Without Each Other ch 5

Chapter Five

Victor came to his work. He didn't sleep well, since Anita didn't come home last night. He felt horrible; he had no idea who could have taken Anita or why someone would take her. There was no note, no phone call, just completely nothing from the kidnapper.
He had taken his sky-bike and flew through the city. If Anita was just mad, and he couldn't really see why she would be mad, he would have seen her somewhere. He went to her favourite spots, but she wasn't there either and no-one had seen her that day.

"Bonjour, Victor!"

Victor turned around when he heard that familiar voice. A pitch-dark haired woman walked up to him. "Hello, Blanche." he said as his partner approached him.

Blanche took one look at him and knew that there was something going on. "What's wrong, Victor?" she asked. As a former agent of the French Secret Agency, she knew when someone was hiding something.

"Anita didn't come home last night." said Victor and he looked to his partner. "Do you think we will be able to…"

"You know that today is the day, don't you?" said Blanche and Victor nodded. "So you know that we are not able to go and look for your wife." Suddenly, their telephones started to ring. "Come on, the chief needs us."

The two secret agents rushed to the briefing room and they sat down onto a chair. "Ah, good morning, agent Volt and agent Desrosiers. As you know, for reasons of security, my name is Changed Daily. Today, you will call me…" his telephone beeped and the chief took it out of his pocket. "Oh, Couthy Benthos."

While Victor laughed, Blanche looked to her partner. She didn't quite get the humour of all those names. "What does it mean?"

"You don't want to know." sighed Couthy Benthos. "Anyways, as you know, today is the day. So I want you to be prepared for this afternoon. You are dismissed."

Both Victor and Blanche walked out of the room. They walked towards the practice room. But not to practice some fighting moves; they were there to get ready for that afternoon.
Their mission was to go disguised as a rich couple to an auction.

"Victor, did you tell Anita about the mission?" asked Blanche when she sat behind the make-up table.

Victor shook his head. "It's classified, so I couldn't discuss it with her." He looked to his mirror image. He felt terrible that he couldn't tell her where he had been when he and Blanche worked on this mission. "I really wanted to introduce you to her. She would really like you."

Blanche smiled and she looked to all the make-up. She wasn't really a make-up girl, but she had to, so she would look like a rich woman who was there to buy something. And, to make it worse, there would be lots of criminals hanging around there. She was sent from Paris to go to London when her subject moved to the United Kingdom. Her subject was a very good arts thief and he sold the pieces via the art auctions, which were held in secret.

"What are you thinking about?" asked Victor and he looked to his partner as he placed a wig on his head. It was a black wig, so if there would be any archenemies from U.Z.Z., they wouldn't recognize him.

"About the mission. After this afternoon, my mission of many years will be over." Blanche couldn't believe it yet. She didn't know what would happen after that. Somehow, she felt needy here. Victor was a wonderful partner and she had lots of fun with him. "Do you think I would be able to stay here after this mission is over?"

Victor smiled. "You know, I wouldn't mind that. I could use a partner now Anita is on a maternity leave."

"Good." said Blanche. It would be wonderful if she could stay in England for some time longer.

~=~=~=

A couple walked through the streets of London. They looked like an ordinary, somewhat wealthy couple. The only difference was that they walked through the darkest part of London, which was full of evil and dark figures.

They stopped in front of a big, dark auction house. Two shady looking men were standing in front of the door, making sure that no uninvited guests would come inside. The couple showed them their invitations and the men nodded. "Welcome, Mr and Mrs Avery." they opened the door and the couple went inside.

The couple gave their coats to one of the servants and they looked for a place to sit. Once they had a seat, the couple looked to each other. "Do you see anyone familiar?" whispered Victor and he looked to Blanche.

Blanche shook her head. "No, as far as I can tell, there are only British villains here."

"And you don't see him either?"

Blanche looked around her. "Non, je ne vois pas le voleur de la Seine." When she saw Victor's confused face, she gave him an apologizing smile. "I'm sorry, but I got used to the fact that I say it like that when people ask me that question. But no, I can't see 'Le Voleur de la Seine'.
Her subject got that name, because he had only robbed art from museums which were located near the Seine.

"It's okay." said Victor and he looked to the auctioneer. "It looks like they want to start soon."

Blanche nodded and she looked to the list she got in her hands. On that list were the things they were going to auction that afternoon. "It looks like we will have to wait for a little while. Our piece of interest is number eighty-nine."

Victor groaned. He hated to just sit and wait. He wanted to go back to the daylight and to try to find Anita soon.

"I know you want to go back, but we have to stay." whispered Blanche as more and more people sat down onto a chair. Blanche was curious who would come and buy the piece she was after. She hoped that they could catch 'Le Voleur de la Seine' today. One of the unwritten laws of the underground auctions was that the 'owner' of the piece should stay at the auction too. So they would be absolutely sure that everything was alright and that the money would be transferred to the 'owner'. The auctioneer didn't have a horrible job either. He would get twenty percent of the money, which was ten more than normal.

The auction started and Blanche noticed some of the other pieces which were also stolen from the Louvre. But she wasn't after those ones, she was after just one piece.

"Why are we after number eighty-nine?" asked Victor when there was a little break. They were almost alone in the auction room. Most went out for a little smoke or went away with their newest acquisition.

"Because, 'La Belle Ferronnière' was the only one we were able to trace, until it went on the boat to the UK." After a few series of robberies, the museum agreed with the tracing methods of the French Secret Service. And it went well, but they still didn't know who stole it and they lost it when it was shipped towards Dover. A bell rang and people got back into the room.

After an hour or maybe two, number eighty-nine was finally getting flogged. The numbers went high into the thousands. The auction stopped at thirty-five-thousand pounds. "That's a lot." whispered Victor to Blanche. "Do you see who the lucky winner is?"

"Number twenty-three. It looks like he has done this before." Blanche looked to the old-looking man. "Is U.Z.Z. standing by?"

Victor nodded. U.Z.Z. was listening with them and they had the building surrounded. It was up to Blanche and Victor to give them the right signals of the persons they were looking for. The auction didn't last much longer and Victor and Blanche stayed long enough until they had seen the buyer and the previous 'owner'.

U.Z.Z. rushed into the building and less than fifteen minutes later, Blanche and Victor were standing outside. Ray had handed them a cup of tea. "The two of you did a good job." he said and he looked to the two secret agents. "The two of you get the week off."

"That's great to hear, Ray." said Blanche and she looked to Victor. "Shall I help you?"

"With what…?" Then, it hit him again. His wife was still missing. "Yes, please. I think I could use some help."

Blanche smiled. "And if you need any help with something else, just call me. We are partners now after all." There was no rush to go back to France for Blanche. The Eiffel tower had flown away before, but that didn't mean that it would fly away soon.

"Ah, Victor, I was looking for you." a Bavarian voice said and the small professor walked up to the agents. "First of all, good of you to stay alive, because I have something to tell you."

"What is it?" asked Victor and he looked to professor Professor. "And about what?"

"About Anita. We…"

"Have you found her? Where is she?  Is she alright?" Victor grabbed the scientist and he looked at him. He was hoping that Anita was just healthy and back home.

"Calm down, Victor. No we haven't found her." said the professor and Victor placed professor Professor down. "But does she still wear a headband nowadays?"

"Yes, why?"

"Because there is a GPS-system in her headband. I found a possibility to track her."

Victor's eyes grew. This was the best news he had heard all day. "So, where is she?"

"She is…"