First to all my loyal readers, I must apologise for the length of time it has taken to continue the story. I have had some mad things happening in my life, deaths, operations, moving provinces etc… I normally pride myself on not letting my readers down with long waiting periods between chapters but sometimes life just makes the rules and not you. I hope you enjoy the rest of the story though, and thank you all for reading…
Chapter 5
"Tell me…" Eliot said without ceremony as he and the others entered Sophie's house. They had wrapped up the job as quickly as they could, taking huge risks that had luckily paid off. The client was satisfied and the bad guys taken care of.
Sophie, also without taking the time to greet, launched into her story. Once she had finished silence fell over the group.
"What the hell is the man up to now?" Hardison whispered his voice tinged with the fear that was growing inside him. Nate was notorious for doing stupid things, and excluding them if it was going to be dangerous in any way.
"I'm going to kill him." Eliot hissed his stomach starting to knot up.
Parker watched their faces and then moved, in a flash she had placed something in front of Hardison and then looked up into the Hacker's eyes.
"What's this…?"
"Your computer." Parker replied tilting her head as she looked at him.
"What the…"
"Find him." Parker instructed before Hardison could finish and then she plopped down on the couch and curled her legs up under herself.
Hardison looked from the little Thief to the rest and then shaking his head he sat down and pulled the laptop towards himself and got to work.
"Oh no…no…no…" Hardison said in horror shaking his head as he watched a clip from the camera he had just tapped into.
"What…" Eliot said suddenly on full alert. Sophie and Parker also stopped what they were doing and turned towards the Hacker. "Hardison…?" Eliot growled when the Hacker did not immediately respond.
"Sterling…" Hardison muttered and then turned the laptop to face the group.
"Great…" Eliot said sotto voice his eyes narrowing as he scanned the picture of Nate and Sterling leaving Nate's favourite bar.
"I don't like Sterling…" Parker pouted.
"Sterling means trouble…big trouble…" Sophie said softly, "What has Nate gone and gotten himself into now?"
Eliot looked at the woman and saw the fear in her eyes as she met his. Sterling was not expected and more than that, whenever the man appeared it meant that Nate did things that were…well dangerous.
"Hardison where did they go?" he said not turning from Sophie.
"I don't know…I have them in the car and can track it but then it just disappears…I mean gone man."
Eliot growled slightly and Parker's pout got even poutier if that was possible. Hardison ignored both and continued working.
"Ok I am running my facial recognition software, if he appears anywhere on any camera in or around Portland we will know about it…checking airports, train stations, etc…" He said keeping his head down and eyes glued to the computer screen in front of him.
"We'll find him…no matter what fix he has himself in we will find him, and then I'm going to kill him!" Eliot said as he handed Sophie a glass of whiskey.
"You'll have to stand in line for that…" Sophie whispered as she downed the whiskey and tried to fight back the horrible feeling in her gut that she would never see Nate again…not alive at least.
Hope you enjoyed and again sorry it took so long. Next chapter will definitely be up in the next day or so. Thanks for sticking by me and continuing to read. I won't let you guys down again.