Chapter 2

Sat on a comfortable couch in Nathan Ford's apartment drinking a glass of his bourbon, Christina watched with interest as the flurry of activity surrounding her calmed down.

Less than an hour ago she'd half stumbled half dragged herself behind Nate and Sophie but in front of Eliot, upstairs to Nate's spacious and occupied home. Inside she'd met Parker, a curious creature by anyone's standards and Hardison, an over eager techno-geek.

She watched silently as the group of five huddled around the table at the other side of the room, their voices hushed and cautious. All except for Parker. The blonde woman was hard to figure out. When they had arrived at the door it had flung open to a pouting Parker who immediately began to complain to Nate about something someone had said to her. Christina had been taken by surprise at the speed and volume of which Parker was conveying her upset. This had lasted around five minutes until Sophie had managed to pacify the younger woman. Parker had then zeroed in on Christina, asking a dozen questions a minute but not waiting for any reply. Finally she'd finished with, "I don't think Hardison should get to make that call, Christina, do you?" She appeared cool, in control and yet gave off an aura of childish naivety. She was a walking contradiction.

It had been Eliot who'd, yet again, come to her rescue by steering her away from the excitable blonde and over to the couch, hissing at Parker to back off. Still, Christina was unsure of him.

Hardison however, she drew similarities with. He strove hard to please his colleagues and mostly he did it with a smile. He seemed at ease with everyone, even challenging Eliot and drawing out the angry man's frustration for his own amusement. Christina had enjoyed that little charade, very much.

As she sat scrutinizing them they tossed glances in her direction. Parker with a blank, bored face, Sophie with concern, Nate with gentle thoughtfulness, Eliot with suspicion and Hardison always with a reassuring smile. Yes, Christina definitely liked the younger man, he reminded her of so many lost friends she'd collected through the years.

She sighed, swirling the warming liquid of her drink around her mouth and allowed herself an indulgent pause for thought, remembering Carl and Jane and the way the three of them had shared so many years of their lives together both in and away from their jobs.

When Jane had died it had all seemed so innocent. Just another life lost on yet another freeway. Christina and Carl had attended the funeral together, both of them heartbroken and mourning their treasured friend. It took so many weeks for the truth to emerge. Weeks spent digging through archives and searching out scraps of seemingly insignificant data.

Christina swallowed and closed her eyes. She was exhausted. Mentally, emotionally and physically she'd extracted every last ounce of strength she had and was now left an empty, drained shell.

"You need to sleep." Eliot set himself next to her, not so close they were touching but close enough to made her feel uncomfortable.

"Maybe." She conceded, unwilling to begin another cagey conversation with him.

"You can sleep here, it's okay, I ain't goin' anywhere."

She suppressed a smile. In what universe did he think that was reassuring? She shook her head and stared in to her drink, grateful for a distraction.

"Christina, are you sure there's nothing more you can tell us?" Nate asked softly, his warm eyes silently pleading for her to give away her secrets.

"I can't." She replied, an unsettling wave of guilt wracking her broken emotions.

"But there is something, something we don't know about, something big?" Nate pressed.

She'd said too much. Screwing up her eyes she rolled out the tension in her shoulders and neck and sighed.

"Okay, well, maybe when you feel you can trust us." Nate offered kindly.

Despite her better judgement, Christina was warming to him.

"Right," Hardison's authoritative boom tore through the room causing Christina to jump.

"C'mon man, can't you see the girl's exhausted? How about you take it down a notch or two?" Eliot hissed at Hardison. "Sorry, too much freakin' orange soda." He apologised with a half smile.

He really was a strange character, almost two people squeezed in to one body. Christina eyed him up and down; one fit and muscular body that was trained to kill.

"Aw shit, sorry." Hardison called with a coy smile, Christina returned his gesture. "Anyway, I'll recap."

The rest of the group took their various places ready to listen to what Hardison had to say. Parker flopped on to the couch, an open cereal box in her hand as she absently munched on the dry goodies. Sophie hung back, leaning against the back of the couch and next to her stood Nate.

