Disclaimer: I hold no legal right to the Now You See Me Movies. I hold only the copyright to this fanfic.
After a six hour snow delay leaving JFK Airport, seven hours in the air with no one sleeping between the heavy turbulence and crying children and finally making it to the hotel at Late O'clock local time, Merritt decided to voice what they were all thinking: "Well, fuck."
The other three gave noises of agreement as they stared at the tiny hotel room.
Whoever had hired them, be it The Eye or some nut job with too much time on their hands, had given them the resources to put together this cockamamie plan but only budgeted for them to pay for one hotel room per city that they went to. Soon, there was an unspoken understanding that Merritt got the roll away, Henley got a bed and, supposedly, Jack and Daniel shared. Only Merritt and Jack knew that Jack actually slept in the chair with his feet propped up on the desk but the kid was up early enough that Daniel and Henley didn't notice.
But that was in the United States where even cheap rooms had two beds somehow, be they real or hideaway. This? This was what Paris thought a hotel room was.
"I think my cell was bigger than this, and I only had to deal with one other guy," Merritt complained. The room would have been tight with the two single beds crammed into it, with the rollaway shoved in, plus all four of their suitcases and their carry-ons it was…going to be memorable if nothing else.
"I don't care anymore," Henley whined as she shoved her suitcase into the corner flopping down onto the rollaway, "I just don't care."
"Alright, fine, let's just get some sleep, before anything else goes wrong!" Daniel said with tight shoulders.
"Fine," Merritt said, dropping his bag and bending over to push one of the beds.
"Uh, what are you doing?" Daniel asked.
"Well, unless you feel like sleeping in the bathtub, we need to make enough room for the three of us to sleep," Merritt said, waving his finger in the air in a circle, indicating the boys.
"Uh, guys, there's only a shower," Jack said, leaning out of the bathroom.
Daniel pressed his lips tight, his fingers tapping hard against his thigh. "Fine" He dropped his bag and bent over to help Merritt.
Jack joined them and they managed to secure the beds together before crawling in, pausing long enough to take off their coats and shoes.
"Lights," Henley said.
Jack sat up, throwing his deck of cards at the wall. They hit just above the light switch, falling to push the switch down and the room was plunged into darkness.
"Nice shot," Merritt said, feeling the mattress bounce as Jack flopped down. "You know it's weird to be sharing a bed with two guys. Not that I mind, but I would have preferred Henley; especially this being the City of Lov-"
"Shut. Up." Daniel said.
They all ended up sleeping until nearly eleven, though Jack was gone before the others woke.
"Okay, we have a lot of work to do and we have wasted enough time," Daniel said, digging through his suitcase for his laptop.
"If by 'wasting time' you mean sleeping and discussing what we should eat, than yes we've wasted a lot of it." Merritt said rolling his eyes.
"Glad you agree," Daniel said, sitting on the tiny balcony attached to the window with his laptop. "Because we still have to find our mark, which means hacking into the website to find members, not to mention getting a look at their vault-" Merritt looked over at Henley pointing at Daniel with his thumb; Henley sighed and nodded her head. "-plus stake out the mint as well as figure out which truck goes to Credit Republic and what route it takes, and we are-"
"AS interesting as this is," Merritt cut off, "I'm hungry. Let's take a moment to get breakfast and/or lunch then get to work."
"Okay, okay, you eat. I'm going to stay here and start, you know, working." Daniel said, dismissing Merritt.
"Come on, Danny," Henley said, balancing on the boys' bed on her knees as she pushed Daniel's laptop closed, "let's go get something to eat and scope the city. Maybe even get a safety deposit box at say, Credit Republic?"
Daniel gently clapped with a flat hand and fist looking over Henley's shoulder as he thought about it. "Okay, sounds doable."
Merritt noticed Henley's shoulders slightly sag in relief as Daniel put his laptop back in his suitcase and crawled over the bed.
"I'll leave a note for Jack," Merritt said, Henley's reaction telling him that they were lucky to be getting Daniel out of the room.
"Yeah, where did he go?" Henley asked, her eyes flicking over the mussed sheets and suitcases to see if Jack had left a note.
"No clue, are we going to go?" Daniel asked, shrugging on his coat.
"Alright, hold your horses," Merritt said, scribbling a quick note, tripping over Daniel's carry-on before dropping the note onto Jack's suitcase.
