| Subject: Dangerous Chapter 1 |
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Becca
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Date Posted: 13:34:37 09/27/02 Fri
In reply to:
Becca
's message, "Dangerous" on 13:16:20 09/27/02 Fri
Dangerous 1
October 2006
**WSB North American Headquarters, Washington DC**
Zander Smith walked through the brightly lit halls of the World Security Bureau’s headquarters, called the Center by all who worked there. The former FBI phenom slid his hand up to tighten his tie, a nervous wreck to meet his new partner.
After graduating from high school, Zander, with a thirst of danger and excitement, realized he had two roads he could take. Instead of ending up in jail or worse, Zander joined the navy and from there went to the FBI academy. After two years of exemplary service for the FBI, Frisco Jones recruited Zander for service with the WSB. It didn’t take the young man long to jump at the offer to work under one of the most decorated spies in the world.
Now, at 25, he was about to fully become a WSB agent. A super spy. A secret agent. Like James Bond.
He stopped in front of one of the doors that lined the long corridor, looked at his reflection in one of the window, and smirked.
“Smith, Zander Smith,” he said seriously. His expression changed when he noticed someone in the reflection standing behind him. “Oh gosh,” he spun around nervously.
“Don’t worry, I hear all rookies tend to have a James Bond moment or two,” the woman explained. She was tall, attractive, and British.
“It’s not like I’m a total rookie or anything,” he muttered.
She smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder, leading him to his destination. “And that is why you’re with us.”
They walked in silence for a bit, Zander finally speaking up. “Captain Devane, my partner, is he…well, everyone says he’s kind of intense.”
Anna Devane looked at Zander; “You’ll just have to see for yourself.”
Zander let out a nervous laugh as they stopped at his new partner’s office.
“Quick question before we go in?”
“Yeah?”
“Well,” he paused, flipping his dark hair out of his eyes, “if he’s such a highly regarded agent, why has he been on office duty for so long? From what I gather, he knows his stuff. So why has he been spending his time doing computer work?”
“You may not realize it right now, but what your partner has been doing is just as important as field work. As for why? He’s your partner, ask him yourself,” she said with a wink before knocking on the door.
“Yeah, come in,” a voice called out.
Zander stepped into the office expecting it to be desolate and cold. Some of the other agents had described this guy as a loner, someone who was hard to get to know. But what Zander saw when he looked around the office was completely different.
There were drawings, done by a child, all over the walls. It was brightly lit, and Zander was sure he heard music coming from the Bose stereo that sat on the desk.
“You must be Zander.”
Zander took a step towards the young man, and extended his hand. “That would make you Lucky, right?”
“Because you’re Zander? What’s so lucky about that?” he teased with an easy smile.
“No, I mean…isn’t that?…they said to call you that,” Zander stammered, glancing back at Anna.
Leaning against the doorframe all Anna could do was laugh.
“Chill out man, I was just kidding with you,” Lucky Spencer said, motioning for Zander to take a seat. He looked at Anna and smirked. “You holding up the wall, or are you going to join us?”
“Not today,” Anna said as she stepped into the office to hand Lucky two files. “I’ve got to meet my illustrious partner. I’ll tell him you said hi.”
“I’m sure Frisco will be thrilled to hear that,” Lucky cracked, running a hand through his sandy brown hair.
“Oh, and Lucky, Robin said hi—she’s glad Lacey enjoyed her birthday present,” Anna said before leaving the room.
Zander smiled, “Lacey?”
“My daughter,” Lucky said, his voice echoing the deepest pride imaginable. He snatched a picture frame from the desk and handed it to Zander. “She turned five two weeks ago.”
The little girl had blonde hair and the biggest blue eyes Zander had ever seen. She was smiling in that innocent way only a five-year-old could.
“She’s beautiful,” Zander commented as he handed the frame back to Lucky. He noticed the wedding band on Lucky’s hand. “I bet you and your wife are very proud.”
Lucky’s blue eyes darkened for a moment. “My wife is, um, she died a few years ago,” Lucky said softly.
