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Bring on the Wonder	By : Azuriel Category: G through L > Leverage Views: 498 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I am in no way connected to the Leverage series. I own nothing in that universe. Therefore I cannot and am not making any money off of this story.

Chapter List
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Nate and Hardison met up with Will that morning to meet a potential new client in the bar. “Okay, so you said this guy was referred to us through a mutual contact?” Nate asked, obviously wanting more information.

“Yeah,” Will nodded as he took a seat at a table to wait. “All I really want to say at this point is I made a lot of contacts of my own in my teen years.”

Nate looked to Hardison to get his opinion. Hardison only shrugged. “Sophie trusts him.”

Ten minutes later an Iranian man named Madavhi joined them, and told them about masked thugs breaking into his apartment. “All my work erased, and I was only days away from cracking Manticore.”

“What's Manticore?” Nate asked.

“It's an electronic surveillance system. The Iranian government uses it to track protesters over cell phones, social networks, even e-mail...”

“Yeah, hacker underground is flipping out about it. They use GPS to pinpoint a dissident, and then they swoop in and make the arrest,” Hardison explained.

“The Internet made this protest possible, but now it's....” the young man lowered his head in defeat.

“The government uses the people's weapon against them,” Nate summarized.

“Precisely. I cannot even communicate with my family in Iran. Manticore would find them. I have no idea if they are safe. And the secret police are everywhere. Next week our people are planning a protest to coincide with the election. If I can't shut down Manticore the government will find and arrest every organizer, and break the backbone of the movement.”

“We're not spy hunters, Mr. Madavhi,” Nate acted like he didn't want to take the case.

“I cannot go to the FBI. My activities would violate my student visa.”

“So you want your data back.” Nate was prodding.

“I want Manticore destroyed. I want my people to be free.”

“Alright, well, we'll discuss it,” Nate gave his answer.

“But Jacob said....” Madavhi gave Will a pleading gaze.

“I...” Will looked to Nate for a moment. “I said I could set up a meeting. Obviously I'm just one person in the group, but we will discuss it.”

“That's all I can ask for I suppose,” Madavhi seemed a little upset, but he bid them farewell and left.

“Oh, this is so not our game,” Nate said when the man was gone.

“Why?” Will was getting a little irritated. “I thought you went after bad people.”

“I'm with him,” Hardison joined the conversation. “He could go make a fortune working for Google or Microsoft. No, instead he risks his life fighting the bad guys. This is so our game.”

“He wasn't hit by the Vezarat,” the heard Elliot's voice from a nearby table. He'd been sitting there with his back turned to them wearing a hoodie, but he got up to join them.

“What, are you lurking?” Nate was surprised to see him there.

“Yeah. I'm a lurker. It's my thing.”

“What's the Vezarat?” Hardison asked.

“That's the Iranian secret police. And trust me, if they wanted Cyrus, he wouldn't be sitting here talking to us. Of course your Mossad friend knew that, I'm sure.”

“Mossad?” Nate raised an eyebrow at Will.

Will shrugged again. “I told you, I got around. And they have some interest in this, but they can't do much on American soil to help this guy.”

“Okay, but for now, the Vezarat is still our logical target. So we should check our sources and see if there's a safe house in the area,” Nate suggested.

“So we're on this?” Hardison perked up a little.

“Yeah, well, we were always on this. I just wanted you to explain to me why,” Nate said as he got up to leave.

Hardison shook his head. “You know how I feel about mind games, Nate.”

Will turned to Elliot. “Why did you have to expose my connection to this?”

“Because all the cards need to be on the table. That's how this works.”

“So you're going to be transparent about your sources?”

“No, but I'm not the new kid.”
“Is that a bite mark on your neck?” Hardison was eyeing a mostly covered up bruise. “Do you have a hickey?”

“Now that isn't any of your business,” Elliot said as he got up from the table. “That's personal.”

The next day they went to a Middle Eastern restaurant. “My sources say this cafe is the local Vezarat safe house,” Elliot explained. He and Hardison went in as health inspectors. Sophie was already there as a customer, and as unhappy as she was about it, she planted a roach in her food to give them a reason to look around.

Elliot noticed two men whispering to each other and a back room was quickly locked. “Back room, East corner,” he spoke softly so only the team would hear.

“Got it,” Parker replied in a soft whisper. She was also already waiting in the air vents, which she used to get into the locked room. “For a den of evil spies, this place smells delicious. Hardison, confiscate some pastries.” She sat down at the computer and started poking around. “Okay, no sign of Cyrus' hardware.”

