"Good afternoon. Mr. Dubenich, we are honored by your presence," they heard the Nigerian tell Sorenson over the comms.
"No, no, the honor is entirely all mine, getting in on the ground floor of something like this is a wonderful opportunity," Sorenson replied.
Sang sat with her saviors, as she had taken to calling them in her head, at a café across the street from a large office building. Mr. Ford had told her about what they were doing. A part of her felt sorry for her father but knew he was only reaping what he had sowed.
Hardison typed away on his computer as Parker joined them. Sang was still trying to get a read on all of them. They seemed nice enough but they were criminals. She had always been taught criminals were bad people but these were some of the best people she had ever met. Not that she had met many people in her short life.
"Nice job on the zip line," Nate told Parker. Sophie was almost late in getting Sorenson from the lobby and had to use Parker's favorite method of transportation in order to get there in time.
"Totally thought she was going to break a leg. Not bad for a first time," Parker replied grinning. Sang took a small sip of her tea in order to hide her own smile. They all quieted listening in to the conversation coming from inside the building.
"She's closing it up," Nate stated smirking. Soon enough Sorenson exited the building a satisfied look on his face as he got into his car and drove away. Sophie followed soon after joining the rest of the team.
"We got him?" Nate asked her.
"We own him." Sang finished her tea as the others began packing up their stuff.
"Okay gang, let's go. We got a busy day tomorrow," Nate told the team his gaze lingering on their newest addition. She seemed to be coping well enough but he was still worried about her.
"This is going to work, right?" Sang asked them.
"I guarantee it," Nate told her with absolute confidence. This sick bastard was going down.
Sorenson made it back to his office in record time. He grabbed his head engineer and drug him into his office.
"This is insane. We are risking everything," he told his boss. Sorenson motioned for him to be silent as he bent down to look under his desk. The engineer cut off upon seeing the flashing red light on the black transmitter. They walked back out of the office before the engineer asked what it was.
"It's a transmitter and they've been listening to everything I've been saying."
"Who are they?" Sorenson pulled out his phone and showed the picture he had received. Nate and Sophie were clear as day talking to each other.
"Who do you think? Also, I've checked, there's no office for the African Commercial Trade Initiative anywhere in the city. They've been hustling me and I know exactly what they're doing. Tomorrow, it stops. Get the FBI on the phone." Sorenson refused to be played a fool. He would not let them ruin everything now.
"Yes, sir," the engineer paused as he was walking away turning back to his boss. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?"
"Yeah, they're pissed, I get that. They want to make me pay. I mean, an opportunity like this, the same week as the Shareholder's Meeting. The bug, the fake offices, cash bribes, Nigerians for god's sake! Nigerians! I mean, it's like those email scams with Nigerian bank fraud letters. Who the hell do they think I am? Some dog they can just lead around? They're going to find out exactly how wrong they are."
This was it. This was the day her father would be going to jail. Sang could hardly believe it. The plan sounded confusing and risky but Mr. Ford seemed confident which made her feel better. Was she a bad person for wanting her father in jail?
She didn't have much time to contemplate it before they were headed out the door. She knew what they were doing wasn't necessarily legal but she couldn't help but feel excited. Excited to be a part of something, excited to be out in the real world, she didn't know and she didn't care. It was a happy change to her life before. She hoped it didn't go away.
They waited in their spots as Sophie made her way to Sorenson. She was disgusted by the man but managed to push it down and get into role. The job was more important than her personal feelings though the man could use a good kick to the balls if you asked her.
"Well, aren't you the cat that ate the canary?" she asked him.
"Guilty," he replied glancing behind her at the Nigerians. "Why don't we get this done?"
"Now?" Sophie asked surprised.
"Yeah."
"You have the whole payment?"
"Absolutely, I think we should make the deal. I want to make the announcement, get even bigger headlines. I'll take them into a conference room away from all this. Go, go, go, let's do it," Sorenson ushered her toward the Nigerians obviously motivated to finish the deal.
"I'll be right back," she told him heading toward the other party.
Sorenson led them up into a conference room ushering everyone inside.
"Gentlemen, now everybody come in, relax, make yourselves comfortable," Sorenson told them.
"Thank you," one of the men replied taking a seat. Sophie surveyed the room staying in the doorway.
