The Nigerian Job
Part 1
Nathan Ford, a middle-aged man, sat at a bar in a local Chicago hotel, staring into the bottom of his drink. A short, stout man by the name of Victor Dubenich approached him, carrying a stack of files under his arm. "I'm sorry Mr. Ford." he apologized in a meek tone. "I know who you are. I've, uh, excuse me. I've read all about you." he stuttered, nearly losing his grip on his files. "I know for example that-that when you found that stolen Monet painting in Florence you probably saved your Insurance Company what 20-25 million dollars. Then there was that identity theft thing and you saved your insurance company I don't even know how many millions of dollars but I just know that when you needed them…What happened to your family is the kind of thing-"
At this point, Nate was starting to get annoyed by the pestering and turned to face the man speaking to him, "You know that part of the conversation where I punch you in the neck nine or ten times?" he questioned, slamming his glass down. "We're coming up on that pretty quick."
Dubenich held his arms up defensively, "I just want to offer you a job."
Nate's cell buzzed with a text from his daughter, saying that she was on her way to the hotel. "What do you got?" he asked, tucking his phone in his pocket.
Victor and Nate took a seat at a table, "Do you know anything about airplane design?"
"I could give it a shot." Nate shrugged. "You know, you give me a pencil and one of those little rulers."
"Somebody stole my airplane designs." Victor informed, cutting him off.
Nate nodded, "Oh, I see and you'd like me to find them right?"
"No. I know where they are." Victor corrected. "I want you to steal them back." he elaborated. "Steal them back from Robert Pierson, of Pierson Aviation."
"You're sure Pierson stole your designs?" Nate questioned, not entirely trusting of the man before him.
"Look, my engineer goes missing, he disappears with all my files and then one week later Pierson announces an identical project." Victor replied with a shrug. "Come on."
Nate ran his hand over his face, "I don't know." he debated. "Stealing them back, it seems like a stupid risk, there are other ways-."
"Listen. Listen to me." Victor cut him off, "At the end of this month I have a shareholder's meeting Mr. Ford. I've spent, already, five years, 100 million dollars on R&D. If I go to that meeting with nothing to show for it, then I am dead." He opened a folder and passed it across the table. "I'm serious. Look, look at the people I've already hired. Do you recognize any of these names?"
Nate looked over the file, nodding "Uh, yeah, I've chased all of them at one time or anoth-" he paused for a moment, "-Parker? You have Parker?"
"Is there somebody better?" Victor asked, concerned.
Nate shook his head, "No, but Parker is insane." he clarified.
"Which is why I need you." Victor stated.
Nate stifled a laugh, "No." he rebuked, closing the file. "I'm not a thief."
Victor sighed, "Thieves I got." he noted. "What I need is one honest man to watch them. Are you in?"
"It's not going to work." Nate declared. "These people you hired, they all have the same rep. They work alone. They always work alone, there's no exceptions and there's no way they're going to work for you."
"No, they will, they will. For $300,000 each, they will." Victor informed. "And for you, for running it, it's double that. And it's off the books, completely off the books." Nate looked away, tapping his chin. "Look at me, I'm desperate here." Victor begged. "And that's just the salary, there is a bonus. Pierson is insured by I.Y.S., your old bosses." That sparked Nate's attention. "It's a 50 million dollar intellectual property rights policy. Mr. Ford," Victor caught Nate's glare, "how badly do you want to screw the insurance company that let your son die?"
Victor got up to leave, "One moment." Nate called, getting up. "I'll take this, on one condition."
"Name it." Victor agreed, a bit too hastily.
"I bring in someone else, someone to make sure the three guys you hired stick to the script." Nate elaborated.
That perked Victor's interest, "Who is this person?" he asked, clearly intrigued.
At that moment, a young woman with long, blonde hair and hazel eyes, around the age of twenty walked through the hotel entrance, wearing knee-high leather boots, dark skinny jeans that hugged her legs, and a black crop top with the Capricorn Zodiac sigil in the center. She had a light blue jacket draped over her arm and carried a black sports bag over her shoulder. Nate gave the young woman a nod, "My daughter, Kalyssa Ford."
Victor's jaw dropped, but he agreed to the new terms and left, dipping his head to Kalyssa as he passed her, seeing a few faint bruises on her cheek and a healing split lip. The blonde raised an eyebrow and glanced over her shoulder, watching as the stout man left. "Who was that guy?" she asked, looking to her father, adjusting her hair to hide her bruises.
"That's Victor Dubenich." Nate answered, handing the file to his daughter. "He asked me, well now, us, for help."
"Us?" Kalyssa repeated, seeing the half-empty glass on the table her father was eyeing. She grabbed it before he could and downed it, the sting of the alcohol on her split lip not even fazing her. "What does the Executive Vice President of New Technologies of Bering Aerospace want with us?"
The two walked to the elevators as Nate explained the job while Kalyssa looked over the three others that Victor hired. "So, basically you'll be calling the shots from somewhere else, and I'm babysitting these three?" Kalyssa raised an eyebrow as she read over the files. "A Thief, a Hacker, and a Retrieval Specialist." She carefully studied the resumes of the other team members as she walked into the large hotel room she stayed in with her dad.
