Stakeout (Legion of Thieves)

It was eleven fifty-nine at night when Lily arrived at the Museum of Natural History. Chris and I had both arrived a couple hours ago and of course she'd decided to wait until the last minute.

"Nice of you to show up," Chris said in his usual snark.

"Glad you acknowledge it," Lily retorted.

"Yeah, it's almost midnight," I intervened. "Can we get moving?" I'd never had the same sarcastic streak that Lily and Chris both shared. I have no idea why.

"Right, I'm on it," Lily said. She was the physical strongest of the three of us, which is why we needed her for the first step. She crouched down and opened her hands. I stepped on and waited the few seconds for her to give me a boost. Once I was high enough I climbed onto the roof ledge and waited for Chris to come up. Once both of us were on the rooftop we extended our hands downward and pulled Lily up with us.

"Next up, it's my turn," Chris said. We ran silently to the duct that let air into the building. Lily and I backed away from Chris as he held up his hand and produced a small flame - a gift from his father, Hephaestus. He scorched the screws holding it in place, then removed the grate and jumped in. I followed, with Lily right behind me.

"Any idea which way we go from here?" Chris whispered to me.

"I thought you knew," I told him. We were looking for an ancient weapon, Harpe, which archaeologists had somehow uncovered and brought to the museum.

"Think," Lily begged me. "You're the one who's been here before. You should be able to at least guess where it would be."

"Harpe wasn't here when I was!" I countered uselessly. Then I thought for a moment and sighed. "But I think I know another way to find it..."

~+~

By the time we were out of the airvents, I'd told them my plan. We lurked through the fourth floor hallway, with the only sound being the nonstop "No, no, no" of Chris trying to talk me out of it.

"There," Lily said, pointing. Standing elsewhere in the hall was a night guard, holding a flashlight and patrolling. So far, he hadn't seen us yet.

I walked up to him and poured some magic into my voice. "Excuse me," I said. "Can you tell me where the Greek sword that the museum just got would be?"

He raised his arm limply toward the nearest stairwell. "First floor, being hidden inside the rex until we can get a better place for it..."

"Thank you. And by the way, you never saw me here."

"I never saw you here..."

I went back to Chris and Lily. "First floor, hidden inside the dinosaur."

That was all I managed to say before I fell to the ground.

~+~

I awoke to find that I was slumped over Chris's shoulder, facing the T. rex skeleton that was iconic of the museum. Lily was already working her way toward the T. rexs chest region, where I just barely saw part of Harpes hilt.

Lily carefully tugged the sword from the dinosaur's ribcage before it exited with an audible sheen.

There it was. Harpe, a sword so ancient it was wielded by Perseus himself. We started to walk away with the blade when a slithering noise