Two Thieves in a Bunker – Part Seven

“Chuck.” Chuck grunted.

Manny slid down next to him. “Really, your name is Chuck? I don’t think I’ve ever had a friend named Chuck before.”

“Still don’t,” Chuck muttered under his breath. Naturally Manny didn’t hear him, hell, maybe he did and was ignoring him. Damn, there went his great plan to piss the guy off.

“So, Chuck. What’d you steal?”

“Really? We’re doing this, we’re actually talking about this? What happens if we get caught huh? What happens when the cops ask me about you and about what you stole? If we talk about it, I can’t lie and say I don’t know. Won’t go well for either of us I’d imagine.” It was the most Chuck had said in one breath since he’d gotten stuck down here. He wasn’t happy about it, he felt suddenly out of breath. Stupid talking. He wondered for a second about air quality, was that why he was rambling, was there air getting in here? He looked up, huh, whoever had built this underground stash house had installed air flow filters. Nice ones too, they looked like the ones he had hacked back when he had stolen the ruby “Trio” last year. Nice work.

Manny looked at him like he had said something dumb. Chuck reviewed the words he had just spewed out to check. They seemed to make sense so he left it alone.

“I got these, pretty huh?” Manny pulled his small bag over his shoulder, opened it up and poured the items out on the floor.

Yeah, they were pretty, Chuck gently touched each necklace, moving each one slightly away from the others as he did so. Emerald, Emerald, Ruby, Diamond. Nice. He wondered who they belonged too. He hadn’t seen the cut before.

“So, what about you?”

Chuck glared but that didn’t seem to perturb Manny. Manny just smiled softly and pointed to the wrapped frame still sitting near the door.

“Monet,” he finally answered.

“Oh nice, I like his stuff.” Manny said. Chuck doubted Manny had any idea about Monet’s style. But he figured the guy probably would think it was pretty enough.

“How long you been stealing stuff? Me, I’ve been working for a long time, gee, almost twenty years. My uncle taught me, you know? He took me in when I was little and taught me everything he knew. Was caught once. But I was a minor so I got off with only a couple of months. You ever been in the Big House?”

Chuck sighed dramatically. Looks like yes they were doing this. He glared again at Manny as he answered. “Yeah.”

“Really?” Manny lit up like a Christmas tree, “Where were you? How long? When?”

Chuck grit his teeth and forced out, “I don’t want to talk about it.” He closed his eyes. Maybe if he faked being asleep the guy would stop talking to him.

“Oh yeah sure, sure, I get it, I get it. Not everyone has a good experience. True enough. So how long you been thieving?”

“15 years.”

“Who taught you?”

God, how long was this going to go on. “No one. Taught myself. Didn’t have no damned choice. Now leave off will ya?”

There was a thump from one of the crates. Chuck stared at it. Manny looked at Chuck with wide eyes. “What the hell was that?”

 

Go to Chapter 8

 

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