The New Headquarters of Leverage, Inc, (The Apartment Above Lukes), Thursday

[geniuswithasmartphone]

So, after their discussion in the diner, Hardison had grudgingly agreed to go off to the cliffs with Parker. In case there was ever any doubt how much he loved that girl, let this be the evidence against. That and volunteering to go slug Eliot; he wasn't entirely sure which of those ideas was more stupid, truth be told. Or more dangerous to his soft, squishy manly bits.

Before he left, he got out the hard drive that had the Black Book on it and hooked it up to the Dark Web. Tonight was his night for making super-secure backups, just in case anything happened to the original hard drive. The Black Book was Interpol's most secret file: the name of every person who'd contributed to the global financial crisis and a summary of their criminal activity. It was like a Who's Who of the rich and powerful from almost every country someone could name. Individuals, banking institutions, hedge fund groups--every single person that had helped bring the world's economy to a screeching halt had their name and information in that file.

Interpol and various international agencies had all agreed that they couldn't pursue any of these people, even though their crimes were staggering enough to make what the Leverage crew did look like kids playing pretend. But the combined wisdom of the officials was that it was better to hide the information and try to rebuild trust than to make sure any of their cronies saw the consequences of their actions. Leverage, Inc didn't necessarily agree, which was why they'd stolen the Book. But since that put them directly opposite, oh, damn near every government in the world, Hardison made sure to make semi-regular backups and hid them all over the darker edges of cyberspace.

Couldn't ever be too careful.

Which was why he was leaving the hard drive out on his desk, attached to his computer while he went cliff-jumping with his girlfriend. No, it's not something he'd ever think of doing in any of their other bases, but this was a tiny town spied on by squirrels. What were the odds that anything could go wrong here?

[For two, at least at first! All details of the break-in is NFB, please!]

Comments

[spin_kick_snap]

"Ohhhhh," Kathy said, looking around to see if she could spot any of the squirrels. "Are they acting as lookout, just in case they decide to come back?"

[myownface]

"Yeah... Yeah, sure..." Sparkle looked around, and then shrugged. "I mean, maybe. For all I know, they passed out drunk somewhere. Either way, the faster we get this over with, the better."

A beat.

"You can, um, you can still take off if you aren't feeling up for this, you know."

Just saying.

[spin_kick_snap]

"I know," Kathy said. Oddly enough, his permission made her less inclined to do so. "But you asked for help. If these people have someone else's property, then the right thing to do is get it back to the rightful owner. Even if we're, umm, using slightly less than legal methods to do so."

But she'd done the same with the drug store, hadn't she? Sometimes you have to do something illegal to make sure you do something right.

"Besides, I'm just mostly keeping watch, yeah?"

And possibly picking locks.

[myownface]

"Mostly, yeah. If someone's going to be rummaging through this place, it's gonna be me. That'll be my mess."

He didn't want Kathy leaving prints around. He didn't want anyone to be able to connect her to this at all, really.

"But if you, like, stay on a rooftop and whistle or something if someone starts heading toward the place... that would be perfect."

[spin_kick_snap]

"The rooftops are pretty much my thing," Kathy said, grinning. "Though you know what's even more useful than whistling? Cell phones. If you call mine now and just carry it with you while you go, if I see anything I can just tell you."

Be practical, Sparkle. Come on.

[myownface]

Practical? Sparkle was scared shitless and barely managing to hide it, and now he had one of his best friends covering his ass while he performed a B&E, which he was doing, in turn, to cover his ass because he'd been busted shoplifting. Shit was rolling pretty steadily downhill here, and practicality had been thrown out the window at about the same time he'd spotted an ugly little ceramic frog.

"... That would work too." He reached into his pocket and dug out his phone. "If you want, you can take the roof now, and I'll pick the lock. You'd be a way better lookout, and while we're out here in the open, we're way more likely to get busted."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy nodded. She didn't want to admit it, but she felt better knowing that her participation would be strictly limited to keeping a weather eye out for the returning thieves. It wasn't that she didn't want to help Sparkle and his friend recovery the property, but...even for a good cause, it felt a little wrong.

Not that she'd ever tell Sparkle that. It meant a lot to her that he'd even asked her to help.

A few well-placed flips and bounces and Kathy was up on the rooftop of the building. She pulled her phone out and called him. "If you set it up as a video call, I might be able to help look?" she offered. "You'd be surprised what you can do with a video call."

Like walk someone through surgery.

[myownface]

"Yeah, I might be able to do that," Sparkle agreed, frowning that the door didn't open when he tried turning the doorknob. He sandwiched the phone between his shoulder and his ear, and then made a reach for his own lockpicks.

