by P. S. Power
Brian just spoke, not seeming to be projecting using super powers or anything.
“A bit. It’s… Mainly just that getting Noah from them is going to be pretty hard. Technically it’s legal enough, but I doubt whatever secret government group has him is going to be all that thrilled with us if we take him. We can’t put anyone Infected on this, either. At least not with certain kinds of powers. Most of us here would be blocked by him as soon as we get too close.”
Howard had to agree that it did sound right. It was Kate that spoke next however, her voice a bit soft.
“We need to remember that the larger group of kids is important too. If we mess that up, a lot of them are going to die.” She’d said that before, but it was kind of clear that she was doing it for Yi, specifically, even if the man hadn’t said boo about following the current plan.
If anything, he’d adapted to the new idea pretty well, as far as Howard could tell. They’d changed things a bit, but instead of insisting they fudge up their plans to protect the abused kids, he’d just helped come up with a new idea. Using a different team to try and take the boy away from the people they were hitting in a few days. After the main job was over, as well. So they wouldn’t show their hand too soon.
Given that it would probably mean losing the kid, and everyone had to know that, the man seemed pretty locked on to the job they were on.
That meant Howard waved at the woman.
“Stop treating Brian like he’s going to run off and act like an idiot. He has this. Our best trick for taking this boy from them is for others to do it. We’ll get a full info packet set up for the man you want brought in. How do we get that meeting set up?” There was a nice café in Paris that he nearly suggested for that.
Sure, the Infected ran France, but that just meant they didn’t whine at you when you bent a few foreign laws. Instead of that idea being spoken, Brian smiled. It was his dark and brooding thing again. The kind that looked like he was about to kick someone really hard in an uncomfortable place.
Howard shook his head.
“No. Remember to control the face. If we go in on a con, you can’t mess that up. Let the move show at the eyes a bit.” Then he winced, or was about to. The man didn't have any real reason to listen to him on things like that.
Instead, he just did it. Making the whole thing seem genuine. It made a huge difference. Even Denis nodded at it.
“Good call. He’s known for being too intense all the time. If he smiled like that, a lot of people might not realize who he is at first.” There was a sense of teasing to the words, but in a friendly way.
For her part, Kate just narrowed her eyes, then smiled on her own.
“That isn’t totally wrong. Get some nerd glasses for you, some brighter clothing… Really, most people that don’t know you in person might just miss who you are. We should keep that in mind for later. Now…”
Brian nodded, going back to the task. It was a good sign. Being derailed too easily got people caught, after all.
“Get Burks and maybe Reyes to walk outside the wire. Over by the pine grove? I think they’ll know where that is. Then I’ll move in and pass that information along. Call it… Can they be there at ten, tonight? That gives us a few hours to get the basic idea set up. We can also do it whenever they can get away. We’ll need some other things for them… Money that can’t be traced, for instance.” He glanced at Kate, who in turn shrugged.
“I can do that, of course.” She glanced over at Howard then and then at Denis. “Or we can do a sub job, and handle it that way? Then it won’t come from my accounts at all.” The woman didn’t stress any part of that, but Howard could see five reasons why she’d like that option better.
It would be harder to find out that she was involved that way, which seemed kind of important. Also, given who she was, Kate could probably do the work and prevent being found out from ever taking place, using skills that were rare and all that. It would take more work though. Doing a job meant that, if they got the cash from the right place, it would be untraceable back to any of them. Or, he had to allow, the organization. That he was supposed to be in on that seemed off to him.
The IPB wasn’t a thing in his world. For the Infected, sure. Even then, most he’d met hadn’t really worried about the government agency. If you weren’t killing people, they tended not to send in a team. If they did, then you needed to run. Like you did if the feds were coming from anyplace else.
So he nodded.
“The Treasury Dead Paper Note Repository.” Everyone looked at him, with only Kate seeming to get it. That and Cindy, who put words up behind his eyes.
~Got it! Great plan. Let me… I’ll get what’s needed for that. We can have Brian do it for us. Possibly without ever… Or you know, we can get Kerry to do it? Trade that for her getting that magical face lift she wants? Not that I wouldn’t set that up for her, if she asked me to. For that matter, Brian could take her to Harmony and she could be done in about an hour, our time, even if she had to wait half a day for someone to be free to do the work. Why don’t you handle that part? It will let you seem more like one of the team. We need to get Marcia Turner in on your side near the beginning. So far, she’s a little doubtful that a professional thief will be a team player.~
The floating, red tinted, words got him to nod a bit.
“Right. It seems that Cindy is getting the job specs on that. I’ll work that with Kerry? Brian… Can you get her to, um… Harmony? She needs some work done. After the current job though. Jobs. That part…” He growled a bit, and made a face. “My first mode is all in on that. Stealing as much as possible. This kid, that information in the vault… Millions of dollars… Even work from some weird other world that gives that kind of thing away. It’s still stupid of me to do it that way. We should do the fewest number of hits possible. Really, the smart money would just take the data and leave the rest. I just can’t get myself to do that right now. It’s… Really annoying.” Even not doing it, right then, got him to shake a bit.
