The Sanctuary Job - Part II
Title: The Sanctuary Job - Part II
Rating: Pg-13
Genre: Action/Adventure, Fluff, Crossover, AU
Crossover! Sanctuary and Leverage
Summary: The Leverage Team takes on a most unusual job.
Notes: Written for kaitlia777 for Sanctuary_santa. She requested "Henry/Ashley! Shippy is best, friendship is good too. Will/Kate. Outsider POV's and Crossovers"
Part II. Further parts are incoming! I hop you enjoy this! This is still SO much fun to write! The plot thickens! Please bear with me, I'm kinda trying to mimic the Leverage episode vibe a bit >;) Here's some ship!
Previously on the Sanctuary Job...
“Well,” Nate said, looking at the screens. “It looks like we’re taking a trip. Pack your bags, people. We’re headed west.”
Old City - Old City Sanctuary
“I’m never gonna get used to that,” Kate complained, doubled over, hands on her knees. She looked green enough, Ashley reached out and took the case she’d been carrying. “It’s official. I’m not cut out for this Beam Me Up Scotty, thing.”
“You okay?” Ashley asked.
Kate stood up a bit cautiously. “Yeah,” she said after a moment. “Yeah. I’ll be fine.” She began walking towards the Sanctuary gates. “Guess it beats jetlag.” Kate gave Ashley a speculative look, “You okay hauling our asses around the country all the time?”
Ashley nodded and put in her key code. The gates began to slide open. “Yeah. It really seems weight is more of an issue than distance.”
“So you me and an authentic Chicago deep dish pizza would be doable?”
Ashley arched an eyebrow. “I thought you weren’t meant to teleport?”
“For real deep dish and not the crap you people serve here? I can teleport.”
Ashley laughed and hauled open the service door by the garage. It was late and she wanted to go to bed. “Maybe tomorrow? I’m beat. I just want to climb into my nice warm bed and sleep.”
Kate smirked, eyes dancing. “Boys are good for keeping the bed warm, aren’t they? Not so much for sleeping.”
Ashley rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t quite stop the matching smirk. “It’s a perk.” She held up the cage. “I’m gonna put this critter in lock down.”
“I’ll check the stunner if you want,” Kate offered, holding out a hand.
Ashley unbuckled the drop holster and handed her weapon over. “Thanks. Have a good night.”
Kate grinned with a hint of a leer. “Oh I will.”
Ashley laughed, “Don’t keep him up too late. I think Mom has him scheduled for early feeding rounds.” She called back over her shoulder then headed for lockdown. She put the critter into the prepared SHU unit. It skittered away into the rear small enclosure then glared balefully at her from under a mossy log. Ashley locked it down, put the cage away, then trudged up the stairs. It had been a late night. They’d had to wait a hell of a long time for their quarry to fall into position, but they’d managed to capture the hydra without incident. The entire day had been a lot of running and waiting and hurrying up to wait and she was done. At least they’d caught it before it had begun to spilt.
Yawning, Ashley entered her room and began stripping. It took her a full thirty seconds to realize she had an audience. She paused half a second mid-zip, then continued to work the zipper on her jacket, slowly. She let the jacket fall off her arms and tossed it on her recliner. She pulled the t-shirt off over her head and dropped that into the clothes hamper. She looked over her shoulder.
Henry’s iPad had been forgotten and lay haphazardly on his crossed legs. “Uh...Hi.” He blinked then ran a hand through his hair. “I didn’t think you’d mind if I came here?” Henry cleared his throat and shifted toward the edge of the bed as she sauntered toward him. “I mean I can kinda see if you would, it’s your room and not mine. You’re always welcome in mine you know. Not that I’m saying...any...Hi.” He stopped only after she’d entered into his personal space, standing between his knees.
She put a hand on either shoulder then straddled his lap. “Hi.”
Henry smiled slightly, wrapping his arms around her waist, computer stowed on the nightstand. He leaned forward and kissed her, a soft press of his lips against hers, his hands holding her more securely. They kissed again, this time longer, deeper, taking their time. Ashley pressed herself closer against him, hands running up the side of his face and into the short hair. He was warm under her fingers, solid. The light scruff of his beard an interesting contrast to the softness of his lips. She broke the kiss for air then nuzzled along his jaw before resting her head on his shoulder with a content sigh. Henry kissed his way down to the junction of her neck and shoulder. He breathed her scent in and hugged her close with a matching sigh.
“Welcome home.”
Ashley hummed in pleasure at hearing that, squeezing his shoulders. “You can come here anytime,” she told him then kissed his cheek. “I like coming home, but I like coming home to you more.” She kissed him again, letting her lips move against his, but exhaustion was creeping in, quelling the passion. The languid kiss ended and Ashley abruptly let out a jaw-cracking yawn.
Henry chuckled, fingers drawing through her hair. “Long day?”
She nodded. “You’ll stay with me tonight?”
Henry brushed her hair back and smiled broadly. “‘Course I will.” He kissed her nose. “Protip: a guy is always going to agree when a pretty girl he likes asks him to spend the night.” He wagged his eyebrows a little.
Ashley laughed and kissed him. “I’ll keep that in mind.” She climbed out of his lap “Working on anything interesting?” she asked as she took off her pants.
“Uhh- yeah I was doing, uhm. That thing you mom wanted me to do.”
Ashley looked back and winked, wiggling her ass a bit more than was strictly necessary as she peeled off the pants. She tossed those into the hamper too then grabbed her sleepwear off the end of the bed.
“So that mission we have coming up. I’ve been working on some hypothetical counter measures for what we might come up against.”
Ashley ditched the bra and panties and put on a shirt to sleep in and some shorts. “You think we’ll have trouble?” she asked, brushing out her hair.
“Don’t think so. There might be something unexpected, but-” he trailed off shrugging.
Ashley climbed into bed and held up the covers, inviting him to join her. Henry did, reaching back to turn off the light. Ashley curled up against his side, snuggling close. Henry’s arms went around her shoulders and he went on for a bit about technical things she didn’t really get, but which he liked.
“...And you’re not listening to me, are you?”
“Kinda,” she admitted, shifting so her was resting on his chest. She could hear the steady beat of his heart under the sound of his voice. “I was up at five to feed the harpies and then I went for a run and I had some stuff to do with Biggie before Kate and I had to go track the hydra.”
Henry shifted a bit, pulling the covers up past her shoulders so they were cocooned together in a small warm space. He wound his fingers around a lock of her hair. “Glad you’re back, Ash.” he kissed her. “I-” he paused, kissing her again to fill the silence. “I like this. Us.” His lips quirked into a smile. “I got lucky.”
She kissed him. “We both did.” She hugged him and rubbed her cheek against his chest. She felt Henry drop a kiss on her head and sighed, warm and content. “Night, Henry. Love you.”
“Night, Ash. Love you too.”
Ashley closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.
Old City - Westin Extended Stay
“It’s a black hole, Nate. A complete black hole,” Hardison insisted.
Nate looked up from his room service breakfast. He chewed his eggs thoughtfully for a moment. Hardison’s eyes were red from lack of sleep and had a slightly crazed look about them. His hands jittered ever so slightly, likely from all the overly sugary orange soda he’d probably been drinking. It wasn’t quite as bad as when he’d constructed the fake diary in London, but it was close. Nate kicked the extra chair out from the table and nodded at it.