"Core Industries, on the surface a pioneering research company but it's really just a front for these guys." Two images flashed on to the multiple screens in front of the couch. Christina recognised both. Professor Chan, with his grey hair and steel rimmed spectacles stood staring out of his official Core Industries identification photograph. Next to him Jack Rye CEO in his pinstriped suit and superficial smile. "They've been running all sort of black market scams under the cover of Core, the latest being their notorious arms deals but word on the street is they've found themselves a very lucrative, one of a kind weapon. Not sure, as of yet, what it is 'cos they're keeping in on the down low but my guess is, it's something real nasty."

Christina shuddered. Was it possible that Chan had found out about Exp1359? Eliot gave her a long sideways glance.

"Okay? Well we, and by we I of course mean me, got all the actual research here," Hardison beamed proudly, "their systems are now full of glitches and dummy papers, nothing too major that they'd spot the difference straight away but enough to ensure no more paydays any time soon."

Christina sat forward as Hardison flicked through Core Industries confidential files on the screens. "Wait, you've switched their research?" She asked nervously.

"Yep, a little squiggle here, a minus instead of a plus, you know how it is." Hardison chuckled.

"Put it back! Put it right!" Christina screamed, standing up and pointing at the screen. "You don't understand what you've done! Put it back the way it was, you're gonna get them all killed."

"Hey, hey it's okay we know what-" Eliot tugged at her arm gently but she snatched it back.

"You don't have a fucking clue," Christina spat back her mind running frantically through all the worst and best case scenarios. Either way it didn't end well. As soon as Chan and his analysts got hold of these forged papers they would assume it was her, and knowing there was no way she could accomplish this alone they would start looking for her accomplices. There were none to find but that wouldn't stop them erasing a few of her closest colleagues, just to be sure. "You've just killed them all." She whispered, a reel of faces flashing through her mind.

She had no choice now, she had to get back to the office and – and what? She couldn't undo Hardison's work in time by herself. She had no plan and no time. She was screwed and these five people had done it.

"Next time you feel like helping someone, don't. You've fucked this up so much worse than if I'd done nothing at all in the first place." She spat hysterically as she ran towards the door.

In a fit of adrenaline she sprinted down the stairs and burst out through the room she'd sat in before. It took her seconds to push through the door and run smack bang into Parker.

"Ooft." The air left Christina's body in a whoosh which was probably a blessing, as she had none left to scream with when the earth suddenly rocketed away from her as she was dragged upwards with Parker wrapped tightly around her. She found herself at Nate's window with a scowling Eliot dragging her through the open frame and back into the room she had just left. She heard a snap of metal and a ruffle of material and turned her head to see Parker climbing through behind her and unclipping a karabiner from a harness.

"What the f…" The words died on Christina's lips, as she stood dumbfounded with Eliot's hands holding her firmly in place.

"Oooh, that was fun, let's go again." Parker squealed, her eyes bright as she flashed Christina a huge smile.

"Parker." Eliot growled. "C'mon sweetheart, it's time to talk. Hardison can put it all back in a matter of seconds but we need to know why. Help us out here."

Christina was torn. She needed to ensure that her ex-colleagues were safe, but how could she be sure this wasn't some sort of tick they'd devised to get her to spill her secrets. She held her breath and counted slowly to ten, closing her eyes and immersing herself in her thoughts.

She could tell them why, she could explain everything; everything except the most recent research. They didn't need to know about the results of Exp.1359.

"Fine," She snarled, "but you put those papers back how you found them, right now, Hardison!" Her eyes flashed dangerously at the man behind the keyboard.

"Nate?" Hardison looked from Christina to Nate who nodded his approval.

Christina felt her legs wobble beneath her as relief coursed through her veins.

"Hey, steady there." Eliot whispered softly in to her ear from behind her as he gently moved his hands to her waist, giving her added support without drawing any attention to her unsteadiness.

