It had been a while since Eliot and Kaira heard from Nate and the rest. Eliot and Kaira traveled a bit, doing jobs and going on dates. Kaira had a hard time making up her mind whether or not she wanted to pursue a relationship with Eliot. Not that it worried Eliot. He'd constantly tell her he'd wait for her to decide. That's what Kaira loved about Eliot. He'd always make sure she was comfortable before doing anything. Kaira was still worried about how their friendship would be if she made a move.
Their latest job took them to Berlin. Eliot had put the knocked out guys on the hood of the rental when the other guy pulled a gun out and pointed it at them. Then a phone started ringing.
"That you or me?" Eliot asked.
"It could be important. Does your mama have your number?" Eliot said.
Then Kaira punched the guy in the neck and Eliot grabbed the gun and disarmed it. He then took out his phone and answered it.
"Yeah. Nothing, why?" Eliot said into the phone.
He spoke some more and hung up.
"You gonna keep in suspense, cowboy?" Kaira joked.
"That was Hardison. We have another job." Eliot informed her.
"Sweet. Fly back to the states as soon as possible, and see what the job is." Kaira said, excited.
They packed up and flew back into the states and arrived where Hardison told them to meet.
They met with the rest of the gang and walked to the floor of the building.
"What did you do with the money?" Kaira asked coming up the hall with the gang.
"From the first job?" Parker questioned.
"Yeah." Eliot confirmed.
"I put all that money in a Swiss bank account." Parker said.
"Millions of dollars, you didn't buy anything?" Eliot questioned.
"I don't like stuff, I like money." Parker said.
"I bought a little retirement home in Ireland, and Dubai, and Tokyo." Sophie said.
"What about you?" Parker asked Eliot and Kaira.
They were at the door and Sophie pulled an orange card with her name on it off the door.
"Yeah, I'm not about to tell two known thieves what I did with a multi-million dollar payout." Eliot said.
"Used some to travel, put some away, donated some." Kaira said for hers.
"Don't you trust us?" Sophie said, chuckling.
Then Sophie opened the door. They walked in and right off the back, there was a white room with a desk and a sign that said Leverage Consulting and Associates.
"Okay... okay." Sophie said, walking around some.
"I don't get it." Eliot said.
"What is this?" Parker asked.
There was a painting of a man Kaira didn't recognize. Then Hardison came in.
"This is our new cover story. Welcome to Leverage Consulting and Associates. Founded in 1913 by the great Harlan Leverage the third." Hardison explained before Sophie started laughing a bit at a painting.
Kaira realized it was an older Nate and laughed as well.
"I'm sorry. Nate is gonna kill you." Sophie said, trying to stop laughing.
"Did you paint that?" Kaira asked.
"I'm gifted." Hardison responded.
"It's weird." Eliot retorted.
Hardison tapped the files on the table to organize them.
"Now Leverage Consulting is squeaky clean. All corporate taxes on record as paid for the last 90 years. All your identities as partners. Payroll taxes are paid. You guys have pension plans and dental. Those are employment records, case files, and company newsletters." Hardison explained handing the papers to the team to look over, continuing the tour.
"This is better than my high school job." Kaira retorted.
"You had a job in high school?" Parker questioned.
"Well yeah, I wasn't always a thief. I had to make money somehow in high school." Kaira explained.
Parker looked at her file.
"In 1998 I won the sack race at the Fourth of July picnic. Cool." Parker turned around.
"Now these... these are your offices. Now you can bring something like a photo, or, Uh— you know what, a plant. I'm a big supporter of dandelions." Hardison explained.
The team stopped a second.
"Hardison, I can't believe you spent your share of the cash on all of this." Sophie said.
"Me, nah, hell nah. Nate paid for all of this. You know, with what he had left. I mean, you know, after he gave the rest of it away." Hardison explained.
"Whoa. What do you mean he gave it away?" Eliot said, confused.
"Yeah. All of it. Every last penny. It was uh, to... like, some like... children's hospital or something like that." Hardison explained.
The team went silent in understanding.
"Of course he would." Kaira whispered.
Hardison continued the tour.
"But this, this is my masterpiece." Hardison said, opening the double door.
