Chapter Text
On the projector against the far wall of the conference room, the camera straightened and a hand passed over it, it looked about eye-level. On a headband maybe? Dick began running through who might wear something like that to a party like this. A headpiece of some-kind?
The entire team, Peter, Diana, Clint, a few of the probies, and Dick—under the half magical-half technology glamor he typically used for his well trodden Noah Malone alias were all watching a presentation for a joint operation they would be conducting with the organized crime division. The ring that layered over his features to change them just enough to make a new person could only have one setting once attuned to the user, but Dick had figured it would be fine, Gotham business usually stayed in Gotham, and the Malone’s didn’t commit white collar crime. Even the photos OC had of the Malones, including the ones in the powerpoint presented today, were far away and none specific. Noah Malone looked a bit like Neal Caffery from a distance, what moderately attractive white man didn’t? The presenter had been giving his weird looks but Dick figured it was nothing. They held themselves completely differently, and Noah was the sadistic crazy heir to his equally cruel father’s criminal empire. No one would believe it. It had been going fine. And it would have continued that way, if not for the video. Apparently, at one of the meetings of the family’s of Gotham some years ago there had been a mole filming the whole thing. Dick hadn’t known, no one had. And now he was waiting, acting for all the world like there was nothing wrong, because relying on coincidence and hoping they didn’t get a good shot of him was his only hope of not having to burn Caffery today.
Jason was approaching on screen, waving a hand shortly as he came near the one with the camera. “Hey Lucky,” he said with a small smile, “and who is this lovely lady?”
Someone next to the undercover agent spoke up, Lucky Carmine, presumably, “Lena, this is my friend Jonah,” Lucky pointed to Jason, “and Jonah, this is my fiance Lena.”
“Fiance?” Jason asked, shaking the agents hand. “Who in their right mind would agree to marry you?” They both laughed and the agent spoke up.
“We’ve been together almost a year now, I’m surprised we haven’t met,” she chortled. And oh, Dick was remembering her now. Lena Antra, Lukey’s once fiance. They’d had a short relationship and even shorter engagement, but she’d disappeared right before the wedding. Everyone assumed he’d killed her and to this day he refused to speak about her. Batman had tried to prove he’d murdered her and failed, even Lucky’s father had been upset at it, but the fact that she was undercover was leading Dick to a much worse conclusion. Clearly Lucky had found out at some point and chosen to keep it quiet, letting everyone believe he’d offed Lena while the agent returned to her desk job in New York. That was a problem and Dick only had a few moments before he appeared on screen as Noah to solve it.
Dick slid his phone out of his pocket and typed off two messages in quick succession to Jason.
Remember Lucky’s girl Lena?
Turns out she’s not dead
His phone vibrated as Jason replied.
Thank god, wheres she at?
Peter was eyeing Neal’s phone with a disapproving glare.
In NY, probably prepping for her next undercover job
In the time it took Jason to respond, Jonah had asked a few polite questions about the upcoming wedding on screen. Jason as Jonah on screen was starting to zone out to Lena’s rambling about flower arrangements, along with several of the agents watching, when Jason finally responded.
I’ll let him know that we know, see if he can’t get us info on the carmine’s next trafficking shipment
Dick frowned. There was an outside chance the fbi would check his phone after this, and Jason clearly wasn’t texting in character. He typed out a quick reply.
Tell the rest of the fam, he could be a mole. WC office is helping organized crime with the malones today. Matches is going to be pissed.
There, mentioning matches and swearing in one sentence would alert Jason to the fact that the Neal cover was under threat. Hopefully he’d do Dick the favor of remotely wiping his phone of anything incriminating and Jason would act like Jonah the next time he contacted him. Sure enough, apps and contacts began disappearing before his eyes and without his intervention. He wasn’t lying though, B was going to be pretty upset about this whole thing. Peter coughed pointedly at Neal and he put his phone away with an apologetic grin.
