Menagerie -- Jack of Clubs (Updated 8/29/23)

As she closed the door however, she started to notice inconsistencies. Slight differences from the way she normally kept things that maybe the average person might brush off as forgetfulness. To Hallie, however, they jumped out, one by one, as if a light shined on them to point them out. The picture of her family from the last reunion was askew inside its frame, and she didn’t touch that picture enough to have caused that herself. One of the drawers on the cabinet next to her desk was slightly open in a way that immediately pissed her off. The odds and ends she kept on her desk to fiddle around with were out of place, even though they were still on the desk. The intruder had been careful, but not careful enough to hide their tracks from her.

She froze and scanned her eyes over the room through the part of the door that was still open. Briefly, the thought to grab her pistol ran across her mind, but she swiftly dismissed it. It would be handy, and it wasn’t like the neighbors would ask any unpleasant questions. An intruder was an intruder, and she could kill them and avoid any further unpleasantness about what the intruder stole. She already knew that the stolen objects came from her dossier on the Menagerie. Those were kept in very specific places, places that most people wouldn’t think to look for valuables or information, but were definitely looked through now. The death of an intruder and a quick call to 911 would give her time to erase that potential issue before the authorities showed up.

But, unfortunately, that would require her to leave the doorway unattended.

Instead, she stepped into her office and swung the door shut behind her softly. She couldn’t risk making any loud noises, not this late at night. In a move that would normally make the young woman laugh at how stupid it looked, she snatched a ballpoint pen off of her desk and flipped the cap off. It was stupid. She wasn’t a particularly strong woman, and the thought of stabbing an intruder with a pen was laughable, but it was better than nothing. It’d at least cause enough of a ruckus to let her husband know she needed help, and that was good enough.

Hallie crept quietly across the room, an extra effort made to not cause the floorboards to creak, with her pen at the ready. She checked underneath her desk first, empty, but one of the papers on the surface was slightly wrinkled as if someone had dropped it and awkwardly caught it. The space between two filing cabinets also turned up empty, and she felt her stomach sink in dread. She thought to close the drawer, so that it wouldn’t distract her. There was one place left to look, and she sure as hell hoped that it turned up a clueless robber that had no idea what they held.

Before she thought about it further she lunged across the room and ignored the sharp pain in her lower back that resulted from the move. In a single movement, she slammed the closet door open and kicked whoever might lurk inside.

Instead, her foot connected with thin air and the winter coats that they had put up for the season.

Any shred of calm analysis had left her by that point, and the hacker wheeled around on one foot to hurry back to her hiding places. They were gone. They were gone and she’d been none the wiser until the intruder had already left. Mongoose flipped numbly through her hidden documents. Ledgers of what they’d stolen and what they’d sold for were still intact, names of contacts were left untouched. The only thing that she couldn’t account for was…

The alert from a new text startled her out of her daze, and she took her phone out to look at the message. It took a second for her to comprehend, all of the energy that she’d felt moments prior now trembled out of her hands and caused the screen to shake in front of her.

-- x --

As far as she was concerned, a year in the Menagerie hadn’t prepared Jackrabbit to go dumpster diving.

The getaway driver threw a nervous glance at her colleague, a lanky young man with olive-toned skin and dark hair, before she confirmed her worst fears, “Cobra, you don’t think she hid the next clue in the garbage, do you?” She hoped he’d jump in and immediately tell her no. Tell her that the clue was hidden in a cute little cafe in the downtown area, somewhere she could get coffee.

She desperately needed that coffee, too. She’d gotten a call from Mongoose the night before, maybe around 1, where the hacker explained next to nothing and just told her to move her ass up to Florence as soon as possible, in no uncertain terms. It was that conversation that led to the Buc-ee’s in that city, where she had stood with a small bag of her things and a light snack. During this time, her phone remained irritatingly silent, with no further context given by either Mongoose or Cobra, the latter of which had promised to pick her up.

The whole job had left an odd taste in her mouth -- one that hadn’t been helped by the prospect of dumpster diving. After Cobra picked her up, there had been a long, inexplicably tense drive to Greenville, where her counterpart pretended things were fine and normal, but also refused to answer any of her questions. The “refusing to answer questions” part wasn’t that weird in most situations, but Cobra normally briefed them all on jobs when he had to pick them up. Jobs weren’t secrets, not within the gang, but he’d acted as if he’d taken a vow of secrecy on whatever this was, only telling her that Mongoose had left a trail of clues throughout the city to lead them to the meeting point.

