A Birth day

Lucian looked at Michael and nodded " right Rita writes for the Quibbler, and the Quibbler is nothing but a lie spewing rag" he said as he watched Michael make a sandwich for Robert. he watched and listened to them talking and then followed them back to the duplex nodding to the boys as they passed him by heading to work " morning Aria , Ruby" he said seeing Ruby nod to him.

"morning Lucian , Robert and Michael "Ruby said as she ate her food while the babies up stairs were quiet. Aria sat down with some food for herself accioing a cup of coffee and nodded to Robert , Michael and Lucian while they waited for Marcus or Angus to come from upstairs.

Marcus brought in a breakfast plate for Angus that he'd fixed for him, along with his own.

"Thanks," Angus told Marcus. 

"There's still plenty of breakfast in the kitchen, Michael, if you're hungry," Marcus said, as Robert started to eat his breakfast sandwich.

"Thanks but no, I've eaten," Michael said. "You're smells lovely, though. What the heck are you eating, though?"

"Savory breakfast cannolis, summer citrus fruit salad, a savory reakfast ravioli with a cheddar cheese sauce, and a sweet peach praline lasagna. Oh, and there are scones too," Marcus said.

"God, I want a taste of everything," Robert said.

"Me too," Michael said, getting up. "I'll get you a taster's plate." 

"That's what I thought," Marcus laughed. Michael fixed tasters' plates for him and Robert and brought them back in and gave one to Robert and kept one for himself.

"So, Marcus, got any ideas about this sting of yours?" Robert asked.

"Actually, yes," Marcus said. "Given the allegations we had this morning, I think there's a better than average chance that Suzanne's new goons are behind this, whoever they are. And, if that's the case, then I think we could make use of that." He looked at Angus. "How'd you like to be dead?"

"Come again?" Angus frowned.

"I think we could arrange a sting where we could make them think you died, put you on ice for a bit, let the story get around and see who comes out of the woodwork," Marcus said. "That would lure them into a false sense of security, making them think they don't need to hide any more, and then we can let Lucian and his team be there to nap the nasty little bastards. Sweeps up the Gelding trash, and restores Lucian's reputation, and, if its done right, we'll get the moles all in one fell swoop."

"You make that sound easy," Robert said, "but having designed and run them, I know first hand that it takes time to put together, very experienced undercover agent, a boatload of polyjuice, a bunch of safehouses, and time to run. It is not cheap, fast or easy."

"If they were cheap and fast and easy, everybody would do them," Marcus said.

Ruby listened to them talk about what they were going to do Lucian listened too and didn't disagree he wanted these people stopped as much as Angus probably did too. " I wish it would go down that easy" he said leaning against the counter " but Robert right it would take a lot of man power." he said.

Ruby heard the babies wake and start shouting for their breakfast. Standing up she and Aria headed up to fetch them. Changing them and putting on some clean clothes she walked down with Caprice where Aria had Amari . " okay foods hear you can stop shouting" she said placing some fruit salad down for Caprice and Amari who giggling both took some fruit and ate it.

"Minimally," Robert said, "you're going to need to stage some sort of a battle that Angus manages to lose, which is harder than it looks. So you're going to need an entire undercover crew for that, and they're going to have to hold a completely public skirmish, and they're going to have to manage to keep all the real criminals out because if they don't, someone could end up actually dead. Then, we'd have to stage Angus's death or injury and remove him from the scene and immediately put him on ice.

"We'd have to find more agents to impersonate Marcus," Robert continued, "because we'd need, minimally, Marcus with Angus, even if we could get Ruby and the rest of the family to look appropriately shocked and grief striken. And that never works like it should. For it to look authentic, we'd have to get more agents to impersonate Ruby and the family and remove them from the area too. We'd have to get a mannequin conjured to look like Angus, and hold a phony funeral, with more phony grief stricken family members. And, while that's all going on, we'd have to hide the whole Donohue family we wait for the criminals to show up and hope we get them all."

"It's not an impossible plan, but that one is probably one of the most expensive ones you could do," Michael said. "And you risk traumatizing some of the family who might not be in on the plot. And I don't know if its worth that."

"Well," Angus said, "clearly, they're trying to convince the Prophet that I'm just as bad a criminal as Tom and Suzanne, so you could eliminate all of the extra expense and such if you simply said that, based on ministry intelligence, there was reason to chuck me in Azkaban or something while you lot investigated."

"Well, that presents security risks for you," Robert said. "I can't protect you in there."

"You might have to trust that I can protect myself, especially if you don't bind my magic," Angus said. "And my family wouldn't need to be impersonated."

"And, if you had any reservations about sending him in alone, you could send Marcus in, with some sort of polyjuice disguise, as a cellmate for Angus to help provide him some protection," Michael said. "That leaves the rest of us to investigate and put some sort of squeeze in on Suzane and the rest of the Geldings. For example. you could perhaps put Jess in, in disguise as a temporary nurse in the lockdown wing so she could get closer to Suzanne."

"Well, that makes a lot more sense in a lot of ways," Robert said. "What do the rest of you think?"

Lucian listened and nodded " I like it "2 he said but Ruby looked over at them she sat listening and thinking about it then stood up as Aria continued to feed the girls " I'm for it, I know Marcus can keep Angus safe" she said " if its what Angus wants" she said " we'd have to let Edward know, that's the only thing I'm asking " she said.

Lucian looked at Ruby then behind her at Aria who shrugged at him then looked to Marcus. Once the girls were done she picked them up and placed them in the playpen then moved to talk to them all " Do it , its the only way to stop these stupid rumours." she said " plus it would allow Ruby to learn the business's for really" she added and ruby nodded.