“Sorry Peter, I met this girl the other night and she—“
“Yeah yeah yeah, just pay attention.”
Neal put his hands up and swirled back to the screen, in time to watch Jonah grab a glass of champagne off a passing waiters tray.
Lucky interrupted his finance mid-disarming prattle. His voice was soft. “I thought you were off of that stuff Jonah.”
Dick wasn’t surprised at the concern, for all that the people they surrounded themselves with were murderous monsters, they weren’t sociopaths, just businessmen with incredibly warped senses of ethics. Noah and Jonah’s similar aged peers in other family’s typical did show some level of basic human decency for them, even if it was antagonistic at times. They all were operating under the belief that one day they would be their fathers, and they were probably right. He was surprised that Jason was choosing to drink at the time, Jason Wayne had been very publicly a drunk at the time but the real Jason had been abstaining for a while at that point. Regardless, their malone counterparts were usually aggressively opposite to their wayne and bat personas. Anything to waylay suspicion. Dick narrowed his eyes as he watched Jason drink the wine, no fake outs or false sips in sight.
On screen Jonah grimaced. “Noah’s been… a lot lately.”
“He pissed at you?” Lucky asked with a frown, as if trying to sift through whatever the carmine’s spys had told them about the malones and coming up empty with a reason for Noah to be upset.
“No,” Jonah shook his head. “He’s just mad about Robert. Dad’s been joking about having him take over.” Lucky frowned. Robert, a superhero in disguise but playing the part of an interloper, had made a lot of people angry at that point.
“He thinking of doing something stupid?” Lucky asked.
“Nothing like that. But he just learned about water boarding and he’s been taking his frustrations out a lot lately.” Jason shuddered dramatically. “So the laste few weeks have been rough for me. Water boarding doesn’t even require any recovery time, not really, so I’m not getting the usual…”
He trailed off but Lucky didn’t press. It was public knowledge that Jonah was Noah’s punching bag. Hell, they’d explained away Jonah’s absence after Jason’s death by saying that Noah had put him into a coma. Bruce had wanted to kill of Jonah but Dick had put his foot down on that front. Dick had wheeled out a fully wrapped mannequin on a wheelchair every year on Jasons birthday, deathday, really whenever he started to miss him, and made loud threatening comments in hearing of people who would make note of the information. The fact that Dick has so aggressively kept Jason’s cover alive, even as he incorporated Jackie Malone into the mix was part of the reason the pit anger hadn’t consumed Jason upon his return.
Dick had nearly had a heart attack when, mid sadistic rant to his fake paralyzed brother, the newest villain red hood had dropped down from the a nearby roof and asked him what the hell he was doing in the most innocently confused voice. Dick had eventually told him in a faux proud monologue about Jonah’s supposed crimes against him, since the bats had been trying to use their malone alias’s to gather intel on the villain anyway, and then it had been his turn to be confused, when red hood had tackled him in a bear hug. Six months later a much more subdued Jonah had reentered the crime world, limping and flinching at every shadow, but relentlessly loyal to his brother.
“Wait he’s saying his brother waterboarded him?” Jones asked, half heartedly raising his hand after speaking.
“Jonah did something when he was younger, no ones sure exactly what, and we believe Noah spent about three years after that periodically torturing and healing him. When he finally returned to society he was… different.” The OC presenter shrugged with another glance Neal’s way, who narrowed his eyes slightly. He fell silent.
“Is that an avenue of approach?” Diana asked.
The presenter hesitated. “We’ve tried to turn him before but he won’t hear anything about it, despite how his brother still treats him. His reluctance to even hear us out suggests that maybe he tried to talk to law enforcement before. We think thats what caused the initial rift.”
Dick quirked an eyebrow. Jason hadn’t mentioned that.
He pressed play.
