Chapter 15
"So Nate can you tell us now?" Sophie asked as Nate walked out of his study in the evening two days after getting the information he required.
He smiled at her and nodded handing Hardison a flash drive.
"Run it?" Hardison asked as he put it into his computer.
Nate nodded and the screen sprang to live. Nate took them through the different images and documents detailing what he thought had happened and thought all this was about, that the man was determined to kill him was one Grant Sadiski and everything that had happened to his family. Hardison had managed to hack into the Pentagon and the CIA computers finding the information tucked away on the Lisa Sadiski case and the compromised lab in Portland. The police report that Parker had managed to retrieve showed that no real investigation had been made into the accident, in fact the army had intervened, taking away the case from the civilian authorities as it was two officers involved in the crash and declared it an accident and the driver of the car that slammed into the Sadiski's never being charged. She had also retrieved the hospital files for Lisa and Robert Sadiski which told him Lisa was dying anyway from an unknown toxin and that Grant had had to turn off the machines for his son and let him die. Lastly the man Eliot had gone to see ran a private lab, he was an ex-army man who had been dishonourably discharged and he was a friend of Grant Sadiski's and as Nate had thought, he had a sample of the toxin Grant had concocted in his lab, Eliot had retrieved that toxin as well as all the other toxins in the lab that Grant had worked on.
"How did you…I mean there were no connections there was nothing." At least she thought there was nothing that she had seen.
"There was Parker, in the letters to the FBI, and in the first, second and third victims. Of course I only connected the first and second killings."
"The two army officers who worked in a lab here in Portland."
Nate nodded and pulled his mouth tight as was his way when they got what he was saying. "But then I went through the newspapers during that time and and found the news reports of a car accident here in Portland five years ago that took the lives of Captain Lisa Saidski, who worked in the same lab, and left Robert Sadiski their son in a vegetative state, and Colonel Grant Sadiski, who was also a scientist working in a different lab in a coma, the third victim was the man driving the car that crashed into Sadiski and that sealed it for me. In his letters he mentioned innocents that did not choose to die with the authorities being responsible in the end for all that was happening. He also said that if you if you everything asked of you it cannot stop your death."
"The people who carry out the deed and their family members still die even if they do everything they are told to do." Parker said as she listened to Nate.
"Right and then religious rhetoric about God selecting who should die and that there is nothing that can be done to change that."
"The random victims." Hardison said.
"Right and that is what the FBI had focused on instead of the message he was trying to send. Then there was the unique signature, the toxin, and the manner in which the "innocent" the actual victim in his mind was taken, it was through the selection of God, random and with no connection to anything, he also believes that God did not save his son although he survived the accident, he died anyway and that must have been God's will, it is the only thing he can believe."
"That was why the bullets were coated, so if the gunshots did not kill, the toxin would." Eliot said.
Nate nodded at his Hitter adding that that was why the man was obsessed with Nate having to die, because God was waiting for him which is what he perceived happened to his son when he switched off the life support and let him go. He could not let Nate live because then he would dishonour his son and the fact that he had 'killed' him by switching off the machines.
"So he is getting revenge for the death of his wife and son?" Eliot asked quietly, it was simple the man wanted somebody to pay for the loss of his family.
"I think so, well at least that is how it all started, I think he needs to keep doing it now, the first three were revenge, but once that was done he did it again, now I think he needs to do it, or feels he does, it helps him to feel something, he needs this he needs the sense of control it gives him. He lost himself when his son and wife were taken from him and in the way they were taken, and then, well he found himself again, maybe not who he was but somebody else and it is the anger and the guilt that drives him."