No one mentioned his weakness though.
Brian, for his part seemed happy enough with the new plans.
“Kerry and you will handle getting the cash for the Agents? I’d ask how, but probably don’t need to know. I can take her around though. You as well? Or we might get someone to come to us, if I ask nicely. I’ll try to keep your advice in mind. As few jobs as possible. Smile with my eyes.” He did it then. It was totally fake, at a guess, but looked good enough for most people.
Katie clapped then. Just once, as if making a point.
“All right. I need to get dinner going. You need Kerry after that, right Richard?”
The others looked at him as if he wanted her for a date. Not that it was a horrible idea.
“Right. We need to practice her catching me as I go out of a window. I also need some aluminum foil and a pen light. Actually, several of those would be good, if we can find them? They might well break in practice.” It probably meant a trip to a store.
Except that their hostess just stood up and waved for him to come with her.
“I can do a bit better than that. This way, mein friend.”
She led him away from the others, hitting a small work room that wasn’t too far off of the kitchen first. What she had for him would work, he had to figure. It was a stack of tiny plastic mirrors, with sticky backs on them. Really, they were on card, but stuff that was so thin it was partially flexible. The lights weren’t what he’d figured on either. He was thinking a thing the length of his hand and size of his thumb around. Instead they were little things that also had sticky backs on them which could be turned on by flipping a little switch.
“There you go. You can carry ten of these at a time and not even notice the bulge in your pockets. Well, for the cards, anyway. The lights are a bit less comfy than that. Still, this way you can set up specific entry and exit points with a bit of forethought. They’re cheap, too, so if you have to lose one for an escape, it can be replaced easily enough. Your t
rick with the foil would work, but this just makes it all easier.”
She waited, as he loaded up on them. It was a thing that he understood. She didn't want his thanks, but rather for him to praise her for being so clever. It really wasn’t bad, considering she already had two large boxes of the things ready to go.
“Nice work. Brilliant, in fact. I don’t suppose you know how I’m supposed to work with Kerry on the bills? Get close and have her float them out? That or disable the alarms? I mean, I can see a lot of ways to do it, but Cindy suggested we use her, specifically for it. I could have her go in, if we can get the right I.D. That’s a bit high risk though. It’s why I never bothered pulling this particular job myself. They have good guards on things there.”
That and the fact that robbing the government had always seemed like a good way to have them after you for a long time.
His old friend just winked at him, as he finished loading his jeans pockets with shiny cards and tiny white lights that weren’t much more than a watch battery, an LED bulb and a switch, hooked to a child’s peel off sticker.
The woman stopped walking after about fifteen seconds, and nodded at him.
“I get it. Now at least. You can do the work from here. That’s the Cindy plan for it, anyway. You’ll have to get Kerry to teleport things out, in small bundles and work out how to get her on target at a distance. Cin can do that for you. The tricky part there is that Kerry really does hate her. So, just smooth that over and the whole thing will be about as safe as any job you can imagine? I didn't know that Kerry could teleport things, but it’s right there. She does it with rocks all the time, after all. So, think about having a fifty-pound limit for her too, on that?”
That made sense to him. At least as much as anything else had in the last day or so. Taking a deep breath, he nodded. As he did that, a smallish looking gray cat came scampering up to them. Following as they walked. She didn’t feel hungry yet or anything. Then, there had clearly been a lot of salmon in her world that day. More than enough to keep her going.
Cats were good that way. They didn't need to eat more than they needed. Unlike some people. Not that Howard was going to point any fingers, since the truth was, he was starving again already. He’d had a healthy lunch and everything.
Kate got going on that part, since women were the ones that made most of the food in life. At least that had always been the way of things for him, growing up. That he might be a bit outdated on that score… Well, that was simply the truth. It was… He suddenly felt out of place. His body was lean, strong and young. His mind wasn’t. That was going to be a problem, some day. Probably soon, if he didn’t get his ducks in a row and try a bit harder in life.
It had been nearly a day and he still hadn’t figured out how to blend in again. He’d managed it for most of his life, so it really wasn’t going to be that hard.
In the moment it just felt that way.
Working out where Kerry was hiding herself didn’t take long at all. She was in the kitchen already, when he got there with Katie. The space was big. The counters were made of marble, but the appliances were all in shining silver colors. The floor was made of warm, rich looking purple wood. That probably meant it had cost thousands of dollars to have put in. On the nice side, it was hard and wouldn’t scratch too easily.
The ladies got to work instantly, with Kerry clearly having a plan as to what would be eaten already. From the look of it, they were having a beef roast, with potatoes and vegetables. There was bread rising on the counter, in a glass bowl as well. Katie stepped in and started doing things that he wasn’t going to get, he didn't think. Kitchen magic was a thing that had always missed him. He could open jars and cans, but that was about the end of his skills that way.
Standing there, with Tabitha the kitten at his feet, he spoke.
