With Great Power Comes Great Leverage
Chapter 4
The phony interviewer still held Hardison at gunpoint as the elevator rose. Hardison had already decided not to waste his time playing stupid. He would try to escape, hopefully without getting himself shot, and he would simultaneously stall for time to give his teammates a chance to rescue him. They hadn't taken his earpiece, which means he was still in touch with his teammates, but he had to be careful what he said.
The elevator stopped, and the doors opened.
"The 18th floor isn't the top," he said. "I thought Fisk's office would be at the top."
His captor leered at him. "Like you're important enough to see the Kingpin. Keep moving, dead man."
They ended up at an inside office. A large guard stood outside. His captor gestured with her gun. Without other options, he chose to walk in.
"Just wait here," she said. "Someone will be along to help you tell us who you work for."
As soon as the door was closed, Hardison started talking. "I'm on the 18th floor," he said. "From the main bank of elevators, turn right, then left. I'm in room 18325. Watch out for the guard outside."
"On our way," said Parker.
Eliot added, "Is the guard armed?"
"Probably, but I didn't see a gun," said Hardison. "He's a big man. Maybe he doesn't need a gun."
"Like Eliot doesn't need one, or like Captain America doesn't need one?" asked Parker.
"No idea," said Hardison. "And guys… this office is the nicest cell I've ever been in, but it's empty, and I mean empty. No power plugs, no data ports, and light is coming from behind a thick barrier. I am not hacking my way out."
"We're coming," said Parker, as the service elevator opened to the 18th floor. Eliot stepped out first, then gestured to Parker.
"Which way?" he said.
"That way," she said, and let him go first. They quickly came to the right hallway. Eliot pulled back.
"The guard was looking the other way," he said.
"Finally, some good luck," said Hardison.
"Even better," said Eliot, "I think he's actually carrying a gun."
"How is that better?" demanded Hardison.
Eliot answered the question by running down the hall, full speed. The guard saw him coming and reached for his gun, but he couldn't draw it before Eliot slammed into him. Two fast punches later and he was out cold on the floor.
Parker opened the door so Eliot could drag the guard inside.
"Because guards who have guns take the time to use them," said Eliot. "Now let's go. Main elevator."
"M..m..m… Main elevator?" stuttered Hardison. "Where the guards are?"
"Service elevator goes down to the loading dock," said Eliot. "Two of my old friends are there."
"The Enforcers work for Fisk today," added Parker. A confused look crossed her features. "Who are the Enforcers, anyway?"
"The Enforcers?" said Hardison. "THE Enforcers? Main elevator it is."
They reached the elevator without Eliot having to punch anyone else, but before they pressed a button, the elevator doors closed and the car started rising.
"Uh oh," said Parker.
"YA THINK?" said Eliot.
Parker did a backflip, and kicked open the access panel in the roof of the elevator. "Come on!" she said. She pulled herself up. Eliot pushed Hardison through the panel just as the elevator stopped at the floor. Without any other options, Eliot hid in a corner.
"… pay you for!" yelled a voice. Eliot took a quick peek around the corner, and saw a timid-looking man walk away from the elevator—he must have called it, Eliot thought—and toward a huge man in a white suit.
Fisk, thought Eliot. Just great. I'm in the same room as the Kingpin of Crime.
Standing next to Fisk were Fancy Dan and Ox. Eliot pressed the button, but the door didn't close.
"Close the door, Eliot," said Hardison.
"It won't close," Eliot whispered.
"You were to hire someone to remove the occupants of that neighborhood," Wilson Fisk said to the timid-looking man. He placed his hands on either side of the man's head, and picked the man up off of the floor. Eliot had heard how strong Fisk was supposed to be, but that impressed even him.
Fisk continued, "but now, I have spies invading my building, and all my plans are in jeopardy because your man showed bad judgement."
"Please, Mr. Fisk!" The man was begging for his life. "I didn't know about that Spider guy, nobody did! Nobody had ever heard of him before!"
"I don't tolerate failures in my organization," said Fisk, continuing to hold the man off the ground without any apparent effort.
"Hurry, Parker!" hissed Eliot. Hardison couldn't ask what she was doing without attracting very unwanted attention.
Fisk dropped the man, who fell to his knees, breathing heavily.
"Th… th… thank you, Mr. Fisk," the man said. He closed his eyes.
Fisk picked up his diamond-tipped cane, fingered the diamond, then swung it at the man's head. The cane barely slowed. Blood exploded outward. A wash of red covered the lower part of Fisk's white suit.