The three traveled in an uneasy silence, Henley rolling her eyes as Daniel pulled out a deck of cards as they looked for a café. She slowed her pace, falling behind slightly and Merritt followed suit.
"Brace yourself," Henley warned, her shoulders tight, "Danny is in one of his moods."
"His moods?" Merritt asked.
"Yep, once Danny decides to work on a trick the rest of us can just go to hell," Henley explained, practically stomping.
Merritt nodded as Daniel walked past a café without even noticing. "So…we need to get it to go, then?"
Paris however was not really a 'to go' city, unless they were willing to go to McDonalds or another recognizable chain. Even Daniel, whom Merritt thought was running on nothing but The Plan, thought it was stupid to travel across an ocean and eat nothing but a Big Mac.
Daniel, on the other hand, was a 'to go' kind of tourist; walking with long strides taking in the city his eyes sweeping the streets, pointing out little details in paragraphs that they ignored. Henley kept, for lack of a better term, balling up; she'd ball her fists, cross her arms, bow her head, realize she was tense and loosen up only to repeat as they walked. Merritt himself was having a hard time paying attention to anything but his stomach clenching, reminding him that he hadn't eaten since the flight.
Finally, as they reached the Paris Opera House someone bumped hard into Daniel and kept walking, but Daniel trailed off staring at the woman, with a surprised, indigent expression that made Merritt grab her by the collar of her shirt as she passed. Merritt snapped his fingers then held his hand out flat. The pickpocket rolled her eyes and slapped Daniel's wallet into Merritt's hand. Merritt let her go with a slightly rough shove and Henley clapped her hands.
"Yes, yes, very nice, well done." Daniel said, holding his hand out for his wallet.
Merritt almost handed it to him but pulled back at the last second. "On second thought, why don't we take this moment to get something to eat?"
"Really? You want to eat that badly?" Daniel asked.
"Yes," Merritt and Henley said at the same time.
Daniel rolled his eyes. "Fine, where do you want to go?"
"There," Henley pointed to the closest restaurant with a green awning with 'Café de la Paix' painted on the edges.
"Good enough for me," Merritt said leading them to the Café.
"Alright, fine," Daniel said, shuffling his card again.
The inside of the café was crowded but a fenced area in front had plenty of open tables and the wait staff directed them to one.
"Daniel, please make sure that you order something with substance," Merritt intoned looking at the menu, getting a giggle out of Henley. "I know you think you can run off of bread and water, but save us all the headache and eat something."
"Okay, first of all, you are not my mother," Daniel said, "Secondly, I'm not hungry."
Merritt started to make a smart ass comment when Henley leaned forward looking Daniel right in the eye. "Danny, order something or I will do it for you."
"If you want I can-" Merritt started.
"Hypnotize me? I don't think so." Daniel said glaring at the menu.
"Well, not with that attitude," Merritt agreed as a waiter approached them.
Henley ordered in French, decently as the corner of the waiter's mouth twitched with the hint of a smile, and not to be out done so did Merritt, less decently as the waiter's hand clenched and he licked his lips to hide the distain of Merritt's heavy New Orleans accent. Daniel didn't bother, pointing at two random things on the menu and the waiter jotted them down quickly.
"Note to self," Merritt said as he watched the waiter go, "Don't try to hypnotize our mark in French."
"Why's that?" Henley asked. Daniel was trying to ignore them in favor of shuffling his cards but the tilt of his head betrayed that he was paying close attention.
"Because they will be so insulted by my accent they'll snap right out of it."
"Really?" Henley asked sounding interested. "They can do that?"
"Despite what movies want you to think; I can't make someone do what they normally wouldn't otherwise."
"Really? Jumping up and down clapping for Tinkerbell is something people normally do?" Daniel asked, waving his hands in the air sarcastically.
"Okay, let me rephrase," Merritt slouched comfortably in his chair, "Under hypnosis I can't make someone, say, drop kick a puppy, unless they were already the kind of person to regularly drop kick puppies. In which case they were in need of professionally help long before I came along."
Henley chuckled while Daniel gave an amused eye roll.
"I can however convince them that they are ballerinas. But unless they are ballerinas in real life they're just going to end up spinning in circles like they think a ballerina does. On the other hand, if they don't want to be a ballerina for some reason they won't. At which point in the show I cut them loose and let them go back to their seat."