"Specifically, I want you to keep an eye on Parker." Nate clarified. "Also, make sure that Eliot doesn't kill anyone."
Kalyssa backtracked and her eyes widened, "This chick is insane." she said bluntly. She flipped the page to Eliot's resume and found herself staring at his photo, "Wow, he's wrestled with some demons." she noted.
"You can tell that just from a photo?" Nate questioned, sitting on his bed.
"I'm well on my way to getting my Master's, and I've only been in collage two years." Kalyssa quirked her brow. "I get my brains from you, remember?" She chuckled, setting the file down. "So when does this whole job start?"
"We'll be meeting them tomorrow across from Pierson Aviation at dusk to go over plans." Nate informed, pouring himself a glass of bourbon from the mini bar.
Kalyssa looked away from her father and grabbed a pair of black sleep pants and a navy blue tank top, heading to the bathroom to take a shower. She turned the water on, testing it to make sure it wasn't too hot as she stripped out of her clothes, revealing fresh and already healing bruises on her abdominal area. Kalyssa stepped under the cool water, sighing heavily as her eyes closed.
(flashback, earlier that evening)
Kalyssa stood in the left corner of the ring, her hair pulled into a loose ponytail, wearing a black training bra and matching shorts, gold tape wrapped around her hands. She took a large swig from her sports bottle, jumping side to side to get her blood pumping for the upcoming fight. Her opponent was a man twice her size and weight, with a jungle tiger tattoo sleeve on his right arm.
The bell rang and Kalyssa ducked her opponent's opening move, jabbing her fists repeatedly into his back, biting down on her mouth guard and her eyes narrowed in pure hatred and rage. He backhanded her, sending her off balance enough to land a few jabs to her stomach, causing her to hunch over, which he then used to hit her in the lower back. She rolled to the side and jumped to her feet, sending a right uppercut to his jaw, and pinning him to the ground with her legs around his neck. He tapped out, thus surrendering the fight.
(end flashback)
Kalyssa cleaned the bathroom mirror, overlooking the bruises on her face, her eyes void of emotion. After changing into her night clothes, she popped a few ibuprofin pills and climbed into bed and closed her eyes.
[The following night]
Nate set up a laptop and projector in an old, abandoned office building across from Pierson Aviation. He turned the projector on, displaying blueprints on the wall. He slid on a headset, and tapped the microphone, "Okay, clear on comms."
Up on the roof, the rest of the team was getting prepped. Alec Hardison, a young, African-American male overlooked the headset with a disgusted look on his face, "No, no, no, no." he shook his head. "Hell, no. This equipment is total VH1, it's best of the 80's." he tossed it aside, pulling out a small box. "I got something nicer."
"No surprises now." Nate called over the channel.
"I've been doing this since high school." Hardison rolled his eyes, "I'm Captain Discipline."
Kalyssa rolled her eyes, "Yeah, and I'm a Catholic school girl." she mumbled sarcastically.
Alec opened the box, pulling out a clear earpiece, "It's a bone-conduction earpiece mic, works off the vibrations in your jaw." he informed, tossing the device to a male older than himself, with short brown hair and blue eyes, wearing glasses. "You can hear everything." Hardison whispered through the com device.
The second male, Eliot Spencer, rolled his eyes and put the device to his ear. "You're not as useless as you look." he joked, handing the earpiece to Kalyssa, who was busy strapping herself into some repelling gear.
Hardison looked over his shoulder, giving Eliot a side-eyed glare, "Man, I don't even know what you do."
Kalyssa shook her head as she stuck her earpiece in place, "Boys, knock it off or I'll push both of you off this roof." she threatened with an icy glare. She pulled her hair into a high ponytail, holding a pair of leather gloves between her teeth.
Both boys looked back at her with raised brows, "And what are you exactly here for?" Hardison asked, blinking a few times.
Kalyssa turned to face them, slipping on one of her gloves, "I'm here to make sure none of you go off script." she stated bluntly, slipping on her other glove.
At that moment, Parker dropped down between them, hanging upside down from scaffolding. She glanced in Hardison's direction, "Can I have one?" she asked, referring to the comms.
Hardison held the box of earwigs up for her. "You can have the whole box." he replied with a smile.
Parker took an earpiece and put it in place, grinning. She flipped off the scaffolding and stood near Kalyssa, helping her with some last minute adjustments.
Eliot moved over to Hardison, "What are you going to do when she finds out you live with your mom?" he chuckled, dissing the young hacker.
Alec simply grinned in response, "Age of the geek, baby." he chuckled. "We run the world."
"You keep telling yourself that." Eliot shook his head.
After helping Kalyssa with her repelling gear, Parker began stroking it, "Last time I used this rig, Paris, 2003." she reminised with a smile.
"You talking about the Caravaggio?" Nate questioned over the comms. "You stole that?"
Eliot examined the earpiece that Alec had given him, "Is this thing safe?"