Eliot's eyes narrowed. "Holy!" he said, before he remembered he shouldn't be talking. Fisk looked directly at him. He had murder in his eyes. Guns cleared Fancy Dan's holsters before he could blink. Eliot knew he was about to die.
"Hang on!" yelled Parker. A explosive "BAMF!" sounded from above him, and he felt the elevator start to fall. He grabbed the rail and held on. Fancy Dan and the other guards opened fire, but all the bullets hit above his head.
"She blew the cables?" said Eliot.
"The elevator has safeties," said Hardison. "Lie on the floor."
"Dammit Hardison!" said Eliot. He quickly lay down on his back. "I knew that!"
As the elevator fell, the emergency hooks slowed the elevator in jerks until they hit the shock absorbers in the ground. Eliot slowly got to his feet as Hardison and Parker slipped back in to the elevator car.
"Loading dock's this way," said Parker to Hardison.
"Fire door at the back," corrected Eliot. "Leave the other car in the garage. We'll hot-wire one off the street. Run!"
They made it to the street. Eliot saw Fancy Dan, Ox, and some security people run out the same door just before he turned the corner. Parker picked a cheaper car at the front of a row of parked cars. They were on their way before their pursuers could catch up.
"Drop the car a few blocks from our HQ," said Hardison. "Either of you have some backup cash on you?"
Parker reached into an inside pocket, and pulled out a bundle of hundreds.
"You carry that on all jobs?" asked Eliot.
"It's a good-luck charm," she said. "What do you need it for?"
Hardison took it from her, and wrote a note on a receipt he found on the floor, then put both in the glove box.
"What did you write?" said Parker.
"'Thanks, sorry for the trouble,'" said Hardison.
"You're getting soft, Hardison," said Eliot.
They drove in silence in a minute, then Parker said, "We're all getting soft, Eliot. We just got our butts handed to us."
"We're damn lucky we're still breathing," said Hardison. "You were right, Eliot, you were right."
Eliot made a noise deep in his throat, but he didn't disagree with that. Instead he said, "We needed backup. We were spread too thin. And that's been happening more and more often."
"You think we should hire some help?" said Hardison.
"Five people worked," said Eliot. "We all had our specialties. Now we're too general."
"We got good at each other's jobs," said Parker.
"Not good enough," said Eliot. "Hardison, you've become a decent grifter, and Parker, Nate trained you real well as a mastermind, but we're still spread too thin on a job."
"We're the best, baby," said Hardison. "We can handle it."
"Did we handle it today, Hardison? Did we?" demanded Eliot. "We take down crooked CEOs and congratulate ourselves with fighting the good fight, but Fisk is the big leagues. He murdered a guy in front of a room full of people, and he did it himself. He came up through the gangs and the street crime and he built an empire. He's not a soft CEO who got too greedy. We needed backup, people. We needed a bigger team."
"We aren't getting one today," said Parker, "and unless we can somehow call in the Avengers, or S.H.I.E.L.D. or someone even worse." At Hardison's sudden smile, she said, "No, Hardison, we aren't calling Iron Man."
"Please?" he said. "I always wanted to meet Tony Stark."
"No!" yelled Parker and Eliot together.
Hardison said, "Fine!" He sulked for the rest of the ride.
They entered their HQ carefully, making sure that Fisk hadn't somehow beaten them there.
Parker froze. "Everyone stop," she said.
"Good call," said Hardison. "I closed that laptop before we left. It's open, and not sleeping—someone was just here."
Parker looked at the camera feeds. "Nothing… nothing… wait!" She pointed at the camera feed. "There! There's a vent, right there above where that blur is. Someone swung in just above the cameras and… walked on the ceiling?"
"Surprise!" came a voice from above.
"He's up…."
Eliot's warning was cut off by being kicked in the head. The intruder landed on their work table.
Hardison's jaw dropped. "You're…" he said, "you're…"
"Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man!" said Peter. He was dressed in his wrestling outfit, ski mask and all. "And I'm going to stop you."
Eliot had gotten to his feet. He shook his head to clear it, grabbed a stick that he kept under the table, and swung it at Peter.
Peter easily dodged it by jumping out of the way before it could hit. "Nice try, Ponytail," he said, "but you couldn't touch me on your best day." He leaped forward, grabbing Hardison on the way. "I remember you. You were at the wrestling match. Were you helping that guy? The murderer? The thief?"
