Nate found a nice restaurant close to the airport. The entire team seemed to have been put on mute and the Mastermind knew he had to get them settled before they headed off on an international flight going into a situation that they didn't know much about. He parked the car and quickly exited. As he was making his way into the Italian restaurant, the rest of the team were exiting the car.
He followed the waitress to a round table to the right of the doors. The rest of them made their way into the restaurant and to the table. Sophie sat down on his right, Hardison on his left, Parker to Hardison's left and Eliot in between the two ladies. They ordered their drinks as they looked over the menu. Everyone was still pretty quiet which in itself was unusual. Nate knew Sophie was worried about their adopted teammate. He was sure Eliot was more worried about something happening to her that he couldn't help her with.
They sat in silence until their waitress returned. She passed out their drinks with a warm smile. Sophie asked a question about one of their dishes which the girl, Tammy, was happy to tell her about. Once she was done Sophie told her that's what she wanted. Parker was next to order. Nate ordered followed by a still unsure Hardison. Eliot had a few questions for Tammy before he placed his own order. 'I told you, you were a food snob' he heard Hardison state as he started asking his questions. Once he placed his order, however, everyone turned to look at one another.
"OK. You all understand the danger we're heading into in the Ukraine. You all understand the danger Zoe is in by going off on her own like this. I'm not happy about it but if I've learned anything from you guys it's to trust your instincts." Nate said, starting the conversation
"I'm keeping close tabs on her but she's still on the plane." Hardison stated nonchalantly
"What are we going to do when we get there?" Parker innocently questioned
"That's what I'd like to know!" Sophie stated, eyeing Nate suspiciously
The Mastermind sighed.
"We'll have to wait to see what she needs us to do. I didn't listen to Eliot when he said he knew how to deal with Moreau. I won't make that mistake with Zoe. We'll do what she needs us to do." Nate explained with a sigh
The other four just looked at one another. They knew just how hard giving up control was for him. To not be the one with the plan. To have to sit back and take orders. It was almost killing him inside but he was making the effort for the newest teammate.
"So we're going to Sevastopol and just sitting around a hotel until Zoe finds a use for us? Does anyone else think this is wrong?" Sophie stated, looking around the table
"Sophie, she knows this guy better than any of us. She knows things about him that Hardison's little web bugs won't be able to tell us. The best thing we can really do is sit back and wait for when she needs us." Eliot explained
"I still don't like any of this." Sophie huffed
"I don't either. Think of what our client told us. Of all the things he's done and is into. He has to be stopped." Nate retorted
"She'll be OK, won't she?" Parker suddenly asked
Eliot grinned slightly. Hardison just looked at her with a slight smile. Sophie looked over at the Thief with a happy but surprised look. It was a good sign to the Grifter. Parker was showing concern for others.
"She's a smart woman. Like Hardison said, she's practically a one-woman Leverage team. She survived on her own for a long time like the rest of you. We'll see her when we get there." Nate said in an almost soothing voice
Eliot had to admit the man made sense. The Hitter was certain she would at least call him if something was going on. He was sure she was planning on killing Van Bree but he couldn't say for certain. If he were in her shoes he probably would. Even Moreau hadn't done things to him that he thought Van Bree had done to Zoe. Hearing what this guy was into and some of the things he'd done to young women made Eliot's skin crawl. It would be better if Zoe found him first because if he did there wouldn't be anything left for her!
By the time she'd made it to St. Petersburg, she was anxious to get things going. Having nothing to do but sit and think did her no favors. It was going to take roughly 27 hours to drive from St. Petersburg to Sevastopol. As soon as she landed, she turned her phone back on. She was hoping to have some messages from her contacts.
'White van ready with everything you requested & paperwork''Scuba gear ready & waiting at dock 7''Hotel suite booked at Aquamarine Apts & Hotel, suite 1348'
The last text was from Hardison. She had to smile in silent thanks. She would check in, take her luggage to the suite, and crash for probably 12 hours if not more. With any luck they wouldn't fly out before she got there. The drive from Russia would be long especially since she wasn't allowing herself to stop and rest. She would load up on coffee and drive straight through. These were going to be a very long 3 days. The after math would be hard too but she would have to deal with that bridge when she came to it.
Silently, she followed the rest of the passengers off the plane and to the luggage claim. Once she had her bag, she headed out of the airport to catch a cab to the where this white van was sitting waiting for her. It had everything she'd asked Ivan for and she was very thankful he'd been able to procure the items so quickly. Half an hour later the cab pulled up to the address she'd been given. Paying the cabbie, she grabbed her bag and slammed the door shut. He quickly took off leaving her in the midst of a bunch of seemingly abandoned buildings.