“Shit man, that sucks, want me to say something?” Lukey asked with a polite frown. It would be beyond overstepping if Lukey had tried to control how Matches’s heir interacted with his brother and second. In the room the presenter paused the video and mentioned the same thing before playing it again.
Jonah blew out a shakey breath and ran a hand through his hair. Neal narrowed his eyes. It was wet. Dick rolled his eyes. He hadnt noticed at the time. There was danger in making Noah look like too much of a psychopath. Lucky swore as he noticed and Lena took in a sharp breath. Dick fully scoffed. It was ridiculous that he’d had no idea about this elaborate subplot that Jason had apparently introduced into the meeting with a not small amount of background prep.
“Neal!” Peter hissed and Dick carefully masked his indignant expression.
“This is what the voicemail you left me was about, isn’t it?” Lucky asked, voice full of concern and understanding. Jason’s eyes shot wide in fright.
Oh for fucks sakes, Dick thought. There was a lot of prep work to this then. And Jason never even thought to mention he was telling people that Noah was apparently into waterboarding now.
To the left of the camera a voice rang out, lower than the agents watching were used to hearing it, and colder somehow, as if every ounce of kindness and charm had been ripped from it.
“Jonah you’re not bothering Lucky are you? And… what is this magnificent thing you have with you?” Noah’s voice asked off screen. Lena went to turn toward the voice, but Lucky held her fast, even moving her slightly behind him, shifting Jonah slightly out of view.
Neal glanced around the room innocently. There were a few glimpses of surprise on the faces of his handlers, but they clearly all quickly dismissed the similarity between the voices. For a desperate moment he hoped that maybe Lena had been unable to get him on camera. Lucky seemed incredibly protective of her. He and Noah were friends sure, but Noah had a carefully designed reputation and an overly indulgent father, anyone would be wary.
“Sheis my fiance Noah, hands off.” Lucky growled, valiently pulling focus from Jonah, something that Dick could tell annoyed Jason, even if he hid it quickly.
Noah’s bright laugh rang out, slightly manic, as he stepped into view confidentially, filling the space a submissive Jonah silently made for him without a thought. The video blurred as he kissed Lena’s hand flirtatiously, only really stabilizing when he looked back up at her, now in front of her and fully in view, Neal’s signature cocky grin filling his face.
“A pleasure to mee—“
“Pause it. Now.” Peter said, eyes boring into Neal’s skull.
Dick stood and put his back to the wall in the half second it took for the order to be obeyed and for everyone to turn towards him.
”Neal give me one good reason I shouldn’t put you in cuffs right now,” Peter huffed out.
Dick turned where he stood and placed his hand on his head, giving himself a moment to center himself and make the slight switch between his aliases. Neal was useful for cleaning out the fbi, Noah was the jenga block on which the justice leagues entire underground crimes aliases sat. There wasn’t even a choice of which to forfeit. When he turned back around Neal was gone, and Noah’s cold eyes were looking steadily at each of the remaining agents in the room.
“No one is arresting anyone,” he said calmly, “why don’t we all sit down and have a nice conversation about this,” his voice rose to stem the starting protests, “and while we do lets remember that I know where everyone in this room lives,” he took a long pause “where your loved ones live,” Diana looked betrayed and Clint was quelling a nervous gulp, “and lets also remember that I’ve been here, in this office for years, don’t assume you can beat me just because you’re wearing badges.“ He turned to Agent Barkly, who now looked terrified, “Agent, how many federal agents has Noah Malone allegedly killed,” he put extra emphasis on that word again, as he always had.
“F-five I think,” the man choked out.
“Odd, I was under the impression that number was closer to fifteen,” Noah, for he was solely Noah in that moment, grinned, teeth sharp. Five of those ten had been a combination of an overly dramatic Aqualad retiring low level federal covers and the occasional ‘it was a suicide but he has a wife and kids dickhead and they need full agency benefits can you just talk about in front of a few cops’ from Jason. The other ten had been dirty agents who had, for one reason or another, died at the hands of or around the activities of the hundreds of justice league members. Like every other accidental death in the superhero community, the Malones were happy to take credit. Peter was still looking at him like he was trying to figure out Neal’s con. Damn, this was going to hurt.
