Disclaimer - This crazy bunch belongs to Deep Silver and Volition! I don't think they would be happy with anyone else at the reins.

This got a lot longer than I expected, so this task is going to have to be completed next chapter! Enjoy some silly spy shenanigans.


Part 8


"Oh, wow." V eyed the mismatched duo as she walked around the side of Brown Baggers and put a hand over her mouth. "Where did you find this one, Gat? In a rave, or in the manga section of a half-priced bookstore?"

The black-haired goth gaped at her, clearly offended. "Both are perfectly acceptable! Though, as to why anyone would pay for a poor translation and even worse formatting is beyond me."

"Whoops, my bad." V said, taking in the neon blue accents on his coat and his just as bright blue lipstick. "Still, when you said hacker, I wasn't expecting something this...hackery."

"You're the one that picked him up, boss." Johnny said, trying not to laugh.

She pulled out a pack of cigarettes and popped one in her mouth. "True, but only half-true. That one's on future me. Smoke?"

She offered him the pack and he shook his head. "Nah, it's not really my thing any more."

"Really?" Her eyebrows went up. "Or are you just waiting for a good time to steal mine?"

"What?" He paused for a second then winced. "Oh, right. There's a reason for that."

"Tell me."

"A few years from now you're going to get sick of wheezing and setting small house fires, so you decide to quit. Threw everything out, made us all swear to help, fine, whatever. The problem was you kept pulling cigarettes out of fucking nowhere. I swear you'd have them stashed in any small space that could fit them, and after throwing packs over the side of the HQ we'd find you smoking like a chimney five minutes later. When that happened I'd just take them from you, and that kept on going until you finally decided to switch to the damn patch. So, bad habit. No big deal."

"Oh. Well, just warn me next time, okay?" she said, keeping an eye on him as she lit her cigarette. It hadn't bothered her before, but the weird intimacy of the gesture still threw her for a loop. "So Blue, you got a name?"

"Plenty, but usernames are useless offline." Johnny elbowed him in the ribs and the hacker backpedaled. "Matt! Matt Miller, at your service."

Jumpy, isn't he? "Matt, eh? You any good?"

He clasped his hands in front of him. "My reputation does precede me, but due to our special circumstances, I'll understand if that means next to nothing to you. However, I will promise that any system you present to me will be nothing more than child's play."

"That's quite the boast," V said, not breaking eye contact.

"It's not a boast if it's true, is it?"

"Impress me then." Matt looked a bit lost, and she couldn't help grinning at that. "I want to know if I'm getting my money's worth. Do a couple of things for me and we'll see about letting you get to the good stuff."

"I can understand your hesitation, but we don't have a lot of extra time to lose on silly things or auditions," he insisted, taking a few steps closer.

She held a hand up and Matt froze in his tracks. "Future-me might have given you her seal of approval, but that's not who I am. Not yet. You want me to trust you? Earn it." She turned to Gat and inclined her head. "Johnny did that without even blinking. You think you can do that?"

It took him a few seconds, but he nodded. "Yes."

"Good, because I'd hate to call older me an even shittier judge of character. I mean, Keith David's the Vice President, and that's pretty kick ass." Wiping the silly grin off of her face, she threw her cigarette down and stomped it out. "All right, now to get down to business. I need information on Dex."

"I gathered as much. What would you like to know?"

She put her hands on her hips. "Everything, but for now I'd just settle for his location. ...And whatever shit he's hiding in his apartment."

"That's one of the first places that was cleared out. I don't see how going back there would-"

"No, his new apartment."

Matt put a hand on his chin and let himself think for a few seconds. "That would make more sense, wouldn't it?"

"Get me whatever's in there, and you're a Saint. A bonafide vintage Stilwater Saint."

There was a bit of a twinkle in Matt's eye and Johnny groaned. "Great. You make it sound like we're letting him join our fucking fan club."

"That's...pretty much what a gang is, except with more tagging and less fundraising," she said, taking a few steps backwards. "Anyway, there's a bottle of rum with my name on it in there, and you've got some numbers to crunch. You think you can keep an eye on him, Johnny?"

"Yeah, but babysitting's a bit low, boss."