She leaned into him gratefully, not caring who was supporting her and exhaled. She didn't know how much more she could take. It had been a long night, too long and it was far from over. She stood with her back pressed against Eliot and his hands on her waist as she gathered her strength and caught her breath. She wasn't built for this, she'd been drafted in from the temping agency and progressed through the years to data analyst, she had no experience until now of covert operations and it was all becoming too much. She relaxed back, her head just touching Eliot's chest, feeling her heart beat pulse gently back into a steady rhythm. She knew she was on the edge of a knife and one more tiny push would send her teetering over the edge. At the moment the only thing sopping her from falling to her knees and admitting defeat was Eliot and this realisation caused a flood of irrational gratitude towards the man supporting her. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to focus.

"Nate, give us a minute." Eliot spoke quietly but it had been heard. By the time Christina had willed her eyes open the room was empty. "Can you make it to the couch?" He asked her, concern lacing his tone.

"Yeah, just, slowly." Coherent speech was becoming elusive as the enormity of the last few weeks sank in. Christina shuffled clumsily to the back of the couch and fell heavily against it.

"Mind if I…" Eliot indicated that he wanted to help over the back of the seat but she shook her head, she could do this alone. It took a little time but she managed to navigate around the couch to the soft padded seats.

"You need to sleep, Christina." Eliot's voice had changed, the southern twang was now soft and caring and the rasping was replaced by a silky smoothness that disguised the darker side Christina had experienced earlier. In another world, she would have found it alluring.

"Chrissy."

"Huh?"

"Not Christina… Just Chrissy." She spoke with a deadpan voice and a hint of a slur.

Eliot stared at her from his place on the couch before nodding. "You took quite a beating tonight, I think it's best you rest up now and we'll talk in the morning. Trust me, I know what it's like to get your ass handed to you on a plate and I know that it's taking all of your self control not to just pass out where you're sat." He sighed but Christina couldn't tell if it was from a lack of patience or sympathy.

"You're a hard man to read Eliot." She muttered, her heavy eyes drooping.

He smiled, scooting closer. "I'm not here to do anything but protect you. I know you can't understand why we're doing this but you will, you just need to rest and it will all be clearer in the morning." He inched closer, slowly, cautiously.

Before she knew it had happened she found her head resting against Eliot's chest, the sound of his heart comforting her in a very primal manner.

"You honestly believe that things'll be better with a few hours sleep? C'mon Eliot, you're not that naive. Things will never be better than they are right now, this is as good as it gets for me now but I knew that when I jumped in to it all."

"What are we missing? What do you know Chrissy?"

She exhaled.

"Carl, Carl Kaye was drafted in to research hybrid car batteries. I don't know what you know of them but they really aren't all they're made out to be. They can't sustain their life for more than 10 years and that's at a push if you run them down every time you use them, and as for a reduction of your carbon footprint, hah, what a joke. The whole reason we have electric cars now is to introduce them to the market, get people ready for the better stuff that's being created right now.

So I don't get it all, I'm not an engineer but what I do know is that Carl stumbled across some really bizarre readings. He did his thing and all of a sudden he'd created a steady source of power, Elux Power."

Eliot nodded, he already knew this.

"Only it was unstable, couldn't maintain it's core temperature low enough and it kept going bang. Officially Carl pulled the research and moved on to his next avenue but behind closed doors it was a different story. He'd originally begun his research with his partner Jane, but right around the time he stumbled onto the Elux Jane got herself killed in a 'freeway collision'." She quoted the words bitterly and stared up at Eliot, her eyes watering with the painful memories.

"You'd be surprised how many times that cover up story is used." Eliot said sadly.

"Not anymore I wouldn't."

"So how did you end up in the mix?"

He was treading carefully, she could tell. Clearly he was worried about spooking her before she'd divulged the whole story but she still appreciated his gentle touch.

"Carl and I were old friends, I'd met him through mutual acquaintances but it was by coincidence we both ended at Core Industries. I worked in data analysis and he was in the lab. We'd meet up for lunch, him and Jane and me. Guess you could say I was the spare wheel but they never seemed to mind. I guess working and playing together wears you down after a while and they used me as a buffer, I dunno.

