So, this chapter has changed quite a bit because I actually did research this go round. For anyone interested, I am loosely basing Bradley's home off of a real life plantation about twenty miles north of New Orleans called Destrehan Plantation. While I am obviously changing things, Destrehan is my basis. It is the right area and from roughly the same era as the home I imagined here, so it is as close as I can get to an accurate portrayal for a home. Also, I have never been to Louisiana (hopefully one day though!) so I am basing everything off of pictures found from simple Google searches. Thank you for bearing with me, and I hope my research pays off.

Disclaimer: Neither Now You See Me, its characters, or the song belong to me.

Scout's Honor

Like a hand grenade thrown in a hurricane,
Spinning in chaos, trying to escape the flame,
Yesterday is gone!
Faster than the blast of a car bomb!
And when the scars heal, the pain passes,
As hope burns, we rise from the ashes!
~Rise by Skillet

Dylan was slow to wake up, but the sound of someone laughing slowly brought him out of his sleep. Stretching, he sat up and blinked the sleep out of his eyes. Jack was already awake and dressed, sitting on his bed hiding a laugh with his hand and the phone to his ear. Dylan swung his feet over the side of the bed and raised an eyebrow, silently asking what was so funny.

"Yeah, no, I will definitely send you the pictures later." Jack gave up trying to be silent and grinned cheekily at Dylan. "He's awake now if you wanna talk with him." A pause. "Ok, I will. See ya."

Dylan didn't believe the look of innocence that Jack gave him as he handed over the phone. Stifling a yawn, he put the phone to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Have a good rest, sleepy head?"

Dylan grinned at Alma's teasing. Jack was barely suppressing his laughter and Dylan couldn't help but throw in a little teasing of his own.

"I'm not sure I like where this is going. Should I be checking the pictures on this phone?"

Alma laughed, but Jack's eyes widened in fear as he shook his head negative. Dylan smirked. He was definitely checking the photos before he handed the phone back.

"But you are so adorable when you are sleeping." Alma chided. "Don't be too hard on Jack. I told him too. And I already have copies, so deleting them will not make a difference."

"No promises." Dylan loved causing the younger man a little panic. Now fully awake, he steered the conversation to the topic at hand. "What did you find?"

Jack mouthed for him to put it on speaker and Dylan complied as Alma answered.

"Not much, I'm afraid." Alma sighed and he heard papers shuffling and a mouse click. "Bradley is very careful and most of the records on the address today have been erased or hidden in ways that I cannot find anything."

"But you did find something?" Dylan hated to push, but every little thing helped.

"The modern records are sealed, but I was able to find several documents from the early 1900s and the 19th century." There was a pause as she typed into her computer and then shuffled her papers in search of the correct one. "The land has been lived on since the early 1800s, and a large plantation home was built in 1829. During the Civil War, the home was raided by both soldiers and civilians and part of it was burned, but they rebuilt fairly quickly. The records are not all there, but from what I can tell, the home was lived in predominately by squatters until Joshua Bradley, Thaddeus' father, bought the home at the turn of the century and restored it to its pre-Civil War condition."

"So we know the history of the house." Jack said when she had finished. "How does that help?"

"We know the type of home it is."

"So?"

"So," Alma explained. "If we know the type of house, we can estimate the number of rooms and the general arrangement of the building."

"Oh." Jack hadn't even thought of that.

"But most of what we know will have to come from seeing it with our own eyes." Dylan warned.

"I will see what else I can find. But Dylan?"

"Yes?"

"Be careful. You don't know what you will be walking into."

"We'll be careful. And thank you."

With that, he hung up and looked over to Jack who was watching him closely. Dylan didn't say anything as he got up and went to the duffle bag. After a few moments of carefully digging through the bag, he sat back down and handed an ear piece to Jack who took it carefully.

"Let me get dressed and then we can grab some breakfast and head out."

Jack fiddled with the ear piece while Dylan quickly changed. Dylan noticed the fidgeting and knew something was on the other man's mind.

"Something bothering you?"

Jack hesitated before answering.

