The Homecoming Job

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The brunette checked that the zip-ties around her victim's wrists were secured. Her victim was a white male in his early forties. He was unconscious, lying in a bathtub. She had a put a gag on his mouth. She sat on the edge of the tub and got the water running. She grabbed her duffel bag on the ground. She turned around as she heard the muffled sound of the man screaming.

"What's that you say?" The brunette asked him. "I didn't get that." The man screamed again, terrified of the water that kept running, slowly filling the tub. The phone in her pocket rang. She pulled it out and after checking the number, a small smile appeared on her face. "I would love to stay and keep this going but I'm needed elsewhere. See you never." She walked out her duffel bag on her shoulders. "Hey!" She answered the phone taking off her wig.

"Are you busy right now?" It was Hardison on the other end.

"Just finishing up a job. Why?"

Danielle had not heard of Nate or the others in a while. After it was agreed that they'd all work together, they had parted ways. In the meantime, Danielle went back to her regular job. As regular as that could be. Anyway, she was now on her way back to Los Angeles. Nate had found them a new job.


"So, what did you guys do with your money?" Danielle asked as they all walked up the hall.

"From the first job?" Parker looked back at her.

"Yeah." Eliot nodded.

"I put all that money in a Swiss bank account." Parker answered.

"Millions of dollars, you didn't buy anything?" Eliot asked her.

"I don't like stuff. I like money." Parker said.

"Fair enough." Danielle scoffed.

"I bought a little retirement home in Ireland." Sophie said.

"Nice." Eliot smirked.

"And Dubai. And Tokyo."

"I bought myself a new flat. And a new car." Danielle nodded. "And new furniture. And donated some."

"What about you?" Parker turned to Eliot as Sophie grabbed the small envelope taped to the door.

"Yeah. Not about to tell three known thieves what I did with a multimillion dollar payout." Eliot replied.

"Not exactly a thief." Danielle corrected him.

"Don't you trust us?" Sophie asked him before laughing.

She unlocked the door and pushed it open. Before them was a white room with a small desk and several paintings on the walls. Behind the desk, on the wall was a sign that read Leverage Consulting and Assoc.

"Okay—okay." Sophie said walking around.

"I don't get it." Eliot said as confused as Danielle was.

"What is this?" Parker asked no one in particular.

"This is our new cover story. Welcome to Leverage Consulting and Associates." Hardison walked into the room with files in his hands. "Founded in 1913 by the great Harlon Leverage the Third."

Sophie turned around and laughed at the painting in her back. Danielle realized that it was a portrait of an older version of Nate.

"I'm sorry. Nate is going to kill you." Sophie continued laughing.

"You painted this?" Danielle asked him.

"I'm gifted." Hardison smiled proudly.

"It's weird." Eliot countered.

"Now, Leverage Consulting is squeaky clean." Hardison continued. "All corporate taxes on record as paid for the last ninety years." He handed them new phones. "All your identities as partners, payroll taxes are paid, you guys have pension plans and dental." He handed them files. Files about their lives within the company and their fake IDs. "Those are employment records, case files and company newsletters." Hardison walked out of the room and they followed him.

"In 1998, I won the sack race at the Fourth of July picnic. Cool." Parker said reading her file.

"Now, these—these are your offices." Hardison indicated as they arrived in another hallway. "Now, you can bring something like a photo, uh—You know what? A plant. I'm a big supporter of dandelions."

"Hardison, I can't believe you spent your share of the cash on all of this." Sophie said.

"Me? No, hell no. Nate paid for all of this."

"What?" Danielle exclaimed.

"You know, with what he had left. I mean, you know, after he gave the rest of it away."

"Whoa, what do you mean, he gave it away?" Eliot asked him.

"Yeah. All of it. Every last penny." Hardison shrugged. "It was, uh, to, like, some children's hospital or something like that. But this—" Hardison slid open the wooden doors they had reached. "This is my masterpiece."

They stepped into a large room. In the middle stood a long table, on the wall facing, there were sick flat screens. It looked surreal. It looked professional. It looked like a real company.