"So, how is this going to work?" Daniel asked, looking over Merritt's shoulder in thought. "If you can't convince someone that they are robbing a bank-"
"Ah, ah, ah," Merritt held up a finger, making Daniel stop in midsentence. "It's all in the presentation, my friend. If we introduce the mark with the idea that we are robbing a bank, then we drop them into a vault, the only thing I have to make them believe is that they are in Paris. That, I can do."
Daniel nodded. "Oh, very nice, good to know. Okay."
"So what's the weirdest thing you've made someone do?" Henley asked mischievously.
"For the purpose of knowing your limits, obviously," Daniel hastily added.
Merritt smirked, rubbed his hands together and regaled the two with a few tales of his shows, most from before his sudden downfall, though he doesn't mention that part to them. Daniel had pulled out a small notebook, asking questions and taking notes while Henley shot Merritt an exasperated but apologetic look.
Eventually lunch arrived and despite Daniel's claim that he hadn't been hungry he finished his first entrée long before Henley and Merritt were halfway through theirs and still made it through mostly through his second one. While he knew tipping was not common in Europe, Merritt couldn't help but leave two bi-colored one Euro coins on the table for the waiter…from Daniel's wallet.
The three hit the city again and after eating Daniel was much more manageable, quietly taking notes as they walked, dodging other pickpockets with ease. Henley easily slipped into the role of American tourist, taking random looking pictures of the buildings and alleys, careful to get the street signs, traffic and escape routes in them.
Merritt convinced them that they needed to pick someone to get the safety deposit box on their own; people would remember three tourists getting one box after all. They decided that Henley would as her French was the best and the boys wandered into the bank after she was a few people deep in line, Merritt being obvious while taking pictures, which summoned the guards. Daniel and Merritt took great care in asking in loud, slow English and broken French where they were and why the guards were mad that they were taking pictures. No one noticed Henley taking much more subtle pictures of the vault with her phone.
The sun was starting to set after hours of walking, getting a feel for the streets between the bank and the mint before they all agreed to head back to the hotel. They were in decent spirits as they made their way to their room when they saw Jack unlocking the door to their room, a plastic grocery bag hanging from his wrist.
"Hey!" Daniel called out, causing Jack to look at them in surprise, "Where have you been?"
"Same place you guys were," Jack said, the door still closed, "you said that you were casing the city and not to wait up. So I did the same thing."
"You couldn't, I don't know, text us?" Daniel asked, "Besides you were gone before we were even up."
"Sorry, man, I don't have an international plan," Jack admitted.
"Oh, well that would have been very nice to know back in New York where we could have fixed it!"
Merritt leaned forward. "As thrilling as this is, and as loathed as I am to agree with Daniel on something," Daniel smirked and whispered a loud 'Thank you,' "I make a motion that somebody open the door and we all get out of the hallway."
Henley rolled her eyes pushing between Daniel and Jack unlocking the room. They all paused as they looked in on the glorified storage shed that was their hotel room. Daniel moved first, hopping over Merritt's suitcase, walking on the bed back to the tiny balcony outside the window. "Whatever, at least today was not a total waste."
"Haven't the French ever heard of space?" Merritt asked, picking up his suitcase and trying to jam it in the almost too small closet.
"To be fair, we're not spending a lot of time here," Henley pointed out, pushing into Merritt as she squeezed past him into to room.
"So, uh, yeah, anyway guys, I found like fifteen potential marks for the first show," Jack said.
The other three stopped, looking in Jack in surprise.
"How'd you manage that?" Merritt asked.
Jack pulled out his phone. "I, uh, I went around picking pockets and when they had a Credit Republic credit card in their wallet I'd snap a picture of their id and hand it back. If they'd spoke English I'd save it; if not I'd delete it." Jack gave Merritt a sheepish shrug, "I don't know if you know French."
"I do, but English is preferable."
"That is," Daniel said, looking impressed and slightly bewildered, "that is a rather elegant solution. Well done."
Jack ducked his head, his smile wide. "Thanks."
"Can I have your phone, now?" Daniel asked, like Jack should have handed it over five minutes ago.
"Right, right, course," Jack said, knelling on the bed to hand it to Daniel.