V winked at him. "Make it work, and I'll save the next bottle for you. Happy hunting you two, and you'd better slap on some purple before you come back, Miller!" she replied in a sing-song voice, jogging out of the alley.


"The penthouse suite is getting to be quite cliché at this point," Matt said, tapping away at his laptop. "I wonder if that's part of a plan to hide in plain sight."

Gat leaned back in his chair and barely resisted the urge to spit on the floor. "Plan? Dex's plan right now is to put every other douchebag to shame. He's sold out, cashed in, and taken the express elevator to what he thinks is the top."

Matt took a sip of his espresso and frowned. "It's a bit too obvious to put your new asset in such a prominent location, though. You're painting a large target on him. Wouldn't they be better off hiding him?" He silently cursed the outdated internet connection, then changed his mind so he could complain about it anyway. "Ugh. I really underestimated how slow things were back then, and the technology's practically archaic."

"Fucking A, man. You need to get unplugged."

"I'm sitting in a coffee shop discussing plans with you. Exposing myself to actual sunlight for the first time in ages. Shouldn't that count for something?"

"Nope."

Matt sighed. "Of course." He continued searching and ultimately came to the same conclusion. Dexter Jackson was going to be getting some luxury accommodations courtesy of the best that Ultor had to offer.

Johnny sat up in his seat, shifting positions again. The wait was beginning to grate on them both, but at least when Matt got bored he didn't feel the urge to flip tables or go on a small rampage. "I'm just trying to make sure that this isn't an attempt to lure the boss out. We both know that Dex has enough information to end the Saints. Let's not speed that along any more than necessary."

The mumbled response from Johnny wasn't clear, but he stayed put.

A large group of people settled into the area right next to theirs, and Matt wrinkled his nose at the intrusion. "We should probably move soon. I have an address, but I don't think this is the best place to check their surveillance system."

"Your weird spy-senses trying to kick in?"

"Spy-senses? Of course not, but we should try to move to a closer location. If I get in on the first try, we'll want to head there before they have to chance to recover and double their defenses."

Gat leaned an elbow on the table. "So we get to finally do something?"

"We certainly do," Matt replied, closing his laptop. "You are armed, right?"

Gat pulled his gun out and shot at the large bundle of balloons floating over the noisy crowd. Those that didn't explode scattered as the group screamed and put their hands over their heads. "Cardinal rule, kid. Don't leave home without it."


"Good morning! I hear you're having a problem with the cameras upstairs?"

The man at the front desk gave Matt a strange look, then noticed the security uniform he was sporting. He appeared to still be waking up, which wasn't a surprise given how early it was. "Uh, you're the technician?"

"Specialist, actually," Matt said, keeping his posture straight, "but there's no need to be picky about it. Now, was it just the system on one floor, or are there others that have been affected?"

Pulling out a sticky note, the man read over the information there before glancing up again. "Should just be the one on the top floor. The security system's new, so I'm surprised it's acting up like this."

"It's probably just a short. Should only take an hour to pinpoint the problem and get them up and running again. Nothing my assistant and I can't handle!"

Matt's good cheer didn't do anything to ease the deep frown on the man's face. "Call us if anything else comes up," he said, handing over a walkie talkie.

Decked out in the same gear as Matt, Johnny took it and gave the man a thumbs up.

The two then calmly walked over to the elevators, bags in tow, and waited for the doors to close. Matt fidgeted for a good minute before Gat turned his head a fraction of an inch. "Assistant?"

That earned a nervous chuckle. "Heavy lifting mostly. ...You know I'm not serious about that, right?"

"You mess up and I'm leaving you to clean it."

"I was just beginning to feel reassured and safe as well. A shame, really." Matt put a hand to his ear and tapped the small headset hidden there. "Shaundi, do you copy?"

There was a small static-filled noise, then she connected. "Yes. Don't turn this into a Bond film."

"You're my handler right now, so I need to make sure that you're present! Once I'm in place I'll have access to the cameras, but I'll need a second set of eyes just in case one of us is in danger of being compromised. You do have access, I hope?"

"Yeah, I can see the hallway leading out of the elevator on the top floor. There's a few men, but not too many."