"Yeah, it's completely safe." Hardison assured, though he didn't sound very convincing. "It's just, you know, you might experience nausea, weakness in your right side, stroke, strokiness."
"You're precisely why I work alone." Eliot scoffed, putting the comm in place.
"Guys listen up, we're going to go on my count, not a second sooner." Nate instructed over the comm channel.
"No freelancing." Kalyssa warned, jabbing her finger in Parker's direction. She tugged on her rope again, not trusting the thief who strapped her into it.
"The gear will hold just fine." Parker reassured. "You have nice legs by the way." she added, craning her head back to look her over. "How do you stay in shape?"
Kalyssa raised an eyebrow at how nonchalantly the thief said her statement. "Collage Cheerleading." she answered, flipping her ponytail off her shoulder.
"Where'd you go to school?" Eliot asked her, looking over his shoulder at the two girls.
She glanced over at him, tugging on her rope cord to make sure it was sturdy, "University California, Los Angels." she answered. "Go Bruins."
"We're on the count." Nate called, snapping everyone back to the task at hand. Meanwhile he was observing everything through the office window. "Five...four…three..."
Up on the roof, Parker grabbed Kalyssa's arm and pulled her along, running behind Eliot and Hardison, both girls standing on the edge. Parker looked to Kalyssa, with a grin that could only be compared to that of the Joker. The next instant, both were over the edge and falling.
"She's gone." Eliot cut off, him and Hardison watching the girls falling.
From the office, Nate was watching it go down, "Son of a..."
"That's twenty pounds of crazy in a five pound bag." Eliot commented on Parker's swan dive.
The repelling suddenly stopped and both girls were now hanging upside down, in front of an office window. Kalyssa looked to Parker, "You seriously need your head examined." she spat, trying to catch her breath.
Parker didn't even register the comment as she was busy scanning the office for any sort of alarm sensor. "Vibration detectors are on." she informed.
"No cutting Parker." Nate instructed. "Use the binary."
The thief pulled out a cutting agent and began cutting the glass. Once finished, she attached a suction cup to the glass and pulled it away, letting it drop to the ground. Parker reached into the hole and set a remote on the table. She turned to Kalyssa, "You can do a handstand, right?"
"I've been doing gymnastics since I was five." Kalyssa remarked. "Of course I can."
"Good." Parker guided Kalyssa's hand through the hole and clicked the remote, which released the two girls from the ropes keeping them in the air. In a quick motion, the two went from being on their hands to the feet, standing on the desk.
"Holy shit." Kalyssa cursed, taking a deep breath.
"Fun right?" Parker giggled, flipping off the desk with the gracefulness of a ballet dancer.
Kalyssa shook her head and did the same motion, brushing away some hair that had fallen into her face. A pencil nearly rolled over the desk's edge, but Kalyssa caught it before it hit the ground.
Parker grinned and slapped her shoulder, "You're a natural Lyssa." she complimented, skipping out of the office. Kalyssa followed close behind, both girls stopping at a door marked 'Danger: High Voltage'.
In the elevator shafts, Eliot and Hardison were waiting. "You know girls anytime you wanna-" Eliot began to say when suddenly the elevator started to rapidly descend.
"Boys are on their way." Kalyssa relayed to her father.
"What are you getting with security?" Nate asked. "You see security?"
"They don't see a thing." the girls said in unison. Once the elevator the boys were on reached the destination, the girls signaled them to get off.
"All right guys, show time." Nate said to the team. "Here we go."
Eliot and Hardison ran down a hallway to the server room location. Hardison began working to hack the security code while Eliot watched for any guards.
"You girls got any chatter on their frequencies?" Nate asked.
"Nope." Kalyssa answered.
"Why?" Parker raised an eyebrow.
From the abandoned office, Nate looked over the security roster, "There's eight listed on the duty roster, yet there's only four at the guard post." he informed.
In the electrical room, Parker looked over the footage of the security office. "I can't even tell how many guys are in the room. How can you tell who's who?"
"Count the haircuts." Kalyssa answered, pointing to the guards.
"I would have missed that." Parker muttered.
"Problem?" Eliot asked over the comms.
"Maybe." Nate answered. "Kalyssa, run the cameras."
The said female began scrolling through the camera feeds until she found the other four guards. "Got 'em." she kept with them via the feeds.
"They're doing their walk-through an hour early." Parker noted, getting frazzled. "Why the f-"
"Playoffs." Kalyssa cut her off. She zoomed in on the security office. "Game 5 of the playoffs. They're doing their rounds an hour early so they can watch the game."
"Where are the other four?" Nate asked, referring the other guards.
"They're at the stairwell." Parker answered. "And they found the open door."
"Okay, guys here's what we gotta do." Nate ordered. "We gotta squelch 'em. Girls, disrupt their frequencies." Parker did as instructed. "Eliot, what I want you to do is clear the zone and use Hardison as bait." Eliot took off his jacket and disappeared around the corner, leaving Alec alone.
