Chapter 36
The next morning found members of Leverage Inc. minus Nate sitting around the breakfast table in silence. Although Sophie was dressed and made up, they could all see she had not had a good night, her eyes were puffy and red from the crying and they could see that she was exhausted, she had obviously not slept much. She sat picking at her breakfast, just pushing the food around the plate.
"So I have got us tickets home." Hardison said breaking the silence.
When Sophie and Nate had left Leverage, they had not left Portland. They had decided that she had her theatre and he had his boat and it was as good a place as any to base themselves. Sophie new that Nate wanted to be close to the other three in case they needed him, and he had helped them out on various cases, as a consultant.
"Plane leaves in four hours." Hardison continued. "Sterling is having Luwitsky and Cruz transported out this morning as well, he's taking them to a federal facility in LA."
"Thank you Hardison…" Sophie said pushing her plate away. "Well I'm going to get packed…I'll see you all later."
They watched her enter her room and close the door and then they all looked at each other.
"How long is she going to do this for?" Parker asked.
"Until he comes to his senses." Eliot replied.
"Well that could be a while…" Hardison sighed. Nate was what he was, he was never going to change and if Sophie was waiting for that well she could wait forever.
It was late in the afternoon when the four of them walked into the Leverage offices at the brewpub. Hardison immediately got onto his computer as Eliot poured Sophie a glass of wine.
"He hasn't left yet…or at least he was not booked on any flights." Hardison reported. "Sterling and the others arrived in LA about an hour ago." The Hacker reported, he was keeping tabs on both parties. "Nate didn't go with Sterling either."
"Well I think I am going to go home." Sophie said finishing her wine and standing up.
"I'll drive you." Eliot said.
Sophie smiled at him in thanks and then they left. They drove in silence to Sophie and Nate's house and Eliot carried Sophie's bags in.
"You going to be alright?"
"Yes…" Sophie smiled sadly at him. "Eliot…"
"You are doing the right thing…we are doing the right thing…Nate has to get it through his damn thick head." Eliot said without waiting for her to ask the question.
"Yes we are…I just thought…" She said and the sadness in her voice told Eliot that walking away from Nate, especially now when he was hurt, was taking its toll on her.
"Yeah well he is a stubborn bastard…" Eliot said knowing that Sophie had thought Nate would have made a move to apologise and come back to them by now. "You sure you gonna be ok?" He asked and Sophie smiled and nodded at him. "Ok, well call if you need anything." He said and then left Sophie alone.
Sophie moved to the kitchen and poured herself a glass of wine before going through to the bathroom and turning on the taps to run herself a bath. It had been along few days that had taken their toll emotionally and physically and she was exhausted.
Sophie lay in the bath and sipped her wine. She wanted to call Nate and just make sure the man was alright, but she could not bring herself to do it. He had to call her, he had to make the first move, he had to accept that he had done wrong and he had to come to her. She sighed heavily and relaxed into the hot water laying her head back and closing her eyes. By nine o'clock Sophie was in bed, the house in darkness and silent.
The next morning Eliot was woken by a phone call from Sterling.
"Luwitsky is out." Sterling said without bothering with greetings.
"What…" Eliot said immediately at full alert.
"He was released on bail."
"You gotta be kidding me." Eliot said in disbelieve. "We gave you an airtight case."
"Yes, for Cruz, he's been remanded until trial for murder amongst other things…but Luwitsky could not be linked to the murders and he talked the judge into giving him bail saying he was set up. Look he has money and the best lawyers money can buy, bottom line is he is out, I thought you should know."
"Yeah thanks…" Eliot said dropping the call and immediately dialling Nate's number. The phone went straight to voicemail, it was switched off. "Shit…" Eliot said dialling Hardison's number next.
