Steal the Sky (5/6)
Title: Steal the Sky (5/6)
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Team, pre-Nate/Sophie
Verse: Steal the Sky
Fandoms: Leverage, Firefly, Supernatural, NCIS, White Collar
Summary: After Nathan Ford is hired to act as handler for three Alliance Operatives nothing in his 'verse will ever be quite the same.
Notes: This is likely going to develope into a verse of it's own. Many Many thanks and much praise to my betas Deanangst and lmx_v3point3
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
Base Houseing for the Naval Yard
Quantico, First moon of New Virginia
Katherine Clide: Companion, currently on sabbatical
Alice Ying Ai: Missing Presumed Dead
Charolet Prentice, 18th Duchess of Hanover: Retired companion, widowed, currently traveling the ‘verse
Jennifer Yeoman: Wanted in three systems, suspected to be hiding out on Whitefall
Elizabeth Wang: Dead and greatly missed.
Sophie Deverox: Grifter
Soft laughter faded quickly as it had come and Sophie took a long sip of her tea, settling back into her cushioned seat and trying to not appear like she was avoiding her friend’s eyes. The young woman sitting across from her, sharing the quiet of a stolen afternoon without the mess of both their lives was a dear friend… well as dear as any could get in this verse though how their paths had come to this point was something neither was entirely sure about.
It wasn’t that David, because no matter the years or changes in David’s life she would always be David to Sophie for a million reasons familiarity and their origins not the least, wasn’t dear to her. It wasn’t that Sophie wasn’t happy to see her friend in person for the first time in nearly a year, she was. The short conversations three months ago had reminded her how much she enjoyed time spent with the woman.
But, no matter what had happened four years ago when “David” had managed to escape her old life and just months ago when she’d finally created her own new world to live in now… David was still an (ex) agent.
David had been an agent, even a proper classification alpha, and there were still times when she acted like it. There were still times when training half beaten, half brainwashed into the woman showed through and as much as Sophie wouldn’t admit it at this moment that made her stomach clench in a way she was more than mildly uncomfortable with.
Hardison was with Nate, officially dead, and as safe as you could get in this verse. But Parker and Eliot were still “alive” and still trapped in that world and they were still classification deltas and still one wrong move away from a death none of them would be able to stop even if they found out about it before it came.
“Sophie,” David said, accent soft and low and gentle as it drew Sophie’s attention back to her like an almost physical force. David’s eyes ran analytically over Sophie, though Sophie figured it was just for show so that Sophie would know she was being studied. David hardly needed to focus to study her. After her training in Project Olympiad as an all tech offensive and infiltration class David was nearly as good at reading people as an ex-companion and turned grifter like Sophie. “You are worried. You don’t need to be.”
Sophie was saved from having to answer when her personal com unit let her know she’d received a wave. She opened it and read the handful of words and let out a sigh. “Not anymore,” She answered David with a smile.
She put down her com. and picked up her tea. She would cut her visit short, David had already assured her she’d take no offense if Sophie left a few days early to rondevue with her new crew, but she would finish her tea first. She didn’t know when she’d get a chance to return.
She looked back up to David who was smiling that small, soft, smile Sophie had never seen on the woman’s face before the last of her ties to Olympus were cut. She said nothing but the light in her eyes spoke volumes of a new life and freed mind.
This smile was for three Olympiads who would soon be walking free.
“David…” Sophie winced a little and amended herself at David’s look. Even if she’d always be David to Sophie David had only just finished telling her how she would be leaving that part of her to lie dead and buried at last. She took a new family now, and she’d take their leader’s name. Though Gibbs just… it would take some getting used to. “Ziva…” It felt weird to call her by her given name. “Thank your team for me. For them.”
The smile turned cat-like, amusement in her eyes. “Abby and Ducky were happy to help. They ask me often if I’ve heard news of it happening yet.” She shrugged. “Of course they also ask for the full story.”
It was a roundabout way for Ziva to remind her she’d never kept her promise to tell her the whole story once everything was over.
Sophie put down her tea cup and sighed, but took the hint. If she didn’t tell David now there was no telling when she’d get the chance. “It’s a long story, but I’ve got a bit of time to share it.” She looked out the window into the blue skies and smiled softly. “It started a bit more than three months ago.” She shook her head. “No, it started a long time before that. It had a lot of starts but you might say it started when an investigator for the IYS branch of Blue Sun named Nathan Ford lost his nine year old son to a curable illness. No… too early. I guess it started a bit before I got involved.”
Ziva watched her impassively, used to waiting for people to get to their point if her stories of her new family were at all true.
Still Sophie shook her head internally and smiled. “It started three and a half months ago, when Nathan Ford was getting drunk in a bar on Ariel and he was approached by a man named Victor Dubenich.”
“What for?” Ziva asked, mostly to indicate she was listening.
“He claimed he was the head of an engineering company and a rival had stolen his designs for a new ship. He had used his connections and more than a little bribe money to get the DIDS to let three of their top level agents freelance to help him steal them back. However these agents would not be working with their usual handlers since the operation was under the table and Dubenich wanted Nathan Ford to make sure the job ran smoothly…”
She continued to spin the story, letting it unfold in her own mind once more, trying to use her words to trace back to when a chance to feed old addictions (crime and Nate) had become something that she’d left her whole world behind for and was even now preparing to fly off into the black to find.
