London glanced around furtively. He had a rucksack clung carelessly over his shoulder, but the bag in his hands he hung onto so tight his knuckles were bleach white and trembled with the effort. He concentrated all his efforts on appearing causal as he walked through the door. Somehow, he purchased a ticket and got his rucksack checked in without arousing suspicion. He shook his head jerkily when the attendant asked if he wanted to stow the bag in his hands. He’d hold onto it, he had said, his voice quavering, his smile shaky. The attendant just assumed she looked especially charming today.

London’s eyes darted around, looking for a safe place to wait. He settled on a small booth in the café. Hopefully the coffee would settle his nerves. What he needed most was to be out of this place, but he had to wait for that.

Only once during that whole two hour wait did he open that bag, and then it was only enough to take a peek at the contents. Then he quickly shut it again and tried not to look around nervously, arousing anyone’s suspicions.

Then, the water in his cup began to shake. Then the table, the ground. The lights flickered and a thunderous roar assaulted his ears, growing louder by the second. They’re here for me! They know what I took! He thought in panic. But then a shrieking whistle broke through and in the following silence he heard:

“All aboard!”

London stumbled across the platform, nodded at the conductor, then threw himself down a corridor and kept going until he had reached the last car. There, he locked himself in the compartment.

But he wasn’t alone.

*~*~*~*~*

“Hey kid, what’s in the bag?” one of the figures leered at him. The lamp was dimmed, but London thought it was a girl. He had been holding the bag in front of him like a shield, but now he thrust it behind himself. Immediately he regretted the action, because it only drew more attention to what he wanted to hide.

“Nah, lay off ‘im Katy. He’s just a kid. He couldn’t have anything worth the scuffle,” a voice drawled from the corner. “’Sides, we’re legit now.”

“Aw Slick, I’m just messin’ with the kid. He’s just makin’ it too easy.” She leered at London again.

“Eh, she’s got a point, ya gotta admit,” Slick said, fixing London with a measuring stare. “It’s obvious yer got sommat you don’t wanna give up. Easiest way to become a target.”

London relaxed the tiniest bit, although he tried to make it appear like he was offended and defensive. He felt a little more confident in his ability to handle common criminals. He was used to them after all. It was the law he was scared of, and only then because they were an unknown quantity. He decided to take a seat in the corner diagonal from Slick, acting as if he belonged there.

“They may look like tempting targets, but don’t you think that people so obvious would try hardest to get back what you took?”

“Oh-ho. He’s not such a greenie as he looks. But you still are being awful careful no one can take yer bag.”

“Well sure, everything I own is in here. I worked damn hard for everything I got, I’m not gonna be careless about it now.”

“Heh. What’s yer name kid?”

“London.” He didn’t ask anything about Slick. Let him think everything London was telling him was trivial.

Slick didn’t offer anything either. He just sat there staring at the young thief. London stared back, keeping a bland expression on his face. Finally, one of Slick’s cronies broke out some cards. They ignored London the rest of the trip, although Slick cast a look over at him every once in awhile.

The train took them through the mountains and into the next country. Both London and Slick’s crew got off at the same stop. Although Slick didn’t have the kid followed, he noted the direction he headed in, and decided to make an inquiry about him.

As it turned out, London was somewhat known in the area. He didn’t belong to a den, but there were a few he worked with from time to time. So far, he had only committed petty theft, but he had a special knack for getting around places undetected. This was the skill he was hired for occasionally. Maddeningly, although several people had seen him with that bag, nobody knew what was in it. Slick knew for certain the kid had been lying about what was in it. Everyone agreed he was a terrible liar and couldn’t act to save his life—literally, he had once been caught and only released because the guard pitied the kid. And that was why he avoided confrontations altogether.

Slick pondered about this mystery, but didn’t let his crew know about it. They might think he was losing his edge if they knew. Fortunately, the trip to his destination was easy since he was using the Thief’s Trade Route, although he couldn’t figure much more out about London. He had concluded that what he had been carrying must have been much more valuable than he was used to stealing, or else he wouldn’t have been worried about being caught with it. Slick’s curiosity nagged at him every spare minute he had to think. That may have been the cause of what he did next, when Slick was surprised to find that London had arrived in the city ahead of him. This should have been impossible without using the TTR, which Slick knew he couldn’t have used. Nonetheless, there London was, in the Thieves’ City well before Slick.