The team went in as the light went on, revealing a long table with a bunch of seats and screens on the wall.
"Nice." Sophie complimented.
"This is awesome!" Kaira complimented, amazed.
"My man." Eliot said impressed.
"Long version or the short version?" Hardison asked.
"Short." Sophie said.
"Short version." Eliot said.
"Shortest." Parker said.
"Long version later." Kaira said.
Hardison went over to the screens and hit a button on a remote.
"Photo and video forensics programs, backdoors into every electronic banking system in the world. Running heuristic data crawlers all over the news sights to find our clients. Oh also..." Hardison explained.
"This is the short version?" Parker retorted.
"Facial recognition database tied to CIA, NSA, and the FBI. But, the real piece de resistance. Direct tv HD total sports package. NFL, NBA, and I threw in a little hockey, 'cause I know you people like that." Hardison explained.
Kaira was impressed.
"Hockey." Eliot said in a weird voice.
Then the door opened to reveal Nate.
"Alright stop kicking the tires. You want to take it for a spin?" Nate tossed the USB to Hardison and he plugged it in as the team sat down to watch the video.
"See those guys? Private contractors. They make 700 bucks a day. I make seven." A soldier said on screen, holding the camera used to record the video.
"Yeah, but you know what they got to do? They got to—" another soldier said before gunshots rang out. Kaira immediately identified the guns used, but she kept silent for the moment.
"Our client is the cameraman, Corporal Robert Perry. He says the Castleman constructors spooked and started firing." Nate explained.
"5.56 nato rounds mixed in with some nine mils from the submachine guns." Eliot pointed out.
"Insurgents would have used AK-47's with 7.62 ammo. It has more of a crack." Kaira hit her hands together to simulate the sound.
"Contractors shot him up alright." Eliot finished.
"You I.D'd the weapon from the gunshot sound?" Parker questioned.
"It has a very distinctive sound." Eliot said.
"When you hear gunshots a lot, you connect the caliber to the sound and the distance. He taught me that." Kaira smiled at Eliot.
"Castleman security is hardcore, folks. Billion-dollar company. They got fat government contracts everywhere we got troops. That's Charles Dufort. CEO. Very paranoid and very professional." Hardison explained.
"I want to get this clear right now. This is a private army you're talking about taking on. They got their own intel assets. They got a lot of trigger pullers." Eliot warned Nate.
"Yes and lobbyists in every office in Washington D.C. The problem with a cover-up is all the paperwork it takes to keep the lies straight." Nate said.
"Internal emails, memos." Hardison said.
"Exactly." Nate confirmed.
"So..." Sophie questioned.
"Let's go to work." Nate said.
They got up to leave.
"So, we steal the evidence and, and, threaten to expose them." Sophie realized the plan.
"Blackmail." Parker said.
"Ah yes, but enough blackmail to pay for Perry's rehab. Maybe a couple million more damages." Nate explained.
"That'll never hold up on court." Eliot said.
"Ah but that's why Corporal Perry is lucky. He doesn't have lawyers. He has thieves." Nate said.
He gestured for them to leave. Nate stayed behind.
"Hardison." Nate said, seeing the painting.
The team left to get tickets and get ready for a party Dufort was gonna be at.
Kaira and Eliot were waiters, Nate and Sophie were guests, and Parker and Hardison were on safe duty. Kaira and Eliot got changed and went out. Eliot went by Nate as Kaira was nearby.
"Next time I wear the suit." Eliot said.
"I'm sure you'd look great, cowboy." Kaira flirted a bit.
"Duforts here. I'll make contact." Sophie said.
"See what you can squeeze out of him." Nate said to Sophie, who was across from him.
Sophie and Eliot left.
"Parker, Hardison, time to hit his office." Nate ordered them.
Parker and Hardison were on the other side of town, hitting Dufort's office.
"Uh, I got to go back to the office. I just remembered something." Hardison said, nervous.
"What?" Parker asked.
"I just remembered gravity. And the squishiness of all my manly bits." Hardison said, obviously not happy.
"TMI Hardison." Kaira groaned.
"I designed this rig myself. The line is carbon fiber, five point harness, weight support here, here, and here, auto-braking resistance on the main pulley back here." Parker explained.
