Chapter 1

The thing about the rich is how they make everything look easy. Their ease with live and carelessness about most of the things. So, it was easy in Washington DC, Capitol Hill to see a gold statue worth over a hundred million, it wasn't also an odd occurence to see sofas in their living rooms and tapestries worth thousands and hand made by the finest of designers, sometimes Turkish, other times Persian and Indian. Aside the fine things and furnishings, another thing the rich did when they grew older was retire really early to bed. Aside the drug addicts and cheating husbands and suspecting wifes, the typical rich wealthy home was quite long before midnight.

The younger generation of the wealthy was a different story though and if you did look closely and thought it out, you'd know that the younger generation was indeed not to be classified as wealthy, no, they were simply young men and women with money and lots of expensive belongings. It took responsibility to be rich and with that responsibility came age and experience. While, the younger generation had no business on Capitol Hill at that time so, it was pretty quiet that time of the night.

The house is sited at the valley of a rocky mountain, just quiet enough to be a family house and still close to the bustles of the city. If one could listen for long, the honk of cars could still be heard in the sleepless city metres away. Servants go about, dressed in crisp white shirts and obsidian black bottoms, tidying up for the night. The large sixteen bedroom three storey duplex is quiet as the night lulls most of the occupants to sleep. Six security men are stationed outside, dressed in khakis and turtle neck leather jackets, prancing and communicating, the cleaners have retired to bed, the cook is marinating the meat for breakfast at 6:00am and the Senator and his wife are sound asleep in the last floor, passed out from a bout of messy sex.

No event of the past day had been coincidence. Everything had been planned out and was working according to the plan of a gang. From the car that broke down earlier that day to the fact that the Senator's special mechanic had been sick that day and unable to respond that the urgent call. It was also working according to plan that this certain mechanic had been needed just some kilometres from the estate to fix it up. It wasn't also coincidence that the said mechanic had forgotten his plug spanner and had to borrow one from the accompanying car on the convoy.

It wasn't chance that the car had infact broke down again and the security men had transferred the Senator and his wife int another vehicle they sent for and left the older own to be towed out from e repair. That had made the couple twenty minutes late to return home, just enough time for the key to their bedroom to be duplicated.

Earlier that day also, two of the building's security men had been fired for having sex in the guest bathroom of the house, it wasn't a confidence also that the head security had walked in on them considering that this very pair had been doing that for over give years since working together. Considering the little get together that would take place that evening, two extra men had been needed to fix in that blank space and the two extra men were not just picked by chance, it was all an elaborate scheme.

Also, four domestic staff had fallen sick the previous evening and were each replaced quickly as the evening and to be perfect, their sickness was just a mild case of food poisoning which wasn't a confidence actually and their replacements from the hiring agency wasn't just random, it was all an elaborate scheme.

A set of glass had been broken in kitchen that afternoon was dinner was being prepared and a certain cook had mistakenly stepped on it, it was infact not mistake, it was so she could he excused and allowed to get to the storage room where she could get the keys from the bunch to be duplicated, she had been paid a little over a thousand dollar for that.

All the help they had gotten from inside the building where paid by an anonymous source and a handful of them were infact not staff at all but had pulled some strings in the hiring agency to get their names in the slots for the days replacement.

The evening that had just passed was fairly uneventful, there had been a few family friends over and a few cokatail and wine had been passed along with some ladies and for s few participants men that would keep them company for the night. It wasn't an elaborate dinner but there was just enough guests to make the evening slightly busier than the household was used to on a regular day. The night was chill and there was absolutely no sound age for the snores from the Senator's room on the first floor. It was a very private quarter and despite what many assumed, there were no guards stationed at his door or anything so dramatiz, security men were however located in strategic places all over the building. Capitol Hill hadn't witnessed a crime in I we a decade and whatever petty thing happened wasn't worth remembrance.