Anyway like I said, I was a data analyst but from time to time accounts used me as an imputer. It was easy money on the weekends so I figured why not. Only I started finding discrepancies and when I looked deeper it became glaringly obvious that these little misdemeanours were part of a bigger picture so I kept quietly digging. Then Jane died and things got… weird. About a month later Carl came to me, drunk, and poured his soul out. Told me about the Elux, the ramifications were mind blowing…" She inhaled and adjusted her position so she could sit up and look Eliot square in the eyes.

He met her gaze evenly, his chest rising and falling in a slow tempo as opposed to her erratic gulps of air.

"Time went on and Carl carried on confiding in me. He knew how big Elux was and he needed a sounding board now that Jane was gone. We worked late, shut ourselves away from the world and secretly ploughed on. At night I was his assistant and during the day I was sifting my way through the archives. 47 days after Jane's death things fell in to place. Her death had been planned because she wanted to shut down Elux. She thought it was too unstable, too unpredictable. 49 days after her death Carl met his end. A gas explosion at his house took him out. There was a service but there was fuck all left to bury." Christina grit her teeth and swallowed. "I knew then that Jane had been right, Elux had to be destroyed."

"Why the change of mind?"

Christina laughed bitterly, "Oh I dunno, maybe two of my friend's being murdered played a part."

Her sarcasm stung him but he bit back any retort. It was plain to see that she was on the verge of losing her composure so he took her hand in his and stroked the back of it gently with his thumb. It was a cheap trick Sophie had taught him to provoke comfort and calm in the mark and he tried to swallow down the guilt that was welling inside him about using it against Christina, but it stubbornly refused to crawl away.

She licked her lips and looked apologetically at him. "Imagine it if you will, a completely renewable energy with no toxic by-products, in fact no by-products that were in anyway harmful to mankind or earth. And it was a major source of power; unlike solar or wind this renewable energy had the capacity to take over from oil, coal, fuck, all the finite sources. How could we not push for that? But there were bigger powers than we knew, tangled in to the web. Jane had said a few things, things that at the time hadn't made any sense to me but when I started adding it all up, I got it. The power was a by-product of something else and that something wasn't good. It was unreliable, unsafe… Elux wasn't what I thought it was."

Eliot nodded patiently.

"Of course you knew about this didn't you?"

"I'm not gonna lie, most of that just confirms what we already knew, yeah."

"Yeah, well, turns out Chan and his cronies knew what we'd been up to all along. They were waiting, biding their time and as soon as the opportunity arose they took out Carl. Ha!" She laughed, a strange strangled cry as her face soured with the memories. "But even in his death Carl outsmarted them, hid his research, scattered it so that no matter how much they looked they wouldn't be able to piece it together enough to carry on his work. They were smart enough to realise my involvement though. They started getting heavy with me, warnings, threats, never directly from the company but I knew it was them. I have bad luck, sure, but seriously, getting mugged and burgled on two consecutive days?"

"Unlikely but not impossible."

She raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him.

Eliot smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

"So I figured that if I was gonna die at their hands I certainly wouldn't leave any evidence for them to play with. I took it upon myself to fight back, destroy everything about Elux. I was the only one who knew were Carl had hid the research so I started planning. The disc I destroyed tonight was the last piece to the Elux puzzle." She grinned triumphantly. "Guess I win."

Eliot sat bolt up and frowned, his blue eyes shifting uneasily. "Nate, it's a set up!"

"What?" Christina's stomach dropped.

Eliot grabbed her hand and dragged her off the sofa. "We gotta leave, now!" He pulled her to the door and reached it just as it opened and a group of men barged in severing his hold on hers and sending her flying to the floor. She landed hard and felt every inch of her body protest at yet more rough abuse.

"Chrissy?" Eliot called.

She made to move, scrambling on to all fours and whipping her head in the direction of his voice. She pushed up and watched as his face exploded with rage. Half a second later an excruciating pain burst from her neck and shot down her spine before everything wet black. She landed in a heap, unconscious and bleeding.