Chapter 8

Three days later Nate was ready to leave. He stood with Morero at his door with the car ready to take him to the airport for a flight out to Moscow.

"If I don't come back…" Nate said holding out an envelope to the man.

"I will make sure she gets it." Morero said softly. "I know I did not go about this in…well probably in the right way, but he is my son Nate."

"I understand and like I said I will do my best to get him back for you." Nate said. No the man had not done anything in the right way, but Nate did understand, he would have done anything to save his child including what Morero had done.

"Thank you." Morero said and held out his hand to Nate.

Nate looked at him and then shook his hand before descending the stairs and climbing into the car. "Well let's go steal a… ah hell let's just survive shall we." He said softly to himself as the car pulled away.

They drove to the airport as Moscow was too far to fly with the little plane of Morero, so they were going to fly commercial. His alias was as Abraham Connor, a high-ranking member of the Irish mob which specialised in the arms trade. Nate had also organised an introduction to one of the top men in the Russian arms trade as a starting point.

They arrived at the airport and went into the airport lounge, he would be travelling first class for the long haul flight with a layover in LA for a few hours, there were no direct flights to Moscow from Mexico City.

Twenty minutes later they were in the air and Nate ordered himself a whiskey. The team that Morero had given him were seated in coach. His team Nate thought, they were nothing like his team, just a bunch of men, mostly experienced in committing violent acts, but it was what he had, and he had to make it work. Looking out the window Nate could see the sun setting and wondered what Sophie was doing, probably out of her mind with worry. She would have been discharged by now and home with his son and the rest of his family. He felt a tightness in his chest as he thought about it and raised his hand for another whiskey. He could probably make a move now and get himself out of this fix he was in, but he was committed and besides he knew that no matter how mild mannered Morero had been, if he did do anything like that he knew the man would come after him and that would put them all in danger. He sighed heavily and accepted the drink the stewardess brought for him. No he thought, he was going to have to get this job done before he could make it back to Sophie and the others.

It was 8pm when the Leverage family sat down at the dinning room table for dinner. They had returned home after Sophie and her son had been released from the hospital and all three of the others had elected to stay with her at the house. They were all still looking for Nate but with no luck and there had been no further communication from him. Sophie had just got Michael down and had joined them for dinner. The table was quiet none of them knowing what to say and all of them thinking about where Nate might be. Just as they were finishing up Hardison's computer let out an alarm and he was immediately up and at the work bench pulling up the information his facial-recognition programme unearthed.

"Nate…" Sophie gasped as the picture was displayed on the screen.

"Yeah…" Hardison said as he tapped away at the keyboard. "He is traveling under the name of Abraham Connor and he has a connecting flight to Moscow in an hour."

"What the hell?" Eliot asked looking at the picture of Nate going through customs at LAX. "What is going on here?"

"I don't know Eliot, but I am going to find out." Sophie said as she too watched the image of Nate walking though customs. "Hardison you said he was under the name of Abraham Connor?"

"Yeah he left Mexico City on a route to Moscow. Now this is Abraham Connor…" Hardison said pushing a button on his remote and bringing up a number of papers and pictures of Nate with arms dealers and other influential members of the criminal community. "So he is supposed to be a high up arms dealer in the Irish mob."

"So he is on a job." Parker said softly.

"Yeah probably the job that whoever took him is forcing him to do. But Sophie, he is with a few other guys."

"So we can't just rush in." Eliot said softly. He was not going to allow that anyway. Sophie had her son to think about and he was not going to allow her to rush into a dangerous situation to rescue Nate.

"So what do you suggest?" Sophie asked.

"Well Parker, Hardison and I will go to Moscow and see what is going on and then get to Nate when we are able to."

"If you think Eliot Spenser that I am going to stay here and…"

"That is exactly what I am thinking Sophie. You have your son, his son to think of and I am not going to allow you to put yourself at risk understand." Eliot said

"NO." Sophie said turning towards the Hitter. "No Eliot he is my husband and the father of my baby. Now I am going to go and get him back and bring him home and not you, nor them are going to stop me do you understand." She said her voice soft and calm but with a tone that Eliot knew all to well. If they did not allow her to go with them, then she would go on her own and that would be even more dangerous.

"Well first we have to find out what Nate is going to Moscow to do and why." Parker said turning away from Sophie and towards Hardison. There was no use arguing with the woman, she had her mind made up.

"What…I don't know girl. I only know what I already told you and that is that Nate is going to Moscow and is posing as an arms dealer. Now I would assume that means something to do with the…"

"Russian mob." Eliot breathed. That was not a good thing.

"Ok…ok, so Nate was taken by somebody to Mexico and there he was forced to plan and now execute a job for him in Russia, something to do with the Russian mob. Now if we can find out who this somebody is we can maybe figure out what the job is." Sophie summed it all up.

"Well he did not go into Mexico on commercial travel." Hardison said, if he had he would have picked him up.

"Who are those guys with him?"

"Yeah those are the guys that are travelling with him to Moscow, I am checking on them all now." Hardison told them.

"So we need to figure out who these guys are…"

"Ok ok…" Hardison said as his computers started working. "Oh no…"

"Hardison?"