The world is on fire
It’s more than I can handle
Tap into the water try to do my share
Try to do more, more than I am able
Bring it to the table, bring what I’m able
Sophie Deverox: Grifter
Sophie was looking for something.
She never really knew what it was that she was looking for, but she knew she would know when she found it.
She could never remember a time when she hadn’t been looking for something. She’d left home to go to a training house for companions as a girl with bright eyes and high hopes and a feeling like there was something just beyond reach and every step brought her a little closer to it. She’d dived into her studies trying to find the answer, studied under great philosophers to try to identify the question, and became a grifter for the freedom to search the verse until she found it...
Somewhere along the road the trail went cold and she got tired and distracted and caught up in the web of lies she spun and the high of the con and living life and she let the search go.
But even if some days she shook her head at her own childish fantasies that had taken her so far from the life she’d once led she still couldn’t help but look up into the black at night and wonder if it was still out there and if maybe she would find it one day.
And she still remembered what it was like to feel the pull of that old search, of just a hint, something inside her chest telling her to turn here or get on a ship or any of the hundreds of twists in the path of her life. A feel she could talk about in esoteric terms but never fully explain.
A feeling she had for the first time in years when Nathan Ford walked back into her life, leading three agents, walking on her side of the line, and asking her to join him for a con.
Sophie could deny it but she was still looking for that something, and was still letting that search take her on one more adventure.
And so she was here, following that path, sitting with Nate and the team minus Hardison who was flying their shuttle, going over the plan one last time even as cityscape gave way the badlands away from the main city on Osiris.
“…when you get there Parker and Eliot will head back, we only have clearance for you, but they’ll put Hardison’s spike into the system and plant the explosives on their way out. We’ll be monitoring their communications and help you navigate to our pick up point.” Nate finished as Simon put in his com and nodded.
The shuttle slowed down, pulling up in front of the facility, and Sophie watched as Simon, Parker, and Eliot, pristine in their alliance uniforms (though she’d seen how uncomfortable both Eliot and Parker had been when they’d first donned them, Parker actually stating she didn’t think she could remember the last time she’d worn something that wasn’t black).
Though between Eliot’s longer-than-standard hair and Parker’s inability to lie Sophie had plenty to worry about going off the rails. They were the personal assistants and guards of Simon’s alias and as long as they were with him they wouldn’t be questioned, and as quickly as they were getting in and out there was little they had to actually be worried about.
But the margin for error here was larger than she normally liked. If they had had more time…
They disappeared into the facility and she comforted herself in the fact her part was over. If things went badly she and Nate would be able to get away well enough.
Nate went to the front, taking over the controls so that Hardison could run his hack once they got him into the system, and Sophie followed, sitting in the copilot chair.
She listened as Simon grifted their way into the facility with a mixture of the credentials they’d stolen and his ability to make everyone he spoke to feel inferior and intimidated (and even if that wasn’t generally a path Sophie went she had to admire his ability to make people do what he wanted through a few words laced with utter contempt).
She looked to Nate, tapping her ear and indicating he should put it into the mode where he could hear the others but they couldn’t hear him. After he did so she asked, “When do we tell them?”
“Lets get through the job first Sophie.” He responded, setting down the shuttle and settling in to wait. The three inside were arriving at security now, their credentials and ids being checked and now was one of the times things were most likely to go wrong.
When they were let through Hardison let out a whoop of victory and Sophie had to smile.
The three were moving again, the assistant leading them to the next, higher security, checkpoint babbling at Simon, obviously nervous. So far no one had taken a second note of Simon’s companions.
Hopefully there would be a few minutes of quiet before the next gauntlet.
“What will you do after you tell them?” She asked Nate, still looking out the window. “Just walk away?”
“What do you want from me Sophie?” Nate responded a little more sharply than she’d expected. “I’m not going to become their handler. They’re not children. They’ll figure things out.”
She shook her head. Nathan Ford. Bleeding heart Nathan Ford and this strange twisted version of the man who’d chased her from Persephone to Osiris. She almost believed he was doing all of this, everything, as revenge for Sam.
Then she’d see a look on his face like he’d had when the three had gone to the kitchen the first night, the hesitancy and excitement of suddenly being given the illusion of freedom written in their bodies, the hand that had been holding the transmitter clenched into a fist.
They had set a plan in motion together but Nate was being Nate.
“They’re caged birds Nate.” She said simply. “For better or worse they need someone to watch them, at least until they learn how to fly alone.”
Nate didn’t reply and she let the silence last, listening as the three broke apart at the second security check point. Parker and Eliot headed back out, slipping their guide and laying their distractions before finding an exit, making their way away from the sight to the drop point even as Simon was lead deeper into the facility, given a tour, and finally shown to River.
They waited in mute silence as the final step played out, as Simon activate the sonic wave knocking out the men in the room, his “River, it’s Simon, it’s your brother” was almost heartbreaking to hear.
Then Parker was activating the explosives and Hardison was talking them out of the facility and Nate was moving, barely even coming to a stop as they picked up Parker and Eliot before flying to the plan G exit, lowering the platform, countdown running out in their head before Simon confirmed they were on.
They didn’t even wait to pull the platform all the way up before the ship was moving, pulling up until the platform was above ground and taking off even as Eliot and Parker helped pull the Tam siblings into the safety of the craft.
