Dead Letter Office - Epilogue

[x-maverick.livejournal.com]

Arriving back in New York after their adventures, Jubilee has a bit of a surprise for North.



Finally arriving back at the brownstone after a series of connecting flights that started in Geneva and eventually wound up back in New York, North wandered into his flat, instinctively checking the edges of the doorframe for tampering, an old Stasi trick that he'd never managed to forget.

Strips of cellophane still tucked into the window frame, the thin dusting of talcum powder on his shelves undisturbed, the bubble wrap under the rug ($40.00, IKEA) still intact - all his anti-intrusion measures remained untouched. Yawning, North unbuckled the concealed-carry holster from around his waist and set his pistol down on the end table ($65.00, IKEA) and stretched out on the padded couch ($335.00, IKEA).

Eyes still closed, he smiled and raised his voice. "I thought I was the first person back. I have to say, you're getting much better at the burglary thing. How long have you been here?"

"An hour or so, give or take. Totally got the munchies but the whole booby trap thing that last time I tried to raid your fridge was a serious put off," Jubilee replied nonchalantly from her position wedged against North's kitchen ceiling. She stretched slightly to release cramped muscles and then dropped gracefully to the ground. "Did you get the pasta or the chicken on the flight?"

"I never eat on planes," North said nonchalantly, opening his eyes to nod at his teammate. "You wouldn't either if you knew how many different people have access to those pre-packaged meals. Not to mention that their packs of butter look remarkably like Semtex."

He leaned up on his elbows, absently scratching at the two-day growth of beard on his cheeks. "So Devi Gavin double-crossed everyone, Gareb Bashur walks away, Arkady Russovich still lives and is working with Cornelius, and Jake has not only burned all his Infonet bridges, he's set charges and demolished them. Is there any part of this operation that has not gone entirely into the toilet?"

"Oh, I don't know. I may have brought you all back a small present," Jubilee noted with a truly satisfied smirk. She reached over her shoulder and pulled off the slim-line back that had been strapped to her back. "You never told me about the tentacles by the way. Nasty things, and I'm totally not even Japanese, so seriously dude, that shit was not on."

"Tentacles?" David arched an eyebrow. "What in the bluest of blue hells are you on about, Jubilee?"

"You know, blonde, grouchy, speaks like that guy from Star Trek, Russowhatsit. He had tentacles, dude. Big, metal indestructible ones even, it was a bit of a shock, really," Jubilee replied, fishing the package she'd been looking for out of her pack before dropping it into North's lap. "So, anyway, he threw me across the room, which just so happened to be where this little baby was hiding."

North caught the package, about the size of two clenched fists and wrapped in simple brown paper. He fiddled with the wrapping as he mused. "Metal tentacles... well fuck me running, Cornelius figured out the carbonadium process, then. But they'd need the synthesizer to keep it stable and..."

His words trailed off as he opened the package to hold a complicated-looking device in his hands, a pair of cylinders joined by a series of cables, studded with multiple transistors and diodes.

"Zum Donnerwetter..." he breathed, turning the device over and over. "The carbonadium synthesizer. This... Jubilee, you are an absolute marvel. Infonet and Bashur believe it destroyed, and Cornelius will likely be keeping his head down trying to recreate it and keep Arkady alive at the same time. But we have it, and that gives us something we certainly did not have when we started this operation."

Maverick smiled widely, still gazing at the synthesizer. "This gives us leverage."

"Thought you'd like it," Jubilee noted, leaning against the couch back, feeling proud even if she'd never admit it out loud in a million years. It had looked like a clusterfuck there for a little bit but they'd managed to bring something out of it. "So, you were going to cook dinner, right? Cause dude, starving here."

Standing up, still holding the rescued device gingerly, David walked over to a locked case containing a number of antique clocks. Unlocking the tempered glass doors, he reached inside and carefully placed the carbonadium synthesizer inside a dark cherry-wood cuckoo clock, closing the handcrafted panels around it and then re-locking the case.

"Dinner?" he said with a tone of admiration in his voice. "Jubilee, for this I feed you for a week."