After Eliot and Hardison were satisfied with the security situation, the rest of the team rejoined them at the apartment. Parker filled them in on their newest suspect, describing him as best she could from what little interaction she'd had with him.
Once she finished speaking Eliot leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs. "So a rich white guy from the south, mid-forties," he summarized. "That wears pants. Yeah, we're gonna have to narrow that down a bit."
It was a small straw, Sophie thought, but at least they had something to grasp at. "We could go over the list of attendees, see if any of them traveled from more than a few states away," she suggested.
Hardison shook his head. "Nah, most of the tickets were bought with cash at the door, and they didn't take names down for those. I think Parker's right, we gotta get back in the building and get our hands on that footage." He didn't particularly like the idea, but they were pretty much going to be at a dead-end otherwise.
"I thought you said they would've deleted it?" the grifter asked.
"Deleted is a somewhat negotiable term, if you got the right software," Hardison answered. "Look guys, the FBI won't be there, I can pull the IT act and be in and out in less than fifteen minutes. Then we can run facial recognition and ID our guy."
Nate quickly stepped in before anyone else had a chance to speak. "No, absolutely not. We can't be sure they didn't see the rest of you on tape. We need to outsource this," he said. The mastermind knew Hardison could do it, but after the incident with Parker he wasn't willing to take even the slightest risk with his team's safety until they knew who they were dealing with.
The hacker turned to him, frustrated that his plan was shot down so quickly. "And who exactly do you plan on outsourcing it to? Data recovery is a tricky business man, I mean with the software and technical knowledge required...Joe Blow off the street ain't gonna be able to pull this off, I can tell you that right now."
"So what you're saying is we need someone who's almost as good as you?" Nate asked, but with his tone it didn't exactly sound like a question.
"Yeah but who..." Hardison stopped short. The smile forming on Nate's face told him that the mastermind already knew the answer, he was just leading the hacker there. Hardison got up from his chair and backed away, waving his hands in a negating gesture. "Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. I am not calling him."
Nate tossed him a phone. "Call him."
.
.
.
Nate opened the door to Hardison's office and gestured the hacker in, then he and Eliot following him inside before closing the door behind them. Hardison threw the phone on his desk before sitting down, looking around angrily at anything but the dreaded device the mastermind had given him. Nate and Eliot took up residence behind him, each standing on a different side.
"Anytime Hardison," Nate prompted. The hacker tapped his fingers on the desk and looked around, giving another spiteful look to the phone before he picked it up and grudgingly started dialing. Nate's so gonna pay for this, he thought. That's for damn sure.
He lifted the phone to his ear, and after several rings a male voice came over the line. "Hi, you've reached You-Know-Who. I'm sorry I missed your unimportant call, so please leave a message –"
"Cut the crap Chaos, I know you're there," Hardison said, still cursing himself for not standing up to Nate. In his defense, Eliot's evil glare was mostly responsible for that.
There was a pause before the voice continued, the tone slightly more sarcastic than previously. "– after the beep."
Hardison rolled his eyes and waited for the tone, deciding that letting Chaos play his little game was probably the path of least resistance. After a few seconds the line was still silent, so he pulled the phone away to check if the call had dropped. Nope, still connected. Frustrating SOB. He brought it back to his ear. "You forgot the beep."
Chaos released the laugh he'd been holding in. "Of course I forgot the beep. You don't think I'd actually want you to leave me a voicemail, do you Hardison?"
Hardison pulled the phone away from his ear and covered the microphone with his hand before turning to Nate, who was leaning against the wall behind him with his hands in his pockets. "I'm hanging up. I'm so hanging up..."
"No you're not," Nate said casually, before shifting his gaze away from Hardison to give a quick nod to the hitter. Eliot cracked his knuckles as he approached the hacker.
"Whoa whoa whoa it's cool y'all, no need to get violent," he said as he slid his chair away from the impending threat of Eliot's fist. He sighed as he heard a muffled 'Hardison, where are you?' taunting him from the covered speaker. Eliot pointed to the phone and rolled his hands, gesturing for him to get on with it.
Hardison put the phone back to his ear and pursed his lips, trying to keep his frustration under control. "I literally hate –"
Before he could finish, Chaos abruptly cut him off. "Which is it?"
A confused look came over Hardison's face. "Uh, excuse me?"
"Come on Hardison, don't play games. You only call for one of two reasons: either you need my help, or someone has a gun to your head," Chaos said mockingly. "So, which is it?"
He looked back at Eliot, the hitter's angry glare still burning into him. He swallowed hard as he turned away, his nervousness making its way into his voice as he replied. "Right now? A little bit of both."
.
.
.
"I'm gonna do another check of the perimeter, be back in ten." Eliot wasn't expecting to find anything, but having something to do made him feel slightly better about the situation. Gave him that sense of control back. Parker and Sophie were upstairs bickering over whether or not the thief was monopolizing the bathroom, so Nate nodded in acknowledgment from his position on the sofa.
Hardison was sitting at the kitchen counter, and leaned over from behind his laptop to watch Eliot leave. A few moments after the door closed he hesitantly called over to the mastermind. "Hey Nate, can I, um, talk to you for a second?"
"Of course," Nate said as he got up and walked over to the fridge, opening the door to inspect its contents. "What do you got?" The mastermind wasn't expecting any updates on their assailant, as Chaos likely hadn't even arrived at the Reliant building yet. He grabbed an orange soda for Hardison and a bottle of water for himself.
"Remember how you asked me to check for bugs?" the hacker asked, thankfully accepting the cold beverage Nate offered him.
The mastermind cracked open his drink, eager to hear what Hardison had to say. "Yeah?"
"Well, I found something."