Chapter 26

First let me say sorry it took a while to post I am struggling with health issues again now. Hope you like this chapter…and the next twist in the tale.

"What makes you think you can bargain with me?" The young man asked locking eyes with the older

man.

"The fact that I am here and not dead. The fact that you instructed your men to take me and my

team without harming us. You want something so tell me what that something is, and we can see

what we can do." Nate told him.

"Very cleaver Mr Ford…you think you are extremely cleaver don't you?"

Nate smiled at him but did not respond, this was a young petulant boy who was playing at being the

big man and that was dangerous. He also presumed this did have something to do with the

boys' father although he could not figure out what exactly.

"Nate…Gavin is dead…apparently hung himself, so is his friend. Be careful Nate this is not good man.

There is something else at play here." Hardison's anxious voice came over the coms.

"Gavin…"

"Gavin was a low-down punk and besides, I have taken care of him now and everybody else involved in that mess." The boy interrupted him telling Nate this was not about Gavin either at least not totally. "He killed Tarquin and you were a party to that."

"Tarquin…?" Nate said knotting his eyebrows slightly. He had not even considered that this could be

about Tarquin.

"Don't know everything do you?" The boy smirked at him.

Nate stared at him for a short while contemplating everything again. This was about the hard drive,

but it was not originally about that it was about Tarquin and his death at the hands of Gavin, that just led to this current situation.

"He was my…friend…" The boy said. "He was an idiot who got involved in stupid things trying to…he

was my friend."

"I see…"

"I am sure you don't." The boy said. "But you will."

"Shut up and sit-down Carl." Another voice interrupted and a young man of about the same age walked into the room, in fact they looked remarkably like each other Nate though, brothers maybe, twins.

"So Mr Ford, can I ask do you have your memory back? I believe you had an issue recently?"

Nate frowned slightly, that was a very odd question to be asking him he thought and had nothing to do with what he was here for.

"What do you want with me and my team, why did you try to kill us?" He asked relaxing slightly, this was a different type of person to the one he had spoken with first.

"Kill YOU…no I did not try to kill YOU, I wanted to talk."

"Funny way of having a meeting?" Nate retorted. "I don't really respond well to being tied up in a barn and shot."

"Yes well the shot part was unfortunate, I instructed that not you or your team were to be harmed…but you know things happen."

"We should have just…"

"I said shut up Carl, the grownups are talking now." The man said and Nate saw the look of anger and humiliation cross the face of the other boy, but he did not argue, he closed his mouth and took a seat in the corner of the room.

"You will have to excuse my brother Mr Ford he is a little impetuous and Tarquin was a good friend of his." The other man said handing Nate a glass of whiskey and then taking a seat opposite him.

"So why the theatrics, I mean why not just invite me for a meeting like this?" Nate asked accepting the glass.

"Because I did not want to be directly involved, but you Mr Ford have forced my hand and now here we are."

"Yes, here we are, so now what?"

"Let us not play with each other, you have something that I want."

"There it is." Nate said looking at the box he had placed on the table.

"Yes I see you brought it along with you, but that is not all I want."

"You want our silence on it, that we will not use what we know is on that box, but why, what's on there that you are so protective of, your father's name does not appear, your family is not linked to any of it, and you were never a target."

"Come now, again let us not play games with each other. I am aware of who you are and what you are capable of, you may act like you do not know me although you should if you have indeed regained your memory, although you like playing games so perhaps this is one of those games you so enjoy?"

"What is it you want?" Nate asked, he did not know that is boy, this man who sat before him but obviously he should. He looked at the man and tried to recall anything about him, but nothing came.

"I want that box yes, and what it represents, but I also want something else…something only the great Nathan Ford can give me."

"Nate you need to get out of there." Parker said through the coms her senses telling her that this was not going to end well for Nate.

Nate did not respond, he merely sat back and took a sip of his whiskey waiting for the boy to continue his brain still working overtime to try and figure out how he should know him, in what context he should know him, he was pretty sure that if they had had a run in with him over the last years they had worked together Hardison would have immediately latched onto that fact, so this must pre-date that, back to his insurance days although that would make him little more than a child at the time, no he was missing something and he just could not put his finger on it.

"So why the barn?" Nate asked deciding to be as direct as possible, he was not quite sure what was going on anymore.

"I wanted to see you die, I wanted to see the life fade from your eyes like you did with Tarquin, I

wanted you to watch as your team died, to feel that loss like I felt." The brother said and at that he rose and moved forward ignoring the look his brother gave him.

"You didn't want to get your hands dirty." Nate smiled at him.

"I am not Tarquin…I know when to keep my distance but still get things done, just like I took care Gavin and the others and like I will take care of you."

"He did it to impress you didn't he…he wanted you to, what…admire him, give him credit…love him more, or was it more your brother's admiration he was looking for?" Nate asked watching him closely.

"I'll kill you…" The boy said pulling his gun but almost immediately the two men who had entered with his brother grabbed him and held him fast.

"I told you not to interfere Carl, now I must insist."

"He killed Tarquin, he…you ain't the only one who can do things around here you ain't the only one who needs…" Then he suddenly shut his mouth as his brother turned towards him backing down immediately and remaining silent.

