We're almost at the halfway point of this story. Once again, thank you to everyone who is this little journey with me. And now, let us return to the story.
TNT owns all of the characters and their quirks. I only own this storyline.
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Chapter 6: Plan A
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"Good day to you Mrs Ford, I hope you're having a lovely day so far. Oh, and I hope it's not presumptuous of me to assume that the other members of your little family are also there. Mr Hardison, Mr Spencer and Miss Parker if my memory serves me right?" The voice at the other end sounded strangely mechanical, transformed by a voice altering software.
"I must say," The voice continued, "I find it rather rude of you to leave the three friends I sent to visit unconscious outside your apartment. Tsk tsk, I thought Nathan would have taught you better manners than that."
Whatever restrain Eliot had left since Sterling had dropped off the file was gone. His fist clenched instinctively, knuckles turning white from the strain.
"Who are you and what do you want?"
"What do I want? What do I want? I already have what I want. Nathan Ford, the ungrateful bastard. I gave him opportunities, made him the man he is and he repays me by taking everything from me?" Even with an altered voice, they could detect a change in his tone. "He will pay for this. Oh, don't worry, I won't kill him yet. Not until I've destroyed everything he holds dear while he watches, unable to stop it. You are all going down."
And with that ominous threat, the line went dead.
Sophie let out a strangled sob, tears flowing freely down her face. Eliot turned from them and swiftly punched the nearest wall, causing some of the paint and plaster to shower down. Hardison remained crouched over his laptop, the slight tremor of his body betraying the fear slowly consuming him.
"Good day to you Mrs Ford, I hope you're having a lovely day so far..." The sound blasted from Hardison's laptop without warning, this time in the unmistakable of Ian Blackpoole, confirming their suspicions.
Press gently down on the accelerator, don't stomp on it. Turn the steering wheel gently, no sudden movements. Parker chanted to herself as the GPS chirped out directions in her voice. Eliot and Hardison had been trying, with mixed success to get her to drive less erratically. Getting stopped by a traffic police is the last thing they want when trying to escape undetected.
Parker fought the urge to throw all their advices out the window, her need to get her hands on anything that may lead them to Nate fighting with the rational part of her brain telling her not to draw any attention to herself.
The GPS chirped merrily again, informing her that her destination is about 0.3 mile ahead. Parker slowed down, she could see the empty lot just up ahead, and looked around for a place to park the car, without raising too much suspicion.
Luck was on her side. Tall grass and bushes run along the side of the road opposite from the lot, it's not ideal but it was better than nothing. After hiding the car as well as she can, Parker approached the lot, using the tall grass as a cover.
She could see Nate's turquoise car gleaming in the afternoon sun, the only car sitting in the lot. Standing directly opposite the lot, she was fairly confident that there were no guards or any cameras on the car and sprinted towards Nate's car. She pressed the unlock button on the spare key and was about to open the driver side door when she heard a faint sound of a phone ringing, which got louder until it was abruptly replaced by a cold mechanical voice, "Good day to you Mrs Ford…"
For the longest time, the three of them remained rooted to the spot. Hardison paralysed with fear for both the mastermind and the blond thief, Sophie overwhelmed by emotions and harsh reality of the situation and Eliot trying to find the fastest way to get them out of here. Eliot recovered first.
"Hardison! Do we have a safe house yet?" he asked sharply, bringing the other two back to reality.
"I am working on it. On top of trying to find more information about Kadjic and Blackpoole and tracing the phone call and keeping an eye on cameras around the house and the empty lot because Parker is out there alone! I am the best at what I do but even I can only do so many things at once." Hardison snapped back.
"Then prioritize your work better. Dammit Hardison."
"Guys! Stop it!" Parker's voice came over the coms. "Arguing is not going to help Nate. I've search through the car. It's clean. No blood or anything and doesn't look like anything's been taken."
"Parker, leave the car where it is and get back here. Blackpoole doesn't sound like he's joking around, I need us to stick together."
"Got it. On my way back now."
The pounding in his head was getting steadily worse as he slowly gain consciousness. Blinking slowly, his eyes adjusted to the dimly lit room he's currently in. Moving to a sitting position, her felt his back scream in protest. He took a moment to check himself for any injuries but other then feeling like he was having a hell of a hangover, a small burnt mark on his neck and a stiff back, he was good as new.
Tazer, he thought to himself, rubbing at the wound. For a wild moment, he wondered if this was Parker's idea of a joke, but he dismissed it immediately. Out of habit, he lifted his left wrist, only to discover his watch is missing, they must have taken it. He stuck his hands into his pockets and was relieved to find that he still had his wallet. He looked through the contents but found nothing of use.
I should probably keep a lock pick in my wallet, he mused to himself, thoughts drifting back to the blond thief. The driver's license proclaimed his name as Sam White but that was not what his attackers had called him.
"Mr Ford, come quietly with us and maybe we won't kill your wife and daughter." The man had said.
Nate looked around, trying to identify his location. The room was empty of any furniture and the only window had been sealed up. The room was lit only by a single naked light bulb, so he has no way of telling the time. The threadbare carpet and the peeling white paint on the walls gave the place a feeling of neglect.
