No Permanent Death (The Outsiders)

Glimmer in the Eye of the Curious

7:38pm
12.13.41
New York City
Curtis's Secret Base

"Come on Darry- I'm old enough!"

We'd been in this business ever since the Great Depression hit. Darrel was the first of us to become a freelance agent, taking down his first crook before he hit 25. Soon enough he let Soda join the team, and with a whole lot of begging he eventually let me on as well.

Even with me being a certified agent, I hadn't gone on a single mission. They often left me to do analytics, but even then they would nag me the whole time about doing it right.

I was a year away from being thirty and Darrel still didn't trust me.

"He's right, You know. We can't baby him forever." Soda shrugged.

"Thank you! Why won't you let me help?"

Darrel sighed. "You know why." He muttered, pointedly not facing me. "Clearly I don't. Enlighten me." I replied angrily. Soda threw me a glance as if to say 'don't start something'.
"Okay, You want me to be honest?" Darry paused, as if he knew what he said would upset me. I looked at him expectantly. "I don't think you're ready." I rolled my eyes. "You've been sayin' I'm not ready for ten years." I muttered angrily, leaning back in my chair while crossing my arms.

"Thats 'cus it's true! You can barely pay attention during a simple conversation, what if you space out during an important mission and get yourself killed?"

"Darry!" Soda yelled. Darrel spun around to face him. "What? He needs to hear it!" He yelled back. I shot up quickly, my chair making a loud scraping sound against the tiled floor.

"You can't judge me for something that hasn't even happened yet!" Darry frowned. "At least give me a chance." I begged. Darrel looked guiltily at me for a moment, finally sighing with an annoyed shake of his head.

"Fine." He paused. "Just promise me you'll be careful." Darrel practically whispered. I nodded quickly, giving him a tight hug. "Thank you Darry! I'll be the most careful man on earth!"

"I'm sure." He chuckled.

I threw on my nicest duds and climbed into the car with my brothers. Sodapop gave me a rundown of what was happening on the way to the bar.
Apparently it was a swanky uptown speakeasy that was in cahoots with many members of the Sicilian Mafia. The hope was to catch a few people in the act and try to gather intel of some of the more well-known folks.

9:24 pm
12.13.41
New York City
Greenhill Lounge Parking Garage

We pulled into a parking garage a few buildings down. Darry and Soda both hid pistols on them, but they both shook me off when I asked for one. We stalked towards the building, willing ourselves not to shake in fear at the look of the place. Darry reminded me about 20 times to be careful and try not to get noticed on the way there.

This humdinger building had to be over a hundred feet tall- There were bright neon signs littering the outerwall, making the stone walls somewhat glow. There was an explicitly large sign that read "Greenhill, Cocktail Lounge" in flowery, glowing cursive. It didn't stand out much with the amount of light they were using, but I decided that it's safe to assume that's the name.
There were people all over the place, so many inside that I couldn't even see through the window. About all I could make out was a group of jits playing the sax just outside the door. Darrel breathed out a sigh, turning to me with a hopeful expression. "You sure you don't wanna just wait in the car?" I simply shook my head, getting a head start to the door.

"Stay close." Soda muttered to me as we entered. I nodded, too stunned to speak. The inside was filled with beautiful women and handsome men dressed to the nines, making me feel almost naked next to them. Frank Sinatra was playing quietly in the background, drowned out by all of the people talking. The bar took up the entire back half of the room, the wall lined with expensive wines and glass. I watched as the lone man behind the bar moved smoothly back and forth between each customer-