“Well, they could have cloned his data. Let's check their computer,” Nate instructed from the van where he waited with Will. Parker plugged a flash drive into the computer while Hardison and Elliot kept the staff busy in the kitchen. In a few minutes Nate could see everything on the screen in the van. “That image on the, uh, the bottom left, there, Manticore. It's a mythological creature. It's Persian for man eater."

Hardison had joined Parker in the room and had taken her place at the computer. “I was just about to click on that.” When he did a bunch of files popped up onto the screen.

“Let's copy Cyrus' program,” Nate said.

“You know, I'd love to, but it's not here. It doesn't even look like they even heard of Cyrus.”

Parker was going through drawers and found a book with a picture of a manticore on it. She opened it up and started looking through it. “Okay, I've got payment records here. Last one dated three weeks ago.”

Hardison started looking through the computer records. “The latest Manticore update was also three weeks ago.”

“And who was that payment to?” Nate asked.

Hardison looked up the information and let out a long whistle. “This just got more interesting.”

They all returned to headquarters so Hardison could introduce them to who they were dealing with. He put a picture up on the big screen. “Larry Duberman, founder and C.E.O. of Dubertech. Back in the '90s, he wrote the book on digital database security. Literally wrote the book.” He held up the book to show them as Elliot poured Sophie a cup of tea. “Now, he made a couple hundred million during the digital revolution.”

“Why would Larry Duberman be selling software to Iran? I mean, he doesn't need the money,” Sophie posed the question as she lightly touched Elliot's arm. “Thanks, sugar.”

“I'm gonna guess respect on an international scale,” Will answered the question. “I mean, look at him.”

“That could be,” Hardison agreed. “But he kinda does need the money. Cloud storage, distributed processing; see, all these sexy new little technologies are passing up Duberman's company. They're leaving him in the dust. He's got to expand his market share.”

Nate studied everything on the screen. “Okay, so he sells the technology to embargoed countries, and the income is tax free.”

Elliot added sugar to Sophie's tea. “It's a nice way to keep the bottom line from being squeezed,” she commented.

Hardison pulled up a few more files. “Now, Duberman has a long term contract to run Manticore for Iran. This man has become the I.T. Department for the axis of evil.”

“Alright, so it looks like Eliot was right. The Vezarat didn't go after Cyrus, Duberman did,” Nate said as he took it all in.

“It's not about politics, man. Cyrus is bad business for him,” Elliot commented as he squeezed some fresh lemon into Sophie's tea.

“Okay, so, Duberman's our target. What are we up against?”

“See, the master control server's in Duberman's private office. We shut down the server over here, We shut down Manticore over there,” Hardison explained.

“So, get to hacking, man,” Elliot gestured to the screen.

“Dude, what is it about 'wrote the book on database security' that you don't comprehend? I can't just access Manticore remotely we've got to get to that server in person.”

“But didn't you say that he needs the money from Iran because he's being outdone by newer tech; supposedly tech that you've hacked before?” Will pointed out.

“I will have you know...” Hardison started, but then stopped. “Actually, you do have a point. Still, I've already tried and I can't gain access.”

“Any of you ever trimmed a bonsai?” Nate asked the group.

“Well, you know, I did. I was in Osaka, and I met this Japanese policewoman at a geisha bar...” Elliot recalled a fond memory.

“Ah, another time,” Nate said as he turned the screen off.

“Why is Eliot pouring your tea? Did you brainwash him again?” Parker whispered to Sophie.

“Neurolinguistic programming. It's amazing what you can do with the power of suggestion,” Sophie answered.

Elliot started to pour her another cup of tea and then realized what was going on. “Damn it!”

“You owe me for that roach business!”

“I need to learn that trick,” Will thought out loud.

“No you don't!” Elliot growled. The two of them walked away arguing in Hebrew.

“How many languages do they speak?” Parker wondered.

Sophie let out a soft sigh as she watched them leave. “I never asked, but I would imagine a fair few.”

“I also think they're sleeping together,” Nate commented.

“What makes you think that?” Sophie tried to temper her emotion.

“Their body language when they're around each other. The bite marks that have been appearing on Elliot in places a person might bite when... you know.... But I mean, as long as it doesn't interfere with any cases I'm not saying it's a problem.”

The plan to get into the office was a fairly simple one. Elliot, Hardison, and Parker all dressed as janitors. Elliot carried a bonsai tree and 'accidentally' ran into Duberman on his way to lunch. Then Hardison and Parker swooped in to clean it up. They snatched his key card and got his print from the pot.

