Act One, Scene Four
An hour later they were back at Iong's. Danny had refused all help as he half-walked half-stumbled to the car. He claimed that his ankle didn't hurt, but Dylan had seen the way he winced when he first put weight on it after they hauled him to his feet, so he doesn't believe that lie for one second.
When they arrived back at the store, he had refused any and all help, instead disappearing into a small bathroom for a few minutes and returning with an ever-so-slightly forced smile. Dylan didn't like it, but he wasn't in any position to question the younger man right now, so he let it be. For the moment.
Now they sat in various locations at the back of Iong's, both impromptu swimmers shrouded in warm blankets even as the heavy night air dried their clothes for them.
"No, I had the stick. The actual stick. I swear, it was in my hand, in the lab, and then I put it in the little case thing" Lula said, "And I gave it to Atlas".
Atlas himself was particularly miserable looking, curled up on the dusty metal stairs and doing a not-so-brilliant job at pretending that he hadn't just temporarily died.
"Right, which I then gave to Dylan" he continued, "Is there any chance you possibly misplaced it at any point?"
"No, I took it from you and then slipped it back in your coat when I pushed you out".
"Then I threw it back to you while they were staring at the fire".
"Woah, wait, hang on, what fire?" Merritt asked, but they both ignored him.
"And I caught it" Dylan said, "And later on, gave it to Jack".
"Either way, we're left holding a whole sack full of nada".
"Yeah, but they're gonna come after us as if we do have something" Jack pointed out, but Lula shook her head, "No. Okay. I agree that somebody got the better of us, okay? Somehow. But I don't agree that we have a sack full of nada. Because we're all here. That's a sack full of something".
They all glanced at one another.
"Listen, we all know that Walter is not going to stop until he gets that chip. And we're the only ones that even know that he's alive. We can't just walk away. That's not what the Horsemen do!"
Dylan couldn't help but smile.
He'd chosen well.
"There's a quote" Danny said suddenly, standing with a wince, "Um... It's actually by the magician that made me wanna do this in the first place. It's, uh... 'A magician's greatest power lies forever shrouded in his empty fist-"
"-and the very idea that he can convince the world that he is, in fact, carrying with him a secret'" Dylan finished, something warm and unnameable blossoming in his heart.
"That's Lionel Shrike".
They shared a knowing smile.
"Right".
"So, what are you saying? That we should pretend like we have something we don't?" Jack asked.
Dylan glanced down at the playing card in his hands.
"What is Walter's greatest fear?"
"Being seen".
"And what does the stick do?"
"The stick can unencode anything. It can open up a backdoor into any computer on the planet…"
"Including his" Jack realised and Danny nodded, "Right, we not only make him think that we have it, but that we're going to use it to expose and destroy him".
"We need a plan. But we don't have time".
"... We have each other and there are five of us".
He glanced over at Dylan as if seeking confirmation, and the older man cursed the very day that he ever made him doubt that he wasn't part of the team.
"But we also need supplies, right?" Lula added, "And resources. And probably more than five people".
"Do you really think you don't have help?"
They all turned as Li and his grandmother suddenly appeared with a tray of tea between them.
"Oh, she speaks English" Merritt said dryly.
"Of course" Danny added, nodding, "Yeah".
"Do you know why the Fool is the most powerful in the tarot?" she asked, picking up the card, "Not because the person who draws him is a fool. He's a fool because he's a clean slate, and, therefore, can become anything".
She gave Dylan a pointed look.
"You were chosen. All of you".
"Not because of who you are, but because of who you might become" Li finished.
"When you say chosen" Merritt asked, "... Are you part of the Eye?"
"Yes. We are part of the Eye".
"You've each doubted our existence. Wondering if we, indeed, were watching. We are. We always have been".
"This is the best magic shop in the world" Danny said, a slow smile spreading across his face, "You know what she's saying, right?"
"Yes. That now we have resources and help".
"Thank you" Dylan said, bowing to her respectfully, "So, who's in?"
It was a pleasant if not totally unexpected surprise that Danny was the first to reach for a cup.
