to us: "Conner Quinn is a brilliant man, he'll be hard to capture. Even with more security added or traps set, he'll manage to sneak right through them. You're entering his territory now."

I nod to him, knowing all too well how skilled he is. "Quinn got onto HYDRA's radar because he became wanted for several accounts of thievery at only thirteen. He's been doing this a long time."

"How can a thirteen year old be such a high level thief that he gets an arrest warrant?" John asks incredulously.

Bucky is the one to answer. "HYDRA finds and seizes the outcasts in the world, that's how Quinn and a lot of other people became agents. They took them as children and programmed them to serve HYDRA's needs. It's easier to manipulate someone is they don't have a home or place in the world. Quinn was young and orphaned with a skill for thieving, he was perfect for HYDRA."

"That's sick." John mumbles to himself, more angry about it than I thought he would be.

"That's HYDRA." Bucky responds.

"It makes things harder that we don't know what he's trying to steal." Sam mumbles.

"Or what time he is going to steal it." I add on.

"But we know it's on Wednesday and we know where, so that's something," Bucky begins, pointing at the entrances on the layout. "I think we need to play this differently than we usually would. No extra security and no lockdowns."

"How are we supposed to catch him? He will escape if we don't lock everything down." John argues.

"Bucky's right," Sam says, glancing between the two men. "Quinn will see right through it and he'll ditch the plan. He needs to think that no one is on to him. Do you remember anything about his last heists, are there any consistencies?" He asks, turning to Caden.

"He always steals jewels. He never goes after art or artifacts. He never tells me what time he does a heist, but he often tells me how much he enjoys the quiet of a museum to the noise. So maybe he does his heists at night."

"We should be there all day Wednesday just to be sure, I don't want to take any chances." I say, staring at the layout.

"So we just hangout in the museum all day? Wait for something to happen?" John asks me.

"Yes. I think all of us should cover different sections of the museum, wherever the jewels are being displayed."

"There's no way any of us can go into a museum and not be noticed," Sam points out. "Soroya and I are Avengers, Bucky is a recently freed HYDRA terrorist...and Walker is the US Agent. If Quinn hears even a whisper about any of us being there he'll flee."