Chapter 30

They were all up early the next morning and sitting at the dining table with Sophie feeding Michael and Eliot preparing breakfast for them when the coms sprang to life again.

"You are looking a lot better Mr Ford." The Italian greeted him as he walked out of his room freshly showered and changed into the clothes that had been provided for him.

He looked at her and smiled, he was feeling a lot better too. It had been a hard few days since he had left his team.

"So I assume you have a plan?"

"We have to get Moreau to expose himself, to come out of the shadows."

"He does not like doing that, I have tried before, the man does not like to get his hands dirty."

"Agreed, but this time he may." Nate said taking at seat at the table with an Irish in front of him.

"You may be right." She agreed. Nate was the only one who had managed to get anything on him, to take him down and had taken years of his life locking him up in a prison. She liked to think she was part of that, but in truth it was all Nate, that is why she had chosen him in the first place.

"You know he doesn't much like you either." Nate smiled at her. The last faces Moreau had seen before being left in that prison was the woman in front of him and himself. She had taunted him before they had left, there was obviously some sort of connection between the two.

"So you never said why did you blackmail me into going after him? Why go to all that trouble?" Nate asked wanting to understand the dynamics.

"He was, still is, a bad man Mr Ford."

"I am sure, but that operation was not sanctioned by whoever you work for was it?"

Isabella smiled at him and shook her head.

"No not strictly." She told him. "But it had to be done."

"Why? Why Moreau, why stick your neck out for him?"

"Why all the questions?"

"I need to understand the relationship."

"So that you can exploit it?"

"That's what I do." Nate said staring at her and smiling, it is what he did, he used people's weaknesses, relationships, wants, and desires to get what he wanted from them, to take them down.

"I suppose it is." She agreed. "He killed my father and my brother, butchered them, or rather had them butchered and if I had been at home that day he would have killed me too."

"Why?"

She looked at him with hard eyes and he could see the memory of what had happened was stirring up emotions in her, she appeared calm always on the outside, but Nate knew better.

"Because he was an evil man, is an evil man, who cares nothing for taking lives. He sent his men to remove my father and brother who worked for Interpol and were getting too close to him. Sent men to do his dirty work and what they did to them…" She stopped and took a deep breath trying to regain her composure.

"Tortured them?"

"Yes, he wanted to know what they knew. They never talked." She said, she did not know that for sure, but she believed it to be true. "Make no mistake Nate the men who work for him are as bad as he is, they will do anything he says, they torture, they kill, even children and without conscience, he will have gathered people to help him again I am sure of it." She added.

Eliot's face darkened as he listened to the woman, it was true, some of the worst things he had ever done in his life, things he would never be able to clean himself of he had done for the man in question. If he had gathered his old team then Nate and the Italian woman were going to be in a fight they may not be able to win. They were lucky in San Lorenzo, Moreau had not taken his team with him, and Eliot had taken many of them out in that warehouse, but there were more, there were always more, men willing to sacrifice their souls for Damian Moreau.

"So you joined Interpol, or at least the shadow organisation that you work for." Nate said not breaking eye contact with her. "Then when you were ready and in a position to do so, you decided to use me and my team to bring him down."

"He was untouchable, even my agency was unable to take him on, but after studying you, you and your crew I knew you would find a way and you did. Mr Ford you do understand that this time putting him in jail is not an option."

Nate looked at her and frowned. He knew what she was saying that the only way to end him this time would be to kill him, if he wanted his family safe and to stay alive, that was most probably what had to happen.

"So tell me everything about him, you held back before, this time I want everything." Nate said without answering her.

They listened as Isabella told Nate everything she knew about the man including things that were never recorded in files, Paul and Maggie blanched at some of the things that Moreau had done, or orchestrated. Sophie listened and thought how lucky they had actually been in San Lorenzo and how lucky they all were to still be alive.

"Well he still has money you didn't get it all so he will have hired himself some people." Nate said when she had finished. He had taken what there was in San Lorenzo and she had got her hands on some of the rest, but Moreau had a fortune that remained untouched by either of them.

"Yes and I am sure when Sadiski got him out, he got his hands on that money and even if he didn't he would have Sadiski's to work with, then as you say, hired himself a small army with them I am sure. I am also sure his core team is back with him, he would have found them."

"That is going to make things a little difficult." Nate said sitting back.

"I have ten men. They are good."

"I am sure." Nate smiled at her.

"Perhaps you should contact your Hitter Eliot. He worked for the man, he knows him, and he is handy with a gun."

"No." Nate said and there was an iron finality to his words. "Eliot and the others are not involved in this and if you try to involve them, well let's just say you will see a side of my you don't want to see."

Isabella locked eyes with him and saw something she had never seen before and it chilled her, then she nodded at him and smiled.

"What the hell Nate." Eliot hissed out listening to the man. He needed as much help as he could get, if he trusted them, if he trusted him he would use him.

"So do you have a plan?" She asked him.

"Working on it." Nate replied as he rose and poured himself another Irish.

"You will have to work fast Moreau is not going to wait around." She said watching him. "You are also right, he will go after your team, your wife and child, that is what he did, he did not only kill his enemies but their families too, down to the babies."

"Yeah but they are safe. I trust Eliot to ensure they are safe."

