After breakfast the sisters busied themselves going over their notes for the heist and conducting research. After meticulously cleaning the entire loft Hayun did his best to help, but without a computer of his own and little to no knowledge of the city or their target, he felt utterly useless. He was just about to give up and play video games on his phone when Reina gave him a pile of notes and maps and a canvas pencil case full of colored highlighters.

“Could you color code these, please?” She phrased it like a question, but said it like a command. Hayun only nodded and pulled the stack toward him. It was comforting highlighting relevant lines and matching them with spots on the maps. Lofi music played from Loupe’s phone as they worked filling the loft with the sounds of mellow electronic beats, rustling papers, and the clickety-clack of fingers on keyboards. Hours slipped by unnoticed, the calm punctuated every now and then when someone would get up to use the bathroom, refill their water bottle, or pull a protein bar out of the cabinet. By the time he had finished it was already late afternoon and nearly time to meet Malak at the pub.

The three of them shrugged on their coats, pulled on their boots, and headed out into the growing darkness. Running up the steps to the sky trolley platform, the sisters showed Hayun how to jimmy the turnstiles side to side to avoid paying. Grabbing hold of the metal poles and loops they tore away from the stop, flying through the air twice as fast as a car. They traveled in silence, jostled by the sway of the trolley as it zipped through the evening sky over the eastern part of the city and across the river.

Five stops later Reina pushed them all off and led them around a corner and down a quiet street made up of closed shops locked behind metal grates. Even though Reina appeared calm, Loupe knew she was just as anxious as she was, though for different reasons. At the end of the street there was a pub oozing yellow light and the strong smell of alcohol and sweat. People stood hunched over barrels that served as tables just outside the entrance, each nursing a stainless steel cup full of a nameless drink. The squat wooden door was propped open with a stainless steel bucket that was being used as a garbage bin/spitoon. It was one of many pubs like it that sold beer and vodka for less than a gallon of clean water. Loupe could barely make out anything beyond the opening other than large, smoky shadows, country music being played slightly out of tune, and a sense of anonymity that promised danger.

“Are you sure this is the right place,” Hayun said in a small voice.

“Yes, I’m sure,” Reina said. “And we’re late so we should go inside and see if he’s already here.”

Nobody moved.

“Oh, come on,” Reina sighed, taking the others by the hand and pulling them into the pub. She was especially bossy when she was nervous.

It was even darker, louder, and smellier inside. People crowded around big wooden tables drinking from tankards and shouting at each other to be heard over the music. Waiters with scowling faces wove between the tables, expertly avoiding the swaying drunks with trays of beer and grimey towels tucked into the waistbands of their aprons.

Loupe fidgeted with her glasses, adjusting them unnecessarily. She had to fight the urge to cover her ears and run as far away as possible. It’s just one hour, she told herself. Just one hour and then she could go back to the loft, drink a cup of tea with too much honey and go to sleep.

They spotted Malak sitting at a table away from the fray with a baseball cap pulled low over xir face. To Loupe’s surprise, Malak stood when xe saw them and gestured for Reina to sit beside xem in the seat closest to the wall. Loupe and Hayun settled down opposite them. Nobody took off their coats despite the stuffy air of the pub.

“Hi M,” Loupe said, flashing xem her cruelest smile.

“Hello, L,” Malak said in return, glaring at her across the table.

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“Are you sure it is safe to discuss our plans here?” Reina asked as her narrowed eyes swept over the dirty pub.

“Yeah, we’ll be fine,” assured Malak, spinning one of the gold rings around xir finger absentmindedly. “Everyone here is too drunk or dumb to remember anything they might overhear.”

Just then a waitress came by, sloshing four tankards of beer onto the table and then looked at them expectantly. Malak tossed the waitress a few small coins and muttered a thank you.

Reina only frowned in response and Loupe caught Hayun pulling his quivering fingers under the table and out of sight.

“So I looked into the venue and I can get at least two usher uniforms for the day of the competition,” Malak said. “That will be a good way to get into the theater without tickets.

“That’s good,” Reina said, nodding and pulling her notebook and pencils out of the totebag. “Loupe and I have some camo cloaks we can use if necessary. Our rough plan at the moment is to steal Carwyn’s master key when he first sits down in the box, get it copied during the show and the original back in his pocket before the performance ends.”

“Do you have a privacy tech nearby for the job?” Malak asked.

“Not yet. We’re not sure what type of key it will be so we need someone who is skilled in both old metal keys, key tiles, and cards.”

Discussing plans seemed to have relaxed everyone except Loupe. Reina was scribbling in her notebook and passing lists of supplies, codes, and ideas to Malak. Hayun was staring at the stack of papers without reading, looking unsure why he was there. Loupe gave herself a chance to breathe, happy to let her sister take control, knowing it made Reina feel better.

“I’ve used a privacy tech in the city for a similar job,” Malak was saying as xe thumbed through the pages of Reina’s notes. “They’re not in the area, but I can see if they’d be willing to do a home visit type situation. We’ll be pretty tight on time.”

“Yeah, that’s why we were thinking of stationing two of us in Carwyn’s box and the other two would run the key to the tech and back,” Reina said. “What was the name of that tech? And do you have their number?”

Reina and Malak worked well together, their back and forth problem solving seamless, comfortable, efficient. Loupe had thought only she worked with Reina that well. When she bent to pick up a pen Hayun had dropped she saw that Malak and Reina’s legs were touching under the table. Resentment festered.

The song changed, somehow louder, making Loupe’s head pound. The noise seemed to be closing in on her, pressing against her hot skin and smothering her mouth. The sounds of ale sloshing into tankards and being gulped down mixed with the music and the hurried whispers of the team made her skin itch. She shifted uncomfortably trying to regain her side of the bench which Hayun had usurped in an effort to read the papers Reina had spread on the table. Loupe took yet another deep breath trying to relax the slab of concrete that was her chest. Everytime she tried to focus on the conversion their words ran into each other as though they had been thrown into a blender. Her face was too hot. She wanted a smoke.

Malak kept glancing over xir hunched shoulders and was holding one hand casually across xir face as though xe did not want to be seen. Loupe’s eyes darted around the pub trying to find what Malak was hiding from, but saw nothing but music, spilled ale, and rosy cheeks.

“Have you decided who will be in which teams?” Malak asked.

“I’m very fast,” Loupe said, raising her hand unnecessarily. “And Hayun will make a good look out.”

“You and I will take the box,” Reina said, gesturing to Malak. “I assume you have plenty of experience with pick-pocketing.”

“That won’t be a problem,” Malak said, a smile breaking across xir face to reveal a chipped tooth. The smile made xem look younger, softening the edges of xir face and taking the bite out of xir eyes.

“Great,” Reina said, turning back to the papers.

Loupe focused on closing her mind to the noise and the heat and the stone in her chest. The conversation began to fade from her mind as the light headedness swept in. She tried to take a few more deep breaths, but soon the light headedness tumbled into nausea with a full blown hammer pounding at her brain.

“Hey, uh Reina,” Loupe said, grabbing hold of her sister’s sleeve.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t our own little Owl, come back to play,” interrupted a deep, unfamiliar voice.

Malak whipped around with surprising speed coming face to face with a man that could only be described as big, his scarred and battered face curled into a grin. Suddenly, Loupe could see them seeping out of the shadows drawing their swords, clubs, and fists. There were at least half a dozen hooded figures, maybe more, all dressed in black, each with an armband stitched with a gold raven. Every one of their hooded faces was trained on Malak who now looked incredibly small and defenseless. But Loupe did not miss the steel spreading across xir face as xe braced xir footing and dodged the first swinging knife.