"Morning Sterling." Collins greeted him in the halls of Interpol.
"G' morning; have you followed up on Ford?" Sterling asked him.
"Yeah, I checked all the hotels in the area, especially the ones with a cash bar. No one has been able to recognize the picture. Too bad you can't nab him for that Monet, huh?"
"What are you talking about?" Sterling questioned him.
"You haven't heard yet? The Smithsonian was broken into last night; one piece was nabbed, and it was yours. I went down to the station to investigate Ford's involvement and all they could tell me at the time was they have a suspect in mind and it wasn't him."
"That's imposs… oh damn…" Sterling started to put the pieces together. "Call Carl; have him triple the guard duty on Insein. Ford is planning a prison break; my guess is that it's going down tonight."
"What makes you think…?" Collins questioned.
"Oh, come on, why else do you think he would lure me out of the country?"
Collins shrugged. "What about the painting?"
"What about it?" Sterling asked cocky as he wiped out his blackberry to speed dial his old employer. "Yes, this is James Sterling, that's Sterling with a 't', I'd like to report a robbery of a piece insured by your company…"
Collins watched as Sterling was placed on hold.
"What else do you want?" Sterling asked coldly.
"Um… Griffin asked me to hand this off to you; he said he needs it placed in a secure location." Collins handed him a briefcase from the boss.
"What's in this?"
"Don't know. I assume confidential documents, didn't really go peaking myself, but if that's your thing go for it." He replied before heading back to his office.
Sterling opened it slightly rustling through some papers before his call was picked back up and his claim could be placed.
XXXXXX
During the day Sophie periodically checked on Eliot between stitching and dressing wounds and ordering tests to be done. She thanked her lucky stars that no one had come in with a broken bone that they needed to be set.
"How are you feeling?" She asked while checking the hitter's temperature yet again. The delirium had finally broken, although could be used for an adequate cover when he slipped and called her by name.
"Do you really want me to answer that?" Eliot asked refusing to take any morphine from the pump; his claim was that the medication made him loopy and thereby would create further risk during the break. There was logic in there lost on the grifter.
"El…"
"I'll survive." He attempted to convince her. "You've done your job, maybe you should…"
"Oh no, you are not getting rid of me that easily." Sophie interrupted him.
"Sophie, if they find out you're a fraud…"
"I'm not leaving you!"
"You've been lucky so far that the injuries haven't been worse." Eliot replied stating a fact she had already known.
"I realize that."
"Then don't push it. Get out while you can." He said annoying her as he went back to protector mode once alert enough to do so.
"I can't. You need me to sign the discharge papers and I can't do that until Nate is in place. Now quit arguing; you need to conserve your strength."
Eliot only shut up because he knew she was right; he couldn't imagine walking the hall to the bathroom in his current condition yet somehow he was going to be required to muster up the strength to maneuver through an underground passage in order to get himself to safety.
XXXXXX
"This is as close as we're going to get." Parker told Nate pointing to the entrance above them. The entrance stood about 200 yards out from the infirmary in the direction of his cell. "If we try going that way we're veering off course."
"Hardison, did you catch that?" Nate asked him.
'I sure did.' He said from the rental van. After scrambling the feed from the USB card that had left at the scene of the heist Hardison left the hotel to pick up supplies and head towards the prison. He sent Raquel the page indicating to put in her earpiece.
'I'm on.' Raquel indicated once out of view of suspicion.
"Okay Sophie, put it through." Nate instructed waiting all day to deliver that message praying that it would work.
XXXXXX
"Ms. Dayan, before you go you have orders here to go 'retrieve' Spencer from the infirmary."
"Retrieve? You mean he survived?" Raquel questioned in character.
"Apparently the man is more stubborn than we thought. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't see it as a huge loss if the body got dumped somewhere in transit." Her superior informed her.
Raquel snickered. "Does that mean you're going to provide my cover if it takes weeks before the corpse is discovered?"
"You didn't hear that from me." He winked at her. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Raquel waved at the guy before whispering into her com. "Nate, it looks like we have more time than we originally thought before they send the cavalry out."
'That'll help, how did you manage it?' He asked her.
Raquel took a long breath digging for the correct way to put it knowing who all was listening on. "Let's just say you were on the right track when you predicted this would be his last day in prison."
'Gotcha.' Nate understood before Parker read her the coordinates.
'Wait, I don't… or, are you saying…?' Hardison asked.
'She means that Eliot making it back to his cell isn't a high priority.' Sophie explained gently; leaving out the part where she was indirectly ordered to kill him.
'Sophie, as soon as the transfer is done I want you out of there.' Nate instructed.
'The car is parked outside the infirmary with the key inside the dash.' Hardison explained. He was able to drive in the car that Nate and Parker had left by the tunnel entrance using a military uniform that he had 'picked up'. Fortunately, he was uncharacteristically able to stay inconspicuous, although, it helped he wasn't able to speak the native language. His mouth had a tendency of getting him into trouble. 'Ditch it at the hotel and I'll pick you up there.'
'Are we going to have time?' Sophie asked.
'Oh, you'll have plenty.' Nate insisted. 'Call me crazy, but somehow I doubt Eliot's going to be up to sprinting through the tunnel system.'
Sophie held onto his hand as he rested. 'It'll be a miracle if he comes up with the strength to walk through it.'
'He will.' Parker insisted. 'He will because he has to.'