"Take him to his room and keep him there." He told the man ignoring his brother. It looked to Nate as if the boy were going to fight but then he shrugged and let himself be led out the room.

"So this is not about your father, not about Tarquin and not about your brother, so what exactly is it about?" Nate asked.

"My father…my father is nothing anymore, just an old man who refuses to die." With such disgust in his tone Nate was almost shocked.

"Your father controls your money, your life." Was what the Mastermind said.

""He thinks he does, but he doesn't, he doesn't even know me…Doesn't know who I am and what I can do, just like your father did not know you. You still don't remember me do you Mr Ford…or can I call you Nate?"

"What do I call you?" Asked in response.

"I am James, James Addelton." He said then stared at Nate for a moment. "Ring any bells? I must say I am a little hurt." He said when Nate gave no reaction.

"So this is what, something that just fell into your lap and you want to make the most of it, maybe blackmail the men and woman on that hard drive?" Nate asked trying to get James to give him something, he was floundering now, he was not at all sure what any of this was about anymore.

James did not reply but merely laughed, then rose and retrieved the bottle of whiskey and sat down again filling Nate's glass as well as his own.

"You had a reason for setting up this meeting so why don't you just tell me what it is?" Nate asked him deciding to take a direct route, James could have killed him and his team but he didn't, he had wanted to talk to him, why, there was a reason.

"You…impress me." The boy said. "I need you."

"I'm flattered."

"I assume your team is listening into this?"

"Your people searched me." Nate smiled at him.

"Nate…I know you I know your team, I know Hardison, they are listening in. I have made it my business to know you, to get to know you. I have followed your progress through the years, from the tragic death of your son…I am sorry about that by the way." James said and noticed the dark look that crossed Nate's face at the mention of his son and his death. "I understand you are still not totally over it, and you probably won't ever be. I understand that."

Nate wanted to tell this boy he knew nothing, to lash out at him but he held his tongue and instead took a sip of his whiskey and remained silent keeping his emotions in check and his expression neutral.

"I watched how you spiralled out of control, I actually thought at one stage you would kill yourself, but you didn't, then you met them and from there…well shall we say the real Nathan Ford came to life, playing God, punishing people for being exactly what you are a thief, what your team are, you even have a killer that you call family."

"You could not have been more than what…sixteen…" Not allowing himself to raise to the bait.

"When your son died?" He finished for Nate. "Yes…" He said then furrowed his brow again staring at Nate. "I really thought you would remember me, but then it was around that time and you were doing things on automatic weren't you…drunk most of the time…Trying to drown your guilt, your loss. I understand more than you know…"

"I was not aware I was going to get my life story told to me." Nate said looking at James intently getting to a point where he was about to explode at the boy, how dare he say he knew what Nate felt about Sam and what happened, he had no damn idea, so he decided once again he had to change the subject, get them back on track. "You wanted the box there it is…"

"Perhaps the name Barbara Walker will ring a bell?" He said ignoring Nate. "Do you remember her?"

"Barbara Walker…she was a thief, tried to rob the museum and I caught her." Nate said furrowing his brow at the memory, but what did she have to do with him.

"The very one." James said and Nate could hear his tone had changed again to that of a cold blooded, hard killer, he knew the tone, he knew the look and he swallowed hard.

"What the hell is going on here?" He heard Eliot's voice come through the coms.

"She died did you know that?" James asked his eyes boring into Nate as he stared at him with an almost feral look. "Of course you didn't, why would you?"

"Look I don't know what this is about, I did not hurt that girl…"

"Oh but you did. Do you know what being behind bars does to a soul like hers? I asked my father to help her, but he wouldn't, said she was trash and that I was well rid of her. Left her to rot in a jail and then die, she bled out…do you know why?"

Nate said nothing. He remembered the case it was one of the last he had done for IYS but did not remember James Addelton or any of the Addleton's being connected to it in any way.

"No, well she had a miscarriage…the baby died, and she died, you killed her, you killed her, and you killed my child." James softly said his voice full of menace.

"Bloody hell Nate this is about you… you have to get out of there." Sophie's anxious voice came through the coms as Nate came to the same realisation, but this was not about his death he realised.

Nate stared at the boy, he could not have been more than sixteen when he took down Walker, and she was around eighteen at the time, he had not known she was pregnant, in fact he knew nothing about the case after he had caught her, his life had spiralled, and he had left IYS only a few days afterwards. This was not about the box, yes Agent Casey had given Milligan his name, which he passed onto James, and that is where it had really started, the hired killers the barn all of it was not Carl's doing, it was not even about Carl, it was about James and his need for revenge on the man he thought was responsible for the death of his family. He was not going to kill him in that barn, he was going to kill them and make him watch.

"Eliot get out, get out now. Leave now Eliot…" He said not trying to hide it as James pulled a gun on him, this was not about the information on that box, although it was the catalyst, this was something else and his team, his wife were all in mortal danger. "Do not come in here he knows… get out now…" He said, he knew they would be looking to make an entrance and safe him but that is what James was counting on, he just hoped that Eliot would heed his instructions or they were all in a lot of trouble.

"Oh no Nate…you are going to watch as they die, I am going to take from you what you took from me…your family." James said softly.