makingthisupasigo | And the Inside Job

One of the many advantages of being the hacker is you don't have to deal with your co-workers all that much. Which can be a literal lifesaver when your co-workers are the deadliest people on the planet.

Hardison is camped out in his server room, pulling up information and data for the various jobs that are coming up for the assassins. And, as usual, looking into the online habits of his co-workers. It's his way to protect himself, digging up dirt on all these guys to keep them at bay. So far it's been working. He hasn't been in Moreau's services for very long and it hasn't been pleasant (no, sir, it has not been pleasant at all) and in the beginning nobody expects him to survive very long.

But then Hardison lives up to his reputation and starts making things happen, digs up information that is thought to be impossible to get, gets a hold of people who are impossible to find, gets into systems they used to work around before because they're impossible to hack. And people take note. If Moreau's personal e-mails can be believed (which of course Hardison totally doesn't read) the boss even wants him to work with Spencer on one of the next jobs. He hasn't met Moreau's favorite yet but what he found out about the guy so far has him nervous in advance.

There's an alert and one of his screens light up, revealing a window with an online poker webpage. There's a second window next to it with code running in the corner. The webpage informs him that beefboy has entered the lobby.

Hardison rolls over in his swiveling chair, grabbing one of the keyboards. "Now what you up to, Brett, my man? You gonna play a little? Spend some of that hard-earned cash? Come on then."

There's just something incredibly satisfying about having these murderjerks lose their blood money on his fake gambling sites. Hardison watches the game unfold for a while, upping Brett's chances here and there, giving him a couple of good runs and waits until the assassin gets greedy. Then he quickly types a line of commands, causing the AI's cards to flip around right before Brett calls. The screen blinks and then the poker site informs that beefboy's winnings have just dropped down to a big fat 0.

There's an enraged howl coming from somewhere in the mansion and Hardison grins, clapping his hands together and giggling. "Ohh yeah, I got you. I got you good! In your face. Where's your beef now, huh? Where's your beef!? At the butchers, that's where it's at!"

While his analyzing programs run some calculations for his actual work he gets up to get himself some food from the kitchen. It's gonna be a long day of pulling data and getting ready for his meeting with Spencer, so he'd probably better grab some snacks while he's still got the chance.

Stepping outside he slows when he passes by a very angry assassin in the hallway. Hardison knows he probably shouldn't be pushing his luck too much but that angry vein that looks like it's about to pop is just too tempting. "Yo, Brett, what's the matter? You having a bad day, my man? Did I hear you scream earlier?"

There's murder in Brett's eyes (but then again when is there not?) and that tower of a man steps up to him. "You looking for a beating there, geek?"

"Yeah, I wouldn't do that if I were you. See, a little birdy told me that you've been using the company's credit card for some little personal shopping. ... The birdy is my computer, by the way. It's, I call it birdy, it's like a..." He trails off when Brett looks at him like he's going to snap his face in two.

"I'm gonna put your head underwater until you beg me to put a knife between your eyes."

Hardison frowns. "Uh, no you won't. Come on, b-boy, you know the drill? The moment something happens to me there's like an e-mail that goes straight to the boss. It's called automatic forwarding. You should look it up."

Brett looms and pushes past him very closely, growling. "You better watch your back, Hardison."

"Oh! Oh! No. What's that? No touching. You know the rules. No, there's no touch, you don't touch me." He holds up his hands, turning in a half-circle while Brett stomps past him and calls after him. "Can't touch this, baby! Yeah, I'm teflon! I'm the teflon man, they call me Mr. T. And the t is for teflon!"

The grin drops off his face once Brett disappears around the corner. God, he is scared to death of these guys.

It doesn't stop him from humming a little tune as he walks into the kitchen, though. Seems empty but there's something simmering on the stove. Hardison randomly sticks his hand inside to grab some of the food, tossing it in his mouth as he walks past it.

Stops.

Walks backwards until he's back at the pot and stares at it because damn. Damn, baby.

He grabs a small bowl from the cabinet, helping himself to some more.

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Really, Carter, you just gotta say his fears out loud like that, making them all real and stuff? Eliot tries to focus more on the road, but seriously, he's getting a little bit pissed off now--

"You think I don't know the risks? You actually think I don't know exactly what we're gettin' into? I wouldn't throw my job away for nothin', I wouldn't throw away my not-being-on-Moreau's-most-wanted list for nothin'! It was for you, man!"

