Chapter 1


The lonely mountain road was empty in the approaching midnight. A half-moon sat high in the cloudless sky, illuminating the smooth yet treacherous surface. The road itself was well maintained for its remote destination, but with every corner came a huge drop, plunging any neglectful drivers into swarms of trees and rocks. Just below the forest was the glittering remanence of a partially dried upstream, that if followed, would lead to an array of abandoned lumber mills.

In the distance, a small rumbling sound could be heard. It was a low mechanical noise that was sometimes interrupted with a high-pitched screeching. As it travelled closer, small pebbles that littered the road started to jump. Whatever was coming, was getting there fast.

"Eliot... ts happenin'... you got... Eliot... safe" Nate's voice was coming through the coms in bits and pieces. The Hitter was trying to listen, but he had bigger things to worry about than replying to his boss.

Eliot was currently travelling at around 70 mph, over double the recommended for the area, on his Ducati Streetfighter.

He'd just slipped his helmet on ready to leave when the mark got a tip-off about the criminal in front of him. He knew he was blown the second he saw the subtle nod given by the boss. Before one of his goons could get a shot off, Eliott jumped on his bike and sped away. As he left the dirt track and made it onto the road, he could hear a large SUV revving up behind him.

Speeding down the country road, his heart was racing and his breathing became erratic. That must have been what tipped the others off about his current predicament. He tried to get a message through but wasn't sure how much use it would be.

"The mark knows... I'm being chased by his security... Gonna try an' lose 'em..."

He knew he was climbing higher, which was a bad place to be going when travelling extremely fast on a poorly lit mountainside. Add the fact that he was on a motorbike and very distracted by the guys shooting at him. No, this was not where Eliot wanted to be.

"Eliot... are you... where... you... now."

He was just about to answer when a bullet brushed passed his shoulder slicing his jacket and skin. Shit! The impact made him wobble a bit, but he managed to right himself before causing an accident. More bullets came flying as he increased his speed. He wasn't sure if the talking in his ear had stopped, or if it had just been drowned out by the blood pumping through his head. Either way, he was thankful because right now he needed his head clear if he was going to make his way out of this alive.

A corner was coming up. He slowed down a touch, still going way too fast for most people, but he knew he could make it. He was getting ready to lean into the turn when... BANG! A bullet pierced his back tire sending the hitter and his bike souring off the cliff edge...

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The next few moments were a blur.

Air... Ground... Pain... Rock... Pain... Tree... Another tree... More pain... Rock... Ground again... Way too much pain.

He eventually stopped his descent in a small patch of open grass next to a slow trickle of water. The lack of trees around him meant he could look up into the night's sky. To be honest, there wasn't much else he could do, the hitter was completely immobile.

Eliot started taking in as many shallow breaths as he could. The pain was unbearable, but if he gave into it, he wouldn't be able to help his team find him.

"Guys... I... I... I'm s-stuck... c-came off m' bike... c-can't move... p... please h-help..."

His trembling voice was barely above a whisper. He thought he heard sounds coming from his earpiece, but none of them made any sense. He was dazed and unsure of pretty much everything.

How long have I been here?... Does the team know where I am?... What's wrong with me?

His mind was dancing with the idea of consciousness. He wanted to just shut his eyes and fade into oblivion, but something was telling him to hold on.

The spring air was cold and he thought he should be shivering, but it didn't feel like he was. The only parts of him that he could feel moving were his chest and eyes. He went to move his head so he could see better, but the intense pain that shot through his body after the smallest shift stopped him.

Concentrate. Try to isolate the pain, find out what hurts and how bad... Head for sure, possibly my neck as well. Never a good sign... Left-arm is killing me, and so is my left leg... Right side seems fine, no pain there... actually, no anything. My entire right side feels numb. Shit!

He tried to calm his breathing. He knew the more panicked he got, the more damage he might do himself.

Calm down, Spencer. Numb doesn't mean paralysed, it doesn't mean permanent damage. Just calm down. If you keep breathing like this, your gonna puncture a lung. That's if it's not already been punctured, God my chest hurts.

He wasn't sure how long it was until he lost his fight to the pulling sensation of sleep, but he did, and he went down hard.

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"Guys... I... I... I'm s-stuck... c-came off m' bike... c-can't move... p... please h-help..."

The thieves were frozen in complete and utter shock. They had never heard their teammate so vulnerable before. The fact that he was asking for help made it ten times worse. He never depended on anyone, at least not for things like this. Even with two bullet holes in him, Eliot would only let them support him to the car. Then it was all, "I can do this m'self. Stop coddlin' me."

Whatever this was, had to be extremely bad.