Sophie went into the passenger area, pressing down the pain in her chest at the sight of the blank faced teenaged girl, hugging her brother back but not seeming to quite comprehend the world around her. Simon let her go and she stared at him for a moment longer.
Then she turned, eyes tracking to Parker, Hardison, and finally resting on Eliot. She moved to stand in front of him, eyes staring up into Eliot’s, and Sophie had a feeling there was much more passing between them than the others in the shuttle could understand.
Eliot wasn’t the only reader on the shuttle.
After a long moment Eliot nodded and smiled, a subtle gesture of his head back toward Simon and she turned.
For the first time they’d seen a brilliant smile crossed River’s face and she went to Simon again, embracing him on her own, closing her eyes and looking like she wasn’t going to let go, maybe ever.
It was Simon’s turn to look like he didn’t know how to respond before slowly returning the embrace. He looked toward Eliot, confusion and gratitude on his face for a moment before he looked back to his sister.
The smile on his face like a man seeing the sun for the first time in a long long time.
The shuttle started to slow down. They would change shuttles before going to the docks. A ship to Persephone waited for Simon, cargo room for a large crate. They’d slip away, a single man with cargo, and escape the system before alarms could be raised.
Simon and River were the first out of the shuttle, Eliot following wasn’t part of the plan but after earlier no one argued. The rest of them hurried to wipe down and clear out the shuttle of any sign of their passing before following.
By the time they entered the second shuttle Simon was standing next to a large box. He had acquired and altered it himself, testing and retesting it as best he could in the year he’d been trying to get in to rescue his sister and making plans for how to get them away safely.
Even now River was falling into a stasis sleep that would last the next few weeks as Simon found them somewhere safe.
Hardison took the controls, flying them toward the docks, Nate with him and Parker sitting off to the side, perched, watching the box with a blank expression.
Sophie herself sat to one side, gently storing the small briefcase Simon had given her before they set out safely away for later. She watched through her peripheral vision as Eliot stood with Simon, his own eyes on the box, his expression enreabale even to a grifter.
“Why did she go to you?” Simon asked softly after a moment, words so quiet Sophie could barely hear them.
“She’d hallucinated you rescuing her before. She needed someone to tell her it was real,” Eliot explained, his voice gentler than Sophie remembered hearing before. “She’ll be mixed up for a while. Just keep letting her know she’s safe. Keep calm, keep reassuring her. She’ll heal, maybe not all the way but she’ll get better, and she needs you to believe that.”
“Do you know what…?” Simon started, his voice failing, the crash of the after job looking like it was hitting him hard.
“No.” Eliot answered the question and not for the first time. “The Intel we had isn’t complete, all I have is theories.” He paused before addressing the information Hardison had given them all before they even brought Simon in. “We do know that they did manage to implant some conditioning. She has what we call a safe word, a phrase you can say to make her pass out if something should happen. Just say the words ‘Eta kuram na smekh’.”
Simon repeated the phrase until he had the pronunciation and the words themselves down.
“Don’t use it unless you have no option.” Eliot cautioned. “It’s…” He licked his lips, flash of emotion running across his eyes before he buried and continued. “Extremely disorienting and tends to have side effects. Activating conditioning could bring back things she was going through when they implanted it and the methods used in that process mean it’s aint likely to be pleasant.”
Silence fell again as they re-entered the city and it seemed like it was only a few heartbeats, not even enough time to catch their breaths, before they were at the docks and Simon was disembarking, the crew from his next transport coming to help load the crate onto the ship and without a single backwards glance Simon followed it into the hold.
He didn’t say thank you, he didn’t need to. A small fortune liquidated and hours of his last days in his old life spent in a lab on a project that could get him arrested, now sitting in a small metal briefcase said thanks in more ways than words could.
Sophie reached over, brushing her fingers against the handle, watching her private plans unfold and a new life spin together and out in front of her even as Hardison turned the shuttle back toward the city.
They had a party to go to.
oOo
Sophie’s part in the con was over and now she found herself more than happy to sit back (or lean forward against the railing of one of the balconies the reception for Barrington Air’s shareholders was being held on) and watch the drama unfold.
She’d gone ahead with Nate, supposedly to get a lay of the party and find a good spot to supervise, but mostly just so they could see everything well.
If they’d both snagged Champaign flutes on their way then it was just their efforts to blend in.
First Parker drifted into the party, followed by Hardison and moments later Eliot, coming together . They stood out in their black work clothes and lack of refinery and it was just moments before Dubenich had noticed their arrival.
He didn’t panic, to his credit.
The cleaners appeared next, going to the three agents (who had taken interest in the buffet by then) and started hearding them inside. Another appeared from the crowd and led Dubenich into the building as well.
Over the coms Sophie could hear one of the cleaners chiding Parker, Eliot, and Hardison in an almost disturbingly calm voice about the stir they’ve caused and what a mess, but how they were right to report such grievous abuses of trust and would be forgiven.
Once inside the room Dubenich started to bitch about the agents messing up, not delivering the documents, and going AWOL for days.
Only to be interrupted by one of the cleaners. “You know exactly where they’ve been.” He stated, still unnaturally calm. “After stealing the files on the students in Project Academy they followed your directions to break into the office of a top military general, steal his credentials in order to better forge IDs that would allow them to break into that facility and break out one of the most viable subjects of that project. You also offered to provide them with the formula for H2X14, which they dutifully refused, proving their loyalties to Father and alliance are stronger than had been thought.”