"I assume we all understand the terms of this agreement."
"Well I'll tell you, the exact terms of the agreement, are these," Sorenson stated pressing a button on his phone. Several FBI agents appeared entering the room quickly and with purpose.
"FBI, don't move."
"You all right, sir?" The agent in charge asked.
"Yes, of course," a Nigerian said.
"Oh, I'm fine," Sorenson replied at the same time. Before he could say anything else, two of the agents grabbed Sorenson's arms keeping him in place. He looked around at them shocked.
"What? What are you ...? Wait a minute, wait a minute, let go of me, please. What are you looking at me for, the criminals are sitting right over there, look at them. Listen, I spoke to Special Agent Higgins, if you call him on the phone," he told them pulling his arms free.
"I'm Special Agent Higgins. Richard Sorenson you are under arrest for soliciting a bribe from these Nigerian Government officials," the head agent told him flashing his badge.
"I'm not-I'm not soliciting--these aren't even Nigerians," Sorenson stuttered in disbelief. The Nigerian held up his passport proving his identity. "No. No, no."
"Your woman knew that when she contacted us last week."
"My... woman? Anna? Anna?" he called for Sophie but when he looked around she was nowhere in sight. "Um, Special Agent Higgins, Anna Gunschtot works for them."
"Ridiculous. She contacted us on your behalf. She told us she worked directly under you now."
"B—but," Sorenson couldn't wrap his head around what was happening. A realization jolted him in action. "The shareholders! The shareholders!"
Sang watched from a safe distance with Mr. Ford as he father raced out of the building followed closely by the FBI. Agents were swarming the building rounding up the people present and collecting various files and such. In summary, it was utter chaos.
Police lights danced across the windows of the building and set the scene for Richard Sorenson's demise. Small white pieces of paper fell from the sky. They were trying to get rid of evidence but it was too late. As far as the FBI knew, Richard Sorenson had solicited and deposited a bribe from a group of honest Nigerian business. Who knew what else they would find on his servers.
Sang smiled as the rest of the team exited the building looking pretty smug. She was feeling pretty satisfied herself. She glanced at Mr. Ford only to find a similar expression on his face. Job done. Well almost done.
Nate walked into the unfinished office spotting the man easily waiting by the window. Just the man he needed to see.
"I came alone," Pierson stated as he approached.
"Yes, I know, thank you Mr. Pierson," Nate said. "Now I understand your research was completely wiped out. I have complete copies right on these hard drives along with absolute proof that they were on Sorenson Aerospace computers, that should be good for a couple of lawsuits, right?"
"I drop the investigation of all parties involved with the original theft," Pierson stated with a knowing look in his eyes.
"That seems fair. You get your property back."
"Agreed. No charges. Nothing on you or your people." Nate handed him the hard drive before walking away. There was just one more loose end he needed to tie up.
"Don't you want money?" Pierson asked as he walked away.
"This particular project has a different revenue stream."
Sorenson sat in his office as his world came crashing down around him. FBI agents swarmed through his files taking box after box away. The news played on the T.V mocking him.
"In a massive sell-off sparked by multiple federal investigations of Sorenson Aerospace the stock plummeted 33 percent before trading was halted," the reporter stated. His phone began to ring distracting him. Reluctantly, he answered it.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, you should have just paid us," Nate told him.
"I found the transmitter," Sorenson stated still in denial about how this all could have happened.
"Oh, you found the transmitter with the blinking light, yeah, we wanted you to figure some of it out. Then we just gave you what you were expect."
"I am Richard Sorenson, I am going to beat this." Hearing the arrogance in his voice, Nate couldn't help but smirk. He still wasn't getting it.
"Aren't you forgetting about the bribe?"
"Who cares? You can't prove anything, I didn't get any money." Right as he spoke, the FBI agents opened the safe behind his desk taking out handfuls of cash. Sorenson stared at it in shock.
