Disclaimer: Leverage is (c) 2009 Leverage Holdings Inc.
Countdown
"Okay guys," Nate said as he, Sophie, Parker and Eliot were driving along in his car, "The convoy is due to move off in..."
"Fifteen minutes," Hardison supplied the time. He was back at the apartment monitoring communications and overseeing the whole operation.
"Fifteen minutes, so let's start getting into position." Nate looked at the car clock. "Now the convoy will take twenty minutes to reach the bank, which means it will reach Parker in twelve minutes and the rest of us at the roadblock four minutes after that. That gives us four minutes before someone at the bank notices that something is wrong. This is going to be down to the second, people."
"We know the plan Nate," Sophie interjected, "We've done this sort of thing a million times before. Stop worrying."
Nate said nothing. He just kept on driving.
...
Hardison watched the clock count down the minutes to the start of the heist. At the exact moment the convoy started its journey, Nate reported that they had reached the office building that would serve as Parker's lookout point.
"Okay Parker, you have ten minutes to get into position." Nate instructed her. Hardison heard a snort from Parker.
"Hah! I'll be there in five!"
"Don't get overconfident. Just stick to the plan and we'll get this done quickly." Nate had this knack of sounding like a long-suffering parent, which in some ways he was, Hardison thought.
Hardison heard the car doors slam as Sophie, Nate and Eliot drove off to put the next part of the plan into action.
…
The lock on the building's main entrance took Parker all of two and a half seconds to pick. The doors swung open and Parker entered and began the business of looking for the quickest way up. There was, of course, very little power to the building since it had been empty for so long. That meant the lifts were out of action, and Parker wanted something a bit more fun than climbing up a load of stairs.
"Hardison, do you have the plans?" she asked.
Hardison's reply came almost instantly. "Right here in front of me. You want me to find you an air vent?"
"You read my mind!" Parker grinned. She liked the way he always knew exactly what she wanted. It made her feel warm and safe inside.
"Right, it looks like there's an access point in the utility room, down the hallway to your left. Third door along."
"Got it." Parker walked quickly in the direction indicated and found the door. It was of course locked. This time she took one second to unlock it and the door opened with a satisfying click. Inside were shelves filled with empty cans of cleaning products and bleach and some mops and brooms which hadn't seen any use for what looked like months. At the back of the room, just above the height of her head was a grille. Parker grinned and levered the grille off without too much effort – the screws holding it in had rusted completely. The shaft behind it looked just large enough for her to crawl through.
Parker pulled one of the shelves over, sending the cans and bottles crashing to the floor, and climbed into the shaft. Once she was inside she made a call to Hardison.
"How long?"
"Five minutes twenty three seconds. You'd better keep moving."
Parker smiled as she made her way through the shaft. She loved this job.
…
"Okay so we have the cars ready in those two roads there, and Eliot's going to be taking position there." Nate indicated the areas in question as he spoke. He and Sophie had managed to find two cheap cars they could use to cause the accident. Traffic was starting to build up along the road so there was a good chance the van would be stopped for a while in the ensuing havoc.
"How are you doing, Eliot?" Sophie asked.
"This alley stinks!" Eliot complained, "It smells like someone's cat died down here. It's coming from this bin. Oh man!"
"What is it?" Nate asked.
"It is a dead cat! It's been here for days!" The sounds of a lid hurriedly being put back on could be heard then Eliot spoke again. "Next time can you find me somewhere less dirty to hide? Maybe a sewer?"
"Stop complaining," Nate ordered, "It's only going to be for another few minutes."
"At this rate I won't have to touch them! They'll have passed out from the smell!"
Nate looked at Sophie and couldn't help but grin at her.
The pieces were in place. Now all they had to do was wait.
…
Hardison took a swig from his bottle of orange soda. He had noticed that the fridge was full again. It was only yesterday that it was nearly empty. He suspected intervention in the form of a certain blonde thief had kept him in stock. She really was the best.
The voice of that same blonde thief broke into his thoughts.
"I'm almost in position. I've just passed a black box on the side of the shaft."
"Wait, wait a minute. Did you say a black box?" Hardison put the bottle down and pulled up the building plans again.
"Yes. On the right side. Oh. There's another grill ahead. Looks like there's no way round it."
Hardison was more interested in the box. He scanned through the plans.
"Parker, tell me about this box."