“Sit down, have some eggs and tell me about it.” Nate pushed his mostly full plate over.
The hacker half collapsed into the chair, grabbed a fork and dug in. After he’d cleared the plate, he downed half of the glass of orange juice and sat back.
“So what makes it a black hole?” Nate prompted. Hardison looked a little bit more solid now. He’d been working on cracking the Sanctuary Security since touchdown the day before.
“I’ve never seen a security system like theirs.”
“Military grade?”
“Dude, the military wishes they had this security. Hell, man, I wish I had it.’ He began ticking points off on his fingers. “I tried sending some feelers out into their systems? Blocked cold. Foss has whatever internal network these “Sanctuaries” use locked down tighter than the Feds and the CIA. I’ve been trying to sniff their packets and I can’t get much data out of them. There is a lot of operational stuff, here man. Like, enough paperwork to move an army.”
“What do you think it means?”
“They’re big and they don’t want anyone prying into them. Look man, I found some stuff that looked like weapons orders.”
“They gearing up for something? Are we looking at some sort of...cell?”
Hardison rubbed the back of his neck. “I dunno man. Their thief and their hitter have been out making contact with some arms dealers in the area, and there were some shipments that are probably weapons, but I don’t think we’re looking at Al-Qaeda or something. They don’t tend to have,” he made a vague, frustrated gesture, “Deliveries of frozen, zoo-grade horse meat and feed. They’re operating business as usual - none of this is out of the ordinary.”
“What about the inside? Any idea where they might be holding the egg?”
“Nah man. I can’t get inside, that’s what I was sayin’. I found a bunch of construction permits in the public archives. I have the original plans for the building but they’ve done a lot of construction since the forties. If we send Parker in there...”
“She’d be on her own.” Nate sat back. There were, well, now that he thought about it, Nate couldn’t recall any case of Hardison being unable to hack into a system. “What if you were on the inside? Like with the Stereko.”
“That’d be the only way I can see to do it, but Nate, that’s an awful big risk.” He pulled out his phone and began to pull up screens with data. “ I don’t feel real good about Parker going in there without some kind of information about where they’re keeping the tigers, man.”
“They can’t be completely off the grid, a big place like that? What about taxes or inspections? Any way we can get in there?”
Hardison nodded, catching on to the idea. “Local government should have something. Maybe they’re due for some kind of inspection or maybe they want to check out they’re following the zoning laws or something. That gets us in the door, but what happens once we’re on the inside?”
“What if,” Nate mused, “we made one of them our man on the inside?”
Hardison thought about that, rubbing his jaw as he thought. Then he began to grin. He shook a finger at Nate as he stood. “I could get my own feed in there. Maybe some audio? I’d be able to stick a GPS on them at the least and we could see where people can go in that place. That might work, and I have just the toy for that!” Hardison got up and headed back toward the room he’d claimed.
Elliot passed Hardison as he walked into the main room of the suit. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “What’s up with him?”
“We think we have a way to get more information about the building.”
“And what way is that?” Sophie asked, entering the room, Parker a few steps behind, carrying a bowl of cereal.”
“We’re going make them work for us.”
Old City - Retail Hell
Will slouched in his seat and checked his phone, again. He was in some kind of anti-cell-phone vortex. Not even Henry’s tech could cut through. A door opened down in the hall of women’s dressing rooms and Will sat up, hoping it was Kate. The guy sitting on the bench beside him sat up too; some guy with long-ish hair pulled into a tail and glass. The guy already had half a dozen shopping bags at his feet. He looked even less pleased here than Will did.
The curtain parted. It wasn’t Kate, but the petite blonde that had come with the other guy. He gave Will a sympathetic look and left with his girlfriend. Will let his head fall back against the wall with a solid thunk.
“Hey, Kate?”
“Hey, yeah?” Kate’s voice floated out from the dressing rooms.
“I thought you said this would take five minutes.” He was yelling, and it was probably rude, but he didn’t care. He’d been up way too late and then again way too early. This was the third store he’d been to and he’d just about reached his limit.
“I saw something else I wanted to try on,” Kate called back from somewhere in the dressing rooms.
Will let his head thunk against the wall a few more times. “Tell me why I’m here again?”
“Well, if you had been a little bit faster last week, my jeans wouldn't have gotten chewed on while I was saving your ass. Therefore you needed to come with me to buy new ones....and buy me lunch.” Kate parted the curtain in front of the dressing rooms and stood in front of the triple-mirror thing. She turned around, catching the jeans from all angles.
Will watched. There was some nice embroidery on the rear pocket. They looked really great on her. “Those look nice.”
Kate grinned over her shoulder then headed back into the dressing rooms. Will let his head thunk back against the wall.
“Hey!,” Kate called, “at least I didn’t make you carry my purse.” She returned a few minutes later, jeans draped over either arm. She dropped one armload off on a table then headed for the register. Will got to his feet and followed, pulling out his wallet.
Long-haired guy and his girlfriend were at the front by the register. Will exchanged nods of acknowledgement then it was Will’s turn to smile in sympathy as the blonde pawed through the sales racks, clearly not leaving any time soon.
“Let’s go,” Kate said.
“I need to- Where is my credit card?” Will looked at his empty hands then at Kate,
Kate smiled evilly and took the bag from the clerk, and Will’s credit card. She headed for the exit. Will put his wallet back in his pocket and followed after.
Old City - Old City Sanctuary
The gothic mansion certainly looked imposing up close, Sophie thought. The mist off the river would burn away soon, but at the moment it gave the “Sanctuary” a somewhat foreboding and mysterious air. She smoothed out her skirt and mentally went over the fake background Hardison had put together for them. The Sanctuary wasn’t due for a health inspection for a month or so, but Hardison had looked into the local government’s files and found enough information he was sure he could get them in during the morning rush that way. With the bug they’d placed on Zimmerman, they hadn’t received all the information they’d they’d hoped to have since there had been a lot of interference, but they had gained a confirmed layout of the mansion and some promising locations for where the egg was being held.
They’d also gotten more information about the man’s love life than they’d wanted to hear. Hardison had cut the feed after that.
“Okay,” Hardison said over their earpieces. “Once you’re past their perimeter, everyone turn on their phones. I added some hardware that is going to boost your signal so we can all hear one another.” Sophie could hear Hardison typing rapidly at his keyboard. “Now, they have something going on in there that made my signal completely cut out every so often. If you can stay close to one another, I think the signal will get through even if they pull another one of those blackouts.”
“And once we’re in,” Nate continued, “Parker you’re going to have to work fast.”
“On it,” Parker said, voice coming in through the headset.
“I’m betting it’s going to be in this woman’s office, so start there. Hopefully we’ll be in and out and on our way,” Nate added.
“They let me in,” Elliot said. Ahead of them, Nate saw the delivery truck that Elliot had been driving pull in to the gate.
“Excellent. Hardison keep an eye out. You ready?” he asked Sophie.
Sophie arched a wry brow. “Always. Shall we?”
Nate grinned and drove the car through the gate behind Elliot’s truck. The truck continued around the back, but Nate drove the car up toward the front door. He parked and the climbed out. The front door was an imposing piece of heavy oak with a worn knocker, green with verdigris. Seeing there wasn’t a door bell, Nate knocked a few times.
