Chapter 10:

Willem Van Tousle spoke with a very thick Dutch accent despite the higher education he claimed; an education that had included extensive lessons in French, English, Classic Latin and a wide assortment of other languages, at least according Van Tousle. Sophie had heard a lot about the world according to Van Tousle in his thick sometimes incoherent Dutch accent these past few days. Truth be told she was getting rather sick of it. Although Willem believed that she loved every moment spent in his company. To think Linus had doubted her abilities.

When Danny and Rusty had first approached her with a part in this job Sophie had jumped at the chance. Then they explained what it was they wanted her to do and Sophie still jumped at the chance. But that was before she met Van Tousle. Thankfully the guys had given her a time frame.

"Seduce Van Tousle in four days," had been Danny's exact words.

That was the goal, to convince the man that he was in love with her (or at least in lust with her) so that he would take her back to his place for the night. Then she was to give him a light sedative and disarm the alarm. Although Van Tousle had a sophisticated alarm system installed it wasn't so sophisticated that Livingston couldn't find its weakness. He had created a virus and all Sophie had to do was download it on any computer that was connected to Van Tousle's home network. Sophie could manage that much.

Her strategy for seducing Van Tousle was simple enough. She had entered Van Tousle's home gallery dressed as a chic (and wealthy) modern French heiress. Sophie felt a little uncomfortable in her expensive getup. The black pencil skirt was too tight, nothing at all like the worn Levi's Sophie preferred to wear, and she felt absolutely ridiculous in the burgundy silk blouse she was wearing. She wished with all her might that she could have gotten away with a simple t-shirt instead of this fussy blouse. Rusty had insisted that she wear black stiletto boots with black patterned stockings. He also insisted that she wear jewelry, lots of expensive jewelry. It was at that that Sophie drew the line.

"Hold on a minute Blondie," she had snapped at him and Danny chuckled at Rusty's expression. "I've put up with your ridiculous notions of fashion long enough and I've already shelled out more of my money on these clothes than I originally wanted to."

"What are you saying, Sophie?"

"I'm saying that my own jewelry will do just fine."

Rusty did not believe her at first until he saw her jewelry, and then he had to concede that it would do just fine.

Therefore, wearing her own mother's heirloom jewelry (the few pieces Adéle did not pawn for drug money) Sophie entered Van Tousle's life. Even Rusty had to admit that the simple jade jewelry had quite the stunning effect. The green gemstones certainly brought out the color of Sophie's eyes. After entering the gallery and seeing the effect her appearance had on the poor Dutch art aficionado, even Sophie had to admit that she cut a very fine figure. Moreover, that Rusty's sense of fashion did not always tender towards that of a male prostitute, at least when it was tempered by Danny's.

Needless to say, Van Tousle took an interest in Sophie immediately. Sophie was surprised by how easy it had been for her to ensnare him. A lifetime of watching her mother at her profession had taught young Sophie a great deal. By the end of three hours exclaiming over Van Tousle's private collection he was begging her to call him Willem and she, demurely with down cast eyes had given him permission to call her Geneviève. At the end of another two hours Willem was insisting that she have dinner with him. She played hard to get for a while but then eventually she gave in, allowing him to think that he had talked her into it.

For dinner he took her to some hodey-todey restaurant, where Sophie felt that one needed to be not only a complete snob but also a member of some exclusive club just to get a table. But as Geneviève, she acted as if she had expected nothing less and would have been insulted if they had gone anywhere else. Sophie suffered through the dinner but none of her suffering showed on her face. Willem was convinced that she was just as smitten by him as he had been by her. At the end of the night, she had left him to his rest playfully rejecting all of his more amorous advances. She agreed to meet him the next day for a late lunch. Willem had insisted on giving her money to pay her taxi fee.

When she reached the hotel that night she had ignored Ocean and everyone else's questions, only briefly saying that everything was on track. She then went into the room she shared with Sal and Reuben, locked herself in the bathroom and began to rid herself of her ridiculous clothes. She turned on the water and allowed it to run until it was steaming. She plugged it and sprinkled it with some bath oil before stepping into the tub.

Sophie soaked for a minute then grabbed a wash cloth and began to scrub herself vigorously. She felt god awful about the whole situation. She had no problem conning people out of their possessions, they were just things after all, easily gotten and just as easily forgotten. But here she was making that poor man believe that she actually felt something for him, she was conning him out of his emotions a very part of himself. That could not be so easily forgotten or forgiven. It would be an entirely different matter if, like her mother, Sophie had been paid by Van Tousle to do what she was doing. Not by much, but it would have made her feel a little bit better about herself.

Instead, she was sitting in a tub in some Amsterdam hotel fighting the urge to either scream or cry. There she was faced with a moral issue, one that she had sworn long ago never to get embroiled in. That was one of the reasons she had taken up thievery in the first place, her options growing up were to either become a thief or a prostitute like her mother. Sophie had always wondered how Adéle managed to do what she did, and now she was beginning to understand why for so much of her childhood her mother had been stoned out of her mind. Finally, as she scrubbed her skin raw in the privacy of the bathroom Sophie began to cry.

Linus was impressed with how well Sophie was holding up. He never really doubted that she could do what they were asking of her, he just never thought that she would do it. Linus did not know if that elevated his opinion of diminished it. He did not really see much of Sophie while she was trying to woo Van Tousle. Actually no one really saw her, other than Sal and Reuben, who both reported that everything was going smoothly.

Linus hoped everything was going smoothly; for tonight was the night that Sophie was suppose to get them into Van Tousle's house. Things had better been going smoothly otherwise this was going to be a bust, Linus thought as he waited in the back alley with Frank, Rusty, and Danny the only ones besides Sophie to enter the marks home. It seemed like they had been waiting all night before there was an audible click from the other side of the alleyway. A door creaked open allowing some faint lighting to filter out into the night. A hand snaked out and beckoned to them.

"That's it," Danny whispered and walked casually towards the open doorway.

Linus entered the home in front of Frank and stopped short upon seeing Sophie. He did not see her before she left earlier that evening but he was certain that she did not look as bedraggled as she did now. What once must have been a neat bun was now nothing more than a jumble of curls sticking out in random directions. Her clothes although rich looking were all mused up and looked like they had been put on with some haste and little care. In one hand she negligently held a pair of wadded up panty hose and black pumps. Linus stared at her bare legs and feet with accusation. She looked like she had just gotten out of bed. He would have said something except for the fact that Frank was poking him in the back.

"Come on boy don't just stand there." Reluctantly Linus stepped aside.

"Did the virus work?" Rusty asked.

"Yes, right now Livingston is completely hacked into the system and having his way with it," Sophie replied casually. Linus winced at her choice in words; it was becoming evident to him now that Van Tousle might have had his way with Sophie.

"Good job Sophie," Danny told her resting a hand briefly on her shoulder.

"I wouldn't say that if I was you," she told him with a morose tone. Danny gave her a sharp look. Instead of answering she lead them through the downstairs turned gallery to the place where the painting was suppose to be hanging. The Rembrandt was no longer there and in its place there was an onyx fox figurine with a tape recorder. With a groan Danny reached out and pressed play.

A certain smug brass voice with a French accent emerged from the recorder:

"Once again Mr. Ocean you have arrived in second place, a lamentable trait of yours. Even with a member of your own crew in the house I have still managed to secure the prize before you. Although, from the sounds of things she already had her hands full," at that snide comment Linus turned to look at Sophie. She looked both ashamed and furious at the same time. "Unfortunately I must inform you that this is not the only prize you have lost tonight. I do hope you associate Mr. Ryan will forgive me for my impudence, but now Mrs. Ocean will have some company."