xp_logs | Angelo and Nathan, Saturday evening

While Angelo's out playing flying squirrel, he spots Nathan and indulges in a little eavesdropping. From a tree.

Angelo was in the city, playing glider as he went on one of his regular roof-runs. He was going along the edge of Washington Square Park when he saw a familar car and paused, peering down curiously.

Opting to watch a little longer, he saw Nathan park the car and get out, entering the park proper and walking towards the statue of Garibaldi, where he stopped and greeted an older man who was waiting for him. This, Angelo decided, merited a little eavesdropping. There were no buildings in the park, but the place was full of trees. If he could get down there unnoticed...

On that thought, he made an effort on his shields and prepared to leap.

"-had been hoping he'd taken my name and contact information to the grave with him," the older man was saying dryly. Maybe in his mid-sixties, he was still fit-looking, although he was eyeing Nathan with obvious wariness. "Don't take it personally."

"Oh," Nathan said quite lightly, "I don't." If his eyes had flickered towards the tree where Angelo had landed, it was only for an instant. "I can well understand wanting to stay under the radar, given your background."

"Look, Dayspring, I left Mistra specifically because I couldn't live with doing that kind of work anymore. And I left before they took the operation independent, which is why MacInnis left me out of his talks with the taskforce."

Angelo was perched comfortably on a branch, but he snapped to attention at that, listening far more attentively. Someone from Mistra?

"Mac's softheartedness is not my problem," Nathan was saying, almost conversationally. "And you didn't try to do anything about this work you so disliked once you left, did you? No - you asked for a transfer, went on with your life."

"I did what I could to help him-"

"From the safe confines of your office. Stop trying to justify yourself - the fact that you were still useful to him only proves your moral qualms only went so far. You were still involved in this kind of work, you just never got your own two hands dirty. So now," Nathan said, a faint, almost joyfully savage edge to his voice, "you get to be useful to me."

The older man sighed. "What do you want?"

"Taygetos."

"Never heard of it."

"That's fine. I want you to see what you can find out about it, then."

Angelo was sitting very still in his tree now. If Nate had a lead on Taygetos, he wanted to know who this guy was.

"I'm not making any promises," the stranger said after a long moment, "but I'll look into it." He was giving Nathan a hard look, now. "If you'll take some advice, Dayspring... this is probably not a game you want to play too often. You were too heavy-handed, getting me to meet you here. If you push that hard, people in my position who don't have my lingering guilt issues are likely to push back." Nathan just smiled, and the man gave a grating laugh. "Never mind," he said. "I should know better. Have to wonder what the hell MacInnis was thinking, passing his contacts along to ex-operatives - we never spent much time teaching any of you how to be subtle. You're liable to get yourselves into all kinds of trouble trying to make use of the information."

"We're not subtle," Nathan agreed, "but we're very good at other things. Like handling trouble, when it comes our way. Besides," he said, shrugging, "there are plenty of other very subtle people looking into this as well. I could always give your name to them." Silence, and Nathan's turn to laugh this time, although it was a soft, almost inaudible noise. "I didn't think so."

"Keeping it all in the family, huh?"

"Bad, bad choice of words," Nathan said very quietly. The stranger visibly shivered. "I think we're done here. You know what I want. And if you decide to 'push back'... you'll wish I'd given your name to SHIELD."

That appeared to be the end of the conversation, as the stranger just turned and walked away. A few moments later, Nathan was walking back the way he'd come, towards the car... a route which just happened to bring him right underneath Angelo's tree.

"Are you going to get down?" Nathan asked conversationally, "or am I supposed to pretend you're not there?"

"Ah, I guess I'll come down." He reached to swing himself down easily. "I wasn't followin' you."

"I know. I would have sensed you sooner if you had been. Although if I'd expected you to be in this part of town tonight I would have asked that bastard to meet me somewhere else."

"I never know where I'm gonna end up when I go roof-hoppin'", he said with a shrug. "So who was that guy? Apart from the obvious."

"Roof-hopping?" There was enough startlement in that question to make it seem like Nathan wasn't actually just trying to avoid his. "Um... do I ask, or...?"

"It's a relaxation thing. Like that tree thing you showed me years ago, only better. Like flyin'." He hadn't missed Nathan's failure to answer, but he'd let it go for now.

Something that sounded like a wheeze of laughter came from Nathan's direction as he paused, bending over slightly as if to catch his breath. "Oh lord... you're practicing the flying squirrel, aren't you?"

"Yep!" was the shameless response. "I practise in the Danger Room sometimes too, but it's not real there. It's much better out here."

Nathan shook his head, straightening. "Well. I'm telling Moira. You know her thoughts on the flying squirrel. Just wait until she hears that you're jumping off multi-story buildings..."

"Jean said I could do it now I've figured out how it works", Angelo said defensively. "An' I don't jump off, I do a run-up, also I can catch myself if it goes wrong. Tell her that."

"Oh, sure. Cover your ass with the other redhead." Nathan was aware he was finding this rather more funny than it actually warranted, but he was a little keyed up after his previous conversation.

"It's relaxin'", Angelo repeated. "An' since you totally knew I was in that tree, you let me listen in. Who was he?"

"You don't need to know his name," Nathan said. "Ex-training officer at Mistra. One of Mac's old contacts, although I think you were there for long enough to pick up on that. His was one of the names Mac gave Isabel, those last few months before he was killed." Nathan's expression was stony again, all amusement gone, as he gazed down the path in front of them. "He was right, too - it's all different kinds of inadvisable for me to be making use of the information. Isabel, maybe - Mac picked her for a reason. But that one was here in New York, and, well... if nothing else, my presence makes an impression on someone like that."

"Got him to do what you wanted", Angelo agreed. "An'... you know this whole Taygetos thing's my work too, now? I mean, you know we've all been workin' on it, but if you've got any more like this..."

"This is probably a one-time thing," Nathan said. "Contrary to popular belief, I know what I'm good at. Shaking down people who should have been lined up against the wall and shot along with Ruiz and her pals tests my patience a little too much."

"I used t'be pretty good at shakin' people down", was the almost cheerful response before Angelo sobered. "But probably not these people."