Disclaimer: Leverage is (c) 2009 Leverage Holdings Inc.
Order And Chaos
"Run it, Hardison."
Hardison obeyed Nate's command, picking up the remote and pointing it at the screens.
It had been two days since the disastrous operation. Nate had wanted to brief everyone sooner, but Sophie had been kept in hospital for observation and had only just been released. Even now Nate could see that she was still a bit groggy, and he hoped that she would agree to stay on the sidelines for now.
Parker had been discharged from hospital a lot sooner. When the staff discovered she had escaped they reckoned that if she was well enough to leave through a third floor window then she had no further need of their services. After a hurried call to Nate, who had listed himself as her uncle, they agreed to let her go.
Nate was no fool. He knew exactly where Parker had gone to. One didn't get to where he was by not keeping an eye on everyone around him. He was just as good as Eliot in that regard, perhaps better, as he looked for the buttons to push to manipulate people, whereas Eliot would just assess the threat they posed to him and his team.
And, quite honestly, Nate was pleased for both Parker and Hardison. When he had first met them they were loners, never working with anyone longer than was necessary. But now Nate found it hard to imagine one without the other. He knew Hardison would never hurt Parker – despite his profession Hardison was a kind and gentle man at heart – and he knew that Parker's loyalty, once earned, was unshakeable. Nate resolved to talk to both of them after this business was finished and let them know that , as long as the team wasn't compromised, he had no problem with their relationship. He strongly suspected that even if he did have a problem they would carry on regardless. The thought made him smile. Even now he could see that they were never very far apart from each other. They didn't make an overt show of looking at each other, but Nate could tell they knew where the other was at all times.
Nate directed his gaze to Eliot. If anything the man's mood was even grimmer than usual. Hardly surprising, since it was his job to look for threats and make sure the others were protected. Nate had tried to tell him that it wasn't his fault, that no one could have guessed what would happen, but something told him Eliot would need a lot more before he forgave himself.
And Sophie? When Nate looked at her he felt his heart break a little. Her head was still wound up in a bandage and her eyes had a semi permanent glazed look from the painkillers she had been prescribed. She was in no fit state for any sort of action and really should be at home resting, but she had insisted on being there. Nate had made a deal with her. She could be present, as long as she didn't put herself forward for any roles in the upcoming job and would spend the time in the apartment with Hardison. Reluctantly Sophie had agreed.
Hardison pushed a button on the remote and the screen lit up with images. The first image was of a very familiar face.
"Alright I'm sure we all know who this is," Hardison said. The man on the screen had short dark hair and the beginnings of a beard and moustache. His general demeanour was that of someone who was not very physically active – in fact he seemed to be the very personification of a couch potato – but in his eyes burned a cold fire. On their first encounter with him he had nearly succeeded in blowing Sophie up, and that was before they had even met him formally.
"Colin Mason," Eliot growled, his eyes lighting up as he now had a subject for his anger.
"Chaos," Parker all but spat. There were plenty of people who she disliked but Chaos was one of the few people she actually hated. "I thought he was in prison. Last time we saw him he got dragged off by the FBI. Serves him right for trying to kill Santa." No one tried to correct her.
"Well he escaped." Hardison clicked the remote again and a passport appeared. The image was of Colin Mason but the name was that of Jim Oldham from Austin, Texas. Hardison continued speaking. "This passport was used at Logan International Airport, right here in Boston. It seemed that Chaos has been taking a tour of Eastern Europe and some of the central African countries."
Nate stood up, taking the remote from Hardison. "Now we know Chaos was responsible for the explosion at the bank. The question is why, and why did he involve us?"
"Was he trying to hit the convoy?" Eliot asked.
Hardison shook his head. "Actually, there was no convoy. That route map we found had been forged. It was good enough to pass on first and second glance, but when you actually dig deep enough it all falls apart."
"So no map and no convoy," Sophie spoke up. Her voice was slurring a bit and her eyes were still glazed, but her mind was still as sharp as ever. "Was anything else true? Was there ever any gold there?"
"No the gold was there alright." Nate brought up documents from the bank. "It had been brought in from a source in South America and was due to be transported to the Federal Reserve bank in New York. There's a paper trail as long as my arm at each stage. Everything checks out. However," Nate clicked again and an image of Ed Carlson appeared, "I've asked everyone at the bank. They have never had an employee named Ed Carlson."
"So he was in on the whole thing." Parker's eyes narrowed as she found another object for her hatred.
"I think I've pieced together what happened." Nate said, putting the remote down. "Two weeks ago the gold arrived at First Boston Independent. Chaos knew about this and paid off Carlson to come here and spin us a story about how he's heard about a planned robbery. He put in the touches about his wife and kids to make sure we'd bite.
"Meanwhile Chaos sets up a nice route map for us to find, complete with dates and times. A route which passes conveniently close to an old office block. An office block, by the way, with a maintenance record dating back about a month."
"He set us up." Eliot growled again.
"Indeed he did." Nate brought up the record in question. "Two days worth of ventilation work. Installation of new security systems, including security grilles in the ducts. I'd say he set us up good and proper."