“He’s a browncoat!” Parker interjected, her intonation wrong but it was Parker. Hardison and Eliot had both assured them that the Cleaners would know about the agents they were cleaning up after and wouldn’t react to Parker behaving oddly. “A secret one! He’s trying to take us all away from Father.”
“Hush now.” The other cleaner said, almost sounding gentle but patronizing, like they were talking to a slow child who had misbehaved while trying to behave. “We know and we’ll see that he is put someplace where he can’t disrupt our order anymore.”
Dubenich started to argue, insisting he was being set up, that he’d employed them to steal designs back from a competitor, trying to help keep his cover from collapsing, and Pierson had started the corporate espionage.
“Then why didn’t they have handlers?” The Cleaner asked. “You requested their aid without handlers, an odd request, but you were trusted. Now we see you were hoping to take them away from us, all the easier with no handlers to watch and report your activities.”
Sophie grinned at Nate. It was kind of poetic. If it weren’t for the fact Dubenich had asked for agents without handlers in order to better cover up his true intentions then he would have a much better position to argue from.
Not to mention the system he’d played for power was now going to steamroll over any hopes of justice in the sake of making him their scapegoat.
A minor tussle later and the cleaners were leading Dubenich away through a crowd of very distressed shareholders.
The moment of victory became bittersweet when she heard one of the cleaners tell Parker, Eliot, and Hardison that they should be on a transport back to Olympus by sundown.
But she had champeign in one hand, a small metal briefcase in the other, Nate by her side, and the pull of that something she was looking for leading her away from the railing and out of the building to a final, or not, meeting of the crew.
oOo
Sophie had spent her entire life looking for something, she didn’t know what. She had almost given up on ever finding it and suddenly here she was, standing in a park on a bright day, staring at the paper in her hand.
Hardison had taken the initivative to take advantage of the crash about to hit the stocks of Barrington air and now he was handing her and Nate small fortunes.
“Think of it as a thank you.” Hardison muttered at the surprised reactions he’d received. “We don’t have much use for cash, but figured you two should get somethin’ for the venture.”
Nate looked to Sophie, a smile she had been missing touching his face. “Now is when we tell them.”
Sophie slipped the paper into her pocket, still trying to process the zeros she’d seen, and held out the briefcase.
“There was a reason we knew the name of the formula that would destroy your nanobots.” Sophie said. The three agents hadn’t even known H2X14 existed, it was a guarded secret barely known by the scientists. It was half the reason their story had held such credulity. “I have a friend who once was an agent.” She stated with a smile, seeing a look of understanding begin to cross Eliot’s face. “Who happens to work closely with one of the most gifted scientists to mostly elude the Alliance’s hold and an incredibly competent Doctor. Upon discovering my friends predicament those two spent three years trying to find a way out, eventually perfecting their own version of the H2X14 formula.”
Parker, Hardison, and Eliot had gone perfectly still now, something painfully close to hope in their eyes.
Nate continued the story. “After we brought Simon into the fold Sophie contacted her friend and got the formula for their version of the H2X14 and the antidote required since they haven’t quite figured out the way the actual toxin protects the human body, though we’ve been assured with the antidote and a little time the result is the same.”
“We took the liberty of asking Simon to create three batches for us,” Sophie finished, holding the briefcase toward them. “For you.” She gave a small smile. “Think of it as our thank you.”
Slowly, with the same hesitancy she’d seen him pick up the transmitter, like he was afraid he was in a dream and moving too fast would disturb it and rip it away, Eliot stepped forward and took the briefcase.
“The toxin mimics what happens to the nanobots when you die,” Nate explained, that odd almost ironic grin crossing his face when he said. “Seems like now would be a good time to fake your own deaths.”
Hardison and Parker stepped forward as Eliot opened the box, simply looking inside it for a moment before one by one removing a smaller package with the needles, instructions, and toxin for their separate dosages resting inside.
Their new lives resting in their hands.
“The toxin keeps for four months though.” Nate said. “Maybe wait until the heats died down before making your escape.”
An odd sort of awkward silence fell, none of them having a clue what to say, what to do.
“Well… pleasure working with you,” Nate managed.
“Yeah.” Eliot answered, slowly closing the case. “No more encores.”
“I already forgot your names.” Parker chimed in.
Another beat then slowly Nate nodded, turned, and started to walk away.
One by one they turned as well, heading toward a different direction, a different life.
Sophie wasn’t an idiot though. She took a short cut down a side path and sat on a park bench waiting, a smile crossing her face as she saw Nate walking down the path toward her, Parker, Eliot, and Hardison trailing behind him, obviously trying to convince him of something.
He stopped when he saw her and she walked to stand in front of him. “You pick the jobs.”
“My job was helping people. I find bad guys.”
“Then find some bad guys.” She answered. “There isn’t a lack of them in this verse and they have money” She leaned closer. “Black king, white knight.” She stated, giving him her smile. The Alliance’s former white knight, the black king she knew would lead his new knights into battle, somehow finding a balance in a world of gray.
He met her eyes and finally nodded.
She’d spent her life looking for something. She still didn’t know what it was.
