Before the Beginning (Part V – "No. Hell no.")

On Eliot's third day in Chicago, he received another call from Victor Dubenich, whose skills at contacting thieves seemed to be improving, at least insofar as he called at midmorning, instead of in the middle of the night. He still didn't quite get the concept of using an alias, though.

"Spencer? It's Victor Dubenich."

"What'd'ya want, Dubenich?"

"I… have a job to offer you."

Eliot cut him off before he could say anything else and called back immediately on David Parsons' phone. The call went straight through, suggesting that Dubenich had called from his personal cell. Idiot.

"Dubenich."

"Mr. Dubenich," he said smoothly, "This is David Parsons, we met for lunch a few days ago. If you are interested in meeting again, I will be at Joy's Noodles at half past twelve." He hung up again before Dubenich could say anything in response.

…

Dubenich and his ex-FBI security guy showed up to the appointed restaurant right on time. Eliot excused himself from chatting with an old friend in the kitchen to join them at their table.

This time, their offer was more in line with his previous work as a transporter, but nothing he wasn't familiar with: 300k to escort two individuals for one evening as additional security. Undoubtedly the two individuals were a hacker, and someone to find them an in, with himself as their heavy hitter and backup, though the way it was phrased, it could simply have been an evening of (ridiculously well-paid) bodyguard work. He wasn't about to argue with the price they offered (he secretly congratulated whichever of the other two had conned these morons into offering that much for a little corporate espionage job).

He agreed, and they shook on it before Dubenich passed him a file. "These are the individuals you will be escorting."

About two seconds later, Eliot opened the file and felt the job go south. He didn't know anything about Alec Hardison, the twenty-two year-old hacker, but he moved in some of the same circles as Parker, and knew her reputation, though they had never met face to face. "No. Hell no," he said reflexively.

"What?" Dubenich was clearly taken aback by his reaction, but Eliot didn't care.

"Parker? You got Parker?"

"Is she good?" Dubenich asked.

"She's the best. She's also completely insane." The cat burglar's reputation hovered somewhere between impossible and legendary, but everyone knew she was crazy. He heard she once free climbed the Eiffel Tower and then BASE jumped off of it with a Matisse from the Louvre and one of those body-wing suits.

"So you're out?"

Eliot hesitated, seriously considering walking away, but no, he had shaken on it. In a business like his, a man's word had to mean something. He shook his head. "Look, you better have something in mind to keep her in check, or this plan is doomed from the start. She'll have us crawling through air vents or rappelling off the roof or some crazy shit."

Dubenich and his security guy exchanged a look. "We'll find someone to… coordinate your efforts," the pudgy VP offered.

Eliot nodded, and the other men left, noodles untouched. (Their loss, as far as Eliot was concerned – Sura Nok made the best phat si-io in town.)

…

"No, it's got to be someone who knows all three of them," Victor rejected Samuels' most recent suggestion of a coordinator for their little heist. "Somebody they'd respect. Someone who would be open to the offer, so not law enforcement. There has to be somebody." It was almost two in the morning, and the trio of conspirators had been at this for hours.

"What about this guy?" Brown said suddenly. He had been looking over everything they could find on the three thieves for a common link among their alleged associates.

Samuels peered over his shoulder. "An insurance guy?"

"Ex-insurance investigator. He got fired. He'd need the money."

Victor joined the other two, staring at the little laptop screen. Brown, whom Victor was beginning to suspect was a bit of an amateur hacker himself, had somehow located a file containing the names of all three thieves. It was an employment record for one Nathan Ford, former employee of IYS Insurance agency. He apparently had chased all of their criminals at one point or another, and had even caught the men, though Parker had eluded him on all occasions.

"That… could work," he said with a smile. "I'll tell him, oh, I don't know… we need one honest man to watch the thieves. It's already set up as a 'retrieval' mission. And it should be easy enough to lure him into the same trap as the others. Yes… good work, Brown. Now find me everything you can on this… Nathan Ford. I want to be sure we have enough leverage to pull him in. After all, it won't be easy getting him to work with his former enemies..."

…

As luck would have it, Nate Ford was in Chicago, put up at a hotel he could hardly afford by a company whose final round of interviews he had just failed. It was almost, Victor thought, as though the universe was handing him the man on a silver platter. Yes, this job had become about ten times more complicated than he had ever intended, but now… he could feel it beginning to come together. All would go according to plan, and by the end of the month, it would be Bering announcing their new short-range jet, not Pierson.

He could hardly wait.