“Whoa,” Parker was taken by surprise at how different the office was from the rest of the building.

“Seems we stepped out of Japan and straight into high school,” Hardison commented as he looked around the room. “In 1985.”

Nate, Sophie, and Will were watching from headquarters. “You find the server running Manticore?” Nate asked.

“Oh, I found it. A small problem. Nate, he's running Manticore from his high school computer.”

“They had computers back then?” Will was surprised.

“Hey, don't start! Vintage 1980s technology, man. That explains why I couldn't hack it. It's speaking a dead language.”

An alarm suddenly started to go off. “Hey, they're onto us. What's the deal?” Parker asked.

Hardison was still messing with the computer. “Well, he's got a multi- tier password system. Now, my war- dialer broke into the first few. Uh... Zavransky, MandyDD, a bunch of other random ones.”

The computer beeped. “Was that a good beep or a bad beep?” Parker asked.

“Oh, that's a bad beep. We just hit a wall.”

“You didn't get the password?” Nate asked.

“Not the master one.”
“Let's go!” Parker urged as the guards got closer to the office.

“Hold on, let me just finish copying this disk. How did people get anything done in the '80s?”

On a hunch Nate got a hold of Dumberman's yearbook. “Nobody else thinks it's weird that you can just buy anybody's yearbook online?” Elliot commented when they were gathered in the pub.

Hardison gave him a little smirk. “You know, it's real cute, man, how you still believe in privacy.”

Nate was flipping through the pages. “Here we go. Mrs. Zavransky, math teacher. Now, I bet if we turn to the cheerleaders... Yes. Oh, Mandy. Mandy Babson. It's all right here. He's clearly obsessed with high school memorabilia; his high school computer.”

“Yeah, he's a classic computer nerd,” Sophie agreed. “The girls totally ignored him. The guys picked on him. Now that he's a success he can't leave the past behind him.”

“Am I the only one confused here?” Will looked around the room.

“Didn't you go to high school?” Nate asked.

“No. Private tutor. It was safer that way.”

“Of course it was. You won't be able to help much with this one anyway. Back in '85 I don't think you were even born yet.”

“No, not until August of '87.”

“Well, take it from those of us who did experience high school, it can be traumatic for guys like Duberman.”

“Don't feel bad for this guy. Getting bullied in high school is still no excuse for propping up dictators. He got bulled his whole high school career. He's not criminal,” Elliot motioned to Hardison.

“Um, yeah he is,” Parker pointed out.

“Not a bad criminal,” Elliot clarified.

“Hey, what makes you think I got bullied in high school?” Hardison got a little defensive.

“Well, A, you got a green hornet doll.”

“Well, first of all, it's a limited edition action figure. Second, it is green lantern. Educate yourself.”

“Wow.”

“Guys, listen,” Nate broke it up. “We have a teacher's name, and we have a crush. So, Duberman, he has made his old high school his Roman room.”

“Of course,” Parker gave a little nod, but her eyes were blank.

“What's a Roman room? You have no idea, right?”

“This one I know,” Will chimed in. Nate gave him the floor with a gesture. “It's a memory technique. Things like passwords correspond with a place you're very familiar with.”

“Exactly,” Nate nodded. “In his case, the hallway of his old high school where he kept his locker. Now, if I were to make this bar my Roman room, everything I need to remember is right here. For instance, This, uh...” He picked up a bottle of liquor. “My bank password would be Balmoor. And my e- mail password would be Fitzy, here.” he patted the guy at the bar on the shoulder.

“Hey. Nate just gave us his passwords,” Parker whispered to Hardison.

Hardison shook his head. “No, but I got all his passwords. You want to see his Netflix queue? He's got, like, every season of Rockford files, every season of Sex and the city, and that show Psych.”

“Hey, so listen, we can't get into the main server without Duberman's master password. I mean, you can't hack into that, right?” Nate brought the conversation back to the case.

“No, password's up in the guy's head. I can't hack a guy's head,” Hardison replied.

“So the only option would be to break inside his Roman room. “

“You want to break into the high school? I could do that blindfolded,” Parker seemed excited by the idea. “Yeah, let's do it blindfolded.”

“No. What we're gonna do is we're gonna break into that high school twenty five years ago.”

Hardison looked down at his papers. “What do you know? Class of '85 has a reunion coming up in eight months.”

“You wanna help?” Sophie looked to Will.

“Well I don't wanna just sit here like a useless lump, but I wasn't alive twenty five years ago.”

“You're here now, you can help me make phone calls.”