Two hours later all four of the members of Leverage were at the airport waiting for the flight back to Texas. They had still not been able to get hold of Nate, Hardison could not track his phone, the only thing Hardison could confirm is the last time Nate had used it was in the motel Eliot had left him in, and they had no other way of finding out where he was. Sophie had called the motel and confirmed that Nate was not in his room, but he had also not checked out. There was no record at the hospital of him being admitted and Parker had called the local police to determine if they had any knowledge of Nate's whereabouts, but they knew nothing, there were no reports of murders and they had had no contact with the Mastermind since the previous day.
Hardison kept trying to get any kind of trace on Nate, running facial recognition at airports. There were no traffic camera's to be able to tap into in the little town they had left him in so he could not trace him that way, he tapped into all the ATM camera's and spent his time studying the footage trying to spot Nate but to no avail. Parker kept calling Nate's phone, but it went straight to voicemail each time. She had phoned all the pubs in the town giving them a description of Nate and asking if he had been in, she also called all the local liquor stores asking the same questions. Nate however had not been seen anywhere, by anyone and the tension was growing as fear set in in full force.
"Oh God Eliot…what did I do…" Sophie said sitting next to the Hitter on the flight.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves Sophie." Eliot told her patting her hand gently.
"Something is wrong Eliot, you know it and I know it…I left him alone…I left him there alone and he is hurt and…"
"Sophie stop it…we all agreed to walk away, all of us." Eliot told her anger in his voice, more at himself than at her, he felt just as guilty leaving the Mastermind when he was still vulnerable and before they had been absolutely sure the danger had passed. "Let's just concentrate on finding him ok?"
When they arrived at the airport Hardison organised them a car and they immediately set off for Nate's motel. On arrival they did not bother going to the office going straight to Nate's room instead and Parker took only seconds to let them in. They entered the room which was empty, Nate was definitely not there. The bed was still dishevelled and the bottle of whisky Nate had been drinking from still stood next to the bed, Eliot could see he had had no more than one glass from the bottle. Eliot studied the scene carefully trying to discern if anything violent had gone down, but saw no sign of anything. Nate's bag still stood at the foot of the bed untouched. Next to the bottle on the bedside table were Nate's phone and wallet, and Eliot's face darkened slightly. Nate had not left on his own accord, he would not have left either behind if he had. Nate had been taken, but by who and to where? He had obviously not put up a fight, there was no sign of a struggle at all.
"Eliot…" Sophie said fear in her voice as she came to the same conclusions as the Hitter when she noted the wallet and the phone.
"Somebody took him…" Eliot confirmed. "He went without a fight though."
"Luwitsky…" Parker whispered. "But when and how and where did they take him?"
"I don't know Parker but we will find him." Eliot replied. "Hardison he ain't here…you sure Luwitsky is still in LA?"
"Hell man he ain't taken a flight out, at least not a commercial one." Hardison told the Hitter.
"You think they took Nate to LA?" Sophie asked. If they had then they had wasted a lot of time coming back down here to Texas. Nate had obviously been taken during the night sometime, Luwitsky had been in custody until this morning according to Sterling, so it would make sense that Luwitsky would have him picked up and brought to him. Damn it why had they not seen that first and gone directly to LA?
"I don't know Sophie…" Eliot said shaking his head. It was time for a calculated risk. Either they stayed around here and looked for Nate or they went to LA to the most likely person to have taken him. Of course Luwitsky might not be in LA. He had access to his own jet and did not need to fly commercial, he could be anywhere, here or in LA or anywhere else for that matter. They had to make a decision and hope to hell they guessed right.
"If they flew him out of here it wasn't commercial either. There is no sign of him on facial recognition and no tickets in his name. That airport is small enough for me not to have missed him." Hardison told them. "I also checked, there were no chartered flights out either."
"It's a hellova long drive from here to LA…" Eliot said eliminating that as an option in his own mind. "Are there any other small airports around the area where you could land a jet?"
"No…" Hardison said checking his phone. "Wait…yeah there is a small private airfield just south of town." Hardison said checking his phone.