"Long version or the short version?" Hardison asked them.

"Short." Sophie nodded.

"Short version." Eliot agreed.

"Shortest." Parker added as they moved on the other side of the large table.

"What they said." Danielle shrugged.

"Photo and video forensics programs, back doors into every electronic banking system in the world. Running heuristic data crawls all over the news sites to find our clients." Hardison explained. "Oh, also—"

"This is the short version?" Parker asked him.

"Facial recognition database tied into CIA, NSA and the FBI." Hardison continued. "But the real piece de resistance, Direct TV HD total sports package."

"Why am I not surprised?" Danielle rolled her eyes.

"NFL, NBA, and I threw in a little bit of hockey because I know you people like that."

"Hockey." Eliot repeated as the doors behind him slid open.

"All right, stop kicking the tires." Nate said as he entered the room. "You wanna take her for a spin?" He threw a flash drive to Hardison.

Danielle sat on the other side of Parker as they watched the video that was on the drive.

"See those guys? Private contractors. They make seven hundred bucks a day. I make seven." The one holding the camera said. There was a large truck, escorted by several guards dressed in black.

The camera turned on another soldier. "Hey, yeah, but you know what they gotta do? They gotta—" As soon as those words left his mouth, they were under fire, the second soldier fell and that was when Nate stopped the video.

"Our client is the cameraman, Corporal Robert Perry." Nate started. "He says that the Castleman contractors spooked and started firing."

"5.56 NATO rounds, mixed in with some nine mills from the submachine guns." Eliot cut in. "Insurgents would have used AK-47 with 7.62 ammo. Has more of a crack." He hit his hands to recreate the sound. "Contractors shot them up, all right."

"You ID'd the weapon from the gunshot sound?" Parker asked him.

"It has a very distinctive sound." Eliot replied.

"Castleman Security is hardcore, folks." Hardison told them. "Billion dollar company, they got fat government contracts everywhere we got troops. That's Charles Dufort, CEO." He showed them a middle aged man. "Very paranoid and very professional."

"I—I want to get this clear right now, this is a private army you're talking about taking on." Eliot turned to Nate. "They got their own intel assets, they got a lot of trigger pullers."

"Yes, and lobbyists in every office in Washington, D.C." Nate retorted. "The problem with a cover up is all the paperwork it takes to keep the lies straight."

"Internal email, memos—"Hardison added.

"Exactly."

"So—"Sophie leaned back in her chair.

"Let's go to work." Nate walked out of the room and the gang followed him.

"So, we steal the evidence, and threaten to expose them." Sophie said.

"Blackmail." Parker said.

"Ah, yes, but just enough blackmail to pay for Perry's rehab, maybe a couple of million more, damages." Nate replied.

"I like that." Danielle smiled.

"Never hold up in court." Eliot commented.

"Ah, but that's why Corporal Perry is lucky. He doesn't have lawyers, he has thieves." Nate reminded them.


Her red hair in a tight bun, her waitress uniform on, she walked among the guests of the Castleman's fundraiser. Carrying her silver tray, all smiles she passed around hors d'oeuvres and other appetizers of the sorts.

"Dufort's here." Sophie said on the comm. "I'll make contact."

"See, what you can squeeze out of him." Nate replied. "Parker, Hardison, time to hit his office."

Danielle joined Eliot by the kitchen doors, as they went to get new silver trays.

"What are you smiling for?" Eliot asked her.

"No reason." Danielle shrugged. "I kinda like that." Eliot just shook his head, grumbling under his breath. "Oh, come on, Grumpy Cat, cheer up. Just picture Hardison's face, rappelling down Castleman's building." That got Eliot to smirk.

"Okay, Hardison, Parker, guard sweeps are every ten minutes." Nate warned them. "That means you got nine minutes, thirty seconds."

"I'm working on it." Hardison answered.

"Pardon me." Sophie approached the Congressman. Danielle kept an eye on her from across the room. "Congressman. Lily McReady." Sophie spoke with a different British accent than hers. "I'm with Executive Orders."

