The Keeper: Alexa LeGardien (7 page)

He raised an eyebrow and smiled a little. “I was waiting for you to ask.” He magnified the picture of the necklace’s pendant. “These designs. Do they look familiar to you?”

“Can’t be sure, but they look sort of Egyptian.”

“Ding, ding, ding. It is Egyptian.” He spoke in a whisper. “Well,
mostly
Egyptian. This mark right here,” he pointed at a smaller indentation at the corner right of the pendant. “It took several hours of Googling, but it is, or was, a sign of love in ancient Chinese tradition.”

Alexa was filled with a little bit of hope which slowly dwindled after she realized something. “That’s great.”

“That sounded
not great
.”

“It’s not that, it’s just . . . you know more than I do about the artefact, and I’m The Keeper.” She shrugged. “It’s stupid, I know.”

“No, it’s not. Just remember, you’ll spend most of the time saving my ass, because only one of us can throw a punch and it isn’t me.”

That made her smile. Whereas Matt had had a chance of actually graduating high school, she had spent her years bashing in the head of the foster dad who seemed to forget that she was supposed to be his daughter, not his girlfriend. She loved school, but she hated the students even more, so she had opted for a GED instead.

“You’ll be great as... the keeper. This is still sort of—”

“—crazy?” she completed, slight confusion still seeping into her voice. “Yeah, you’ve said that, like, fifty times.”

“Well, it is.”

Alexa was inclined to agree. She had long forgotten about her air sickness when a slight rumbling caused her heart to be caught in her throat.

“It’s just a turbulence,” Matt whispered in her ear, trying to comfort her.

—             —             —

I
F
Alexa were ever traveling again on a commercial airline, or on anything else at all, she would prefer anything but a red eye flight. She had woken up a few minutes before the plane landed, her head slightly tipped on Matt’s shoulder. They had gotten their luggage, which included two small suitcases, one for each person, and finally made it to the exit.

Alexa shook her head, it had taken several hours and a few trip to the airplane’s washroom, but they had finally made it. “I can’t believe it. We are about to set foot in a European country.” She thought her heart would leap out of her chest. Regardless of how messed up the past few days had been, the beauty of the little visible part of the city from the exit of the airport was enough to calm her down.

A flash from the corner of her eye took her from her daydream. “What was that?”

“A picture.” Matt answered while staring at the photo he’d just taken of her.

“Dammit, I wasn’t even ready.”

“You looked ready to me.”

“I want to see it.” She reached out to grab his phone, but he towered a good few inches above her head, and easily took it further from her reach.

“So, you can delete it? No.”

“That is not fair.”

He threw her a smirk. “What did Leeman say we should look for?”

“He texted me to look for a black car and the numbers, M3082Y.”

“What does that even mean?”

She scanned the parked cars around them,
a black car
? She thought. She had already counted over fifteen black cars, and she wasn’t even trying. She took out the pocket watch Leeman had handed over to her the day before. It still did nothing other than tell time. She had a strong urge to just break it and see if it produced an explosion of some sort. “I have no freaking clue.” She scanned the parked cars again. “Perhaps someone holding a sign that read, LeGardien would have been much easier.” She slipped the small pocket watch into the front pocket of her small suitcase and continued to observe the coming and going cars.

Matt leaned slightly on a steel pole and nodded his head. “I agree.” He took out a cigarette pack and prepared to light it, before remembering that he didn’t have his lighter with him. “Shit,” he muttered.

Alexa saw a black limo pull up a few feet from where she and Matt stood. But she thought nothing of it. That had to be the sixth or tenth limo she’d seen since standing there.

“So, how exactly do you—we—plan on retrieving this so-called artefact?”

“
Cat
burglary, not just burglary.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder in a very dramatic manner and continued. “Don’t mean to brag, but I’m skilled in stealth and—”

He fiddled with an unlit cigarette in between his lips. “You got caught.” He pointed out

“On purpose, duh. And it was just that
one
time.”

“Sure...” she nudged him on the right arm before he could speak another word. “What is it?”

“Over there.” She pointed over at the limo that she had been watching for a short while now. “Do you see that?”

“What? The black limousine? I think that’s the ninth one in the past hour. Why?”

