Auction

Jargonis Auction House,

California,

9 pm.

** Rowan and Jack were together when the group arrived at the venue and separated to blend in with the other guests. **

Rowan

"Wait, isn't that the Cosmos watch that caused such a stir earlier this year?" I inquired, my gaze drawn to a young man in his early thirties.

"That's correct. I see you are well-versed in brand names." Jack responded with a smirk.

"Oh, shoot." He muttered abruptly.

"What? Is everything all right?" I asked in concern.

"Did you look to see who was wearing it?" Jack inquired slowly.

"No." I responded, my gaze drawn to the man in question.

"Let me juggle your memory instead. Ryeburg Wienosser." Jack started matter-of-factly.

"Is it really who I think it is?" I asked in surprise.

"Yes, it is. The infamous Wienosser of the east." He replied, his gaze leaving him.

Last I checked, there was little to no information on the Wienossers, but Granny warned me to steer clear of them. I surveyed the hall squinting.

"Truly, there is very little information available about them, but they are notorious for their ruthlessness.

At the conglomerate meeting, this same family was the first to propose monopolization. When they set their sight on something, they will not stop until they have it." Jack said as he reached for a cup of wine.

There is only one reason he's here so….do we have a problem? I inquired, trying not to massage my glabella.

"Not necessarily but if he gets his hands on that key first, we can kiss the legacy goodbye.

This is where we part ways, you know what to do.

Back out immediately if there are any complications." Jack said as he walked away from me.

After a while of searching for Adrian, I finally found him.

He was already upstairs, I guess he was also searching for me.

"Were you going to leave without me?" I asked him in a chilly voice as soon as I connected my ultra mini bluetooth earpiece to his.

"It is you who isn't following the plan, not me." He said touching his ear to adjust his earpiece.

Don't touch your ear like that, you look like an idiot. I said as I found my way towards the stairs.

"Tch, I hate you." He responded, walking towards the restroom.

I waited a while and followed him in.

"Aren't you going to use your mask?" I asked with an eyebrow raised as I put on my face mask.

Nope, our inside man is in charge of the control room, remember? Adrian replied.

"Okay, we're supposed to enter the storeroom through an inner door in the staff's restroom." He went on.

"Yeah, yeah, I remember that part, now let's get moving." I as we both made our way to the staff's restroom.

**l**l**l**l**l**l**l

In the main hall.

Tack tack tack (a gravel tap)

"Ladies and gentlemen, if I may have your attention.

Could you please take your seat as the auction will commence soon?"

The auctioneer announced and started an introductory speech meanwhile.....

**l**l**l**l**l**l**l

Rowan

This has to be one of the nastiest missions ever.

"How can an auction house this big not have people clean up their passageways?" I grumbled in annoyance.

"It's a secret escape route, they probably ignored it because they didn't think they'd ever make use of it." Craig stated.

After thirty minutes of crawling, we finally met the others at the auction house's cage.

Where's George? I asked as soon as I noticed his absence.

"Someone's got to actually be at the auction hall, dummy." Adrian said, earning himself an eye roll from me.

"I thought Jack was doing that ?" I asked, my brow furrowed.

"No, he's onto something else." Jude said, smirking.

"Okay, that's the vent over there." He said taking out a tool from his shoe pocket.

After a while of waiting, Jude finally found a way to open the tightened vent without so much noise.

"You guys go on ahead, I'll be here to help you get up here when you're back. Good luck." Jude said with a small smile.

We landed inside an elevator and there he was 'Jack'.

Hey man, what have you been up to? I asked.

"Nothing much, I just paid a visit to a certain someone." Jack said with a grin.

The elevator came to a halt on the 1st floor and opened into another elevator.

"Step aside people, leave this to me." Mark said, connecting some sort of device to the smart elevator.

"It's no wonder the passageways haven't been used for a long time. With a security system as crazy as this, there's hardly a need to worry.

We have to wait for a new hour which is five minutes from now. The passcode here changes every hour.

But with this device Jack gave me and my hacking skills, it's gonna be a walk in the park." He continued confidently.

***l ***l ***l ***l ***l

A few minutes later..

Rowan

Mark has been punching these buttons seriously and aggressively for over ten minutes now. I guess he spoke too quickly because the last few minutes felt more like a wait in the cemetery than a walk in the park. The elevator was eerily quiet and uncomfortable. I could sense how tense everyone was.

"Beeeeep." The elevator finally opened after the device sounded.

"Good gracious finally." I thought.

There it was, the door to the key.

"There could be a problem here." Adrian abruptly spoke, capturing everyone's attention.

"We are going to need an authorized personnel's pass card if we're ever going to make it into that room and we didn't plan for that." He continued with a frown.

"Hmm, I got a souvenir from my earlier visit." Jack said waving a pass card.

"You're a lifesaver buddy." Craig patted Jack on the back.

"Over to you," Jack said as he nudged me, passing the card to Adrian.

***l ***l ***l ***l ***l

Adrian and I got into the room successfully.

While I switched the keychain and kept it safe with me, Adrian went the other way to take a picture of a map.

The little guy sure does a lot of weird things.

The whole mission was wrapped up so we all split up and returned the same way we came.

***l ***l ***l ***l ***l ***l

Adrian and I left the staff restroom to use the guest mirror to help get rid of every sign of dust and tried to look as refreshed as possible.

We went to the reserved area and watched as the bidding got heated up.

What a unique arrangement. The hall was divided into small rooms for four guests each, with a translucent covering to protect the identity of the bidders.

10 million dollars, going once, going twice, sold. We have our winner Number 0113 who is purchasing for 18 billion dollars.

Auctioneer: Lot 19 is a magnificent 100-year-old ink painting by Chu Han one of China's literati masters. A minimum bid of $12 billion is required.

12? 13? we have 13 billion dollars.

Going once going twice

"15 billion." The auctioneer was interrupted by a voice. It's the same number 0113.

15 billion, going once..

"20 billion." Number 112 bid in an instant.

Auctioneer: going once, going twice sold. Congratulations to Number 112.

Moving on to the final item on the list.

A Benitoite keychain with a starting bid of $1 million.

Whattttt? The price had me muttering in disbelief.

"It's very much clear that the auction house has no idea how valuable that keychain is." Mark muttered in response.

The bidding went on and on for a long time until only George( From the group) and Number 112 remained.

I'm pretty sure I know who Number 112 was by now.

"Why is George bidding?" I asked Craig.

"Uh, he has a history with Ryeburg. A quite funny story but it's not mine to tell." He replied with a chuckle.

"$12 billion." George made another bid.

"$20 billion." Number 112 also made a bid.

20 billion, going once, going twice, gone.

Congratulations once again Number 112...

While others waited for the after-complementary and necessities, we left rather quickly having completed the mission.

We exchanged contacts and said our goodbyes.