"They're a London based defense contractor." Dufort explained to the Congressman. "Charles Dufort." He shook Sophie's hand. "Executive Orders doesn't work for the US Government." Danielle smiled at a couple as they took some appetizers from her tray.

"Yet." Sophie countered. "Perhaps we can do something about that."

"Yes, well, um—it was very nice to meet you." The Congressman answered. He shook Sophie's hand. "Now, you'll have to excuse me."

"You're not poaching, are you?" Dufort asked Sophie. "Appropriations bill 718. Those are our defense contracts. Don't even bother."

"Mr. Dufort, surely there's enough war to go around." Sophie countered.

"I rather like you." Dufort replied.

"Hardison, Hardison, what's—what's this bill they're talking about?" Nate asked the Hacker.

"You know what? I'd like to give it a Schoolhouse Rock, but this man has an RFID security card reader on his power supply, so little busy." Hardison answered.

"It's a way for the government to set apart federal funds to various programs. School meals, defense, NASA. It has to be renewed every year and voted in Congress." Danielle attempted to explain. "I don't know about the specific details. I mean, I may have oversimplified this. So, don't quote me on it." She smiled at another guest.

"Ooh, old school." Parker exclaimed. "I found a safe. You're not gonna believe this. It's voice activated."

"Great." Danielle grumbled.

"All right, one problem at a time." Nate replied. "Uh, Sophie, I'm going in. We need to get an RFID card to Eliot."

"My company is focused on meeting senators, but, um, I'm thinking congressmen." Sophie kept chatting up Dufort.

"You know the great thing about congressmen, fifty, hundred grand, well spent will get one elected." Dufort explained. "But then, one they're in, the incumbency rate is over ninety-five percent. So, you can get on an average eighteen, twenty years use out of one them. In these uncertain times, buying a United States congressman is one of the best investments a corporation can make."

Danielle only felt disgust towards this man. He had no shame clearly since he was openly speaking about that with Sophie.

"Oh, I just threw up in my mouth a little bit." Hardison commented. "I'm a professional criminal and I find that disturbing."

Nate moved out of his spot, Danielle met him halfway. He took a spring roll on her tray and dipped it in the sauce. He walked over to Dufort and wiped the sauce on the man's jacket. Danielle turned around and continued serving the guests. While Nate walked over to Dufort.

"Know what? You have a little dip." She heard him over the comm.

It was all a distraction. Nate distracted him long enough for Sophie to grab Dufort's RFID card from his wallet. She then called Eliot over. She gave him Dufort's jacket and slipped him the card discreetly under the tray. Danielle joined Eliot further away and grabbed his tray.

"There's no magnetic strip." Eliot stated.

"It emits a little radio frequency." Hardison replied. "Just put it up next to the phone that I gave you."

Eliot did as he was told. He put the card next to the phone, A few seconds and the code was cloned.

"That was quick." Danielle said.

"I'm in." Hardison said.

"Parker, what's the status of the voice lock?" Nate asked her.

"Uh, I've been sampling Dufort's speech, but I still need a few more sounds." Parker answered.

"How many?"

"Well, I only need the sounds puh, tuh, ooh, uh, eh, oh, ah, kuh, ay, eff." Parker replied.

"Ah, only those. Eliot?" Nate called.

"I'm on it." Eliot nodded, disappearing with two trays. Walking over to Sophie and Dufort. "Appetizer, Sir?"

"Sure, what do you got?" Dufort asked him.

"I've got the, uh, pate d'escargot avec beurre d'Argenteuil, and what looks like old duck, kind of greasy." Eliot retorted.

"I'll guess I'll have the first one." Dufort said, indicating the first tray.

"Of course." Eliot did not move. He just kept the second tray under Dufort's nose. "Well, may I have some?"

"The greasy duck?"

"Oh, no, no, I wouldn't have the greasy duck." Sophie shook her head.

"I wouldn't suggest it."

"No. The other one." Dufort answered. "The pate d'escargot with the beurre d'Argenteuil."

"Excellent choice, sir."

"Who is this clown?"