"Bait?" the hacker repeated. "What? Hold up. Wait a minute. I know you ain't talking about me, I ain't nobody's bait." he shook his head and watched his device crack three of the ten numbers. "Come on baby, work for me." he said softly, tapping his device.
"Hardison, they're almost there." Parker warned over the earbuds.
Alec shook his head and grabbed his bag, "Forget this." he grunted. He turned to leave, but the guards were standing in his way, weapons aimed.
Hardison raised his hands over his head just as Eliot walked out behind the guards. Hardison dropped his bag and by the time it hit the ground, Eliot was the only man left standing. He held one of the guns in his hand, emptying the clip. "That's what I do." Eliot stated with a smile
Behind Hardison, the server room door clicked open, him and Eliot ducking inside.
"Guys, guys you gotta talk to me, okay?" Nate hailed over comms. "'Cause I don't know what's going on."
Kalyssa tightened her ponytail, "Well Eliot just beat up four guards in like two seconds." she relayed. "Him and Hardison are in the server room now."
In the server room, Eliot tied up the guards while Hardsion was grabbing what they came for. "It's all good, I'm stripping the drives right now." he plugged in a flashdrive and in a few seconds everything was transferred. "Got all the designs, got all the backups." Hardison grinned, removing the drive. "I'm leaving this cupboard bare."
"Drop the spike." Nate ordered.
"With pleasure." Haridson smiled. The monitor flashed once before showing what's referred to in IT as the 'Blue Screen of Death'. The lights on the servers began to go out.
"Did you give them a virus?" Eliot asked as the two exited into the hallway.
"Dude, I gave them more than one virus." Hardison laughed.
"Problem." Parker called over the comms. "Those guards you ganked? They reset all the alarms on the roof and all the floors above us."
"Our escape route's been cut off." Kalyssa lowered her head.
"Every man for himself then." Eliot voted.
"Go ahead I'm the one with the merchandise." Hardison reminded.
"Yeah, well I'm the one with an exit." Parker snapped.
"What's the plan dad?" Kalyssa asked, rubbing her temples.
"Now I know you children don't play well with others but I need you to hold it together for exactly seven more minutes." Nate instructed. "Now get to the elevator and head down. We're going to the Burn Scam."
Parker looked to Kalyssa with a raised brow. Kalyssa jumped to her feet and pulled Parker up, "I'll explain on the way. It's pretty simple."
Eliot and Hardison entered an elevator and began changing their clothes. "Going to Plan B?" Hardison asked.
"Technically that would be Plan G." Nate corrected.
The elevator doors opened, revealing Hardison and Eliot in business suits. Parker and Kalyssa ran in, pulling their shirts over their heads while the boys looked away.
"How many plans do we have?" Alec questioned, buttoning up his blazer. "Is there like a Plan M?"
"Yeah." Nate confirmed. "Hardison dies in Plan M."
"I like Plan M." Eliot said with a smile, tightening his tie.
Kalyssa snapped her fingers, getting Eliot's attention, "Can you hand me the red and blue blouses?" she asked.
"Here." Eliot handed the shirts to her, and she tossed the red one to Parker. In that one glance, Eliot could make out a Catholic cross tattoo under Kalyssa's left shoulder with what appeared to be a name and a couple of dates written on a ribbon over the center. Kalyssa turned to face him, buttoning up a light-blue blouse, which gave him a more than decent view of the black and pink bra she was wearing.
"Nice tattoo." he complimented, looking more so at the blonde's face rather than her chest. "Who's it in memory of?"
Kalyssa's eyes narrowed into a glare, "None of your damn business." she replied, pulling her hair out of the ponytail and tousling it, letting the blonde locks fall over her shoulders. Keeping her glare on Eliot, she reached into the bag and grabbed the makeup kit, quickly turning to Parker.
"What's the point of this?" Parker asked.
"It's simple." Kalyssa answered, adding some light eyeshadow to Parker's eyelids before grabbing a skin prosthetic that resembled burns. "We're basically using the basic human reaction to a physical handicap and/or disfigurement, and exploiting the moment to get the hell out of here before they realize we're not part of the staff." She dabbed some makeup to blend the prosthetic to match Parker's skin tone. "Be lucky our skin tones are the same."
As Kalyssa smoothed out the makeup, Eliot placed a brace on Parker's leg while Haridson dug a cane out of the bag. "Alright, we're done here. Pack up." Kalyssa ordered, pulling a portion of her hair back into a ponytail.
The elevator doors opened, with a guard on the other side, staring wide eyed at the four of them, focusing more on Parker than the others. "Nice." Kalyssa snapped, helping Parker out of the elevator. "Why don't you stare a little more?"
"Sorry." the security guard apologized.
"You gotta be kidding me." Eliot rolled his eyes.
"No, it's okay." Parker told them, biting back fake tears. "I understand."
The guard continued to apologize as the four exited the building. Once the guard was out of sight, they walked normally, hurrying to the curb where Nate pulled up. Kalyssa slid into the front seat while the others squeezed into the back as Nate drove off away from the building.
