Red Notice

Chapter 1

A/N: the intro to this is done in Bucky's first-person POV, but it switches to third-person and remains that way for the rest of the book.

All those stories that begin with "In the beginning..." and "Once upon a time..." had at least one thing right: anything terrible and completely avoidable started way before anyone could stop it. Some people might argue that the earth starting was a good thing and to that, I'd just like to say: Have you seen this disaster called earth recently? A man can't even pull a simple art heist without half of Interpol chasing his ass.

Before earth, if the same man had pulled the same heist, you know what would have happened? Nothing! Jack shit would have happened because the earth didn't exist and therefore neither did the people that wanted to put his ass in prison.

Seeing as the creation or explosion―or whatever you want to call it―of earth usually begins with something along these lines, a simple conclusion can be drawn: All these stories that begin with "A long time ago..." and "There once was a little boy/girl/whatever..." have one thing in common: they all begin the tale of a disaster. With that in mind...

Once upon a time, there was an art thief. An art thief that, mind you, was rather good at his job so long as he didn't cross paths with one of his two worst enemies: Interpol and the Bishop. For all intents and purposes, the only reason either of them existed was to fuck him over and as much as he appreciated the effort they put into it, he prefered being left alone.

Unfortunately, that "Once upon a time" beginning had already set out to screw him over before he ever set foot in the museum.

"Trust me, he'll be here."

"How can you be so sure, Sam?"

Sam glanced over at Steve, gauging how truthful he could be. Interpol had a thing against consulting bad guys to get the worse guys, but he hadn't exactly meant to consult the worse guy to get the bad guy.

"Sam?"

"The Bishop," Sam admitted, flashing his badge at security.

Steve raised an eyebrow, following Sam and showing his badge as well. "The Bishop? He's just a myth."

"Can a myth rob three original Van Gogh's in one night?" Sam countered. Steve still didn't look convinced, but the Bishop was not their current target. "According to the Bishop, he'll be here."

With another flash of their badges, they had the museum director in front of them and leading them to the display case where their target was. Whether it was surprising or anticipated, the museum director seemed even less convinced by Sam's story about the Bishop than Steve did.

"You're wasting your time," the director told them, escorting them into a large open room. Gesturing towards an open display area, he said, "As you can see, the egg is still perfectly safe."

Sam frowned. Sure enough, Cleopatra's first egg was still sitting in its designated spot. The plaque at the base didn't have so much as a fingerprint smudge across it, allowing Sam to read the full history around the retrieval of Cleopatra's historic eggs as well as the mystery about the third egg's location. Even without a squad of Interpol agents mixed in, the number of tourists surrounding it was almost impressive.

That didn't make Sam any less wary.

"You said the museum had an early opening today?" Sam asked the director. The man nodded. "How many people knew?"

"I imagine only those who bought tickets," the man retorted. Sam stared at him. "The number of tickets was limited to 200 for an extra hour in the museum. The normal crowds should be lining up to enter by now."