But in that moment for the first time in years she felt that maybe, someday, she would.
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Team, pre-Nate/Sophie
Verse: Steal the Sky
Fandoms: Leverage, Firefly, Supernatural, NCIS, White Collar
Summary: After Nathan Ford is hired to act as handler for three Alliance Operatives nothing in his 'verse will ever be quite the same.
Notes: This is likely going to develope into a verse of it's own. Many Many thanks and much praise to my betas Deanangst and lmx_v3point3
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
Base Houseing for the Naval Yard
Quantico, First moon of New Virginia
Katherine Clide: Companion, currently on sabbatical
Alice Ying Ai: Missing Presumed Dead
Charolet Prentice, 18th Duchess of Hanover: Retired companion, widowed, currently traveling the ‘verse
Jennifer Yeoman: Wanted in three systems, suspected to be hiding out on Whitefall
Elizabeth Wang: Dead and greatly missed.
Sophie Deverox: Grifter
Soft laughter faded quickly as it had come and Sophie took a long sip of her tea, settling back into her cushioned seat and trying to not appear like she was avoiding her friend’s eyes. The young woman sitting across from her, sharing the quiet of a stolen afternoon without the mess of both their lives was a dear friend… well as dear as any could get in this verse though how their paths had come to this point was something neither was entirely sure about.
It wasn’t that David, because no matter the years or changes in David’s life she would always be David to Sophie for a million reasons familiarity and their origins not the least, wasn’t dear to her. It wasn’t that Sophie wasn’t happy to see her friend in person for the first time in nearly a year, she was. The short conversations three months ago had reminded her how much she enjoyed time spent with the woman.
But, no matter what had happened four years ago when “David” had managed to escape her old life and just months ago when she’d finally created her own new world to live in now… David was still an (ex) agent.
David had been an agent, even a proper classification alpha, and there were still times when she acted like it. There were still times when training half beaten, half brainwashed into the woman showed through and as much as Sophie wouldn’t admit it at this moment that made her stomach clench in a way she was more than mildly uncomfortable with.
Hardison was with Nate, officially dead, and as safe as you could get in this verse. But Parker and Eliot were still “alive” and still trapped in that world and they were still classification deltas and still one wrong move away from a death none of them would be able to stop even if they found out about it before it came.
“Sophie,” David said, accent soft and low and gentle as it drew Sophie’s attention back to her like an almost physical force. David’s eyes ran analytically over Sophie, though Sophie figured it was just for show so that Sophie would know she was being studied. David hardly needed to focus to study her. After her training in Project Olympiad as an all tech offensive and infiltration class David was nearly as good at reading people as an ex-companion and turned grifter like Sophie. “You are worried. You don’t need to be.”
Sophie was saved from having to answer when her personal com unit let her know she’d received a wave. She opened it and read the handful of words and let out a sigh. “Not anymore,” She answered David with a smile.
She put down her com. and picked up her tea. She would cut her visit short, David had already assured her she’d take no offense if Sophie left a few days early to rondevue with her new crew, but she would finish her tea first. She didn’t know when she’d get a chance to return.
She looked back up to David who was smiling that small, soft, smile Sophie had never seen on the woman’s face before the last of her ties to Olympus were cut. She said nothing but the light in her eyes spoke volumes of a new life and freed mind.
This smile was for three Olympiads who would soon be walking free.
“David…” Sophie winced a little and amended herself at David’s look. Even if she’d always be David to Sophie David had only just finished telling her how she would be leaving that part of her to lie dead and buried at last. She took a new family now, and she’d take their leader’s name. Though Gibbs just… it would take some getting used to. “Ziva…” It felt weird to call her by her given name. “Thank your team for me. For them.”
The smile turned cat-like, amusement in her eyes. “Abby and Ducky were happy to help. They ask me often if I’ve heard news of it happening yet.” She shrugged. “Of course they also ask for the full story.”
It was a roundabout way for Ziva to remind her she’d never kept her promise to tell her the whole story once everything was over.
Sophie put down her tea cup and sighed, but took the hint. If she didn’t tell David now there was no telling when she’d get the chance. “It’s a long story, but I’ve got a bit of time to share it.” She looked out the window into the blue skies and smiled softly. “It started a bit more than three months ago.” She shook her head. “No, it started a long time before that. It had a lot of starts but you might say it started when an investigator for the IYS branch of Blue Sun named Nathan Ford lost his nine year old son to a curable illness. No… too early. I guess it started a bit before I got involved.”
Ziva watched her impassively, used to waiting for people to get to their point if her stories of her new family were at all true.
Still Sophie shook her head internally and smiled. “It started three and a half months ago, when Nathan Ford was getting drunk in a bar on Ariel and he was approached by a man named Victor Dubenich.”
“What for?” Ziva asked, mostly to indicate she was listening.
“He claimed he was the head of an engineering company and a rival had stolen his designs for a new ship. He had used his connections and more than a little bribe money to get the DIDS to let three of their top level agents freelance to help him steal them back. However these agents would not be working with their usual handlers since the operation was under the table and Dubenich wanted Nathan Ford to make sure the job ran smoothly…”
She continued to spin the story, letting it unfold in her own mind once more, trying to use her words to trace back to when a chance to feed old addictions (crime and Nate) had become something that she’d left her whole world behind for and was even now preparing to fly off into the black to find.