“The plate number, Matt.”

He shook his head. “What about it?”

“The first and last letter are M and Y, the time right now, is 3:08.”

He cleared his throat, keeping his eyes on the plate number. “It is?”

“And right there... this is insane. Right there, the time limit on the parking time is—”

“Two minutes.”

“Exactly. M3082Y. Just like Leeman said.”

Matt folded his arms, still very concerned, but impressed at how easily she broke the code. “So, what now?”

“I think we just approach it.”

“And if we get kidnapped.”

“Well, in that case, I’ve got your back.”

Matt grinned. “Okay, stay behind me.”

They headed towards the parked limousine, but before Matt’s knuckles could make contact with the door, the tinted window facing him, was rolled down. He couldn’t see inside, but he heard the voice that emerged, a deep, very straight to the point voice, “Miss LeGardien?”

“Uh...” Alexa gathered up her thoughts. “Yup, she is me.” She poked her head through the rolled down window.

“The password,” the unseen male requested.

“Uh, what?”
Password?
She definitely didn’t recall Leeman mentioning anything of the sorts.

“The password, Miss LeGardien.” He spoke rather impatiently this time around.

She might as well give it a go, she thought, after all, what did she have to lose? “Oh, right.
That
password... um... M3082Y?”

She heard no reply from the man inside and she thought that perhaps, she had already messed things up. As that thought began to settle in her mind, the passenger doors clicked unlocked.

“I think we are meant to open the doors and enter,” she whispered into Matt’s ears.

He nodded and flipped his hair away from his eyes, which he now noticed needed a trim. A very good trim. “Yeah,” he spoke nervously. Getting into limos with complete strangers was a first for him. He pried the door open and awaited her entry.

They both sat side by side before the lights were finally turned on in the inside.

“Thanks,” Alexa said. Although, she wasn’t sure what she was thanking the man for. Thanks for not living us in the dark? Thanks for not pulling a gun on us as soon as we entered? Yeah, those questions only elevated her nervousness. She took a good look at the now silent man. He had it all, dressed exactly like the workers in the ‘Grand Guardian’s Insurance Bank’. Expensive black suit and tie, and a very crispy, white buttoned shirt partly hidden from view underneath it all.

Matt straightened his shirt and leaned into Alexa’s ear. “Sorry,” he whispered.

“For what?”

“Your birthday. I know the craziest things happened, and—”

“It’s okay,” she quickly interrupted his apology, “That was more than twenty-four hours ago. Thanks for going along with me for this crazy . . . adventure.

“Anytime. Crazy adventure? I’m your guy.”

“Cute.” The suited man finally spoke up once more. “When the fate of the world relies on you, there’s no time to play ... boyfriend and girlfriend, don’t you think?”

Alexa gulped. Was she meant to reply? If she was, she didn’t trust herself to say something that wasn’t rude.

The man pulled out a plastic container that was in the shape of a cylinder, and pulled out a large piece of paper. “So, this is the—”

“Blueprint,” Alexa quickly cut in.

“Exactly,” the man in the suit said, sounding impressed.

“It must be studied. Every nook and cranny. Before you go in, you must know every way out.”

Alexa raised an eyebrow and let out a small mischievous smile. “The blueprint of the house. This is going to be easy.” She turned to face Matt. “You know that little part of my history that involved not only vandalism, but robbery, B and E, and
others
.”

“You mean, those same times that ended with you almost spending the night in jail.”

She nudged his shoulder. “Don’t be so dramatic, I was a minor. The night-in-the-jail-cell thing was never going to be a problem.”

“So, can you do it?” the suited man asked, barely believing that she had the capability.

“With time to spare.”

A
LEXA
opened the door to the penthouse and collapsed on the sofa opposite to where Matt was sitting. “Who knew Krav Maga could be so cool?”

“Yeah,
cool
,” Matt muttered. His thoughts obviously didn’t line up with hers.

Seeing his distress, she asked him if anything was wrong.

He looked up at her and softened his tone. “What’s wrong, is that it’s been six days, and all we’ve done is look at the blueprints, look at pictures of the artefact, looked at . . . oh, wait—that is all we’ve done.”