"Okay... okay, cool. So it's tested?" Hardison questioned.
"Not yet." Parker said.
"Not yet? When the hell was you gonna test it?" Hardison asked.
Then Hardison could be heard screaming.
"Big baby." Parker said as she flung herself down.
"Seriously? Seriously!" Hardison exclaimed, not happy.
"Okay, Hardison, Parker, guard troops are every ten minutes, which means you have nine minutes and 30 seconds." Nate informed them.
"I'm working on it." Hardison said.
"Pardon me, Congressman." Sophie said in a different British accent than her own.
"Lilly McCreedy. I'm with Executive Orders." Sophie said.
"They're a London based defense contractor. Charles Dufort. Executive Orders doesn't work for the U.S government." DuFort said, slightly defensive.
"Yet." Sophie chuckled. "Perhaps we can do something about that." Sophie said.
"Yes, well, um... it was very nice to meet you. Now you'll have to excuse me." Congressman Jenkins said.
"You're not poaching, are you? Appropriations Bill 718... those are our defense contracts. Don't even bother." Dufort said, defensive again.
"Mr. Dufort, surely there's enough war to go around." Sophie said.
"I rather like you." Dufort said, trying to flirt.
"Hardison, Hardison, what's this, uh, what's this bill they're talking about?" Nate asked.
"You know what, I'd like to give you the Schoolhouse Rock, but this man has an RFID security card reader on his power supply, so I'm a little busy." Hardison said.
"Nate give me a sec to find a more private area and I'll see what I can find on Google." Kaira said.
"Ooh, old school. I found a safe." Parker went silent a second.
Kaira told a fellow waiter to cover while she left for the bathroom and left. Kaira walked towards the bathrooms.
"You're not gonna believe this. It's voice activated." Parker reported.
"Alright, well one problem at a time. Uh, Sophie, I'm going in. We need to get a RFID card to Eliot." Nate said.
Kaira did a quick search on Google and found nothing. "Nate, real quick, I couldn't find anything on the bill. Sorry boss. Sophie watch yourself. Dufort's really defensive." Kaira reported and went back to the party.
Sophie was just chatting up Dufort.
"You know the great thing about Congressmen. 50, 100 grand well spent will get one elected. But then, once they're in, the incumbency rate is over 95%. So you can get on average 18, 20 years use out of one. In these uncertain times, buying a United States Congressman is one of the best investments a corporation could make." Dufort said, thinking he was impressing Sophie.
"Oh, I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. I'm a professional criminal, and I find that disturbing." Hardison said, disgusted.
"I agree. At least have a little dignity if you're a criminal." Kaira retorted.
She met with Nate on the party floor. Nate grabbed the food on her tray and dipped it in the sauce and wiped it on Dufort's jacket. Kaira just waited for the next bit. Nate walked over to Dufort and distracted him while Sophie grabbed his wallet and grabbed the card. Sophie called Eliot over and Sophie put the card underneath the tray. Eliot then met with Kaira and gave her his tray. Surprisingly she could balance them.
"What the?" Eliot questioned.
"I waited tables for a bit in high school." Kaira said.
Eliot examined the card. "There's no magnetic strip." Eliot said.
"It emits a little radio frequency just, just put it up next to the phone that I gave you." Hardison said.
Eliot did that. It was silent for a moment.
"I'm in." Hardison reported.
"Parker, what's the status of the voice lock?" Nate asked.
"I've been sampling Dufort's speech, but I still need a few more sounds." Parker said.
"How many?" Nate asked.
"I only need the sounds puh, tuh, ooh, uh, eh, oh, ah, kuh, ay, eff." Parker reported.
"Ah, only those. Eliot?" Nate said.
"I'm on it." Eliot said.
He made his way over to Sophie and Dufort and tricked him with the dishes. Lets just say eff, ah, and kuh were used in his wording.
"Oh, there they are. And really loud too." Parker said, unamused.
"Okay, Sophie start the walkaway." Nate said.
Kaira went to find Eliot.
"That was fun to watch cowboy." Kaira smiled at him.
"Thank you." Eliot smiled back.
That smile drove Kaira wild every time she saw it.