The world is on fire
It’s more than I can handle
Tap into the water try to do my share
Try to do more, more than I am able
Bring it to the table, bring what I’m able
Sophie Deverox: Grifter
Sophie was looking for something.
She never really knew what it was that she was looking for, but she knew she would know when she found it.
She could never remember a time when she hadn’t been looking for something. She’d left home to go to a training house for companions as a girl with bright eyes and high hopes and a feeling like there was something just beyond reach and every step brought her a little closer to it. She’d dived into her studies trying to find the answer, studied under great philosophers to try to identify the question, and became a grifter for the freedom to search the verse until she found it...
Somewhere along the road the trail went cold and she got tired and distracted and caught up in the web of lies she spun and the high of the con and living life and she let the search go.
But even if some days she shook her head at her own childish fantasies that had taken her so far from the life she’d once led she still couldn’t help but look up into the black at night and wonder if it was still out there and if maybe she would find it one day.
And she still remembered what it was like to feel the pull of that old search, of just a hint, something inside her chest telling her to turn here or get on a ship or any of the hundreds of twists in the path of her life. A feel she could talk about in esoteric terms but never fully explain.
A feeling she had for the first time in years when Nathan Ford walked back into her life, leading three agents, walking on her side of the line, and asking her to join him for a con.
Sophie could deny it but she was still looking for that something, and was still letting that search take her on one more adventure.
And so she was here, following that path, sitting with Nate and the team minus Hardison who was flying their shuttle, going over the plan one last time even as cityscape gave way the badlands away from the main city on Osiris.
“…when you get there Parker and Eliot will head back, we only have clearance for you, but they’ll put Hardison’s spike into the system and plant the explosives on their way out. We’ll be monitoring their communications and help you navigate to our pick up point.” Nate finished as Simon put in his com and nodded.
The shuttle slowed down, pulling up in front of the facility, and Sophie watched as Simon, Parker, and Eliot, pristine in their alliance uniforms (though she’d seen how uncomfortable both Eliot and Parker had been when they’d first donned them, Parker actually stating she didn’t think she could remember the last time she’d worn something that wasn’t black).
Though between Eliot’s longer-than-standard hair and Parker’s inability to lie Sophie had plenty to worry about going off the rails. They were the personal assistants and guards of Simon’s alias and as long as they were with him they wouldn’t be questioned, and as quickly as they were getting in and out there was little they had to actually be worried about.
But the margin for error here was larger than she normally liked. If they had had more time…
They disappeared into the facility and she comforted herself in the fact her part was over. If things went badly she and Nate would be able to get away well enough.
Nate went to the front, taking over the controls so that Hardison could run his hack once they got him into the system, and Sophie followed, sitting in the copilot chair.
She listened as Simon grifted their way into the facility with a mixture of the credentials they’d stolen and his ability to make everyone he spoke to feel inferior and intimidated (and even if that wasn’t generally a path Sophie went she had to admire his ability to make people do what he wanted through a few words laced with utter contempt).
She looked to Nate, tapping her ear and indicating he should put it into the mode where he could hear the others but they couldn’t hear him. After he did so she asked, “When do we tell them?”
“Lets get through the job first Sophie.” He responded, setting down the shuttle and settling in to wait. The three inside were arriving at security now, their credentials and ids being checked and now was one of the times things were most likely to go wrong.
When they were let through Hardison let out a whoop of victory and Sophie had to smile.
The three were moving again, the assistant leading them to the next, higher security, checkpoint babbling at Simon, obviously nervous. So far no one had taken a second note of Simon’s companions.
Hopefully there would be a few minutes of quiet before the next gauntlet.
“What will you do after you tell them?” She asked Nate, still looking out the window. “Just walk away?”
“What do you want from me Sophie?” Nate responded a little more sharply than she’d expected. “I’m not going to become their handler. They’re not children. They’ll figure things out.”
She shook her head. Nathan Ford. Bleeding heart Nathan Ford and this strange twisted version of the man who’d chased her from Persephone to Osiris. She almost believed he was doing all of this, everything, as revenge for Sam.
Then she’d see a look on his face like he’d had when the three had gone to the kitchen the first night, the hesitancy and excitement of suddenly being given the illusion of freedom written in their bodies, the hand that had been holding the transmitter clenched into a fist.
They had set a plan in motion together but Nate was being Nate.
“They’re caged birds Nate.” She said simply. “For better or worse they need someone to watch them, at least until they learn how to fly alone.”
Nate didn’t reply and she let the silence last, listening as the three broke apart at the second security check point. Parker and Eliot headed back out, slipping their guide and laying their distractions before finding an exit, making their way away from the sight to the drop point even as Simon was lead deeper into the facility, given a tour, and finally shown to River.
They waited in mute silence as the final step played out, as Simon activate the sonic wave knocking out the men in the room, his “River, it’s Simon, it’s your brother” was almost heartbreaking to hear.
Then Parker was activating the explosives and Hardison was talking them out of the facility and Nate was moving, barely even coming to a stop as they picked up Parker and Eliot before flying to the plan G exit, lowering the platform, countdown running out in their head before Simon confirmed they were on.
They didn’t even wait to pull the platform all the way up before the ship was moving, pulling up until the platform was above ground and taking off even as Eliot and Parker helped pull the Tam siblings into the safety of the craft.
