The Expert

4. Phase One

Oh god, Daniel is gonna kill me...

"What do you mean miscalculated!?" Daniel shouted.

"I'm sorry! From the information I gathered, he was due to America in six months, but now it's nine and our show is in seven."

Daniel groaned as he fell backwards into the couch of the replenished apartment we fixed up when we all first met. "Damn it... That means this whole plan is screwed six ways to Sunday..."

"Not entirely." Henley chimed in. "All we have to do is go to Paris and "convince" him to come to Las Vegas."

"She has a point, ya know." Jack added.

"I just need to hypnotize Frenchie and we'll be home free. No big deal!" Merritt said.

"Exactly. See, problem solved." I said.

"Money." Daniel said simply.

"Easy. We have a sponsor, duh." I said.

"But who?" Henley asked.

"Arthur Tressler." I said. "We just gotta show off our skills and prove that we're worth it."

"I agree with Alex." Jack said.

"Well of course you would, Jackie." Daniel said sarcastically.

I flipped him the finger. "Piss off, asshole. Do you have a better plan?"

"Well, I just--"

"Uh-huh, then shut the fuck up."

__________________________

After we met Arthur, we all showed him what we had. Daniel showed him how to pull a card from inside his pocket, which I thought was kinda cool considering how he even got it into Arthur's pocket. Henley showed him how to escape from a straitjacket, which I'm not sure why she carried with her actually... Merritt did his mentalist thing while Jack snagged onto his credit card without Arthur knowing it. Me on the other hand, I did my bursting flame card trick. After each of us performed, me being last, Arthur thought we were worth it and offered to sponsor us. We all cheered and got the mine we needed in order to get plane tickets up in first class for the flight to Paris.

Merritt was by his own little self, Henley and Daniel shared two seats, and that meant I was stuck with Jack. I took the window seat so I could stare out over the ocean as we passed by along with the clouds. But then the silence between us was suddenly broken. "Do you...enjoy heights?" Jack asked.

I shrugged. "Kinda. I just like to watch the ocean and the clouds pass by. Other than that, I'm deathly afraid of heights. Why do you ask?"

"You just seem so...content, I guess."

I shrugged again. "Mm..."

"Something wrong?"

"Mm..."

"Is that a yes?"

"Mm..."

Jack groaned and rolled his eyes as I was still staring out the window. "Maybe... I'm not sure."

"What's the matter?"

"I'm not really sure, other than the fact ran Daniel and I can't stand each other with a burning passion."

Jack chuckled. "Ya gotta at least give him a chance, Lex."

"I did, several times, and he simply smashed them into pieces." I finally turned to face Jack this time. "He's an arrogant, selfish, and ignorant douchebag who mostly cares about his needs and seeing things go as planned."