"Her name is Claudette Morrow. Eight years ago she worked for IYS as a junior investigator." Hardison told the other three as he brought up a picture of a tall blond. "Her immediate supervisor was Nate, he tried to show her the ropes, but according to her personnel files she had Eliot's mentality. Bash heads in first ask questions later. In the long run she ended up costing IYS more money than she helped save."

"So what's her connection to the mark?" Layla asked.

"She started her own business called," He paused letting his fingers fly across the keyboard. "Terminal Investments."

"Terminal Investments, that sounds kind of,"

"Final." Eliot finished Layla's sentence.

"Yeah well that's because it is. In the past five years she's worked for nine different companies and each time she works with a company several people have gone missing. Usually it's the ones that have caused problems within the company,"

"Like our client's husband." Parker said.

"Exactly. Ten to one she would have recognized Nate, Sophie too probably." Hardison nodded.

"She must have told the mark, who gave the order to take them." Layla thought out loud.

"How did we miss this when we started the con?" Eliot asked the hacker, a little peeved that something like this had been overlooked.

"Because she's not really on the payroll." Hardison told him. "When the guy at the hotel didn't send up any red flags on the guest list or our mark's company I broadened my search and came across this."

Hardison fingers flew over the keyboard again pulling up an list of corporate accounts.

"This account, Clean and Quiet, was posted three days after our client's husband went missing. I ran the account numbers and they took me to an account held by Terminal Investments, and that's what lead me back to Morrow. I went through all the companies she's had dealings with and all of them had an account labeled the same way. All of which had funds posted to it seventy-two hours after said person or persons went missing."

"So we have two days before," Parker started then stopped herself. "Why does she wait?"

"My guess it has something to do with her boat." Hardison told them. "On day three she takes her boat out always for a week at a time and always just out to sea."

"She's probably taking them out to international waters. It'd be an easy way to get rid of the bodies without anyone noticing." Eliot mused. "So where is she holding Nate and Sophie?"

"Probably here." Hardison pulled up a picture of a warehouse. "It's right on the waterfront about a mile down from where her boat's docked."

"How's security?"

"From what I could get from outside cameras in the area pretty tight. At least four guards on duty, two that stay in front of the door and at two that do sweeps every fifteen minuets and who knows how many on the inside. Not to mention a security system on the door itself."

"What about hacking the system?" Layla asked.

"I tried. They've got codes and clearances that change every ten minuets. I'd need at least two days just to prepare something to get into it."

"So let me get this strait. We've got to break into a warehouse that's better guarded than an army base and we have to do it in less than two days?" Eliot said.

"And don't forget we don't even have the layout of the place." Parker reminded everyone.

Eliot flopped back in his chair with a huff. "Thanks for reminding us Parker."

"I was just saying." Parker replied defensively.

"Well don't."

"What if you had a direct feed? Something that allowed you to use their IP address or at least let you mask ours as theirs." Layla asked ignoring the others.

Something had caught her eye watching the guards. Something one of them had done while they were standing there.

Hardison quirked an eyebrow. "I'd need to plug in directly…girl what's going on in that scary head of yours?"

"I got an idea." Layla said with a smirk.

Eliot groaned. He had a feeling he wasn't going to like this idea as he watched Layla get up and bolt toward their room.

________________________________________________________________________

"You're crazier than Parker." Eliot told Layla as he pulled the beat up truck to a stop in front of the warehouse. The truck had been Eliot's idea, something noticeable but not overly suspious. The tags had been linked a false id so no red flags would pop up.

"But you love me anyway." She murmured. "How long before you think they notice us?"

"Not long if they're any good." Eliot looked through the binoculars. "I still don't like this idea of yours."

"I thought you would. If you had said something earlier I could have done this with Parker."

Eliot whipped his head around to look at her. "You and Parker?"

"Yeah." She said with a smirk.

Eliot groaned knowing she was teasing him, even as images filtered through his head. Layla laughed and slid across the bench seat as he grabbed her pulling her to him. She straddled his lap smiling down at him.

"You ready?" Eliot asked noticing the two armed guards walking toward the truck.

"Always." Layla smiled stripping out of her sweatshirt and t-shirt underneath before capturing Eliot's lips in a searing kiss.

They were careful not to get too caught up in the moment, knowing that this could mean life or death for Nate and Sophie, but made it real enough that when the guards tapped on the window it looked like they had been in the middle of things. On the second round of tapping they separated a bit and Eliot rolled down the window.

"Is there something wrong?" Layla asked giggling.

"This is privet property you're going to have to leave." The older of the two ordered.

"Sorry, we didn't know." Eliot replied with a smile.

"Yeah," Layla leaned a bit out the window, the action causing her to show more cleavage than nessacery. "We've got two kids at home and a babysitter that doesn't scare easy so we were just trying to get some alone time in."

The younger guard smiled and nodded never meeting Layla's eyes. The older guard's face softened a bit.

"I remember those days, but you're still going to have to leave. I'm sorry." He told them.

"That's ok." Eliot replied. "I'm sure the little ones have thought of some way to terrorize the sitter by now."

Layla shifted off Eliot's lap and pulled her shirts back on as he started the truck and took off. When they were a good two blocks away she grinned and pulled out the Blackberry she had palmed off the younger guard. They glanced at one another before breaking into laughter.

________________________________________________________________________

"Girl I could kiss you." Hardison told Layla as he connected the Blackberry to his laptop.

"That's how she got it." Eliot told him as he paced. "How much longer?"

"I've got live feed."

They all gathered around Hardison and his laptop. The images it showed gave them little hope, but it was enough. They both looked like they had been put through the wringer, but not terribly damaged.

"You see that." Parker said pointing to the cage Nate and Sophie were in.

"Yeah I see it." Eliot replied.

"Well for those of us that aren't superhuman, enlighten us." Hardison groused.

"The cage door is electrified." The hitter informed him.

"It must be an improvisation." Layla commented. "That's shoddy work at best." She said pointing to the car batteries attached to the mettle door.

"If you had Nate and Sophie locked up wouldn't you want something to keep them from picking the lock." Hardison muttered.

"We've got about twenty-six hours to figure out how we're going to get them out." Eliot said looking at his watch.

"Well according to this Claudette is going to be at a business meeting tomorrow morning from nine until eleven. The boat trip is scheduled for noon." The hacker pointed to the computer screen, with Morrow's schedule up.

"Will they leave without her?"

Hardison turned to look at Eliot. He could see the gears turning in the other man's head.

"What are you thinking, man?"

"Divide and conquer." The hitter replied with a smirk. "Find out where she'll be exactly and what she's driving."

"You want me to steal her car?" Layla asked.

"Nah what I have in mind you won't like."

________________________________________________________________________

"Is this what she did with our client's husband?" Sophie asked as she paced their cell.

"More than likely." Nate murmured standing. He put his hands on her shoulders to stop her from making another circuit.

He guided her over to the cot and sat down pulling her with him. She snuggled into his embrace resting her head on his chest. Nate savored this. Burning this memory deep in his mind, hoping there were going to be many more, but that all depended on the rest of the team.

"Nate?"

"Hmm?" He gently rubbed small circles on her back.

"Do you think they know what's going on?" She asked softly.

Nate smiled knowing exactly who 'they' were.

"Yeah I do. And I think they are working something out right now." He kissed the top of her head.

"What if they can't get to us in time?"

It was one of the few times he had heard Sophie sound scared. He held her tighter knowing he had to be strong for her, even though he was scared too.

"They will sweetheart, I promise." He sighed. "Try and get some rest."