Parisian Heists & Hidden Truths: Niah's Unraveling Adventure

The Day After

It was a spring day, with the sun shining brightly on the city of Paris. I sat in a cafe behind the Louvre, just across from the pyramid. I had been there for hours, waiting for my contact to arrive. Even though this was supposed to be an eight-hour meeting, he was already two hours late. And I wasn't going to sit around waiting for him anymore. I got up and headed towards the exit when I saw him enter. He looked like he's seen better days, but that was to be expected; he was never one for personal hygiene.

"Hello, Niah." said the man as he walked towards me. "You look good."

I smirked at his compliment. "And you look like shit."

He scowled back at me. "We've more important things to talk about than how I look today."

"Yeah, yeah, let's get this over with."

"Okay," he replied warily as he motioned me to follow him. We walked up a flight of stairs and then down a long corridor before stopping in front of an unmarked door. The man opened it and guided me inside.

I knew what this place was because it's where we always met - a sex club where members could relax and unwind after a hard day at work by paying women to fuck them in the ass. It still disgusted me every time I had to come here, but it was the only place where we could meet in private without the risk of being spied on by our enemies or even friends who were trying to play both sides of the fence.

The man guided me further into the dimly lit room where we usually met and sat down on one of the worn leather sofas while I took a seat opposite him on another couch. "What is it? Have you found something?"

"I have," he answered solemnly while staring into my eyes intently as if searching my soul for answers he desperately wanted to know but didn't dare ask out loud in case they brought bad news instead of good ones. "I've managed to gather some information about our mutual friend."

"And?" I asked impatiently, not wanting this meeting to go downhill any further than it already was thanks to his tardiness and general attitude towards me today which made me want him dead more than ever before.

"They're planning something big," he revealed suddenly causing my heart rate to increase and my palms start sweating profusely as my mind raced with thoughts about what these people were actually planning that would warrant such secrecy - although such thoughts were quickly replaced by thoughts about why they were keeping their plans secret from us in the first place considering that we were all working together towards a common goal and weren't actually against each other as far as I knew anyway so why keep secrets from us? Did they think we'd try and steal their glory if they told us what they were planning? That made no sense... did it? Had they actually went insane? That seemed like a more likely explanation than those other ridiculous notions racing through my mind right now...

"What do you mean?"

"They're stealing something."

That caught my attention immediately! What had they stolen that would require them all keeping their mouths shut or even worse - lying to each other?! Was it something worth enough money that it would make *all* of them rich beyond their wildest dreams? How many years had each member been working on this project? There's no way that anybody would be able to keep such a massive theft plan under wraps for more than half a decade without spilling at least something about what they were doing behind closed doors! There had been too many leaks already! If somebody didn't reveal everything soon then somebody else would take matters into their own hands! And that wouldn't end well for anyone! Especially not for *me*, seeing as how everybody hated me so much! They'd probably kill me just because they could! If only I could get out of this mess alive without making any waves...