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.Returns on Investments	By : keithcompany Category: G through L > Leverage Views: 3448 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: This story is inspired by, but not loyal to, the show Leverage. I do not own Leverage.. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 9
- 10
With a hop and a wiggle, Bradley was out of the cage and headed for the bookcase behind the stairs.
After years of training, experience and near misses, she had something of an instinct for surveillance cameras. Something about Corey told her the arrogant bastard was sure the one outside the cage was enough for the basement.
But she also felt sure he'd have one at the top of the stairs. To him, this would be the backup to end all backups.
So she looked for another way out. There was one air duct that curved up through the ceiling, with a convenient vent to heat the basement.
Convenient once you were eight feet off of the floor, that is. Lucky for the little thief, Corey kept about a bazillion paperpacks stacked on the shelves of his bookcase. She climbed up the backs like a custom built ladder.
She paused to rest just before ascending to the top. It was probably pretty dirty up there and she didn't want to waste time trying to breathe in a dust cloud. Clenching Gor novels with fingertips and toes was a better rest for her. She didn't wait for long. Either she was in good shape or her adrenaline was in better shape.
When she was ready, she rolled over the lip and stood. Enormous dust bunnies wrapped around the yellow jump suit. She ignored them and took off running.
The air duct was a few feet away from the end of the case. The distance wasn't the hardest part. The false ceiling was low enough that she had to use a fairly flat arc.
She placed her feet carefully, using the last stop on the very corner to push off. She imagined firing herself as an arrow and shot towards her target.
If anything, the top of the duct was even dustier than the bookcase. The world disappeared in a grey fog and she wouldn't stop sliding.
There was nothing to grab onto so she slapped and kicked, trying to slow herself down.
Then she was over the edge. She opened her eyes, though she held her breath. It'd be a shame to die because she sneezed her way past a handhold.
Right below her was a standing lamp. There was a jointed arm that extended the bulb out from the center post. The power cord was wrapped around that arm.
She grabbed that as she fell past it. Her weight yanked the cord over the arm, the plug whipping up and over three times.
It was a wonder it didn't hit her, but sometimes you get lucky. The drag of the cord over the arm slowed her a bit. When the last bit snapped free, she'd managed to get to the post itself, sliding down it like a giant fireman's pole.
This rest was a little bit longer. She hugged the post tight and panted heavily. The cord collapsed around her, buffeting her a bit over the shoulders. She rode it out, trying not to see that view of the floor from just below the ceiling.
The false ceiling.
She realized that she was an idiot. That made her angry. She stood up straight, patted her jumpsuit clean and marched over to the bookcase.
This time, she climbed to the top and took a few books with her. Two paperbacks moved from the top shelf to the shelf top gave her a platform to reach the ceiling panel.
Like the cage lid, it was easy enough to pry it up just far enough for her to slither through.
Then she was walking through the dark space, over to where the duct was. Easy as stealing candy for her baby sister.
She repeated the panel lift to get down to the little shelf where the air vent stuck out.
There were no screws on the grate, it was duct taped in place. The tape had lost a lot of it's elasticity and sticky over the years of air blowing across it.
Bradley yanked it clear and kicked the grate to the floor below. Then she grabbed the edge and swung inside.
The living room grate was near the door to the basement. She could see the camera and motion-sensor arrangement aimed at the door.
Amateurs, she thought with a frown.
At her size, with her skills, the ventilation system was a highway leading through Corey's home.
He was a messy bachelor. She didn't mind as it meant that there were all sorts of things within arm's reach of one grille or another.
She pried the metal wide enough to reach out and grab a coin on the bedroom floor and used it to unscrew the grate.
First she climbed up to the nightstand. The handset was easy to pry out of the cradle, then she dialed a friend.
"Badger, you're talking, so go!"
"Badger! This is Bradley!"
"Bradley! Hey, where are you guys? No one's seen you anywhere. Rumor is you're planning a really big score. Is that why you called your favorite tail?"
"No, actually… You know that guy we had you follow for a few weeks? Can you come to his home and break in, for me?"
"Breaking's not my thing, Brads," he replied.
"It's not a crime," she said, kneeling down over the mouthpiece. "Please? It's a rescue!"
"Rescue? Okay. Be there in a jiff!"
"Great. Just…watch your step when you get here, okay?"