Sophie went into the passenger area, pressing down the pain in her chest at the sight of the blank faced teenaged girl, hugging her brother back but not seeming to quite comprehend the world around her. Simon let her go and she stared at him for a moment longer.
Then she turned, eyes tracking to Parker, Hardison, and finally resting on Eliot. She moved to stand in front of him, eyes staring up into Eliot’s, and Sophie had a feeling there was much more passing between them than the others in the shuttle could understand.
Eliot wasn’t the only reader on the shuttle.
After a long moment Eliot nodded and smiled, a subtle gesture of his head back toward Simon and she turned.
For the first time they’d seen a brilliant smile crossed River’s face and she went to Simon again, embracing him on her own, closing her eyes and looking like she wasn’t going to let go, maybe ever.
It was Simon’s turn to look like he didn’t know how to respond before slowly returning the embrace. He looked toward Eliot, confusion and gratitude on his face for a moment before he looked back to his sister.
The smile on his face like a man seeing the sun for the first time in a long long time.
The shuttle started to slow down. They would change shuttles before going to the docks. A ship to Persephone waited for Simon, cargo room for a large crate. They’d slip away, a single man with cargo, and escape the system before alarms could be raised.
Simon and River were the first out of the shuttle, Eliot following wasn’t part of the plan but after earlier no one argued. The rest of them hurried to wipe down and clear out the shuttle of any sign of their passing before following.
By the time they entered the second shuttle Simon was standing next to a large box. He had acquired and altered it himself, testing and retesting it as best he could in the year he’d been trying to get in to rescue his sister and making plans for how to get them away safely.
Even now River was falling into a stasis sleep that would last the next few weeks as Simon found them somewhere safe.
Hardison took the controls, flying them toward the docks, Nate with him and Parker sitting off to the side, perched, watching the box with a blank expression.
Sophie herself sat to one side, gently storing the small briefcase Simon had given her before they set out safely away for later. She watched through her peripheral vision as Eliot stood with Simon, his own eyes on the box, his expression enreabale even to a grifter.
“Why did she go to you?” Simon asked softly after a moment, words so quiet Sophie could barely hear them.
“She’d hallucinated you rescuing her before. She needed someone to tell her it was real,” Eliot explained, his voice gentler than Sophie remembered hearing before. “She’ll be mixed up for a while. Just keep letting her know she’s safe. Keep calm, keep reassuring her. She’ll heal, maybe not all the way but she’ll get better, and she needs you to believe that.”
“Do you know what…?” Simon started, his voice failing, the crash of the after job looking like it was hitting him hard.
“No.” Eliot answered the question and not for the first time. “The Intel we had isn’t complete, all I have is theories.” He paused before addressing the information Hardison had given them all before they even brought Simon in. “We do know that they did manage to implant some conditioning. She has what we call a safe word, a phrase you can say to make her pass out if something should happen. Just say the words ‘Eta kuram na smekh’.”
Simon repeated the phrase until he had the pronunciation and the words themselves down.
“Don’t use it unless you have no option.” Eliot cautioned. “It’s…” He licked his lips, flash of emotion running across his eyes before he buried and continued. “Extremely disorienting and tends to have side effects. Activating conditioning could bring back things she was going through when they implanted it and the methods used in that process mean it’s aint likely to be pleasant.”
Silence fell again as they re-entered the city and it seemed like it was only a few heartbeats, not even enough time to catch their breaths, before they were at the docks and Simon was disembarking, the crew from his next transport coming to help load the crate onto the ship and without a single backwards glance Simon followed it into the hold.
He didn’t say thank you, he didn’t need to. A small fortune liquidated and hours of his last days in his old life spent in a lab on a project that could get him arrested, now sitting in a small metal briefcase said thanks in more ways than words could.
Sophie reached over, brushing her fingers against the handle, watching her private plans unfold and a new life spin together and out in front of her even as Hardison turned the shuttle back toward the city.
They had a party to go to.
oOo
Sophie’s part in the con was over and now she found herself more than happy to sit back (or lean forward against the railing of one of the balconies the reception for Barrington Air’s shareholders was being held on) and watch the drama unfold.
She’d gone ahead with Nate, supposedly to get a lay of the party and find a good spot to supervise, but mostly just so they could see everything well.
If they’d both snagged Champaign flutes on their way then it was just their efforts to blend in.
First Parker drifted into the party, followed by Hardison and moments later Eliot, coming together . They stood out in their black work clothes and lack of refinery and it was just moments before Dubenich had noticed their arrival.
He didn’t panic, to his credit.
The cleaners appeared next, going to the three agents (who had taken interest in the buffet by then) and started hearding them inside. Another appeared from the crowd and led Dubenich into the building as well.
Over the coms Sophie could hear one of the cleaners chiding Parker, Eliot, and Hardison in an almost disturbingly calm voice about the stir they’ve caused and what a mess, but how they were right to report such grievous abuses of trust and would be forgiven.
Once inside the room Dubenich started to bitch about the agents messing up, not delivering the documents, and going AWOL for days.
Only to be interrupted by one of the cleaners. “You know exactly where they’ve been.” He stated, still unnaturally calm. “After stealing the files on the students in Project Academy they followed your directions to break into the office of a top military general, steal his credentials in order to better forge IDs that would allow them to break into that facility and break out one of the most viable subjects of that project. You also offered to provide them with the formula for H2X14, which they dutifully refused, proving their loyalties to Father and alliance are stronger than had been thought.”