Cobra only gave a noncommittal hum in response, his eyes glued to his phone. There was a moment of silence between the pair, and Jack hopped up the side of the dumpster, ready to do something she’d surely regret later.

Jack blinked in surprise before she walked over to investigate the paper with her friend. “That was fast, how did you figure it was right there?” It hadn’t taken him long to suddenly realize where their boss had left the clue, and she had no idea if Cobra had just received inside information, or if he was just good at guessing.

This question was met with a light shrug. “I’ve worked with Mongoose for a long time. It seemed like a place she’d put it.” He handed her the clue and opened up the bag of beaver nuggets he’d been holding on to since they’d left Buc-ees that morning. The British man read the bag for a minute before going, “I wonder how spicy “sorta spicy” even is?” He popped the chips open and tried one, making a face and muttering something in a language that Jack couldn’t quite place. “What’s the paper say?”

Back on task, Jack unfolded the little strip of paper, only to find…

The master thief took the paper from her, studying it for a moment. “You’ve got me about the bell, but maybe look up bridges around here? These lines right here, they’re sideways. Looks like a bridge?” At his request, Jack pulled out her phone and looked up bridges in the area after firing off a quick text to Mongoose.

The pair made it to Falls Park -- and by proxy, the bridge -- in record time. The early hour meant that the streets were almost barren, and the sun had just begun to dust the park in light. It was a bit of a struggle to keep pace with Cobra, Jack assumed that they were finally at the meeting spot from the way he rushed down the path. “So what’s this whole thing about anyway?” She knew that Cobra avoided her questions like the plague, but now that they were nearly here she hoped that he would be a little more open.

That hope was dashed within moments. Once they arrived at the bridge, Cobra draped his arms languidly over the side of the bridge, as if he didn’t have a care in the world. He regarded the bag of beaver nuggets that, despite his obvious distaste earlier, he’d refused to leave in the car. “Think I could safely feed these to the ducks? I’d worry about ducks and spice, but they’re not all that spicy.” Jack knew he wanted to look casual, but she’d seen him truly at ease before, on other heists, and this wasn’t it. There was a certain set to his jaw, a muscle tensed unconsciously, that belied the opposite.

Cobra let out a long sigh and put his phone away, his cheerful mask dropping for a moment. He turned to Jack, expression neutral. “I’m not supposed to tell you until everyone gets here. The situation is…complicated, and Mongoose is worried about information being compromised. It’s why we followed the clues here, it’s why I didn’t brief you like normal. This isn’t a normal job, and I can’t tell you more than that.” Well, Jack supposed that was some form of a serious answer, even if he didn’t tell her what the actual situation was. It did, however, make way for more questions.

Silence fell between the two of them then, and Jack’s attention turned to the park around them. The sun was fully up by now, and that meant that more people were out and about. Two young men laughed and shoved one another, probably trying to push the other into the Reedy river. A young woman wandered by with a stroller, embroiled in a heated conversation that Jack would’ve tried to eavesdrop on, if the woman’s Spanish wasn’t so rapid. A muscular woman paused her morning jog on the bridge, leaning against the rails to text and catch her breath.

Further off down the path, however, Jack spotted a couple of familiar faces. A buff, dark skinned man with long braids that towered over his companions met her eyes and flashed his familiar wide grin in her direction. Beside him, a thin, pale woman with a neat blonde bun gave a small wave.

The only warning Cobra got was the hurried, “They’re here!” that Jack gave before she darted off towards Crocodile and Mockingbird. “Guys!” She lightly punched Croc’s shoulder in greeting, before she gave Mock a wave in return. Croc’s returned shove, however, launched Jack into someone else, and she spun around to apologize.

The jogger laughed, waving her apology off with her hand and tucking a strand of black hair behind her ear. “Don’t worry about it, none of us are really awake yet. Just be more careful, we don’t need someone falling off the bridge and getting hurt.” With that, she put her phone away and jogged further down the bridge.

Jack tried to shake off the embarrassment that still lingered from the incident and turned to her friends. “Okay, so we’re all here, right? Will you two please-” The young ginger woman paused herself this time, taking a mental count. “Where’s Mongoose? Didn’t she come with you guys?” The question was directed to Mock and Croc, who as far as she was aware, were picked up at the airport by their boss.