"she makes a good point." she said " but we'd have to keep the girls back from school as if grieving to make it believable." Ruby looked at Robert and Marcus hoping she'd not said something out of turn but trying to agree with them.

"Screw Edward," Angus said, still furious with him. "As for the girls, if I'm not dying and I'm allegedly only in Azkaban for the rest of my foreseeable life, they shouldn't be grieving, and they bloody well should have their arses in school."

"That, Aria, would be a massive task for Ruby. I am quite sure," Robert said, "that Ruby could begin to know what the assets are and how much they're worth and some of the very bare bones basics about what it takes to manage Edwards's estate, but Angus has been in training his entire life to know what it takes to run a large estate and a huge bank account as well as multiple corporations. In the short time that it would take to run a sting like we're talking about, she's not going to learn more than just a few of the barest basics. Still, the training isn't going to hurt her."

"Marcus?" Angus asked.

"Maybe they could just say we're in Azkaban and let us go hole up on a beach in Tahiti or something," Marcus teased. Angus smiled, amused.

"Nah. That would never work," Robert said, teasing. "I don't know that I could justify that big of a firewhiskey and cigarette budget." Angus and Marcus laughed. "However," Robert said, now returning to business, "if we do this--and its still a big if because there are entirely too many details that Michael and I would have to design and flesh out, it isn't going to kick off today. So, I don't want any of you chomping at the bit and expecting this to all kick off in the next time minutes. Do I make myself clear? These are complicated things, and I do not want to put Angus or Marcus at risk. And don't forget that I work 2 full time jobs, even without the organization. So, don't think I'm going to be ready today or tomorrow. Just know that when I have it ready, I'll get back to you. Any other questions?"

Ruby heard Angus and sighed but said nothing as Angus spoke to them all. Ruby returned to the dinning area and cleared the table of plates leaving them to talk between them selves , Aria looked at Angus and then to Marcus not sure of what just happened " well what ever its not happening right now" she said as she sat with Caprice and Amari.

Luican looked to Robert " well I'll be headed back to my home and then to the ministry, call me over the floo when your ready" he said and looked to Angus " we got your back no matter what" he said to Angus as he then ported out .

Ruby finished cleaning up and wiped down the table.and placing down settings for dinner before she went back to the kitchen to bake some bread rolls hitting them hard as she could as she kneaded the dough then rolled them into balls.

Robert and Michael excused themselves to go work on the plan for the sting, and they headed back to the main house.

"Thanks, Lucian," Angus said. "I'm sure we'll be in touch." He saw that Marcus needed a moment with Aria. He got up and went outside and took his cigarettes and went for a walk in the woods to smoke and to enjoy the quiet while Marcus talked with Aria and Ruby worked on making some rolls.

"You haven't been on any of these kinds of missions before, have you?" Marcus asked Aria after Lucian left. "Or are you just in a bad mood? I'm trying to figure out what the little flash of attitude is about. 

"These sting operations," he explained, "take a lot of careful, intricate planning, with close attention to every single tiny detail because with missions like this, some little petty detail that was glossed over can make the difference whether people die or not. They have to map out every phase of the mission--and there are usually three basic stages. The set up, the actual sting itself, and the wrap up. Every stage has to be planned, with at least two backup plans in case that stage goes off the rails. Every agent that is going to be needed has to be recruited. they need fully briefed, and every single piece of equipment they need has to be obtained, and they have to be trained for it. The locations need to be set up in the same way. There has to be an additional unit planned and trained that can come in and assist or rescue at any point along the way if it blows up and people's lives are in danger. And then a clean up team has to be recruited and assigned to make sure that the marks--in this case--the Geldings--are sufficiently captured and secured, and any and all agents and equipment are cleaned up so that it doesn't look like we were ever there. You have no idea what we just asked Robert and Michael to design for us, do you? And they went with the easy plan. If they'd gone with my original design, all of that would have been massively more complicated."  He sighed. "I've got to get you a copy of an old muggle movie from way back in 1973, called The Sting. It is exactly that sort of operation, and, its not half bad in giving you a simple snapshot of what these missions entail."

Aria listened to Marcus and frowned at him " I was just saying it will take some time to organise so its not happening just yet" she said confused but listened to him talk about the sting and she nodded as he quickly spoke of the sting's dynamics. "I agreed , for the movie too" she said and chuckled " its one I have heard of but now watched" she said as she looked at him " its Ruby whose annoyed I think" she said glancing over as she saw Ruby beating bread dough .

Aria shook her head and looked at Angus outside " I do hope what ever is the problem gets sorted quickly because this sting is needed to make things quiet for Angus." she said as she sat with the babies playing with them with their toys

"Ruby," Marcus called, "the psychic in this house went outside for a cigarette to avoid getting smoke in the house. I am not psychically gifted, though. Aria hasn't said she's psychic either. We're not ignoring you, but, frankly, I'm clueless about what's irking you. If you want to tell us, that's fine. If you choose not to, I'll accept that too. Just don't think we didn't ask."

Angus sat down on a rock on the edge of a clearing, and he lit up his second cigarette. He was working, honestly, on trying not to think about anything. He didn't want to think about his anger with Edward. He didn't want to be angry. And he really didn't want to be even more angry at Suzanne and all the hell she was causing. Another stretch behind bars for him, despite the fact that, to the best of his knowledge, he hadn't broken the law. Still, he did understand the assignment. If that was what Robert needed him to do, he would do it.