“Oh, man, I’m sorry. I do this . . . put my foot in my mouth. This is not how I wanted our partnership to begin,” he explained, clearly embarrassed.
Lucky shook his head and managed a smile. “It’s nothing. Ironically, my last partner and I didn’t get along at first, either.”
“Really? How did it turn out?”
“Well,” Lucky leaned back in his chair. “I married her.”
Zander laughed, feeling the tension leave the room as quickly as it entered.
“Between you and me, I hope our relationship doesn’t get that serious,” he teased.
“No worries there,” Lucky said seriously, making Zander a bit unnerved. “You’re not my type.”
Zander groaned, “You’re trying to kill me, aren’t you?”
“It is my job to make the rookie nervous. Julia tormented me when we got partnered, and now it is my turn,” he explained. “But enough of the pleasantries. You didn’t leave the FBI to have me tease you all day. You’re here to work.” Lucky took the files Anna gave him and handed them to Zander. “Meet the two women you are about to become obsessed with.”
Zander opened the files, glanced at the photos of two relatively young and very beautiful women, and then looked at Lucky.
“This is our case? What, something go wrong at the sorority house?” Zander snickered. “I know this is your first field case in a while and I’m still a rookie but . . . isn’t there something with a little more teeth we can do?”
Lucky laughed. “Man, you have no idea. Look past how beautiful the girls are and you’ll see two devious, talented, and potentially dangerous women. Zander Smith meet Elizabeth Webber and Emily Quartermaine.
“Elizabeth grew up in Boulder, Colorado where her father was a world renowned surgeon and her mother a highly regarded physician, as well. Two siblings, also doctors. One day, mom and dad get the offer to go play heroes in Bosnia and they take it. Elizabeth stayed behind in Colorado, but got bored and almost joined her sister in Port Charles, which we’ll get to shortly. Anyway, she went to stay with a cousin in Arizona. She enrolled in the high school there, graduated, and decided to go to Arizona State University.
“Emily spent the first dozen or so years of her life in Arizona with her mother, until her mother died of cancer. Her mother was a friend with Dr. Monica Quartermaine. Dr. Monica and Alan Quartermaine adopted Emily and brought her into the crazed insanity of the Quartermaine family in Port Charles, New York. She has two brothers, Jason Morgan, a gangster in Port Charles, and AJ Quartermaine, CEO of ELQ, the family business. So, the story goes, Emily grows tired of Port Charles and wants to escape that life so she applies to and gets in to Arizona State University.”
Zander let out a little laugh. “So you’re telling me these two girls, both daughters of doctors, just missed meeting in Port Charles but ended up attending the same college?”
“Don’t you just love irony?” Lucky asked with a raised eye. “Anyway, the real fun started at ASU. Emily is a year younger than Elizabeth, but graduated early, so it put them as Freshman at ASU at the same time. Fall semester they are both enrolled in a sociology class. They immediately hit it off and decide to work together on a project for the class. From there they became inseparable, eventually deciding to become roommates. Now they aren’t your average college girls, no, they are different. They are bored, and, through some twist of fate, start conning people. For money, sometimes just for kicks. But they got good. There probably wasn’t one person on the ASU campus who either hadn’t been hit by the girls or knows someone who was. But as all things go, it got boring, and they wanted to move on to bigger things.”
“Wait,” Zander held up a hand. “What kind of things were they doing?”
“Uh, the choke routine,” Lucky said. Zander looked confused, so he explained. “Well, they’ll go out to a four star restaurant, order super expensive meals and save the last bite to choke on. Someone will play hero, save them, and offer to pay for their meal. I mean, come on, look at those faces, they’re gonna get you every time,” Lucky explained ironically. “Another common scam they’d run was a classic grifter’s move. Go to a bar, have some fun, drink a little, then, when you go to leave, flash the bartender a twenty. Once he sees the money, momentarily distract him, and slide a five or a ten out from under your twenty. He takes it, and gives you change for the higher bill.” Lucky paused and leaned forward, “They learned all their cons from books and movies.”