"Where are you going?" Nate asked, curious.
"Playing a hunch." Sophie said.
"Well play it fast. Hardison, what do you got? You got three minutes." Nate said.
"Too much. I got all of Perry's medical records. Uh, which, sure that's pretty normal, but they've got psych evaluations, high school record. They're reading his emails." Hardison said.
"Tapping his phones. They've got surveillance photos of Perry here from the hospital yesterday." Parker continued.
"Why spend so much money watching our guy? I mean, investigations of the shooting were done months ago." Hardison observed.
Suddenly Kaira had a thought. "Shit! Guys the trucks." Kaira blurted.
"What?" Parker questioned.
"Because it's not about the shooting. Kaira's right. The coverup has nothing to do with the shooting. It's about the trucks." Nate observed, catching onto what Kaira was getting at.
Sophie talked with Jenkins and Nate met with her after she was done talking.
"Parker, Hardison, bug out. Go back to the office, we're going to the hospital." Nate ordered.
"You need to talk with Perry again?" Hardison questioned.
"The shooting wasn't an accident. Perry isn't a victim, he's a witness. Castleman strike you as the kind of company to keep a witness alive?" Nate said.
Kaira joined Nate, Eliot, and Sophie as they went to the hospital.
They walked in and searched for Perry.
"He's not in his damn room." Nate reported.
"We're checking all the corridors that are connected to the exterior doors." Eliot reported, grabbing a doctor's coat.
"Nate, Sophie, check the therapy room. He might be there." Kaira suggested, continuing the sweep.
Nate and Sophie found Perry.
"Nate, we're clear. We can't find..." Eliot said just before getting interrupted by a doctor.
"Excuse me, do you work on this floor?" The female doctor asked.
"No, we uh, work up on Orthopedics, we're just looking for my wallet. Always dropping the damn thing." Kaira tried to smile.
Then the doctor noticed Eliot's crocs. That caused Eliot and Kaira to look at the two guys walking ahead of them. Kaira and Eliot immediately looked at their shoes. They were wearing combat boots.
Eliot and Kaira ran towards them. They followed for a bit until they saw the two guys and Sophie, Nate, and Perry. Nate told them to go to the elevator as Eliot ran into one of the guys and Kaira dealt with the other. They used an IV pole to disarm the one, and as a hitting pole. One of the guys lept towards Kaira with a knife, and she pushed him towards Nate, who had the defibrillator on, and knocked him out. Then Eliot took out the other guy. Eliot looked impressed as he and Kaira ran to another elevator.
They met up at the office, where they dumped a bag of things from a bag Eliot grabbed off one of the hitters on the table to look at.
"Got all this stuff off one of the Castleman hitters." Eliot said, examining the gun.
Sophie picked up a piece of paper and read it.
"I can't live with the pain, I'm so sorry." This is a suicide note." Sophie observed.
"The gun is registered in Robert Perry's name. The bill of sale belongs to a gun shop a mile from his house." Hardison said.
Nate walked in and poured a glass of whiskey.
"I got Perry squared away in a safe house." Nate told the team.
"Playtime's over Nate. It's only a matter of time before they come after us." Eliot said.
"Nathan, Castleman wanted to make Perry's death to look like a suicide. They watched Perry and learned little details about him. If we put a target on us, they won't stop until we are dead. Whether we die in prison or from a bullet, it doesn't matter, Nathan. We have to be careful." Kaira said, not happy with how close things got.
"The tall one, the way he used a knife, ex-marine. Probably force recon." Eliot pointed out.
"You I.D'd a guy off his knife fighting style?" Hardison questioned.
"It's a very distinctive style." Eliot explained.
Nate drank out of the bottle and Eliot just exhaled, confused. Kaira gave him a dirty look.
"For later." Nate said, putting the glass down.
"I didn't sign up for any of this. What I did before, no one got hurt." Hardison said.
"I stole paintings for a living." Sophie said.
"I never hurt anybody." Parker said.
"We've actually hurt people, so." Eliot said, him and Kaira shrugging their shoulders.
"Nate if anything had happened to this kid today..." Sophie said before Nate interrupted.