"Nice job you guys." Nate praised the team.
The team grouped together in a local park, with Hardison working on his laptop, transferring the plans. "Come on, come on, it's only taking all night." Nate complained, his hands in his coat pockets. "Come on."
"I got a couple of Wi-Fi networks with some crappy bandwidth." Alec defended tapping a few more keys. "There you go. The designs are sent."
Kalyssa nodded, rubbing her hands together to warm them up. "All right, good." she exhaled, her breath visible in the cool air.
"The money will be in all your accounts later today." Nate informed, moving to leave, wrapping an arm around his daughter's shoulder.
"Hey, anybody else notice how hard we rocked last night?" Alec brought up, casting looks to the other members of the group.
The corner of Eliot's lips curled slightly, "Yeah, well, one show only." he stated. "No encores."
"I already forgot your names." Parker folded her arms over her chest.
"It was kind of cool, being on the same side." Hardison noted with a smile.
"No." Nate rebuked. "We are not on the same side. I am not a thief, and neither is my daughter."
"Well, you are now." Parker noted.
Kalyssa bit her lip, "I actually agree with Alec." She rubbed the back of her neck. Nate looked down at her, his eyes narrowed slightly. "Come on dad, didn't you have a little bit of fun playing the Black King instead of the White Knight for a change?" She quirked her brow, knowing on some level he did.
"It's late. Let's go." Nate took his daughter's arm and walked away. The rest of the group walked off in different directions.
"Seriously though." Kalyssa sighed, climbing into the passenger seat of her dad's car. "That was actually the most fun I've had in a really long time."
"We're not thieves, Kalyssa." Nate reiterated. "We're the good guys." He started the car and drove off back to the hotel.
The blonde leaned back in the seat, twisting her ponytail around her finger. "Sometimes being the good guy sucks." she sighed, looking out her window.
Kalyssa stepped out of the shower, tousling her damp hair. She was dressed in a pair of pink Victoria's Secret shorts and a sports bra that matched. A faint ringing caught her ear and she saw her dad's phone light up. Nate was still dressed in his clothes from the previous night and was passed out in his bed.
She picked up the phone and flipped it open to answer, "Nathan Ford's phone." she greeted, walking to the small counter to start working on coffee. "Who's this?"
"Victor Dubenich." the male voice on the other line answered. "Who is this?"
"Kalyssa Ford." said blonde replied, turning on the coffee maker. "Nate's daughter."
"Oh well in that case, your father screwed me!" Dubenich yelled, making Kalyssa wince slightly. "The designs never got to me."
"That's not right." Kalyssa rebuked. "Both my father and I watched them go out." She tapped her nails on the countertop.
"Well, I don't know what you saw but I received nothing!" Dubenich spat.
Kalyssa clenched her hand into a fist, "Look here you-" she said through gritted teeth, but the CEO cut her off.
"I am freezing the payments." Dubenich stated. "I am freezing all the payments untill I get those designs."
Kalyssa pinched the bridge of her nose, resting against her elbows on the counter, "All right, look, why don't my dad and I come down there?" she suggested, trying her best not to bit his head off. "We can straighten-"
"No!" Dubenich yelled. "Do not come here." he lowered his voice. "My company has an old aircraft facility outside the city and I will text you the address. You and your father be there. One hour."
Dubenich hung up, leaving Kalyssa with her hand clenched so tightly, her nails dug into the palm of her hand. She saw the text message and copied the address down on a small notepad, "Fucking douchebag." she rolled her eyes and poured herself a cup of coffee. Seeing her father still passed out, she decided on the crude option to wake him. Kalyssa filled a small cup full of cold water and splashed it on his face.
Nate shot up, seeing his daughter grinning like the Cheshire Cat at the foot of his bed. "What the hell, Kalyssa Marie." he groaned, wiping the water from his face.
"That asshat Dubenich called." she informed, walking to her suitcase to grab some clothes. "He practically bit my head off, claiming the designs were never sent."
Nate blinked, "We all watched Hardison send them out." he reminded.
"I know." Kalyssa agreed, grabbing an open-back purple tank top, a jean mini-skirt with a frayed hem, and her knee-high leather boots. "But Dubenich said he won't pay us until it's sorted out. He texted you an address where to meet him. We need to be there in one hour."
Nate rubbed his eyes as his daughter went into the bathroom to change, falling back into bed with a groan.
The father-daughter duo took a cab to the warehouse address, carefully entering it. Kalyssa looked around, zipping up her leather jacket and shoving her hands in the pockets, a feeling of uneasiness stirring in her stomach. As they walked further into the warehouse, a few familiar voices caught their attention.
"You mind telling me what happened to the designs?" Hardison asked, pointing a gun in Eliot's direction.
"What makes you think I know what happened?" Eliot defended, not even fazed by the situation.
"Looks like we weren't the only ones invited to this little party." Kalyssa whispered to her father.
"Hold up Cujo." Hardison cut off Eliot, raising his gun. "I did my part. I transferred the files."
"You better get that gun out of my face, or else I'm gonna feed it to you." Eliot threatened.