Still looking at the unfortunate organized crime agent in question, Dick continued, “And for how many of those deaths has Noah Malone been convicted, charged, or hell, even arrested?”
The room was silent enough that everyone could hear Agent Barkley’s response of “none”, despite its whispered volume.
“To clarify, Neal Caffery are you taking responsibility for the murder of 15 agents, and admitting to operating under the alias of Noah Malone?” Diana asked, voice wavering, hand still on her gun.
“Sit down agents, and take your hands off your weapons,” Noah said as he took a seat himself, “I won’t talk about it this if I feel like I’m about to be shot.” Slowly everyone in the room took a seat, but Diana’s hand stayed on her belt. Welp. Can’t win everything, Dick figured. He stayed silent, because thats what Noah would do. Neal would have tried to talk his way out of this, but the agent from organized crime was there and the Malones were so much more vital a cover than one conman. It was be best to save both but he knew his priorities. If it had just been Peter and Diana and Clint it might have been different, maybe he would have told the truth to just them, but too many people had seen already, and organized crime famously had a pest problem in the form of talkative rats. Peter seemed to catch on to his power play first.
“Alright, no one is confessing to anything, got it. But for the purpose of having a nice peaceful conversation, should we be calling you Neal or Noah?” And oh man was Peter’s tone annoyed as hell. Damn. Dick bit back the Neal instinct in him to quell Peter’s anger. He swallowed once. Then twice. He could still make Neal a cousin, or a terrified twin who had been cast out of the family. But that would hurt Noah’s credibly down the line. He had to face facts, Neal was dead. He let his face fall into that empty psychopath look that Steph teased him for so often.
“I’ve certainly been going by Noah for longer.” There was a couple intakes of breath, Dick had been right, almost all of them had been hoping for a bizarre explanation. Peter seemed too furious to speak.
“Peter was never able to find anything on you before you turned 18, I suppose you were too busy learning your fathers business to act as Neal Caffery?” Hughes asked, voice surprisingly calm for the headache this whole mess was sure to bring him.
“I was in Gotham at the time, ye—“ Noah started.
“How!?” Peter interrupted, “How the hell were you able too—you were in prison for four years, I don’t…” he just looked at Dick, still not fully believing it.
Dick grinned sadistically and his cheeks ached with the effort. He forced an amused twinkle into his eyes and stared at Peter dead on, trying to force the impression that he was soaking up his long time friend’s pain with delight. Its what Noah would do, and so its what Neal had to do. So much was riding on this. “I was barely there. You must have been aware how often I was in solitary?” He kept his tone pleasant but short. Neal would have tried to talk around officers of the law and gotten antsy, Noah barely even registered them as different from the other ants squirming around beneath him.
“Boss,” that was Diana again, why did everything feel so surreal to Dick all of a sudden, “you mentioned a couple times that Neal was always being targeted by one gang or another, he was in solitary or medical for almost his entire sentence.”
“It was one of the reasons I tried to get you a deal, because prison was so dangerous for you in particular.” Peter muttered.
“The consequences of putting a minor felon in a maximum security prison with the worst New York has to offer I suppose,” Noah quipped back with a cruel sort of smirk.
“Well clearly I was right that you were a flight risk,” a despondent reply from Peter, strange in that it lacked the usual teasing of their normal talks about prison.
“Congratulations Agent Burke, you cost the Malone’s a few thousand more in bribes than the low security joint down the street.” Noah laughed. Dick began fiddling with a pen on the table, right about now Noah would be looking for violence and would be repressing his natural urge to sucker punch someone who’d treated him like the dog Peter had.
“You shouldn’t be laughing bucko, theres no world where you walk away from this clean.” growled Hughes.
