Menagerie: Jack of Clubs

Chapter III -- Split Up, Gang!

"Something isn't adding up with him. He's freaking me out."

Croc's words swam around in Jack's head, whirled around by her own thoughts on the matter. Was Cobra acting suspiciously? Jack instinctively wanted to say no. After all, hadn't Cobra always been a supremely dodgy asshole? Him refusing to answer questions felt normal to her. Did Croc know something that she didn't know about him? Were they on friendlier, more familiar terms?

She'd known Cobra for a year now, same as the others, and he'd always been a bit shifty and indirect. That didn't make him a traitor, or even a bad guy. Or...any worse of a guy than the rest of them were, she supposed. They were all quasi-wanted criminals. They weren't exactly doing this for charity.

But Cobra had never been anything but kind to her. Apart from Croc, she felt like she had the best rapport with the British thief. She spent the most time with the guys, and struggled to know where she stood with the women in the Menagerie, but Cobra had shown up to save her ass once before, and stood by her and Croc in any dangerous situation since then.

Jack chanced a look in his direction, where he was posted firmly in between her and Croc in the seats. His spot in the middle had done nothing to discourage Cobra from a constant running commentary on the places they passed. Which curry shop he's eaten himself sick at during one visit, shop fronts he thought looked interesting, stories invented about pedestrians that caught his attention.

She'd tried to listen at first, in an attempt to glean any important information that he might have let slip, but soon that faded into a buzz in the back of her mind as she continued to puzzle over the problem.

"Are you going to tell me why you helped me, or not?" She'd been ten seconds from being beaten into a bloody pulp before he'd gotten there, and she'd entered and exited that situation ready to go down fighting.

"I needed to clear my karma -- consider it my good deed for the year." With a smile that she hadn't grown used to at that point, Cobra had thrown her the most bizarre excuse she'd ever heard. "Although, if you wanted to help me with a favor-" Initially, she hadn't let him finish his sentence, and had slugged him in the stomach.

Turns out, he wanted to recruit her, and had laughed at the punch once he could breathe again. Cobra hadn't ever been one for direct answers, but he'd helped her out that day, at no actual benefit to himself beyond a new getaway driver.

Besides, from what she understood, he'd been a part of the Menagerie before any of the others. So why would he betray them now?

"I think she fell asleep- ay Jack-o, up and at 'em." Cobra's voice broke her out of her thoughts, and she scrambled vaguely out of the cab after the rest of the team. "If you slept in the cab, he would've just driven off and charged you fare for wherever he dropped you off." He pointed out, before he gave her a wry smile. "...and then who would keep an eye on my whereabouts?"

Jack froze in her tracks, and her heart fell from her throat to her stomach. So he had heard the entire conversation. She knew that he must have, but there had been some small, vain hope that he hadn't, and that she could brush off Croc's suspicions on her own. Cobra shouldn't have found out about this entire stupid mess, and now she needed to do something, whether that was gathering answers or smoothing feathers.

She'd stopped moving, but Cobra had continued on his walk, keeping pace with the others. Jack jogged to catch up, just in time to hear Mongoose's instructions.

"So, it's a damn park. I don't know what we're supposed to learn here." She groused, her angry eyes wandering the park as if she'd suddenly know what they were looking for if she just saw it. It was discouraging, but Jack had to admit that she was right. They had just arrived, but the park itself was already lively and full of people enjoying the muggy, cloudy day. Nothing suspicious that Jack could pick up on, apart from the concept of it being oppressively overcast and people were still wearing sunglasses. "But we won't find anything just standing here. Greenwich is ridiculously huge, and there's a lot of ground to cover."