Kalyssa put her fingers to her lips and let out a whistle, getting their attention, when he turned, Haridson was now pointing his gun at Kalyssa.
"Did either one of you do it?" Eliot accused. "You're the only ones that have ever played both sides."
The blonde female scoffed, strutting up to the two men, the sound of her heels striking the concrete echoing around them. "Please, I'm going to school for Psychology. Not Computer Sciences." She flipped her hair off her shoulder, her features void of any emotion.
Nate stood beside his daughter, "You seem pretty relaxed for a guy with a gun pointed at him." he noted.
Eliot glanced at Hardison, his eyes quickly darting to the gun before falling back on the younger male, "Safety's on."
Hardison scoffed, "Like I'm gonna fall for that." he rolled his eyes.
"He's right." Kalyssa scratched her nose, "The safety is on."
Alec looked at the weapon he held and Nate easily disarmed him, looking to Eliot, "You armed?"
He shook his head, "I don't like guns." he answered calmly, his eyes meeting Nate's.
His eyes drifted over the former investigator's shoulder, narrowing slightly. Nate turned, the gun he held now aimed at Parker, who held a gun at him. "My money's not in my account." She slowly walked around Alec, raising her gun while Nate lowered his. "That makes me cry inside in my special, angry place."
Kalyssa kept her eyes on the theif, "Easy there." she said calmly, reaching out to lower her gun.
"Did you come here to get paid?" Nate asked, looking to the three hired theives.
"Hell no." Hardison scoffed. "Transfer of funds man. Global economy."
"It's supposed to be a walk away." Eliot reminded. "I'm never supposed to see you people again."
Kalyssa nodded along, holding her chin between her thumb and index finger, "Then the only reason you guys are here is because you didn't get paid either." she pursed her lips together, her eyes taking in the area, "As a matter of fact," she walked a few paces, now standing in the middle of the group, "the only way to get us all in the same place at the same time is to tell us that we're not getting paid." She saw a faint blinking light on an oil drum by the wall, her hazel eyes widening. "Get the hell out. Now!"
Each person took off to the nearest exit. Nate opened a garage door and directed them out, "Come on. Let's go, hustle." He patted his daughter's back as she slipped past him. Nate was the last one out just as the building exploded in a ball of fire, throwing Hardison, Eliot, Kalyssa, Nate, and Parker to the ground, knocking them unconscious.
Kalyssa stirred awake, her senses slowly coming back to her. The first thing she felt was a pain in her head and cool metal on her left wrist, next she heard voices already in conversation. "It's about time." Parker's voice echoed, coming from the vent connecting the two hospital rooms. "Cops and Firemen got there just as we were waking up." Kalyssa's hazel eyes fluttered open and she looked around, seeing the familiar white plaster of a hospital room, "Fuck." she cursed, struggling to sit up. "Where the hell are we?" she asked, leaning against the pillows.
"County hospital." Hardison answered from the second room. "Local cops, they responded to the explosion."
"Have we been processed?" Nate asked, shaking off the dizziness he felt.
Eliot showed him his cuffed hand, revealing ink on his fingertips, "They faxed our prints to the State Police."
"If they run the prints, we're screwed." Kalyssa reminded, seeing her own fingers inked.
"How long?" Parker asked.
"Thirty, thirty-five minutes depending on the software." Hardison answered.
"They printed us twenty minutes ago." Eliot informed. "So unless we get out of here in the next ten minutes we all go to jail." He watched Kalyssa take a bobby pin from her hair and tried to pick the lock on her handcuffs. "I can take these cops."
"Don't you dare." Parker threatened from the other room, completely free of her cuffs. "You kill anyone you screw up my getaway."
"Hold up. I'm still handcuffed here." Hardison reminded, eyeing Parker. "I can't even go to the bathroom. I gotta go."
Kalyssa rolled her eyes as the locks clicked, releasing her wrist. "Easy-peasy." she chuckled, rubbing her wrist. She looked to her father, "You got a plan to get us out? Because, I don't think mom's gonna like getting a call from me in prison asking for bail money."
"Parker! Get me a phone." Nate instructed. "What we're going to do is, we're going to get out of here together."
"This was a onetime deal." Eliot reminded.
Kalyssa rolled her eyes, "So you've mentioned for the third time." she muttered, rubbing her head. "Here's the deal guys, you each know what you can do, but my dad and I know what all of you can do, so that gives us the edge and the plan." She folded her arms over her criss-crossed legs.
"I don't trust these guys." Parker pouted.
Nathan sighed, "Do you trust me? And Kalyssa?" he glanced over at his daughter.
Eliot's lips formed a small smile, "Of course." he answered, glancing from the father to the daughter. "You're honest people."
"Parker, phone." Nate ordered,
The theif sighed in annoyance, standing at the foot of her empty bed "This is gonna suck." She stuck her fingers down her throat and hunched over, vomiting.
"Oh. Hell no!" Hardison looked away, suppressing his own urge to vomit.
