Chapter Text
Dustin’s mouth falls open as he whirls around to look at the mall.
“Russians,” he pauses, “in Hawkins?”
“Isn’t that what you thought was happening?” Robin asks.
“I mean, not really?” Dustin says, his voice pitching higher. “I just thought that my radio was really good. But Russians? In Hawkins?”
“Why would they choose Hawkins of all places?” Robin shakes her head, looking confused. “Nothing ever happens here. If I were a Russian and I had a secret base, I would not choose this shithole.”
Steve looks over at El, and as their eyes meet, he knows they’re both thinking about the same thing. The Lab. The Upside Down. That would be the only reason the Russians would be here.
“Could…” Dustin hesitates, seeing Steve shake his head subtly. “Yeah,” he agrees with fake enthusiasm. “I have no idea why Russians would be here.”
“But if the Russians are here,” Robin continues, “does that mean that we could break the code?”
“Maybe,” Dustin adjusts his hat. “If we can hear the song from the horse, that has to mean it was transmitted from Starcourt, and it was probably meant for people near here.”
Just as they begin to look around the mall curiously, a man in grey walks next to them holding a box. He gives the group a look, and keeps walking before pausing and turning around.
“Should you kids be here?” The man asks. “The mall is closed.”
“We know,” Steve replies, stepping in front of the group. “We work here, we just closed up.”
The man eyes them, before nodding. “Well, you should probably get out of here before security finds you.”
Steve nods, and just as he’s about to turn away, he sees the baseball cap the man is wearing. It has a silver cat on it, with the words Lynx written beneath it in bold letters.
“The silver cat,” Steve mutters as the man walks away. Once the delivery man turns the corner, Steve spins around to stare at the others. “The silver cat! Lynx!”
“What?” Dustin says, before a look of understanding crosses his face. “The code!”
“So what do the others mean?” Steve replies.
“When it talks about China, it could be the Chinese restaurant in the food court,” Robin says, her face lighting up. “And tread might actually be talking about shoes!”
“But what does the ‘when blue meets yellow in the west’ part mean?” Steve begins to pace.
“The clock in the food court has a blue and yellow hand. When blue meets yellow could be a time,” Robin continues.
With a look at each other, the group begins to sprint back towards the foodcourt, where they can see the clock. Just as Robin had said, the hands are blue and yellow.
“Meets in the west,” Robin whispers. “9:45!”
“What?” Steve asks, giving El a confused look.
“That’s what the code means!” Robin beams with excitement. “Whatever the code is talking about happens at 9:45!”
“And it’s almost 9:45,” Dustin says, pointing at the clock.
Looking at the clock, Steve can see that Dustin is right. It’s about 9:30, and whatever the code is talking about is going to happen in fifteen minutes.
“Do you think the delivery man has something to do with it?” Steve asks.
“Maybe whatever he’s carrying is for the Russians, and he’s going to deliver it to him!” Dustin grabs Steve’s arm. “We have to follow him!”
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Steve pulls his arm out of Dustin’s grip. “If it really is the Russians, we probably shouldn’t mess with them.”
“Come on,” Dustin moans. “What’s the point of solving the code just to not follow where the clues are leading us?”
“Please, Steve?” El asks, and her eyes are what causes Steve to give in.
“Fine,” he replies. “But at the first hint of danger, we are getting out of there.”
Dustin pumps his arm in victory, and begins sprinting after where the delivery man had gone, Steve swearing before following behind him.
Dustin stops abruptly in front of the group, Steve almost crashing into him at the sudden halt.
“What the–” Steve begins before Dustin covers his mouth with his hand.
“Shh,” Dustin whispers, and points through the window of the door where they had stopped.
Steve can see the delivery man across the way, walking towards the delivery bay where the mall deliveries went to. As Steve’s about to open the door to follow the man, he sees the men on either side of the garage door with guns.
Large guns. AK-47s, he thought.
“Shit,” Steve swears, then ducks down out of view of the window.
“I know,” Dustin replies, crouching next to him.
“Did you see their–” Steve starts.
“Guns,” Dustin finishes gravely.
“Guns?” Robin exclaims from where she’s crouched next to Steve and Dustin. “They have guns for a delivery at the mall?”
“Certianly looks like,” Steve replies.
“Russians,” El agrees, shrugging at Robin’s shock.
“Is there any place where we could see what is happening from a better perspective,” Dustin asks Steve. Steve thinks for a moment but comes up with nothing.
“The roof,” Robin replies, looking at Dustin. “We could get on the roof. The stairs are just over there,” and she tilts her head to the right.
“Let’s see what they’re doing,” Dustin determinedly replies.
Robin stands up, making sure to stay out of the way of the window, but Steve grabs her arm.
“Guys,” he says, pausing. “We said we’d leave if it was dangerous. I’d argue that Russians with AK-47s counts as danger.”
“Steve,” Dustin whines in response. “We’re so close to figuring out what they’re doing. We can’t stop now!”
“Please, Steve?” El asks, and Steve hesitates before shaking his head resolutely.
“No. No way. Absolutely not!” He stands, glancing to make sure he’s not in front of the window before spinning to look at the others. “We have no fucking clue what they’re doing! They could be willing to hurt us if we figure it out, and those guns are certainly hinting that they would. And Hopper would kill me if something happened to you, Dustin! Let alone you, El.”