“Get out,” Zander scoffed. He thought about it for a moment, then remembered the movie “The Grifters” and the money scam Lucky explained. “I’ll be damned. They’re sneaky girls. But why do we, the WSB, care about two amateur con artists?”
“Because, like I said, they got bored and wanted more. They left ASU with a small fortune and decided to see the world. I haven’t determined yet how it happened, but eventually they became thieves for hire. Don’t laugh, it is true. You need something stolen, find the girls, cause they’ll get it for you. Using the con and their natural assets, Elizabeth and Emily have played Robin Hood for the rich against the rich. Necklaces, computer disks, important documents—you name it, they’ve snagged it. The girls are pros.
“They are the perfect team, not to be underestimated. Emily is level headed, rational, uses a lot of forethought in the planning of their jobs. Elizabeth is passionate, quick thinking, with an innate ability to improvise if needed. They know how to get the job done,” Lucky noted.
“That doesn’t tell me what we want with them, exactly. What is our business with them?”
“The world’s largest uncut diamond,” Lucky explained. “Nicknamed the Ice Princess, it . . . well, let’s just say it has a colorful past. Billionaire Sebastian O’Connon bought it about fifteen years ago. He died recently, with no heirs to leave the diamond to. In one month it goes on the auction block and the highest bidder will get to keep the world’s most expensive paperweight. But not everyone wants to pay upwards of one hundred million dollars for a diamond.”
Zander snapped his fingers. “What’s the phrase, ‘diamonds are a girls best friend’? Emily and Elizabeth want it?”
“Not really, but there are plenty of people out there who will pay them to steal the diamond. We’ve already intercepted a number of potential contracts, but there is one person out there who wants that diamond more than anything. Someone who feels the diamond belongs to her, and feels she should not have to buy it.”
“I know this one,” Zander said, a twinkle in his brown eyes. “Helena Cassadine. Her family previously owned the diamond, tried to use it towards some sort of world domination scheme, and a man by the name of Luke Spencer stopped them. The man who you call dad.”
Lucky leaned back, surprised. “You did your homework.”
“Some of it, anyway,” Zander shrugged. “So, what’s the deal. We stop the girls before they get the diamond?”
Lucky shook his head, causing the earring in his left ear to bounce. “Nope.”
“Ok, you lost me again.”
“We let them steal the diamond, but stop them before they can return it to Helena. By doing that we’ll be able to retain the Ice Princess as evidence and it won’t go up for auction, Helena Cassadine will be in our custody and go on trial for conspiracy to commit grand larceny…as for the girls, well, we have something special in mind for them,” Lucky added, slightly deviously.
“Special? Like, how special? Cause I think I may have skipped that class at the academy.”
“Our bosses, Frisco and Anna, they have a theory that some people can be convinced to use their abilities for good instead of evil. According to them, Elizabeth and Emily represent two such people. Simply put, we want them on our side.”
Zander sat back in his chair and smiled confidently. “That doesn’t sound too hard.”
Lucky chuckled, “It never does.”
**New York, Garden Park Tower, Penthouse E**
Emily paced around the living room of the penthouse she and Elizabeth shared. Elizabeth was sitting on the couch, sketching quietly as her best friend and partner nearly had a panic attack.
“This isn’t a good idea, Liz, it just isn’t. Do you realize what we are dealing with? Hot, hot water,” Emily exclaimed, collapsing in the leather armchair.
“It is one job. One very lucrative job, at that,” Elizabeth said calmly. “Hell, we could probably ‘retire’ once we do it. No reason to panic.”
“Retire? Oh, wouldn’t that mean you’d then have to make a decision about my brother?” Emily challenged.
“What kind of decision? Do you mean the will I ever marry him decision?” Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “That is never going to happen and Jason knows that. I mean, sure, we have a good time and all but . . . marriage? Hardly.”
“Like I care?” Emily scoffed. It was the truth. She loved her brother, and she loved Elizabeth, but she never truly bought them as a “forever” type couple. If anything, Emily didn’t want to become involved in Jason’s lifestyle, and the closer Elizabeth got to him, the closer they both got to Jason’s world.