"Pretty good. I got most of them." Parker said. "Okay, now all I need is eff, uh, and kuh."

Dufort spat out the appetizer he was eating. "This is shrimp!"

"Very good then." Eliot walked away from him.

"It's shrimp, you stupid f—"

"Oh, there they are. Really loud, too."

"Okay, Sophie, start the walk away." Nate said.

"I was wondering, could I drop by your office?" Sophie asked Dufort.

"Any time." Dufort shook her hand.

"Where are you going?" Nate asked Sophie.

"Playing a hunch." Sophie answered.

"All right, well, play it fast." Nate replied. "Hardison, what do you got? You've got three minutes."

"Too much. I got all of Perry's medical records." Hardison answered. "Uh, which—it's pretty normal, but they've got psych evaluations, high school records, they're reading his emails."

Danielle frowned up. "Tapping his phones. I've got surveillance photos of Perry here from the hospital yesterday." Parker added.

"Why spend so much money watching our guy?" Hardison asked. "I mean, investigations of the shooting were done months ago."

"Because this is not about the shooting." Danielle said. "They think he saw something. Something he shouldn't have seen."

"Dani's right. The cover-up has nothing to do with the shooting." Nate continued. "It's about the trucks."

"Congressman." Sophie approached the Congressman. "Your support on the next appropriations bill would be very helpful."

"We've already earmarked the new bid contracts for Castleman." The Congressman answered. "They deserve it."

"Nobody's perfect." Sophie countered. "Look at all the trouble they had with that shooting in Najaf."

"I'm sorry?" The Congressman shook his head. "I don't really follow that sort of news. I just a review the contracts."

"Of course."

"Excuse me." The Congressman walked away from Sophie.

"Parker, Hardison, bug out, go back to the office." Nate ordered them. "We're going to the hospital."

Danielle abandoned her tray and apron as she walked towards the exit. "You need to talk to Perry again?" Hardison asked him.

"The shooting wasn't an accident. Perry isn't a victim, he's a witness." Nate explained. "Castleman strike you as the king of company to keep witness alive?"

A company that had its own private army did not tend to keep witnesses alive. Although, Danielle was now curious. What was in those trucks? Was it really worth killing for?


"He's not in his damn room." Nate informed them.

"We're checking all the corridors that are connected to the exterior doors." Eliot said grabbing a lab coat on his way. Dani was walking right next to him.

As both of them were looking for the hitmen that Castleman had sent, Nate and Sophie had located Perry. Eliot and Dani crossed paths with two doctors as they kept looking for the hitmen. Dani looked down to avoid being seen. She frowned up when she saw their shoes.

"Nate, get him clear." Eliot said on the radio. "We can't find—"

She grabbed Eliot's arm. "They're right behind us."

"How do you know?" Eliot asked her.

"Look at their shoes." Dani said. Eliot did and immediately took off after them. Dani on his heels. "It's not the kind of shoes that doctors would wear in a hospital."

At the end of the corridor, they saw Perry being escorted by Sophie and Nate. One of them pulled out a knife, ready to attack them.

"Take the elevator!" Nate shouted at Sophie. He pushed a stretcher to block them.

Eliot ran into both hitters. Knocking them down. As Eliot was busy fighting off the larger one. Dani grabbed the first thing she found, an IV pole and used it to disarm and hit the second one. He grabbed the IV pole, pulled it out of her hand, He put a hand on her neck and pushed her against the wall. She punched his bicep, he let go. She pushed away his arm, and she punched his throat before kneeing him in the groin. And knocked him down. Eliot sent his guy over to Nate who used a defibrillator on him. knocking him out.

Danielle leaned against the wall in the elevator. "Didn't know you could fight." Eliot commented looking at her.

"Oh, well, I have many talents." She said nursing her neck. "You're not too bad yourself, Grumpy Cat." She smirked.


"We got all this stuff off one of the Castleman hitters." Eliot said after he emptied a bag on the table.

"I can't live with the pain. I'm so sorry." Sophie read out a piece of paper that was in the bag. "This is a suicide note."

