Chapter# 02: Hanging on the wall.

In a grand hall, full of businessmen indulged in pleasure having an enormous dinner party, a man name Robinson Dafoe approached a woman dressed in elegant blue, fascinated by her beauty he's curious to know; 'Who is she?'

She was gleaming with confidence and a dignified aura, he asked her; "What's your good name beautiful lady?"

"Whatever you like." Discreet with her answers as always trying to come off as a little flirty, she responded. Cutting short all the chase she was directly hitting on him.

"Ooh" he uttered quiet surprised by her response, he didn't expect something like this coming from such a woman. "May I call you Ms. Blue then? As you are wearing blue and considering your mysteriousness as well." Rob was now getting frank with her, that's what she wanted.

"Sure." She firmly replied in a monotonous voice.

"Would you give me the pleasure to have a drink with you?" He invited her with a formal gesture, his one hand bent towards his own abdomen and other one outstretched to ask for hers.

She nodded and walked with him up to the bar in the hall, it was a special setup arranged by the host. Another event was going to take place under the cover of this grand dinner party.

"Two Château Margaux." He ordered for both of them, facing her he said; "You must try this, it's one of the best they have here today."

"If you say so." She replied, as monotonously as before.

Rob was thinking that she seem uninterested but why did she use that cheesy dialogue before if she didn't want my time and attention. Setting aside his doubts he placed a question in front of her; "Miss Blue have I offended you somehow?"

"Why?" This question alerted her.

"You seem not to be enjoying my company that much." He stated.

"You are thinking too much." She replied while calculating his thoughts and words.

'A special bar arrangement, Château Margaux? Something feels amiss here and this party is definitely related to that hidden quest.' This was all that was on Ice's mind, she was trying to focus on the missing puzzle piece due to which she just nodded or rushed to briefly answer Rob's superficial questions.

But a specific question got her attention, "Are you also here to buy something?" Rob was the one to ask.

'Buy something? An auction!' She thought to herself, she got the riddle solved just with that.

Isn't she quite intelligent to get things figured out in such a short period of time? Yes, without a doubt, her hunch was correct, to confirm it further she replied: "Yes, and you?"

It was the first time she asked a question ever since he talked to her, so he eagerly responded: "Me too. They have got such a unique and expensive collection for today, I am really excited."

How could she guess wrong with all that experience and intellect. She was right, they were holding an illegal auction tonight.

As soon as the clock struck twelve at midnight, various irrelevant guests had already left the party. In reality the dinner party that was just a façade to cover up the original scenario was put to an end and the real game was about to start.

People started to enter the back staged room attached to the grand hall by a secret passage, of course Rob was one of them too. To be able to take part in this auction she has to stick with him, it was exhausting, he was going on and on about the things she was uninterested in.

Walking towards the room she noticed that there were some codes and rules to enter the premises. She didn't had the pass nor did she know the password to enter through the digital identification process.

She heard a couple talking about Chateau Margaux, a French wine she just had a moment ago and it clicked her when they mentioned about the access control through a glass of wine. So that wine was the signal to prove their encoded reservation, but the code itself was still a matter of concern.

'What special meaning could Chateau Margaux have? Chateaau Mar-margaux….'

It was like she had the answer but couldn't quite put her finger on it.

'Margaux from Margo…. Margarot means pearl…!'

'Right Pearl, why didn't I think of it before?' She was lost in her thoughts when Rob popped up and asked if she has the access card with her.

She didn't have the card so she had to make an excuse of forgetting the card back at home. Seeing her worried, he reassured her; "I will take you with me but you know the rest you have to do."

Her acting skills came in handy today, to get him to do things for her.

"Yeah. Thank you." She had to finish the act properly so she expressed her gratitude and grabbed a glass of wine form a passer-by waiter.

This scenario reduced the suspicions Rob had about her and also reconfirmed that all her guesses were correct.

Auction was going to start in fifteen minutes. She entered the room arm in arm with Rob, that was one of the reason no one suspected her being out of the place and the other was obviously her confident and magnificent rich aura when she entered the five digit code 'Pearl' into the security check system software. It made a beeping sound before unlocking the door.

She breathed a sigh of relief, for reaching this small milestone in her way.

She got a lead from Leo before coming here that some illegal items would be getting sold here by some underhanded means, and they included the smuggled pearls from Saudi Arabia. Outcome of all these dealings would be hundreds of thousands of dollars not euros, much more profitable than the legal merchandising. This piece of intelligence made it easier for her to figure out the password given the current situation.

But what was her original motive....?