I Know The End ✸ Steve Harrington

ii. spy craft

chapter two . . . spy craft

THE BACK ROOM OF SCOOPS AHOY HAD SEEN QUIETER DAYS — it being less chaotic on a normal shift with only two people swapping their time in there. With Steve's shoes practically denting the floor with his constant pacing, Dustin watched the two as they listened to the recording with curious and eager eyes. The two Henderson's were sat at the table, Josie fidgeting with the ring on her middle finger, in full mode of concentration, focused on every word that she had no idea what actually meant, while Steve had ripped open a banana to eat away at while listening to the unknown words reaching his ears.

As the tape recording had reached its end, going silent with a click of a button, Dustin watched both of their reactions carefully, initially wanting both of their opinions the most out of anyone's. "So what do you think?"

"It sounded familiar."

"You understand Russian?" Josie questioned, half-jokingly.

Steve gave her a deadpanned look, "Hilarious. I meant the music."

"What?"

"Yeah, the music, right there at the end."

Dustin creased his brows, visibly upset at the boy's answer. "Why are you listening to the music, Steve? Listen to the Russian! We're translating Russian!"

Steve frowned, slightly looking at Josie for her input. "I'm trying to listen to the Russian, but there's music playing—"

Before the two boys could bicker any further, Robin Buckley was storming into the room, clearly annoyed that she was left to serve customers by herself. "Alright, babysitting time is over. You need to get in there." She announced. "Hey, my board! That was important data, shitbirds." She whipped around at the trio accusingly, pointing at the board that had been wiped clean, now covered in the Russian alphabet Dustin had sprawled across the empty canvas.

"I guarantee you, what we're doing is way more important than your data." Dustin fought back pointedly.

Robin raised a brow, walking closer to the table. "Yeah? And how do you know these Russians are up to no good anyways?"

The boy's head shot up to Steve with widened eyes. "How does she know about the Russians?"

"I don't know." He shrugged sheepishly, his mouth stuffed with banana.

"I can hear everything. You three are extremely loud. You think you have evil Russians plotting against our country, on tape, and you're trying to translate, but haven't figured out a word because you didn't realise Russians use an entirely different alphabet than we do." The trio shared a glance, silenced by Robin's words. "Sound about right?"

Josie nodded in confirmation, now feeling a little stupid that they had gotten nowhere even with the amount of time they had spent sat there. "Pretty much."

Robin smiled, realising her assumption was correct, now wanting in on what the trio were up to. So, without hesitation, the girl stepped forward to snatch the tape up from the table only for Steve to be quicker, swiftly grabbing it first. "Whoa! What do you think you're doing?"

"I wanna hear it. I might be able to help. I'm fluent in four languages."

"Russian?" Dustin's eyes lit up.