"Eliot, can you hear me? Eliot?" No answer. Damn it, Nate thought. That one must've hit the receiver in the trunk. His car had been difficult to steer after the initial impact, so trying to fish his phone out of his back pocket right now was out of the question. At least he'd gotten the important points to the hitter before he lost the call.
Parker wasn't exactly sure what Nate was planning, but he hadn't given Eliot an accurate location. "Uh, how's he gonna find us?" she asked. "We're not exactly at a construction site…."
"We will be," Nate answered as he eyed the large semi about to cross the intersection in front of them. He floored the accelerator to get there first.
The Mercedes pulled right out in front of the truck, causing the driver to blare the horn before jackknifing and screeching to a halt. Nate looked back in the mirror, thankful that the trailer was blocking the intersection just as he'd hoped. The SUV had slammed on the brakes, and its reverse lights came on as they backed up to go around the next block.
A few streets down Nate turned right to enter the industrial park, and one more turn got them alongside the construction site. He quickly pulled up next to a Road Closed sign and grabbed the flash drive out of his pocket before handing it to Parker. "Take this and go, wait for Eliot to come get you."
She looked at him like he was from another planet. "Are you crazy?! I'm not leaving you!"
The mastermind could tell by the expression on her face that there was no way in hell he was going to get her out of the car for her own good, so he quickly thought of a way to turn it around. "Listen, if they catch us with it they won't have any reason to keep us alive. If they catch us without it, they can kill one of us to make a point. Trust me, we'll both be safer if we split up. Now go and stay out of sight."
After a few tense seconds she grabbed the drive wordlessly and got out of the car, taking cover behind a large excavator as Nate floored it and sped off. Mere seconds later the SUV went flying past, leaving a trail of dust in its wake.
.
.
.
Hardison was sitting up in bed, holding a controller in his hand as he feverishly tried not to crash his look-alike Lamborghini. He needed to get through this one last mission before he could get the bridges open and start exploring other parts of the game, and even though he'd failed a dozen times so far he just knew this time he'd make it. Even if the entire virtual police department was after him.
Suddenly his phone buzzed, distracting him for just a split second when he glanced at it out of habit. Before he even had time to read the caller ID the sound of his car crashing and bursting into flames squelched all of his progress.
He took off his headphones angrily and answered the phone. "Dude, seriously?! I was right in the middle of a very important –"
"Save it Hardison," Eliot interrupted. "You need to drop what you're doing and get to the safe house. Now. Take a cab, stay out of sight, and wait for me to get there."
Hardison threw off his blanket, sending crumpled wrappers and half-eaten snacks all over the bedroom floor. "Wait, what? What's going on?!"
"I ain't got time to explain," the hitter growled. "You better be walking out that door, Sophie's already on her way there."
.
.
.
Hardison's cab arrived at the safe house less than fifteen minutes later. He'd brought his emergency go-bag, so he had a laptop, spare coms, and a WiFi hotspot with him among other things. He looked around warily after he paid the driver, and seeing the coast clear he exited the car and made a hasty approach to the house. Sophie opened the front door just as he got there. "Glad you made it. Let's get inside, shall we?"
He quickly entered and set his bag down after closing the door, making sure to lock the deadbolt behind him. "Yeah, any idea what's going on? Is Eliot here yet?"
"No," she said. "He's still looking for Nate and Parker."
"Wait wait wait, they're missing?!" Hardison had assumed they would be here, and his already high anxiety level tripled at the thought of Parker being in danger.
"I don't now, apparently Nate called him and said someone was trying to run them off the road. He didn't go into any more detail than that...just said to get here and wait for him."
The hacker thought about those spare details, and all he could gather is that meant Nate and Parker must've been driving somewhere. "What the hell are they doing out this time of night?"
Sophie shrugged, just as perplexed as he was. "I have no idea."
.
.
.
Twenty minutes later Eliot drove up to the construction site, turning off his car's lights and taking in the scene carefully as he approached. He didn't see any people and he didn't see any cars, and that worried him. He parked the Challenger and got out, listening for any noises.
Sophie's concerned voice came over the com. "Do you see them?"
The hitter answered her quietly, still unsure if he was alone. "Not yet, place looks deserted." He listened for a few more seconds, and after hearing nothing called out tentatively. "Nate? Parker?"
"Over here!" The thief 's voice echoed out of the bucket of the excavator before she sprung out and ran to Eliot, throwing her arms around him. "I've literally never been so happy to see you in my life!"
Eliot let out a sigh of relief, but was still concerned that he didn't see the mastermind anywhere. "Where's Nate?"
She released her death grip and stepped back. "I don't know, he dropped me here and took off. Said we'd be safer apart. They were still following him though."
Eliot smiled to himself; at least Nate had learned a few things from that fiasco with the Fabergé egg. "Any idea who they were?" he asked.
"It was a black SUV, but other than that it was too dark to see anything," she said. "They seemed pretty pissed though."
The hitter held a hand up to his ear as he spoke into his com. "Hardison, I need you to track Nate's car."
At that moment Eliot's phone rang, showing Nate on the caller ID. He hesitated a moment, hoping to God that it was going to be the mastermind on the other end and not some dark, sinister voice.