Hardison looked down from where Peter had him hanging from the ceiling.
"I never realized how much I hate cathedral ceilings," said Hardison.
Peter shook him, hard. "YOU HELPED MURDER A MAN AND STEAL PEOPLE'S MONEY," he yelled. He opened his hand, and Hardison dropped to the floor.
Eliot threw whatever he could get his hands on, but Peter dodged them all easily, and ended the assault with a kick to the chest. Eliot flew backwards into the video screens.
He turned his attention to Parker. "What's the scam with the neighborhood?" he demanded. "You kill a man, steal money, and get his widow and neighbors to call you, and then what—you steal from them before Fisk can? I looked you people up. Your company, 'Leverage', supposedly goes back to 1913—and by the way, who had consultants in 1913?—but it really doesn't. You've been stealing from people, conning people, for over five years. You're thieves and hitmen and hackers and grifters, aren't you? Low-lifes! MURDERERS!"
"What?" said Hardison. "No!" He was more upset that this 'Spider-Man' character had managed to piece together enough information to make such good guesses. It was a personal affront.
"We aren't thieves!" said Parker, then reconsidered. "Well, we are thieves, but we're not the bad guys!"
Eliot growled, "Parker…." He got to his feet. He wobbled a bit. Spider-Man had given him a worse beating than he'd had in a long while.
What's worse, Eliot thought, I think he wasn't even trying.
Parker held her hands away from her body. "Eliot, check Hardison, make sure he's okay," she said. "Mr…. Spider-Man? We are thieves. We are con artists. We are trying to con Mr. Fisk, not your neighbors." Peter flinched, and she continued, "It's obvious you have a connection to those people. You either live in that neighborhood, or someone there is your friend. It wasn't a difficult guess."
"Fine," said Peter. "But some of you were at the wrestling ring, so you saw what I can do. I took down your tough guy today, and he's only still alive because I didn't want to kill him. So talk to me. If you're the good guys, why were you stealing from the wrestling ring? And why did your guy kill Ben Parker?"
Parker took a deep breath. Before she could say anything, Eliot spoke.
"Hardison's fine, a few bruises." He looked up at Spider-Man. "And you weren't even trying to kill me. You weren't even trying to beat me up very hard."
Peter said, "I don't kill people."
Eliot said, "Neither do we."
"Fisk is behind it," said Parker. "We can show you everything we've discovered. We want to bring him down. He's skimming from the federal funds dedicated to rebuilding New York City after the Chitauri attack. He's got his fingers in every racket, every gambling den, every arena, every illegal place in the city. He murders people, Spider-Man."
"He murdered a guy tonight," said Hardison, trying to sit up.
"Careful," said Eliot.
"Tell him," said Hardison.
"Fine," said Eliot. "We were escaping from Fisk Tower. We were on the top floor. I saw him murder someone—bashed his head in with a walking cane. He said it was because of how you got involved. He—the murdered guy—hired the man who murdered Ben Parker, then you chased the man down, and they lost the bag."
Parker added, "that bag didn't just have money in it—it had paperwork, documents, that we needed to tie the arena to Fisk. That's what we were after. The thief took the paperwork. Thanks to you, we ended up with it."
"Why steal it? Why not just burn the place down?" asked Peter. He was engrossed in the story despite himself.
"No sense wasting a good gambling racket," said Hardison. "Fisk doesn't want to be traced, but he still wants to skim the profits from that arena, and a ton of other places."
Eliot said, "Then that lowlife murdered Ben Parker, and you got involved. For that, Fisk killed the man who hired him, probably because we showed up. Fisk doesn't like close attention."
"We want to bring Fisk down," said Parker. "What do you want?"
"You're thieves," said Peter. "What do you care about Fisk?"
"Sometimes bad guys make the best good guys," said Parker. "Our old boss used to say that."
"Nathan Ford," said Peter. "Correct?"
"Good guess," muttered Hardison.
"You're the hacker, aren't you?" said Peter. "You're the reason I could barely find anything specific online."
Eliot wasn't happy. "You left stuff on the web about us, Hardison?"
"Someone who calls himself 'Chaos' keeps posting hints," said Peter.
Eliot and Hardison both growled. Peter smiled under his ski mask. "Not a fan, I guess?"
Parker took a step forward. "You broke in without setting off any alarms." She shook her head. "I know I couldn't have made it through those vents."
"I'm smaller than you," said Peter. "And I can… you know what? Why am I telling you anything!"
