Today was the day. I had to get this job. I had to meet my new idols in person. I had to know I wasn't crazy for all my deducing and puzzle solving, and that they really existed.
My name is Arianna. I'm 23 years old and just finished an advanced course in criminology and law from university. I have long, wavy brown hair that reaches down to my waist and blue eyes. I'm a small girl, reaching only 160cm tall, but my friends tell me that the extra height disappeared to add to my brain. In short, no pun intended, I'm classed as a genius. My dream is to become a lawyer who stands up to big corporations for misdeeds against those who can't fight back. At least it was, until I found a better job.
There had been recent news plastered all over the TV of big companies losing billions of dollars and being toppled in the last couple years. Not many people had noticed there was a link though. As I watched more and more, I noticed that the same few people would pop up in the background in some of the photos and video recordings for the stories. I decided to check it out and found that the same group of 5 people were in almost every story's background. Sometimes they weren't facing the camera, sometimes they were, mostly with blurred faces. The censorship made it hard to determine if I was viewing the same people, but I was confident they were the same in all the videos I found. I tried Googling around. At first it came up nothing. I tried search after search after search with no result. On the last few searches, I was trying phrases like, help beat big companies USA. After 3 very similar searches, I found a site continuously coming up in my listings. Leverage Inc. The front page depicted what looked like an ancient painting of an old man; the founder. He seemed eerily similar in appearance to one of the people I'd noticed.
So I took it. There was no basis to my claims, but I decided to try it out anyway. There was no stopping my stubbornness when it was stuck. My parents paid for my plane ticket and I was off. I'd gotten accommodation in case they weren't interested in me. Of course, I was still very vague on the details of what they actually did. I don't even know if they have anything to do with the stories or if they just like to turn out to big news events to get in the paper. I sighed. There was no use overanalysing seeing as I'd already set foot off the plane. I was so fatigued I headed straight for the hotel I'd booked to sleep off the jetlag. Before falling asleep though, I used the phone in my room to ring the number on the site. A female picked up.
"Hello, this is Leverage incorporated. How may I help you?" the woman said.
"Umm, I-I'd like to set up an interview," I stuttered nervously.
"Okay," she agreed, "We have all day tomorrow free, so come in at any time; one of us will be in to take your appointment."
"Thank you," I replied awkwardly.
"See you tomorrow," she said cheerily then hung up.
That… was weird! I thought. No time, just come in when you want? This was starting to feel a little dodgy. I couldn't think about it long enough though, my eyes had already drooped closed while the short conversation had taken place. I didn't even remember replacing the phone before falling asleep.
I awoke the next morning bright and early. Luckily I'd taken an early flight and had arrived mid-afternoon local time with all the stopovers. I made my way down to the lobby, grabbing some of the complimentary breakfast included in my stay. Bright and early showing up to an interview was a sign of a diligent employee. I followed the map printout I had of directions to the building and found myself outside a bar. Confused, I entered and looked around. It was unusual for a bar to be open so early, and there were only a few people inside. As I entered, the only non-employee looking person looked up at me from a table in the centre of the room. He seemed to know who I was and ushered for me to come over. I was so confused but my legs carried me over. He reached out and I took it.
"Hi, I'm Elliot," he introduced himself.
"I'm Arianna," I returned the introduction, still dithering on the spot and wondering what the hell was happening.
"Have a seat," he offered the one across from him. "You must be my appointment for the day."
So I was in the right place.
"I think so," I murmured, taking a seat. "I'm sort of nervous."
"Don't be," he encouraged.
I looked up into his rugged face. He was quite good looking and his hair was long. His smile looked so genuine I just couldn't help but relax.
"Do you always do that?" I asked.
"Do what?" he asked back confusedly.
"Disarm people," I replied, looking down.
He chuckled softly and I looked at him inquiringly.
"You don't know the half of it," he laughed.
"But I'd like to," I offered.
He seemed to hit a wall at that.
"What do you mean exactly?" he was taking this very seriously.
"I want to work for you," I confessed, "I've noticed you're company in Australia through the news from here in the states."
I pulled out my folio of pictures of all the breaking news videos with the mysterious group in it. Not all of the five were in all the pictures, just 3 or 2 here, sometimes all, but I pointed them out to him and he seemed shocked. As I went through, I found a more recent one without censorship and it was him in the background with a darker, taller male and a petite blonde woman.
"You found all of this by yourself?" he asked, worry creeping into his voice.
"Yes," I mumbled, but I reached for his hand holding the photo with the three in the background. "But I haven't told a soul. I wanted to see if you guys really existed. I wanted to know if it was you who was behind all these findings of corruption and thievery."
I rubbed his hand comfortingly and he seemed to relax a little.
"How did you find all this?" he asked, perplexed at the number of photos and evidence I had found.
"It was sheer dumb luck, I guess," I admitted, "I just saw you guys in a couple of videos. It intrigued me because I've always wanted to do what you guys do; fight for the little man who has no voice against the thunder of a huge company. So when all of these corporations were toppling or had breakthroughs in finding corruption, I was just drawn to it."
I finished my little speech and waited for his answer.
"Are you guys hearing this?" he asked with a sigh.
I looked around. We were the only two around.
"Okay, I'll bring her in," he agreed to some invisible person and then stood up. "Come on, the others want to meet you."
