Chapter Text
After their three shows and three escapes from the law, the three Horsemen - J Daniel Atlas, Henley Reeves, and Merritt McKinney - met their secret leader for the first real time, with his real identity and without an interrogation desk between them.
They were surprised when Dylan's first in-person instruction for them was to fly to England. They obviously needed to lay low; Dylan himself may not actually be after them, but the FBI and Interpol still were. They hadn't expected "low" to be across the Atlantic.
He couldn't go with them, what with the chaos left of the investigation, but he gave them directions to a safe house, which turned out to be directly behind--
"The London Eye? Really?" Merritt thought this was a bit on the nose. They got inside and quickly closed the blinds.
"There are hundreds of tourists here taking pictures all day. This is where we're meant to hide?" Danny asked in frustration.
"If you're not up for it, you're welcome to find a Premier Inn.”
The trio turned to find another man in the doorway to the apartment's kitchen, holding a steaming mug.
"Why is there a twink in our safehouse?" Merritt asked.
"You're kind of in my safehouse, fox, since I got here first," the stranger said, unbothered.
Merritt looked at Danny, who looked at Henley.
"Sorry about my companions, they've never spoken to humans before. I'm Henley.”
“Jack Wilder."
They exchanged a smile and nod, and Danny did remember how to be a person. It’d been a long flight.
"J Daniel Atlas." He went to shake Jack's hand, at which the other man grinned and met him half way.
Merritt nodded at Jack but kept watching him without speaking, clearly analyzing this unexpected addition.
"You're Merritt McKinney, in case you forgot," Jack said.
Merritt raised an eyebrow. "Well that's great. Wish Dylan would tell us anything instead of telling other people about us."
"He's got a new message for you. But coffee first? If you're as jetlagged as I am you'll need it."
Jack led them into the kitchen and poured coffee from a fresh pot, handing each cup over made exactly how each Horseman liked it.
"I just put lasagna in the oven, but the pantry's stocked if you want something sooner. There are plenty of rooms here, take any except the one that has my stuff in it."
"So you're, what, some kind of butler the Eye assigned?" Danny asked.
Jack gave him a look - challenging, ticked, playful.
"Dylan will send you messages through your tarot cards. They'll only update when all three are stacked. They’re all here," he tossed them on the counter, "so you can get your directions whenever you're ready."
Danny and Henley both automatically moved to pat down the pockets their cards had been in.
Merritt didn't bother. "You shook Dan's hand, but you didn't even touch Hen and me."
"You passed me entering the kitchen," Jack shrugged.
Danny looked up from his pockets. "You're a magician."
"Yeah!" Jack was grinning, the butler offense seemingly forgotten.
"Okay, that's great, can I have my poker chip back?" It had also been in his pocket and now wasn't. "I use it for dexterity training and it's-"
Jack took a sip of his coffee and tapped the bottom of his own mug.
Danny carefully lifted his coffee above his head to find his poker chip stuck to the bottom.
The group finished their coffee and disbanded to put their things away.
The apartment really was huge. The bedrooms weren't the size you'd want to live in permanently, but there were a lot of them, and they each had their own small bathroom.
Danny selected one at the end of a long hall. Assuming the others would want to be closer to the kitchen and living room, he aimed to distance himself from their noise.
He opened it to find the one single room in this place that was already occupied.
Jack's travel bag was open on the bed, not yet unpacked, but the room showed signs of being lived in. Books on the bookcase, several decks of cards, diagrams of locks and safes and vaults, an electric razor left on the desk mid-repair. The oddest thing: a promotional poster for the Horsemen's first show, pinned to the wall.
"So, food first or secret messages?" Henley asked when they reconvened.
Danny set his tarot card, reclaimed from Jack, on the table. "Let's hear what's going on first."
The other two added their cards, and a hologram of Dylan appeared.
"Congratulations! You made it to your first stop. This safehouse is a permanent Eye residence, and it's lodged some of the best magicians in history. Your goal for the foreseeable future is teamwork. You need to be able to operate together as a single organism."
Danny didn't know how he felt about continuing to work with Henley and Merritt. They weren't insufferable, they were both capable, he would even reluctantly admit they were his friends, but he didn't expect to be stuck with them for his entire career.
"In order to do that, you need to meet your fourth Horseman. Jack's been working on your missions behind the scenes since the beginning."
Danny looked at the other young man in surprise. He was under the impression that Jack was here as an orientation leader for the Eye, to explain things and get them set up.
"He'll continue working with you off stage. He's a full member of your team now, so these transmissions won't update further without his card. Expect more instructions in a week."
The recording ended.
Danny was annoyed. He expected a world of new truths to be opened to him after completing over a year of work for the Eye on blind faith alone. Not more mysterious waiting at someone else's beck and call.
"So we've been busting our asses, making ourselves international fugitives, but you get to call yourself a Horseman just because Dylan says so?"
Jack was taken aback, tensing and moving back slightly. "No, I-"
"Dylan may have brought us together, but I think at this point we have the right to decide who's on our team. We don't know you and you haven't done anything to earn your place here," Danny said. Henley and Merritt looked inclined to agree.
Jack looked upset in a way that was hard to read, like he was hurt for some reason, but also angry. "You think your one stolen security badge magically opened all the doors you needed in the French armored vehicle facility? I overrode every single lock in your path. Or that cargo flights don't do security x-rays and wouldn't have flagged three million euros being shipped to the US? Good thing I was working security that day. And Tressler's bank wouldn’t freeze a sudden influx of online wire transfer requests for hundreds of millions of dollars?"
Jack's voice suddenly switched to a perfect imitation of Tressler's. "I called them and cleared the whole thing."
His voice switched back. “The fiery car crash that prevented the FBI from pursuing you? That was me. In New York, none of you cracked open that giant safe, and you definitely didn't transport that money to Bradley's car. How do you think that happened? I did it."
The trio stared at him.
"The only reason you even thought you were seven steps ahead of Dylan was because I was clearing your path the whole way."
Danny had been gracious when Dylan revealed himself, but this new revelation incensed him.
"Why didn't you let us know you existed?"
"We didn't know if we could trust you yet." For his part, Jack was calming himself back down.
"Who is 'we,' by the way?" Merritt interjected. "How many players are going to pop out from behind this curtain?"
"It's just us," Jack said.
"In... the entire Eye?"
"No, no," Jack huffed a laugh, "I mean, as far as non-Horsemen," he raised an eyebrow at Danny, "meddling in your lives. Just Dylan and me."
“All those things you mentioned, we could have done that ourselves. We didn’t need you.” When Danny accepted the Eye’s mission, he knew he was working with a greater power’s plan, and he accepted that. But he really didn’t appreciate someone acting like his team hadn’t truly accomplished everything they had. “And we don’t need you now.”
Jack definitely wasn’t smiling anymore, though he’d also lost the determined anger of a minute ago. It took him a moment to respond. “Sorry. This is my assignment, so I’m here.”