It didn't take her long to find the van. Before she knew it she was bounding down the road on her way to Sevastopol. She had 1359 miles, or 2187 kilometers, to drive and roughly $270 for gas and tolls the entire way. If she hadn't lived here before she would pleasantly shocked at how cheap it was to drive 1300 miles in a car! It was technically the next day and she couldn't help but wonder where the rest of them were at. Were they still back in Portland? Or had they bought plane tickets yet? She chuckled to herself. Hardison would hack them tickets instead of paying good money for them.
As she drove along the highway she realized that not only was she thinking about the rest of the team, something she never would have done before, but that these thoughts also made her smile. This band of thieves actually made her happy! It was such a profound thought for her. Ever since she left Evan she had worked alone. He had instilled in her the ideations that working with others was bad. It led to bad things. Then she let Nate sweet-talk her into sticking around "for one more job".
As she acclimated to their personalities, the way they did things, and the fact that they helped people, she began to actually like them. In her own way of course. She liked learning from Hardison. He was a much better hacker than she was and she did learn quite a lot from him. The young man even got her to playing World of Warcraft with him much to his excitement. No one else got into the gaming and he was happy to have someone to play with. Then there was Parker.
She was quite an unusual personality. It took Zoe the longest amount of time to bond with her. Once they started talking about rappelling, various ropes and harnesses they discovered they did have something in common. Sometimes they would even go rappelling together. Zoe learned quite a bit from the Thief about which ropes and harnesses were best to use for what. Zoe understood that the blond had a very difficult childhood and that she'd never really picked up basic conversation and people skills.
Zoe was a bit weary of the Grifter. After all she lied for a living. She conned for a living. The redhead had to admit, though, that Sophie was one of the most charismatic individuals she'd ever met. Although she had never been one of those "girly girls". After her mother died, she never really had someone to teach her about clothes and make-up. Sophie was more than happy to talk about shoes, clothes, make-up, nails, and hair. Although Zoe still preferred jeans and tanks or bondage pants and band t-shirts, she would occasionally dress "up" making Sophie giddy.
She didn't talk to Nate much. However, she did pay close attention to when he spoke. She picked up his unspoken cues and body language. She tried to learn how to calculate and see things the way he did to plan their cons and such. He was inherently a good guy. The rest of them were all thieves and killers pretty much from the starting gate. She tried to learn from him as much as she could. Besides the drinking. She didn't need any help in crawling into a bottle or instructions on how to get there. Despite all that, she did respect the man and did like him when he wasn't drunk.
As she stopped for gas, and a very quick bite to eat, she began to think about the repercussions of what she was about to do. People were going to die because of her. Eliot probably wouldn't look at her much different. He was a killer too, after all, and did what he had to do in order to survive. The rest of them was a different story. In all their criminal endeavors, none of them have never had to kill someone. Knocking them out was one thing. She had to prepare herself for the fact that she would probably have to walk away from them.
That idea made her sad for some reason. Especially since she was so reluctant to join their little band of thieves in the first place. For the first time in a very long time she actually felt like she had a family of sorts. Or people who bugged her like a real family would. That counted for something! Leaving them would be sad but she would adapt like she always did. She would definitely keep her eyes on them, however, if she left jut to make sure they were all doing OK. At this point she knew she couldn't just walk away and not keep tabs.
She was very thankful that the drive from Russia was uneventful. Approaching the Ukraine border made her nerves act up. Evan kept tabs on his enemies no matter where they were. She was sure he had tried to keep up with her. She was afraid that he would know shortly after she entered the Ukraine that she was back. That's not anything she wanted. Knowing him, he would have a "kill on sight" order on her if he knew she was "back".
As she crossed the border, she made sure she was driving the speed limit, not driving erratically or anything, and generally tried to not draw attention to herself. She had roughly 685 miles to go and just under 14 ½ hours to drive. Shortly after crossing the border she stopped for a late night snack and to fill the gas tank. She grabbed the largest cup of coffee she could and paid for her gas. It was still a long way to go to get to Sevastopol. Although she had slept as much as she could on the plane, she was starting to feel the effects of jet lag.
A long 14 hours later and she was pulling up into a parking garage a few blocks from where the hotel Hardison had booked was located. With a heavy sigh, she grabbed her bag and locked the van up. It was very late, or early depending on your point of view, when she strolled into the hotel. She didn't know what name Hardison had given the reception so she took her phone to get the information. She checked in with a tired sigh.
Keeping her head down, she made her way up to her suite. The closer she got to her room the more the exhaustion began to sink in. Before she could allow herself to succumb to sleep, she had to check the entire suite for bugs and to make sure the room was secure. Maybe it was paranoia or it was just because she was in the same city as him. She had to make sure she would be ok once she passed out. After a very thorough search of the room, closing all the curtains, she finally picked a room which was black and red and fell back onto the bed. She was asleep before her head hit the bed.
Unbeknownst to the rest of the team, they had a lay-over for two hours in New York which lasted nearly 36 hours due to inclement weather. Everyone was getting anxious to get to the Ukraine and to check up on Zoe. Hardison kept them up-to-date on her whereabouts after she landed in St. Petersburg.