Nate rocked on the balls and heels of his feet, hands in his pockets. He looked professional in slacks and an official jacket Parker had swiped the night before, but very relaxed and open. Sophie had pulled her hair into a rather severe bun, wore dark glasses and held several papers, the strict inspector to the easygoing one Nate was playing.
The door finally opened after about a minute or so. The man on the other side was tall and bald, with an old scar on one cheek. He wore a fine shirt and well tailored pants. He regarded them with suspicious, hooded eyes. The man was a striking, imposing figure and wasn’t anyone they’d been briefed on.
“Yes?” He had an accent of some sort.
“Sorry to bother you so late, but we’re Health inspectors for the city. We’re here to conduct a survey?” Nate smiled and held up the badge Hardison had made for him.
The man spared half a second for the badge, staring at Nate instead. “I wasn’t aware of any inspection,” he told them.
English accent, Sophie decided, but muddied with something else. Maybe he’d emigrated when he’d been younger and it had faded.
“Well, we’ve have an appointment with Dr. Magnus for some time,” Sophie spoke up, adjusting her glasses. She pulled out her Blackberry and opened the files Hardison had taken from the city. Opening those files allowed her to activate the boosting technology Hardison had hidden in the blackberry,
The man turned his attention to her then went back to Nate. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m afraid the lady of the house is not in at the moment. You’ll have to come back another time.” He began to close the door.
Sophie reached out and held it open. “I’m afraid that isn’t possible. I’m sorry but we must conduct our inspection here and now. The department is overworked as it is.“ Sophie gave the man a tight smile. “Surprise health inspections aren’t much of a surprise if you know they’re coming.”
“What do you need to inspect?” the man asked, voice icy.
“Your kitchens and any food preparation and storage facilities, on the premises.” Sophie pulled up the document they’d pulled from the city. There was a list of locations they needed to inspect and some official notices Hardison had created to help them get in the front door.
The bald man glared at them. “One moment.” He closed the door in their faces.
“Yo, you okay?” Hardison asked.
“Maybe,” Nate said. “We’ll know in a minute or two. Parker set?”
“Not yet. I just unloaded her, but they’ve got this hairy guy helping. It’s going faster than we planned. Anything you can do Hardison?”
“I’m going to make your software glitch Elliot. That should help you stall for time.”
“I’m in,” Parker whispered. “Heading upstairs.”
The door opened again and the angry man pushed it far enough they could enter. “Come with me.”
Nate whistled, long and low. “My, what a beautiful house,” Nate enthused, looking around the entrance hall. Sophie actually did think it had a sort of dark elegance, but she carefully kept that from showing on her face; it wouldn’t fit the character.
“Now, we’ve reviewed your files and there have been some inconsistencies,” Sophie said, their opening salvo to keep the conversation going until Parker could locate and obtain their target.
“I could hardly care less,” the man said, cutting her off. “If you could wait a few hours, Helen- Dr. Magnus, will return.”
First name basis. He was a personal acquaintance. Perhaps they’d known one another when she’d last lived in the UK. “I’m sorry, but we need to do this now to keep our schedule. Surely you understand, sir,” Sophie said, giving the man a tight smile.
The mildly annoyed expression didn’t change as he led them through what appeared to be a typical mansion. There were many closed doors, but there were a number of open ones as well. The passed looked like an office and Nate lagged behind, giving Parker confirmation of rooms and locations.
They entered a kitchen that had industrial hardware in a more homey setting. It was clearly spotless, but Sophie sighed and began making notes and arguing with Nate.
Parker slipped down the hall, carefully listening for the sound of approaching footsteps. Old places like this usually didn’t have proper air ducts, so she kept to the walls. There were a lot of valuable things in the halls; full suits of armor, antique paintings, vases and furniture. Parker idly wondered what sorts of jewelery a woman that old might have collected.
She heard footsteps in the hall and quickly ducked out of sight at the first available door. She ended up in some kind of greenhouse. The door began to open behind her. Cursing silently, Parker darted further into the room, taking cover behind some kind of bushy palm thing. She held her breath. Maybe they’d leave soon.
The footsteps crossed the room to a table on the far side. Parker eyed the door then decided it would be too risky to try to make a break for it. Whoever it was was wearing a large bathrobe. Parker leaned down low to get a better look. They were wearing scaley slippers, but better than the ones she’d seen that made noise when you stomped around. These were far better.
The person was humming to himself as he worked at the table. There were many little trees on the table. Parker frowned. The hands cutting the trees were wearing clawed gloves. Were they wearing some kind of costume? She watched as the man set his clippers down, watered his trees, moved which shelf above the table some were resting on, then turned to leave.
Either he was wearing a costume, or she was looking at a dinosaur. Parker watched as the dinosaur man walked out, closing the door behind him, apparently having missed Parker. Parker stood, but her pants leg was caught on something. Looking down she saw one of the plants seemed to be trying to eat her leg. Parker swatted at it. It let go, cowering away and folding thick leaves over the more mouth-like bit. Creepy. Parker quickly stepped away and back into the main hall.
The office was where they’d figured it out to be and the door was even ajar. Parker slipped inside and began searching for hidden safes because the egg wasn’t in plain sight.
“If I were a safe, where would I be?” she wondered quietly. Maybe integrated in the desk.
Parker crossed the room. There were a lot of strange things on the walls and in glass cases. The pearl set into the skull of something with big teeth was particularly interesting. But she had to focus. Maybe she’d come back sometime.
The desk had a number of files stacked neatly in piles. Parker looked at one. It was some sort of field report from Argentina. There were pictures on the desk of the woman’s daughter. In one, she was seated on some kind of boat in a cold water survival suit. In another she was with her mother. There was also a Christmas picture. Magnus sat in the center, Zimmerman to one side. Their tech guy sat on the other and the woman’s daughter was sitting in the guy’s lap. The tall bald man standing behind them looked a little sad. Parker didn’t recognize him or the smirking man who looked like he wanted to be elsewhere. He stood beside the thief who also looked more amused that the guy beside her was annoyed. In the back center was a very hairy guy who looked like he had some kind of weird disfiguring disease. He made her think of bigfoot.
Parker checked for a drawer safe, but didn’t find anything but office supplies and a few more pictures. She stood up and began to check behind the paintings on the walls. Maybe they did have enough room in the old building to install a real wall safe. Behind the third painting - the one that looked like an original Monet - there was a wall safe. Parker grinned and pulled out her tools so she could crack the safe. It was an old Smithesson 745, combination lock safe; sleek, elegant, timeless. Parker loved cracking these. There was something wonderful and solid about cracking a good, old fashioned safe that just made her day.
“How’s it going Parker,” Nate asked.
“Think I found the safe. Keep them out of the office.”
“Work fast. Elliot?”
“I’m going to have to load, soon,” Elliot’s harsh whisper crackled in Nate’s ear.
“Hardison?”
“I’m doing everything I can, man,” the Hacker assured him. “Parker might have to catch a ride with you and Sophie.”
“Let’s hope not.” Nate said, returning to the other side of the kitchen. He didn’t like the...gentleman Sophie was currently speaking with.
He’d introduced himself as “Mr. Druitt” and was “an acquaintance” of Dr. Magnus’. He made the hairs on the back of Nate’s neck stand on end.