"I'm in".
Lula grinned, "Yeah, I'm in".
"Let's do this" Jack said, standing up.
Merritt picked up the final mug, "Cheers".
"Hello! Hey! My name's Jack Wilder. Goddamn, it feels good to be back. Alright, gather around. Indulge me. I wanna talk to you about something real quick. You all know Three Card Monte, also known as 'Find the Lady'?"
"Hello, everybody! Come close, come on! Alright, alright, so listen. Tonight, I am going to make something fly using actual magic. Are you ready? I'm going to take a very large vessel, I'm gonna make it fly over there and land on the Thames".
"I have a confession to make. I've been told I have some control issues. I've learned that it's really, really hard to control people, so I'm gonna try to control something that's a lot easier than people. I'm gonna try to control the weather".
"Where you headed? North, south, east? East. Tower of London? Tower Bridge? Near Tower Bridge? The Thames! You're going to the Thamesy-Whemsy! You're so easy! Where's your entry? South Bank? Greenwich? Greenwich. I know where you're going".
Every single step sent a shooting pain searing up through Danny's leg but he forced himself to keep going. Up ahead, he saw Dylan and Jack converge in the courtyard.
"Again? How did we get found out again?!" he yelled.
"It's fine, it's fine" Dylan said, falling into step with him, "We'll just cut to the finale. Where's Merritt?"
"Fine. I don't know".
"I'm here!"
"Where's Lula?"
"I'm right here!" she called, running over, "What the hell happened?"
"My goddamn brother happened".
"Don't worry about it. We just gotta get to the destination" Dylan repeated, "Lula, can you handle that thing?"
"I can ride it. Have you asked the guys that question, or just me?"
"Yeah, good point".
"Let's go!"
He took off.
"No, Jack!"
They watched as he drove full speed towards an oncoming van, a van that swerved at the last second, opened a window, and pointed a gun at them.
"Shit!"
He ducked, skidded, and fell, rolling across the damp road as more cars arrived.
"Jack's down. We gotta get him".
Dylan revved the throttle and Danny soon followed. Swerving around the cars, they seamlessly ducked in and out to draw the gunman's attention.
"Come on, move!"
"Jack! Go, go!"
They waited until he got to safety before lining up side by side.
"Hey, ready?" Dylan asked, and Danny nodded, "Yeah!"
Lula headed straight for them, but so did the armed thugs.
"Get on!"
They caught an arm each and between them managed to swing her around on the back of Dylan's motorbike, Tressler's men still shooting at them.
"Get up! Come on!"
Her own bike skidded across the tarmac until it hit a jeep, sending them both up in flames.
"Yeah!"
The pure childlike joy in Dylan's voice made something incredulously happy tingle inside of Danny too.
Which is probably why he didn't realise one of Tressler's men had aimed true, until an entire ten seconds later.
A sudden mind numbingly intense burning seared through his shoulder, sharp enough for him to instinctively let go of the throttle, causing his bike to swerve dangerously.
Dylan's grin slowly faded, their eyes locked even as both men realised something was seriously wrong, but it was at that exact same moment that Merritt decided to crash.
"Get up! Come on!"
Two men pointed guns at him and he raised both hands in surrender.
"Okay. You got me. Those things are really dangerous!"
They were surrounded.
Danny slowly got off his own motorbike and undid his helmet with trembling fingers, his right arm feeling frozen yet burnt all at once.
He knew, objectively, what had just happened, but it seemed like his brain was still trying to process everything.
"Come on! Go!"
There was a jab in his back with a muzzle, and he obediently stumbled forwards.
"Get him in! Move it!"
On his other side, Dylan and Lula were also being hustled along, the former still giving him a worried look as he realised that something else had happened asides from what they'd planned.
It was fine. He could do this. It was only a bullet. A bullet that was still lodged somewhere inside of him, if the lack of heat on his back was any indication. Danny took one long-measured breath.