Before long, however, a likely candidate appeared, and Jack was a little taken aback at how normal she looked. In film and anime, the hacker usually appeared as a scrawny, greasy little man with shiny glasses that looked like he hadn’t seen the light of day in a week. In real life, apparently, you could lose track of them in the nearest Starbucks. With curly, dark red hair and a cardboard tray of five coffees balanced precariously in her hands, she looked no more dangerous than any of the other random passersby on the bridge. As she reached the group, she began to hand out the coffees. Cobra handed her the nearly full bag of beaver nuggets in return, with a casual “Don’t worry, they’re not spicy, even the ducks could eat them, so you won’t have a problem.” While Jack expected Mongoose to scold him for focusing on something so stupid, this comment just earned an odd look from her.

There was no way that Mongoose hadn’t heard him, but she ignored the question until everyone had received a cup. Jack cleared her throat to prompt her, but then took a sip of her coffee as their boss turned a withering glare on her. Upon closer inspection, it appeared that her accomplice hadn’t slept at all recently, her brown eyes rimmed with red.

Jack felt her muscles loosen a bit at this knowledge. Sure, this was bad, but not incomprehensibly bad. They could still fix this. Mongoose wouldn’t have called them to fix this if she didn’t think it could be fixed. Some enemy had stolen some sensitive information, whatever that might have been, and they just had to find the bad guy and steal it back. Maybe not an easy task, but Cobra had been wrong. This was just another job.

She clapped her hand down on Mongoose’s shoulder, which caused her older friend to startle and stare daggers at her. “Don’t worry, Mongoose! We’ll get the files back, no problem! I’m sure between the five of us, it’ll-”

Mongoose removed Jack’s hand from her shoulder and delicately dropped it away from her. Jack tried not to take that move personally. “Yeah, there’s just the problem that we don’t really have any idea who could’ve taken it.” She reminded her. “We don’t really have any leads. The thief was careful. No hair, no fingerprints, nothing along those lines.”

The two older women stared each other down in what felt like hours of silence, and Jack realized that she had unconsciously shrunk back towards Croc and Cobra during this time.

Mongoose brushed off the tension, then. “Besides. You take a job, you give your employer information. You don’t call that an invasion of privacy. It’s just the difficult business of doing business. It’s not like I gathered that info with the sole purpose of it getting stolen.” Their boss began to walk away from the bridge, then, and gestured for the group to follow her.

Jack had to admit that he had a point, and searched the surrounding area for anyone that looked suspicious. The mother had ended her angry phone call and now sat on a park bench, rolling the stroller back and forth. A young man sat underneath a tree, by the water’s edge, and sketched something he saw on the bridge. The jogger from before jogged back towards the bridge, careful to avoid other pedestrians.

No one looked suspicious, but even still, Jack felt her phone buzz. As she pulled it out of her pocket, it felt as if it weighed half a ton. She unlocked the screen and touched the unread notification, dread already filling a pit in her stomach as she read it.

Mongoose, who had been quiet during this whole exchange, startled violently. “What?” She snapped, before collecting herself a bit more. “Right, the tickets. Don’t worry about them, no. Just get your affairs in order, call whoever you need to, keep from raising any alarm bells, you all know the drill.” This return to their standard routine appeared to steady the older woman a bit, and she continued. “Remember, nothing too outlandish. A work trip that you need to accompany your employer on,” This was directed to Mock. “A sabbatical for your practice,” She nodded at Croc next. “Something that makes sense.” Jack’s cheeks flushed at this comment, her gaze meeting Mongoose's.

So she still remembered the botched "art show" alibi, then. Neat. She wasn't living that down any time soon.

She probably should call her brother, though. Jack hadn't had an alibi when she headed out this morning, she hadn't really had enough information to tell Dylan anything right away. Her solution at the time had just been to sneak out of the apartment and leave a note that she'd be back later, but a note wouldn't hold him long. The fact he hadn't already called had been a miracle, it had been hours. She dialed his number as she took a couple of steps away from the group.

She was met by the busy tone, and she frowned at the sidewalk beneath her, confused. Who in the world was he talking to this early in the morning? It went to voice-mail, and while she wanted to know what he was up to, she was a little relieved he hadn't picked up.

