Chapter 7

It was hot and unseasonably humid when Sophie and the rest arrived in Johannesburg. Hardison had picked up on the smallest trail which led them to this part of the world, but they did not know why Nate and Sterling had ended up here, or where they should start looking for them. Sophie and Eliot had been in South Africa before and knew that the technology at their disposal, the camera's and ways of tracking people were a little more limited here than in the states, although Eliot had to conceded it was a lot greater than in any other African city.

Hardison had organised transport for them and booked them into the Michael Angelo hotel on Sandton Square and right now all Sophie wanted to do was get to the hotel so that they could make a start at tracking down Nate. The drive to the hotel from OR Tambo International was slow with traffic at its peak. They eventually arrived and were ushered up to their penthouse suite at 6pm. As soon as they had tipped the usher and closed the door behind him Hardison was on his computer tracking down any and all networks of camera's he could tap into and getting his facial recognition programs running. It was his job to find Nate. It was Sophie's and Parker's job to come up with a plan to get him out of whatever hole he had dug for himself, and of course it was Eliot's role to make sure they were all safe.

The plan was simple. If Sterling was involved it might involve Interpol, so Sophie had set up a meeting with the agent in charge in Johannesburg to hopefully get some information on Sterling's and therefore Nate's whereabouts. When Sophie had called, at the mention of Sterling's name it was clear that the man did know something and Sophie's stomach had knotted when she detected angst in the man's voice, he knew something and she would find out what. Hardison would follow any and all computer trails available and Parker had made contact with some friends whom she would meet up with later in regards underground activity and personalities in the city, and of course any ongoing saga's that Sterling might have dragged Nate into.

By the time 7am came round Eliot and Sophie pulled up outside the office of Interpol in the centre of Johannesburg. After checking in at reception they took a seat as ordered and waited patiently for Charles du Plessis to make his appearance. After about ten minutes a tall thin man with thick black hair approached them. Sophie judged him to be in his forties and immediately recognised him as the man they had come to see from the photo's Hardison had shown her.

"Mrs Du Bois?" Du Plessis asked as he neared her and Eliot looking from her to him.

"Yes, and you must be Mr Du Plessis." Sophie said shaking his hand. "This is my associate Jacob Fortune." She said indicating Eliot. "Shall we go to your office?"

"Indeed." Charles said turning towards the security guard and motioning them to let Eliot and Sophie through. "I am sure we have a lot to discuss." His tone showed nothing of the intense curiosity and apprehension he felt.

The day before Charles had gotten a call from his superiors in the US stating that a Mrs Du Bois, a senior field agent with Interpol, and her associate, would be visiting him and would need any and all information he had on a certain Agent Sterling and what he had been up to in South Africa. He was not sure how the woman and her associate would react to the fact that Sterling was dead, and there was the issue of Nate Ford, they had not mentioned him in the call. The young girl they had rescued who was obviously related to Sterling, probably his daughter although that was just a guess, was not giving any information to them, in fact she had barely spoken a word since she had been taken into custody. What did these two know about Sterling and Ford and more importantly were they here to lay the blame at his feet for their deaths?

Sophie did not wait very long after being seated to get the ball rolling.

"Mr Du Plessis it has come to our attention that Agent James Sterling came to visit you on a matter here in South Africa. We would like to know where he is now and we would like to know about the other agent who accompanied him."

Eliot looked over at Sophie surprised by her directness of her statement, they did not know for sure that Nate and Sterling had come to see this man.

"Yes I see…" Du Plessis said softly. "Yes Agents Sterling and Ford did indeed come to see me about the child smuggling ring. I did inform him that I was on top of it but Ford and Sterling just went ahead and did their own thing."

"Yes well they are both good agents and were on a specific mission. So where can I find them now we have information for them that they need to have."

Du Plessis cleared his throat and sat back in his chair briefly closing his eyes and Sophie felt panic grow in her gut.

"Mr Du Plessis…"

"I am afraid Mrs Du Bois that although they did manage to free some of the girls, they… well both Ford and Sterling are missing."

"Missing…" Eliot hissed out speaking for the first time.

"Yes… well…" Charles cleared his voice. "It seems they took it upon themselves to effect some sort of rescue operation and in the process…"

"You mean you gave them no back up?" Eliot growled leaning forward in his chair. "Now they are missing?"

"No…well… they did not give us a chance to give them back up did they?" Charles said his voice hard. He was getting angry now, this interrogation was just wrong, it was not his fault those two were missing and he was not going to take a fall for them. "They went on in like bloody hero's without even telling us anything, by the time we got word of what was going down and where it was, it was too late." Charles blurted out holding Eliot's gaze. He was a hard man and even though the look on the younger man's face scared him he was not going to show it. He was not going to take responsibility for a pair of gung ho idiots who have now gone and got themselves killed.

"Now boys…" Sophie said trying desperately to hold herself together. This man was their only lead and she for one wanted to remain on his better side, at least until they had the information they needed. "Let's not get hot under the collar. Charles, why don't you just tell us what happened from the beginning please."

Neither man made any motion, they sat immovable, staring at each other with neither one wanting to break eye contact first.

"Jacob…" Sophie hissed at Eliot.

Sophie watched as Eliot visibly relaxed himself and a grim smile appeared on his face as he sat back. Breaking the contact with Charles he looked over to Sophie and nodded.

"Now Mr Du Plessis if you would not mind…"

Ok well another chapter down…hope you all enjoyed.