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theladycarpathia · 1 year

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HELLCHEER AU WEEK BINGO - CRIMINALS a.k.a. the leverage au

This is by far the weirdest crew that Chrissy has ever encountered.

It was supposed to be an easy job. Break into the office building and steal a bunch of papers. It shouldn’t even require much of a crew…and yet somehow their client managed to hire five of the strangest people that she’s ever seen.

And as the world’s best thief, she’s seen a few.

Their mastermind is straight up scary. She has dark hair pulled up into a tight ponytail and it’s hard to miss the bulge of a gun at the back of that expensive leather jacket. Chrissy’s heard of Nancy Wheeler, the terrifying con-artist who organized the Chicago heist, the Pumpernickel job, and who once pulled a Lady Godiva on a British Lord.

The hitter is no better. He might have incredible blue eyes and dirty blonde hair curling around his ears but Chrissy knows him as probably the most lethal hitter available for hire. There’s all sorts of rumors about Billy Hargrove – he worked for the CIA, he was in the army, he was an assassin… The stories keep changing but one thing remains true – you don’t want to take on Billy in a fight.

The other two she doesn’t recognise. There’s a girl in suspenders with a smattering of freckles and wavy shoulder length hair anxiously biting on her fingernails. The guy next to her looks like a cross between a model for the Gap and someone you might see at the local country club. He’s chewing gum with his mouth open and tilting his chair back and forth. Looking at them, Chrissy would probably have to guess hacker and grifter.

She might be wrong. But hackers usually aren’t known for their skills around people and the guy is doing that grifter thing of being so obnoxious that everyone around them doesn’t look close enough until all of their resalable belongings are gone.

“Chrissy?” Someone says suddenly and she jerks her head up, flushing furiously. She’d lost focus during a debriefing.

“Yes?” she squeaks and Nancy fixes her with that intense expression.

“You’re fine with the ropes, right?” she says, jabbing a finger at the blueprints. “There’s at least eleven cameras from the stairs or elevator to the target but only two from the window. And two we can deal with.”

“Less chance of someone realizing we’re messing with their cameras,” the girl pipes up and Chrissy was on the money. Hacker.

“That’s fine,” Chrissy says, because if there’s anything she can do, it’s rappel down a fourteen story building. “How am I getting up there?”

“Service elevator,” Nancy says. “Which isn’t working but the shaft is fine. I presume that’s also not a problem?” she asks, with a raised eyebrow and Chrissy shakes her head. She gets the feeling that she shouldn’t drift off again. She’s had teachers look less disappointed in her.

“So Chrissy is doing the hard part,” Billy says, sounding almost bored. He’s barely contained in the tight black Henley that he’s wearing, a thin leather wristband just peeking out from under his sleeve. “What are the rest of us doing?” Nancy’s jaw tightens almost imperceptibly. Chrissy gets the feeling she’s not wild about the muscle of their team.

“Robin and I will be working from the van,” Nancy says and Robin waves her fingers awkwardly. “I need to keep an eye on the situation and Robin will be taking care of security: the cameras, alarms, all of that. But without being directly on site it does limit her range of what she can do. And unfortunately, we need to limit who we have on site. This is no regular office building. There’s high security given the kind of companies who work out of there.”

“What exactly are we after? Robin asks eagerly, because this is the question they’ve all been wanting to ask. They were individually recruited and promised a ton of cash. They just have to work together and not get caught…something that Chrissy is beginning to think might be harder than she thought.

Details are unnecessary at this stage, her new employer had said, his mouth stiff. The mastermind would be informed of the need to know details.

Clearly, they were all told the same thing and Robin was just the first one to run out of patience.

“Documents,” Nancy says briefly, in a way that suggests she’s not looking for any further questions. “I have the location, and the file name. And for now, that’s all you need to know.”

There’s a clatter at the door and it swings open to admit someone new. There’s a brief moment of tension, every person wondering if they’ve been made this early into the heist. But then Nancy’s face clears and her mouth twists with annoyance.

“Munson!” she snaps, her ponytail swinging back and forth as she turns to face the newcomer. “You’re late for the briefing.”

The new guy shrugs and strolls over, snagging a spare chair from another table. He drops down into it and settles back, allowing Chrissy to look over the thick silver rings on his fingers, the patches on his denim waistcoat, the glimpse of black ink under his t-shirt.

“There was traffic,” he says easily and brushes a dark strand of hair out of his eyes. “Besides, I’m not even a part of this first bit. Continue.” He waves his hand, signaling for her to go on and Nancy bristles. But the guy in the blue sweater is staring at Munson with recognition in his eyes.

“I know you,” he says slowly. Eddie grins, and the dimple in his cheek makes Chrissy’s stomach dip. “You’re Eddie Munson. What do we need a forger for, Nance?”

“That’s need to know, Steve,” Nancy sighs, tapping her fingers impatiently against the blueprints. They’re getting off track and they only have twenty four hours to prepare for the heist. “You and Billy have to go in, because we need eyes on the inside. You’re going to be posing as engineers. There will be a problem with the fire alarm and it’ll get you to the right floor to do what Robin needs you to. Because of the security…”

Chrissy focuses on the black lines of the blueprints, pretending that she doesn’t notice Eddie’s eyes on her.