Think of the show think of the show think of the show-
They were almost done, he could do this, no problem. It didn't even hurt, really, it was just a scratch, just a tiny insignificant scratch that he could totally block out until Walter and Tressler were safely in custody and they were all far far far away from the FBI and the team was safe again. He had to protect the team. The team was his number one priority.
Now, if only he could convince his nerve endings that…
They were shoved towards what looked like a prison van before their hands were cuffed in front of them. They were forced inside, Danny and Jack on one side and Merritt, Dylan, and Lula on the other. At the head of the van sat Tressler, Walter, and Chase.
Their resident whacko raised his shades and grinned.
"Ah! Okay, feeling fear. Fear. Anger. Anger".
When he got to Danny, he paused, frowned, and then glossed over him. He dimly wondered if pain was an emotion or a feeling and if that even made any difference to mentalists.
"Oh, full house!"
"That's enough" Tressler snapped.
"I was done!"
He scowled and turned back to them.
"So nice to see you all again. But since we're such old friends, let's skip the formalities. One of you has something we require. So, give it over".
Danny met his gaze evenly, both as a distraction from the warm wetness that was slowly starting to spread underneath his thick jacket, and also to show the bastard that yeah you tried to kill me but I'm still here and you just ain't all that scary.
Or, well, something like that.
Dylan scratched his nose and Danny glanced over at him.
"Nothing at all?" Walter asked, "Really?"
He took a deep breath to try and steady his heart rate.
A guard tugged at Rhodes' hand, "Sit down!"
Once the doors to the van were thrown open, it was a madhouse.
"Let's go, let's go!"
"Hurry up and move them quickly before they can do anything".
"Get those lights off me!"
"Get on the plane!"
"Ow! Hey!"
"Get on the plane!"
Danny was second last in the line-up and for that, he was grateful. He put up a token protest, just enough to not be suspicious, but otherwise kept up the blank façade because he had just gotten fucking shot in the fucking shoulder and what the fuck does he do now?!
Once onboard, he was shoved into a single seat at the back of the plane, thankfully far far away from Dylan's irritating Danny-bullshit-detector. But then they put Merritt directly across from him, and he mentally swore. He wasn't sure which magician was more observant, but he'd really rather not find out.
"Yeah, uh, take off immediately" Walter said, hanging up the phone, "You know, you make it almost too easy? I mean, even your hilarious attempts to make yourselves unpredictable, just follow the same pattern each time. Set up, set up, set up…"
He turned to Danny.
"Big reveal. Which tonight was going to be stroke of midnight, middle of the Thames? Tell me if I'm warm".
He tried to gauge him for any sort of reaction, but all Danny could think about was how much blood he could reasonably lose and still be functional.
Walter turned away, clearly dissatisfied.
"Well, there will be a big reveal, and it will come now".
"The stick, dear boy" Tressler asked.
Dylan didn't even hesitate.
"No".
He thinks he read somewhere that it was thirty to forty percent of total blood volume before he'd start getting disorientated.
"Fine. Start with her".
Lula yelled as she was grabbed, and both Jack and Rhodes tried to leap to their feet to stop the thug with the army knife.
"Whoa, whoa, hey, hey, hey!"
They were both held back.
He wasn't sure how much that actually was in terms of blood loss however. Point four gallons? Point five? And what even was a gallon anyway?
"Give it to him" Dylan said.
"Danny, give him the card" Lula repeated.
"Just give it to him!"
Let's see, there was… almost four thousand millilitres in a gallon, which would equate to… oh, about one thousand five hundred mills give or take before he'd start falling over. He wasn't sure what to do with that information now.
"Danny, come on" Jack prompted.
Oh, right.
With a flourish, he revealed the case that the stick was stored in, and he hoped to god that he was the only one who noticed the faint tremble in his hands.
"We'll have a closer look," Walter said, walking over to a fancy looking microscope.
In the distance, thunder rumbled, and they all shared a glance.
Show time.
"Okay, I owe you an apology" Dylan said, and Danny scoffed, "Leader, you should have planned an escape, okay?"
"This is the both of us".
"Okay, it's the both of us".
