THE OG AU

[conning]

[summary tk]

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[abrightboy]

“Why kill her forger if she didn’t have control of the next one yet?” Malcolm asks. “What if she can’t get him to do what she wants?”

[conning]

“There are too many possibilities to do more than guess at that just now.” He makes an airy little gesture, like he’s shooing away an annoying bug. “The significant thing is that she believes she can get what she needs from Caffrey. She has something she thinks she can use to force his hand.”

[abrightboy]

“Personal leverage of some kind? Isn’t that what their relationship was supposed to be?” Malcolm muses. “So she’s a spy and a thug, not a forger or a thief. You think she needs both and Neal is both without Hagen.”

[conning]

“Precisely.” He’s clearly pleased to have Malcolm’s interest. “That’s among the reasons I wanted to speak with him. I think he can help me catch her.”

[abrightboy]

Malcolm looks at him warily, turning his coffee cup around in his hands, eyes flitting from Murdoch’s face to the file and back.

“What if he has to do something illegal to reel her in? Steal something or con someone? She’ll want him to prove that she has him before she gives him anything useful to us. He’s on thin ice and a short leash with the FBI and I can tell you from experience that they are not understanding about mitigating circumstances.”

[conning]

Murdoch drums his fingers on the table. “I could try and leverage some influence with Interpol to establish a joint operation with the FBI.”

[abrightboy]

Malcolm considers that, then suggests “What if you request transfer of the asset to Interpol for the duration of the operation?”

[conning]

Murdoch blinks. “You don’t want the FBI involved.”

[abrightboy]

“You’ve read my file,” Malcolm tells him. “And I’m sure you’ve read Neal’s and the saga of the longest ever maximum security sentence to indentured servitude ever handed out for first offence bond forgery.”

[conning]

“Which is why an inter-agency operation would provide good external leverage for his release.” Murdoch says it with a neutral tone, but Malcolm might recognize the very calm and careful way he’s being watched. If he ever saw himself during interrogations, anyway.

[abrightboy]

“The FBI will never let him go with any pretence to hold on to him,” Malcolm says evenly. “And if he has to do things that will compromise him with them to help you, then he can’t help you.”

Murdoch is back to being a different team again. Malcolm is guarded again. The FBI is danger to Neal as far as he’s concerned. There’s no deal to be had that includes them.

[conning]

Murdoch sits back a little, sure he’s missing something but not sure quite what. Not yet anyway. “Very well, the FBI doesn’t need to be involved. Interpol has independent interest in Rachel Turner in any case.”

[abrightboy]

“And they’re welcome to get her out of his life,” Malcolm informs him. “Do you think you can arrange the loan of an FBI asset to your team?”

Murdoch’s team of Murdoch. That’s fine. That’s ideal, really.

[conning]

“I have few direct resources at my disposal, but I can utilize some indirect ones.”

He looks thoughtfully into the middle-distance for a moment before orienting on Malcolm again. “Based on your general demeanor I assume you want to be involved.”

[abrightboy]

Malcolm smiles faintly.

“You make it sound like a thing I’m requesting,” he points out. “I’m already involved.”

[conning]

“This meeting doesn’t constitute involvement,” Murdoch says evenly. “You said you were read into the situation with Hagen—what was it you mentioned about him harassing Mr Caffrey’s landlady?”

[abrightboy]

“I don’t know. Apparently, I’m not involved,” Malcolm says coolly. “If we’re working together, we’re working together. If we’re not, we’re not.”

[conning]

Murdoch pauses, taking in the sudden recalcitrance and change in tone. “I’ve insulted you again.”

It’s more uncertain this time, though. “I only meant that you had agreed to speak on that particular topic when we arranged to meet, not contribute to a larger investigation.”

[abrightboy]

“I didn’t know there was a larger investigation, but we’re a package deal. I don’t trust the FBI and I don’t know you, so even if you don’t want anything else from me, I’ll be the one watching Neal’s back. If it’s all the same to you. Or if it’s not.” He gestures towards the files. “Psychological profile, page one: trust issues comma profound.”

[conning]

Murdoch watches him with a fascination that’s only partially academic. “You’re very straightforward. Do you not find that tiring or risky?”

[abrightboy]

“It’s not more tiring than insomnia or more risky than jumping on a landmine. All things are relative. So are we doing this or what?” Malcolm replies in almost one run-on sentence.

[conning]

Murdoch stares for a moment, a man clearly trying to figure out if what was just said was literal or figurative. He takes a breath to ask, then shakes his head and decides there are more important things to focus on.

“I would be delighted to work with you. Rachel Turner isn’t a serial killer, but she otherwise fits your oeuvre rather well. She once executed a target by smearing part of the mouthpiece of their inhaler with peanut oil. As you might have guessed, the owner was allergic. Of course there was no substantive way to prove her involvement. A favorite tactic of hers seems to be unconventional poisons or substances with poisonous effect, but she will resort to perfunctory methods such as shooting and stabbing if that kind of drama is situationally inadvisable. She is a practical sadist.”

[abrightboy]

“She enjoys the suffering,” Malcolm clarifies, reaching for the file again. “If Neal gets close to her, he’s going to need me in his ear,” he informs Murdoch by way of equipment requisition requirements. “He’s seen sadism, but he doesn’t understand it,” he explains absently, flipping pages.

[conning]

Murdoch nods at the clarification, then pauses at Malcolm’s request. “How would that help him?”

It’s a genuine question.

The file itself is detailed and unflattering.

Former MI5 agent under the orders of Special MI5 Agent Dax Hammon. Her father was a colonel in the US army and her mother was a British civilian. Traveling around the world, she worked for the MI5 under the alias of Bonnie Tolliver, Margaret Stephan or Dyla Fleece. She used her contacts in the terrorist cells to sell British secret information and MI5 discharged her for treason. As a freelance mercenary, she left Great Britain for the United States.

Numerous assassinations, torturous interrogations, arms deals, and prison breaks are listed as likely crimes.

[abrightboy]

“It will help him with what to say in order to get what we need from her. We want her to play into our hands, not us to play into hers by giving her Neal,” Malcolm explains, still perusing the file.