"You know, you guys, you called on me, you remember? You begged me to run the crew, agreed to play by my rules. Now walk out if you have a problem with that. Walk out any day if you have a problem with that. It's simple." Nate said, starting to rant a bit, obviously a bit drunk.
It was silent for a moment.
"We finish this one." Eliot said.
"Just one." Parker said.
"Can't leave a job unfinished, can I?" Kaira said, showing her distaste with what happened.
"How do we hit 'em?" Hardison asked.
Nate looked at Sophie. "Congressman Jenkins, he's our in." Sophie said, sitting down.
"Looked me straight in the eye and told me he'd never even heard of the shooting." Sophie said.
"So?" Parker questioned.
"Parker, the only time a man ever looks a woman in the eye is when he's making the effort to lie to her." Kaira explained.
Sophie looked at her impressed.
"Correct." Sophie said.
"Well, you can't argue with that." Eliot said, leaning on the table.
Hardison just shook his head.
"Noted and filed." Hardison said.
"Men." Kaira retorted.
"Alright, Jenkins is Dufort's pet congressman. Let's see if we can get him to bite. The best way to get two people to tell a secret... get them to turn on each other." Nate said, revealing the plan.
Eliot and Kaira packed up the hitter's stuff and Sophie took Nate's bottle. Then Nate grabbed the glass and started drinking it.
A bit later Sophie and Nate set up Jenkins and Dufort.
The rest of the team was at the office.
"Congressman Jenkins is very careful. No direct bribes, but he's renovating his house and so far he's received over six hundred thousand dollars worth of work for a little over 50 grand." Hardison explained.
"Castleman owns the contracting company, huh?" Eliot questioned.
"I mean, he's going through like three shell companies, but yeah. This man loves his house. Just check out his web browsing habits. Look here... the man spent three weeks picking out the perfect mahogany wood panels. This site is like wood porn." Hardison explained.
"Is his house finished?" Kaira asked.
"Not even close." Hardison answered.
Hardison looked at Eliot, thinking what they were thinking.
"Can I borrow your phone?" Eliot asked, chuckling.
Hardison dialed the number and gave the phone to Eliot.
"Hello, yes. Uh, I'd like to cancel delivery on some mahogany wood paneling, please." Eliot said.
"Jenkins house." Eliot said as Hardison tried to grab the phone.
Eliot stood up. "Yeah, you know what? Do me a favor man and go ahead and cancel the whole order." Eliot said, walking away.
Nate walked in with beer and popcorn. "What's he doing?" Nate asked.
"Making the Congressman really pissed off." Kaira chuckled.
"Uh-huh. Parker started her run yet?" Nate asked, sitting down.
"Just now." Hardison said.
Nate and Kaira sat down and she grabbed a beer and a piece of popcorn.
"You know, I still think it would be easier for me to just hack the bill in the printer queue." Hardison said.
"No, no, no computers, no. A bill is put into a wooden box on the Congressional floor called the hopper." Nate explained.
"A wooden... whoa, whoa. A wooden - a wooden box?" Hardison questioned.
"A wooden box." Nate confirmed.
"Wood. Oh we can put a man on the moon, but all our laws go into a wooden box." Hardison said.
"What we need to do is we need to get Dufort to believe that Jenkins is abandoning him, that Jenkins submitted the Appropriations bill that doesn't have any of the usual contracts for Castleman. Which means that we have to put our own pages into the bill." Nate explained.
"That means the only place we could get at it would..." Hardison thought a second before getting the idea. "Ahh! Okay." Hardison realized.
"I mean, break a law, everybody's done that. My nana's done that. But steal a law... oh, she's gonna be a legend, baby." Hardison said, amused with himself.
Kaira couldn't help but smile. On the security footage, they saw Parker put the bill in the hopper.
"The Eagle has landed." Parker reported.
"It's in." Kaira said, excited.
"Uhh! Go ahead, girl. Sexiness." Hardison meowed. "I like it." Hardison said, way too excited.
Kaira just chuckled.
"You night want to ease up on that a little bit. I'm just saying, between me and you." Nate said, uncomfortable.
"Between me and you. Me and you." Hardison said, pointing to him and Nate. "Never leaves the room." Nate said.
It was a matter of time before Sophie and Parker came back.
