LJ Idol - Week 4: “I don't skate to where the puck is. I skate to where the puck is going to be. "
This is an entry for the
therealljidol. If you'd like to read any of the other entries added during this Week, you can do so here!
Leverage speed fanfiction challenge
My friend challenged me to write a con/mystery/police procedural as I am a massive fan of the genre, and because I am ill and stupidly busy, the challenged morphed into doing it quickly...
My condition: I got to use pre-existing characters.
Terms agreed, here we go.
The woman, Claire Cohen, is still crying as she waves Nate off. Her grandparents had been killed in gross negligence by their care home. She doesn't want compensation, just justice.
"Yeah, these guys are bad." Hardison scrolls down as the list of incidents on-site, hospital reports and ignored complaints.
Hardison clicks off the screen as Nate rubs his hands together, "Ok. Let's go steal a retirement home."
Sophie smiles winningly at the director of the conglomerate of retirement homes, rapping her nails smartly on the manila file on his desk with the names, and adding the bug under his desk.
"This could save you a lot of money, Mr Drover. When I heard of Rosey Hills I knew I had to come up and tell you in person."
He smiles at her, rakes his eyes up and down.
"How long have you worked here, Kate?"
Back at base, Hardison rolls his eyes so hard he thinks he's going to sprain something.
"Christmas party is all employees but this fat cat missed the July company picnic, tell him after January."
"About eight months, sir. Spring hire."
"You're truly something spectacular, you know that? A great find. I'll look into it."
Dismissed, Sophie stands and leaves, as seductively as she can.
Drover flicks through the file and gets stuck on a page, reading with interest.
Eliot huffs, follows Drover's lackeys as they chase down Sophie's fake lead.
"They're ex-Navy."
"Yeah, yeah," says Parker from the retirement home she's pretending to be the receptionist for, "Very distinctive walk, blah blah."
"I'm sorry, Parker, am I boring you?"
"Shut up both of you, and let them in."
Parker smiles her biggest fake smile at the men pretending to be unarmed, and becomes Liz the receptionist, "Hi! Welcome to Rosey Hills, how may I help you today?"
"We're here to see the director. We have an offer for him."
Hardison as the Director Raymond escorts them out, fake accent grating on Sophie's nerves.
As soon as they're out she brings it up, "I still think that accent is insulting, and frankly you're better than that."
"Yeah well, you can complain at me when they've signed the deal, ok?"
Three days of this, and Parker collapses on the sofa.
"I can't deal with all of that stupid," cue the high pitched voice, "Hi Mr Drover, oh my Mr Drover, how nice, oh sure," and back to her own, "I can't be this nice all the time!"
Eliot chuckles loud enough to be heard from the kitchen.
Nate nods, "It's fine. Now we move onto part three: the take-down."
Sophie and Parker shake hands, and separate to two different buildings.
Drover hesitates, but follows Sophie into the trap. Eliot shakes his head. Nate always knows.
Liz-the-receptionist signs her end of the deal, Director Raymond signs his, and Drover pulls out Nate's ace in the hole.
"See, I know you've been meeting with my employee. So now you're going to tell me what exactly is going on here."
Hardison-as-Raymond sighs.
"Ok. Thing is, we need the money first, though. This deal needs to go through before we can afford the next investment."
Drover doesn't even hesitate when Parker-as-Liz smiles.
Drover flinches at the sight of Nate standing with Sophie and Eliot outside the warehouse.
Nate explains, slowly, using short words and a minimum of sarcasm, to allow the mark to follow.
"How," says Ted Drover, "How could you possibly have known I would follow Kate and not Liz?"
And Nathan Ford smirks his smarmiest smirk, shares a look with Sophie.
"The trouble with you, Drover, is that you're always two steps behind. Me? I deal with three steps ahead."
Half an hour, which is short for me!