A few minutes later, Parker was lying handcuffed in her hospital bed, a doctor standing over her checking her temperature. "Nausea could mean a concussion. If you feel any more effects or blurred vision, tell the policeman right away."
Parker nodded compliantly. The doctor and nurse left the room, the officer checked her handcuffs before leaving the room. Once the room was completely clear, Parker and Hardison each hold up the phones they stole. After a quick glance, they switched. Parker held up the keys she stole and uncuffed herself before and tossing them to Hardison. She jumped up and slid the phone through the vent. "Nate." she whispered.
"Yeah, I got it." Nate grabbed the phone from the vent. "So the trick is to give them what they want. They're expecting a phone call, right?"
"Right?" Kalyssa echoed with a raised brow.
Nate tossed the phone to Eliot. In the next room, Hardison used the camera on the phone to take his picture and he entered information into some templates. "Okay." he chuckled.
The deputy in charge of the captive group stood at the nurse's station. "This is Deputy Burns."
"This is Detective Lieutenant Carden with the Illinois State Police." a thick accented voice answered on the other line. ""We got those prints that you sent us."
Inside the first hospital room, the person on the other line was revealed to be Eliot. "The problem I have is that they're sending up red flags all over the place and I've got somebody on the phone for you from the FBI down there in Washington. Can you hold son?"
He tossed the phone across to Nate, "Yeah, Deputy Burns, this is Deputy-Director McCumber, FBI." he stated in a gritty, authorative voice. "Yes, is our man all right?"
The next room over, Hardison was using the UniFax website to send a fax to the hospital to back up the story Nate was about to sell the deputy guarding them.
"Deputy, listen to me the man that you have inside there is ours actually." Nate continued on. "He's been in deep cover for three years."
"Seriously?" Deputy Burns questioned.
"That's correct. In fact you should be receiving a fax any moment now confirming what I'm telling you. Most of what I've told you is classified. I need to know I can trust you. Can I?
A few minutes later, the team was released into the custody of Hardison, who was playing the role of the undercover FBI agent. Hardison lead Eliot to a police cruiser that Nate, Kalyssa, and Parker were already inside of, with Nate up in the passenger seat while the girls were in the back. As he guided Eliot into the backseat he hit Eliot's head on the top of the door frame. Eliot shot Hardison a glare before getting into the car, next to Kalyssa, who was sandwiched between him and Parker.
"Men, it fills my heart with tears of joy, what you guys do." Alec said to the two uniformed officers with a choked up voice. "It does." he climbed behind the steering wheel and drove off.
After dumping the police car, Hardison led the rest of the group to an uptown loft. "Four first class tickets to anywhere but here, coming up." he clapped his hands and walked over to a desk with a computer.
"Whose place is this?" Parker asked, looking around.
"It's mine." Hardison beamed.
Eliot glanced around from the black leather couch and flat screen, to the large pool table, and the larger kitchen area. He flexed his fingers into a fist, "I'm gonna beat Dubenich so bad that even the people who look like him are gonna bleed."
"Get in line." Kalyssa spat, cracking her knuckles. She removed her leather jacket and draped it over her arm, taking a seat on the end table between the computer desk and the couch.
Parker leaned against one of the columns, crossing her ankles. "You won't get within 100 yards." she noted. "He knows your face. He knows all our faces." She folded her arms over her chest.
"He tried to kill us." Eliot reminded, gritting his teeth.
Parker rolled her eyes, "More importantly he didn't pay us."
Eliot was a bit taken back by Parker's screwed up priorities, and that only angered him more. "How is that more important?"
"I take that personally." Parker sounded a bit hurt, but her expression showed nothing but a small smile.
This time Eliot rolled his eyes, "There's something wrong with you." He leaned against the back of the couch.
"She really needs a thorough Psych evalutation." Kalyssa muttered, crossing her legs at the knee.
"Heads up." Hardison called, getting everyone else's attention. "Look, Dubenich's story is 90 percent true. He is the head of Bering Aerospace big rival to Pierson, but, check out what my little web crawlers coughed up." He clicked on a link which showed a video of a representative from Pierson Aviation talking about the robbery and the sabotaged servers.
"Could be a cover story." Kalyssa noted, shrugging her shoulders.
"Here's a log of last night's rip." Hardison pulled up the stolen plans in HTML format. "Internal timestamps on the project, 2003, 2004, they're way, way down in the code." he informed. "There's no reason to fake those."
"So we didn't steal the plans back?" Eliot questioned.
"No, we were just stealing them." Parker clarified with a huff.
"Why would Dubenich lie to us?" Hardison asked.
"Cause you're thieves." Nate answered, facing the rest of the group. "If he hired you for a straight up crime, you'd know he was a bad guy like you, you'd be suspicious. This way you just saw another citizen in over his head and that's why you didn't see the double cross coming."
"Why didn't you or Kalyssa see it coming?" Parker asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Because neither of us are thieves." Kalyssa answered, uncrossing her legs. "And I wasn't even with my dad when Dubenich approached him. I got back to the hotel just as that asshole was leaving." She got to her feet and crossed her arms, biting her lip.