Jack hung up and made her way back to the group. Mock was the next one back, her eyebrows furrowed as she read something on her phone screen. Croc hadn't even walked away from where Mongoose was standing, and she heard the last snippet of his conversation, "Tell Mom I'll call her when I get to the hotel, keep Iyana in line, I love y'all. Bye." As Jack reached the others, Mongoose hung up her phone as well with a quick, "Alright, dear. Bye." Cobra was the last one to return to the group, having already hung up before he got there.

Jack looked between her teammates, then, nervous. The energy was weird between the group right now, and no one was really saying anything. It was Croc who finally broke the silence.

“So why London, do you think?” If anyone would speak their mind in this group, it would be Crocodile. The big guy had always been pretty open and friendly with her, and she was dying to know his thoughts on this whole situation. Now that they were away from the others, he might speak a bit more freely. “I mean, what’s so important about London?” Well, besides it being London, she supposed.

Her hopes were dashed when Croc shrugged, his brow furrowed in what appeared to be deep thought. “There’s the London Museum, for sure. Then there’s the National Gallery, the Wallace collection…” He rattled off a list of locations, before he paused and looked down at his hands awkwardly. “One of my little sisters is an art major. I told her I was heading to London and she gave me a checklist of things to see.” This earned a chuckle from her friend, and he continued. “I don’t know how much sightseeing we’re actually going to get done, but it is a helpful list, all things considered.”

Jack nodded along in agreement, and her attention wandered back to the people around them for a bit. What were they here for? Obviously, to steal something. Their enemy wouldn’t have sent them to another country for fun when they could just get them arrested back in the US. London didn’t seem like a particularly odd choice, at first glance, for a heist. But it really was, the more that she thought about it. The Menagerie had only ever stolen things back home, as far as she was aware. Hell, they never even really left the east coast for that matter. That’s what made this bizarre to her. The only one of them that knew anything about London would probably be…

Croc shook his head. “Cobra’s from London, but he doesn’t live here anymore.” He explained, before he elaborated further. “For a long time, he lived in the Boston area. He mentioned moving somewhere else maybe a year or two ago?” The big man considered it for a moment, before he shrugged it off. “Maybe he did move back.”

Just then, Jack saw a familiar flash of blonde in the crowd approaching them, and she leapt to her feet. “Mock’s here! That must mean their plane’s arrived, right? The three of them were on the same flight.” As she spoke to Croc, Jack waved her arm in an attempt to catch the doctor’s eye. It worked, and Mock changed her course to meet them.

-- x --

The ride to the hotel could have hosted a funeral party, each member of the party too anxious to discuss anything going on with the Uber driver nearby. Any questions from the curious driver were answered by Croc, who spun a quick tale of a vacation amongst friends. A sightseeing trip hosted by their British friend, the veracity of which was helped by a quick agreement from a slightly queasy looking Cobra.

-- x --

The text from Mongoose came around four in the morning, and Jack was ready for it. She hadn’t been able to settle down at all that night, and had scrolled through her phone for the majority of the time. The last text had been sent to her, so in case the blackmailer struck her phone again, she watched it like a hawk. Every little sound could have been an intruder, or a sign, or anything, and the young woman had been absolutely wired all night.

When her phone buzzed from receiving the hacker’s text, the sudden motion made her throw it to the floor. After she got out of bed and sheepishly picked it up, a quick muttered apology was given.

The blatant good cheer and childish fascination with the view of all things threw Jack off for a moment, and she turned to wake Mockingbird up. Unlike her, the doctor had slept like the dead, and Jack was slightly envious. “Ay, ay Mock. Wake up. It’s go time.”

After Mock had been stirred awake, the pair stumbled groggily to the fourth floor of the building. Mongoose met them at the door, and after she’d ushered them inside, Jack heard the lock click behind them. With a small feeling of hilarity, Jack noted that Mongoose had to stand on the tips of her toes to look through the peephole at the door. It wasn’t a bad thing, Jack had to do similar things all the time, but it warmed her slightly towards her aggressive boss.

Cobra was already in the room, the lean man still dressed in the clothes that he’d arrived in. He lounged in the weird corner armchair, the one that held a place in every hotel ever, for reasons Jack never understood. A loud knock at the door brought in Croc, who looked like he’d also gotten some rest in their downtime. He took one look at Cobra, and raised an eyebrow.

She did have to wonder where he’d been, however.

