How to Sell an Illusion
The Zenobia Diamond: a more than 100 karats beauty like no other, sporting the top color ranking of Fancy Vivid Yellow. It was unearthed somewhere in South Africa a couple of years ago, and it’s a rare treat for the eyes of many, an otherworldly desire for avid collectors, and the dream of any prestigious jewel thief.
Take Dean Mason, for example, a.k.a. The Swift God, and one of the best in his field of expertise. For a long, long time, he had dreamed of the day when he would be able to take that preciousness as his own. Well, at least for a short period of time seeing he was a mercenary for hire and stole anything for anyone who had enough money to burn.
Learning every single detail of the tight security system devised for that particular exhibit had been a laborious and meticulous process but, eventually, he had found a way to bypass it all: heat sensors, infrared arrays, pressure plates, invisible lasers, the works, until he had finally opened the crystal case without triggering the dozen of silent alarms surrounding it. This was his moment of glory, the peak of thieving grandiosity… he would always be remembered as the one who had managed to swipe…
… a giant onion?!!
“What the fuck?” He thought as he looked at he was holding. He had come for a precious stone and got a bulb vegetable, instead? That made absolutely no sense! What made things worse was the fact that, once inside the display, He could see the perfectly cut diamond once again, tantalizing his senses with the promises of an incomparable wealth.
So where did the trick come from? Was it some sort of projection device He couldn’t see? As much as he would love to figure out, the truth is time was running out and most certainly, the Museum Security, as well as the Metropolitan Police, were already on their way to arrest him.
He was about ready to leave when a silky woman’s voice whispered behind her.
“Why the rush, Swift God? The exhibit wasn’t to your liking?”
Dean turned his head to face her, a short-haired brunette wearing a masculine white suit that contrasted with his dark, clingy outfit. Her smile would have been a captivating one if it weren’t for a single good tooth sparkling in the center of her mouth.
“Don’t worry about security. No one is coming to disturb us at least for a couple of hours…” She added.
“And you are….?”
“Britney Caldwell, the top gun in charge of protecting what you came to stole. You look disappointed. What’s the matter? You don’t like onions?”
“Not really. I don’t like your lack of sense of humor either. What’s the angle, here?”
“Well, first of all, I wanted to show you I know how to sell an illusion. Secondly, I wanted to meet the man who will be blamed for the disappearance of the Zenobia once I run away with the real thing…. ”
“Excuse me?!!”
Caldwell took two steps towards him and it was the first time he noticed the small, cylinder-like object in her left hand.
“Don’t look so shocked! You’re not the only thief in the business! I could have taken the gem a long time ago, but I needed the perfect scapegoat for the heist, preferably one that’s currently being paid by my client’s… competition!”
“Oh, so that’s the game we’re playing, huh?” He smirked. “Cute, but I’m not interested in taking the fall for something I clearly won’t have the chance of doing in the first place.”
“I knew you were going to say something like that which is why I brought this baby with me.” She threw her the object he was carrying and watched him scramble to grab it before it crashed on of the pressure plates on the floor. “Do you know what it is?”
A quick examination gave him the right answer. “A case for a hypodermic needle. There’s a switch here that triggers it but…”
“That’s right, the contents of the syringe are empty. Onions usually make us cry, others have a nasty tendency of drugging us, even if we’re wearing protective gloves…”
Dean started to feel dizzy almost immediately, his strength disappearing by the second. Caldwell moved in to grab him before he collapsed against the case and gently took him to an adjacent room where he sat and allowed the drug cocktail to work its magic on such vital functions like short-term memory, inhibition control, and thought manipulation. Then, She proceeded to indoctrinate him with the story he was to repeat to the authorities when he got caught.
It was a beauty, really, something about the diamond having been handed over to his accomplice who happened to work for the Chinese oil tycoon Lao Ming. The scandal brought about by such accusations would make him lose a lot of money in the stock market and a couple of contracts still waiting to be signed.
As Dean obediently droned the story that was now a part of his true memories, Caldwell sighed as her hands traced every line of his spectacularly addictive body. She really shouldn’t indulge in carnal pleasures at that moment but she was sure his unadorned form would make Adonis himself blush and there was something about his lips that made all her senses tingle.
So, without further ado, she listened to the voice of temptation and gave him something else to remember and swallow before she exited the Museum through the front door with the real diamond hidden inside a secret pocket of her suit.
The night air was cool, and fresh, everything that made her tick. Her employer awaited her on a private jet just outside town. In the end, both would get what they wanted.
Funny story, though. When, a couple of days later, the one who hired her services went to the room where he kept his private collection of precious stones from all around the world to look at the Zenobia, all he found was a heavily-secured dome with a large onion inside.
