Super

23. don't nerd-shame

"How'd you get the writer to agree to meeting us?" Kai asked suspiciously. "If the dude writes conspiracy theory magazines, I'm pretty sure he'd be hella skeptical about meeting us."

The group was sitting in a meeting room outside the Blue Room, a place that reminded Lucas of an airport's waiting room. The benches, which had previously been sitting in straight rows, had been pushed together to form a rough circle around a single table. It reminded him of the break room from Nova Tower, and was surprised by the comfort familiarity offered.

Taeyong reclined on a leather-backed chair which clearly had not been made for reclining, but no one pointed it out to him. "Well? He makes a surprisingly valid point."

Kai's brow furrowed. "What do you mean, 'surprisingly'?"

"I texted the number on the back of the magazine," Lucas answered. "The person texted back an inconspicuous rendezvous point in a 24/7 diner on the other side of town. Said I could only bring three people."

"That's it?" Ten asked. "That's all it took to convince them to meet up with a complete stranger? A text? I thought a nerd would be cleverer."

"Don't nerd-shame," Mark said with a pout.

"No, I told him I had read every single one of the magazine's issues," Lucas said. "A few questions helped persuade them."

Ten raised an eyebrow. "You pretended to know all of that stuff and got away with it?"

"Oh, I don't think he needed to pretend," Kai muttered.

Lucas glared at him shortly before turning to the rest of the assembly with a cough to attract their wandering attention. Baekhyun was solving a crossword with Shao's unhelpful help, and Taemin seemed engrossed in a phone call at one corner of the room. I guess he doesn't need to hear anyway, Lucas thought.

"I need two other people to come with me to the diner," he said, tucking a pen behind his ear. "Who's volunteering? No, Kai, you can't come."

"Oh, come on," Kai whined, lowering his half-raised hand. "I'll bring some much-needed cool to your troop."

"No."

"Fine. Don't come whining back to me when you regret it."

"I'll keep that in mind," Lucas said with amusement painted over his usually hard features. "I guess Taeyong needs some recovery time, so I can count him out too."

"You read my recently-revived mind," Taeyong said, pointing at him.

"Baekhyun?" Lucas called the older man's attention, trying not to look at Shao, who had swapped her ugly yellow t-shirt for an ill-fitting loose gray sweatshirt which looked disturbingly like his own. He had no idea where she had gotten it, and though he wasn't too pleased, he didn't want to call her out on it, knowing the kind of snarky backlash he would have to deal with. "You want to come?"

"Sure." The orange-haired man smiled brightly despite the injuries he had suffered after summoning the lightning bolt. Baekhyun was one of the few people in the team that Lucas truly respected. He never seemed to run out of team leader fuel. "Who else do you want to take?"

"Well—" Lucas started, glancing around the room uncomfortably. He could take Shao—he had good reason to trust her now, after her unexpected bravery at the bar—but he doubted that he could handle her unapologetic aversion to authority. Taemin seemed busy, and though Lucas liked Mark, the kid could get sidetracked easily.

He was in charge of an operation after a long time of following orders, and he didn't want to mess it up. What Lucas needed was a quick mission without any kind of distractions or mess-ups, which meant the people he took with him had to be focused and interpretative. Interrogation wasn't an easy job, especially when dealing with a civilian. Taemin was the ideal man for the job, but he could intimidate a normal person into silence, which Lucas couldn't risk.