Mongoose, Jack noticed, also looked like she’d actually gotten some rest, which shocked her slightly. If she’d picked anyone to stress over this whole mess and not be able to relax, it would’ve been the boss herself. But the older woman’s curly, dark red hair looked messy, and she looked far less like she was about to take a swing at one of them. “I’m sure you’ve all realized I got a text.” She motioned for the others to come closer, then, and pulled out her phone. She, Croc, and Mock all drew near to investigate, the taller two able to read from over Mongoose’s shoulders. Jack found herself at the hacker’s side, where she found it easier to see. Cobra continued to lounge in the armchair.

Mongoose gave them a minute to read it before she spoke again, “Have you ever just wanted to…” The woman mimed throwing her phone at the wall, before she let out an irritated sigh. “Why the park? Why not just directly tell us where we’re going? This whole damn thing is obnoxious.” So the calm that Jack thought she saw earlier wasn’t actually a thing, it seemed. She didn’t really agree that the word for the situation they were in was obnoxious, that felt like a really mild word for an actual threat against their lives and freedom. But she could understand her friend’s irritation.

To his credit, the man lounged across the armchair appeared to be taking her request seriously. “Greenwich…” He mused, hand on his chin. “Off the top of my head, no. I mean, people go there and use the views as inspiration, but it’s not like it’s known for art shows or anything. It’s a park.” Jack sighed in defeat. There went that idea.

Actually taking action in their situation appeared to have put some energy and focus back into the group, and Mongoose nodded in response to Mockingbird’s plan. “Right. Everyone, get dressed and meet back down in the lobby.” She must have still been irritated, because Jack heard her mutter. “God, I hate London.”

Cobra, whose eyes had been glued to his phone for the last part of the conversation, put it away and got to his feet. “Great, I’d hate to be arrested in my pajamas, just in case things don’t pan out for us.”

-- x --

Everyone treated that as the end of the discussion, then, and began to filter out of the room to get ready.

Mock left first. She cited the time the car would be around as a warning to the others about not screwing around, and then left without further word or comment. Croc was next to go, his eyes on the ground and his forehead wrinkled. Something was on her friend’s mind, and Jack was determined to find out what. She threw a quick glance back at Cobra, who shook his head. “I’ll be out in a minute, I have a question for you, Mongoose, if you have a minute?” At Mongoose’s nod, Jack turned toward the door to leave.

Once outside in the hall, she caught up to Croc. “Hey big guy, you okay there?” She reached out to touch his arm to get him to slow down, and then stopped herself. It turned out the action wasn’t needed, however, and Croc stopped beside her and slowed his pace to match her own. “You got pretty quiet in there after a bit.”

Croc shook his head to answer her question, clearing his throat before he explained. “Something’s up with Cobra,” He said, his voice hushed and urgent. “He didn’t come back to the room at all after setting his stuff down. Just plopped his bag down on the bed and announced that he was going to check to see if the hotel had any vending machines. He wanted something specific, I don’t remember, but you don’t look for a vending machine for several hours, Jack.”

Jack felt like that elaboration, about the time it took to look for vending machines, wasn’t exactly necessary, but chalked it up to her pal’s stress. “He was probably with Mongoose, Croc, he was in there when Mock and I got there, and it didn’t look like he’d arrived moments before us, either. And we didn’t take that long after the text was sent to get there.” She reasoned, in an attempt to calm him. “You think that he and Mongoose are a thing, though? I could see it -- he gets away with a lot of shit that she probably wouldn’t let him get away with if they weren’t sl-” Her attempt to lighten the mood with some friendly gossip was dashed with Croc’s retort.

Jack yelped, jumping away from the source of Cobra’s voice. Croc visibly cringed and his face flushed a deep red.

Cobra must have asked his question and caught up to them, and the two of them had been so embroiled in this conversation that they hadn’t heard his approach.

Cobra waved off the question merrily, giving his usual mischievous smile. “It’s okay, I didn’t realize that you didn’t know when my birthday was.” The lanky man made his way around the pair of thieves, and Croc drew back slightly to avoid touching him. “I’ll see you guys in the lobby, then?” He walked off without waiting for a response, and Jack watched him go.

Somehow, despite her dismissal of Croc’s concerns, there was something about that exchange that made her skin crawl.

Croc’s words swam around in Jack’s head, whirled around by her own thoughts on the matter. Was Cobra acting suspiciously? Jack instinctively wanted to say no. After all, hadn’t Cobra always been a supremely dodgy asshole? Him refusing to answer questions felt normal to her. Did Croc know something that she didn't know about him? Were they on friendlier, more familiar terms?