“Now, Mr. Druitt, could you be so kind as to show up the food storage locations,” Nate asked, careful to sound jovial.
Druitt’s eyes slid over to Nate and the man smiled thinly. He executed a bow and indicated they should follow.
“I’ve been kicked out,” Elliot said.
Parker paused, then continued. “Guess I’ll leave with Nate and Sophie then.” She could hear Elliot growl over the line, but there wasn’t anything to be done about it. Besides, they’d thought it might happen like this, that’s partially why Sophie and Nate were there right?
“How much more time do you need Parker?” Nate asked her.
“Not much, now shh, I need to hear.”
Parker listened to the last tumbler fall into place and breathed out. She pulled and the safe door slid open on well oiled hinges. There were a number of documents neatly arranged in folders and even a fireproof lockbox within the safe. It was new and required either a special laser etched key or a fingerprint to open. Parker Itched to open it though; there was equal chance it contained papers or valuable jewels and cash.
“Parker! Hurry it up!” Hardison told her. “I’ve got some movement on the trackers I placed. They’re headed your way.”
The egg was there too, resting on top of several manilla folders. Parker removed the fake Hardison had crafted and swapped the eggs. Parker examined the egg with the jewler’s loop she’d brought. The diamonds were real this time. She licked the egg - twenty-four carat gold. This was real. She smiled and slipped her prize into the satchel she’d been carrying. Parker carefully closed the safe and rest the lock to where it had been. She secured the satchel and looked around, making sure she hadn’t disturbed anything that might give her away. She headed for the door.
“Parker...”
Damn. Parker looked around. Behind the curtains? Under the couch? In the closet? The ceiling had beams she could probably wedge herself into...Parker darted behind the heavy drapes and pressed herself against the wall. The door to the office opened and heavy footsteps entered. from her spot behind the curtain, Parker could see the desk. Damn. If they went over there and looked up...
The heck?
The guy really did look like bigfoot.
Parker tried very carefully not to breathe as the hairy man went into the closet behind the desk and removed a garment bag from the hanger and draped it over an arm. She checked out his feet. They looked normal size, then she was he’d curled his toes in and was walking on his knuckles. The blouse hung on the door was also removed. With a soft grunt, the hairy man picked up a laundry basket and shuffled out, closing the door behind him.
“Guys, I just saw Bigfoot,” Parker hissed.
“What? Parker, that’s a myth.”
“No, really!”
“Girl, get back here.”
“Parker, did you get the package?”
“I- Yes.”
“Good. Try and make your way to our car.”
Sophie smoothed her hair as she continued to make her “inspection” of the main pantry. She wanted to leave five minutes ago. She didn’t like this man. He’d been the very soul of politeness and genteel courtesy, but there was something about him. Something that reminded Sophie of Elliot at his most serious, and other men who were capable of great violence. Elliot usually hid what he could do from them, the darkness only peeking out occasionally. This man was making only a cursory attempt.
Nate had wandered into the pantry, ostensibly to conduct their inspection, but Sophie could hear the byplay on her ear piece.
“Are you quite finished?” Druitt asked, suddenly at her shoulder.
Sophie froze, quelling the sudden urge to run. The politeness and culture couldn’t quite hide the darkness and danger that seemed to cling to the man’s clothing like the scent of smoke. Running only led to chasing, and she was certain she was dealing with some sort of predator. It was best then to wear confidence like armor.
“We’re nearly finished, Mr. Druitt,” Sophie said, making herself turn and face him squarely.
“I hope you’ve found everything to be satisfactory,” Druitt said. It wasn’t a question.
Sophie sniffed and scrawled some messy notes on the bottom of an official looking document. She looked down her nose at Druitt, quite a task since he was much taller, but she managed it. He was scary but she’d seen scary before. Druitt arched a brow and had the gall to look amused.
“There are some items we may wish to follow up on. Would you please tell me where Dr. Magnus has gone and when, exactly, you expect her back.”
Druitt rolled his eyes, but only slightly. ”She is away on business. She did not enlighten me as to exactly where, but she should be back in town by this evening. Possibly even before the close of business day. Shall I give her your number?”
“I’m in the trunk,” Parker whispered over the comms.
“Great. Now you guys get out of there too,” Hardison added.
Sophie eyed him coolly, then handed him one of the business cards Hardison had printed. She lifted her chin and arched her brow back at him. “I understand these sort of inspections are no fun for anyone.” She offered him a wintry smile, “But I am merely doing my job. Your cooperation has been appreciated. Brown!” He winced when she shouted.
“Yeah!,” Nate rolled into the room. He’d been close by. Sophie was glad of that. “Yeah I’m just about done. How about you?”
“I’ve concluded my tasks as well. Now, if you’ll sign this form stating that we’ve been here, we’ll be on our way.” Sophie turned her clipboard and forms towards Druitt.
Druitt took the pen and signed his name. It was a rather elegant signature; fitting she decided. Sophie smiled pleasantly and give him the pink carbon copy of the sheet. He took it with much the same enthusiasm as some receiving a week old fish.
Nate had the man sign his forms as well and then cheerfully tucked the clipboard under his arm. “Well, thank you for letting us get this done, Mr. Druitt. We’ll be in touch with Dr. Magnus.”
Druitt said nothing but led them toward the front door. Nate had hardly crossed the threshold when the door was shut behind him. Nate arched his brow at Sophie as he opened her car door for her. She got in and Nate went around to the other side and started the car up.
“You okay there Parker?”
“I’ll live,” Parker replied. She was clear over the comm, but Sophie could hear her muffled voice in the trunk. They passed through the gates and Nate gave her the all clear. Parker kicked open the back seat and slithered out of the trunk.
“I saw bigfoot.”
Sophie and Nate exchanged looks.
Boston
“I really did.”
“Parker,” Elliot turned around and gave her one of his I-am-Annoyed-but-I-wont-hit-people-yet glares. “You’ve been saying that since we got on the plane.”
“There was a dinosaur, too.”
Elliot made a disgusted noise and hefted the dufflebag he’d been carrying. “Look I’m going to grab a shower and crash. Let me know when we’re going after the last target, okay?”
“Sure Elliot,” Nate said.
Parker pursed her lips then took the case from Sophie. the other woman followed her up to the safe they’d been storing the other Egg in. Hardison and she had made it especially hard to crack and it held a lot of important documents and stuff like the Egg they lifted for clients. Sometimes they took turns trying to crack it for the practice. It was fun.
“Parker,” Sophie called softly. “It’s not that we don’t believe you saw something...”
Parker stopped and turned to give Sophie a look. She knew they didn’t believe her, but she also knew what she’d seen. Sophie followed her down the hall, offering the same explanations they’d offered the entire flight back to Boston. Parker tuned her out. Parker moved the painting of Old Nate and Sophie helpfully held it up out of the way. Parker put in the current code then twisted the tumbler to the combination Hardison had told her would work. Finally she pressed her thumb to the keypad. The mechanism beeped and the safe door unlocked.
The egg was missing.
“Hey!”
“What? Oh, bugger. Nate!” Sophie ran off to grab the rest of the group.
Parker glared at the empty space and felt her fingers tighten on the bag she held. She looked over her shoulder at the group. “Call Elliot back.” She pushed the safe door open all the way so they could see. “We’ve been robbed.”
