Chapter 8

Eliot and Nate arrived back at the Brewpub an hour later to be met by two very worried people. Nate smiled at them as he walked in and straight to the kitchen to get himself a drink, he was going to need one he thought to himself. Eliot watched him and then took his bags up to his room before returning to find all three of them waiting for him with Nate sitting on the comfortable chair and the other two on the sofa, he took his seat opposite Nate and waited.

"Ok guys…" Nate said looking at them all individually. "I have been working on something for the last six months, now I don't know if it is real or not…"

"Those goons were real Nate and so was the bullet you took through the shoulder." Eliot said softly and the other two looked from Nate to Eliot, this was the first they had heard about a bullet.

"Yes well." Nate said taking a sip of his whiskey and then clearing his throat before continuing. "Six months ago there was a burner phone delivered to me and shortly after that I received a call from a man claiming that…that Sophie was not dead."

"What…" Three voices said simultaneously.

"My reaction too." Nate said softly. "Anyway he said he was an old friend of Sophie's and that he owed her and that he had stumbled across this information and decided to find me and deliver the information to me."

"How did he find you?" Hardison asked, he had looked had been looking for the last year but found nothing, how did this man whoever he was find Nate.

"I don't know." Nate said that had also worried him, but he assumed this man had resources of his own, and besides he did not think about it too much he was concentrating on the other part of the story.

"You believed him?" Eliot asked wanting to get back to Sophie not being dead.

"I don't know Eliot." Nate said honestly, he had sat with Sophie until she had taken her last breath and he had held her until they had forced him to leave. The memory of that day brought a shudder to him and he fought back the emotions before continuing. "But it does not matter if I did or not, I had to follow the leads he gave me which I did. Until last week when I went to LA to follow another one of his leads I had not got any indication that it was true."

"But you did in LA?" Parker asked.

"Yes. I met with Johnny Bosch who confirmed that he had orchestrated the 'hit' as it were on Sophie at the behest of his boss."

"Frank Gambilino."

"Correct." Nate said looking at Hardison. "So now I have to go see Gambilino to get the rest of it, apparently he did this as a favour to somebody else, a British man by all accounts."

"This man, the one that sent you the phone and has been contacting you who is he?" Parker asked.

"I don't know that either, he has never given me his name." Nate confessed.

"Why did you not come to us?" Eliot said softly and Nate could hear the anger and hurt in the man's voice.

"Because I did not know if it was true and I did not want to…to give you all false hope."

"Don't you think we would want to know something like this even if it did not pan out, don't you think we would…."

"Stop Eliot. Yes I did think that but, but I did not want you involved, any of you, you had all…all moved on and you were just getting back on your feet and you did not need a wild goose chase and it if turned out to be false information you would have to go through everything again and I…I couldn't do that to you."

"You are an idiot." Eliot growled out.

Nate did not reply to that. He had been an idiot, but he knew how difficult it was to let Sam go and he knew these people. They did not cope with loss, they did not cope with emotions and by the time this man had contacted him they were starting to build their lives again and had accepted the loss of Sophie, if this were all a lie for whatever reason it would not help them to have to lose her all over again.

"Ok, so now what?" Parker asked. She was angry at Nate for withholding this information from them, for not coming to them in the first place, but he was here now and they would help him find Sophie or if it was a lie get to the bottom of it and find out who was doing this to Nate, putting him through this and now them as well.

"Well Parker I am waiting for a call from Gambilino's men to invite me to a meeting." Nate said rising and walking to the kitchen to pour himself another drink.

"Why would he do that?" Hardison asked he had not got any information for Nate yet on the man.

"Because Nate killed one of his men tonight and wounded two and then ordered them to tell Gambilino he wanted a meeting or else." Eliot said in a deadpan voice keeping his eyes fixed on the Mastermind.

"You did what?" Hardison gasped out. Nate had killed a man, wounded two and according to Eliot taken a bullet to the shoulder as well that night.

"Well they did not give me much choice in the matter." Nate said softly.

"Would you have come to us…I mean would you even be here…" Parker asked, was Nate only here because they had needed him, not because he needed them.

"No Parker I wouldn't." Nate said again choosing honesty.

"Thank God for Gardner then." Hardison breathed and that brought a small frown to Nate's face. They had almost died at the hands of that man, if he had not stepped in they might all be dead.

"This could be a setup Nate." Eliot said brining all their eyes to him. "I mean a man you don't know 'finds' you when Hardison, Parker and I could not, then he gives you some information that is not quite anything just the fact that Sophie is alive, sending you on a wild goose chase and putting you in danger at every turn. They could be using Sophie's death to play games with you."

"True and I did consider that, but it doesn't matter Eliot, I have to follow through with this because…because if it is true and Sophie is alive then…then I have to find her. If it is not, well then…" Nate did not finish the sentence he just sat back and took a sip of his drink. If this was a set up it was a rather elaborate one and would probably end with his death and he really did not care about that, he wanted it to be real and he would follow every lead until he either found Sophie or found the person doing this.

"Do you have the burner phone?" Hardison asked maybe he could get something off the thing although he doubted it.

"Yeah…" Nate said just as his phone rang.

"Ford."

"Mr Ford, Mr Gambilino is willing to meet with you tomorrow at his home in New York at ten am. Come alone." A man said and then hung up.

"Nate…" Eliot asked seeing the expression on the man's face.

"I have a meeting with Gambilino tomorrow. I need to get to New York tonight." Nate said as he put his phone away.

"I can get us a charter." Hardison said.

"I'll be coming along to the meeting." Eliot said.

"No." Nate said looking at his Hitter. "No he said come alone and that is what I am going to do Eliot. I need information and I will play this the way he wants to understand."

"Nate."

"No Eliot. Now I will have the coms in so you will hear everything, I…we need that information and I am going to get it. If something goes wrong, well then it does. You will have the information and you can use it to find her." Nate said looking at all three of them. "Understand nothing is going to stop me, nothing you say or do, this is the way it plays out." He said then drew a deep breath. "Listen guys this is the end game, now whether this is all false and just a game then it is, it has taken me six months to get to this point and I am not jeopardizing anything."

"And if he kills you?" Parker asked her voice soft and full of angst.

"Then that was the game. But if it is true and he has information I will get it out of him even if it costs me my life. Now you are involved and that makes things easier, you will have the information and you will find her no matter what happens to me."

"Nate."

"Enough." Nate shouted out silencing them all. "Enough, now Hardison the charter we need to get to New York." He said as he walked climbing the stairs to the crash pads to get his bags which Eliot had just deposited there and the others scattered to get their things too.