It’s been a while since she worked with a forger. The last one was probably that reclusive art forger, the one with all the vodka and the bathrobe that kept coming undone.

Eddie Munson looks nothing like that. There’s a flash of bare skin as he tilts his chair back and his t-shirt hitches up. His jeans have rips at the knees. There’s a smear of sharpie scrawled across his trainers. He drums bitten fingernails against the table top and there’s dark circles like bruises under his eyes. And Chrissy has to force herself to stop staring at every inch of bare skin, his dark eyelashes, the bones in his angular wrists.

This is going to cause a problem. Do you know what distraction leads to fourteen stories up? Dead thieves, that’s what.

“I don’t think this even required a grifter,” Steve is complaining, waving his hands emphatically in the air. Nancy has that exasperated look on her face and Chrissy gets the impression that they’ve worked together before. Judging by the ‘Nance’ probably multiple times. “I mean, play some dude in a jumpsuit and con my way to the server room? A monkey could do that.”

“Would a monkey be quieter about it?” Nancy gripes. She probably wasn’t expecting a crew this…unconventional. She can’t be blamed for that - they all seem to be the best in their fields, but they’re also used to working alone. None of them work jobs like this, with so many individual, moving, complex parts, for a very good reason. Chrissy herself hasn’t used a partner since that job in Atlanta.

“Look,” Nancy says, finally, placing both her hands on the table and leaning forward. The seriousness of her tone is enough to make everyone stop. No wonder she was hired as the mastermind, the key piece.

“This isn’t the only part of the job,” Nancy says bluntly. “The office job. That’s why there’s so many of us for what should be a fairly easy lift from some office filing cabinet. Chrissy could probably get in and out by herself, with extra time and planning.” Chrissy half shrugs. It’s probably true. What, a freaking filing cabinet? Chrissy once lifted the crown from some prince while he was still wearing it. A filing cabinet is nothing.

“Let me guess,” Billy sighs. “A need to know basis?” There’s a brief moment where Billy and Nancy stare it out, two sets of sharp blue eyes.

“That’s right,” Nancy insists, that same old party line. “Look, this was all under orders from our employer, okay? He wants the details limited so that if it goes wrong or someone decides to throw everyone else under the bus for a better payday, there’s a better chance of it not happening until too late.”

Steve runs a hand through his hair and Chrissy watches the sleek brown waves fall perfectly back into place.

“Seriously, Nance?” he says, looking irritated. “We’re going to have to be a team on this and you’re not treating us like one. I’ve worked with you before and I can vouch for Robin and Billy…”

“You two having dysfunctional and nasty sex doesn’t really count,” Nancy interrupts, folding her arms across her chest. Steve continues, unbothered, but Billy turns his head away and oh, maybe Chrissy’s not the only one working with distractions.

“I don’t think anyone is going to sell out the team,” Steve finishes, and this time when he tilts his chair back, Chrissy doesn’t miss the way Billy’s eyes are drawn to the lines of Steve’s neck. “So can we please just fucking know what we’re working towards?”

Nancy looks conflicted, her eyes moving around the group, like she can see what kind of people they are just from their faces. But then the tension goes out of her shoulders.

“Okay,” she says simply and reaches down for her handbag and slaps a second lot of papers onto the table. Everyone is silent as they look at them, before understanding and shock dawns on them all.

“We’re stealing a person?” Robin says, looking horrified. She’s wringing her hands now, nervous energy seeping through now that Nancy’s instructions have been revealed. Chrissy chews on her lip, remembering how their client had curled his fingers around the whiskey glass, the exhaustion in his eyes. He was a gruff looking man in a bad shirt and an unkempt beard, but she prides herself on having a good read on people. If she’d thought he wanted her for something like this, she wouldn’t have taken the job. But he hadn’t felt like the type. She didn’t get any uneasiness from him…just the feeling that this was a very desperate man.

“Can we even do that?” Steve says, looking more solemn than he has so far. Nancy shakes her head.

“Officially, it’s a jailbreak,” she says, frankly. “Even if it’s not exactly a jail. This man is paying us to find and break out his daughter. You wanted to know so…” She trails off, but she doesn’t need to finish it. They all wanted to know and this is the monkey’s paw that they weren’t expecting.

“Who took her?” Robin asks.

“The government?” Nancy says, quietly and for a second, nobody so much as breathes. “As far as I can tell. So this is probably bound to bring a load of shit down on us if we get even the tiniest bit on their radar. So if anyone wants out, you’re free to leave now.”

There’s silence. Nancy turns her head, looking at every member of her new crew, looking for someone wavering. Clearly, she sees none because she claps her hands together. They’re locked in now, the six of them, and perhaps all of them feel that they won’t leave as the same people they started as.

“Alright,” Nancy says, and smoothly retrieves the classified documents from the table. “Eddie. Talk me through fake IDs.” @hellcheer-au-week

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