He moved towards the door, compared to the rest of the room, it looked new. Reinforced steel, he observed and noting the lack of a keyhole, electronic lock. Someone was very determined to keep him here. There was a slim flap near the bottom of the door, much like a letter flap but longer. Nate lifted it and peered out.
It was pitch black on the other side and whatever dim light that shone out from his prison, fell only on the bare ground and empty space in front of the door. He let out a sigh and dropped the flap.
It was then he noticed a tray on the floor with a small bottle of water and two thin slices of stale bread. At the sight of food, his stomach gave an involuntary rumble. Nate tried to remember the last time he ate anything. It must have been just before he left for the pub. Lunch, with his beautiful wife and daughter. He must have been out for quite a few hours, judging by how hungry he was feeling.
The men who took him, there were three he recalled, two who came into the pub and one already in his car when he went outside, had made him call home to say he would be late returning. This was very well planned; they had studied their routines.
He had hoped Sophie would pick up the call, if only to hear her voice one last time should this thing go south. Nate shook his head, no, let's not go there yet. He was fairly confident that Sophie had got the little hint he dropped into the voicemail and had called the others as they had agreed on long ago. They would come for him, of that he had no doubt.
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His growling tummy brought him back to the meagre food supply now sitting at his feet. He was not entirely sure why he was so hesitant about eating, although it probably has to do with how this entire situation had thrown him quite a bit. It wasn't so much the getting kidnapped part than the fact that they had known his real name.
"My name is Sam White. I have no idea who this Mr Ford that you are looking for is."
"Don't try to play games with me Nathan Ford." One of the men had replied while the other roughly pushed his gun barrel against his lower back again. He was no Eliot and decided that it was a wiser decision to go along with them.
Nate weighed in his head the possibility that the food and water may be drugged against his need for nourishment and decided he would at least have to drink the water for now. He stuffed the bread into his pockets, picked up the bottle of water and retreated to the back corner. Slowly sipping the water, Nate ran through the events of the afternoon in his mind.
He had arrived at the pub around 1pm as per usual; he had just started on some paperwork in the office when he heard the backdoor open. He had glanced at the clock, surprised that it was only half past one. Matthew, his manager, didn't usually arrive until after two.
Stepping out to greet the newcomer, Nate saw a casually dressed man with soft straw-coloured hair and emerald coloured eyes that were devoid of warmth.
"Mr Ford, come quietly with us and maybe we won't kill your wife and daughter." The man had greeted, and Nate had felt the hard round barrel of a gun pressed against his back. They had made him call Matthew from the office, feigning an illness before shoving him into his own car and blindfolding him.
Nate leaned back on the seat and tried to focus on the turns the car was taking. He gave up after a while, it was clear that they were deliberately making multiple turns to throw him off. He estimated that they had travelled for approximately two hours when the car stopped and the blindfold was taken off. He blinked rapidly, adjusting to bright sunlight.
Green eyes handed him a burner cell, instructing him to call Sophie. They must have tazed him after he made the call because all he remembered was a searing white-hot pain before the darkness claimed him. He had emptied the bottle by then and threw the bottle aside.
It was time to make a plan.
Parker made her appearance thirty minutes later, this time parking the car in the garage. She made her way back into the living room where the others are gathered.
"Guys, I've tracked the call. It came from a warehouse about 50 miles from here. It's owned by a shell company, tracing down the origins now as we are speaking." Hardison said once Parker entered.
"We have to go there. That must be where they are holding Nate." Parker said immediately.
"It's a trap. We have no information on that place and Nate might not actually be there." Eliot retorted.
"But Nate might also be there right? Shouldn't we at least do a recon?"
"This is not just a job Parker. Ian Blackpoole wants us dead and you're just making it easier for him by walking straight into his trap. And I'm not letting us split up now, I can't protect you if I can't see you."
"Then we get reinforcements. We can call Tara or Quinn or…"
"No Parker. We call no one. Someone found out where Sophie and Nate are, and they most likely went to a lot of trouble to do it. We call anybody now and either we put a target on their back or they sell us out. It's too risky."
"So you're just going to let Nate to die? I run this crew now and I say we check the warehouse out. Hardison can hack into their security system or whatever, right Hardison?" Sophie could see Eliot was ready to knock some sense into the blond thief and quickly stood up, holding the man's arm gently but firmly, relived when Eliot seem to relax a little.
"Everybody calm down for a moment. I'm not letting any of you walk straight into a trap but if you think I'm just going to sit around and wait for Blackpoole to drive us into a corner you're wrong. Hardison can get us more information then we can make a plan."
"Fine. But one way or another, we have to get to the warehouse. I will go alone if I have to." Parker replied.
Eliot closed his eyes and pinched his nose bridge. He recognized that tone of voice; there would be no stopping Parker or Sophie from going to that warehouse. He could feel a headache coming on as he made a decision.
"Fine, we will go to the warehouse, but I'm the retrieval specialist so I will be running this. Whatever I say, you do. No questions asked or so help me I will knock you out cold and drag your body to a safe house." Three head nodded almost simultaneously.
"I've secured a place that will work as a safe house Eliot. What's the top priority now?"
"I want eyes and ears on that warehouse Hardison, the rest of you be ready to leave anytime."