"The gun is registered in Robert Perry's name." Hardison pulled out the registration on the screens. "The bill of sale belongs to a gun shop a mile from his house."

"I got Perry, uh, squared away in a safehouse." Nate told them pouring himself a glass.

"Playtime's over, Nate." Eliot said. "It's only a matter of time before they come after us. The tall one? The way he used the knife? Ex-Marine, probably force recon."

"You ID'd a guy off his knife fighting style?" Hardison asked him.

"It's a very distinctive style." Eliot answered.

After pouring his glass, Nate drank from the bottle. Dani scrunched up her nose at that. While Eliot scoffed in disbelief, shaking his head.

"For later." Nate said looking at them.

"I didn't sign up for any of this." Hardison said. "What I did before, nobody got hurt."

"I stole paintings for a living." Sophie reminded Nate.

"I never hurt anybody." Parker said.

"I actually hurt people, so—"Eliot shrugged.

"It's part of the job." Dani added in a shrug.

"Nate, if anything had happened to this kid tonight—"Sophie started.

"You know, you guys called on me." Nate cut her off. "You remember? You begged me to run the crew, agreed to play by my rules. Now, walk out if you have a problem with that. Walk out any day if you have a problem with that. It's simple."

Dani looked at her feet. The tension around her was thick, it could have been cut through with a knife. It was quiet. No one said a word. Letting Nate's words sink in.

"We finish this one." Eliot finally said.

"Just one." Parker agreed.

"How do we hit them?" Hardison asked Nate.

"Congressman Jenkins. He's our in." Sophie answered while sitting down. "Looked me straight in the eye and told me he'd never even heard of the shooting."

"So?" Parker shook her head.

"Looked me in the eye?" Sophie repeated. Danielle was as confused as Parker. She didn't see why was that important. "When men are telling the truth they're not looking me in the eye. A man only ever looks a woman in the eye when he's making the effort to lie to her."

"Okay." Danielle nodded.

"Well, you can't argue with that." Eliot said.

"Noted and filed." Hardison nodded.

"All right, Jenkins is Dufort's pet congressman. Let's see if we can get him to bite." Nate suggested. "The best way to get two people to reveal a secret. Get them to turn on each other."

A divide to conquer strategy always worked wonders. People tend to turn on each other when they thought the other party was about to betray them. And for that you had to plant the seed. So, Nate and Sophie were working Dufort and Jenkins simultaneously. Sophie, in D.C., with Jenkins and Nate, in L.A., with Dufort.


"Congressman Jenkins is very careful." Hardison told to Eliot and Danielle back at the office. "No direct bribes, but he's renovating his house and so far he's received over six hundred thousand dollars' worth of work for a little over fifty grand."

"Castleman owns the contracting company, huh?" Eliot asked him.

"I mean, he's going through, like, three shell companies, but yeah." Hardison replied. "And this man loves his house. Just check out his web browsing habits. I mean, look here. See, the man spent three weeks picking out the perfect mahogany wood panels. This site is like wood porn."

"Is it finished, yet?" Danielle asked him.

"Not even close." Hardison shook his head before turning to Eliot.

"Can I borrow your phone?" Eliot asked him chuckling. Hardison dialed the number before handing it over to Eliot. "Hello. Yes, uh, I'd like to cancel delivery on some mahogany wood paneling, please." Hardison was about to say something to Eliot but the latter just pulled away with a scowl on his face. "The Jenkins house? Yeah. You know what? Do me a favor, man, just go ahead and cancel the whole order."

"Uh, what's he doing?" Nate asked them walking in.

"Just ruining Jenkins' day." Danielle looked up at him.

"Aha." Nate put down the popcorn and the beers. "Parker started her run, yet?"

"Just now." Hardison said. Danielle leaned back in her chair, sipping her beer, watching Parker do her magic. "You know, I still think it would be easier for me to just hack the building and prank you."

"No, no, no computers. No." Nate replied. "A bill is put into a wooden box on the congressional floor called the hopper."

"A wood—woah, woah, a wooden box?" Hardison repeated in disbelief.

"A wooden box." Nate nodded.