"It just seems like we're walking into a trap."

"How so?"

"Bradley knows we're coming. He had men on us for weeks before making his move and it would be simple to have men following us even now and we're going straight into the lion's den."

Dylan thought a moment before replying.

"If he has men on us, then it won't matter if we go to him today or tomorrow. Either way he'll know exactly what we're up too. But if he doesn't have men on us—and I don't think he does—then we have the opportunity to get a step ahead and surprise him. He's not expecting us until the end of the week."

Jack nodded, knowing Dylan was right. Either way, they didn't have much of a choice.

"I just have a bad feeling about this."

"First you're Willy Wonka and now you're Han Solo?" Dylan tried to make light of the moment. "You have an odd taste in characters, kid."

Jack rolled his eyes at the teasing and easily caught the phone that was tossed his way. Grabbing his jacket, he followed Dylan toward the door, but stopped when the older man paused just before unlocking it. Dylan turned and crossed his arms.

"Oh, and before I forget, delete those pictures."

Jack grinned, but reached for his phone and, under Dylan's careful supervision, deleted the pictures of Dylan drooling into his pillow. Satisfied that at least one copy of the embarrassing photo was deleted, Dylan unlocked the door and the two climbed into the car. After a quick stop for breakfast, they drove the twenty miles outside of New Orleans to the address Bradley had sent. It was forested area and once they pulled off onto the backroads, traffic thinned until they were the only ones in either direction. With two miles left to go, Dylan carefully pulled over and the two fugitives concealed the car as best they could. As much as the two city boys didn't look forward to the rough hike, they both knew it would be far safer to approach on foot rather than run the risk of anyone hearing the car. The terrain made the going rough and Jack worried that they would get turned around and wind up in a swamp to be eaten by an alligator, but just when he was about to voice his concerns, the area before them opened up and the sight took their breath away.

It was a beautiful old home with an immaculately cut lawn and a variety of well-cared for flowers decorated the front of the porch. The paved driveway looped past the front of the building, and a smaller paved drive broke off from the loop and lead into the trees, probably to a garage or other such building. The house itself was massive with eight columns that stretched from the ground to the overlying roof that provided shade for two levels of long porches. Four chimneys rose from the top of the building, with five more on attached buildings on either side. The porches wrapped around the length of the building, protected by the awning and two small passageways on either side connected two buildings, one of which was most likely the kitchen and the other possibly a laundry and guest building. The plantation home was painted a rich yellow, with the flooring of the porch and the gate on the second level a deep maroon. The majority of the trees had been cut back a hundred yards or so from the house, so that any attempt to get near the house would have to be done in the open. Once by the house, however, tall bushes on the kitchen side would provide ample cover. One young tree grew directly by the porch and nearly reached the roof of the building, while several other small trees and bushes followed the curve of the building to hide what was most likely an air conditioning unit.

For the moment, the moss draped trees provided Dylan and Jack with enough cover to study the building without fear of being seen. From their vantage point, they were too far to be able to see through the open windows, but they could easily see the grounds. Several more buildings dotted the heavily forested area to the rear of the house and men and women walked to and from the buildings, some dressed in suits despite the heat while others were more appropriately dressed; Dylan's best guess was they were staff. A guard was situated on either porch and paced the length of the wrap-around while two more unloaded what appeared to be bags of groceries and nondescript boxes. That made for four guards at the front of the house, but without scouting farther, there was no way to be sure how many men Bradley had employed, however.

With the cursory first look over with, Dylan motioned for Jack to move backwards so they were well out of earshot. Still, when he spoke it was at a very low whisper.

"We need to cover the area. Find every entrance, exit, and weakness and make a note of it. I'll go left, you go right and we'll meet at the back. If anything comes up, use the ear piece, but otherwise I'll see you around back."

Jack nodded in understanding, but he had to ask the one question neither wanted to think of.

"What if one of us gets caught?"

Dylan hesitated, knowing Jack wasn't going to like the answer.

"Then the other has to save himself. We're no good to anyone if we're both captured."