Onward to Part III
Rating: Pg-13
Genre: Action/Adventure, Fluff, Crossover, AU
Crossover! Sanctuary and Leverage
Summary: The Leverage Team takes on a most unusual job.
Notes: Written for kaitlia777 for Sanctuary_santa. She requested "Henry/Ashley! Shippy is best, friendship is good too. Will/Kate. Outsider POV's and Crossovers"
Part II. Further parts are incoming! I hop you enjoy this! This is still SO much fun to write! The plot thickens! Please bear with me, I'm kinda trying to mimic the Leverage episode vibe a bit >;) Here's some ship!
Previously on the Sanctuary Job...
“Well,” Nate said, looking at the screens. “It looks like we’re taking a trip. Pack your bags, people. We’re headed west.”
Old City - Old City Sanctuary
“I’m never gonna get used to that,” Kate complained, doubled over, hands on her knees. She looked green enough, Ashley reached out and took the case she’d been carrying. “It’s official. I’m not cut out for this Beam Me Up Scotty, thing.”
“You okay?” Ashley asked.
Kate stood up a bit cautiously. “Yeah,” she said after a moment. “Yeah. I’ll be fine.” She began walking towards the Sanctuary gates. “Guess it beats jetlag.” Kate gave Ashley a speculative look, “You okay hauling our asses around the country all the time?”
Ashley nodded and put in her key code. The gates began to slide open. “Yeah. It really seems weight is more of an issue than distance.”
“So you me and an authentic Chicago deep dish pizza would be doable?”
Ashley arched an eyebrow. “I thought you weren’t meant to teleport?”
“For real deep dish and not the crap you people serve here? I can teleport.”
Ashley laughed and hauled open the service door by the garage. It was late and she wanted to go to bed. “Maybe tomorrow? I’m beat. I just want to climb into my nice warm bed and sleep.”
Kate smirked, eyes dancing. “Boys are good for keeping the bed warm, aren’t they? Not so much for sleeping.”
Ashley rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t quite stop the matching smirk. “It’s a perk.” She held up the cage. “I’m gonna put this critter in lock down.”
“I’ll check the stunner if you want,” Kate offered, holding out a hand.
Ashley unbuckled the drop holster and handed her weapon over. “Thanks. Have a good night.”
Kate grinned with a hint of a leer. “Oh I will.”
Ashley laughed, “Don’t keep him up too late. I think Mom has him scheduled for early feeding rounds.” She called back over her shoulder then headed for lockdown. She put the critter into the prepared SHU unit. It skittered away into the rear small enclosure then glared balefully at her from under a mossy log. Ashley locked it down, put the cage away, then trudged up the stairs. It had been a late night. They’d had to wait a hell of a long time for their quarry to fall into position, but they’d managed to capture the hydra without incident. The entire day had been a lot of running and waiting and hurrying up to wait and she was done. At least they’d caught it before it had begun to spilt.
Yawning, Ashley entered her room and began stripping. It took her a full thirty seconds to realize she had an audience. She paused half a second mid-zip, then continued to work the zipper on her jacket, slowly. She let the jacket fall off her arms and tossed it on her recliner. She pulled the t-shirt off over her head and dropped that into the clothes hamper. She looked over her shoulder.
Henry’s iPad had been forgotten and lay haphazardly on his crossed legs. “Uh...Hi.” He blinked then ran a hand through his hair. “I didn’t think you’d mind if I came here?” Henry cleared his throat and shifted toward the edge of the bed as she sauntered toward him. “I mean I can kinda see if you would, it’s your room and not mine. You’re always welcome in mine you know. Not that I’m saying...any...Hi.” He stopped only after she’d entered into his personal space, standing between his knees.
She put a hand on either shoulder then straddled his lap. “Hi.”
Henry smiled slightly, wrapping his arms around her waist, computer stowed on the nightstand. He leaned forward and kissed her, a soft press of his lips against hers, his hands holding her more securely. They kissed again, this time longer, deeper, taking their time. Ashley pressed herself closer against him, hands running up the side of his face and into the short hair. He was warm under her fingers, solid. The light scruff of his beard an interesting contrast to the softness of his lips. She broke the kiss for air then nuzzled along his jaw before resting her head on his shoulder with a content sigh. Henry kissed his way down to the junction of her neck and shoulder. He breathed her scent in and hugged her close with a matching sigh.
“Welcome home.”
Ashley hummed in pleasure at hearing that, squeezing his shoulders. “You can come here anytime,” she told him then kissed his cheek. “I like coming home, but I like coming home to you more.” She kissed him again, letting her lips move against his, but exhaustion was creeping in, quelling the passion. The languid kiss ended and Ashley abruptly let out a jaw-cracking yawn.
Henry chuckled, fingers drawing through her hair. “Long day?”
She nodded. “You’ll stay with me tonight?”
Henry brushed her hair back and smiled broadly. “‘Course I will.” He kissed her nose. “Protip: a guy is always going to agree when a pretty girl he likes asks him to spend the night.” He wagged his eyebrows a little.
Ashley laughed and kissed him. “I’ll keep that in mind.” She climbed out of his lap “Working on anything interesting?” she asked as she took off her pants.
“Uhh- yeah I was doing, uhm. That thing you mom wanted me to do.”
Ashley looked back and winked, wiggling her ass a bit more than was strictly necessary as she peeled off the pants. She tossed those into the hamper too then grabbed her sleepwear off the end of the bed.
“So that mission we have coming up. I’ve been working on some hypothetical counter measures for what we might come up against.”
Ashley ditched the bra and panties and put on a shirt to sleep in and some shorts. “You think we’ll have trouble?” she asked, brushing out her hair.
“Don’t think so. There might be something unexpected, but-” he trailed off shrugging.
Ashley climbed into bed and held up the covers, inviting him to join her. Henry did, reaching back to turn off the light. Ashley curled up against his side, snuggling close. Henry’s arms went around her shoulders and he went on for a bit about technical things she didn’t really get, but which he liked.
“...And you’re not listening to me, are you?”
“Kinda,” she admitted, shifting so her was resting on his chest. She could hear the steady beat of his heart under the sound of his voice. “I was up at five to feed the harpies and then I went for a run and I had some stuff to do with Biggie before Kate and I had to go track the hydra.”
Henry shifted a bit, pulling the covers up past her shoulders so they were cocooned together in a small warm space. He wound his fingers around a lock of her hair. “Glad you’re back, Ash.” he kissed her. “I-” he paused, kissing her again to fill the silence. “I like this. Us.” His lips quirked into a smile. “I got lucky.”
She kissed him. “We both did.” She hugged him and rubbed her cheek against his chest. She felt Henry drop a kiss on her head and sighed, warm and content. “Night, Henry. Love you.”
“Night, Ash. Love you too.”
Ashley closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.
Old City - Westin Extended Stay
“It’s a black hole, Nate. A complete black hole,” Hardison insisted.
Nate looked up from his room service breakfast. He chewed his eggs thoughtfully for a moment. Hardison’s eyes were red from lack of sleep and had a slightly crazed look about them. His hands jittered ever so slightly, likely from all the overly sugary orange soda he’d probably been drinking. It wasn’t quite as bad as when he’d constructed the fake diary in London, but it was close. Nate kicked the extra chair out from the table and nodded at it.
