Chapter 38

The ambulance entered the tunnel with the BMW on its heels. Eliot had managed to put himself between Bodoli the ambulance and the chasing three cars. The ambulance had sped up and was racing towards the end of the tunnel. There was no sign of the Milliards and Bodoli and his people were thinking the same as Eliot, in that they were wrong, they were not going to try to take them in the tunnel. There were no other cars on the road as they had taken a back route not usually busy at the best of times.

"We were wrong…" Sophie said as they sped along with still no sign of the van carrying the Milliards.

"No way man…the van is here…" Hardison said from the back of the van. He had ID'd the van and he was sure it was about to enter the tunnel just as they had.

"Well it ain't here man…" Eliot said scanning the entrance to the tunnel and still seeing no sign of the van.

The ambulance emerged from the tunnel followed by Bordoli's car. Eliot and the Leverage team were mere seconds behind them.

"Where the hell are they Hardison…" Eliot growled.

"I don't…" Hardison started to say and then his eyes widened and he yelled out for Eliot to watch out.

Before anybody else could say anything else a van slammed into Bodoli's car spinning it around and into the Leverage van which was right behind it. As the van slammed into the car Eliot braced himself along with the others, his hand reached out and grabbed for Sophie trying to prevent her from going forward to violently. In the chaos of the crash he could hear the popping of gunfire, he recognised it as a derivative of the AK-47 weapon, an assault weapon of the highest quality. He saw the ambulance swerve out striking something on the side of the road and overturn sliding alone throwing up sparks as it ground against the asphalt.

After what seemed like hours but was in fact less than a minute silence filled the air as all the vehicles came to a halt and the gunfire ceased. Eliot fought to get himself out of his safety belt and then pulled his knife cutting himself out and breaking the window to free himself from the car. He had looked over at Sophie to see the woman looking back at him blood trickling from a small cut on her forehead. Her eyes however told him to get to Nate and that she would be fine. Parker and Hardison in the back of the van were also moving and Parker followed him out of the window quickly leaving Hardison to help Sophie. Bordoli's car was a complete wreck lying on its roof with its tyres spinning slowly to a halt as the inert motion died. The van that had crashed into it had come to a halt a short distance from the car. As Eliot scrambled out of the car he saw a man approaching the stricken ambulance but only one. He saw Kovski's men standing off, guns raised and at the ready but with not one of them approaching the scene. Parker moved quickly towards the van that had caused the accident leaving Eliot to deal with the younger of the two Milliards.

Parker approached the van cautiously, there was no movement in the vehicle as she crept forward holding her taser at the ready, her gun tucked away in her waistband. Once she was position beside the van she threw the front door open and turned ready to take on whoever was inside. To her amazement the front seat was empty. She took a second to digest that information and then turned back towards the ambulance. She saw Eliot racing forward dodging the bullets that Samuel was throwing at him. She swept the perimeter and saw Rudgar moving forward behind Eliot and she sprang into action. Racing forward she called out a warning to the Hitter causing Rudgar to turn and fire a few quick shots in her direction forcing her to duck behind Bordoli's car. She looked inside as she crouched down and saw Bordoli and Rites who were in the front seats hanging from the safety belts, neither one conscious. Smyth-Jones lay on the roof of the car which was now it's floor blood pouring from a deep gash in his forehead. She looked up and back towards the tunnel as she heard the sound of feet and running and saw that the men in the three chase cars were approaching. She was not sure if these men would recognise her as she stood up and called out for help, urging the men forward to aide her. Rudgar saw the men coming and turned back to his quarry. He saw Eliot take his son down swiftly and lifted his gun to fire at the Hitter but then jerked once…twice as two bullets pierced his torso, he seemed to hang for a minute before collapsing to the ground in a boneless heap.

"Stay where you are, put your hands in the air…" A voice instructed Parker.

"You too…" Another voice instructed Eliot who had turned from Samuel who lay unconscious on the ground and was making towards the ambulance that lay a short distance from him. "I said don't move…" The man repeated as Eliot stepped forward.

"Look there could be somebody hurt in there…" Eliot said raising his hands and leaning towards the ambulance to indicate to the men he just wanted to help whoever was inside.