"Don't take it personally," Henley said, nudging Jack's shoulder as she handed Daniel her own phone. "He's been like this all day."
"Well, forgive me for wanting to do what we came here for," Danny snapped, plugging Jack's phone into his computer.
"So, what were you guys doing?" Jack asked, sitting crisscross on the boys' bed his back to Henley's rollaway as he pulled a Styrofoam to go box from the plastic bag.
"We walked around the city, looking at potential routes the armored car might take," Henley said, leaning against the wall as she took off her shoes.
"I thought The Plan had that covered," Jack said, opening his box.
"It does, Daniel here is just being annoyingly paranoid," Merritt said, sliding the closet door closed.
"Well, forgive me for wanting to double check. I mean after all, we have no idea what changed between The Plan being made and us getting it," Daniel said, not looking up from his laptop.
"In other words: In this Leap of Faith that we are supposed to be taking, Daniel has made the mistake of looking down."
"Yeah, well at the bottom of this Leap of Faith, if we fail, is jail. So, yes, I'm going to double check everything."
"Are you eating French fries?" Henley asked Jack, tossing her shoes over to the rollaway.
"Uh, yeah," he held out the container for her to take some. "It was just, you know. How many people can say they ate French fries in France?"
"I'm pretty sure most people in France can say that," Merritt pointed out, swiping a one and popping it in his mouth. "Needs ketchup."
Jack placed the box in the middle of the bed, a sweeping gesture for the others to join in. Merritt nodded, sitting so he could lean back against the wall; Henley sat with her legs curled under her so she was facing Danny.
"Do we you guys wonder, like, how we got here?" Jack asked, around a fry.
"Did you miss the part where we all got on a plane and flew over the ocean?" Merritt asked, getting playfully shoved by Henley and a fry thrown at him by Jack.
"I meant, like, what got us chosen. How'd we get here?" Jack clarified.
"Well, I know I wouldn't be here if it weren't for Houdini," Henley said.
"Really?" Merritt asked.
"Yeah."
"Oh, come on," Jack said, "don't leave us hanging! How'd Houdini inspire you?"
Henley smiled. "I'm the middle kid of four-"
"Don't tell me: two sisters, one brother?" Merritt said.
"Close: Two brothers, one sister," Henley corrected. "My oldest brother is an Eagle Scout. And he used to practice all his Boy Scout knots on me and then shove me in the coat closet."
"Sounds like a real winner," Merritt said.
"I let him; we used to call it 'Playing Houdini'. I got really good at undoing those knots. They all started timing me to see how long it took. My record for that house still stands at being hogtied in the closet, in the dark at 26 seconds…It would've been shorter if the hall closet locked since he used to lean against the door. And I just kept 'Playing Houdini' long enough to get chosen, I guess."
"That's so cool," Jack said.
"Well at least you appreciate it much better than Danny," Henley said, slightly bitter.
"Really, and what pray tell got the great J. Daniel Atlas into magic?" Merritt said, turning to Daniel.
Daniel kept staring at his laptop.
"I said," Merritt repeated, closing the lid of Daniel's laptop, making him jerk his hands away before the laptop closed on them, "what got Daniel Atlas into magic?"
"Wait, what?" Daniel asked, his eyes darting around the room.
"I know that you are right now hyper focused on making sure everything is going according to The Plan," Merritt said, taking Daniel's laptop and putting it on Merritt's other side before the other man could protest. "But why don't you crawl out of your head and spend a few minutes bonding with your teammates."
"Look you may not be taking this very seriously-"
"Do this and we'll leave you alone for the rest of the night," Henley promised.
Daniel gently clapped with a flat hand and a fist then rolled his eyes, hopping the small gap between the balcony and the bed. "Okay, so what are we doing?"
"Telling what the thing that first got us into magic was," Jack said.
"Oh, I'm I going first?"
"Henley just went," Merritt said, and she raised her hand slightly.
"Oh, right, 'Playing Houdini' getting out of Boy Scout knots, right, very cute." Daniel missed Henley's annoyed eye roll, gesturing to him with a 'See what I mean?!'
"So, what got you into magic?" Jack asked.
"It's not that interesting," Daniel said.
"Come on, tell us." Merritt coaxed.