"Huh? What for?"
"You'll see. I can't tell you over the phone."
"Ah," he said. "It's secret."
"Sure," she agreed. Or it's so crazy you might not come, she didn't say.
He promised swift liberation and they hung up. She turned around and examined the room.
For her part, if she had super secret tech, she'd have a hideout, safe within a hidden safe security, and a few booby traps in case anyone still found it.
Knowing Corey… She jumped down to the floor and looked under the bed. Right where her father and four of her boyfriends had kept their porn handy was the shrinking wand and the destructo-gun.
She dragged it clear and started experimenting.
-----
Shrinking was no big deal. She shrank the bed by half, without affecting the sheets. Then she shrank the sheets, then everything at once. The controls were so simple she could probably pick a coin out of a stack and reduce it.
She also learned that his playing with something hidden in a pocket was just misdirection. The wand's handle allowed control over speed and duration of shrinking.
There was nothing that reversed the effect, though. No control for it, no combination of controls allowed it.
She tried everything, which ended up with a bed inside the pillow it had been on, all of it doll sized in relation to her shrunken form.
The ray gun made it all vanish. That would be a handy tool for a breakin, she thought. Never mind safe doors, make the wall go away.
She placed both devices on the empty pillow case and started to drag it across the floor.
She accessed the house security system by setting the ray gun to a very tight beam and blowing holes in the wall. She had just disarmed it when Badger broke the window on the back door.
Bradley dropped to the floor and flattened herself against the wall. Her friend wandered up the hall, automatically assessing the art for value.
"Nice, nice. Not the real thing, but a lovely sense of color. Wonder if he picked these or hired a-"
"BADGER!" she shouted. He flinched back and nearly ran out of the house. Then he remembered that he was expecting her to be here.
But locked up in the attic, not… He crouched down and reached out a hand. "Brads?"
She ran to his arms and hugged his wrist. "Oh, it's so good to see you."
"Brads?" he repeated.
She gave a quick demonstration of the shrink wand, shrinking Corey's living room sofa to the size of her forearm, then tossing it into Badger's hand.
With the proof of shrink technology behind them, the story of their capture went quickly. He nodded, forced to accept the testimony of the little doll talking quickly before him.
He disabled the motion-sensor by unplugging it, then went downstairs to rescue their other friends. Bradley took the shrink wand to a spot beside their host's recliner.
When the others came upstairs, Kira's priority was less humiliating clothing. Ellie agreed, but was less hopeful that they'd find something appropriate at her scale.
Meryl just wanted food that didn't involve bodily fluids, one way or another. Badger ushered them all into the kitchen.
Bradley heard the fridge open and some cheering. She thought about getting a relief, but was too nervous to eat.
Badger helped them search the spare rooms for anything useful, or anything valuable. She maintained her station.
Corey finally returned from work, whistling happily as he entered. The big blank spot where his sofa should have been confused him.
"What the-?"
Before he could follow that thought to any conclusion, Bradley aimed the wand and shrank him down. She accelerated the process as much as she could, and set it for the body to shrink independently from the clothing.
It risked him having a powerful weapon in a pocket, but hopefully he'd be too small to operate it in moments.
The clothes folded in on themselves in a cotton poly avalanche. He screamed, long and loud, rising in pitch like a slide whistle.
Oh, it was delicious. Bradley wasn't much of a sadist, but she could really get to like this idiot's screams.
The others came pounding to the front room at the sound. "Where is he?" Ellie asked. She tore through the pile of fabric, almost missing their tormentor.
He was about as tall as Ellie. She hefted him up by his throat and shook him. Then she placed hands on shoulder and thigh and tried to see how high she could toss him.
He screamed on the way up. He screamed again when Meryl snatched him out of the air on the way down.
"Don't do that, Ellie!" she scolded.
"Why not?"
"We need him to tell us how to reverse the shrinking."
"What?" he cried. "I mean, yes. Yes, I'll do it. But you have to let me go."
Meryl dangled him by an ankle. Ellie barked and jumped up like a dog after a treat. He screamed some more.
"Let you go? Right now? Down to where Ellie's waiting? Do you think you can take her when you're evenly small?"
Bradley smiled, turned off the shrink wand and went back to the kitchen.
Badger had put together a PBJ sandwich and cut it into small bits. The plate was on the floor and Bradley took one bit.