“You’ve had full access to our files for months,” said Jones, “years even. We all trusted you.” It seemed he had been the first to make this realization. A look of horror dawned on all the agents’ faces.
“No, no.” Peter again, “I don’t believe this, something else is going on. Just tell us Neal, you can trust us. Clearly you’re related, this nonsense of you not been in prison at all smells fishy, if you’re in trouble we can help, you just gotta trust us.” Neal inhaled sharply before Dick could get himself under control. Damnit Peter, like this wasn’t had enough already. Dick’s eyes were fixed on the table, there was no convoluted lie he could tell to fix this, though he really should have had one prepared. He saw Peter ushering Agent Berkly into his office and closing the door, trying to keep it contained before returning to the conference room and locking the door, shutting the blinds, giving Neal the space to ask for help if he needed it. Peter had been an overstepping intrusive asshole sometimes, but man did Dick love that guy, he always came through at the last second, always.
“Peter.” Dick said, and he was struggling to keep the affection out of his voice.
“No one in this room is going to turn on you Neal, you know that.” Full of desperation from Clint.
“You’ve risked your life for everyone in this room time and time again, let us help
you.” that from Diana, a twinge of hope in her voice.
“If you can give us anything to get closer to the Malone’s we can keep you safe.” Hughes said, and he even seemed to believe it. Despite the fact that the Malone’s had taken credit for the death of at least three state’s witnesses (aliens trying to take down the government, if you can believe it).
“Please Neal.” The last came from Peter and it broke Neal a bit inside. Fuck this was going to be hard.
“Press play Peter.” Neal said, gesturing up to the screen where Noah’s face still sat frozen in a smirk. Despite how hectic the night had been Dick remembered how it ended. Robert, or Sentry as he went by in the mask, had asked specifically to be baptized into the act that was the Malone family and had been introduced as a foil for Noah, as a potential new second in command to Matches, should Matches decide to look outside the family for soldiers. Robert had made several appearances at crime scenes and gotten into shouting matches with Noah a few times, and his presence was used to explain away a few of Dick’s longer absences.
It all came to a head during the gathering of families where Noah, after having told nearly every person there what a disgrace it was that someone outside any of their families had been invited, had accused Robert of being a thief and promptly beaten him to death —violently in front of the entire crowd— giving the Carmines the blackmail against the Malones they were so desperate for and reinforcing his violent image to Sionas that had admittedly been lacking in the year before that he’d taken over all of Bruce’s responsibilities. Sentry had been fine the next morning of course, and there was no body nor missing persons report to incriminate anybody there. And of course Robert got to join the cool guy club on the wall of the Justice league with pictures of Malone “murders”. It was grotesque but necessary and Robert maintained to this day that he’d barely even felt it.
Dick watched himself on screen as Noah received a text and grinned to Lukey Carmine.
“This look like evidence to you?” Noah’s voice came through the camera, and Sarah’s headpiece captured the side of what looked like bank transactions.
“Looks like proof that your pops should be keeping things in the family, congrats man,” said Lukey, and though he wasn’t on screen Noah remembered the empathetic look Lukey had shot him. He had helped Noah track down the evidence after all, and would surely be looking for Noah to help him support his own claim when Joesph Carmine eventually died. First sons gotta stick together, he’d said at the time.
“You’re not seriously going to do this now, are you?” Jonah asked him with nervous glances around them. It was incredible how far removed Jason had made his malone stand in from himself. It really was the glue holding their mass conspiracies of secret identities together.
Noah sneered at him and smacked him on the back of the head. Dick caught his own expression of confusion and revulsion at his now wet hand and hoped none of the agents did. This is why he hated when his brother improvised. Or in Jason’s case added intricate lore without telling anyone else.
On screen Jason winced and bowed his head apologetically to a glaring Noah.