“He’s a browncoat!” Parker interjected, her intonation wrong but it was Parker. Hardison and Eliot had both assured them that the Cleaners would know about the agents they were cleaning up after and wouldn’t react to Parker behaving oddly. “A secret one! He’s trying to take us all away from Father.”
“Hush now.” The other cleaner said, almost sounding gentle but patronizing, like they were talking to a slow child who had misbehaved while trying to behave. “We know and we’ll see that he is put someplace where he can’t disrupt our order anymore.”
Dubenich started to argue, insisting he was being set up, that he’d employed them to steal designs back from a competitor, trying to help keep his cover from collapsing, and Pierson had started the corporate espionage.
“Then why didn’t they have handlers?” The Cleaner asked. “You requested their aid without handlers, an odd request, but you were trusted. Now we see you were hoping to take them away from us, all the easier with no handlers to watch and report your activities.”
Sophie grinned at Nate. It was kind of poetic. If it weren’t for the fact Dubenich had asked for agents without handlers in order to better cover up his true intentions then he would have a much better position to argue from.
Not to mention the system he’d played for power was now going to steamroll over any hopes of justice in the sake of making him their scapegoat.
A minor tussle later and the cleaners were leading Dubenich away through a crowd of very distressed shareholders.
The moment of victory became bittersweet when she heard one of the cleaners tell Parker, Eliot, and Hardison that they should be on a transport back to Olympus by sundown.
But she had champeign in one hand, a small metal briefcase in the other, Nate by her side, and the pull of that something she was looking for leading her away from the railing and out of the building to a final, or not, meeting of the crew.
oOo
Sophie had spent her entire life looking for something, she didn’t know what. She had almost given up on ever finding it and suddenly here she was, standing in a park on a bright day, staring at the paper in her hand.
Hardison had taken the initivative to take advantage of the crash about to hit the stocks of Barrington air and now he was handing her and Nate small fortunes.
“Think of it as a thank you.” Hardison muttered at the surprised reactions he’d received. “We don’t have much use for cash, but figured you two should get somethin’ for the venture.”
Nate looked to Sophie, a smile she had been missing touching his face. “Now is when we tell them.”
Sophie slipped the paper into her pocket, still trying to process the zeros she’d seen, and held out the briefcase.
“There was a reason we knew the name of the formula that would destroy your nanobots.” Sophie said. The three agents hadn’t even known H2X14 existed, it was a guarded secret barely known by the scientists. It was half the reason their story had held such credulity. “I have a friend who once was an agent.” She stated with a smile, seeing a look of understanding begin to cross Eliot’s face. “Who happens to work closely with one of the most gifted scientists to mostly elude the Alliance’s hold and an incredibly competent Doctor. Upon discovering my friends predicament those two spent three years trying to find a way out, eventually perfecting their own version of the H2X14 formula.”
Parker, Hardison, and Eliot had gone perfectly still now, something painfully close to hope in their eyes.
Nate continued the story. “After we brought Simon into the fold Sophie contacted her friend and got the formula for their version of the H2X14 and the antidote required since they haven’t quite figured out the way the actual toxin protects the human body, though we’ve been assured with the antidote and a little time the result is the same.”
“We took the liberty of asking Simon to create three batches for us,” Sophie finished, holding the briefcase toward them. “For you.” She gave a small smile. “Think of it as our thank you.”
Slowly, with the same hesitancy she’d seen him pick up the transmitter, like he was afraid he was in a dream and moving too fast would disturb it and rip it away, Eliot stepped forward and took the briefcase.
“The toxin mimics what happens to the nanobots when you die,” Nate explained, that odd almost ironic grin crossing his face when he said. “Seems like now would be a good time to fake your own deaths.”
Hardison and Parker stepped forward as Eliot opened the box, simply looking inside it for a moment before one by one removing a smaller package with the needles, instructions, and toxin for their separate dosages resting inside.
Their new lives resting in their hands.
“The toxin keeps for four months though.” Nate said. “Maybe wait until the heats died down before making your escape.”
An odd sort of awkward silence fell, none of them having a clue what to say, what to do.
“Well… pleasure working with you,” Nate managed.
“Yeah.” Eliot answered, slowly closing the case. “No more encores.”
“I already forgot your names.” Parker chimed in.
Another beat then slowly Nate nodded, turned, and started to walk away.
One by one they turned as well, heading toward a different direction, a different life.
Sophie wasn’t an idiot though. She took a short cut down a side path and sat on a park bench waiting, a smile crossing her face as she saw Nate walking down the path toward her, Parker, Eliot, and Hardison trailing behind him, obviously trying to convince him of something.
He stopped when he saw her and she walked to stand in front of him. “You pick the jobs.”
“My job was helping people. I find bad guys.”
“Then find some bad guys.” She answered. “There isn’t a lack of them in this verse and they have money” She leaned closer. “Black king, white knight.” She stated, giving him her smile. The Alliance’s former white knight, the black king she knew would lead his new knights into battle, somehow finding a balance in a world of gray.
He met her eyes and finally nodded.
She’d spent her life looking for something. She still didn’t know what it was.
But in that moment for the first time in years she felt that maybe, someday, she would.