Sophie gave Will a list and a general idea of what to say so that they could move up the reunion. Both of them made several phone calls to reschedule. The last call was to Duberman. He didn't seem that interested at first until Sophie, pretending to be an old classmate of course, told him that several people they figured he would really want to see were coming.

Sophie and Nate assumed the identities of old classmates to attend the reunion. Parker was working as a member of the catering staff. Hardison was monitoring everything from his van. That left Elliot and Will to break back into the office building so they could enter the password once they found out what it was.

“So, you guys all get to go to the reunion, and we're stuck on goon patrol?” Elliot grumbled as the two stood outside the office building.

“Eliot, listen. Once we get the password you need to enter it on Duberman's computer and destroy Manticore. Hardison's a little occupied,” Nate said to him.

“Besides, I'm sure you already had your high school fun. Big man on campus. What, quarterback?” Hardison teased a little.

“I had many interests.”

“I'm still confused,” Will sighed as he punched a security guard and snatched the security card. Elliot quickly dragged the unconscious man into the bushes.

“That's why you have Elliot's back tonight,” Nate explained.

Breaking in was fairly easy since hardly anyone was there. Once they were in the office Will stared at the old computer in confusion. “That's...? How do you even turn it on?”

Elliot grabbed Will by the shoulders and moved him away. “Let me handle that, you watch the door. That's how you can help.”

They waited and listened to Sophie and Nate interact with Duberman. An identity had been created for Sophie and added to the yearbook so she could try and hook him. She was able to get him into the hallway and started pressing him for stories. It didn't take her long to get the name Pat Brander.

“Let's check out Brander,” Elliot typed the name in. “Nope.”

“Okay, look, try Brander303,” Hardison suggested. “That's the room number.”

Elliot tried it. “It looks like it's unlocked. It's payroll files.”

“Alright, guys, patience. If we get him riled up, push his buttons, He'll lead us to the password we want,” Nate said as he got ready to join Sophie and Duberman in the hall.

“Easy for you to say,” Will sighed. “There's nobody here and I'm bored.” He leaned over Elliot's shoulder to look at the screen, lazily running a fingertip up and down the side of Elliot's neck.

Nate got another embarrassing story about a pretty girl being told Duberman had both male and female parts. “Tuttleton,” Elliot tried the girl's name. “No. You want me to try hermaphrodite?”

They were just about to get another story involving the library when they were interrupted by a woman named Nikki. “Got to be kidding me,” Hardison grumbled as he looked through all the information he had. “Guys, um, look. There's like six Nicoles, Three Veronicas, and a Dominique. This may take a while.”

Nikki dragged Nate into a closet, and when he tried to get away she locked him in. Parker had to go let him out. “Wow. You must have really broken her heart. High school is so dramatic!” Parker commented.

“Don't know if it would have been the same, but kinda makes me wish I would have gone,” Will said as he wandered over to look at the trophy case. “Huh. They give trophies for chess.”

Both he and Elliot turned toward the door when they heard some noises and voices in the hall. “It's the Vezarat. They're coming in!” Elliot warned. “Still bored?”

“Not anymore.”

“Wait a minute. What are the Iranians doing there?” Nate asked.

At the same time Nikki had gone after Duberman and managed to steal him away from Sophie. “She took him, that bloody little slut!” Sophie cried. “Just because I'm not a cheerleader...”

“Alright, let's forget about her,” Nate tried to calm Sophie down. “Eliot and Will have company, and we're no closer to getting the password, so I think we need to escalate.”

“Well, you think he's ready?” Sophie asked.

“Uh, guys?” Hardison interrupted. “I've accounted for all the Nikkis of the class of '85. Your Nikki's not even in the yearbook.”

“What is she, just some random hussy who's out for his cash?” Sophie asked.

“Not exactly,” Hardison answered. “She's a hired gun.”

“Nikki’s an assassin?”

“Yeah, I guess we weren't the only ones with the bright idea to pose as alumni. This chick's connected to wet work jobs all up and down the east coast. Russian mob, Italian mob. There's a New Zealand mob?”

“Alright, this is our fault,” Nate said.

“I didn't do anything,” Parker got a little defensive.

“You know, we lured him to an unsecured environment. We exposed him,” Sophie explained.

“But he's the one who pissed off the Iranians,” Will pointed out. “She would be after him regardless.”

“Still, we have to save him. We can't destroy Manticore with him dead. So split up and find him. Eliot, what's happening on your end?”

Elliot and Will stood on either side of the door while the goons outside were trying to break in. “T minus five seconds. This reunion sucks!” Elliot grumbled.