"Hardison," Nate called out. "I need a location on Eliot."

"Already on it."

"What happened? Why did the mark turn on him like that?" Parker asked in a quiet voice.

"Not sure. But I'm sure as hell gonna find out." Nate was pissed. Someone was playing games with his team, and now his hitter was out for the count. He was also really scared. He wasn't sure how bad Eliot's condition was, but if he couldn't move... well, Nate knew what that could mean.

"Nate," Sophie lightly touched her husband's arm. "What if he's..." She couldn't force the words out, they just clung to the roof of her mouth like a bad taste.

"I'm sure he won't be, love. We're going to get to him."

A ping alerted the team to their friends' location.

"He's not far from here. Follow this road and then park there." The hacker was pointing at a map on his tablet. "Then we'll have to go on foot. I'll call for an air rescue now."

They were about ten minutes away, but all anyone could think about was...

Please don't let us be too late.

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They found Eliot exactly where Hardison said he'd be. He and Sophie were waiting by Lucile while Nate and Parker went to their retrieval specialist. Hardison needed to make IDs and a cover story, and Sophie was still on the phone with the hospital.

The crash site was a mess. Eliot's bike was in pieces, and there was a trail of destruction leading up to the road. Tree trunks had been shattered, rocks were stained with blood, and there were multiple indentations in the ground where the hitter had impacted. But if they thought that looked bad, what they saw when they found Eliot was horrifying.

He was lying on his back, completely motionless. His right leg was twisted in an impossible position and Parker was pretty sure she could see bone sticking out. The grass beneath him was red and sticky. They didn't know where all the blood was coming from because of his dark clothes, but they could see that there was a lot of it. He was still fully dressed, but if they looked underneath, they were adamant that they would see a litany of bruised and broken skin. Parker fell beside the hitter but was too afraid to touch him. What if I hurt him more?

His helmet must have come off during the fall. They knew the hitter wouldn't have ridden without one, and when they looked around, they could see it had landed just up the hill, wedged on a rock. Nate bent down next to his head determined to find a pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief when he found it, slow and weak, but a sign of life nonetheless. As he looked up towards the hitter's face, he couldn't help but notice the steady dripping coming from his scalp. He called out his friend's name a few times, trying to get a response, but nothing happened.

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Hardison's quick thinking meant that the air ambulance wasn't too far behind. As soon as the paramedics got to them, Nate and Parker cleared the way.

"Right, Male mid 30's, accident involving a motor vehicle proceeded by a fall with multiple impacts." The female paramedic looked up at the two shivering bystanders. "Are you the friends that called us?"

Nate answered, "yeah."

"Can you tell us his name and anything you know about the accident?" She spoke in a soft tone that still somehow showed her authority within the situation.

"His name's Eliot Krane, and he came off his bike up there. He managed to phone us while he was still conscious."

"How long ago would you say this happened?"

"About fifteen-twenty minutes." Nate was tense, had it really only been that long. It felt like hours.

"And how long has he been out?"

"Maybe a minute or two less than that... He passed out pretty quickly."

The paramedic made some notes on her tablet before addressing the mastermind again. "Do you know if he's been drinking?"

"No, he was coming home from work when it happened." It was sort of accurate, plus all the important information was true.

"Does he have any allergies or medical history we should know?" The other medic had undone Eliot's jacket and cut through his t-shirt revealing the patient's scarred torso. Even after all her years in the medical field, she never got fully used to seeing peoples' scars.

"No allergies, but he doesn't take to pain medication well. As for history, there's quite a lot." Nate ran through in his mind all the injuries he knew about. "He's a vet you see. I know he has a problem with his left shoulder, it dislocates sometimes and gets sore when he's tired. And he's taken a few bullets, but he never mentioned internal damage. There's probably more that he hasn't told me."

The older male paramedic who'd been assessing Eliot's injuries started to speak.

"Multiple fractures to both legs, and an open fracture to the right. A few broken ribs and there are signs of possible internal bleeding. Both arms also have fractures. There is a large laceration to the back of his head. I say we get this guy strapped to a spinal board and have him lifted out of here"

His partner agreed.

Within five minutes, Eliot was prepped and ready to go. But Parker could barely look. She hated seeing her friend restrained, she knew that he'd had nightmares about being tied up. One time, whilst working a con, he had to be restrained in a closet. The hitter did his job and the con was a success. But for the following week, he was walking around like a zombie, having been unable to get more than thirty minutes of sleep a night. She knew he needed to be strapped down, it was just hard to watch.

Nate was given the details of the local hospital and without hesitation, he ran back to Lucile hopping into the driver's seat and speeding off down the road...