The School Job Part 5

AN. Because, for some reason FF doesn't let me tab (in like I normally do for when people are talking on comms) anymore, when someone's talking on comms, it'll be in italics and with tildas, ~like so~. Let me know if this is okay or if you have any other suggestions =)

"How did we miss this?" Sophie enquired as she leant on the door of Lucille. The team had called an emergency meeting; Nate, Sophie, Parker, Abby and Hardison had convened at the van while Eliot, who had classes, remained where he was expected.

"It doesn't matter now," Nate dismissed. "What matters now is finding out who's behind this."

"You know Hardison I don't like to say I told you so…" Sophie began.

"Hey, hey, hey," Hardison replied. "He still stole the money; just wasn't the grand puppet master is all," the hacker stated in a feeble attempt to try and defend his honour.

"And you can't track the money?" Parker enquired, though she already knew the answer.

"Trace the actual, physical cash he took out from the bank?" he confirmed sarcastically. "I ain't that good."

"There was nothing on his phone," Nate began, thinking out loud. "Email? Snail Mail? Fax?" Hardison shook his head at all three.

"Umm, I know I'm new at this," Abby began. "But couldn't you just, ask him?"

"Well…"

"Uh…"

~"Kid's gotta point," Eliot joined in.~

"That makes weird sense," Parker agreed.

"Off you go then," Sophie grinned, flinging Nate his hat from inside the van.

"No, no," Nate said, grabbing the hat and tossing it in his hand. "Eliot'll do it; he's much more convincing."

~"Gotcha," Eliot said, looking at his watch and calculating the time until he could slip away to the man's office unnoticed by the annoyingly attentive students.~

"Hardison slip Eliot a badge; I'm thinking dirty cop."

"Got it," the hacker replied, pulling an FBI badge out of one of the draws before flashing it to Nate and slipping into his pocket.

"Okay, in the meantime, we need to get Abby back in the school. My guess is we're going to need her."

"But I just got out," the teenager whined.

"Think of it this way, more time away from school," Sophie suggested. "And the people in school," she added more quietly.

"Fine," Abby agreed reluctantly as she grabbed her blazer from the back of the van and pulled it on reluctantly.

"And uh, nicely done Abby," Nate added.

Eliot did not knock when he entered Mouser's office; he simply pushed open the door with enough force to make the mark jump in his seat.

"Mr…." Mouser began then paused to search for the right name. "Harrison."

Eliot said nothing and walked across the room and stood with his arms crossed opposite Mouser, who sat timidly at his desk.

"Can I help you?" he asked nervously.

"My name's Mark Priestly, I'm with the FBI," Eliot said, slamming his badge on the desk.

"Oh no," Mouser said as he began to sweat.

"That's right," Eliot nodded. "Now, we know you're not the master mind behind this little operation you got going on here."

"Operation?"

"Cut the crap," Eliot said quickly as he lent forward with both arms stretched out on the desk, his face terrifyingly inches from Mousers. "The only thing we care about is the people behind this. So?"

"They…they…blackmailed me," Mouser stammered as he wiped some of the sweat from his brow.

"Who?" Eliot queried as he stared the mark straight in the eye.

Mouser held up a sweaty finger and inched himself out of his chair before walking over to one of the filing cabinets jammed against the wall; Eliot's eyes followed him carefully. The man reached behind the cabinet and, as his arm disappeared between the cavity Eliot jumped up and grabbed the man's bicep, pulling Mouser's arm quickly into view; behind a filing cabinet would be a perfect place to keep a gun and, even if Mouser didn't look like a threat, Eliot couldn't take that chance.

Mouser held his hands up innocently and stepped back out of the way as Eliot reached into the cavity and, after feeling around for a few seconds pulled a taped file of the back of the cabinet.

"Is this them?" the hitter asked as he tore the tape off the file. Mouser nodded nervously and Eliot opened the file. "This? This is them?" Eliot questioned in disbelief as he stepped threateningly towards the mark.

"Yes, yes, I promise that's them," Mouser reassured quickly.

"Talk," Eliot instructed. "Um," Mouser began timidly before he forced himself to calm. "They found out that I had debts and that I was going to lose my house…." He trailed off.

"And?" Eliot pressed.

"And that I'd siphoned money from a few of the school's accounts into my own to get ahead of my payments," the man finally confessed. "They said if I didn't they were going to turn me over to the police."

"So they blackmailed you to get money for themselves?" Eliot confirmed and Mouser nodded.

"How often do they get you to take the money?"

"Whenever there's a scholarship student," he began. "When we get a new one, the funds for the remainder of their education here at the academy is put into a separate account so, even if the school loses funding, the money is always there for the student."

"So how does getting the money work?"

"They," Mouser said, pointing at the file. "And me we arrange for the student to be expelled or let go from the school. And after they're gone I siphon the money from the scholarship account into my own."

"And no one notices?"

Mouser shook his head. "No, according to the school book the money was already classed as spent when it's placed in the account. It's my job to move it back when a student is let go, but…"

"No one misses what they never knew was there," Eliot concluded. "Okay Mouser, here's what's going to happen; you're going to play along with these guys and act like nothing is wrong. When we approach you to catch these guys you will do what I say," Eliot instructed and in an authoritative and forceful manner; it wasn't a request.

"Of… of course," Mouser stammered.

Eliot gave the man one final death glare before he walked out of the man's office, still clutching the files in his hand.

~"And our culprits are?" Hardison questioned who, like the others, had been listening throughout the entire conversation.~

"Alan Devlin, Michael Rogers and Bram," Eliot squinted his eyes for a second. "Bram?" he questioned to himself in disbelief; that was almost worse than Skyler. "Bram Newhouse," he finished.

~"Hang on, I know them," Abby stated.~

"Yeah," Eliot replied knowingly.

~"They're students," Abby exclaimed.~

Ooooh! Did you see that coming (I'm pretty sure some of you did)

Thanks for you're awesome continued support, I look forward to your reviews (hint hint)

Ta.