On the second floor, the helps are fast asleep too, except for some indulging in their phones they've been without all day, some murmuring in their sleep and a pair discussing heatedly. Unknown to them, there are three extra unemployed servants in the building, dressed in the same white and black, observing keenly all that has happened through the evening and waiting for a cue to proceed with their mapped out plan. The lady, a tall slender woman, a real looker with mile long legs, an ample cleavage she has shown all evening and wide luscious lips, she was bended over a box, animatedly parking in her cleaning supplies that had infact not been used to clean anything, meanwhile her eyes darted to her partner at the left, dutifully locking up the storage room for the night. The house light are dim, casting a slight shadow as they walk around, seemingly the only two servants left in the large palour, fixing things that needs no fixing and dusting none-existent cobwebs and frills. Valeria stood up right from the box, carried it and balances it on her left hip as she looked at her favourite diamond crested wrist watch hidden beneath her shirt sleeves. It was almost time and she could feel the excitement thg came with embarking on a hiest, this time, it wasn't a mere gold statue or a million dollar painting, it was worth much more and they all knew it. Almost in unison, her partner, Pete checks his much cheaper watch and gave a slight nod of his head, dropping his duplicate keys in his breast pocket and moving to the stairs in long stealthy strides. The duo pass themselves by the hallway were the security camera has been disconnected earlier that evening, a glitch saved on the monitor that was actually activities from four days ago in the hallway instead of the current footages of the night. As the two met at the hallway with the disconnected camera, they pass an immaculate white handkerchief wrapped in nylon, a duct tape and a duplicated key card in mere seconds. Pete shoved all three in his very deep pocket and moved up the stairs briskly as Valeria crossed the hallway to the laundry room by the left. She had her task assigned and one second couldn't be spared. It was as it they were being timed, as if their steps were being counted out for them, each taking them precisely the minutes estimated for them and longer or shorter than. Pete paused at the foot of the step, holding his breathe slightly and readying his leg, his arms on the banister, Valeria was just at the doorway leading to the laundry room and it happened.

12:01 am sharp, the light flickers twice and went off completely, plunging the whole estate into darkness. Many murmurs are heard from the servant hall and the securities outside become alert, moving around to find the fault, an outage was almost unheard of in the estate, at least not without adequate warning and certainly not at midnight. Pete slipped into the bedroom of the couple on the last floor, opening the door easily with the duplicate key card, walking noiselessly to the crib of the child by the side of the room, just shy of a large rug carpet. The room was a massive masters bedroom, with a king sized bed in the centre, two small gold plated bedside lamps that were off, Pete kept his flashlight beam very low and avoided pointing it at the Senator or his wife. The snores of the senator filled the room annoyingly as Pete tip toed into it, he didn't waste a second in first taking out his duct tape, carefully and noiselessly taking a small wrap off and swiftly covering the baby's mouth in one fluid movement, the baby wakes instantly, crying mutely into the tape and flailing about as Pete grabs him by the feet, hurled him from the crib and wrapped him in his blanket that had fallen off the crib, be looks at the bunch of Keys on the dresser and resists the urge to pick them up and try driving them out of the estate. He knew it was a stupid move to divert on the job and he wasn't ready to be stupid so be clutched the baby to him and moved out of the room as stealthily as he had entered, the couple still fast asleep and having not the slightest clue that someone had been in their bedroom.

On the second floor, Valeria pulls up her thick curls into a ponytail, it was infact not her hair at all but a ln expertly intstalled frontal wig with just enough highlights to make the untrained eyes swear that it was attached to her scalp for real. She tossed off her stilettos for a soft padded sneaker, pulled on gloves are j both hands before pulling out a set of flexible wheel from her small cleaning basket and installing it into the smallest automatic washing machine in the laundry room. She quickly empties the content of the washing machine who included towels, linens and curtains and replaced them with tufts of wool and wads of clean and dry bedsheet, also, she stuffs it with enough fibre and provides just enough hollow to fit in a backpack. She then maneuvers the machine quickly out of the laundry room and quietly rolls it off to the first floor, she carefully hefts it down a flight of stairs with very little noise and wheels it to the corner where a large bookcase looms just before the main door of the building, filled with books, awards and artifacts that made her fingers itch just to get hold of one and pocket it, but she knew from experience that diverting from the job was a foolish move and so she stayed out and hid behind the book case, waiting for her partner, Pete to bring down the baby.