"It's about ten centimetres across and about fifteen centimetres high. It looks like it's got some sort of screen. I'm going to have a closer look."
"No, Parker! Don't go near it!" Hardison looked up from the plans in horror. There was no such black box mentioned anywhere in them.
"Hardison? The screen's just lit up. It must have been some sort of motion sensor. It's... it's counting down."
"How long?" Hardison asked, a sinking feeling beginning to appear in his stomach.
"Ten minutes."
"Parker! Get out of there now! Nate! Nate! Can you hear me? We have a problem!"
"Hardison!" Parker's voice sounded panicked. Hardison had never heard that from her before, not even when she had been trapped by the Storanko system. "Hardison! I can't get out! There's another grille here! It wasn't here before! It must have just come down!"
"Nate! Nate! Come in Nate!" Hardison was starting to panic now too.
"Hello, Hardison." said a very well remembered voice. Hardison looked up at the main screens to see a very familiar face leering down at him.
"Chaos."
"Ah, so you do remember me? I'm touched."
"You're supposed to be in jail. Again." Hardison said, trying to keep the quaver out of his voice. All the time he was thinking how he could get Parker out.
"And I escaped. Again." Chaos smirked. Hardison wanted nothing more than to reach through the screen and throttle him. "Oh, and I wouldn't bother trying to contact the rest of your team. I've taken the liberty of jamming your comms. But I did leave a channel open for you and the lovely Parker. I thought you might appreciate that since she only has..." Chaos made a show of bringing his arm round and checking his watch, "eight minutes left to live. My doesn't time fly."
"What do you want, Chaos?" Hardison made no effort to keep the strain out of his voice.
"Who says I want anything?" Chaos smirked again. "Maybe I just want to pay you back for the times you humiliated me. Or maybe I just want to remove a thorn from my side."
"No, Chaos! Don't do this!" Hardison pleaded.
"Well I would just love to stay and chat but I'm sure you have other, more pressing things on your mind. Do give my regards to the others, if they live long enough that is!" Chaos pushed a button and vanished from the screen.
Hardison didn't give himself any time to think. He ran out of the apartment, down the stairs and jumped into his car. Parker's voice, clearly shaking, came over his earbud.
"Hardison?"
"I know Mama, I know. I'm coming for you." Hardison said in what he hoped was a reassuring voice.
"Hardison you can't get here in time."
"I will baby! I will!" Hardison drove for all he was worth, all the time trying to contact Nate.
…
"Hardison? Hardison, can you hear me?" Nate had been trying to reach Hardison for the last five minutes. All he got was static. He turned to Sophie. "Something's wrong, I can't get through."
"We can't reach Eliot either." Sophie pointed to where Eliot was running to join them, making gestures to his ear and slashing motions across his throat.
"Something is very wrong. We should get back and join up with Parker." Nate said as he led the way back to the cars.
…
"Come on baby, come on!" Hardison felt like he was driving through tar. He could feel the seconds ticking by all too quickly. All the while Parker was still talking to him.
"Hardison." She sounded calm, resigned. "Hardison it's okay. I knew something like this might happen some day. It's a risk we all took. It comes with the job."
"Well it's not going to be today! I'm gonna get you out of there!" Hardison shouted. He rounded a corner and drove straight into a traffic queue. The lights up ahead were red.
"Come on! Come! On!" Hardison gave up and backed the car up, trying to go a different way. He wouldn't let himself think that he wouldn't get there in time. "How long?" he asked Parker.
"Less than two minutes. There's nothing you can do."
"No! I can get there! I can..."
"Alec." Hardison went quiet as her use of his first name. "Alec, it's okay. Just promise me you'll make Chaos pay for this."
"We'll make him pay together, Parker! I am not giving up on you!" He turned another corner and just narrowly dodged a car coming the other way. He vaguely registered the fact that he was driving the wrong way up a one-way street but he didn't care. All that mattered was the girl he loved was staring death in the face.
Parker's voice came back on. It was quieter now. "Twelve seconds left... Ten... I love you Alec!"
Hardison couldn't keep the tears out of his eyes. "I love you too Parker! I love you too!" he shouted.
…
00:04
Parker closed her eyes and smiled. A tear ran down her cheek.
00:03
"Cerys."
00:02
"My name's Cerys."
00:01
She felt calm, at peace.
00:00
…
The noise of the explosion was powerful enough to shatter windows and set off car alarms for a radius of just under a mile.