"Okay, fine, it was, it was second grade. You, uh, you know how schools invite people to, you know, put on puppet shows or show off snakes or something?" Everyone nodded, "Well, uh, in my second grade they brought in a magician. We all filed into the library, my class, and I, uh, I thought I was just going to spend it like I did every other time this happened, picking dirt out of my shoes. And then," Daniel's face softened, "and then he did his routine. Looking back on it, it wasn't anything super amazing. It wasn't, it wasn't like he was Lionel Shrike or something. It was the usual," Daniel absent mindedly pulled out a deck of cards, "Is this your card?" he pulled out a random card, showing to the others, slipping it back in the middle and making it reappear on top, "But I, uh, I never saw anything like it. And I just…"
Daniel leaned back. "Well, my class leaves and I stay behind as the third graders come, then the fourth, they finally caught me when the fifth graders showed up. The librarian finally got me to go back to class by giving me the one, the one book on magic tricks that the school had and I uh…I still have it."
"You do?" Jack asked.
"Wait, you mean that big white one that only fits on the bottom of your bookshelf?" Henley asked.
Daniel nodded. "That rabbit trick we have to do for the second show? It's in there."
"I guess it really is the oldest trick in the book," Merritt said.
"Yeah, well, there you go," Daniel leaned forward reaching across Merritt for his laptop.
"It was Sherlock Holmes for me," Merritt said, resting a hand on Daniel's chest.
"Oh, we're still doing this. Okay," Daniel said, settling back.
"Now, quick confession," Merritt said with a smirk, "I've not actually read a lot of Sherlock Holmes. I think I've read that Speckled Band story, the uh, the one with where the woman had had a black kid and the one where 'P-L-O-W' was good American but bad English." Merritt grabbed a few more fries, "I did however wear out about five VHS tapes of-" Henley and Jack giggled in confusion, "I know, I'm a dinosaur; of the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies. I watched those things so much my brother got sick of them. But it stuck with me, that Holmes could tell so much about a person with just a look, and I was like, 'I can do that.' And by the age of twelve I do believe I had it down pat."
"Huh, that's very interesting," Daniel said leaning forward again.
"What happened that you went to jail, though?" Jack asked.
Merritt gently pushed Daniel back again. "Remember that brother, who got sick of the movies? Well he was my manager, stole all of my money, IRS, yadda, yadda, yadda, boom, I'm in jail for six months."
"I'm sorry," Henley said.
"That sucks, man," Jack said.
"Gah, I'm over it," Merritt waved the sympathy off.
"Yeah, well, very, uh, very nice story." Daniel said, reaching for his laptop again.
"Hang on, hang on, its Jack's turn," Merritt said, resting a hand on Daniel's shoulder.
"Yeah, how did you get here Jack Wilder?" Henley asked, Daniel sitting back with a huff.
Jack smiled easily. "Not too far off from Danny's story actually. Couple of the older kids I lived with taught me how to pick pockets, so long as I gave 'em a share of what I took. And uh, one day I see this hustler on the street corner playing 'Find the Lady' and I watched him for hours while he fleeced people out money. Uh, finally I decided to try my luck. Lay ten on the table, he does his thing and I told him it was up his sleeve. I won fifty bucks and a deck of cards out of him. That night when I went to my self-defense class the teacher noticed that I was trying to keep my cards on me during class and taught me how to throw them. Said he was teaching me how to be a ninja."
"Well, I for one am glad you made the career change to magician," Merritt said. "If only so we could eat French fries in France."
"Yeah, me too," Jack smiled.
"You can have your laptop back now, Danny," Henley intoned.
"Thank you!" Daniel exclaimed, practically lying in Merritt's lap reaching for his computer before bouncing back to his balcony.
"Okay, so obviously, Danny-boy needs some alone time with The Plan," Merritt said, getting the finger from Daniel. "So I propose that we go out, get some real food and then hit some of these 'tourist must haves' so we don't spend our whole time here doing all work and no play."
"Hey, I'll buy," Jack offered.
"Sounds good to me, you want to come, Danny?" Henley offered, putting her shoes back on.
Daniel said nothing, too focused on his laptop.
"Ah, we'll bring him something back," Merritt said.
"Okay," Henley straightened then stopped as she looked at Jack. "Wait, I thought we split the money evenly between us. How can you afford to treat us to dinner?"
Jack smirked. "Did you miss the part where I was pick-pocketing all day?"