He'd probably be able to pick the lock faster than Kathy could, anyway. He had years of experience.

"Let me get in first, get an idea of the layout, and then I'll set you up if we need to? Right now I'd be happy with someone to talk to while I'm in here."

[spin_kick_snap]

So much faster. But she still thought her slow lock-picking was a much better option than breaking a window.

"I can talk," she said, cradling the phone close. "I'll regale you with the stories of me patrolling with Dragon--sorta--which did a lot for my superhero cred back home. Which is a thing I have now. Cred. I was even in the newspapers."

Again, sorta.

"By the way, do you know who these people are? I just realized it might be tough keeping watch if I don't know who I'm keeping watch for."

[myownface]

"No clue," Sparkle admitted, frowning as he stuck one of his lockpicks in the corner of his mouth, getting to work placing the first. "I just know that this thing is important, like, hugely important, and... I dunno. Keep watch for anyone. Like. It'd be shitty if I was caught in here by anybody, you know?"

Witnesses were bad. Nobody liked them.

[spin_kick_snap]

"On it," Kathy said, keeping her head low so she wouldn't be silhouetted against the sky. See? All her patrolling in the city had been useful. "I'll keep quiet and let you concentrate on getting that door open. Talk to me when you're in?"

This might not be the worst time to get caught, but it would still suck.

[myownface]

It would still suck a lot. And Sparkle didn't think for an instant that Gaunt would have his back on this if he was busted for it.

"Yeah. I'll let you know the second I'm in."

Which, in fairness, didn't take all that long anyway. He fiddled with the lock for a few more moments, and then grinned faintly. He was in shit up past his eyeballs, but at least he could still open a door.

"And there we go." He pulled the door shut behind himself, and then contemplated just flicking on a light. Except that would be fucking stupid. He had a flashlight for just this sort of situation, anyway, and he was pulling it out and flicking it on. "Let's see... Nice open floor plan. Big fan of those. Makes shit easy for me."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy bit back a reminder that they were just here for the hard drive. Sparkle knew that and saying anything else would be tantamount to saying that she didn't trust him. And she did! So she was just going to ask, "Any sign of any kind of electronics set up? A work station or a desk or anything?"

Ahahaha. Oh Kathy, you sweet summer child.

[myownface]

Sparkle was silent for a few moments.

And a few moments more.

"Yeah. You could probably say that."

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST WHAT DID THESE PEOPLE DO IN HERE?

[spin_kick_snap]

AWESOME THINGS, SPARKLE. THEY DID AWESOME THINGS. HARDISON COULD HACK THE GOVERNMENT AND GO ON A WOW RAID AT THE SAME TIME. ARE YOU JEALOUS YET?

"Are you okay?" she hissed. "You just went all quiet. If you found the workstation, grab the drive and let's go!"

From it's place in the port, the silver hard drive beeped to show it was done uploading. So helpful, that!

[myownface]

Oh! Oh, a thing that went beep! Sparkle gave the mouse a jiggle to kill the screensaver and took a few seconds to look at what had just been uploaded. And then he grinned a little.

Oh yeah. That was exactly what he'd been sent here for. Super nice of the guy who owned the hard drive to make it easy for him to verify.

And, because he didn't want to break anything, he even took a half-second to eject the disk. And another half-second to take a photo of the workstation, because seriously, Kathy wouldn't believe this if he told her.

"Okay, I have it. I'm coming out," he announced, turning and running back through the apartment for the door, stuffing the hard drive into his backpack and slinging it over his shoulder as he went. "Didn't even have to break anything to do it. Go team."

He... was such a fuck-up. Way too much of a fuck-up, if he was dragging Kathy into this bullshit. But at least he had the drive now.

[spin_kick_snap]

"And the coast remains clear," Kathy said, looking around the street. "I'm not saying anything yet because I'm way too genre-savvy for this, but...if you can make it out now without issue, things will be very much in a good place! Way to be a hero, Sparkle! Gonna come join me on my Baltimore runs?"

[myownface]

Sparkle hated your cheering a little, Kathy. Just for the record.

"I dunno. I think I've had way too much excitement on nights out on the town to last me a while, at least," he decided, closing the door behind himself, and then taking the stairs down again, two at a time. "Anyway, oh my god I have to show you this computer setup. It's fucking insane."

And there. Right back around to textbook Sparkle. Not caring. Sparkle doesn't care.

[spin_kick_snap]

Well, that was what you got for telling her this was a helpful retrieval, Sparkle!