“Sit down, have some eggs and tell me about it.” Nate pushed his mostly full plate over.
The hacker half collapsed into the chair, grabbed a fork and dug in. After he’d cleared the plate, he downed half of the glass of orange juice and sat back.
“So what makes it a black hole?” Nate prompted. Hardison looked a little bit more solid now. He’d been working on cracking the Sanctuary Security since touchdown the day before.
“I’ve never seen a security system like theirs.”
“Military grade?”
“Dude, the military wishes they had this security. Hell, man, I wish I had it.’ He began ticking points off on his fingers. “I tried sending some feelers out into their systems? Blocked cold. Foss has whatever internal network these “Sanctuaries” use locked down tighter than the Feds and the CIA. I’ve been trying to sniff their packets and I can’t get much data out of them. There is a lot of operational stuff, here man. Like, enough paperwork to move an army.”
“What do you think it means?”
“They’re big and they don’t want anyone prying into them. Look man, I found some stuff that looked like weapons orders.”
“They gearing up for something? Are we looking at some sort of...cell?”
Hardison rubbed the back of his neck. “I dunno man. Their thief and their hitter have been out making contact with some arms dealers in the area, and there were some shipments that are probably weapons, but I don’t think we’re looking at Al-Qaeda or something. They don’t tend to have,” he made a vague, frustrated gesture, “Deliveries of frozen, zoo-grade horse meat and feed. They’re operating business as usual - none of this is out of the ordinary.”
“What about the inside? Any idea where they might be holding the egg?”
“Nah man. I can’t get inside, that’s what I was sayin’. I found a bunch of construction permits in the public archives. I have the original plans for the building but they’ve done a lot of construction since the forties. If we send Parker in there...”
“She’d be on her own.” Nate sat back. There were, well, now that he thought about it, Nate couldn’t recall any case of Hardison being unable to hack into a system. “What if you were on the inside? Like with the Stereko.”
“That’d be the only way I can see to do it, but Nate, that’s an awful big risk.” He pulled out his phone and began to pull up screens with data. “ I don’t feel real good about Parker going in there without some kind of information about where they’re keeping the tigers, man.”
“They can’t be completely off the grid, a big place like that? What about taxes or inspections? Any way we can get in there?”
Hardison nodded, catching on to the idea. “Local government should have something. Maybe they’re due for some kind of inspection or maybe they want to check out they’re following the zoning laws or something. That gets us in the door, but what happens once we’re on the inside?”
“What if,” Nate mused, “we made one of them our man on the inside?”
Hardison thought about that, rubbing his jaw as he thought. Then he began to grin. He shook a finger at Nate as he stood. “I could get my own feed in there. Maybe some audio? I’d be able to stick a GPS on them at the least and we could see where people can go in that place. That might work, and I have just the toy for that!” Hardison got up and headed back toward the room he’d claimed.
Elliot passed Hardison as he walked into the main room of the suit. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “What’s up with him?”
“We think we have a way to get more information about the building.”
“And what way is that?” Sophie asked, entering the room, Parker a few steps behind, carrying a bowl of cereal.”
“We’re going make them work for us.”
Old City - Retail Hell
Will slouched in his seat and checked his phone, again. He was in some kind of anti-cell-phone vortex. Not even Henry’s tech could cut through. A door opened down in the hall of women’s dressing rooms and Will sat up, hoping it was Kate. The guy sitting on the bench beside him sat up too; some guy with long-ish hair pulled into a tail and glass. The guy already had half a dozen shopping bags at his feet. He looked even less pleased here than Will did.
The curtain parted. It wasn’t Kate, but the petite blonde that had come with the other guy. He gave Will a sympathetic look and left with his girlfriend. Will let his head fall back against the wall with a solid thunk.
“Hey, Kate?”
“Hey, yeah?” Kate’s voice floated out from the dressing rooms.
“I thought you said this would take five minutes.” He was yelling, and it was probably rude, but he didn’t care. He’d been up way too late and then again way too early. This was the third store he’d been to and he’d just about reached his limit.
“I saw something else I wanted to try on,” Kate called back from somewhere in the dressing rooms.
Will let his head thunk against the wall a few more times. “Tell me why I’m here again?”
“Well, if you had been a little bit faster last week, my jeans wouldn't have gotten chewed on while I was saving your ass. Therefore you needed to come with me to buy new ones....and buy me lunch.” Kate parted the curtain in front of the dressing rooms and stood in front of the triple-mirror thing. She turned around, catching the jeans from all angles.
Will watched. There was some nice embroidery on the rear pocket. They looked really great on her. “Those look nice.”
Kate grinned over her shoulder then headed back into the dressing rooms. Will let his head thunk back against the wall.
“Hey!,” Kate called, “at least I didn’t make you carry my purse.” She returned a few minutes later, jeans draped over either arm. She dropped one armload off on a table then headed for the register. Will got to his feet and followed, pulling out his wallet.
Long-haired guy and his girlfriend were at the front by the register. Will exchanged nods of acknowledgement then it was Will’s turn to smile in sympathy as the blonde pawed through the sales racks, clearly not leaving any time soon.
“Let’s go,” Kate said.
“I need to- Where is my credit card?” Will looked at his empty hands then at Kate,
Kate smiled evilly and took the bag from the clerk, and Will’s credit card. She headed for the exit. Will put his wallet back in his pocket and followed after.
Old City - Old City Sanctuary
The gothic mansion certainly looked imposing up close, Sophie thought. The mist off the river would burn away soon, but at the moment it gave the “Sanctuary” a somewhat foreboding and mysterious air. She smoothed out her skirt and mentally went over the fake background Hardison had put together for them. The Sanctuary wasn’t due for a health inspection for a month or so, but Hardison had looked into the local government’s files and found enough information he was sure he could get them in during the morning rush that way. With the bug they’d placed on Zimmerman, they hadn’t received all the information they’d they’d hoped to have since there had been a lot of interference, but they had gained a confirmed layout of the mansion and some promising locations for where the egg was being held.
They’d also gotten more information about the man’s love life than they’d wanted to hear. Hardison had cut the feed after that.
“Okay,” Hardison said over their earpieces. “Once you’re past their perimeter, everyone turn on their phones. I added some hardware that is going to boost your signal so we can all hear one another.” Sophie could hear Hardison typing rapidly at his keyboard. “Now, they have something going on in there that made my signal completely cut out every so often. If you can stay close to one another, I think the signal will get through even if they pull another one of those blackouts.”
“And once we’re in,” Nate continued, “Parker you’re going to have to work fast.”
“On it,” Parker said, voice coming in through the headset.
“I’m betting it’s going to be in this woman’s office, so start there. Hopefully we’ll be in and out and on our way,” Nate added.
“They let me in,” Elliot said. Ahead of them, Nate saw the delivery truck that Elliot had been driving pull in to the gate.
“Excellent. Hardison keep an eye out. You ready?” he asked Sophie.
Sophie arched a wry brow. “Always. Shall we?”
Nate grinned and drove the car through the gate behind Elliot’s truck. The truck continued around the back, but Nate drove the car up toward the front door. He parked and the climbed out. The front door was an imposing piece of heavy oak with a worn knocker, green with verdigris. Seeing there wasn’t a door bell, Nate knocked a few times.