“No time like the present.” Noah had traded his death glare for a grin after Jonah backed down, but it looked like he’d maybe went too happy in response, and man he had been way too drunk at that party, he almost looked high. He had apparently also gut punched Jonah as he walked away, something Dick had completely forgotten about. Lucky went to his brothers aid but the fbi agent filming them, predictably, turned towards the action.
Noah watched himself walk over to Matches and after a short conversation turn to Robert who was beginning to plead frantically. A few people came over to ask Lucky and Jonah what was going on and Dick could see the other agents beginning to understand what was about to happen out of the corner of his eye, but Dick was focused on Noah. Its not often you watch yourself fake murder someone. As the blows started raining down he could see the agents turning to look at him, could see a few questions on their lips, but he stood impassively through all of it. Peter didn’t stop the video until Noah, dripping with blood and bits of organs, stepped away from the body, face glowing with Neals trademark grin and the maniacal eyes that he’d taken an hour to get right in the mirror, calling out sharply to Jonah to get him a drink so they could celebrate. No one seemed to want to speak first.
“I do not have a twin, I do not have a cousin who looks remarkably like me, nor a clone. I was never arrested for that murder, never even questioned, despite an agent witnessing and recording the whole thing, and proof of it being premeditated. I didn’t even know this video or that mole existed until today, and still I was never pursued for this. When this is all over the woman recording this, and trust me I won’t have any trouble finding Lena’s real name, will be found and dealt with. Theres not a prison in this world that can hold me or any judge who would put me there. It does not matter how much evidence you collect or how many loopholes you find, I am untouchable.” Noah said, voice not wavering once. He met each of the agents eyes in turn.
“We can try,” growled Peter, and oh he’d definitely decided Neal was guilty, “You don’t own the entirety of the criminal justice system Neal. Noah. Damnit. No one is untouchable, a lot of people have made that claim around both of us Noah, and you know better than me where they all ended up, despite their wealth and power.”
Noah turned to Peter, eyes hard and gaze exacting, “I don’t just have wealth Peter, I don’t just have power. And I am not someone you have the ability to catch.”
“I’ve done it before. Twice. And I’ll do it again,” he snapped back.
“I let you catch me the first time,” Peter scoffed angrily but Dick continued, “No Peter I really did, I was retiring an alias I no longer needed, it was either prison or dead and I liked you so I let you have a win. If I hadn’t needed it again, if I hadn’t needed you catch me again, to let me in here, then Neal Caffery would have hung himself on his last day in prison. I probably would have even framed somebody else for the murder so you could feel like you got some justice for me.” Dick watched the growing dread and embarrassment on Peter’s face. He felt bile rise to the back of his throat as he finished, “I’ve always liked you Peter. Theres not enough people like you left.”
“Because you’ve killed them.” Peter gasped out, gesturing to nowhere in frustration.
“If you like.” Noah said. He heard the click of a gun from his right. Diana, of course.
“If we can’t lock you up then maybe we can find a more permanent solution.”
“You’d kill an unarmed man Agent Barrington?” Dick asked, genuinely surprised.
“I’d be happy to go for prison for it.” she snarled back.
“Prison? It was self defiance Diana, I don’t know about Hughes and Peter but I saw him trying to go for you, everyone’s allowed to defend themselves.” Clint said.
Dick raised his eyebrows. Well. This was unexpected. Peter made a half step to intervene before slowly turning his back on his agents. Hughes rotated in his chair as well. Diana swallowed harshly. They were seriously going to let her kill him? So much for friendship. Dick shoved down Noah’s psychotic response to the situation and licked his lips.
