Hot Goods (IC)

[TheAbsurdist]

Amir looked at Meagan, his expression a little less than enthused. "I remember than hitting the private collectors market. You honestly don't want to know how much I heard it went for." Arms folded across his chest, and narrowing. "So it is a unique gemstone with strange properties, worth more than the gross domestic product of most Central American countries. It was nabbed by Larceny Inc., anyone able to figure out which way they went, or who would want this?" He frowned a little in thought, looking to Meagan. "How many people knew you had this gem? And did you get any offers recently for it?" He might not be the world's foremost seer into the mind of criminals, but he did know how business worked, and there were several interviews with him remarking on the similarities between that and larceny.

[Raveled]

GM

Meagan looked back and forth between the heroes standing in her living room. "Enemies? No, I don't have any enemies! Well... There's that stupid critic in the Word that keeps giving my movies two stars. But I don't think Reginald Harcourt would hire Larceny Inc!

"The gem was in a private collection. The owner died and his collection went up for auction. We had just finished shooting Black Mamba, you know, the fortress assault scene? We filmed that in Crete, so when we were done there we went onto the main land, and well, it was up for auction. One of the executive producers bought it for me. I mean, this is the last film I have to do with the studio, so they're trying to keep me happy."

She turned to face Asad. "I don't know how many people know I have it. The auction was pretty high-brow, you know? I don't think of the gemstones went for less than a quarter of a million. A few people there gave me their cards if I wanted to sell it. I probably still have them, should I get them out?"

[Derin]

Public auction. Presumably the previous owner purchased it legitimately, then. Resale made no sense if the Heart was a deliberate target, not unless a buyer was lined up in advance. Someone would have to be crazy to put that together for a private collection. It'd need to have a practical use.

It was a superweapon, wasn't it? It was going to be a damn superweapon. Asad seemed to know what he was doing as far as the business possibilities went, anyway, and he was probably more familiar with such things. Her involvement in such arrangements had always been as the hired thief, and they already knew about those; a businessman would know more about the sort of people that hired them.

"What else was in the safe?"

[Raveled]

Meagan blinked at the question. "Well. I mean. A couple scripts I was looking at and a couple grand in cash, you know, for emergencies. I can't believe they broke in here to steal just those, though!" It was rather hard to imagine a crew like Larceny Inc. risking jail time for a few Hollywood plots and a few thousand dollars; they could get more with less work knocking over jewel stores, and all of that was far beneath their normal level.

Ironclad had wandered out onto the balcony during the talk, examining what Smash had done to the balcony. As such she was the one best situated to see a pair of police cruisers pull up to the apartment building, lights flashing. She stood up and walked back into the living area. "Police just pulled up," she announced. "They'll probably be here any minute. Whiplash, Asad, any more questions?"