Nate rocked on the balls and heels of his feet, hands in his pockets. He looked professional in slacks and an official jacket Parker had swiped the night before, but very relaxed and open. Sophie had pulled her hair into a rather severe bun, wore dark glasses and held several papers, the strict inspector to the easygoing one Nate was playing.
The door finally opened after about a minute or so. The man on the other side was tall and bald, with an old scar on one cheek. He wore a fine shirt and well tailored pants. He regarded them with suspicious, hooded eyes. The man was a striking, imposing figure and wasn’t anyone they’d been briefed on.
“Yes?” He had an accent of some sort.
“Sorry to bother you so late, but we’re Health inspectors for the city. We’re here to conduct a survey?” Nate smiled and held up the badge Hardison had made for him.
The man spared half a second for the badge, staring at Nate instead. “I wasn’t aware of any inspection,” he told them.
English accent, Sophie decided, but muddied with something else. Maybe he’d emigrated when he’d been younger and it had faded.
“Well, we’ve have an appointment with Dr. Magnus for some time,” Sophie spoke up, adjusting her glasses. She pulled out her Blackberry and opened the files Hardison had taken from the city. Opening those files allowed her to activate the boosting technology Hardison had hidden in the blackberry,
The man turned his attention to her then went back to Nate. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m afraid the lady of the house is not in at the moment. You’ll have to come back another time.” He began to close the door.
Sophie reached out and held it open. “I’m afraid that isn’t possible. I’m sorry but we must conduct our inspection here and now. The department is overworked as it is.“ Sophie gave the man a tight smile. “Surprise health inspections aren’t much of a surprise if you know they’re coming.”
“What do you need to inspect?” the man asked, voice icy.
“Your kitchens and any food preparation and storage facilities, on the premises.” Sophie pulled up the document they’d pulled from the city. There was a list of locations they needed to inspect and some official notices Hardison had created to help them get in the front door.
The bald man glared at them. “One moment.” He closed the door in their faces.
“Yo, you okay?” Hardison asked.
“Maybe,” Nate said. “We’ll know in a minute or two. Parker set?”
“Not yet. I just unloaded her, but they’ve got this hairy guy helping. It’s going faster than we planned. Anything you can do Hardison?”
“I’m going to make your software glitch Elliot. That should help you stall for time.”
“I’m in,” Parker whispered. “Heading upstairs.”
The door opened again and the angry man pushed it far enough they could enter. “Come with me.”
Nate whistled, long and low. “My, what a beautiful house,” Nate enthused, looking around the entrance hall. Sophie actually did think it had a sort of dark elegance, but she carefully kept that from showing on her face; it wouldn’t fit the character.
“Now, we’ve reviewed your files and there have been some inconsistencies,” Sophie said, their opening salvo to keep the conversation going until Parker could locate and obtain their target.
“I could hardly care less,” the man said, cutting her off. “If you could wait a few hours, Helen- Dr. Magnus, will return.”
First name basis. He was a personal acquaintance. Perhaps they’d known one another when she’d last lived in the UK. “I’m sorry, but we need to do this now to keep our schedule. Surely you understand, sir,” Sophie said, giving the man a tight smile.
The mildly annoyed expression didn’t change as he led them through what appeared to be a typical mansion. There were many closed doors, but there were a number of open ones as well. The passed looked like an office and Nate lagged behind, giving Parker confirmation of rooms and locations.
They entered a kitchen that had industrial hardware in a more homey setting. It was clearly spotless, but Sophie sighed and began making notes and arguing with Nate.
Parker slipped down the hall, carefully listening for the sound of approaching footsteps. Old places like this usually didn’t have proper air ducts, so she kept to the walls. There were a lot of valuable things in the halls; full suits of armor, antique paintings, vases and furniture. Parker idly wondered what sorts of jewelery a woman that old might have collected.
She heard footsteps in the hall and quickly ducked out of sight at the first available door. She ended up in some kind of greenhouse. The door began to open behind her. Cursing silently, Parker darted further into the room, taking cover behind some kind of bushy palm thing. She held her breath. Maybe they’d leave soon.
The footsteps crossed the room to a table on the far side. Parker eyed the door then decided it would be too risky to try to make a break for it. Whoever it was was wearing a large bathrobe. Parker leaned down low to get a better look. They were wearing scaley slippers, but better than the ones she’d seen that made noise when you stomped around. These were far better.
The person was humming to himself as he worked at the table. There were many little trees on the table. Parker frowned. The hands cutting the trees were wearing clawed gloves. Were they wearing some kind of costume? She watched as the man set his clippers down, watered his trees, moved which shelf above the table some were resting on, then turned to leave.
Either he was wearing a costume, or she was looking at a dinosaur. Parker watched as the dinosaur man walked out, closing the door behind him, apparently having missed Parker. Parker stood, but her pants leg was caught on something. Looking down she saw one of the plants seemed to be trying to eat her leg. Parker swatted at it. It let go, cowering away and folding thick leaves over the more mouth-like bit. Creepy. Parker quickly stepped away and back into the main hall.
The office was where they’d figured it out to be and the door was even ajar. Parker slipped inside and began searching for hidden safes because the egg wasn’t in plain sight.
“If I were a safe, where would I be?” she wondered quietly. Maybe integrated in the desk.
Parker crossed the room. There were a lot of strange things on the walls and in glass cases. The pearl set into the skull of something with big teeth was particularly interesting. But she had to focus. Maybe she’d come back sometime.
The desk had a number of files stacked neatly in piles. Parker looked at one. It was some sort of field report from Argentina. There were pictures on the desk of the woman’s daughter. In one, she was seated on some kind of boat in a cold water survival suit. In another she was with her mother. There was also a Christmas picture. Magnus sat in the center, Zimmerman to one side. Their tech guy sat on the other and the woman’s daughter was sitting in the guy’s lap. The tall bald man standing behind them looked a little sad. Parker didn’t recognize him or the smirking man who looked like he wanted to be elsewhere. He stood beside the thief who also looked more amused that the guy beside her was annoyed. In the back center was a very hairy guy who looked like he had some kind of weird disfiguring disease. He made her think of bigfoot.
Parker checked for a drawer safe, but didn’t find anything but office supplies and a few more pictures. She stood up and began to check behind the paintings on the walls. Maybe they did have enough room in the old building to install a real wall safe. Behind the third painting - the one that looked like an original Monet - there was a wall safe. Parker grinned and pulled out her tools so she could crack the safe. It was an old Smithesson 745, combination lock safe; sleek, elegant, timeless. Parker loved cracking these. There was something wonderful and solid about cracking a good, old fashioned safe that just made her day.
“How’s it going Parker,” Nate asked.
“Think I found the safe. Keep them out of the office.”
“Work fast. Elliot?”
“I’m going to have to load, soon,” Elliot’s harsh whisper crackled in Nate’s ear.
“Hardison?”
“I’m doing everything I can, man,” the Hacker assured him. “Parker might have to catch a ride with you and Sophie.”
“Let’s hope not.” Nate said, returning to the other side of the kitchen. He didn’t like the...gentleman Sophie was currently speaking with.
He’d introduced himself as “Mr. Druitt” and was “an acquaintance” of Dr. Magnus’. He made the hairs on the back of Nate’s neck stand on end.
