| Casey Affleck (for those of you who don't know what he looks like) |
NaNoWriMo Update:
1. I'm up to 34916 words! Which means I have about 31% to go! ...is my math right on that?
2. When I started this I read all these things about how NaNoWriMo kills you and you don't get a lot of sleep because you're striving to finish before the end of the month. I didn't really believe all of it. WELL I DO NOW! I've written two chapters in two days and have gotten little to no sleep! O_O
Okay so this scene is really important to me. It introduces Mick, a very important character, and it tells what his story is, why he needs their help, what he did. This scene gives explanations. So my question for you all is: does it make sense? Is it too cliche, are there parts that don't really fit? I would love your feedback! I always do :) Sorry it's such a long excerpt, the scene just wouldn't make sense if I only used part of it.
ENJOY! :D
ENJOY! :D
Haley, Evie and Eli came back to the booth with serious faces. Everyone who was already there quickly snapped into defensive mode. The look on Eli’s face made Keegan scan the room for suspicious characters.
“What did you see?” Keegan asked Eli, somehow making himself look like Josh Duhamel from Transformers in the process.
“I thought I saw Mick!” Eli hissed.
If Mickey was near, then that meant answers were coming and that danger was closer. In one motion, the group tensed and searched the sea of people for their friend’s face. Half of their party had a hand on one of their own multiple concealed guns. Shawn had his fingers rapped around the handle of his combat knife. Haley nervously picked off the loose fuzz that had stuck to Jason’s cape.
“I see you’re still the Fashion Nazi,” a warm voice reached the group’s ears. Everyone twitched in surprise and starred at the man of medium build who suddenly appeared next to Haley.
Haley stopped fidgeting with Jason’s cape and stared at the man. He looked so different, matured.
“When did you get facial hair?” Sophie asked, her voice slicing through the thick near trance the group had fallen into.
“After graduation,” Mick laughed. He bent down and hugged short Sophie. He’d grown a few inches too.
“Yuck,” Grace coughed. She glared at Mickey.
“I love you too Grace!” Mickey smiled at her and went to give her a hug but she moved away, force of habit. “Still don’t like me, eh?”
She simply glared.
Evie sheepishly smiled at Mick and he acknowledged her presence. Keegan and Eli both shook his hand, exclaiming their joy in seeing him again safely. Jason gave him a bro hug and Haley merely nodded her head, eager to learn why they were helping him.
“And who is this?” Mick’s voice turned mocking. “Little Shawn Cassidy is that you?”
Shawn didn’t look amused.
“Oh come on Shawn! He didn’t mean harm!” Sophie smacked Shawn in the arm, then rapped her other arm around Mick’s waist in a half hug.
“Shawn Cassidy? As in the Shaun Cassidy, the one with great hair?” Grace questioned, mollified now that she had someone to tease. She’d never heard his last name before.
“My mom had a crush on Shaun Cassidy,” Shawn explained with chagrin.
“His full name is Shawn Butch Cassidy!” Jason threw that information out there, for whoever wanted to use it.
Shawn stared at Jason so severely Jason shut up. Everybody discussing his name was reminding him too much of High School. When Shawn wasn’t cracking a joke Grace realized that he looked a little like Milo Ventimiglia.
“Well aren’t we getting off to a good start?” Haley clapped her hands together and everyone snapped into attention.
“We should take this to a more secure location,” Keegan said.
Everyone apparently agreed, because they followed him too the door.
As they shoved their way through the swarms of bodies, the group heard a harsh noise right next to them. Sophie and Haley cringed to hear the screeching.
“Drunk and tone-deaf. Never a good combination,” Mick laughed at the couple singing bad karaoke near them.
The group, Mickey included, climbed into their huge Hummer and silently drove through the meatpacking district. Eli parked the car on a quiet street; he left the engine on. The two teams sat rigidly in their seats, half of them searching the darkened neighborhood with their weapons ready. The other half gazed intently at Micky, eager for explanations.
“Lighten up guys, we’re perfectly safe!” Mickey laughed.
The group stared at him with unsure eyes. The white moon glared through the tinted windows casting an eerie hue.
“We haven’t been safe for the last 48 hours. They are everywhere,” Keegan mumbled and looked out his window at a couple stumbling their way home, the same drunk couple from the club.
“You sound so cryptic!” Mickey chuckled.
“What is going on?” Evie begged. She’d let the reunions and friendly teasing go on for far too long. She was on the verge of losing her patience to curiosity.
Mickey sighed. His Casey Affleck green eyes searched Evie’s as he began to fill them in.
In his usual frank way, Mick got to the point. “About a year ago I received a letter from D.I.S. which stated that they believed me to be a mole. The twenty men in front of me were to haul me in for questioning, which they did. A year ago, they claimed to have found evidence against me; they wrongfully convicted me. I escaped.” Mick’s eyes shown with pride. “I’m sorry I was so illusive before, I can’t be too careful. An arms dealer is after me too.”
The group starred at him with wide eyes. Sophie and Grace inched further away from him.
They let Keegan handle the questioning.