Before they did, Kaira and Hardison listened to hours of a phone conversation between Jenkins and Dufort. Finally, they had something and showed it to the team. Then Sophie and Parker came in.
"Sophie, Parker, welcome back." Kaira said, hugging the two ladies.
They went to sit down. "Hi. So, how was Washington?" Nate asked.
"Well, villains, con men, wolves in sheep's clothing. I felt right at home." Sophie said.
This is pretty amazing. Listen to them." Nate said.
The conversation was mostly them arguing.
"There's about an hour of this, but here's the high point." Hardison said.
"Tell me about it." Kaira retorted.
The conversation basically revealed that Jenkins basically cleared everything up after the shooting.
"Now after that, there's - it's - well, whatever you call the rich guys on telephones' version of makeup sex." Hardison summed up.
"Now we know that Castleman makes a thousand shipments a month. Cross-reference them with the Congressman's phone records and Manila dated right after the shooting, you get a match." Kaira explained.
Hardison pulled up the information.
"Their shipments come through here." Hardison pulled up an image of a storage yard of containers.
"Now somewhere in this madness is container 541. It's currently sitting at the port of Los Angeles." Hardison explained.
"What's in it?" Parker asked.
"No idea, but it's moving in two days... heading to the main Castleman storage facility in Kansas." Hardison explained, sitting down again.
"Now that... that's why they tried to hit Perry, right there. That's it." Nate realized.
"Yeah, wanted to tie up all the loose ends before they tuck this one away at home base." Eliot said.
"What do you ship in a crate from Iraq?" Sophie asked.
"Oh, boy. Something worth killing for." Nate said.
The gang left to look inside the crate. Nate and Sophie were at the front gate on lookout as the other four snuck in and went to find the crate.
"How's security?" Nate asked.
The four hid behind a crate and looked out.
"Dockyard entrance is no problem." Eliot said, looking a bit.
"Found it. 541." Kaira reported.
Eliot went to leave, but Hardison and Kaira stopped him.
"Hold up, Rambo." Hardison said, looking at his phone.
"Okay, no lasers. No motion detectors. No vibrations, no..." There was a beep from Hardison as he said, "Whoops."
"What whoops?" Nate asked, alarmed a bit.
"There's a webcam. I'm picking up its broadcast on my phone." Hardison said, trying to disable it.
Eliot went back to grab a rock.
"I see it, up on that pole." Parker said.
"Watch this." Eliot whispered in Kaira's ear.
Kaira smiled.
"I just have to spoof the I.P. address and overlay a digital duplicate on the wi-fi and-" Hardison was about to say before Eliot threw a rock and broke the webcam. "-Or that." Hardison said.
"Let's go. Come on." Eliot said as they left, Hardison behind.
"I'm sorry it was too far away for you to punch. I'm sure that really frustrated you." Hardison retorted as he followed.
They jogged over to the crate and Parker went to pick the lock.
"What do you think is in there?" Hardison asked.
"Artifacts from Baghdad museums, maybe some from the Saddam Palaces." Parker said.
"No I bet it's weapons. A lot of back alley arms dealing going on in a war zone." Eliot said.
"I think it's either guns or artifacts. Cash is too risky without a cover. Artifacts and guns, easy covers if you get caught. You can say some bullshit story that the artifacts are going to museums here and the guns are going to get destroyed. Sell them on the black market. You get your money. Or use the artifacts to store your cash." Kaira said.
Eliot looked impressed. Then Parker removed the lock. The women stepped back as the men opened up the door. Inside the crate was pallets of cash.
"Money's good, too." Hardison said, surprised.
"Well, these guys are dumber than I thought. Who the hell smuggles open cash?" Kaira questioned.
Parker went and hugged the cash. She started laughing hysterically.
After Parker's moment, the gang got on top of a container and laid down as the guards went by to check out the container. After the guards left, they went down and rendezvoused at the office.
Parker put some money she grabbed on the table as she started getting too comfy with it. Hardison went to examine it to see if it was real.
"Okay. That's worth killing for." Sophie said.
"It still doesn't make sense. Why not hide the cash in something so it's not out in the open? If they got caught, it would be hard to explain why you have pallets of cash in your container." Kaira said.