She’d known Cobra for a year now, same as the others, and he’d always been a bit shifty and indirect. That didn’t make him a traitor, or even a bad guy. Or…any worse of a guy than the rest of them were, she supposed. They were all quasi-wanted criminals. They weren’t exactly doing this for charity.

But Cobra had never been anything but kind to her. Apart from Croc, she felt like she had the best rapport with the British thief. She spent the most time with the guys, and struggled to know where she stood with the women in the Menagerie, but Cobra had shown up to save her ass once before, and stood by her and Croc in any dangerous situation since then.

Jack chanced a look in his direction, where he was posted firmly in between her and Croc in the seats. His spot in the middle had done nothing to discourage Cobra from a constant running commentary on the places they passed. Which curry shop he’s eaten himself sick at during one visit, shop fronts he thought looked interesting, stories invented about pedestrians that caught his attention.

She’d tried to listen at first, in an attempt to glean any important information that he might have let slip, but soon that faded into a buzz in the back of her mind as she continued to puzzle over the problem.

“Are you going to tell me why you helped me, or not?” She’d been ten seconds from being beaten into a bloody pulp before he’d gotten there, and she’d entered and exited that situation ready to go down fighting.

“I needed to clear my karma -- consider it my good deed for the year.” With a smile that she hadn’t grown used to at that point, Cobra had thrown her the most bizarre excuse she’d ever heard. “Although, if you wanted to help me with a favor-” Initially, she hadn’t let him finish his sentence, and had slugged him in the stomach.

Turns out, he wanted to recruit her, and had laughed at the punch once he could breathe again. Cobra hadn’t ever been one for direct answers, but he’d helped her out that day, at no actual benefit to himself beyond a new getaway driver.

Besides, from what she understood, he’d been a part of the Menagerie before any of the others. So why would he betray them now?

“I think she fell asleep- ay Jack-o, up and at ‘em.” Cobra’s voice broke her out of her thoughts, and she scrambled vaguely out of the cab after the rest of the team. “If you slept in the cab, he would’ve just driven off and charged you fare for wherever he dropped you off.” He pointed out, before he gave her a wry smile. “...and then who would keep an eye on my whereabouts?”

Jack froze in her tracks, and her heart fell from her throat to her stomach. So he had heard the entire conversation. She knew that he must have, but there had been some small, vain hope that he hadn’t, and that she could brush off Croc’s suspicions on her own. Cobra shouldn’t have found out about this entire stupid mess, and now she needed to do something, whether that was gathering answers or smoothing feathers.

She’d stopped moving, but Cobra had continued on his walk, keeping pace with the others. Jack jogged to catch up, just in time to hear Mongoose’s instructions.

“So, it’s a damn park. I don’t know what we’re supposed to learn here.” She groused, her angry eyes wandering the park as if she’d suddenly know what they were looking for if she just saw it. It was discouraging, but Jack had to admit that she was right. They had just arrived, but the park itself was already lively and full of people enjoying the muggy, cloudy day. Nothing suspicious that Jack could pick up on, apart from the concept of it being oppressively overcast and people were still wearing sunglasses. “But we won’t find anything just standing here. Greenwich is ridiculously huge, and there’s a lot of ground to cover.”

“It’d be cool if a cryptic stranger could suddenly send us some instructions!” Four pairs of eyes zeroed in on Jack as she raised her voice slightly. Croc visibly cringed, and a few pedestrians gave her a bemused once-over before they continued their walk. Jack wilted. “Shit, that seemed to work back at Liberty Bridge…” She grumbled an explanation to her accomplices, kicking a small stone away with her foot sullenly. "Should we split up? If it's such a big place, we can cover more ground that way. Start in specific areas and search it from top to bottom."

To her immediate relief, Mongoose nodded along to her suggestion instead of shooting it down. "Splitting up is a good idea, preferably still in groups so we don't get caught off guard by anything…unpleasant." She hummed under her breath for a moment, before adding, “We need to find a map though. Greenwich isn’t “we’ll split up and have the park searched from top to bottom in an afternoon” big, it’s “we need to find the most likely targets and case the place from there” big.” This assessment was met by a nod from Mock, who was listening intently.

