Chapter 17
"Ok…ok….ok…we'll just…" Sophie said as she looked around her. Nate was gone, taken and they had just allowed it. There had to be something they could do, something, there must be something she told herself looking at Hardison.
The Hacker shook his had as he checked and re-checked his readings.
"They're all here, all of them." He said, Nate had left everything that might lead them to him behind or been forced too.
"Why MAKE him leave his shoes, Nate would not without his shoes." Parker said as she stared at the discarded pair of shoes.
"Less noise when he took him out?" Hardison said saying the first thing that came into his mind that made sense.
"No…no I don't think so." Eliot said his heart rate increasing as he started to put all the pieces together.
"Eliot?" Sophie said nothing the tone of his voice and the fact that he was starting to get anxious, it was not something many other people would pick up, if she were honest she could think of only one, Nate.
"We gotta get out of here." He said with earnest and as he did the door to the room opened and six armed men came through the door.
Immediately Eliot moved but was stopped in his track's as he convulsed and was forced to the floor.
"Do behave, I have instructions not to harm you." A short squat man said as he came through the door. "Jeffery handcuffs." He said pointing to Eliot's prone body. "I know who all of you are, I know what you can and can't do." He said then smiled.
"What do you want?" Sophie asked her voice cold and her eyes blazing.
"To deliver you to my employer without injury…" He said then turned to Sophie and walked up to stand right in front of her. "Besides if you want to see your husband again then you will just cooperate." He said in almost a whisper.
Sophie looked up sharply at him. This is the man who had taken Nate. Then she looked at Hardison and Parker and shook her head. She would go willingly with him and he would take her, take them to Nate and then they could worry about getting themselves out of this situation. Both the Thief and Hacker nodded having heard what the man had said and they both immediately relaxed as did Sophie.
"Good, good well then let's go." He said as the man named Jeffrey lifted Eliot's unconscious form and between him and another man they carried him out the door.
Sophie watched then sighed and stepped forward following the men. Hardison and Parker were herded after her and then they were all four put in the back of a black van. Sophie immediately moved to Eliot's side as the doors were shut and locked. Parker knelt beside the man on the opposite side, then she deftly unlocked the handcuffs before helping Sophie position him more comfortably. Sophie took off her jacket and placed it under the Hitter's head, he had taken a powerful taser blast and he would probably be out for a while she thought.
"He took Nate." Parker said and Sophie nodded. "If he didn't kill us…I mean he said he was under instructions not to harm us…then maybe they had the same instructions for Nate."
"Yes Parker I think Nate is still alive and this man knows where he is, and he is taking us to him."
Before anybody else could say anything Eliot started to stir and then sat up with such force that he almost knocked Sophie over.
"Easy Eliot…" Sophie said making sure to touch him and to spoke in as soft a tone as possible. "We are all fine, just relax Eliot." She said repeating his name, she didn't want the man hitting out because he was disorientated.
"Sophie…" He said turning towards her as he came fully back to his senses. "What…"
"He has Nate, and he is taking us to him." Sophie said then sat back leaning against the side of the van.
Eliot looked at her and then at the others shaking his head slightly. They were taking one hell of a risk assuming they could get themselves out of this. This man, whoever he was, was a professional and he was not going to allow his targets to escape that easily.
"And when he does?" Eliot asked pushing himself up and leaning against the opposite side of the truck. "That guy knows us, knows our abilities and was ready for it. He knew Hardison would have tracers on Nate that is why they shoes." He continued seeing a quizzical look on Sophie's face.
"Well that may be. So he knows us, maybe the names, maybe even our abilities, but not as a team, not us. So we let him take us to Nate, then we get ourselves and him out of this mess." Sophie said and even though she said it with conviction she was not entirely sure that would be possible, and that was assuming they were right and Nate was still alive, and assuming that this man actually had him in his custody, it was a lot of ifs and she had risked all their lives by doing what she had done, but she had to do it, for a chance to get to Nate and get him out of all of this she had to.
Eliot stared at her for a second and then nodded with a tight smile crossing his face. No matter how risky this was it was what he would have done, and the others, any chance at getting to Nate was worth it.