"Wood." Hardison repeated once more. "Oh, we can put a man on the moon but all our laws go into a wooden box?"

"Yeah, they're old school like that." Danielle smirked.

"What we need to do is we need to get Dufort to believe that Jenkins is abandoning him," Nate explained. "That Jenkins submitted an appropriations bill that doesn't have any of the usual contracts for Castleman. Which means that we have to put our own pages into the bill."

"That means the only place that we could get at it would—" Hardison trailed off finally catching up on Nate's true plan. "Ah!" Nate and Dani chuckled. "Ah, okay." Parker was getting through security. "I mean, break a law, everybody's done that. My mama's done that." Danielle leaned forward, putting her elbows on the table. "But steal a law? Oh, she's gonna be a legend, baby."

They followed her movements on the screen. She walked through the House of Congress. She gave a little wave to the camera. And kept on walking towards the wooden box.

"The Eagle has landed." Parker said over the comm.

"It's in." Nate and Danielle cheered to their success.

"Go ahead, girl." Hardison said. "Sexiness. I like that."

"You might wanna ease up on that a little bit." Nate told him.

"I'm just saying." Hardison replied. "Between me and you. Between me and you."

"Never leaves the room." Nate promised.

"Secret's safe." Dani crossed her heart.


"I've been your advocate in Congress for three administrations." Hardison, Nate, Dani and Eliot listened to Jenkins' and Dufirt's telephonic conversation. Sophie and Parker walked in back from their short trip to D.C.

"Guys, how's Washington?" Nate asked them as Parker and Sophie sat at the table.

"Oh, villains, conmen, wolves in sheep's clothing." Sophie answered. "Felt right at home."

"This is pretty amazing. Listen." Nate retorted.

"—call me, this is your contractor's problem." Dufort said.

"Oh, please. Let's not pretend." Jenkins retorted. Danielle smirked at Eliot.

"You pulled all our earmarks from the appropriations."

"There's about an hour of this, but here, here's a highpoint." Hardison cut in.

"Somebody screwed up."

"I've always been there for you. I called Manila, I cleared customs for you in Los Angeles. And that was a risk."

Hardison stopped the recording. "Now, after that there's—well, whatever you call the rich guys on telephone's version of makeup sex."

"Now, we know Castleman makes a thousand shipments a month. We cross-referenced them with the Congressman's phone records and got a match." Danielle explained. "One shipment came through Manila. Right after the shooting."

Hardison pulled out the photos of the docks. "Their shipments come through here. Now, somewhere in this madness is container 541. It's currently sitting at the Port of Los Angeles."

"What's in it?" Parker asked him.

"No idea. But it's moving in two days." Hardison sat back down. "Heading to the main Castleman storage facility in Kansas."

"Now that—that's why they tried to hit Perry, right there. That's it." Nate pointed out. .

"Yeah. Wanted to tie up all the loose ends before they tucked this one away at home base." Eliot added.

"What do you ship in a crate from Iraq?" Sophie asked the question they all had in mind.

"Oh, boy." Nate leaned over on the table. "Something worth killing for."

The gang left for the Port. They had to check out what was in the crates. They needed to know what Dufort and Jenkins wanted to keep a secret. What they were ready to kill for.


"How's security?" Nate asked over the comms. He and Sophie were on the look out at the front gate. While the four of them snuck in. They hid behind a crate.

"Dockyard entrance is no problem, but—" Eliot answered.

"Here's our crate. 541." Danielle pointed to the container that was guarded.

Eliot started to walk towards the container but Hardison and Danielle held him back. "Hold up, Rambo." He looked on his phone. "There are no lasers, no motion detectors, no vibrations, no—whoops."

"What whoops?" Nate asked him.

"It's a webcam. Picking up its broadcast on my phone."

"Oh, I see it. Up on that pole." Parker said. Up on a container facing 541, a webcam was fixed. Turned to the 541.

"I just have to spook the IP address and overlay a digital duplicate on the WI-FI—" Hardison started to explain. Only to be cut off by Eliot who threw a rock at the webcam, breaking it. "Or that."