"And no sign of Dex?" Johnny asked.

"No, I don't see him. You're both sure that Johnny won't be recognized, right?"

"If Dex isn't there, then yes. If not, then we'll have to hope that a baseball cap and sunglasses will have to do." Matt pulled out a PDA and drew up the floor plans. "If Johnny doesn't kill him first. That's more of a concern."

Gat cracked his knuckles and picked up the duffel bags. "No guarantees."

The doors opened and they made their way down the hall to where the separate observation room was kept. The Ultor employee standing by the door kept her eyes on them, but relaxed once Matt flashed his clearance badge. Stepping aside, she let him use his keycard, and remained silent when the lock disengaged. Matt nodded to her briefly then went inside, letting the door close behind him and Johnny.

When the lock reset, he let out a sigh of relief. "All right, objective one complete. Now to get to work on the next." He took a seat in front of the computer and signed in using the username and password combo he had generated earlier to go with his background. "Anything on the cameras?"

Johnny was checking them closely, and shook his head. "Nah. Just three or four guys scattered around. You sure Dex was even here?

"Yes, but I'm sure you want more than my word to go off of."

He pulled up the available video files and started to go through one filmed the day before. One figure in a suit stood out, and Matt didn't have to ask Johnny if that was him. The seething look he was leveling at the screen said enough. "And there's your evidence. Ultor probably has him over at corporate right now. They're probably getting their strategy down, so that gives us just enough of a window to work here."

"I can confirm that. Should be easy sailing for you both as long as nothing strange happens."

"Exactly. Now to start phase two," Matt said, ignoring the groan over the radio. "Johnny, you're on point for this. The signal that I'm transmitting has disabled all cameras on this level. Since our unofficial task is to repair them, I have a sensor that will need to be placed on the side of each one to restore them. It should only take a few seconds to clear everything up, so using the sensor should be the last thing you do. Until then, however, you have free reign to check everything, provided the guards don't take notice of you."

Johnny crossed his arms. "So I'm the one that has to actually follow this cloak and dagger bullshit."

"Yes? It shouldn't be difficult with Shaundi and I assisting you, but if you tread lightly and avoid the guards, everything should go according to plan."

"Speaking of guards..."

There was a beep as the lock disengaged, and Matt dusted his uniform off to make sure that nothing was out of place. Johnny, on the other hand, smiled at the guard walking in. "Yo." The guard didn't get a chance to get a word out as Johnny grabbed them by the head and twisted. Hard. Any struggle ended with the crack, and he let the body slump to the floor.

"Was that even necessary?" Matt squawked, gaping at the dead guard. "The object here was not to raise their suspicions! I spent hours carefully building our data files so that no one would even think to raise an eyebrow at our involvement, and you choose to do that?"

"Look," Gat said, turning to Matt, "I don't sneak around. I walk in, do my thing, and walk out. You said these cameras aren't working, right? That gives me time to kill those motherfuckers, search the apartment, fix the cameras, and get out."

"While also hiding the bodies. I don't think security's going to be happy seeing half of their staff laid out by one of their technicians." Shaundi added.

"Details, details. Either way, we get what we want, while also thinning their numbers."

"Shaundi," Matt asked, gathering his bearings, "are you seeing any major changes to the timeline?"

"...No. Looks like Johnny was always going to pick off the Ultor guards. Serves the bastards right. But at least this happened now instead of later with the head of the security staff. That's a branch that doesn't deserve to see the light of day."

"Some small favors are so very small," he mumbled.

"We done talking here? Yeah? Good." Johnny picked the body off of the floor by the straps and dropped it into Matt's arms, nearly bowling the computer chair over. "Now, you cover this, and I'll take care of all the other shit we talked about earlier."

Matt wrapped his arms around the guard, but tried not to hold them too close. "This? What am I supposed to do with this?"

Gat shrugged and grabbed one of the bags on the floor. "Hide it, throw it over the side of the building, whatever. Don't want any other guards seeing that, right?"

He left before Matt could answer. Somewhere over the line in his ear there was a snort. "Good talk there, team leader."

"...I'm starting to remember why I never opted to become a field agent."