"Guys, come on" Merritt interrupted, and Jack closed his eyes, "Come on, stop!"
"You!"
"What?"
"You, to save your little girlfriend!"
"To save my... He had a knife to her head!"
"I'm a Horseman, you dick!"
"Alright, you know what?"
"This is not the time!"
"And you, what's your deal, man?!"
"Look, they're not gonna get blood all over the seats. They're probably gonna throw us out of the plane".
"Really?"
"I'm sorry to interrupt," Walter said, turning back to them, "but I just have to say congratulations. And thank you! It's real".
Oh wait.
"What? It's real?"
Hang on, hadn't he told the team about the fake chip yet? Well… Maybe now he wouldn't have to. Talking felt like a big thing right now.
"Bring them through" he ordered.
"Did you say it's real?" Danny asked, forcing the words out as a thug suddenly dragged him to his feet and his surroundings decided to tilt.
He was right.
"What is he talking about?" Jack asked.
"Move!"
Tressler stood, "Well done, my boy".
Walking over to a silver tray, he picked up a yellow bottle.
"Cote Du Marisule champagne. It's the most expensive bottle on Earth. One-point-two million… And I saved it just for this occasion".
They all stared at him.
"Honestly, same bottle, Liquor Shack, 700K".
Danny shook his head at Merritt's smartass remark.
"Hey, you got what you wanted" Dylan said, "So, does this mean you're letting us go?"
"Knowing what you know about us? No".
"You sure?" he tried, but Walter ignored it.
"Chase, what shall we do?"
The moment of truth…
"Toss them out".
"Get your last words in quickly, everybody!"
"No! Come on! No!"
"Farewell".
"Oh, god! No!"
Merritt fought back against the thugs dragging him towards the emergency door of the plane.
"Wait! I just wanna say... I came into the world with the wrong family, but I'm leaving with the right one. I love you guys!"
"No!"
"No, no, no!"
"This is how I kicked you out of the womb" Chase said before-
"Nooo!"
"Who's next?"
One of Tressler's men punched Dylan in the face and kicked him towards the airplane door.
"No, wait! Let me go!"
"Let go of me!"
"No, no, no!"
"Let me go!"
"Toss her".
Lula kicked and bit and screamed, even as disappeared into the darkness below.
"Okay, hit the road, Jack!"
"No, no, no!"
And then suddenly-
"A lot of brain, but not enough brawn" Chase said, dragging Danny towards the door.
He felt something tug in his shoulder and his resulting yell wasn't entirely fake.
"Wait!" Walter suddenly ordered.
No. No, no, no. There's no way that he could know-
The psychopath gave him a curious look.
"How did you survive?"
If this were a real plane with a real storm and a real death awaiting him, Danny wondered what his last words would actually be.
Now, however, half-drowned, beaten-up, and shot, too exhausted and in pain to think of anything witty, he just wanted to go home.
So, he deftly lifted the chip from the maniac's coat pocket, and then gave the bastard a bland smile.
"Fuck you".
Then he was grabbed by his coat collar and shoved unceremoniously out of the plane.
There was a brief moment of weightlessness, before he hit the black tarpaulin, hard, and had all breath knocked from his body. He couldn't bite back the groan that rattled through him as he landed on his bad shoulder.
His plans of walking it off were immediately derailed by warm hands tugging him up into a sitting position that sent all blood rushing to his head.
"Danny? Danny! Hey, look at me! Focus!"
He blinked rapidly, trying to clear the dots dancing in front of his eyes.
Dylan slowly swam into view.
"Hey. You okay?"
The rest of the team were standing around them with equally worried expressions.
"M'fine".
If his voice sounded choked, they thankfully didn't mention it.
"Daniel".
Dylan was giving him a searching look, clearly not in any mood for his not-quite-truths, and if he were in any less pain, he would have found that blatant concern almost endearing.
"We've got a show to perform" he said instead, "Help me up?"
He got a pointed look in return, one that very clearly said we're discussing this later, before he was hauled to his feet, just in time for the curtains to drop.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the Horsemen!"