The Rook - REVIEW THIS STORY

Written by Theoreon Marceaux
Last updated: 01/02/2007 02:01:11 AM

Chapter 1

It was like a maze. A shadowy figure noiselessly crept down the last of what seemed to be an endless amount of dark hallways. The figure had made its way through the mansions' labyrinth of halls and rooms with ease, following a complex path that had been committed to memory several weeks before. As the figure moved on, it stopped a little more than 10 feet shy of the wooden double doors at end of the hallway. A tiny red light flashed on the left of the double doors. The figure then slowly felt along the wall in the darkness until it came upon the frame of a large painting. Reaching behind the frame, the hand searched and found a small 9-buttoned keypad. Quickly typing in a 20-digit sequence, the figure heard an almost inaudible beep as the red light on the door turned green.

Carefully, the figure moved closer to the door, sliding his hand into the small pouch on his side and producing a metallic lock pick. The figure sat on his haunches at the door, splayed the fingers of his left hand around the area of the lock for balance and with the right hand gingerly inserted the pick into the lock. His right hand began writhing. Slowly, rhythmically, almost sensually until he heard the obligatory click that signified his success.

The figure rose and pulled down the red goggles that had been resting on his forehead to his eyes. He noiselessly pushed the door slightly ajar, and waited. When nothing happened, he pushed it open just far enough for his slim body to fit through and closed it quietly behind him. Before him through the red of the goggles he saw the elaborately decorated study.As he entered the figure glanced down and noticed that he was standing on a large Persian rug and his mind involuntarily made a quick estimate of its net worth. The west wall of the study was taken up mostly by a towering bookcase and was filled with rare books and texts, while the east wall was adorned with fine paintings and various academic degrees. Straight ahead of him on the far side of the room sat a large Louis XVIII desk with several books and papers scattered about its surface as well as a tumbler of Bourbon. Behind the desk were the curtained glass doors to the 3rd story balcony that looked out over the estate grounds.

After flicking a switch on the side of his goggles the figure could also see the glowing laser grid that criss-crossed the east wall. Making sure to disturb nothing, the figure walked to the west wall past several exotic plants and marble busts of the great scholars.As the figure faced the books on the west wall his eyes scanned the titles of the books on the 4th shelf. Using his finger as a guide but making sure to not to touch the books, the figure searched until he came upon a copy of Prometheus Unbound. Smiling to himself, the figure slowly shook his head and removed the book from the shelf. Behind the book on the wall was an alarm system interface, whose LCD display read "Primed." The figure then reached into his pouch and removed a tiny Philips screwdriver and a device that resembled a black hand calculator with a long flat grey wire protruding from it.

Reaching back at the alarm interface, the figure set the screwdriver into one of the screws on the interface's corner. He pushed a small button on the side and the head of the screwdriver started to silently whirl faster and faster until the small screw in the interface fell onto the shelf. He did this for each screw in the interface, and when he finished he removed the

interface cover to reveal an amalgam of wires and plugs.

He then plugged the small flat wire from the other device into an access port and started typing into it. The LCD screen of the device had numbers running across it like a slot machine in Vegas, and one by one the numbers stopped, revealing the 12-digit deactivation code. When he had the code, the figure unplugged the device, re-screwed the interface on and typed in the code. The interface display then read "Disarmed." And the figure ran across the room to the east wall. The laser grid had been deactivated and he reached up and removed a painting from the wall. Below it was a small gold plate that read "La Grenouillere."

The figure then took apart the frame quickly and professionally, andcarefully removed the painting and rolled it up. He then opened the black storage cylinder on his back and took out a rolled up poster and put the painting into the cylinder. He then unrolled the poster and placed it in the frame, reassembling it quickly, and hung it back on the wall. Grinning wide,

he made sure he left everything exactly as he found it then exited through the balcony window doors, and leapt off the 3rd story balcony into the night.