“They won’t know,” Dustin retorts. “Nothing will happen, we’ll just watch the handoff of the goods from the roof. We’ll be safe up there, Steve!”
“Come on, dingus,” Robin cuts in. “It’ll be fine. Don’t be such a pussy!”
Steve sighs, running a hand through his hair, mussing it. He shakes his head once more before letting out a deep exhale. “Fine,” he says. “But if something happens to us, it’s not on me.”
Robin gives him a grin before sprinting towards the stairwell, Dustin and El close on her heels.
“Fuck me,” Steve mutters, and walks towards the stairs.
-
“I told you we’d be able to see them better up here,” Robin says smugly.
“No one doubted you, Robin,” Steve snaps back. “I just didn’t want us to get shot.”
“We’re fine,” Dustin replies nonchalantly. “We have you and El, nothing could happen to us now!”
Robin gives Steve a curious look. “What does that mean?”
Dustin pauses, and turns a panicked face towards Steve.
“The school El and I went to,” Steve improvises, looking at the Russians beneath them, “they taught us some self-defense moves. I think Dustin is over-estimating our skills though.”
“Dude,” Robin replies, “that is a weird-ass school.”
“Don’t I know it,” he sighs.
“Wait, shh,” Dustin interjects. “They’re doing the drop-off!”
Steve leans over the edge of the roof to see one of the men down below grab the box from the delivery man, reach into his pocket, and then open the garage door.
“Is that a key-card?” Robin asks, squinting her eyes.
“I think so,” Dustin replies. “Whatever is in there must be really important if they have this much security.”
“I thought that was implied by the fact that they have fucking automatic guns?” Steve snaps.
“Fair enough,” Dustin shrugs. “But what are we going to do about it?”
“There’s nothing to do,” Steve replies. “We can tell Hopper about what we saw, and leave.”
“Steve,” Dustin draws out, “please? We’ve come so far, we can’t just leave now!”
Steve turns to look at El, who is leaned up on the edge of the roof, her eyes sparkling with excitement. “Please?”
“Fine,” Steve sighs. “But I am not the one telling Hopper about the shit that you two got into. He’ll kill me.”
“Wait!” Robin whispers loudly, her eyes trained on the door. “I think the delivery’s done, the door is closing.”
“Shit,” Dustin says, spinning around to look at the loading area. “Do you think you can get us in, Steve?”
“I can try,” Steve shakes his head, “but we have to get there first. They seem like the kind of people who ‘Shoot first, ask questions later’.”
“That does tend to be the motto of the Russians,” Robin agrees.
“I can do it,” El says.
“Just don’t completely knock out all of them. I need to be able to talk to them in order to convince them to let us in.”
“How are you going to convince the Russian guards to let us in?” Robin asks incredulously, looking between Steve and El. “And how are you going to get us close enough without being shot.”
El smirks a little, winking at Robin. “You’ll see.”
“I’ll explain later,” Steve whispers to Robin as the group stands up. “It’s a bit of a long story.”
“What the fuck was your school? And can I go to it?”
El leads the way, shuffling slowly, her back hunched so that the guards on the ground can’t see her on the roof. The others follow her lead, treading softly on the gravelled roof back to the stairs they had come up on. As they race down the stairs, Steve begins to reason with himself.
Life would be so much easier if he just used his abilities. It’s not like he was doing it to his parents again. These people had AK-47s, it was clear they were there with the intention of causing harm.
If he could just keep El safe, that would be enough justification.
But Steve couldn’t help but worry about what had happened to him after years of not using his abilities. His nose had bled from just shaking the ladder last year, there was no way he could do as much as El would be doing.
“Okay,” El said, leaning around the corner of the building to look at the guards. “I go first, then Steve.”
“Sounds good,” Steve nods, “but I’m not sure how much help I’ll be.”
El gives him a concerned quirk of her brow, and Steve gives her a tight smile. “You know how long it's been since-”
“I know,” El interrupts. “It’s okay.”
“What are they talking about,” Robin whispers to Dustin, who hushes her in response.
“Just watch,” Dustin grins slyly.
El turns back around towards the guards and throws her hands up, her arms outstretched. The group can hear the bang of something hitting a wall, and the sound of a gun backfiring.
“Holy shit,” Robin mutters.
“Maybe too much power,” Dustin whispers to El, but she just glares at him, wiping the blood from her face.
“Should be okay now,” she says, turning to Steve, who nods stoically.
Steve peers around the corner of the wall, seeing the guards fallen on the ground against the wall. One is completely knocked out, whereas the other has what looks like a gunshot wound to the thigh, sitting dazed.
He takes a deep breath and rounds the corner, walking up to the guard who was knocked out. He rifles through the man's pockets before he triumphantly pulls out a key-card. Steve turns to look at the other guard who is staring blurrily at him, his hand pressed against his wound.
“Sorry, man,” Steve says, grabbing the gun, and using the butt of it to knock him out. The guard goes down.
“We’re clear,” he says, and the others come from around the corner.
“Did you just knock him out?” Dustin asks, bouncing up to Steve. “That’s what I call redemption for what Billy did.” Dustin crouches in front of the Russian. “I still don’t know how you’re such a wimp even after your childhood.”
“Something that is a mystery to us all,” Steve replies dryly, pressing the key-card on the scanner.
For a heart stopping moment, nothing happens. But after a second, a little green light appears on the scanner, and the door to the loading bay begins to creak open.