"Let's go." Eliot, Parker and Danielle ran to the container. While Hardison complained behind them.

Parker got down on her knees to pick the lock of the container. "What do you think is in there?" Hardison asked them.

"Artifacts from Baghdad museums, maybe some from the Saddam palaces." Parker suggested.

"Nah, I bet it's weapons." Eliot said. "Lot of back alley arms dealing going on in a war zone."

Parker stood up, Eliot and Hardison opened the doors to the container. Inside were pallets of cash. The container was filled to the brim with money.

"Money's good, too." Hardison said surprised.

"Yeah, definitely worth killing for." Danielle breathed out.

This was more money she had ever seen and would ever see in her entire life. There must have been thousands, millions of dollars sitting in front of them. Parker excitedly hugged the money, laughing maniacally. They got some of the cash, closed the doors, and quickly hid on top of the container facing 541. Hiding from the guards that came back to check the perimeter.


Back at the office, Parker was adoringly holding the money, stroking her face with it. While Hardison checked the paper, to see how real it was. If It was even real.

"Okay." Sophie took a wad of cash. "That's worth killing for."

"Ultraviolet checks out." Hardison said. "Paper checks out. The watermarks, the ink, it all checks out."

"There's a whole container of it from Iraq, of all places." Sophie continued. "It's gotta be counterfeit." Danielle put down the cash she had in her hands.

"No." Parker shook her head. "It's real. It feels real."

"Hey. What've you got going on?" Eliot asked her. "You and Hardison, what is it, like, a creepy contest?"

"I don't know, what is it, two, three hundred million dollars in US currency? What's it doing in Iraq?" Sophie questioned.

"We sent it there." Nate revealed.

"What?" Eliot exclaimed.

"Beginning of the Iraq war, my old company helped insure the largest currency transfer in history." Nate explained. "Billions and billions in ones, fives and twenties, all cash, sent to Iraq for reconstruction."

"Bribes." Eliot said.

"As needed."

"All is fair in love and war." Danielle commented leaning back in her chair.

"Nine billion went missing."

"Wait, billion with a 'B?'" Sophie asked in disbelief. "Nine billion dollars of US taxpayer money just disappeared?"

"Castleman gets a cut of the booty." Hardison said. "The day they go to move it, real soldiers, they see the transfer—"

"One of the contractors spooks, starts shooting." Eliot continued.

"Corporal Perry didn't see anything." Parker reminded them.

"And they don't know that. For them, Perry is just a liability, loose end." Danielle replied. "And they can't afford that."

"Castleman is a billion dollar company. Why would they even care about this cash?" Hardison asked.

"Because it's cash." Nate answered. "You know, money is money. That's one thing. Cash is a whole other thing. For all the money in the economy, there's only about $500 in cash for every American."

"Untraceable small bills, perfect for slush funds, or, um, home improvements for US congressmen." Sophie said.

"Or small time donors." Hardison retorted. "You know, for re-election. No electronic trail."

"That sounds like money laundering." Danielle frowned up.

"And it is." Nate looked down at her.

"How so?" Sophie asked him.

"All right," Nate took the pad next to Danielle and started to draw a rough diagram. "Well, Castleman uses the illegal cash to re-elect his congressman. Congressman gets him no-bid contracts for government jobs and then the government pays for his services with legal money. And there's the circle right there."

"They turned the entire US government into a money laundering scam." Hardison smirked.

"That's right."

"Brilliant. I'm impressed."

"Never thought I'd say this, ever." Sophie said. "That is just way too much money to steal."

"No, you're not gonna steal it." Nate told them. "You don't remember? You're the good guys now. You're gonna give it back."

Silence fell on the group as they all looked up at Nate.

"How do we do this?" Danielle asked.


Hardison had worked his magic. He put the webcam's feed on a loop. He, Parker and Danielle snuck in before the guards started their rounds. Nate and Sophie, pretending to be tourists back from a cruise, distracted the guards that were already there. The three of them got to work pretty fast. They had to move some of the cash into their trucks, and create enough chaos to confuse the guards. As for Eliot, he was on Congressman duty. He was at the front gate waiting for Jenkins. His mission was to give him the keys to container 541.