"Ok so we have to make sure Nate is wherever he is taking us and then we have to be ready to move when there is an opportunity." He said and the others nodded.
"Well he said he was under instructions not to harm us, that's why he used the taser. So we are assuming he was under the same orders for Nate." Parker said filling Eliot in on what had happened at the motel room.
"So we just go along with him, play along, no resistance until we know what goes for what." Hardison added and Eliot nodded. Then they sat in silence as the van moved along at a steady speed.
After about an hour's drive the van slowed, and the road became a lot bumpier indicating they had turned off the main road and were now on a gravel road. Twenty minutes later the van came to a halt and then the doors were opened.
"Ok, end of the line, if you would please get out, do it slowly and keep your hands were I can see them." He said and noted that Eliot no longer had the cuffs on but made no attempted to put them back on, he had assumed one of them would free the man. "Walk that way please." He said indicating a large barn about five hundred meters from the van.
They were ushered into the barn and into a metal cage that had been erected to the one side. Once in they turned to look at the man and immediately saw Nate, he was sat in a chair in the middle of the other half of the barn, slumped forward with his head bowed, he made no movement showing he was either dead or unconscious.
"Very well, I will leave you all now." Their captor said then gave some orders to his men and walked out the barn with two of his men closing the large doors behind him.
"Nate…" Sophie called out grabbing the bars to the cage they were in, but she got no response from the man.
"He ain't going to answer you…" One of the guards sneered at her after she called out his name again. "So shut up."
Sophie looked at the guard and then back at Nate who still had not moved or shown any sign that he was conscious or even alive.
Day started to turn into night and still there was no sign of life from Nate. Parker had inspected the cage they were in and told them that she could not break them out, the lock was magnetic. Hardison shook his head when they all al looked to him, they had all be divested of their phones and other paraphernalia when they had left the motel so he could not help in that department either. Eliot surveyed the room noting where everything was, he watched the guards closely, how they acted and how much attention they were paying to them and to Nate. As they had walked into the barn all four of them had noted aspects of where they were. Outside was a large farm style house, that was probably where their captor was now, Sophie had counted three armed guards patrolling on the west side, while Eliot reported at least two on the east. Parker noted a guard on the top balcony of the farmhouse. It was not going to be easy to get out of the place he thought, at least no alive.
"How many do you think inside?" Hardison asked as they sat huddled together talking softly.
"Well we know he is in there and I would say probably at least two more."
Sophie looked over at Nate who had still not moved even though it had been more than a few hours since their arrival. He still sat slumped over the ropes holding him to the chair he was tied too. They could not make out any injuries but that did not mean anything, he was dressed all in black so seeing any blood was unlikely especially in this dim light, but he was obviously unconscious and that worried her.
Suddenly there was a commotion as the doors opened and five people walked in, none of them their captor. They each carried some equipment, one was a video camera, another a microphone and two others carried large photographic lights. They began setting up the equipment, all of it facing Nate and when they were done all five left again.
"Well I don't think he is dead." Sophie said with a sigh of relief, why aim all that equipment at the man if he was already dead she thought.
"Yeah but we are going to be if we don't figure something out, you all need to be ready, any chance we get we gotta take no matter how slim." Eliot said and they all nodded in understanding.
Eliot examined Nate again under the bright lights and noted that the one side of his shirt was darker than the other and the ground beneath his chair was slightly moist to that side. That meant he had an injury, a serious one where he was losing blood, and from the looks of it he had already lost a fair amount. He turned to look at Sophie meeting her eyes and seeing that she too had noticed it.
About a half hour later two men made their appearance, one was their captor the other an unknown.
"You weren't supposed to harm him."
"He went for me, I had no choice, besides, he doesn't have to be healthy to die." The man said smiling slightly at him.
"Get him awake." He ordered and the man nodded and walked over to Nate and called his name pushing him upright in the chair.
Nate's body moved like a ragdoll, his eyes were closed, and he did not look conscious at all. The man slapped his face calling his name again eliciting a growl from Eliot at the action but no reaction from Nate, his face was pale, and his hair drenched with sweat. The man looked up and nodded to one of his men who carried over a bucket and then dumped the ice-cold water contained in it over Nate's head. Still there was no reaction and the man bent forward and put his fingers to Nate's neck to confirm that he was indeed still alive.