"No, it doesn't account for all of it. Sophie kept a little to buy a truly impressive number of shoes. See if a company's stock price falls ten, fifteen percent in one day and you see it coming, you sell short, you make a lot of money. If it's going to fall thirty percent you can make shattering amounts of money. We didn't need the FBI to show up and take you to jail, we just needed them to show up and take boxes out of your office, all day long in front of TV cameras, scaring your investors," Nate paused before finishing what he wanted to say. "But you are going to jail but not for your sleezy business ways, no. You are going to jail for what you did or should I say didn't do for Sang." Sorenson sat speechless. He knew that girl was more trouble than she was worth but he never imagined she would actually do anything.
"I wouldn't say anything about us to the Feds. Next time we won't be so nice." Nate hung up before Sorenson could say anything. Sorenson stared at the phone as a FBI agent walked over to him.
"Who was that?" Rage boiled inside of him but now was not the time. He would get out of this and he would make those stupid thieves and that useless daughter of his pay. But now was not that time.
"Nobody."
The team stood in a circle, Sang glanced at each one in turn. They were all so different yet similar at the same time. It fascinated her. Hardison handed each one of them an envelope including her. She looked at it in shock and tried to give it back but he shook his head and refused to take it.
"Job well-," Nate started but stopped short once he looked at the check. "Whoa!"
"There was an overlap in the London stock market. Valuation carried over to NASDAQ and... I'm just very good at what I do," Hardison told them looking smug.
"This is the score. THE score," Parker said excitedly.
"Age of the geek, baby." Sang giggled slightly before covering it up. She glanced at her own check and sobered up quickly. She didn't deserve this. She didn't do anything. They saved her. If anything, she owed them.
"Somebody kiss this man so I don't have to," Eliot said.
"So, we're out, huh? I mean we're out, this is retirement money. This is go legit and buy an island money." Hardison words had the lot of them thinking.
The thought of being on her own was terrifying to Sang but these people had already done so much for me. She refused to be a burden to any of them. But in order to accomplish that she needed the money. She would take care of herself and one day she would repay them. No matter what.
"Uh, yeah. Pleasure working with you," Nate told them.
"Yeah, one show only. No encores," Eliot added.
"I already forgot your names." They all shared looks before turning away and walking in different directions.
Nate was surprised to see Sang leave following Parker's statement but let her go. She was now a very rich young woman who seemed resourceful and was definitely strong enough to survive on her own. He couldn't stop the surge of worry that hit him though. There was nothing he could do now so he shook his head and continued walking. He didn't make it far.
"You know I never had that cool a time on a job," Hardison said walking up to him.
"It's a walkaway," Nate told him as he continued to walk but Hardison just kept up with him.
"And I got focus issues, brother you kept me right on." Parker appeared on his other side.
"I'm really good at one thing—."
"Parker."
"...only one thing that's it, but you, you know other things and-and I can't stop doing my one thing, can't retire ..." Before he could reply, Eliot walked up to the group.
"You want to know what I think?"
"Not really," Nate replied in disbelief. The world's best thieves couldn't handle a simple walkaway.
"How long until you fall apart again?" Nate snorted at the question and attempted to continue walking.
"Oh I'm touched," he replied the sarcasm flowing freely.
"Well a guy like you can't be out of the game, that's why you were a wreck, you need the chase."
"Yeah, I'll manage," Nate told Eliot before answering his then ringing phone. "Yeah." He froze upon seeing the familiar figure on a nearby bench. Sophie hung up her phone walking over to the group.
"You pick the jobs," she told him.
"My job is helping people. I help find bad guys."
"Then go find some bad guys. Bad guys have money. Black King, White Knight." He opened his mouth to reply but stopped short seeing a short blonde walk up behind Sophie. The entire team was shocked the young girl came back.
"I don't have anywhere else to go," Sang admitted to the group. She had made it a total twenty feet before her panic overtook her. She couldn't do this. She didn't know anything about the real world. Sure she had a lot of money now but all the money in the world couldn't buy her what these people could teach her.
Some of them smiled slightly other nodded accepting the young girl into their ranks. Nate was concerned about having her along for the ride. He didn't want to lead her into a life of crime but was that any better than leaving her to fend for herself on the streets.
Nate surveyed the group and couldn't believe he was about to agree to this. It sounded crazy but just crazy enough that it might work. They definitely had their work cut out for them.
***Sorry about the wait! Finally done with the first episode. Thanks for sticking with me! As always please vote, comment, and let me know what you think! Happy Reading!!