Outside the house, Nick, the third member of the gang and the reason for the powwer outage climbs down a sixteen feet ladder after being electrocuted by the wires lighting the estate, he had a massive headache and his fingers ached from twistings and turning wires and bolts all night, once or twice, he had been electrocuted and he had swallowed his own scream and continued with what had to be done, it was past midnight and they had just a few more minutes before the backup generator went on and light flooded the estate yet again . He wiped his greasy hands on his black pinafore, dropped his tool box on the graveled ground and leaped off the ladder a few steps to the landing, he stayed low, crouched on the ground as the security guards begin to filter to different parts of the building, talking and firing orders at themselves and moving to and fro the estate. Nick quietly but quickly undressed out of his protective pinafore and put on a crisp white shirt and black trousers, a uniform for the domestic staff, he also slipped on his padded sneakers and pulled out a plate of leftover steak and lettuce from his duffel, he straightened, took a deep breathe and maked his way to the entrance of the building. Just as he turns to the porch, a security man, lankly and wielding a walkie-talkie and a handgun halts him. Nick knew what he had the do and he had guessed that he would be stopped.

"What are you doing out?" The lankly man asks, a mean look in his eyes.

"I went to feed the dog, I heard them whining earlier this evening" Nick replied with a trained shaky voice, gesturing to his plate of leftovers.

"It's midnight dude, get your white ass iinside!" The security barked and Nick stepped back, feigning fright and cowardice, he watched as the man moves past him with a frustrated sneer and heads to the backyard where Nick himself had just left. Nick drew out his loaded Glock 23 handgun and hides under his shirt as he opened the door to the main entrance of the building after looking night ways to ensure no one was coming to the entrance at the moment. The black out had created just enough distraction and as assumed, the security men were more concerned with guarding the front gate and the fences then they were with what went on inside the building, their logic no doubt was that whatever was coming in had to be through the gates and it that was secure then nothing could go wrong. As Nick creaked open the door, Valeria and Pete were already there, hurling the washing machine out as quietly as they could. Nick joined in, rolling it speedily to the side of the building where a grey semi-van had been parked earlier that evening with no registration number. The trio then quickly changed out into maintenance uniforms just in case they were being halted at the gate, better safe than sorry. Pete moved to the front seat and let Nick take the driver's seat like he usually did. All interior lights were turned off in the vehicle and he drove as slowly as he possibly could. Valeria was in the back seat, covered in a heap of spade, gallons, ropes, wires and heavy metal she has no idea what it is used for, she was hidden there quietly, the washing machine beneath all the meaningless mess too, covered under the maintenance equipments. They roll quietly to the gate outlooking the mountain, which has been left unlocked by a certain willowy old man that received a $5,000 credit alert earlier that evening. Pete stepped out of the car and walks briskly and noiselessly to the small gate and pushed it open, it moves away easily and the trio zoom off into the dark night, into the dead of the night and the quiet street where no one car would be seen, their headlights still off and the engine a low rumbling sound. They drive for just a couple minutes before going off into the thick forest and ditching the van there, they all put on their disguises which was basically a more casual outfit to pass them as just party goers and they poured alcohol on their shirts, rinsed their mouth too with beer and kept an empty bottle behind just in case.

Back at the estate, the guards have just successfully put up generator and light floods the estate again after just thirty one minutes of the black out. From the top floor of Sen. Brownson's home, Capitol Hill, Washington DC, a loud cry is heard as Mrs. Martha Brownson wakes up from her sleepa and discovers that her baby is missing.

Down the highway, Valeria checkes her diamond crusted watch, it is 12:31 AM.