Part of a Crew

Chapter 4

My first job comes a week or so later. I have been training with Parker and Eliot every time I can. When I train with Eliot, it's mostly just sparring, but he has been teaching me new fighting skills as well. More importantly, he is teaching me to identify people. He shows me pictures or videos of different people, and showing me all the little giveaways to tell where they used to for. Like he shows me a video of a person, and will say, "See, he is ex-____." When I ask how he can tell, he answers, "You can tell by his ______." The first couple times, I would ask him, "You can tell that a guy is ex-____, just by his ______?" And he always answered, "Yes! It's a very distinctive ______!" Now, I just stay quiet, and learn. The first day, he pointed out, "Look, that guard, the one on the left, he is ex-CIA."

"How can you tell?"

"By his stance."

"You can tell if a guy worked for the CIA by his stance?"

"Yes! It is a very distinctive stance!"

After a few more of those episodes with things like footprints, haircuts, and knife-fighting skills, I stopped asking. Training with Parker is much different. She hands me a set of lockpicks, and tells me to crack the lock. The first few times it took me a while, then I got the hang of it. I'm not nearly as fast as her, but I am slowly catching up. We have contests, and she beats me every time. She is also teaching me to crack safes. I have good hearing, so I am decent at it. Once again, not nearly as fast or as well as her, but still. I am learning to pick pockets from Parker, but Sophie helps as well. They both show me how to bump into people, then take whatever you need so they don't feel your touch.

I am working at the harbor, doing security detail with a couple of my colleagues. None of them are necessarily my friends. We are all watching a couple guys unload a small freighter ship coming in from Newport, in Rhode Island, a large town/city on an island just south of the Massachusetts border. The men are unloading crates labeled with fish, and even if they didn't have labels, I would have known from the smell.

We are standing there, and the others are talking, but I am on the outer edge of the group, and out of the conversation. I usually am in this place. All my life I have been on the fringe of the group. Suddenly, I feel my phone start vibrating in my pocket. I have a policy not to pick up my phone during work, but I will check it. I never answer, but I always check just in case it is my dad or someone like that. The number is Hardison's main number. He has two other ones, but this is his main one. I make an excuse to Leo, one of my colleagues-he has tried to ask me out four times, but I said no every time(and threatened him that if he asked again, I would beat the crap out of him). I leave the group and answer the call. Hardison says, "We have a job. We want you to come."

"Cool."

"Meet us in Nate's apartment in an hour for the briefing."

"One problem. I actually have to make money, and don't have a lifetime supply of money from past crimes, so I need to work. I am working right now. So I can't be there in an hour, or I will be fired if I leave."

"Be there ASAP."

"I'll see what I can do."

I hang up, and walk back over to the group. I say to Leo, "Sorry. I have to go. My landlord just called and said that a neighbor reported a burglary of my apartment. I have to go check it out. Sorry." Leo answers, "Oh, no. Go ahead. We can cover from here. Just remember to check in with the booth."

"I will. Thanks."

I jog off towards the entrance. I didn't tell an entire lie, because Nate is my neighbor, and as I found out two days ago, Hardison is actually my landlord.

We were at dinner, and Nate mentioned something to Hardison about owning the building. I asked him, "You are my LANDLORD!?" He answered, "Yep. As of last fall, I am the official owner of the building." Turns out, all the trouble I had with my lease when the building switched ownership was because of Hardison. He did it to be able to get Nate back into the game-because apparently, Nate quit last year-and Hardison also wanted to put up the six TV monitors in Nate's apartment. I gave Hardison a lot of crap for giving me the trouble. Eliot smirked, then laughed at Hardison's attempt at giving me a good answer. Nate, Parker, and finally Sophie joined in as well. Hardison made a fuss, then stormed off. He came back later, less upset at our picking.

I learned that lying trick from Sophie, in one of her few lessons with me. She told me, "The best lie is one with a little bit of truth inside it. That makes the lie harder to detect. If someone is outright lying, you can probably pick it up. But, add an element of truth to it, and they may never figure it out."

Anyway, I drop by the office(or as we call it, the booth), and tell my boss inside that I have to leave. He gets mad, then yells at me, "Your fired!" I shake it off, and jog away. My car is parked in the parking lot for our office, and I hop in. Driving away, I think about what new job I can get.

I get back to my building in twenty minutes due to traffic, then park. I run inside, and up the stairs. When I reach my floor, I run to my door, unlock the door, and go inside. Running up to my room, I pull off my belt, and drape it on the bed, then grab new clothes from my dresser. Ten minutes later, I am downstairs, dressed in jeans, a tee shirt, and my boots. I grab myself an apple, then run out. I lock my door, then walk across the hall to Nate's door. I push it open, and walk inside. Nate and Hardison are sitting at the counter, and Parker is eating a bowl of cereal at the kitchen table.

The first thing I say is, "Hello. And thanks for getting me fired. You better have a job all lined up for me to take." Hardison smiles, but I turn around, feeling a presence behind me. Eliot is striding through the door, laughing. He must have heard me. I tell him, "Hey." Then turn back to Hardison and Nate. Hardison's smirky grin has disappeared.

Eliot and I sit down at the counter, and we wait for Sophie. She enters a few minutes later, and sits down next to Nate. From left to right, we sit Eliot, me, Parker, Sophie, and Nate at the end. Hardison is standing in front of us with his clicker in his hand. I tell Hardison, "I meant what I said earlier. Either you find me a new job, or give me money. I can tell you one thing though: don't be expecting any rent money from me for the rest of the time I live here unless either one of those happens." Hardison answers over Eliot's snickering, "Actually, I already cancelled your rent collection. Any rent bill sent to you, just show me, and I'll make it seem like you paid." I remark, "Still doesn't help with any other bills I get. Or money to buy food. Or clothes. Or anything else." Nate interrupts our argument, "We'll figure it out later. Hardison, just run it."

Hardison starts, "Anyway, new client. Name is Martina Eierno." He pulls up a picture on the TVs. "She came to us asking for help with ring of dirty Federales who arrested her son for some total BS crime after he found out about them working in a smuggling ring. Drug running, guns, all that nastiness. Now, they live in Juarez, in Mexico. So this job should be interesting."