"Yeah…don't worry about that just keep your hands up and move back towards the girl." The man said moving his gun to indicate that Eliot should move. Eliot nodded and moved slowly away from the ambulance his hands remaining in the air. "Move…" the man urged.

"Check the other van Victor." Jackson Marais told one of the other men. He nodded and moved towards the van that the Leverage crew had arrived in.

"Clear…it must have been only the two of them in there." Victor called out checking the van and finding it empty.

Both Parker and Eliot were slightly surprised by the call but neither one showed it. Eliot moved to Parker's side still holding his hands up.

"Please we were just driving here and then the ambulance slammed into us and then this man started to shoot at me and then…and then…" Parker said starting to sniff and to lower her hands to wrap them around her torso as if hugging herself. "Oh…I don't feel so well…" She said doubling over.

"Hey…are you alright…" Eliot said bending over and putting his hands on Parker's back.

"I don't feel so good…" Parker said loudly.

"Check her out…" Jackson, who seemed to be in charge, instructed the man who was holding a gun on her and Eliot.

As he approached Parker Eliot moved with lightning speed towards Jackson taking his gun from him and spinning him around as Parker tasered the man coming to check on her. Immediately the other members of the crew turned their guns on Eliot who held Jackson in front of him.

"Hey…" Parker called out distracting them long enough for Eliot to spring forward taking down a second then third member of the group. At the same time Parker moved taking out the fourth and fifth members of the group with her taser and a well-placed thump on the head with the butt of her gun.

Parker and Eliot looked at each other for a second and then raced to the ambulance. The doors to the back of the vehicle was flung open and the doctor and nurse lay unconscious on the floor. The ambulance was empty besides them. The men in the front seat had taken multiple gunshot wounds and were both dead.

"What the hell…?" Eliot said turning to Parker.

"Kovski's men…where did they go?" Parker asked turning around scanning the area.

"Shit…" Eliot said slamming his hand into the side of the ambulance.

"You think they have Nate and Sophie and Hardison…?" Parker asked looking wide eyed at the Hitter.

"Yeah…yeah Parker it's the only thing that could have happened." Eliot said. "Dammit…they used us to cover them as they got away, Kovski must have had a car ready to get his men away after the confrontation…dammit…"

"Well let's go get them back…" Parker said.

"No wait Parker." Eliot said grabbing the thief's arm and stopping her. "We need to secure these guys along with him…" Eliot said nodding towards the unconscious Samuel.

"If Kovski has them…"

"Yeah, they have the coms in Parker, they will let us know where they are. For now the best thing we can do is to make sure Samuel is not threat. With his father will be even more of a threat to them. We don't even know where they took them, it could be Kovski's place or not. We have to trust Hardison and Sophie to get in contact with us when they can. Until then we have to make sure that we are not fighting on two fronts. With the Milliard's in their hands maybe these guys will back off. Now help me dammit." Eliot said moving forward and getting the cuffs of one of the men then moving towards Samuel.

Together he and Parker dragged the unconscious man to the van and cuffed him to the van. Then Eliot made his way to Bordoli's car. The Homeland Security man was starting to regain consciousness as Eliot hunkered down beside him.

"You have the Milliard's…now you leave us alone." Eliot said. "It's over…"

"The Devereaux woman…"

"Bordoli if she was going to talk she would have done it long ago." Eliot said. "She has no desire to dig up the past…she has no reason too. However if you keep coming after her…well somebody may…I don't know…let some things slip to the media and once they get hold of something…"

"Are you threatening me Spencer?" Bordoli asked.

"No…I don't threaten…" Eliot said meaningfully.

"Fine…it's over…" Bordoli said. "Besides I'm tired of cleaning up the Brits's mess."

"Good…" Eliot said. "Rudgar is dead, Samuel is there and he ain't going anywhere. Your men should start coming around any minute now…"

"Go…take care of your people…" Bordoli said. "You have a good team there…"

Eliot smiled a hard smile at the man and then stood up.

"Let's go…" He said to Parker and they both headed back into the tunnel disappearing into the shadows and out of reach of the men they left behind.

So Rudgar is dead, Samuel is in the hands of Bordoli and the others. Does Kovski have Nate and the others? How are Parker and Eliot going to get them out if they do? What condition is Nate in after the crash? Thanks for reading and reviewing…you, my readers are what keep me writing.