Jack frowned, hating the thought but knowing that Dylan was right. The other man had known he was going to disapprove so he was quick to reinforce the thought.

"You have to get out of here if I'm captured, Jack. Just like I have to leave if you are."

"I know." Jack replied, but Dylan knew the other man's loyalty to his friends and knew that in the moment the younger man might do something rash.

"I'm serious, Jack. We're the Horsemen's only hope. One of us has to make it out."

"I know!" Jack snapped. "If you're captured, I'll leave you behind. Scout's honor."

Dylan eyed him warily.

"You were a boy scout?"

Jack grinned.

"I'll see you round back."

Before Dylan could protest, Jack had slipped back into the trees and started for the right. Shaking his head, Dylan did the same thing to the left. Both men moved slowly and Dylan quickly regretted making Jack go to the right. To get to the far side of the house, the former FBI agent had to time it just right and sprint from tree to tree as the paved driveway separated the forest and the trees had been thinned out alongside the drive. Luckily, the guards were placed on the house rather than the perimeter so the rough going was made easier without dodging a picket every ten feet. A large ten car garage was concealed a few hundred yards from the house behind a corpse of trees, and Dylan made his way around it carefully though it appeared to be deserted.

It was slow going as each man had to be careful not to be spotted while also surveying and committing to memory not only the house, but also the surrounding area. Every little detail would help, and as such it was nearly an hour before the two reconnected. Jack nearly missed Dylan as he was further up while the older man had played it safe further back in the trees. The two remained silent until they had ventured into the trees until they could just barely see the house.

"How many guards did you see?" Dylan asked quietly, eyes constantly scanning the area.

"Only one on the house itself not counting the four we saw at the front and two more were leaving the house for one of the back buildings."

There were two large buildings in the trees several hundred yards behind the house. One looked to simply be a maintenance barn while the other appeared to be a makeshift barracks for the hired guards. Further back into the woods were three more small houses, most likely the homes of staff who had worked the farm for decades. The homes were far back enough to be barely visible from the house, so they would not pose as much of a threat as the barn and barracks.

"I didn't see any on my side, so we know he has at least seven men, but I would wager a guess that he has at least ten if not more."

"I hope you had better luck finding a way in then I did. Other than the guarded door and a few windows I couldn't see any way in."

Dylan nodded. "But I want you to have a look at it before we go any further."

"Lead the way."

Jack followed Dylan along the side of the house making sure to stay low and under the cover of the trees. From what he had seen, there wasn't much chance of the guards noticing them unless they made it obvious, but there was no point in risking it. Dylan halted about halfway to the front of the house and motioned to the smaller building that was connected to the main house by the porch. Large bushes and a few smaller trees concealed what looked to be an air conditioning unit and two windows.

"Think you could get in through there?"

Jack studied it for a moment before slowly nodding.

"The windows wouldn't be too hard to open, but getting into the main house would be a problem. From what I could see, the porch separates the two. I suppose slipping through either the front or the back door could work, but I'd be caught in a minute."

"Not if you had a distraction." Dylan replied. "The doors on the porch most likely won't be locked, so slipping through would be easy. You just have to time it right and slip through when the guards are either distracted or walking the other part of the building."

Jack eyed him warily.

"You have a plan?"

"Half a plan." Before Jack could ask any questions, Dylan hurried to add, "I'll fill you in when we get back to town. For now, we need to scout the surrounding area and see if we can figure out the guard's routines."

Jack nodded and the two slipped back into the woods. They split up once more and Jack moved back around the house, carefully noting anything that might be of importance, though he knew he was missing stuff. Planning had never been his strong suit and he had gladly left it to Daniel and to the Eye and simply did what he was told. If it were Daniel in his place then he and Dylan would have come up with a fool proof plan in no time. But Daniel wasn't in his place and instead was locked up somewhere inside the house Jack now circled. At least, he hoped that the others were inside. It was frustrating being right where Bradley had sent them and yet not knowing if it was truly where they should be. His gut instinct was screaming that it was a trap, but Jack forced that aside and focused on the area. There would be time to worry later. For now, he needed to concentrate.