“What’s your problem, Matt? I thought you were having fun.” Although, saying it, she knew ‘fun’ wasn’t the right word to use.

“I was, but we can’t stay here forever. Eventually, we are going to have to return to New York. You know that, right?”

“Yeah, but we have to be ready. Leeman says these things can be harmful, so we have to be prepared. What if we go unprepared, and something bad happens to you? Or me? I’m The Keeper, so I have to make sure nothing goes wrong.”

“You said you could do it easily. What’s changed since then?”

She took in a deep breath before answering, “I don’t know. Nerves maybe? It’s just that . . . I was ready. Leeman said it was an easy task, but . . .” she leaned in and lowered her voice. “Have you seen the way they look at us? At
me
. Like,
she’s just a kid
, which I am by the way. I’m eighteen. What the hell do I know about any of these things?”

He held her by the shoulders. “Hey. Stop it right now. Stop doubting yourself. We can both doubt the magical aspect of things, but I don’t want you to ever doubt yourself. You’re a badass.”

“Stop it. You’re making me blush,” she said sarcastically, although, appreciating the effort. “I have studied the blueprints. It’s a big house—a castle, more like, but I guess you are right. So you’ve only been riled up because of the procrastinating, nothing else. Right?”

“Yeah,” he replied. Alexa wasn’t convinced, but she refrained herself from prying any further.

“This is nothing. Today. Let’s do it today.”

“Alright. Wait, where are you going?”

She spun around, smiling. “To go take a shower. We’ve been up all night.”

Matt thought of saying something coy, but got interrupted by his phone’s blaring ringtone.

“I think only you can top my love for Avenged Sevenfold,” she said, referring to his choice of ringtone.

He chuckled a little at her attempt of cracking a joke. After a quick glance at his phone screen, he avoided picking up.

“Looks like you’re avoiding whoever’s calling you, and I’m taking a shower. So, later.”

—             —             —

A
FTER
taking the soothing, hot shower that she secretly craved, Alexa stepped out and wrapped her body in a bathrobe. She took a few steps into her bedroom before glancing at the view of the night sky through the glass window.
Wow
, she thought. Since their arrival, they had been staying in the penthouse of a six-star hotel since arriving Italy. A hotel that, to Alexa, could be above anyone’s paygrade.

In more ways than one, things had been a little heated since they got into the limo at the airport. Even with her not-so-clean record, she had never held a gun until a few days ago when James, the man who’d taken them to the gun range, spewed something about having to know things like these as The Keeper. All the while Alexa couldn’t help but think, what the hell had her parents been up to? She had been on it for just a week and she could already feel the hands of danger reaching out and calling her name.

Reluctantly, she pulled her eyes away from the view and closed the blinds, making sure to fall on her bed right after. She drew out a breath and inhaled. She didn’t know why on earth she was suddenly getting cold feet. She had done similar things before on her own. Not something to be proud of, but it was her truth.

She once again found the pocket-like watch that Leeman had handed over to her before she’d left New York. For the most part of it, it was still very useless.

“What the hell do you do other than tell time?” she whispered. She got up and strapped her necessities around her upper right thigh. Her necessities included a taser, and little can of pepper spray. It wasn’t much, but this was meant to be an easy one.

After a while, her attention was drawn to the watch once more. Her name being called, followed by a knock on her door threw her back into reality. She needed to get dressed. For reasons unknown, she added the watch to her necessities.

She scampered to put on some clothes when the person behind the door finally spoke. “Dude-in-the-suit says we should wear ‘the clothes’. You know, the one given to us by little what’s-his-face.” Her breathing calmed down. It was just Matt.

“Davidson said what?” she yelled out in order to be heard clearly.

“He said to tell you that your dress will be in a box under the bed.”

“What about you?”

“Done and done,” he declared.

“I bet you just look so charming. All right, one sec.” She hurriedly pulled out the box from where Matt said it would be and slipped on the dress as soon as she held it in her hands. The first thing she noticed about it was the silky feel—so smooth. Smoother than any dress she’d ever worn, not that she was much of a ‘dress wearer’. She liked her tethered skinny jeans and her plain tees just fine. But a change once in a while couldn’t hurt, could it?