"Ok well let's get over there." Eliot said picking up Nate's phone and wallet and headed for the door the three others following him out.
"Morning…" A man said as they all piled out of the cars. "Can I help you with something?"
"You run this place?" Eliot asked.
"Yeah, it's my place, what can I do for you?"
"We are looking for a jet that would have flown out either this morning or yesterday."
"You cops…?" The man said immediately in defensive mode. Texas was notorious for drug smuggling and this would not be the first time he had had problems with law enforcement.
"No…" Eliot smiled at the man. "Our friend was flying in for a hunting trip and we need to get hold of him, family emergency."
"Have you seen him?" Sophie added holding up a picture of Nate for the man.
The man looked at them and could see that they were not cops, but he could also tell dangerous people, he had met a few. These people were anxious and on edge and he could see something in the long haired man's eyes that scared him. He had a feeling that if he did not cooperate with him, well he would go from friendly to not so friendly in short order. He looked at the picture and nodded.
"Yeah, he and two of his friends flew out last night." He said. He owed nothing to the men who had used his landing strip and if they were into nefarious acts then he wanted nothing to do with it.
"Where were they headed…?"
"Well to LA according to their flight plan."
"Eliot nodded and looked around the field, he spotted a four seated Cessna and turned back to the man.
"How much to hire that Cessna…?" Eliot asked.
"It ain't mine." The man replied shaking his head. "But I know the owner and he don't hire out his plane."
"Well he is going to this time. Have the plane fuelled and ready, we leave as soon as we have filed the flight plan." Eliot said his tone telling the man he would brook no argument.
"Look man…"
"Just do it." Eliot said interrupting the man taking him by the arm and leading him into the hanger and little office. "Call your friend, we will pay what he wants but we are taking the plane." Nate was in LA at the mercy of Luwitsky and they had to get there now.
Sophie watched Eliot walk the man into the hanger and then took her phone dialling Sterling's number. She quickly explained to the Interpol agent that Nate was missing and it seemed as if he had been abducted by Luwitsky. Sterling said he would get back to them, they had surveillance on Luwitsky and knew he was still at his LA home, but there had been no reports of any funny activity at the house. He agreed though that he would not make a move until the four of them got there, if Luwitsky knew they were on to him he might kill Nate, if he had not done so already.
Three hours later the little Cessna landed at LAX to be met by Sterling.
"Any movement?" Eliot asked as they all climbed into the SUV Sterling drove.
"No nothing, and my guys did not see Nate going in either." Sterling said. "Are you sure Luwitsky has him?"
"No." Eliot said, they were not sure, it could have been one of Cruz's men, or somebody else, but he was willing to bet it was Luwitsky.
"Well we can't just walk in there Eliot, and his place is like a fortress and his own private army protects it." Sterling told the Hitter. "Also maybe he did not bring him here…he could be being held elsewhere, if that is so then alerting Luwitsky to the fact that you know he has him could force the man's hand and that could go badly for Nate."
"We need to know if Nate is in there." Eliot said softly. If he was, then nothing on earth was going to stop the Hitter from getting to him. He knew his capabilities and no matter how many men Luwitsky had, Eliot would get to Nate. If it was Luwitsky that had him, and his gut told him it was, then he had had him for almost a day now. He doubted Luwitsky wanted anything from the man but to kill him, but he had taken the effort to bring him here instead of having his men do the deed, so from that Eliot could assume that Luwitsky wanted to do the deed himself. Nate could be dead already…Eliot was counting on that not being the case.
"So how do you propose to find out if Nate is in there?" Sterling asked as they pulled up at the Interpol offices.
"I don't know Sterling but we will and if he is in there, nothing is going to stop us from getting him out." Eliot growled out and Sterling had never heard him sound so deadly. "Hardison we got work to do."
Ok well next chapter will be up soon. Hope you all enjoyed.