"You put a lot of faith in a man who worked for Moreau he was one of those men who did things, unspeakable things, and from what I hear he was one of Moreau's favourites." She said and her implication was clear, if he could work for a man like Moreau how trustworthy was he and what was he capable of. "Besides he is only one man."

Father Paul listened to the conversation and cast his eyes towards Eliot and saw the hurt and shame behind the guarded look he had. He felt for the man, he had done so much to turn his life around, and that was largely thanks to the man who was now in Moreau's sights, he knew he was under orders to stay out of it and keep the man's family safe but he could also see that it was hurting him to do so.

"Maybe, but with Parker and Hardison they will make sure nothing happens to the others, besides they are not your problem." Nate said and then turned to the Italian his eyes boring into her. "Oh and just so you know, Eliot Spencer is the most honourable man I know, and I trust him implicitly, so don't ever question his loyalty to me or to his family ever again is that understood." He added.

"Understood." She replied.

Eliot listened and felt hot tears prick his eyes despite himself as he heard Nate's words, then felt Sophie's soft touch as she reached out and placed her hand on his arm.

"Good. Now the first thing we have to do is to determine where Moreau is now." Nate told her.

"How do we do that?"

"Well I am going to go for a ride into town and make myself generally visible, hopefully somebody will come after me."

"It would have to be somewhere he is watching."

"Yes, I think I might just go to a hangout I used to have, a bar where I spent a lot of time, if his hacker is good, which I think she is, she would have researched me and my habits when I lived here, Moreau is looking for me as much as I am looking for him."

"They will be watching your old haunts, anything with significant ties to you." Isabella agreed. "But why not go to your ex-wife's house he will be sure to be watching that." She said, she would have Maggie's place watched as well as Paul's and Agent Sterling's, the three people Nate might turn to if he was in need. If Moreau's hacker were as good as Nate thought she was, she would have dug up the information on them.

"Oh I am sure he has paid Maggie a visit, and Paul. Sterling is out of the country on a job, so he won't bother with him."

"Fine, I will have my team on standby, we take his man, make him talk and get Moreau's location."

"Right." Nate said nodding at her. "But you have to stay out of sight, he thinks I am alone."

"Would he not think that you would contact me?" She asked her eyes questioning.

"Maybe, but he won't know for sure."

"What if he comes full force at you?"

"Then we deal with it." Nate said.

"Fine, but you take this." She said holding out a gut to him. "You can't go out unarmed."

"I don't need a gun, not for this." Nate smiled at her. He had no intention of getting into a gun fight and he did not think Moreau would let his lackies take him down, he wanted his revenge on him and it was personal, he may use his men to get him, but they would not kill him, that was reserved for the man himself.

"Maybe, but you may be wrong." She said insisting he take the gun. "It can happen Mr Ford." She said with a wry smile which he returned before taking the gun and stuffing it into the back of his pants.

"Remember, make sure your men keep their distance." Nate said as he finished his whiskey and then made his way to the door.

"Be careful Mr Ford."

"I always am." Nate said then disappeared out the door followed by two of her men.

"Maggie do you know the place he is talking about?" Eliot asked Nate's ex-wife.

"He had a lot of places…he…after Sam all he did was…was drink."

"But was there one particular place he favoured?" Parker pushed the woman.

"There was one that he went to a lot, I used to pick him up there after the bartender called when he was drunk."

"Ok well let's go with that one." Eliot said then turned to Hardison. "She'll give you the address, can you get any camera's around there so we can see what's going on."

"What is that going to help if something does happen?" Sophie asked him.

"At least we will know what is happening Sophie."

"Oh great so we can watch and listen as my husband gets himself killed, well isn't that just great." She hissed at him. "Well if you are not going to go I am."

"No you are not." Eliot said his voice was soft, but the tone was firm. "You are going to stay here with your son Sophie, you are going to do that because you know it is the right thing to do. Nate is right, Moreau will want to kill him himself, he will use his men to go for him, but they will be under instructions not to kill him."

"You don't know that." Parker said.

"Yes I do Parker, I do because she was right, I worked for Moreau, I did his bidding, and this is what he would do." Eliot said shame evident in his voice. "Now us going there and maybe being seen, that will undo everything Nate has done up to now in order to keep you Sophie and his son safe and I will not allow it." Eliot took reached out and took the woman's hand. "Sophie, we will move, we will be there to help him when he needs it most, but if we move too soon then, then it could put us in a position where we can't help him at all. I know how you feel Sophie, believe me, we all feel the same way, all of us."

"I know…" Sophie said hesitantly, she knew they all felt the same way leaving Nate alone. "I know I just…I…"

"We all understand, you don't have to say it." Parker said taking Sophies hand in hers.

"Ok there are traffic cams that cover the entrance and there is one camera in the place. I have them both, but we are not going to get a particularly good view." Hardison said breaking the silence.

"Something is better than nothing." Parker said smiling at him.

"Now we wait." Paul said looking at the feed from the traffic cam which showed a now bustling street with the morning traffic. The other camera showed an almost empty bar.

"Yes we wait." Sophie said quietly her stomach knotting at the thought of what might happen in the next few hours.

The coms had gone silent and they all waited in anticipation of what was to happen next.