Dawn crept slowly along the Boston skylines, plunging the world into a dark and shadowy place. The perfect hideout for whoever didn't want to be found. The Leverage Teams favorite pub was emptying out rapidly, leaving only Nathan Ford and a few regular customers in McRory's bar.
The others had already gone upstairs or went out for the night. Parker was most likely stealing something, while Hardison was certainly hacking into some top secret government facility for fun. The kid worked way too hard and much on their heists, it was a miracle if the boy ever slept at all.
It couldn't be health but who was he to judge? A barely functioning drunk.
"Mr. Ford?" asked the short weary looking guy who had entered the pub only a few minutes ago. He wore glasses that he kept shoving up his nose, while at the same time brushing loose strands of hair back behind the ears.
When he spoke he had a distinct accent – Russian or maybe Czech but definitely eastern Europe.
He hadn't come up to him directly but he certainly knew how Nate looked. He seemed uneasy, shifting around a lot, like he was weary, always prepared to run if needed.
"Yes?" Setting his Glass of scotch aside, Nathan beckoned the soon to be new client to have a seat. The guy had the distinct troubled expression all his clients wore when coming in. They sometimes made a sport of finding new clients before they came up to them. Usually when they were hanging out together but tonight Nate sat by his own.
"I'm sorry to come here unannounced like this but I have nowhere else to turn to." Nervously he brushed a strand of wild hair back. "The police won't believe me. If you won't help me, no one will. Please it's a matter of life and death."
"Whoa!" interrupted Nate the man's rambling, holding up a calming hand. "What exactly happened?" Pinching the bridge of his nose Nate prepared himself mental for the oncoming tirade. He just knew he was in for a long night. "Why don't you tell me what happened and we decide if we can help."
"Thank you so much Mr. Ford." The guy grabbed Nate's hand and shook it enthusiastically, "I don't know who to thank you enough…"
"Yeah, it's fine", replied Nathan, carefully claiming his hand back and drowning the rest of his scotch before refilling the glass. "Please go on Mr..."
"Oh yes, right. Zelenka", he apologized profoundly, while pushing the glasses back up him nose, "My name's Radek Zelenka. I work for Atlantis Enterprises, it this.. uhmm.." He gestured wildly with his arms while looking for the right words.
"This huge science laboratory, I know", said Nate, "they have their offices downtown, right?"
"Yes, yes", agreed Zelenka in a rush, sounding hectic as if the world might end if he talks too slow. "We, that it me and some co-workers, we are the maintenance staff. Our job is to check that all the electronics are working properly and… you probably don't want to know that."
"No", smiled Ford warmly, taking another sip of his drink, "do go on."
"So… so we were working there for year now and nothing like that ever happened. My colleagues…", his voiced dropped to a hushed whisper, "they vanished. McKay, that is my boss, he said they quit but I know they didn't. They have family you see? They need the job, they would never resign." Zelenka took a deep calming breath before continuing. "But that's not all, you see. Whenever one vanished he was found dead within two days. The police said it were accidents but I know they weren't. They were killed. McKay murdered them because they saw something they shouldn't have."
"Really?" That piped Ford's interest, what could a major scientist with several PhD's have to hide, that he had to resort to killing his employees?
"Lights", whispered Zelenka, leaning in conspiratorially, "they all reported seeing purplish light coming from the cellars. McKay said it must have been the lightning, that there was nothing down there save for old files but that's not true. I've seen them too. But I knew better than to tell anyone. I kept my mouth shut and pretended it didn't happen. Otherwise I would be dead by now."
"Right", Nate felt a headache coming on with this job. Paranoid people, mad evil killing scientists and strange lights in the cellars. Your typical day at work. "We'll take care of it. Thanks for stopping by Mr. Zelenka."
They shook hands and the paranoid little man hurried out of the door the same way he had come in, slightly ducked and hurried like everyone was out to get him. In a matter of seconds Nate was left alone with his drink.
He drowned the last from his glass and made his way upstairs to inform the rest of his team about their next con.
"Let's go steal a murder."
TBC...
...
A/N: at the moment I update whenever I have something new finished, if you rather have longer chapters let me know and I won't publish everyting as soon as it's written but wait until I have a little bit more :)