“Before you pull that trigger Diana let me tell you exactly what will happen after my death. It doesn’t matter how well you cover it up, one of the many psychics on my father’s payroll will find out what happened,” good, make them think he was in league with some villains, it would make them take this more seriously and maybe they’d just call the justice league on him, “and then you can forget about any self defense scheme you cook up, don’t worry, you won’t need to worry about prison. No, you’ll be too busy dying to even think about that court case. You and Christie both will be taken to a warehouse, hell I even know which one they’d pick for it, and over the course of years you will be slowly taken apart and killed in every way you most fear. You won’t be alone though, Peter, Clint, everyone in this office, hell even El will be there with you. And it will take years, Diana, actual years for them to pick you apart. We have pretty skilled healers, and even better torturers. You won’t even be able to find comfort in insanity, we have a telepath on staff who would bring you right back to reality. You will never have another moments rest from the second you pull that trigger. Not even if you kill yourself, we have ways of bringing people back for more pain you know, just ask Jonah.” Dick collapsed back in his chair when he was done, keeping Diana’s gaze with cold, brutal eyes. The world was very lucky he’d never taken up Deathstrokes offer to become a super villain.
Diana looked shaken as she put away her gun.
“If this is some sort of elaborate con Caffery…” Hughes started after a few moments silence.
“Its not Director. I’m sorry, I really did like all of you.” Dick got that out without his voice cracking as well, and he’d be happy to fight anyone who said different.
“Why.” Peter asked finally.
Dick decided to go with a partial truth. “I had a fight with my father, wanted some time away. After a while he decided it’d be useful to have someone with unrestricted access to the FBI and the trust of a whole team of agents.”
“And has it been?” Clint asked, eyes hard, “what exactly have you been doing to us for the past two years?”
Dick went back to fiddling with the pen. He definitely couldn’t tell them the truth here. “I’ve sold some information.” Peter looked horrified, “deleted some incoming requests, returned some… confiscated merchandise.” Peter was busy being betrayed, Jones looked heart broken, and Diana still seemed shaken from the threat. Hughes was the only one still rational enough to get a suspicious look on his face, and why wouldn’t he? He had been a good investigator in his day and, without the horror of “Neal was bad the whole time” Hughes was able to think that list through rationally and come to the conclusion that,
“The Malone’s wouldn’t waste years of their next leader’s life to slightly deter the fbi, especially if you really have the amount of pull you claim. The occasional heist, sure, but not this 9-5 deal.”
“What else.” Hughes looked scary now, as scary as an unarmed man his age with no real power in the situation could look. And oh, Dick had it. The Malones had claimed credit for the dead alien invaders a few months ago, they’d been here almost three years, the timelines nearly matched as long as no one looked too closely.
“We were interested in acquiring some names,” Noah paused to see if anyone would make the connection. Clint’s dawning look of disgust showed that he had.
“The witnesses for the Fabrize case.”
“Got it in one.”
“But that had nothing to do with the Malones, it barely even reached into organized crime,” said Diana.
Noah shrugged, “It was more interconnected than the lead agents realized. The full story would have come out at trial.”
“So you killed them.” Peter whispered.
“Not personally.”
“Sounds like a confession to me.”
“To a delusional man, maybe.” Noah laughed. And there was some pleasure in this, Dick thought, at least from the ability to confess to lying to his friends, albeit with another, bigger lie.
“Your death threat. Does it apply if we arrest you?” Diana finally asked, into the silence that had fallen around them.
Dick thought about that for a moment before answering slowly.
“No.”
“Then we arrest him, let the lawyers figure out whatever there is to figure out.”
“All of the cases we closed will open back up.” Peter frowned.
Dick taped his fingers on the table. Finally he spoke. “Or.”
“Or?”
“Or you now have a criminal informant with 1000x more access than you did before.” There was a flurry of voices. “Think about it. I don’t want to go back to my dad, you don’t want to cause a fuss. I’m still a criminal informant, the details are just… different.”
Jones glared. “You used us to access witness protection how—“
“So limit my access, problem solved.” Noah grinned like a shark.
The more senior agents looked at each other, considering.
Dick smiled more for real this time. Maybe he wouldnt have to give up white collar after all.