"So then what?" Parker asked impatiently.
"Well now we fast forward to two days ago. We've swallowed the bait and we're doing things exactly to Chaos's timetable. All he has to do is walk into the bank, leave a briefcase somewhere hidden, walk out again, and wait. When Parker triggered the motion sensor he got a signal and knew when to jam our comms."
"But why did he call me?" Hardison asked, "He could have just kept quiet and we wouldn't have known?"
"I think his pride was hurt." Nate pulled up images and records of Chaos's previous arrests. "We'd beaten him twice. Each time, Hardison, you were directly responsible for him being taken into custody. He wanted to rub your face in what he'd done to make you react rather than think things through."
Hardison felt Parker's head lean against his shoulder and he put his arm around her waist.
Nate pretended not to notice. "Then when the bomb exploded, all he had to do was walk in in the confusion, tell the police he was with the Federal Reserve and get them to load the gold onto his van. There would be enough panic that no one would question it."
"How many people were hurt?" Eliot asked quietly.
"According to news reports the bank was fairly empty, there were only a few employees around. People walking past were hit the hardest." Nate displayed an image from a local news site. The entire front of the bank had disappeared. There was nothing left but rubble. "The local hospitals have been working round the clock. So far there have been four confirmed deaths. And at least a dozen critical."
"That's just horrible," Sophie said, "We must really have hit him hard for him to do that."
"But what's he going to do with all that gold?" Parker asked.
"Ah now that's the interesting thing. Last night on the news there was a report that one of the poorest African countries had declared the start of a period of strong economic growth. The records were sealed tight but it looks like the government paid a substantial amount of money for a freshly mined load of South American gold."
"Clever." Parker couldn't help smiling despite her anger. "The gold they get adds value to their currency and makes what Chaos got paid even more valuable." When Eliot and Hardision looked at her surprised she shrugged. "What? I watch the news too you know."
"Wait a minute," Hardison had a sudden realisation, "He's gold farming!"
"Gold doesn't grow on a farm, moron!" Eliot said sharply.
"No no no it's something you get in online games." Hardison took the remote from Nate and punched a few buttons on it. More images came on screen as he spoke. "See in every online game there's an economy between the players and the world. And in each game the total value of all the items, gear and everything adds up to a fixed amount. Some of it is kept in reserve. So when I pick up say a sword, the value of that sword is taken from the reserve. When I sell the sword, I get part of it's value back and the rest goes back into the reserve. The overall amount never changes."
Hardison clicked more buttons and images of websites appeared. "Now gold farmers take some of that gold and sell it to players for money. Most of them get the gold the usual way – killing monsters and so on – but a few of them hack into player accounts and steal the gold from them. The whole thing is illegal and most companies have been trying to crack down on it."
"So why do people buy from them?" Nate asked.
Hardison smiled. "People want to be the best they can as quickly as they can. If that means they pay money to get the best stuff then so be it. The gold farmers can rake in thousands per month. They get their money and the players get their gear. The people who lose out are the companies that run the games."
"And that's exactly what Chaos is doing," Nate said, "He's stealing gold from the people who worked for it and selling it to those that aren't willing to make the effort themselves. The question is how do we stop him?"
After a moment Hardison spoke up. "The usual way to stop gold farmers is to make it unprofitable for them to sell. You either do that by dumping more gold into the economy, which runs the risk of destabilising it completely, or you reduce the cost of everything so that players don't need as much."
"Well we can't reduce the price of everything and we certainly can't make more gold." Nate clasped his hands behind his back as he looked at the screens. He turned round to face the others. "So we cheat." He took the remote from Hardison and brought up an image of another bank – this time the State Street Branch of the Boston Bank. "Now according to confidential reports there's going to be another shipment of gold within the next few days. The Boston Bank is a lot less secure than First Boston Independent so there's no way Chaos will be able to resist it. All we have to do is get there first and catch him in the act."
"Is there really going to be gold at the bank?" Sophie asked.
Nate smiled. "The reports say so, or at least they will when Hardison's been at them. I'm sure we can find somebody somewhere that makes convincing fake gold. We'll get him this time. Definitely."
"Good. I want him to suffer." Parker hissed. Under the table her hand found Hardison's and squeezed it so tightly Hardison thought the blood would be pushed out through his fingers.
"Oh he will, especially once his customers find out he's selling them rubbish." Nate straightened up and grinned at them all.
"People, let's go steal ourselves a gold mine."
"Farm, dude." Hardison huffed. "Gold farm."
"Whatever." Nate did his usual walk away from the desk and screens, leaving the others to get ready.
Hardison leaned over to Parker. "You going to be okay baby?"
Parker smiled at him and her eyes flashed evilly. "Oh I'm going to be just fine." She leaned forward and gave him a quick peck on his nose, then got up and went to get her gear.
Hardison smiled too. Chaos was going down for good this time.
A/N I actually have no idea if that's how any of it works but it seemed to fit the story okay. It looks like Hardison's online game addiction has its uses after all!