Hardison walked in with the cash he had.
"Ultraviolet checks out, paper checks out. The watermark, the ink, it all checks out." Hardison explained.
"There's a whole container of it, from Iraq of all places. It's got to be counterfeit." Sophie said, not buying the cash was real.
Parker started rubbing the cash against her face.
"No, it's real. It feels real." Parker said, happy with herself.
"Hey, what do you got going on? You and Hardison? What is it, like a creepy contest?" Eliot questioned, writing on a notepad.
"I don't know. What is it - 200, 300 million in U.S. currency? What's it doing in Iraq?" Sophie questioned.
Nate was pacing behind them. Kaira was just trying to figure out what was going on.
"We sent it there." Nate said.
"What?" Eliot and Kaira questioned.
"Beginning of the Iraq war, my old company helped insure the largest currency transfer in history. Billions and billions in ones, fives, and 20s, all cash, sent to Iraq for reconstruction." Nate explained.
Kaira was shocked.
"Bribes." Eliot realized.
"As needed. Nine billion went missing." Nate said, sipping his coffee, which likely had whiskey in it.
"Wait. Billion with a B?" Sophie questioned, standing up and walking a bit.
"How the hell do you lose nine billion dollars and do nothing?" Kaira questioned, wrapping her head around the whole thing.
"Nine billion dollars of U.S. taxpayer money just... disappeared?" Sophie questioned.
"Castleman gets a cut of the booty. The day they go to move it, real soldiers, they see the transfer." Hardison realized.
"One of the contractor's spooks starts shooting." Eliot said.
"Wrong place wrong time." Kaira said.
"Yeah, but Corporal Perry didn't see anything." Parker said.
"Castleman doesn't know that. As far as Castleman is concerned, they see Perry as a loose end, a liability. They don't have loose ends." Kaira said.
"Castleman's a billion-dollar company. Why would they even care about this cash?" Hardison questioned.
"Because it's cash. You know, money is money. That's one thing. Cash is a whole other thing. For all the money in the economy, there's only about five hundred dollars in cash for every American." Nate explained.
"Plus cash can't be tracked. Money can." Kaira pointed out.
"Untraceable small bills - perfect for slush funds, or, um... home improvements for a U.S. Congressman." Sophie said.
"Or small time donors, you know, for re-election." Hardison said.
"It's money laundering." Nate said.
"How so?" Sophie questioned.
Kaira had a confused look on her face. Nate went over to a tablet and started writing on the screen.
"All right, well, Castleman uses the illegal cash to re-elect his congressman. Congressman gets him no-bid contracts for government jobs. And then the government... pays for his services with legal money. And there's the circle right there." Nate explained, drawing images to help as he explained.
"They turned the entire U.S. government into a money laundering scam." Hardison said.
"Guess they're smarter than I thought." Kaira said.
"I never thought I'd say this, ever - that is just way too much money to steal." Sophie said, sliding the money to the opposite end of the table.
"No, you're not gonna steal it. You don't remember? You're the good guys now. You're gonna give it back." Nate said.
The team went silent for a bit.
"We still have to steal it from Castleman, though." Kaira said.
The team chuckled as they went to plan.
Nate and Sophie were going to distract the security so Eliot could mislead Jenkins to the container, leaving Parker, Hardison, and Kaira to stealing the cash. They got to work before dusk. Parker and Kaira sneaked by as Nate and Sophie started a fight at the entrance. Eliot went to give Jenkins the key to the container.
"They changed the lock." Parker pointed out.
"Just do what you do." Hardison said, unsure of the problem.
"I mean, whatever, what do you mean?" Hardison asked before Parker brought out a bomb.
"Nah. Mnh-mnh. Stop all that playin'. Mnh-mnh. Hell, no." Hardison said, walking away.
"That works I guess." Kaira retorted, also getting to safety.
Then the bomb went off and Hardison drove the truck away with Kaira getting in the back with Parker. They picked up Sophie and Nate and drove away with Castleman in tow. The truck stopped and Hardison opened the back of the truck to reveal the empty truck. Then they left, watching the news of Jenkins and Dufort looking like idiots.