Sophie listened to Nate and saw the similarities in many ways that he had with this man. Nate had lost himself after his son had died. His son had also been taken from him, maybe not in the same way but taken from him none the less and a greedy heartless man had had a hand in that. He had lost his wife, not to death, but still Maggie had left him, he had lost his whole life. The fact that he was sitting here with them and was the man he was now was because of them, because they had become a team, because they had stuck with him through everything, no matter how out of hand he had become, no matter how reckless with his life he had been, they had made sure he made it through everything and had found his way again. Not that it was one sided, he had saved them too in a way. It had taken them a long time, an awfully long time to get to this point. She wondered where Nate would be right now if they had not come into his life, where she would be if that had not happened, where any of them would be.
Grant Sadiski did not have that, all he had was the hate and the anger and the despair and that is what drove him, he had never moved passed his loss, never regained at least a semblance of his life, instead he had become a killer, letting the anger drive him and taking lives to make himself feel alive. His words echoed in her head and it reminded her of a conversation she had heard Nate have on a mountain a long time ago with another woman who had lost her husband and had sought their help to give her closure.
"So what now?" Sophie asked.
"Now we try to find him." He said then turned to his Hacker. "Hardison…"
"I'm on it."
"And if we can't?" Parker asked.
"Then we hope he contacts me again."
"And if he does?" Sophie asked thinking she was not going to like the answer.
"Then I get him to agree to meet me if that is possible." Nate said and they all stared at him and then started talking at the same time objecting to Nate even considering that.
"Look guys, I know where this man is coming from, I know what he went through, losing a child, watching him…" He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "Watching him die, that is something you don't…you never get over it. Having to turn off the machines and let him die…"
"This ain't the same man." Eliot said.
Nate looked up at him and in that second Eliot could see no matter how far Nate had come, no matter how good his life was now, the memory of his son's death still haunted him and that he still blamed himself for his death. His face darkened as he saw something else there too, that Nate identified with the man because he had wanted to kill Blackpoole for his part in his son's death, he had wanted revenge, and he wondered just how close Nate had come to becoming a killer, to taking that revenge. Then he shook his head slightly, Nate had it in him, he would have killed Dubenich and Latimer too had it not been for them, yes Nate identified with the man because he thought Nate considered that he could well have become him. Eliot knew better though, maybe he could have killed Blackpoole, but he could never kill an innocent.
"But he got his revenge Nate, then he just carried on, he is a serial killer now, no matter what he had set out to do in the beginning, he now takes innocent lives, people not even connected to his son or his wife or what happened. He has killed 14 people so what makes you think you can get through to him? You can't save him Nate." Eliot said, this man was no longer after revenge, and he had no regard for the lives or the families he destroyed.
"Maybe I can't, but at least if we set up a meeting we will know when and where he will come at me." Nate said softly.
"If he doesn't contact you?" Parker asked.
"Then I don't know Parker." Nate said. "He will come after me one way or another, that is the only definite here. He holds all the cards. He is in control of what happens next. The game changer is if we can find him."
"I'll find him." Hardison said and moved off to the study to get started.
"What if you are wrong Nate." Sophie asked. "I mean this is all just speculation because you put together some words in some letters and then found a scenario that fit…"
Nate looked at her and knotted his eyebrows, he did not think he was wrong, but he could very well be but that put them in a bad situation again.
"Yes well, then we are back at square one." Nate said smiling at her.
Parker nodded and then disappeared into the study to join Hardison, they had to find this man, it was Nate's best chance and it would give them the control back and then Nate could make a plan to end him.
"I'm going to check the security and then make some dinner." Eliot said leaving Sophie and Nate alone at the table.
"You can't seriously want to meet with this man Nate." She said after sitting for a few minutes in silence.
"What do you want me to do Sophie?"
"Tell the FBI, let them take him down, let them do what they do." Sophie said, she wanted Nate nowhere near this man.
"We can't give them a name without them wanting to know how I got a name and all the information that led me to that, you must see that."
"All I see is that my husband wants to meet with a man who is determined to kill him no matter what."
"I won't meet him alone Sophie and I have no intention of getting myself killed, I have too much to live for." He said leaning over and kissing her softly.