Jack took the opportunity to sneak a look at Cobra, then, to gauge his reaction. He was more interested in the ground, and he frowned as the toe of his shoe wore a spot in the grass. A heavy silence hung across the group as Jack became more aware that Mongoose was watching him too, her directions paused as she gave Cobra a look that he didn’t catch, and that Jack couldn’t place.

Was she suspicious too? Her prior theory aside, Jack was sure that Mongoose knew more about the lanky man than anyone else. If she had files on the rest of them, she had files on him too, and she might be able to either confirm Croc’s suspicions, or put the whole debate to rest once and for all.

“There’s a map over here of the park, we could probably get our bearings from it.” Mock supplied as she strode towards the copy she’d referred to, Jack and Mongoose right on her heels, and Croc not far behind them. Cobra loped along behind him after a few moments and a subtle -- but definitely concerned, Jack decided -- motion from Mongoose to get his attention. Upon studying the map further, the boss bit her bottom lip and scowled. “Granted, this would be a lot easier if we had any idea what this asshole cared about.”

“What if that didn’t matter?” As she blurted out her thoughts, Jack wondered if the others would even take her idea into account. Maybe this was a mistake. But she’d already begun to talk, so there was no stopping now. “They aren’t giving us any further hints, maybe because there aren’t any? Not like they’ve stopped this whole thing and let us off the hook, but like-” She was rambling, and made a conscious effort to slow down. After a deep breath, she continued. “What if we aren’t looking for a stationary clue? What if we need to be here to meet someone? Like a rhom- ron-...a meet up?”

“A rendezvous.” Mock offered helpfully, her hand on her chin. “I’d hate to miss the actual clue if you were wrong, but it’s not a bad idea. Guys?”

Mongoose, naturally, stepped up to bat. “We’ll go to whichever locations we think might have something. If nothing happens, we keep searching or wait for another clue. Mock, you’re with me. Cobra, you take Croc and Jack. If we stay on the alert, and make sure we’re able to reach each other, we should-”

“Can I go with you and Mock?” As Croc interrupted, Jack noticed that Mongoose’s lips pressed together for a moment into a firm line. “I don’t want to overstep, but Jack and Cobra are used to getting out of situations. You two might need a bit of muscle if something does happen, even if it’s as simple as having to steal something while we’re looking around.”

Jack agreed with his reasoning, but she wondered if that was the entire reason. Sure, the other girls were more of the support team, and she’d never seen either of them on an actual heist. But something about the way Croc fiddled with his shirt sleeves made her wonder if that was the entire story.

“Right, fine.” Mongoose turned her attention back to the map. “We should check out the Maritime museum first. The text mentioned learning something, so that could be a likely place?” She glanced over towards Jack and Cobra. “Where are you two going to look?”

Jack craned her head forward to study the map more closely. She had been about to suggest the observatory, but never got the chance.

“I think checking out Deer Park would be the best move.” Cobra asserted, with a startling amount of certainty.

“What does that have to do with learning?” Mock spoke up, visibly confused by this direction. Jack wondered if there were maybe lessons on the deer that way, or something along those lines.

“I just like to look at the deer -- if they’re watching us, it won’t matter. We’re either going to find a clue with the deer, or they’ll tell us we’re wrong. Easy.” Cobra smiled at Jack, then. “You ready to go, then? Sooner we get this done, the sooner we can get this whole situation over with and go home."

Even Cobra didn't have a clever quip for Mongoose’s orders, and the two groups wasted no more time in getting to work and splitting up. Jack’s partner in this task had a point -- the sooner they got this over with, the sooner this all ended. This fact alone made Jack doubt Croc’s earlier assessment. Cobra wouldn’t be trying to end this so quickly if he was the cause of it, would he? Her teammate had been acting like he’d been sitting on pins and needles since this whole situation began.

However, she wondered if he’d be more candid about his whereabouts away from the others. While she didn’t know a lot about him, she considered Cobra a somewhat close friend. Closer than the other members of the team, save for Croc.

-- x --

Croc hadn’t imagined that it would be this difficult to keep up with Mock and Mongoose.

“So, why do you think the clue would be in the museum? There’s a bunch of places in the park we could technically learn from, like the theatre and the sundial.” While she maintained a politely disinterested tone, Croc caught a sharp flash of curiosity in Mock’s eyes as she looked over at their boss.

He had to admit that he was curious, himself, but found it a bit harder to speak up in the short woman’s presence than the team’s doctor. He had no idea what the relationship was between Mock and Mongoose, but he figured it was pretty close, considering her tendency to question her decisions.