When the door fell and the leader stepped inside the office he saw Elliot. “The health inspector?”

“I'm gonna have to dock you again.”

The leader raised a gun at Elliot, but Will hit him from behind, knocking him to the ground. Two more men rushed in and attacked. Will was thrown into the display case and his attacker started strangling him, but Elliot came to the rescue by stunning both men with a blow to the side of the head.

“Yeah, Duberman must have pissed off the Iranians. They hire an assassin to take him out while they raid his office? Eliot, you've got to keep 'em away from that computer,” Hardison commented.

“What do you think we're doing?” Elliot growled as he punched his guy again.

“We're having high tea,” Will's tone was sarcastic as he grabbed the chess trophy and knocked his guy out with it. “Checkmate.” The leader stood up and pointed his gun at Will this time. “Or not.”

“Check point.” Elliot said.

“Right,” Will nodded and quickly ducked while Elliot went at the guy. As predicted the shot was fired at Will, but only grazed his shoulder. Elliot was able to get the gun and pull out the clip before tossing it out the window.

Back at the school they were able to take out the assassin with Parker's taser, but Duberman was becoming very suspicious and figured them out. Nate confessed their entire plan. “It's done,” he said as Duberman smugly informed them that his password had been changed.

“Good to know,” Elliot said before punching the leader again. The force shoved the man toward Will who used a side kick to break the man's knee.

“An argument could be made against your methods,” Will grumbled as he looked around for something to use to apply pressure to his bleeding shoulder.

“You'll be fine,” Elliot handed him a box of tissues as he went to type in the password. “I'm in. Now what?”

“Okay, good. De authorize and delete all directories, just like I showed you,” Hardison explained.

The leader tried to get back up on his good leg and Will hit him hard with the desk chair, finally knocking him out. “Asshole.”

“It's done. Manticore is dead.” Elliot reported when he finished.

Duberman was furious to learn that he'd been tricked. Sophie's suggestion training had been used on the man the entire night as a backup. Duberman grabbed the assassin's gun and ran back into the gym just in time for the FBI to burst in. Nate had sent them some of the documents they had found earlier, and part of what Elliot did sent them Manticore files.

Just as they were about to leave the reunion king and queen was announced. It was Sophie and Nate, or at least the characters they were playing. Nate wasn't thrilled, but eventually gave in to sharing a dance with Sophie.

“Everybody having a good time at the dance?” Elliot grumbled as he and Will left the building. “Anybody wonder if Eliot and Will made it out? If we're alive?”

“If you bandage me up I'll make us something to eat,” Will offered. “Dances are stupid anyway.”

“You're right, and I'll take you up on that,” Elliot agreed.

Later that night Nate and Sophie sat together at the bar trying to make the night last a little longer. “You know, I've been thinking about something,” Nate said as he finished his drink and put the glass back on the bar.

“What's that?” Sophie asked.

“Will, or Ian, or whatever, said he was born in August of '87.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Sophie suddenly tensed up a bit.

“You told me who his father is, and that you did con the man a long time ago. One of the very valuable paintings I know you have was stolen from Roger Wiltshire in October of '87.”

Sophie suddenly found herself staring at the floor. “I told you I conned the man when Will was a baby. That is what he wants to be called now.”

“I still find the timing very interesting. I know how you work, and jobs like that take time unless you have a team like ours. If my math is right, the art work was stolen when Will was seven weeks old., give or take a few days.”

“You want me to confess, don't you?”

“That would be nice. I don't know why you hid it to begin with.”

Sophie huffed and turned away from him. “It's not something I'm proud of. Yes, I returned to South Africa to see my son. And yes, he knows. I thought about pulling out and disappearing once I learned that the man was a total sociopath, but I needed the score. I actually was going to leave about the time I found out I was pregnant. Then he found out and there was no escaping until he had his child.”

“Your child too,” Nate pointed out. “I can see it in the shape of his face and eyes. Though I would have thought his skin and hair would be darker like yours.”

Sophie could only shrug at that. “That I can't explain. Roger has blond hair and blue eyes, and either I also have those genes in me and it was luck of the draw, or Roger's genes dominated mine.”

“Oh, he's definitely part of you. Just to confirm my suspicion I had a DNA test done. I also imagine that he's a lot like you were at his age.”

“Somewhat. He did save me from his father's henchmen before he knew who I was. I couldn't leave him there. There's still plenty of good in him.”

“His father has also done some damage, but he seems resilient. I think Elliot also suspects something, but I'll keep your secret for now.”
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