"Because you can trust us," said Parker. "Because you already trust us."
Later, she would be amazed at how calm she was being, but right now she hoped that Spider-Man would realize they weren't a threat, especially if she could make him see what Leverage, Inc., was all about.
"We are trying to help your neighbors. We can do it. We just need a better plan." She held out her hand to him. "Will you help us?"
"You want us to work with him?" said Eliot. "Are you being more than usually crazy, Parker?"
Parker said, "I like him."
"You like him?" repeated Eliot. "That's your reason? You like him?"
Parker looked at Eliot. "He broke in easier than I could have under the circumstances. He took you down twice. And he managed to make some pretty good guesses about who we are. He's clearly untrained, but he's got talent and," she smiled, "more than a bit of style. I like him."
"He's the kid," said Harrison, suddenly. "Aren't you? May Parker's nephew. You were watching us after the meeting through your window. I researched you. Good, hell, great student—straight-As. Smart. Not supposed to be very athletic, and how do you stick to the ceiling?"
"Is it really you… what's was his name?" asked Parker.
Hardison introduced them, pointing at each of them in turn. "Peter, Parker, Parker, Peter."
Peter knew the jig was up. He also know that maybe, just possibly maybe, he could trust them. He pulled off his ski mask.
"Yeah," he said. "It's me."
"You're a kid," said Eliot. He couldn't believe it.
Hardison said, "Kicked your ass."
Peter smiled. "I'm strong for my age."
"Does your aunt know you're here?" asked Parker.
Peter's eyes widened. "No no no no no no!" he said. "You can't tell her. She doesn't know any of this."
"How are you doing all this?" said Parker. "And can you get off the table?"
Peter did a back-flip into a standing position across the table from her. "I was bitten by a radioactive spider," he said.
"You… got bit by a spider?" said Hardison.
Peter corrected him. "A radioactive spider."
"Oh, it was radioactive. That changes everything," said Hardison. "That makes all the difference."
Peter said, "All I know is, after it bit me, I was sick for a couple of days, and then I could stick to walls and everything."
Suddenly, Peter realized how much he was talking. "Please don't tell my aunt!" he said. His face betrayed his desperation.
He'll never be a grifter, Parker thought, but maybe we can use him anyway.
Parker looked over at the others, then back at Peter. "We can avoid telling your secrets," she said. "But here's the thing—we were just talking about how we needed some help."
"You want me to help you guys bring down the biggest mobster in all of New York," Peter said. "Me."
"How did you get in?" she said.
Hardison added, "…without setting off any of my alarms?"
"I have this… I dunno, 'sense'," he said. "Not sure what it is or how it works, but I can sense when danger is coming."
"Like a Jedi Knight?" said Hardison.
Eliot said, "A spider-sense. Like how a spider can feel a fly touch the web." At Hardison's look, he said, "What? I can't know things?"
"No!" said Hardison.
"Spider-sense," said Peter. He nodded. "I like that. I knew the windows were trapped when I went to open them. I could feel how to disable the alarm on the A/C on the roof."
"The vents?" asked Parker.
"I'm very flexible," said Peter. "I didn't used to be, but now…." He shrugged. "I'm like a contortionist."
"Do you spin webs?" asked Eliot.
Peter shook his head. "Nope. I'm flexible, I can climb walls, jump around, and I'm really, really strong. And fast. And I can tell when danger's coming."
"And that's all," muttered Eliot.
"It's enough," said Parker. She pulled up the image of Fisk tower on the screen, and stared at it.
"Uh, guys," said Peter, after a minute of silence, "what's she doing?"
"Parker, sweetheart, do you have a plan?" said Hardison.
"Yeah," she said slowly, as a big smile crossed her face. "You in?" she said to Peter.
"Um… am I in?" Peter said.
"You're in," said Eliot. He held out his hand. "Eliot Spencer."
Peter shook his hand. "Peter Parker," he said. "Um… sorry about, you know, hitting and kicking you. No hard feelings?"
Eliot smirked. "You pack a good punch. You could be even better. You need training."
"He's in," said Hardison. "What's your plan, Parker?"
"There are cameras everywhere inside Fisk Tower, right?" she said. "Everywhere."
"To keep people like us out," said Hardison.
"Eliot," she said, "was there a camera inside Fisk's office?"
He thought back. "I saw two."
"Then that's the plan," Parker said. "We're going to steal ourselves a security system."