Kathy did a flip off the roof to join him on the ground. "Oh?" she asked. "Impressive? I guess that makes sense, if these are the kind of people who steal hard drives filled with super-secret information."

[myownface]

"No, but seriously." He ducked around a corner, and then started sauntering down the street as though he was just out for an evening stroll. "Get a load of this."

Yeah. Yeah, he was pulling up the photo on his phone and handing it her way.

Check. It. Out.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy snatched Sparkle's phone from his hands, and pulled it so close she was in danger of smacking herself in the nose. "Seriously?" she breathed because I think I'm hilarious. "This setup is insane. Do you know how much this must have even cost?"

[myownface]

"Probably easy enough to afford for the kind of people who have this kind of information backed up on a hard drive they just leave sitting out like it's no serious business," Sparkle speculated. "Like, I'm kind of almost disappointed that a setup like that didn't come with a serious security system or something. Lasers and trained mutant dinosharks, am I right?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy snorted. "I'll be sure the next place we break into comes complete with a laser grid and mutant dinosharks," she assured him. "Since this was too easy for you. And--woooooow. So, not only is a lot of this stuff the top of the line, state-of-the-art, it's been modified. Whoever owns this place has serious computer skills."

[myownface]

"Some kind of crazy hardcore hackers, I guess," Sparkle replied, nodding a little. And that fact was kind of helping him get his head around everything going on, here. "Maybe they're still setting up or something, so they haven't had the chance to have their dinosharks installed."

See? Way okay, if they were shady assholes who kept dinosharks.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Gotta be something like that," Kathy said, finally passing Sparkle's phone back to him. "I hope your friend has something better than, like, AVG or whatever on his systems. If these hackers are as good as their tech, they probably have a ton of countermeasures on the drive itself, just in case."

[myownface]

"No kidding," Sparkle agreed, shaking his head and stuffing his phone back into his pocket. "Fortunately, that's his problem, not mind. I just had to get the thing."

And if whatever was on the hard drive fried Leland's computer, cool. Fuck him anyway.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Well, you did that!" Kathy said, flashing him the V-sign. "Gonna run it over to him now, or...?"

[myownface]

"Nah," Sparkle replied, shrugging. "It's late. I don't know if he'll even be awake right now. But I'll take it to him... tomorrow, probably."

Unless he didn't. He was still kind of freaked out at the idea of going back there. Maybe it wasn't too late to just flee the island and go back to the seventies and live in Mexico and...

[spin_kick_snap]

"The important thing is that it's safe in your hands, yeah," Kathy said. "...You're not going to look at what's on it, are you?"

On the one hand, she thought that would probably be a terrible idea. On the other hand, she was kinda curious...

[myownface]

"What, and risk frying whatever computer I plug this thing into?" Sparkle snorted and shook his head. "No way. I already know enough, and enough is too much. I'm going to leave that thing in my bag, then I'm gonna give it to the guy, and then I'm gonna never think about it again."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Well, your friend had better give you a giant thank you when you hand it back to him," Kathy decided.

Was it Cade? Kathy was thinking it was probably Cade.

"Are we good, then? Cause I should probably get to the arcade...?"

[myownface]

"Yeah," Sparkle agreed, giving her a little grin. "Don't let me hold you up. You have to kick some cute guy's ass at DDR, right?"

He was quiet for a moment before adding, "... Thanks."

[spin_kick_snap]

"He is pretty cute, isn't he?" Kathy said with a laugh. "And you're welcome, Sparkle. It's what friends are for, right? You know you can ask for my help for anything, right?"

[myownface]

"Yeah, I know. I'm starting to gather that," Sparkle replied, shrugging. "I'll... keep it in mind in the future, okay?"

He just might not ask her for more favours for a while yet, that was all.

[spin_kick_snap]

At least not any that involved felonies on behalf of an evil entity intent on taking over the island, maybe?

"Do that," Kathy said. "Or I'll make the pony teach you remedial classes about the importance of friendship or something."

[myownface]

"Well, at least it would involve confetti," Sparkle decided. And then, on a whim, he stopped, and turned, and held out his arms for a hug. "Hey... thanks again. And have a good date tonight, okay?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Might not be a date," Kathy mumbled, happily taking Sparkle up on that offer. "But if it is, I'll be calling you to share all the good gossip, okay?"

[myownface]

"I totally expect you to," Sparkle murmured, giving her a squish and then leaning back and grinning at her. "Now go on, have fun. Tell me how it went later, okay?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"See you later, Sparkle!" Kathy said, setting off at a jog--that was faster than most people's all out sprint. "Bye!"

And she was off, none the wiser of what had really transpired tonight.