"Boss, it looks like he's starting to wake up." The guard warned Sterling. Sterling peered over the rows of the private jet to see Eliot's head barely moving.
"You put a blanket on him?" Sterling questioned.
"He was shivering." The guard explained. "It was distracting."
Sterling snickered. "You know, I almost feel bad about dragging the guy from a hospital bed; almost."
"We only have to keep him alive long enough to transfer him over to the Prime Minister." His number one reminded him.
"Not if we hope to catch Ford and the others in the con to break him out. No, I'm counting on Spencer's stubbornness to withstand torture. Maybe I should check to see how I can make this trip more accommodating for our guest."
Eliot became suddenly aware of the world around him. As he did he wished he could sneak back into the darkness for which he came. There wasn't a limb from head to toe that didn't ache. He didn't have to open his eyes to know he was in the air; they had him strapped into the aircraft with the weight of his upper body resting against bound arms. His breath was becoming shaky due to the exertion it was taking him to pump oxygen through his bacteria ridden lungs, as much as he saw that complication coming there was nothing he could do to hide the shakes that came with the temperature spike from the fighting immune system. The worst, though, was the newly acquired mind splitting headache from the hit he took that knocked him cold.
"Spencer…" Sterling tapped his cheek. "You who!"
"What do you want?" He growled.
"Checking on the merchandise; Sein was very clear that Eliot Spencer be brought to him alive."
"You couldn't tell that by the breathing?" Eliot finally looked up on him.
"No need to be cross; I came over to see if there was anything I could do to make you more comfortable."
"You could start by getting outta my face. Controlling the nausea from the concussion is enough work without having to stare at your ugly mug."
"Huh. I guess in that case I should keep these to myself." Sterling held up a pill bottle. "Antibiotics; I could give you a couple, but only if you say the magic word."
"Fuck you." Eliot replied.
"You really are a stupidly stubborn son of a bitch, aren't ya?"
"You're not going to win."
"Oh, I already have." Sterling smirked and walked away.
XXXXXX
"Alright, tickets are set." Hardison told Sophie and Parker. "Here are your passports."
"Mya Nyein?" Sophie questioned.
"Tell me you speak the language?" Hardison asked for the confirmation.
"Oh yeah, I spent a whole winter out in Tailand one year. It was absolutely beautiful."
Parker looked at her confused.
"Same language." She explained.
"Oh." The thief nodded. "How long before we need to be at the airport?"
"Half an hour. Nate said he wanted you on the first flight." Hardison replied.
"What about luggage? I didn't have time to pack…"
"One for each of you." Hardison interrupted Sophie as he pointed out the bags sitting by the door.
"How did you…?" Parker asked.
"I arrived about an hour and half before your flight came in." Hardison told Parker. "Did some shopping and then picked you up."
"Where did Nate run off to?" Sophie asked hoping to catch him before they had to take off.
Hardison pointed to the study down the hall. "He said something about phone calls he needed to make."
"To who?" Sophie questioned.
"Don't know. He's being pretty cryptic, my guess, he doesn't want us to know the details of his plan until he's ironed them out. There's a lot on the line here and he is making sure he doesn't mess it up."
"Yeah, Eliot's life is on the line." Parker commented.
"True, and he knows we'll never forgive him if Eliot doesn't make it and Eliot will never forgive him if we don't use the opportunity he's given us to bring Sterling down." Sophie explained the predicament.
"I'm starting to realize what he meant when he said I don't have what it takes." Hardison stated on the subject of becoming leader of a crew. Nate was sitting between a rock and a hard place. The only way to proceed was to tread lightly.
"I'm going to tell him we're off." Sophie stated before wandering off. She knocked lightly on the door and walked in without answer.
"You're in town? Great! Meet me at the Corner Bistro." Nate said over the phone before hanging up to see Sophie standing over him.
"We're in the middle of a crisis are you're arranging a date?" Sophie accused him.
"What?" Nate looked at her in utter confusion. The jealousy was one thing, but the accusation completely threw him considering he hadn't so much as had a coffee with a woman where it wasn't part of the con since his marriage ended. "You think…?"
"Who is she?" Sophie asked.
"Don't you have a flight to catch?" Nate asked her annoyed.
"I thought you might want to know I was leaving before I, well, left."
Nate shook his head knowing he was acting more callously than he should. "I appreciate that. I was just about to come out…"
"After arranging your date?"
"It is not a date!"
"What's not a date?" Hardison and Parker both asked coming in.
"Oh, I just came in to find Nate setting up a meeting at the Bistro."
"Dude, it's about time you start making a move in some kind of direction, but really, is now the best time?"
"Okay, everyone sit down." Nate demanded. "I'm going to have to do this quickly due to the time constraint but since we already know the back ground I'll skip over that part. Eliot doesn't want us breaking him out until we've taken out Sterling, and I was clear to him that he's not staying in there a moment longer than he needs to. The only way to accomplish this is to pull two cons at the same time in two different countries being one man down."
"That's impossible." Parker remarked.
"Pretty much, but luckily we're not the people on this planet that would get a cozy sense of closure by putting Sterling out of his misery."
"So the call was…?" Sophie questioned.
"Marcus Stark, an old friend of yours, actually; definitely not my type." Nate responded. "We're going to meet to iron out the details but my hope is to be able to distract Sterling with felony insurance fraud charges back in Washington DC while we're breaking out Eliot in Myanmar."