“While she was arguing with the guards about her project being ‘art,’ I picked one of their pockets. That gave us keys to the locker room and a pass card to the archive basement,” Kyran says. “Years ago, the museum employees went on strike when they were asked to give their thumbprints because they were afraid of their information being hacked, so the museum doesn’t use biometrics for anything. Once I was wearing a guard jacket and had a pass card, I walked right into the archives. Nobody questioned me. I knew from doing surveillance yesterday that I needed a request slip from a researcher to check out the ring, so I forged one from this guy named Charles Sweeney. He’s head of acquisitions for the museum.”

“The archivist, of course, wouldn’t let him leave with the ring without calling up to Charles’s assistant,” Rayelle says.

“But I had called earlier pretending to be a curator who met Charles last week while he was visiting the Prado on his vacation to Madrid, and I said he gave me permission to borrow the ring,” Kyran continues. “I knew Charles was on vacation by checking his Network, but that made his assistant trust me.” He rolls his eyes. “When the archivist called, the assistant validated my story, they let me check out the ring for forty-eight hours, and I walked out with it.”

“Wow,” Garrett says.

“Allard wants us to give it back so no one comes looking for it,” Rayelle says.

“Forty-eight hours is a tight turnaround…” I say.

“I wish we didn’t have to give it back,” Rayelle says, taking the ring from Garrett and sliding it onto her pinkie. “It’s the first thing we ever stole together, Kyran. Maybe we should keep it. The museum won’t miss it, will they?”

Kyran raises his eyebrows and examines the ring on her finger. “Dangerous,” he says. “Nice.”

She giggles.

“If Allard said to give it back, she has her reasons,” I say, shooting Rayelle a we-need-to-talk stare.

“Yeah. We can’t risk any mistakes. We’ll make sure you get it back in time to return it,” Garrett says. “Ellie, we’ll need to coordinate a second dead drop with Faye to get this ring back, even if the replica isn’t ready.”

Kyran and Rayelle are still staring at the ring. An unseen force vibrates between them, and Garrett and I look at each other. An unspoken moment passes. He says what we both are thinking.

“Hey Kyran, I need to get a ring off a girl’s finger and replace it with a replica without her noticing the switch. Any tips?”

“You came to the right guy.” Kyran smiles and holds up Rayelle’s hand. “We can use her to practice.”

They huddle around the ring, and, satisfied Garrett has things under control, I put on my pink mask and goggles and slip out of the apartment in search of lighter fluid.