“Now, Mr. Druitt, could you be so kind as to show up the food storage locations,” Nate asked, careful to sound jovial.
Druitt’s eyes slid over to Nate and the man smiled thinly. He executed a bow and indicated they should follow.
“I’ve been kicked out,” Elliot said.
Parker paused, then continued. “Guess I’ll leave with Nate and Sophie then.” She could hear Elliot growl over the line, but there wasn’t anything to be done about it. Besides, they’d thought it might happen like this, that’s partially why Sophie and Nate were there right?
“How much more time do you need Parker?” Nate asked her.
“Not much, now shh, I need to hear.”
Parker listened to the last tumbler fall into place and breathed out. She pulled and the safe door slid open on well oiled hinges. There were a number of documents neatly arranged in folders and even a fireproof lockbox within the safe. It was new and required either a special laser etched key or a fingerprint to open. Parker Itched to open it though; there was equal chance it contained papers or valuable jewels and cash.
“Parker! Hurry it up!” Hardison told her. “I’ve got some movement on the trackers I placed. They’re headed your way.”
The egg was there too, resting on top of several manilla folders. Parker removed the fake Hardison had crafted and swapped the eggs. Parker examined the egg with the jewler’s loop she’d brought. The diamonds were real this time. She licked the egg - twenty-four carat gold. This was real. She smiled and slipped her prize into the satchel she’d been carrying. Parker carefully closed the safe and rest the lock to where it had been. She secured the satchel and looked around, making sure she hadn’t disturbed anything that might give her away. She headed for the door.
“Parker...”
Damn. Parker looked around. Behind the curtains? Under the couch? In the closet? The ceiling had beams she could probably wedge herself into...Parker darted behind the heavy drapes and pressed herself against the wall. The door to the office opened and heavy footsteps entered. from her spot behind the curtain, Parker could see the desk. Damn. If they went over there and looked up...
The heck?
The guy really did look like bigfoot.
Parker tried very carefully not to breathe as the hairy man went into the closet behind the desk and removed a garment bag from the hanger and draped it over an arm. She checked out his feet. They looked normal size, then she was he’d curled his toes in and was walking on his knuckles. The blouse hung on the door was also removed. With a soft grunt, the hairy man picked up a laundry basket and shuffled out, closing the door behind him.
“Guys, I just saw Bigfoot,” Parker hissed.
“What? Parker, that’s a myth.”
“No, really!”
“Girl, get back here.”
“Parker, did you get the package?”
“I- Yes.”
“Good. Try and make your way to our car.”
Sophie smoothed her hair as she continued to make her “inspection” of the main pantry. She wanted to leave five minutes ago. She didn’t like this man. He’d been the very soul of politeness and genteel courtesy, but there was something about him. Something that reminded Sophie of Elliot at his most serious, and other men who were capable of great violence. Elliot usually hid what he could do from them, the darkness only peeking out occasionally. This man was making only a cursory attempt.
Nate had wandered into the pantry, ostensibly to conduct their inspection, but Sophie could hear the byplay on her ear piece.
“Are you quite finished?” Druitt asked, suddenly at her shoulder.
Sophie froze, quelling the sudden urge to run. The politeness and culture couldn’t quite hide the darkness and danger that seemed to cling to the man’s clothing like the scent of smoke. Running only led to chasing, and she was certain she was dealing with some sort of predator. It was best then to wear confidence like armor.
“We’re nearly finished, Mr. Druitt,” Sophie said, making herself turn and face him squarely.
“I hope you’ve found everything to be satisfactory,” Druitt said. It wasn’t a question.
Sophie sniffed and scrawled some messy notes on the bottom of an official looking document. She looked down her nose at Druitt, quite a task since he was much taller, but she managed it. He was scary but she’d seen scary before. Druitt arched a brow and had the gall to look amused.
“There are some items we may wish to follow up on. Would you please tell me where Dr. Magnus has gone and when, exactly, you expect her back.”
Druitt rolled his eyes, but only slightly. ”She is away on business. She did not enlighten me as to exactly where, but she should be back in town by this evening. Possibly even before the close of business day. Shall I give her your number?”
“I’m in the trunk,” Parker whispered over the comms.
“Great. Now you guys get out of there too,” Hardison added.
Sophie eyed him coolly, then handed him one of the business cards Hardison had printed. She lifted her chin and arched her brow back at him. “I understand these sort of inspections are no fun for anyone.” She offered him a wintry smile, “But I am merely doing my job. Your cooperation has been appreciated. Brown!” He winced when she shouted.
“Yeah!,” Nate rolled into the room. He’d been close by. Sophie was glad of that. “Yeah I’m just about done. How about you?”
“I’ve concluded my tasks as well. Now, if you’ll sign this form stating that we’ve been here, we’ll be on our way.” Sophie turned her clipboard and forms towards Druitt.
Druitt took the pen and signed his name. It was a rather elegant signature; fitting she decided. Sophie smiled pleasantly and give him the pink carbon copy of the sheet. He took it with much the same enthusiasm as some receiving a week old fish.
Nate had the man sign his forms as well and then cheerfully tucked the clipboard under his arm. “Well, thank you for letting us get this done, Mr. Druitt. We’ll be in touch with Dr. Magnus.”
Druitt said nothing but led them toward the front door. Nate had hardly crossed the threshold when the door was shut behind him. Nate arched his brow at Sophie as he opened her car door for her. She got in and Nate went around to the other side and started the car up.
“You okay there Parker?”
“I’ll live,” Parker replied. She was clear over the comm, but Sophie could hear her muffled voice in the trunk. They passed through the gates and Nate gave her the all clear. Parker kicked open the back seat and slithered out of the trunk.
“I saw bigfoot.”
Sophie and Nate exchanged looks.
Boston
“I really did.”
“Parker,” Elliot turned around and gave her one of his I-am-Annoyed-but-I-wont-hit-people-yet glares. “You’ve been saying that since we got on the plane.”
“There was a dinosaur, too.”
Elliot made a disgusted noise and hefted the dufflebag he’d been carrying. “Look I’m going to grab a shower and crash. Let me know when we’re going after the last target, okay?”
“Sure Elliot,” Nate said.
Parker pursed her lips then took the case from Sophie. the other woman followed her up to the safe they’d been storing the other Egg in. Hardison and she had made it especially hard to crack and it held a lot of important documents and stuff like the Egg they lifted for clients. Sometimes they took turns trying to crack it for the practice. It was fun.
“Parker,” Sophie called softly. “It’s not that we don’t believe you saw something...”
Parker stopped and turned to give Sophie a look. She knew they didn’t believe her, but she also knew what she’d seen. Sophie followed her down the hall, offering the same explanations they’d offered the entire flight back to Boston. Parker tuned her out. Parker moved the painting of Old Nate and Sophie helpfully held it up out of the way. Parker put in the current code then twisted the tumbler to the combination Hardison had told her would work. Finally she pressed her thumb to the keypad. The mechanism beeped and the safe door unlocked.
The egg was missing.
“Hey!”
“What? Oh, bugger. Nate!” Sophie ran off to grab the rest of the group.
Parker glared at the empty space and felt her fingers tighten on the bag she held. She looked over her shoulder at the group. “Call Elliot back.” She pushed the safe door open all the way so they could see. “We’ve been robbed.”
Onward to Part III