If Mongoose was concerned about this line of questioning, she gave no sign of it and continued to bulldoze ahead towards their destination. While she was notably shorter than both he and Mock, she had no trouble leading the pack by what felt like sheer determination alone. “Call it a hunch. I might have noticed a bit of a pattern, and I just…want to see if I’m right. It could be the theatre, but there’s a bit of a…” The auburn haired woman came to a sudden stop, and Croc nearly stumbled over her.

Something had caught her eye, and the hacker cocked her head to the side, peering off into the distance with a furrowed brow and a curious gleam in her pale green eyes. Her whole body tensed, although he wasn’t sure if it was to fight or to run.

Croc shielded his eyes with his hand and followed suit, not quite sure what had caught her eye. A quick once-over in the direction that had caught her eye rewarded him with nothing more than things a person would catch in any park anywhere.

Mock, however, looked more interested in Mongoose herself, and he saw her cast her eyes warily from their boss to the distant hills. “Goose? What the hell are you looking at?” She’d dropped her voice into a hushed whisper, stepping closer to Mongoose and Croc.

“I’m…not quite sure.” The prior topic forgotten, the small woman strode forward a few steps and stood on the balls of her feet. Her left hand ghosted across the area beside her left hip, as if she were reaching for something that wasn’t there. She swore under her breath and moved her hand up to shield her eyes. “I thought I saw someone waving in our direction, but I lost them.”

“Should we follow them?” Croc glanced back at the girls, unsure of the situation ahead of them. There was a chance that Mongoose didn’t actually see anything meant for them, and it’d be a further delay. But what were the odds? They were on the hunt for anything unusual.

“I don’t like the thought of chasing someone towards something we don’t know.” Mock pointed out, frowning as she glanced at her phone. “Don’t you think our mystery pal would have told us if it was something we sh- Mongoose?!” Her concerns were quickly dismissed, as their boss wandered away from the group in the direction they’d discussed, a determined scowl set across her face. She hadn’t given any warning before she wandered off, but as Mock and Croc leapt forward to keep pace with her, she gave them an explanation.

-- x --

From a distance, a couple watched the trio, a man and a woman. The man was tall and thin, with dark skin, short bleached blonde hair, and a closely cropped beard. The woman was shorter than him, but far more muscular, with black hair pulled into a loose ponytail. The man, who had been looking through a pair of binoculars previously, put them back into a bag at his side. They would approach soon enough where he wouldn’t need them.

“Think they took the bait, Wolf?” The man slipped his arm around the woman’s waist, his eyes on the surrounding area to watch for the approaching thieves. “I don’t actually know if they saw us or not, they’re slow as hell and so far away.” He elaborated, before he looked over the shoulder of the muscular, dark haired woman beside him.

“They’ll show, Jackal, don’t worry about it. I’m adding a bit of fuel to the fire.” Wolf hummed, almost meditatively. Her phone screen showed the number of a mutual friend, and he grinned, rubbing his beard as he caught on to her plan.

“Don’t you have their number? You could easily bait the trap without bringing the old sourpuss in on it.” He pointed out, before he patted her on the back, the signal for the two of them to start walking again.

Wolf put her phone away, smiling. “Why do that, when I can let the pro handle it? I’m sticking with my skills, babe, and staying in my lane, just like I was told.” She readjusted her ponytail and snuck a look over her shoulder. “Don’t worry.”

Jackal let out a derisive snort. “Right, because you’ve been great at that so far. Real lowkey and not putting a toe out of line. You’re just a whisper of a woman.” The young woman elbowed her partner, but it didn’t really affect him, and he continued. “The “list of instructions Wolf actually cares to follow” -- that’s the shortest book ever written, right there.”

-- x --

Croc’s stomach sank as he looked at his phone. He should have known that their enemy had his number too, but it hadn’t occurred to him before now. The trio had stopped when he phone rang, and now stood in a cluster around him to read it.

“I don’t like this.” Mock repeated, shaking her head. “I don’t like this at all.”

“Yeah, but what choice do we have, Birdie? Just stay on your guard, you two, we’ll be fine.” Despite Mongoose’s firm insistence on things being okay, Croc noticed their boss quietly rubbing her fingers together in a silent snap by her side, keeping a careful rhythm as she whirled back around and stalked ahead.