Eliot slammed his hands down on the couch. "Maybe that was the problem."
"Hey, hey." Haridson got between Eliot and Nate, handing each person a sheet of paper. "I bought tickets to London," he handed a ticket to Eliot, "Rome," the next to Parker, "Paris," he handed two papers to Nate and Kalyssa, "and Sao Paulo all matching the IDs that you gave me."
Nate set his sheet down and looked at the computer monitor, "You're running." he muttered, focusing on Dubenich's picture.
"You got a better idea?" Eliot asked, thinking the statement was directed at them.
"No, no. You're running." Nate still kept focused on Dubenich's photo. "Now that was a high-risk play. You got your balls tied to the stock price like a cinder block, shareholder meeting coming up." he clenched his jaw.
"What're you thinking daddy?" Kalyssa questioned, studying her father's facial expression.
"We can't let this guy have any time to cool down." Nate informed, turning to face the others, meeting his daughter's eyes.
Kalyssa quirked her brow, "You want to run a game on Dubenich?" her lips curled into a mischevious grin.
"You?" Eliot repeated, not believing Nate was capable of such a feat.
Kalyssa looked over her shoulder at Eliot, "You think he can't?" she raised a brow, which Eliot mirrored. "How do you think he got stolen merchindise back?"
Nate nodded in agreement, "I mean, Dubenich, he's greedy, he thinks he's smart. He's the best kind of mark."
"He does think he got rid of us." Parker grinned.
"Element of surprise." Hardison added with a grin of his own.
Eliot scoffed, "What's in it for me?"
Kalyssa walked up to him, meeting his blue eyes with her hazel ones, "Payback." she answered. "And if it goes right, a lot of money."
"What's in it for me?" Parker blinked, leaning off the wooden column.
"A lot of money." Kalyssa replied, turning her look to the thief. "And if it goes right, payback." She turned her eyes to the hacker. "Hardison? You in?"
The young male's grin widened, "I was just gonna send a thousand porno magazines to his office." he admitted with a shrug, "But, hell yeah, let's kick him up."
"What's in it for the two of you?" Eliot asked, making Kalyssa's head whip back in his direction. He caught a shift in her eyes, registering a change in demenor. That's when he figured it was a personal reason, which was confirmed when Nate started walking away.
"Let's go get Sophie." Nate called back to the others. Hardison and Parker kept on his heels, leaving Eliot and Kalyssa standing by the computer.
The young blonde shoved past the remaining member and grabbed her jacket, pulling it on. She ran her fingers through her hair, brushing her bangs to the side. When Kalyssa turned around, she was face to face with Eliot, "What?" she questioned, adjusting her jacket.
"It get that it's personal." Eliot said, his voice soft. "What's in it for you?"
A small hint of sadness was reflected in Kalyssa's eyes, but the rest of her features were hard and cold. "He used my brother." she answered through gritted teeth, walking away from the retrieval specialist and following the others out of the loft.
Eliot gave a simple nod in understanding and followed behind.
The group sat in the back row inside a Chicago theater. A tan complected woman with long, dark hair pulled into a braid stood on the stage, dressed in medieval clothing. Her acting was terrible, earning wide-eyed shocked looks from the group, except for Nate who was watching intently and Kalyssa showing no emotion, just blinking and looking bored.
"She is very awful." Hardison muttered, from the end of the row.
"Is she injured?" Parker questioned, sitting between Alec and Nate. "In the head?"
Kalyssa closed her eyes and rested her cheek against her knuckles, sitting between Nate and Eliot. "Seriously man." Eliot sighed. "This is the worst actress I've ever seen."
"This is not her stage." Nate informed the others.
"Good." Kalyssa mumbled, "Because, if this were medieval times, she'd be pelted with rotten fruit and booed off."
After the performance, the group waited outside in the back alley. Nate stood a few feet off side from the door, while the others were further behind him. Hardison leaned against the car while Parker sat on the hood, Kalyssa and Eliot stood a few paces from eachother.
"No." Eliot stated for the tenth time. "No, I vote no."
"Twelve in counting." Kalyssa shook her head. "I'm sure my dad knows what he's doing."
"Parker was right." Nate recalled. "Dubenich knows us and we need a fresh face." he clapped as Sophie exited the theater and spotted them. "I thought you were great."
A grin spread across the woman's face, "My only fan." she slowly walked up to Nate, "I'm a citizen now." she informed. "Honest."
"I'm not." Nate shrugged.
Sophie blinked, "You're playing my side?" she questioned, glancing behind him at the rest of the group. "I always thought you had it in you."
"So, are you in?" Nate asked.
"I wouldn't miss this." Sophie smiled in agreement.
"All right." Nate chuckled, slightly flustered. "All right, let's break the law just one more time."
The rest of the group climbed into the large rented SUV. Sophie gently grabbed Kalyssa's arms and gave the girl a once over, "Kalyssa, you're just as beautiful as your mother." she smiled and climbed into the passenger seat, leaving the young blonde stunned.