There was a bowl of milk with a coffee stir-straw sticking out of it to allow drinking.
When she was full she went back to the front. Corey was Scotch-taped to a piece of cardboard. He was babbling about pushing buttons on the shrink wand and crying every time Ellie poked at the tape.
"I think he's just making stuff up," Kira said.
"Yeah," Bradley agreed. "That's all stuff I tried when I found the wand. It never worked."
"So, you really can't restore us, or yourself," Meryl said sympathetically.
"No, no, no," he cried. "I can't. It's never come up before."
"Okay. Well, pick a number between 1 and 100."
"What?" he asked.
"Pick a number. For what we do with you."
"I…I…what are my options?"
"One. And. One. Hundred." Meryl growled. He winced and threw one out.
"Aw. I was hoping you'd pick the number for me. But you picked the one for joint custody. Everyone takes a turn taking care of you." She looked down at Ellie's smile. The one showing all those shiny teeth. "I think you need to go last. You're going to break him."
"Uh huh," Ellie nodded.
-------
Six months later, Bradley was lowering herself on a rope, guiding a stack of money through the building's ventilation.
Once it landed in the elbow on the fourth floor, she unclipped it and shoved it over the side. Somewhere below, Kira would move it out the basement vent into the laundry cart.
She moved back and looked up for the next stack. Instead, she saw Ellie and Meryl's feet. The guided the wand between them.
She helped them land and untangle, then moved the climbing ropes to the final drop to the basement.
"Everything go okay?" she asked.
"Perfect," Meryl said. "I'm getting really good at this burglary part of the business."
"She played with the tumblers for forty seconds, then shrank the door of the safe off," Ellie said with a snort.
"Whatever works," Bradley said. She double- and triple-checked the lines for the wand. Then she kicked off and started lowering them both down.
At the bottom, the lined pet carrier was already waiting. They slid the wand into its sheath and climbed in beside it.
Badger lashed the cage carefully down in the van and drove out of the parking garage.
They switched to the actual getaway car at the Park And Ride lot and finally relaxed.
"What'd we get?" Ellie asked. She leaned through the cage door and up at Badger.
"You mean, what did you get?" he snorted as he drove. "As in, how much money do you have now, and how many turns with Core-boy can you purchase?"
"Uh huh," she nodded. "How much?"
"I think I'm going to have to put an end to trades," Meryl said. "I don't think Corey's going to last too much longer in Ellie's hands."
Bradley lay back on the quilted cushion and shrugged. "I'm surprised he lasted this long."
"I'm disappointed he lasted this long," Kira said. "Figure any decent revenge could have been served up by now." Ellie's face started to cloud up, but she saw the taller blonde wink at her.
"Seriously," Kira went on. "I've done all I care to with Corey."
"You hear that??" Ellie shouted. "She's done! She's out of the rotation! I don't have to buy her turns any more. She doesn't get any."
"Five thousand dollars," Bradley said. "Flat fee, all my remaining turns."
"DEAL!" Ellie shouted. Then she turned to the driver again. "Did I get five grand this time?"
"Didn't you all hear me?" Meryl said. She stood in the middle of the space with her hands on her hips.
"Yes," Kira replied. "You said you were thinking of stopping trades. Not that you'd actually put your foot down on it."
Meryl threw her hands up in the air in mock disgust. "I swear, I never have seen so many lawyers in one place since my last subpoena. Nit picky little…"
The car stopped moving. Badger had pulled over someplace to watch for a tail. He reached down and opened the cage door. "Meryl?" he called.
She stepped out and looked up curiously. He glanced down to pick her up. He mostly watched the traffic but made sporadic eye contact with the leader of the crew.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Well, if Ellie has Kira and Bradley's turns, can I buy your turns?" She sat on his palm and swung her feet over the steering wheel.
"I dunno. I don't think he'll last any longer in your hands than in Ellie's."
"Ha!" the gay crook laughed. "It's not my hands he's worried about." She promised to think about it and he returned her to the carrier.
She ignored Ellie's attempts to start a bidding war and walked back to sit between Kira and Bradley.
"What do we do with the money this time?" she asked.
"My favorite part of the con," Bradley murmured. "We take all the stacks and build a fort out of them."
- 9
- 10
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.Returns on Investments