"I never asked you to! In fact, I specifically asked you not to, not to do that!"

With the drug slowly wearing off his adrenaline level rises steadily because oh God, what time is it, what day is it, Damien must have realized he's missing now, Brett must have realized he's missing now and no, no no, he can't, this can't be happening, not after last time.

"I don't want your amends, I don't want your redemption, Eliot! I don't want this!

"You're compromised! You're in too deep, you don't know what you're sayin'! I've seen this happen before! The old you? The old you would want me to get you out, and I owe it to the old you!"

It's too bad you don't want this, Carter, because this is what you're getting. Eliot grits his teeth harder and is gripping the steering wheel so hard that it looks like it might be bending.

"I'm not compromised, I've adapted! Like you told me to! Like you taught me to!"

He's still struggling with the seatbelt angrily until he gives up, his fists batting down on the seat.

"Face it, Spencer! The old me is gone!"

"I know--you don't think I don't know that? I know!"

And it saved his life and now here Eliot was, risking it, with a potentially fatal, probably extremely stupid plan.

Except...

His voice is lower, calmer, even though there's fire behind his words.

"A good doctor I knew once told me what's done is done but what isn't is still ahead of us. It's never too late to change. Now I've been tryin' to live my life by that, and I think maybe it's high time for you to take some of his advice, too. Maybe, just maybe, that doc is still out there. I know I'd like to find him again."

Carter presses his lips to a thin line and stares out of the window when his own words come back to haunt him.

"You self-righteous son of a bitch."

But it's not as heated as it could have been, more hurt than angry.

"Maybe he doesn't want to be found."

"Funny, I used to think you were the self-righteous one."

There's a ghost of a smile that quickly disappears, not because of anything genuinely funny, but the irony was too much to hold in.

"And why would that be, huh? Do you even know what he wants anymore?"

"It doesn't matter what he wants!" Carter snaps, crossing his arms in front of his body.

"He couldn't stand it anymore so he had to go!"

The car speeds up slightly, as Eliot's blood pressure heats up. He doesn't like this, doesn't like hearing it--

"Oh yeah? Maybe he's still there. Hiding. I think he is."

Edited 2018-08-08 15:52 (UTC)

"You're wrong."

It's sharp, immediate. Maybe... a little defensive. You have no right to call him out like this, Eliot.

"He was weak and Damien got rid of him. I got rid of him."

That's...that's not helping his blood pressure.

Hearing Carter say it like that was just...just making it worse. He grips the steering wheel with the force of the sun hurtling through the galaxy.

Damien. What did Damien do to him?

However, instead of meeting it with equal anger and energy, his voice falls to something quieter. Steady.

"I think you're wrong. I think he's still there. Cause what they see as weakness, isn't weakness at all. Goodness ain't weakness."

"Goodness doesn't do you much good in this place."

John stares out the window, his own voice growing quieter.

"It did, once. And then it made everything worse."

Eliot's silent for a long moment, his thoughts drifting back to when he'd first met Carter. When Carter used to yell at him for being so heartless, when...

"I don't think goodness can be snuffed out completely, no matter how things get." Living proof, right here. Not that he thought he himself was in any way good, just that he did 'good' things now.

"Sometimes things are worse just before they get better."

John is silent for a long time, watching the landscape fly by. Little farms and villages with little people living their honest, hard-working, innocent lives. A different world. A better world.

"That's for other people now."

His voice is quiet, tired.

"Like, I believe that's true, Eliot? I really do. Still. But somewhere, someplace else. Not for me. Not anymore." He rubs at his face. "And your little gung-ho attempt here isn't gonna change a damn thing about that."

And that hurts, because Eliot remembered when he started thinking that way. Somewhere in a desert, listening to mortars fly overhead, hearing bullets land in the sand next to him.

"We'll see about that," he says quietly, gripping the steering wheel tightly. "Because I'm not gonna believe it's too late for you, even if you believe that. Somebody's gotta have faith in John Carter. And if it ain't you, it's gonna be me."

"I don't want your faith."

But there's something in his voice that sounds like that might not be entirely true.

"I want to go back to Damien."

And the Inside Job - for Eliot Spencer

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