Which was rather ironic considering what they did as a “job.” The way both women rationalized it, they never physically hurt or killed anyone, and they never stole from people who wouldn’t miss the money. Robin Hoods, if you will, who stole from the rich to give to the rich. But nobody ever got hurt. In fact, neither Elizabeth nor Emily owned a gun. What they did wasn’t legal, but it wasn’t necessarily evil.
Emily got off of the chair and moved to the couch.
“We’ve always relied on your gut telling us what to do, is your gut really saying we should take this job?” Emily asked honestly.
“My gut? My gut, Em, says we can’t lose. This is a can’t lose job. We charm the staff, swipe the rock, and deliver it to that old broad who is going to pay us a truck load of money,” Elizabeth explained. “Plus, we get to go back to London. We like London.”
Emily’s face brightened. “What were the names of those guys?”
“Alain and William,” the names rolled off Elizabeth’s tongue deviously. “Those boys were fun.”
“They liked us good ole American girls,” Emily wiggled her eyes, causing both women to dissolve into a fit of laughter.
Their fun was interrupted by the telephone.
“Crap,” Elizabeth muttered as Emily reached for the phone. “If it is Jason, tell him…I don’t know, tell him I’m knocking over the mint today. He likes to worry.”
“Hello?…Oh, hi, yes . . . yep, we plan to stick to our agreement,” Emily shot a thumbs up towards Elizabeth. “Sure . . . no, leave everything up to us, we just need to know where you want us to deliver the item. . . . Yeah, just let us know soon. We’ll leave for London in a few days. . . . We’ll be speaking with you soon, bye,” Emily hung up the phone and let out a deep breath.
“So it is on?”
“Yep,” Emily said with a smile. “You’re really not nervous about this?”
“Not nervous? No, my gut hasn’t said anything about not being nervous. We’re doing a job for Helena Cassadine, a well-known weird family, of course I’m nervous. But nothing has ever happened to us in the past, why should it change now?”
Emily frowned. “Famous last words?”
May 1999
**Marado Ranch, 20 Miles South of Tijuana, Mexico**
Lucky walked out onto the porch of the rather spacious rancher, a confident smile on his face. He was 18 and living the sort of life not many 18 years could even dream about. With the help of a family friend, Frisco Jones, Lucky began WSB training at 17, at least a year younger than every other recruit. But he had computer skills that the WSB wanted, not to mention he came with the stamp of approval from one of the WSB’s most prominent agents.
His first case was helping in busting up an international drug ring. Mobsters from Russia, the United States, and Mexico were involved, and Lucky helped in bringing them down by hacking into the computers of the Russians.
He was riding high. His father, Luke, always knew his cowboy would do important things. It pained Luke to have to let Lucky go, but he knew it was something he had to do, it was what Laura would have wanted.
Three years earlier, not long after having their second child, Laura was killed in a car accident. It devastated the Spencer men, but they banded together to bring up Lesley Lu. When Lucky joined the WSB, Luke moved from their home in San Francisco back to Port Charles. Lucky was always curious about the city where his parents fell in love, but he loved the life he was living even more. He had everything he wanted.
Wey hey hey, baby hang on
Wey hey hey, baby hang on
Empty heart, beat tight as a drum set
Empty love, she'd shine like a song
Wey hey hey, baby hang on (to anything)
Well, almost everything.
“Striking the hero pose, eh Spencer?”
Lucky’s eyes lit up when she stepped beside him.
Julia Mitchell, 22, was his strawberry blonde crush. Her smile enchanted him from the first second he laid eyes on her. As it always happens, she seemed to barely tolerate Lucky.
That would change, Lucky was confident, women simply couldn’t resist the charm of the Spencer men.
Our love shines like rain
In those Spanish eyes
Spanish eyes
“You know, you can do it too,” Lucky suggested. “It is perfectly acceptable to enjoy your victory. Frisco taught me that. If you can’t sit back and be proud of what you’ve done, then why are you doing it?”
“To remove the scum from the world,” Julia answered quickly. “Not to boost my own ego.”
Lucky stepped in front of her, looking directly in her eyes.