"Not good man, not good."

"Hardison." Sophie said again raising her eyebrows.

"Ok these guys are henchmen for one Don Antonio Morero." Hardison said pulling up a picture of the man who had taken Nate.

"One of the biggest cartel people in Mexico, ruthless and very dangerous, one of the most feared in Mexico, he takes no prisoners." Eliot breathed. He knew of the man but had never had dealings with him. He was not averse to kidnapping, murder and anything and everything else, his enemies ended up dead and his rivals more often than not too.

"What could this guy want from Nate, I mean what job would he want Nate do to, he is a killer straight up, he takes out his opposition permanently." Sophie said.

"Right." Parker agreed.

"His son." Hardison said. "His son is a…well let's just say that the apple fell quite a distance from the tree. His son was in Russia doing humanitarian work and he disappeared about a month ago."

"In Russia? So he wants him back."

"Yeah but nobody knows what happened to him and he is just gone. Morero has a reward out for anybody who can get him back but nothing to now. He sent some guys to Russia to try and get his son, and they had some altercations with the mob, it seems that has led to an out and out war between Morero's men and them, this is not good man."

"So he got Nate, he wants Nate to get his son back from whoever is holding him, and he must think it is the Russians." Parker said.

"Yeah Parker but that is a dangerous game man, the Russians they don't play." Hardison said.

"So… Nate is going in as a gunrunner to get himself in. I assume he is then going to try and find out who is holding the boy and then get him out, if he gets caught, if his cover is blown and he is linked to Morero, or if he just says or does the wrong thing…"

"He's a dead man." Parker finished for Eliot.

"But he is alone now, why doesn't he just call us?" Hardison said looking at the image on the screen of Nate in the first-class lounge, the rest of his travelling companions were not with him.

"Well if I were to guess, Morero would probably have told him if he crossed him and contacted us he would come after us and Nate would never do anything to put Sophie in danger, especially now." Eliot said and the others nodded in agreement.

"So we are going to have to play this very carefully and Sophie…"

"Eliot I already told you. Now I understand it is dangerous and I have a son to think about, but I don't want my son growing up without his father."

"Or his mother." Hardison said. He was with Eliot on this one, he did not want Sophie anywhere near it.

"I have to go I have to help him." Sophie said her voice softening slightly. "I will be careful, and I will stay in the background and not take any risks, but I have to go."

"What about Michael?" Parker asked. What was going to happen him she wondered if Sophie went with them to Russia, they could not take him with that was for sure. "Sophie you have just given birth and you are just out of the hospital with a baby only a few weeks old and…"

"Parker stop it right now. Now all of you listen I am going, and we are going to get Nate back now that is the last time I am saying that. I will sort something out with Michael you just make all the arrangements ok." Sophie said looking from one to the other and each of them nodding as she met their eyes. "Good, now I am going to be with my son and make the arrangements for him, I suggest you make yours."

Sophie walked into the nursery and closed the door leaning against it briefly with her eyes closed. Then she took a deep breath and walked up to her son's crib. He lay sleeping peacefully.

"I am going to bring your Dad home Michael." She said softly to the sleeping child. "But to do that Mommy has to go away for a short while. I love you Michael and so does your Dad and we will be back I promise you." She said softly.

Two days later Sophie had organised a nanny for Michael who would stay at the house with him until they returned and they were ready to leave. Hardison had tracked Nate to Moscow and they knew which hotel he and was staying at. They arrived at the airport and boarded the plane to Moscow in the early evening, all of them apprehensive about what was to come.

"Sophie…"

"I know Eliot it is dangerous and I know I have a son at home that needs me, but Nate needs me now too. I trust you Eliot, you and them to keep me safe and to help me bring Nate back home. We will get through this all of us, but it has to be done and you know it, I can't leave him here and…and maybe never see him again. So, let's just move on from this ok, let's get the job done."

"He will never forgive me, us, if something goes wrong. If something happens to you."

Sophie looked at the Hitter and she could see the concern on his face, she reached out and put her hand on his arm squeezing it gently.

"We are the best Eliot, you are the best and so are they and we will get through this, we will get Nate back and we will all go home and if something does go wrong, I trust us to be able to deal with it and make it work. Now let's just concentrate on the job ok?" She said. "We can't be worrying about 'what ifs' because then we are going to get into trouble. Let's just be who we are and get the job done and forget about everything else. We have to Eliot because I want my husband back and I want my family back understand."

"Yeah." He smiled at her.

He did understand. If Sophie had stayed behind and something had gone wrong and they had lost Nate she would never forgive herself, and if they had left Nate to go about this on his own and he never came home again they would never forgive themselves. It was not a situation they wanted to or needed to be in but Morero was dictating the terms now and they had to play the game and play it well if they were going to get home safely and that meant putting Michael and the situation aside and concentrating solely on the job at hand.

"Well let's get some sleep because I don't think we will be getting much of that after we land." He said and Sophie nodded.

Putting her seat back she closed her eyes. We are coming my love, we are coming and then all of us will go home and this will be over she said silently to Nate before drifting off to sleep.