"There's a pulse but he's out." He reported shaking his head slightly. Perhaps he should have tended to his captors wound, but then he did not think it would take this long for the other man to get his part done.
"We have a deadline." The shorter man who had taken Sophie and the others said shaking his head. "Get Doc Gelder out here, he will get him awake, I'll let them know there is a slight delay in proceedings." He said as he turned and left the barn.
The second man looked down at Nate and shook his head derisively giving Nate another slap before he too left the barn. Eliot watched as the two guards chatted and then they stepped out of the doors leaving them slightly open, he had noted that they regularly stepped just outside the doors to have cigarette.
"Nate…" He called out softly, he had noted that the man had opened his eyes ever so briefly after the water was thrown on him but had played unconscious, and the Mastermind lifted his head slightly and looked at him.
"What are you guys doing here?" Nate asked his voice strained and low.
"Rescuing you." Parker said smiling.
"Great rescue." Nate said keeping his head bowed and his voice low. "So what now?"
"This lock is magnetic I need a phone or something." Hardison said as if Nate could provide what they needed.
"I'll see what I can do." Nate said sarcastically, then he lifted his head fully and met Sophie's eyes. "Just play along…" He said then with great effort he threw himself to one side toppling the chair over and creating a loud noise which brought both guards back into the barn and a shout from Sophie as he fell.
"What the hell." The one said moving to Nate's side.
"Don't Parker…" Nate said as if speaking to the thief and putting as much fear and anxiety into his voice as he could. "You can't get out."
The second guard looked over at Parker who stood at the gate of the cage as if she were about to open it and he moved swiftly to her swiping at her hand with the butt of the gun.
"Please don't hurt her." Sophie cried out and moved to the bars as the guard turned towards her. At the same time Parkers hand snaked through the bars and lifted the phone that was half sticking out of the guards' pocket, then she retreated as if scared of him. He stared at Sophie and then smiled at her. "I ain't going to hurt her…not yet anyway." He said then turned to his mate who had managed to get Nate's chair back on its feet.
"Go and tell them he's awake." He instructed. "The quicker we get this done the better."
Nate watched the guard leave and looked towards the cage where Eliot and Sophie were blocking the view of Hardison who he was sure was working furiously on the stolen phone. He was not sure what the man could do without his own phone, but he trusted the Hacker implicitly and besides, when the chips were down Hardison always came through he thought to himself.
After five minutes Hardison looked up at Eliot and nodded. The Hitter stepped to the bars and called out for the guard who immediately approached the cage.
"What you want?" He asked keeping a distance from him.
"Just want to say thank you for opening the door." Eliot said in a mild voice smiling at the man.
The guard looked at him with a confused expression and then moved to the gate to check and as he stepped up to the cage Eliot moved with the speed of light putting his hand through the bars and connecting with the guards' jaw dropping him to the ground. Sophie pushed open the door and rushed out and straight to Nate. He smiled up at her and she started to untie him.
"Can you walk?" Eliot asked as he helped Nate up and out of the chair.
"We aren't going anywhere." Nate said softly and they all looked at him with disbelieve. "No we are staying right here." He smiled at them and then Eliot nodded in understanding, trying to make a run for it was going to get them into trouble, in fact it was probably suicidal.
"Ain't much cover in here and it won't be long before they arrive." Eliot hissed out.
"Over here." Parker called out softly from behind one of the bales of hay, it was a small hidey hole for all of them, but it was all they had.
Hardison helped Nate move and then Eliot turned back and made it look like they had headed out of the barn scrapping the floor as if somebody were being dragged and then smoothing out the area where they had dragged Nate to picking up the pieces of hay he could see held droplets of the man's blood. They squeezed into the confined space with Nate lying against the wall and Sophie almost on top of him. Parker and Hardison squashed together with Eliot on the outside, he was ready for anything, even a cursory search of the barn would expose them, and he was not going down without a fight. All of them lay still trying not even to breath to loudly when they heard people entering the barn and then a lot of cursing and shouting.