"They changed the lock." Parker said after she checked the locks on container 542.

"Just do what you do." Hardison told her. "I mean, whatever, what you need?" Parker pulled out a C4 charge. "Nah. Mmm-mmm." Hardison shook his head as Danielle slowly backed away from the container. "Stop all that playing. Mmm-mmm. Hell, no."

"This should work just fine." Danielle said as she walked away with Hardison. She got in the back, and pulled Parker in. The bomb went off and Hardison drove the truck away.

Without stopping, Hardison picked up Sophie and Nate. The four of them were in the back of the truck. Holding on to what they could as Hardison was trying to lose Castleman's goons. After a few minutes of a wild ride, the truck suddenly came to a stop. All they found was an empty truck. And as for Jenkins and Dufort, well, they gave themselves away to the press. That webcam they put on for security, had been used against them. Before the day was over, their careers and reputations were completely ruined.


"Hi, guys." Nate greeted Corporal Perry and his doctor. The team had wasted no time in bringing the good news to St. Francis Hospital.

"What do you want?" Doctor Laroque asked them.

"Show them." Nate ordered Hardison and Dani. Hardison opened the back of the truck.

"An empty truck?" She questioned.

"Nothing up my sleeve." Hardison said before he and Dani moved inside the truck. Together they tore the false back and revealed the two pallets of cash.

"Tada." Danielle singsong.

"Is this stolen?" Laroque asked them.

"Not anymore." Sophie answered.

"What are we supposed to do with it?"

"Pay for Corporal Perry's rehab." Sophie suggested.

"And some other guys rehabs." Hardison added.

"Pretty much whatever you want." Parker said.

"Doc, pretty girls show up with a couple of million dollars, I say we take the win." Perry looked up at his doctor. "Thank you."

"Corporal." Eliot walked up to him. "Thank you."

"Thank you." And they shook hands.

Danielle followed her friends as they walked away from the truck. She gave a small smile to Perry. She stopped next to Eliot as they looked on the patients, Perry and Dr. Laroque rejoicing about the great news. This was why she did this job. Helping people, seeing the joy and the relief they felt as they realized that all their troubles were behind them. It felt amazing. It felt right.

"Anybody who wants to walk away can do it right now." Nate said.

"One more." Eliot replied.

"Maybe two." Hardison added.

Danielle smiled hearing this. She knew this was something she never wanted to stop doing. She could do this forever.

"I bought a plant." Parker said as they started to walk away.

"Nice. Team spirit." Hardison replied.

"What does it do?" She asked him.

"I can't believe you gave all your money away." Eliot said to Nate. "You didn't buy yourself anything."

"I bought a car." Nate answered.

"Probably a station wagon." Hardison countered.

"An electric car." Nate told them.

"Of course." Eliot laughed.

"How sweet. Do you have to wind it up?" Sophie asked him. Danielle laughed at that.

"I'm just trying to be responsible." Nate said.

"Responsible? You know it sucks to be the good guy." Hardison told him.

"You haven't figured it out yet, have you?" Nate turned to all of them. "Just cause you're the good guys now, doesn't mean you can't have a little fun along the way."

Nate got into his car, a bright red Tesla. And he drove off.

"Whoo-hoo." Parker let out, amused.

"Sweet." Dani grinned.

"Oh, boy. Midlife crisis." Sophie commented.

"Absolutely." Eliot agreed.

"Definitely midlife." Hardison nodded.

"Totally midlife crisis." Parker smiled.

"Can you be thirty and have a midlife crisis?" Dani asked them.

"What?" Eliot looked at her.

"I was wondering." Dani shrugged.

"It's called midlife for a reason." Eliot answered. "You gotta be forty—forty five at least."

"Yeah, but hear me out, it's called a midlife crisis because people wants a big change in their lives—"

Dani continued on, as the small group walked back together. She felt comfortable with them. They were criminals, sure, so was she. But they were good people. She could do with more of that in her life.