Wey hey hey, here she comes
She comes in colors
You know she gonna turn the daylight on
'cause I love the way you talk to me
And I love the way you walk on me
And I need you more
Oh, than you need me
“Wow, you’re sort of hostile with me,” he observed.
Julia rolled her eyes. “Oh, I’m sorry, did I upset the golden boy? Excuse me if I find your presence on this mission a bit odd.”
“Odd?”
“Yeah, buddy, odd. I entered the training program at 18, it took me two years to get a chance to be part of a mission like this. But you, because you’re friends with Captain Jones and Captain Devane get to strut around like the big hero. And, I’ll have you know something else, any computer geek could have gotten the files you did. It is nothing spectacular,” she ranted, oblivious to the smitten look on the younger man’s face.
Our love shines like rain
In those Spanish eyes
Spanish eyes
“You know, in this light your eyes . . . they’re golden,” Lucky said, his voice smooth and sincere.
Julia shook her head, confused. “What?”
“Yeah, yeah, they are glowing,” he said, his own eyes shining. “Drawing me in.”
“Are you… are you putting a move on me?” she asked, a bit unnerved by the intensity in Lucky’s eyes.
He shrugged. “Do you believe me?”
“Are you lying?”
He whispered, “No.”
“Then why would you ask if believed you?”
“Because you seem surprised,” he said. “Like nobody has ever told you how incredibly beautiful you are.”
“Of course people have told me that, Lucky.”
I'll cross the world for green and gold
But it's those Spanish eyes
That get me home...home again
“Not the way I mean it,” Lucky stepped closer. “I mean everything about you is beautiful. The way you laugh. The look on your face when we’re working. The way you look in those jeans. Your drive and passion for life. The way your lips move when you say my name . . . every inch of you is beautiful.”
Julia stared at Lucky, unable to find her voice. Was he really saying this? Looking at her like this? They had known each other for over six months, and it never occurred to her that the cute, if not slightly arrogant, new guy had a crush on her.
Wey hey hey, baby hang on
Wey hey hey, you know that
The night is young
Dazzled by lights that shine in your eyes
I'm standing in the shadows
And wait for the night
Forever in fever, forever in heat
You pick me up to put me out on the street
She had dated, and been in relationships, but had long since decided that she wanted to concentrate on her career. Being the best WSB agent she could be was all Julia wanted. But the way Lucky looked at her made her question that decision.
With a deep breath, Lucky shuffled backwards, his cowboy boots kicking up the dirt on the porch.
“I’m going to go see if Frisco needs anything,” Lucky said with a wink before going back inside. He stopped in the doorway and looked out at Julia. She stood there, motionless, stunned. Moved.
Wey hey hey, baby hang on, hang on
Wey hey hey, baby hang on, hang on
'cause I love the way you talk to me
And I love the way you're mean to me
And I need you
October 2006
**Mitchell/Spencer Residence, just outside of Washington DC**
Zander followed Lucky into the comfortable house where Lucky lived with his brother and sister-in-law.
“Hey, guys, anyone home?” Lucky called out when he walked into the living room.
“In the kitchen,” a woman called out.
“Make yourself at home, I’ll see what Dan and Jane are up to,” Lucky said, motioning for Zander to relax in the living room.
Zander nodded and removed his coat, draping it carefully on the back of one of the chairs. He looked around the living room and was struck by how lived in it was. It wasn’t a show room, it was a place where people watched television and opened Christmas presents and played board games. It was a real living room.
Zander wasn’t used to that. He grew up in Florida to a well to do family. There were some rooms in the house that he never went in, and some he never spent more than five minutes in.
“Who are you?”
Zander looked up to see little Lacey standing in front of him. He smiled, the girl was even cuter in person.
“I’m Zander Smith, your daddy’s new partner,” Zander said, reaching his hand out to the five-year-old.
She quickly shook his hand, a serious expression on her face.
“I like your name,” she told Zander. “It’s cool. I’m Lacey.”
“It is nice to finally meet you, Miss Spencer,” he smiled. “Your dad was telling me all about you today.”
