The sirens were blaring as the ambulance made its way to the hospital. Nate sat watching as the paramedics worked to keep the hitter alive. His shirt had been cut away to reveal two bullet wounds which were now bound with bandages. Where they had once been white were now a deep crimson red. The hitter had lost conciseness just as the paramedics had arrived and with each passing moment grew weaker.
'Please God don't take another son from me,' were the words that kept running through his mind. When the ambulance finally arrived at the hospital the hitter was rushed through to the OR with the mastermind trying his best to follow not wanting to lose sight of him. The mastermind followed close behind until a nurse stopped him from going forward.
The mastermind stood pacing the waiting room waiting for the doctor to emerge. By now the rest of the team had joined him. With each passing moment they grew more and more impatient as the minutes turned into hours. It was only when the three hour mark passed that they finally caught side of a doctor making his way towards them.
"Mr. Baker," the doctor called bring all their eyes to rest on him as Nate approached the doctor almost terrified of what he might say.
"How is he," Nate asked after taking a deep breath.
"He...,"
"Nate, hey Nate," Sophie called as she gently nudged the mastermind on the shoulder "Nate its...," she started before the mastermind shot up forcing her to jump backwards to avoid being hit.
"Easy," she soothed realizing he had been in the middle of another one of his dreams "what was this one about," she asked as the mastermind struggled to make sense of his surroundings.
"Huh," he asked blinking the sleep from his eyes.
"What was this one about," the grifter asked again. He stared at her for several moments as he realized she was asking about the dream he had been having.
"We were in the hospital this time, he had made at least as far as the hospital," Nate took a deep breath as he spoke knowing what her next question would be.
"And," she question not really sure she wanted the answer.
"And you woke me before the doctor could tell me anything," he sighed not meeting her eyes. When it was clear to her he wasn't going to say anymore on the topic she turned to get up.
"Well you need to hurry up and get dressed. The others are already at Global Tech. doing recon..." She began only for Nate to cut her off.
"They're where," he shouted jumping out of bed.
"They went back to finish the recon since you ordered them out before they could finish yesterday," the grifter tried to reason as the mastermind quickly dressed himself "Nate calm down its just recon. They are more than capable of doing recon without you to hold their hand." The mastermind turned to stare at the grifter as she spoke.
"Thats not why I'm...," he started.
"Paranoid, Nate just because you have a couple of dreams in which Eliot gets killed doesn't mean we are going to stay home with the shades drawn," Sophie spoke as she placed a hand on the masterminds shoulder.
"Thats...," he started again.
"Nate if you really want to protect your team then do your job. Because you are going to make more mistakes by worrying over what could happen than what is happening," the grifter's voice was gentle and soothing as she tried to lay the masterminds fears to rest. There was little more that could be said to ease his mind, but she was relieved to see that her words were starting to get through his head as he seemed to relax.
"Just recon," he asked looking over to where the grifter stood. She gave him a smile to reassure him handing him an ear bud.
"Alright, Hardison whats happening out there," Nate asked putting the ear bud in place.
"First do we have the old not so over protective Nate back," the hacker asked making no attempt to hide his sarcasm in his voice.
"Hardison," the mastermind snapped.
"Just checking," Hardison replied as he went to work on his computer "Eliot was able get back in to do another sweep and found at least three more possible entrance points."
"Did you say three," the mastermind questioned.
"Yeah why," the hacker asked not sure where the mastermind was going.
"It just at most you normally find no more than one maybe two holes in a security that would allow a thief access into a building. To find four now thats interesting," the mastermind noted.
"He has a point," Eliot noted as he made his final sweep of the building.
"What are you thinking," Sophie asked seeing the wheels in the mastermind's head begin to turn.
"Hardison find out who installed their security for Global Tech," Nate asked as he began to suspect something was off.
"Alright Global Tech security was installed by a company called Adler Security and Consulting...hmm...thats strange," Hardison commented.
"What is it," Nate asked turning the information over in his mind.
"The contract was a two million dollar, up until that point the largest contract that they had been no larger than a grand. There was no way that a company like Global Tech should have chosen Adler. I mean they dealt with home security and bare bone at that. Then they get the Global Tech contract which should have put their company on the map but in stead eight months after the job was finished Adler Security and Consulting went bankrupt after...oh," there was an overwhelming sense of concern in Hardison.
"Whats the 'oh' suppose to mean," Nate asked.
"The company went bankrupt after the president was found dead in his home. The police suspected foul play but never had enough evidence to get close to a suspect. Case went cold after that. If that wasn't bad enough Global Tech claimed that there had been a breach of contract which allowed them to skate on not paying off the contract in the first place," Hardison voice reached a new level of concern as he relaid the information.
"Is it just me or does this company seem to have reached a new level of shady," Parker butted in.
"I'm with you on this one girl. Something is just not right here," Hardison agreed.
"Nate whats the play. Something is starting to feel off about this place and not just because of stolen designs," Eliot asked making his way out of the building.
"Give me a minute," Nate said taking the ear bud out and tossing it to the dresser. Something wasn't right but he couldn't figure out why. There was a bigger piece missing that he wasn't seeing but what. He closed his eye as he thought of what it could be when the thought of his first dream came to mind. It had been different from all the others that had taken place in the parking deck because he knew why he was running. Eliot had been pinned by a sniper before being shot. It had turned out that the job had been setup with the target being Eliot. That was it he thought reaching for the ear bud.
"Hardison check pass police report for break-ins that resulted in the assailant being killed while making their get away." Nate ordered as the pieces started to fall into place.
"Nate your not going to like this," Hardison noted as he pulled up the file "In the last twelve years since the security was installed there have been close to fifteen break-ins that resulted in the assailant being shot and killed and...," Hardison trailed off his voice sounding as if he had seen a ghost.
"What, what is it Hardison," Nate asked urging him the continue.
"HARDISON!," Eliot yelled through the coms.
"Umm...the...umm...assailants were all gun down in the parking deck ground level." Everyone froze as Hardison spoke.
"What did you say," Nate asked hoping that he hadn't heard him right.
"You heard me they were all killed in the ground level of the parking deck." Hardison's words hit Nate like a ton of bricks.
"Hardison who were the victims in the cases," Nate asked fearing the answer.
"One sec...umm...they were...umm...retrival specialists and by the looks of it pretty damn good ones to. Some of their rap sheets could almost be Eliot's." Eliot froze as the realization hit him as did the rest of the team. They were all coming to the conclusion that this job had been a setup from the start. It had always been a hit on Eliot.