Prague [Saturday afternoon]

[grenadesandohana]

"I'm not saying that Grace shouldn't be punished for sneaking out and going to a Halloween party," Steve said, a conversation that clearly started a while ago. "I'm just saying that I definitely did the same thing when I was a teenager."

He glanced along the street, looking for an intersection. "I think we're close to where Harry told us to meet him."

Comments

[hatesparadise]

"She's fourteen!" Danny said like this was both a point he'd brought up and much more important than trying to find the spy.

[grenadesandohana]

"I am aware," Steve said, nodding.

[hatesparadise]

"That is too young to be sneaking into parties with people who are nearly adults," Danny insisted.

[grenadesandohana]

"That's true," Steve said, "but I think it was still a high school party. No one from college?"

[hatesparadise]

"High school kids are the worst," Danny grumbled. Was he focusing on anything about this mission? No.

[grenadesandohana]

"She just wanted to belong," Steve said, leading them down a side street.

[hatesparadise]

"Well, belonging gets kids into dangerous situations."

With drugs! And stuff!

[grenadesandohana]

"You can't ground her until she's 30," Steve said. "That's how you get Maryann."

[hatesparadise]

Danny sighed loudly. "Well, she can't just sneak out. That's not feasible either."

[grenadesandohana]

"Maybe talk to her," Steve suggested quietly. "See if she can come up with a suitable punishment that takes into account you driving across O'ahu to grab her."

[hatesparadise]

"You're bein' reasonable. Why are you being so reasonable?"

[grenadesandohana]

Steve smiled. "Balancing you out."

[hatesparadise]

Danny grumbled, bumping into his side. "Fine, let's figure this out before we get arrested or something."

[grenadesandohana]

"For hanging out near a creepy old factory?" Steve guessed, glancing up at the place that matched the coordinates Harry had sent him. "That's probably fair."

[hatesparadise]

"Does this count as espionage? Because I'm not sure I want that on my record," Danny remarked.

[grenadesandohana]

"This does not count as espionage," Steve said, laughing. He pushed open the metal door to the factory and saw Harry reading the screen of a laptop and looking worried.

"Took you long enough, gents," he said.

[hatesparadise]

"Well, the neighborhood was rough," Danny said because he was nothing if not snarky.

[grenadesandohana]

"It's terrible how rental prices have driven criminals into bad parts of town," Harry said dryly. "We're getting reports from a dozen nuclear power sites across Europe, all saying they've lost control of their command and control centers."

"That's bad," Steve said unnecessarily.

[hatesparadise]

"You don't say," Danny sighed. "What's the play?"

[grenadesandohana]

Steve was putting some thoughts together in his head, specifically about rendition rules and how they were different for British and Americans, and why exactly Harry would've called them in.

"You have the buyer of the Greystone in custody," he guessed. "He's turned the reactors into bombs for El Hamadi."

"Chernobyl times a hundred," Harry confirmed. "Paris, Munich, Milan--Interpol says they'll have the hacker's coordinates in an hour."

"But we don't have that kind of time," Steve said, looking at the laptop screen that had captured Harry's attention.

[hatesparadise]

"So, what can we do?" Please don't say more illegal shit.

[grenadesandohana]

Steve and Harry were having a silent conversation with their eyes. Steve nodded, then picked up a car battery and a set of jumper cables. Harry got a bucket of water.

"We're going to break him."

By freaking this guy right the hell out. "Back in a sec."

[hatesparadise]

"I swear to god."

Why did you even bring him, Steven??

[grenadesandohana]

You were here so Steve didn't actually torture anyone, Danny.

"One hundred Chernobyls," Steve said. "We don't have time to waste."

He stalked into the room that Harry pointed to him.

"Rules of conduct are different for Americans, you see," Harry explained. "Our guest knows that."

[hatesparadise]

"Love that for us," Danny grumbled, shooting Steve a look. Because, yes. You don't do that shit for real, Steve.