She flashed a smile that could brighten the night sky. “Did he tell you about Mommy? Daddy is always telling me stories about her.”
“Are you bugging him?” Lucky said as he entered the room. “What’s up squirt? How was school today?”
Lacey immediately ran into her father’s arms, giving him a joyful kiss. “It was fun . . . except Timmy Brown kept poking me.”
“Well what did you do about it?” Lucky asked her. Zander watched the way father and daughter interacted and was touched. Lucky didn’t talk down to her like most adults did with children. He talked to her like an equal, and she opened without hesitation.
“I kicked him in the shin!” Lacey declared proudly.
Lucky bit his lip to keep from laughing. “Lace, you didn’t.”
Lacey nodded her head as she and Lucky sat down on the couch.
“I’m afraid she did,” Dan Mitchell said as he entered the room. Dan, a novelist, was Julia’s older brother. He and his wife, Jane, a lawyer, took Lucky into their family the second Julia brought him home. When she died, they had Lucky and Lacey come live with them. Lucky was hesitant at first, but he knew it was the best way to give his daughter a real life and also continue doing the work that Julia had believed in.
“Lacey, what did I tell you about hitting people?”
“Not to do it,” she replied.
“Then why’d you do it, kid?” Lucky asked his daughter.
“I didn’t, daddy.”
Lucky cocked his head to the side and looked at the little girl.
“I kicked him.”
Zander stifled a laugh.
“It’s alright, man, laugh—my girl is funny,” Lucky told his partner. “Aren’t you, Lace?”
“She’s got her mother’s ironic sense of humor, that’s for sure,” Dan declared, sitting down on the piano bench. He smiled at Zander, “I’m Dan, by the way.”
“Zander, it’s good to meet you.”
Dan scratched his short brown hair and glanced over his shoulder. “You’ll have to excuse my wife, it takes her a few minutes to fully put the office behind her. She’s just taken a new lawyer on and can’t seem to cut the cord for the night.”
“That’s Dan speak for: Jane’s on the phone,” Lucky explained.
“Yeah, what he said,” Dan chuckled. “So, Lucky, new partner, does this mean a new case?”
Lucky nodded. “Yep, in a couple of days we’re going to London. That’s not going to cause a problem, is it?”
“Of course not,” Dan declared with a wave of the hand. “I’m just glad you’re finally getting back into the field. My little sister would be proud.”
“That’s a given, but why this time?” Jane asked, wrapping her arms around her husband’s shoulders. Zander’s jaw nearly dropped when he saw her. She was beautiful—long, dark hair, bright blue eyes, and perfect, porcelain skin. “You must be Zander, I’m Jane.”
“Lucky’s going back out into field work,” Dan explained.
“That’s great! What’s the case?”
“You know I can’t go into specifics,” Lucky told her with a smirk. “But, since I know you’ll bug me till I give you a clue I’ll tell you this, it involves those girls from Port Charles.”
“Oh, the ones we met last Christmas?” Jane asked excitedly. “Wow, small world.”
Zander looked at Lucky. “You know them?”
“No,” Lucky shook his head. “We were in Port Charles for the holiday, went to the Christmas party at the hospital, and they happened to be there. I got introduced, that was all. They don’t know what I do, so don’t worry, my having met Elizabeth and Emily won’t be a big deal.”
“Lizzie?” Lacey asked excitedly. “She was cool.”
“You’re daughter knows her?” Zander asked in disbelief. “And you’re not worried.”
“Nothing will happen to Lacey. She is my life, and I will never put her in danger, that much you can bet on. I was sloppy once, that’ll never happen again,” Lucky declared. He stood up and left the room.
“Damn,” Zander muttered. He covered his mouth at the swear, “Sorry. I just . . . ugh, I didn’t mean it like that.”
“We know, Lucky knows, he’s just . . . taking on a new partner, leaving the office, it’s made him a bit tense. Cut him a bit slack,” Jane suggested with a smile. “Once his world settles down, you’ll meet the real Lucky. And once you do, you’ll understand why having him as a partner is the best thing that can happen to you.”
** “Spanish Eyes” words by Bono, music by U2
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