LEVERAGE AU - volume one

Chapter Eight

Later that night, the five had returned to Pidge's loft, who was typing on her computer as she had been for hours while Boomer occasionally looked up, to check if she had eaten. Out of wanting the job to be done in the best way possible of course, nothing more.

"Hey, Jack, I got all his financials off his hard drive and all his passwords." Pidge said as she turned around for the first time in hours to see Jack and Boomer playing pool.

Boomer completely ignored this, "Your shot, Jack," He said as he handed him a beer.

Jack politely declined as he picked up a pool cue, "No thanks. Five corner."

Boomer nodded, "You look better than when we started."

"Yeah."

"And that bothers you, huh?"

"I uh, well this isn't supposed to feel-"

"Good? It's not that hard to figure out. Dubenich screwed you. He cheated by stealing from that other company and your good guy brain sees him as the bad guy. Your conscience is clear."

"...You wanna take your shot?"

"Look, Jack, Im sorry about your kid-"

"You don't know anything about that."

"Everybody knows. A guy like you goes off the street a lot of people notice. And it was a bad story, too. How did they justify that, huh? The insurance company just not paying for his treatment?"

"They claimed it was experimental."

"You should have kept one of those Monets you found. You fence that-"

"Boomer, you and I are not friends."

"Right. Right. Because you have sooo many of them," He retorted before pointing to Spike, who was approaching and walks away.

"Hey, can you help me with my earpiece, Jack?" Spike asked as he approached.

"Uh- Yea- I would- Uh- Ask Pidge..."

"Jack, come on," he held out the ear piece to him and Jack took it, placing it gently in Spike's ear. "Thanks. So, now you really are in my head!" He said before walking off and Pidge raised an eyebrow at Jack who watched him walk away like a little pining school boy. This was gonna be a long mission.

~

Dubenich's pulled up in front of an office building, got out of the car and headed inside. Jack and Pidge watched from a table at a café across the street.

"Spike, hes on site."

"What?! No Im not ready!"

"If you don't meet him right now in the lobby he's going to go to the building directory and look for the office number. Guys we are not in the building directory."

Boomer responded this tie as he was walking up the stairs, holding a bag and a sign, "And why aren't we in the directory?"

Pidge snorted, "Well, gee, guys, its almost as if this is a fake company."

Spike ran to where he thought there would be an elevator, then looked at the map, "No elevator! I cant get down there in time down the stairs!"

Jack thought quickly, "Alright, Alice, you have ten seconds to get Spike to the lobby."

A split second later a door opened behind Spike, it was indeed Alice. She pulled him over and put the harness on Spike. They went to the stairwell as Boomer was leaving it to put up their fake company's sign.

Outside the building, Jack took a retractable baton from his coat and headed for the building looking around. He hit out a window of one of the cars parked in front of the building. The car alarm went off, which makes Dubenich pause momentarily. Jack saw that he was ready to keep moving so he acted impulsively and broke two more car's windows. This caused the people inside the building to look out and see what was going on, which distracted Dubenich even longer.

Meanwhile, inside, Alice attached the harness holding her and Spike to a rope. He looked over the rail to see that it's a lonnng way down. Alice jumped them off the railing, making Spike squeal in fear but merely seconds later Spike was on the ground and running to the lobby. He caught Dubenich just as he was starting to read the directory.

"Mr. Dubenich! Hi! Hello!" Spike called and turned him around before he could read any more while also fixing his hair.

"Hi there... You, uh, you have a glow about you..."

"Just... Excited. Now, One thing. The gentleman bringing you this opportunity to work with their government, they'll, um, expect some, um, compensation. Not a bribe of course."

"Ah... A finder's fee."

"Exactly."

"I thought your job was to eliminate graft and stealing."

"No, no, no. My job is to keep it manageable."

Spike lead him up all the stairs he had just flown down to an office filled with Nigerian officials.

One of them stood and spoke, "Good afternoon. Mr. Dubenich, we are honored by your presence."

Dubenich shook his head, "No, no, the honor is entirely all mine, getting in on the ground floor of something like this is a wonderful opportunity."

Outside, Alice joined Jack and Pidge at the café table, "Yknow what he didn't break a leg so I'd say that's pretty good for a first time."

Jack smiled and went back to paying attention to his comm, "Alright, he's closing."

In the office, as everybody was about to leave, Spike grabbed one of the Nigerian's arm, "Ahem, about the... the other matter..."

"Yes, yes, of course," He said as he handed Spike an envelope, which he took down the table to Dubenich. When he opened it, there was a paper reading $1,000,000.

"Is it agreeable?"

Dubenich nodded with a grin, "I think we can work something out."

"Excellent."

~

After they had all met back up and Dubernich had left, Jack turned to Spike, "We got him?"

"We own him," Spike responded.

"Okay, gang, let's go. We got a busy day tomorrow."

"This is gonna work, right?"

"I guarantee it."