What actually happened was Kaira moved the webcam before Parker set the charge on container 542. Hardison had recorded the video and then had it sent to the reporters and faked a phone call to get them there. They got in the back just as the charge went off and Hardison drove off. Nate and Sophie went into the truck and went in the false back.
They drove to the hospital and Nate texted Perry to meet them outside. They waited as Perry and Dr. Laroque walked towards them.
"What's this about?" She asked.
"I don't know. Mr. Ford said he wanted us down here right away." Perry explained.
They stopped in front of the gang. Kaira waved.
"What do you want?" Dr. Laroque asked.
"Show them." Nate said, moving so Hardison could open the truck.
"An empty truck?" She questioned.
"Nothing up my sleeve." Hardison said before he and Kaira tore the false back of the truck, revealing a few pallets of cash.
"Is this stolen?" Dr. Laroque asked.
"Not anymore." Sophie said.
"What are we suppose to do with it?" Dr. Laroque asked.
"Pay for Corporal Perry's rehab." Sophie said.
"And some other guys' rehabs." Hardison said.
"Pretty much whatever you want." Parker said.
"Doc. A few cute girls show up with a couple million dollars, I'd say we take the win. Thank you." Perry said.
Kaira chuckled as she and Eliot walked over to shake Perry's hand.
"Corporal. Thank you." Eliot said.
Then Kaira shook his hand.
"Thank you, Perry." Kaira said.
"No, thank you. I got my rehab now." Perry said, a little emotional.
So was Kaira. She hugged him and stepped back.
"The world doesn't work this way." Dr. Laroque said.
Nate walked over to her as Kaira walked over to them.
"So, change the world." Nate said, putting his hands on the docs shoulders.
He then walked away and Kaira hugged her.
"Thank you for always fighting for these guys. You deserve this." Kaira said, letting go and following the rest of the gang.
She hugged Eliot and he put his arm around her. They waited at the car ahead of the truck and were silent, enjoying the moment.
"Anybody who wants to walk away, can do it right now." Nate said.
Kaira knew her answer. She sure as hell wasn't leaving. Someone needed to be there for Nate in case he went off the rails again. Plus she felt good. She helped someone who deserved it.
Eliot looked at Kaira, reading her mind.
"One more." Eliot said.
"Maybe two." Hardison said.
Kaira couldn't help but smile. Nate walked away as Eliot and Kaira held hands.
"I bought a plant." Parker said. Kaira laughed a bit.
"Nice. Team spirit." Hardison said, walking away.
"What does it do?" Parker asked, following.
"I can't believe you gave all your money away. You didn't buy yourself anything." Eliot said.
"Oh I bought a car." Nate said.
"Probably a station wagon." Hardison joked.
"An electric car." Nate informed them.
"Of course." Eliot slightly smiled, chuckling.
"How sweet. Do you have to wind it up?" Sophie joked.
"Eh, just trying to be responsible." Nate said.
"Responsible? You know it sucks to be the good guy." Hardison said.
"You haven't figured it out yet, have you? Just cause you're the good guys now, doesn't mean you can't have a little fun along the way." Nate said, getting in his bright red Tesla.
Kaira chuckled. Nate drove off.
"Whoo-hoo." Parker breathed, amused a bit.
"Oh, boy. Midlife crisis." Sophie said.
"Absolutely." Eliot said.
"Definitely midlife." Hardison said.
"Totally midlife crisis." Parker said.
Kaira chuckled as her and Eliot held hands again and walked off, the rest following them.
"So, you two seem lovey-dovey." Sophie said, smiling.
Kaira chuckled and looked at Eliot.
"Are you two dating finally?" Hardison asked.
"No. We've still got some things to talk about before we make that leap." Kaira said, a bit embarrassed.
Eliot just smiled as they left to go home for the night.
They arrived and went to get changed.
"You know, Eliot, this is the best I've ever felt after a job. I mean, we made a difference. Like, actually made a difference." Kaira said, smiling.
"I know." Eliot said, smiling at Kaira.
She went over and hugged him.
"Thank you for being there for me, cowboy." Kaira said.
"Thank you for being there for me, princess." Eliot said, smiling.
They kissed. Then they went to bed and waited for the next time Nate called.