“Kerry? We have a new job coming in. I’m not sure when that will be happening. We need to collect some money for the second operation going on. The one with the Agents? Getting Noah. Oh… I also set up that trip for you? Cindy is trading some work with us, in return for getting that going. She’s kind of being ripped off, but we won’t tell her that. Not until later at least.”
It really wasn’t true, which got Kate to snort a bit.
“Meh. She knows. Cindy just doesn’t care if Kerry gets a face lift. She actually likes you, you know that Kerry? That you aren’t a big fan of hers doesn’t mean she won’t help you.”
The snub-nosed woman, moving as if she’d done the whole kitchen thing before, sighed.
“I know that. It’s… She’s evil, isn’t she?” The tone actually sounded worried on that score. As if the answer mattered to her.
Like getting the wrong piece of information was going to mess with their telekinetic. That wasn’t in his personal plan, so he tried to catch Katie’s eye, to signal her to not be a bitch. Naturally, she didn’t even glance his way.
“Of course she’s evil. She doesn’t really even hide that. She’s all in for killing and hurting people. She still kind of does that sort of thing for fun. That doesn’t mean she won’t help you. To her, you’re just one of her people. Yes, the slightly annoying one, but hey, everyone has their place in the world, right?”
Howard rolled his eyes, since that probably wasn’t going to be helpful enough. Not that he didn’t appreciate the attempt. It sounded more or less true, after all.
His new pal, Kerry, kept moving, finally smiling. Just a bit though. It seemed fake, but was her showing a willingness to try to keep things together. That was all he could ask for, in the moment.
“Neat then, I guess. I… I know that I shouldn’t take my anger out on her. I was… Well, there was that thing. I… We aren’t supposed to talk about it. Ever.”
Moving to make some kind of salad, their hostess waved a knife in the air a bit, making a lazy circle with the tip. It was a nice knife. All silver and shiny.
“It had to be done. She just didn't have time to get you up to speed back then. Luckily, all you and Rich here are doing later is stealing. From the Treasury. Money that’s decent enough, but about to be burned anyway. If you do it right, no one will ever understand that it’s gone at all. Then the Agents will use it to try and save Noah. Instead of killing, we’ll be saving lives. A lot of them.”
The other woman nodded then, looking down. The roast being rubbed with spices.
“I know. Thanks. Sorry… I know that I shouldn’t hold things against people, it’s just… I should have a different life, you know?”
Howard didn’t know. You picked the life you wanted to live, once you were an adult. It didn’t make sense that the girl felt trapped really. She could be anything she wanted. Possibly in a more literal sense than anyone else in the world, given what he’d been hearing. If she wanted a different life, she could take one. There were plenty of them just sitting around waiting for her.
“We can work on that then, if you want? We should do this job, first. It’s the first mode thing, I think, but I really want to take some things. It’s kind of… Too much, you know?”
There was an odd rallying then, from Kerry.
“I do know! Almost all Infected get that one, more or less. A few people have really easy modes though. Doug from the base, Gravity? He just doesn’t get angry or upset. That makes him pretty nice all the time. Lady Glory had to have hers removed though and that was just compassion. So, yeah… It makes sense that it would bug you a bit.”
She didn’t tell him that it could be worse. Anger for instance, like she’d had to deal with for years. A compulsion to take things… Well, that was easy to handle, really. For him. It wasn’t fun all the time, but that didn’t mean it was as bad as things could have gotten.
Kate waved at him. Catching his eye on purpose.
“All right you… Get out. Go. We have this, it will be about an hour and a half. You should set up the training you want everyone to do. We got a nice start with Den earlier.” She was silent then, as if he wasn’t going to get that one.
&nb
sp; He just left, not telling Kerry, since she didn’t seem to be asking what was meant.
Tabby moved with him, moving about four feet away first, so that he wasn’t going to step on her by accident, with his giant feet. It was smart of her. Then, she was clearly doing well, as far as smarts went, for a cat. Leaning down, he scratched behind her ears gently. She pushed into the move, purring contentedly.
“As if I was going to miss that they were training Denis to use his power at a distance like that? Silly to even imagine, don’t you think, girl?”
There was a meow in response to what was being said. It sounded to him like she even understood what he was going on about. At least a bit.
Working for a few hours, until he was called for dinner, he was able to start setting up what they were going to need to practice. His part was in working with the safe, as well as getting out of the window. He needed to have more than one way to do that. Both things. Kerry had to make her catch, but there was also a side idea for her to work on in that one. After all, the data was more important than he was. That part kind of shocked him, since his entire career had been about loot, not helping anyone other than himself, and at times, his crew.
The part that Brian had to work on was one of targeting and making sure they were all used to working with his abilities, so no one would be taken by surprise when it happened. So far it had been easy enough to do, but you either made sure of things, or they failed when you needed them.
Denis was actually harder to figure out how to help for the mission. Mainly due to the fact that if he had to do anything, it was going to have to be outside the targeted building. Little Noah was going to block his powers at a bet. Then, possibly not. Kate mentioned she could read the boy after all. If Denis could do anything with him, that might make a difference later, on the other operation. Even having the kid be calm at the right time might make a vast difference to how things went.
It took planning to work out what to do toward that end.