All I could say was, "Huh?" before he helped me up and let me through the bar into the employee-only zone. Hidden down the hall in a room to the left was a huge room with and equally huge screen to match. It was incredibly high and as I looked up to the skylight I saw her. She was dangling on a zip-line, upside down. She seemed to pout when she saw me look and lowered herself to my eyelevel.
"You're a smart one," she said before flipping around and releasing the line.
"Don't try to scare the new girl, baby," a deep voice came from the next room over.
It was the final of the three in my picture. Pressing a button on the controller he had, the monitor came to life and displayed all of my pictures and the news stories they corresponded with.
"Now I've crossed checked all those little photographs you've brought with," he continued, now talking to me. "And you are absolutely right. I honestly have no idea how we missed all this attention we've been giving to ourselves."
I smiled at what I took to be a compliment.
"She's smart Hardison," Elliot said.
"Too smart," said the girl.
"Parker," Elliot growled.
"You're name's Parker?" I inquired.
She just looked at me for a few seconds in response. I guess I'm not getting a warm welcome from her, I thought.
"Sorry," said Hardison, "She can be a little, her, sometimes. I'm Alec, but as you know now, everyone calls me Hardison."
"It's nice to meet you." I smiled at his odd explanation of Parker's behaviour.
There was no doubt that they were together. They seemed to be a cute couple, but I could only see it on Hardison's end for now. Then I remembered something.
"So how is it you guys were talking from here?" I asked.
"That, my dear, is a trade secret until we decide what to do with you," Hardison replied.
"Wireless inner ear communication," I rolled my eyes at how dumb he thought I was.
"Damn you are smart," he said in surprise.
I looked away and up at the screen when something caught my eye.
"Isn't that the building they had that Steranko system in?"
I remembered hearing about the break in and theft of two buildings with that same system. Both were successful by reports and the Steranko Company were copping it hard from shareholders.
I turned to find them staring at me. I was glad I wasn't overly self-conscious. My next question shocked them further still though.
"You guys are the thieves that broke into a Steranko system, not once, but twice?"
The silence intensified and it was Parker who was first to break it.
"I told you, she's too smart," she said matter-of-factly. "She's like a young, female Nate."
"Was he the other person? I wound five of you in the photos." I said, curiosity was dripping from me now.
"That was Sophie and Nate," Elliot answered, "They retired just after Christmas."
"Oh," was all I could say for embarrassment. I'd opened old wounds.
"I wanna keep her," Parker burst out randomly.
"Are you sure, baby," Hardison asked, "You don't know as much about her as I do."
She pulled out my wallet and I gasped.
"Hey!" I growled, "How did you get that?"
She just smiled and the boys rolled their eyes. She handed it back to me and I went through it. I held out my hand for the few dollars that were missing. She frowned then, obviously not liking my keen eye, and handed back the money.
"Yep, I want her," she confirmed.
"Well Nate trusted her judgement," Elliot conceded, "but I'm not as sure. We'll give you a test run. We need to know we can trust you're on our side, us being thieves and all."
I laughed. "Minor details make up the whole, and what you guys are achieving is amazing. If that's what it's taking to get better results than anyone else, I don't think it's that big of a deal."
Elliot chuckled at me.
"Wow," he said, "you're a firecracker show and half with all the surprises you've given me today."
"I guess you're in," said Hardison. "We all normally stay here at base, but if you don't want to, you're more than welcome to stay at your own accommodation."
"I've already paid a week's stay up the road," I sighed, "I'll never get that money back. It would be good to have some shopping money."
"Speak no more," he replied, smiling.
A few presses of a couple buttons and my hotel records jumped up on screen.
"And you are now checked out with your luggage being delivered here."
"Wow," a gasped, "You're a hacker. That's amazing. Wait, do you hack in game too?"
He looked sheepish and surprised at the same time.
"But hacking takes the fun out," I teased. "I thought someone smart enough to hack would be able to handle a game."
He bit at my challenge hard.
"You think you can beat me? Well you, me, game now."
We ended up on League of Legends with an equal score for at least an hour. Deciding that a tie was inevitable, the guys went to check that the bar was running smoothly in their absence and I was left alone with Parker.
"How did you get so smart," she asked me about five minutes into the silence that had spread.
"I don't know," I admitted, "Some people call me a genius, though I've never had my I.Q tested."
"So you just pick up on little details really easy?" she continued her interrogation.
"Yeah, it's more of a habit, but it comes in handy when talking to people," I replied, "I've never lost anything. What I find amazing is I never noticed you take my wallet. How did you do that?"
"It's just something I picked up as a kid," she said aloofly, though she smiled at the compliment.
"You could do that as a kid?" I was in awe.
"Yeah," she giggled. Her face brightened then. "Do you want to learn?"
"Yes!" I accepted eagerly.
A talent that could escape my eye was something I'd never seen before. Even with magicians I saw on TV, I could always find the sleight of hand or trick that made the magic. She showed me the trick to it and I was amazed at how easy it really was. We heard the boys return and Parker winked at me. I got the message and stood to go greet them. When they came in, I passed them, barely touching them, but acquiring both wallets at once. They turned to look at me and I held up their items.
"Goddamnit Parker!" Elliot shouted, "We don't need another kleptomaniac on the team."
Parker and I burst into laughter and Hardison seemed to be amused as well. i handed back their stuff and sat down next to Parker again, high-fiving her.
"I don't want you trying that out anywhere else, you hear me?" Elliot warned and I crossed my heart through silent giggles.
This was going to be fun.