“Mick, is this true?” Keegan asked seriously.
“Why would I tell you anything else?” Mick answered with his own question.
“Dude! You were known for being the biggest prankster our graduation year,” Jason pointed out.
“If I remember correctly, you were the bigger prankster,” Mick jeered back. Looking Keegan dead in the eye, Mick said, “I’m not lying to you. What I have told you is true. I need your help to prove my innocence. I can’t keep running like this. You are all my last resource; my last hope.”
“What can we do?” Eli asked from the front seat.
“Sophie, Shawn, are you still good at hacking computers?” Mick asked of the two dorky nerds.
"Still good? I'm the best there is!" Shawn looked offended.
"Boy, I beg to differ!" Sophie put her hands on her hips and her brow furrowed begging for a challenge.
"You're not that good!" Shawn argued with her.
"I wasn't saying I was the best, I was saying that Adrian
"Stop. I just wanted to know if you could still do it," Mick hushed them. "Can you handle a large challenge? Can you hack into the F.B.I. and D.I.S.?” He searched for a simple answer.
"Yes," Shawn and Sophie said in unison.
"Great. Haley, Jason, are you both capable of scouting out locations and Haley, are you still into disguises?" Mick continued to verify their skills.
"You bet your sorry wanted head that we are," Haley confirmed.
"We're all still well practiced in our high school training. They've been refined to skills," Grace rolled her eyes. Only three years had passed, how long did he think it'd been?
"Good. I need you all to," here Mick stopped to take a suspenseful breath. "I need you all to prove my innocence, hack into databases and obtain some documents. We have to," Mick abruptly stopped.
"Go on!" Evie urged after a moment of silence.
Mick heard Evie but settled his eyes on Shawn. “We need to go to DC.”
Sophie and Keegan held their breath. They knew how Shawn was about the government. Like Sophie, he was a bit of a conspiracy theorist, but he took it to a completely different level.
“No, absolutely not! That’s like walking straight into the lion’s den!” Shawn started to rant, but stopped.
Mick didn’t argue or protest. He simply lowered his head in anticipated disappointment.
“For, Mick, Shawn,” Sophie whispered.
Shawn stared at his golden shoes and didn’t answer, but he didn’t argue either.
“We have to illegally break into the government databases?” Keegan asked Mick.
“Yes,” Mick solemnly said.
The group knew how dangerous this job would be, but they trusted Mick’s innocence. They couldn’t have him go down for something he didn’t do. What if the rolls had been reversed? Some of the members were skeptical of the whole operation and it’s safety, but as a whole, they agreed to assist their friend. Haley held a grudge against the agency, so she was all for proving them wrong.
“What are we supposed to do in DC?” Eli asked. He was twisted around in the front seat and no longer looking out the windshield.
“The F.B.I. poses photos which could put me on death row. D.I.S. was trying to get their hands on them, but the process took to long, that’s when I made my break,” Mick informed them.
“Put you on death row,” Keegan repeated.
“The photos are… compromising, but taken out of context,” Mick began. “They prove everything, yet prove nothing. The pictures were taken while I was on a mission. They will use those pictures against me, to prove I spoke with the arms dealer. I did nothing wrong, they’re twisting the facts,” Mick’s voice cracked. “We need to retrieve them first. The arms dealer on my tail, the one who you’ve run into no doubt, is in those pictures. If D.I.S. or I produce those documents, it’ll reveal who he is in the process. He is the true mole. If you see those photos, not only will his dealings become known, but his true identity will be revealed. I’m the only person to have seen his face; if those photos are taken by D.I.S. then I will not have been the only one to see him. If D.I.S. gets a hold of them we’re both screwed. If I get them, I can destroy them. The dealer is following me so he can get them first, you are all just witnesses he needs to take out,” Mick explained in extreme detail.
“I got your back Mick; I believe you,” Sophie comforted.
“Knew I could count on you Soph,” Mick slightly smiled at her and patted her hand.
Grace’s eyes shot suspiciously between the pair.
“The Dealer is Felix Boscov, yes?” Keegan quickly asked.
“No,” Mick answered, his eyebrows nit together.
Why was Boscov following them? If he was not the one Mick was talking about, then they had two Arms Dealers hunting them and now they were agreeing to support Mick, turning D.I.S. against them.
“What’s our first move?” Keegan slowly wondered. If Mick had not been the good friend Keegan knew him to be, Keegan would have turned him into D.I.S. himself. They were all taking a big risk.
“We’re going to DC,” Mick answered.
“To Da Capitol then,” Jason said.
“Politicians, F.B.I., Secret Service,” Shawn scowled. D.I.S. was the only government organization he trusted; even now, his trust of the agency was wary. Somewhere in his past he’d formed a distaste for men in black suits and government badges. It’s pretty safe to say he was just paranoid.
“We’re going to attend a ball,” Mick half smiled. He failed to mention this before.
“Excuse me?” Sophie raised an eyebrow.
“The only chance we’ll have at getting those photos is during a ball that the President will be throwing in a week. Now we finally get to see Sophie in a strapless gown!” Mick full out
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