Chapter 1

"Nathan Ford…?" The man asked hesitantly.

"Geoffrey March…?" Nate replied looking at the man who had approached him.

"Yes, thank you for meeting me." Geoffrey said scanning the area thoroughly before settling himself at the table with Nate. "I was told that you would be able to help me."

"Well Mr. March why don't you tell me about it, then I will tell you if I can."

Geoffrey looked at the man seated before him. His eyes were keen and sharp, blue and probing. Geoffrey felt he was looking right through him and it was a little unsettling. He had unruly black curls that framed his face. He sat slouched in his seat with a glass of whiskey sitting on the table in front of him. He had heard a lot about this man and his crew. They were after all in the same business, the business of helping people who had nowhere else to turn. He scanned the room again then leaned into the table lowering his voice as he started to explain his problem.

"Mr. Ford, I work for an organization that helps abused women get away from their spouses. We make sure them and their children make a clean break and get to start a new life in a safe place. We never turn somebody away. If they are in trouble we help them. Usually we are able to maintain our anonymity and the men they are trying to get away from never find out about our involvement. The women simply disappear. We are not a big organization; in fact most of my people are just ordinary citizens who are trying to help those at risk. The women who help me are mostly from abusive homes or relationships themselves. They put themselves in danger to do this. Most of these men are vicious and violent people who will stop at nothing to get their wives or children back." Geoffrey sat back slightly in his seat as a waiter came to the table and asked if they would like anything. Nate ordered another whiskey and Geoffrey asked for a glass of water. Once the waiter had walked away from the table he started talking again. "The problem Mr. Ford; is that we have managed to piss off a very powerful, very rich man. He has unlimited resources and he is determined not only to find his wife and daughter, whom we helped, he wants to hurt us…that is everybody who was involved in helping them get away." Geoffrey said genuine fear filling his voice.

"I understand…what is it that you want me to do for you." Nate asked,

"I want you to take him down Mr. Ford. I want you to stop him from finding his wife and daughter because believe me if he does, they will wish they were dead. Oh, he will not kill them, no but he will make their lives a living hell, worse than what he already had, and they will never be free of him." Geoffrey said softly. It was true he was afraid for himself and the woman that had helped him on this case. But his main fear was that if this man found his wife and child…well the consequences of that was too horrible to contemplate. He would do anything to prevent that from happening.

"Well I will need some information on who this man is and his wife and daughter too." Nate said softly, he was going to help, he had too, this was not the kind of request you turned down. "Don't worry; we are going to help you."

Geoffrey nodded in response then handed Nate a large envelope. "That is everything on this case. I have not disclosed the current location of his wife and child. I think we should keep that on a need to know." Geoffrey said, he was not willing to give up their location not even to Nate.

"That's fine; we don't need to know that." Nate smiled at the man. "Let me take this to my team and we will be in touch. Why don't you go home and just keep a low profile for now."

"Thank you Mr. Ford. Thank you very much." Geoffrey said as he stood "All my contact details are also in the envelope. I will just wait for you call then?"

"Yes, we will be in contact soon. Just be careful, if this man is as dangerous as you say…"

"Don't worry; I can take care of myself. I am just worried about the women in my network. I don't think he knows who any of them are, not yet at least…" Geoffrey said softly. "But if he does find out Mr. Ford…well this man is capable of anything." Geoffrey said fear again creeping into his voice.

"Well perhaps you should tell them all to keep a low profile too for now. Do you have any other jobs you are busy with?"

"No, not at the moment, I have told my ladies not to do anything to draw attention to themselves and I don't want to take on any new jobs until we have ended this. I am afraid he would…well he could take it out on either the people who help me or the people we are helping. I can't endanger them. Mr. Ford, we need to stop this man soon, there are a lot of women out there who need help and have nowhere else to turn except to us."

"Don't worry…me and my team will make sure this man never hurts another person, least of all his own family, or yours." Nate promised.

Geoffrey thanked him again then walked out of the restaurant. Nate watched him leave. He noted that after he had walked through the doors he stopped and briefly scanned the road before him. He turned his collar up and dropped his head. Then he turned and walked quickly away, fading into the crowd.

An hour later Nate walked into the teams' conference room and took his place at the front of the room, the entire team was there and Hardison gave him a quick look asking the question.

"OK Hardison, let's run it…"