London was waiting in another café, only this time not to escape. Instead he was waiting for somebody to arrive. He still clutched the bag protectively, and he still looked nervous. It had not escaped his notice that Slick was sitting nearby as well, staring intently at the bag. He didn’t even try to hide it anymore. Finally, after three cups of coffee, she arrived.

Her name was Magnolia, and she was madly in love with London.

London knew this, and therefore went out of his way to avoid her. She made him uncomfortable with the way she made her feelings obvious. She was always saying things like “I love you, London” and “be safe!”

But one day, she had contacted him with a job offer and the payout was just too good for him to pass on. He had to remind himself again, however, why he had accepted something that gave her power over him.

“Loonndy! I’m so glad you’re back!”

London stood to greet her – she was his boss and it was polite – but he had to back away when she attempted to hug him.

“Uh wha-? No.”

“Oh, you’re so right sweety. It would be unprofessional of me to hug my hireling.” But she gave him a pout and a conspiratorial wink that alone would have constituted sexual harassment.

“So, uh, Mags. I have brought the item you requested of me. As a professional I have to insist that you show me you are upholding your end of the bargain.” He did his best not to offend her, but he had only taken this job for the money, and he would be damned if he accepted anything less as payment!

“Oh don’t worry sweety. I know how to take care of my man.” As she said so, making London cringe, she reached beside her chair to retrieve the purse that did in fact contain his money.

Relieved, London nodded and put his bag on the table. He unzipped it slowly, then reached in to pull out—

“A kitten?!” Slick flung his table aside and stomped over to loom menacingly over London. “You went through all of that for a-a kitten?!” He had grown pale with fury.

“Excuse you! Who do you think you are? This ‘kitten’ happens to be a baby Wild Endangered Lynx. It is very rare and very valuable and—“

“Very cute.” London didn’t realize he had said anything until both Slick and Mags had gone silent to stare at him; he was busy watching the kitten-lynx play on the table. It had knocked over an empty coffee cup, and now it was stalking and pouncing on the cup as it rolled. “Hey! I’ve had to take care of this thing for days you know! It sort of grows on you,” he added defensively.

“Aww Londy, you’re so sweet and compassionate! As much as I love you though, you know the lynx is to go in my menagerie. That’s why I hired a thief to smuggle one into this country. I hired you because I looooove you,’’ she smiled at him in what she thought must be an endearing way.

London just frowned and went back to watching the kitten. Slick, meanwhile, had been growing angrier and angrier.

“Do you mean to s-s-s-say,” he paused—extreme emotion brought out his childhood stutter, “that you w-w-wasted a man of such great talents on-on-on stealing a KITTEN for your Z-ZOO?!”

Suddenly, Slick launched himself at Magnolia. He grabbed her by her neck and started throttling her with both hands while simultaneously kicking her in her shins, her knees, then finally up to her stomach. Magnolia couldn’t even let out a gasp from the pain.

“What are you doing?!” London was horrified by what was happening. He immediately stuffed the kitten back into the bag and put it out of harm’s way. Then, he threw himself on Slick, trying to get him off Magnolia. When he couldn’t break Slick’s hold, he stepped back and kicked Slick’s elbow. Slick screamed and let go, sinking down to huddle on his knees, clutching his arm to his chest.

“Mags, are you okay?” London knelt beside her and waited while she gasped and coughed her rage at Slick’s behavior. He recognized that you’ll-be-sorry look in her eyes and felt a little bad for Slick. He was wondering whether or not Slick would be exiled from the Thieves’ City (you were never supposed to openly attack your anyone else’s employer) when he noticed the way Magnolia was looking at him.

“You saved me,” she whispered.

“Well, I mean, he shouldn’t have attacked you like that,” London said hesitantly. He didn’t like that weird look in her eyes.

“You saved my life,” she said again. “Now it belongs to you.”

“That’s really not necessary Mags.” London was really uncomfortable now.

“No, you don’t understand. When a Werkonshire’s life is saved, it belongs to the savior as the reward.”

“Mags, really, that’s too much. Why don’t you just let me keep the kitten instead?” London pleaded with her, trying to make her see reason as the knot in his stomach got tighter.

“You can have anything of mine that you want now that we are going to spend the rest of our lives together. Anything,” she tried to stare deeply into his eyes. “Oh London! I always knew we would be together forever, but I had no idea you would propose in such a romantic way!” Her eyes were nothing but stars and vagueness, unable to see his shock and disgust.

This was going to be bad indeed, London thought.