Chapter 31

They watched as Nate walked into the nearly empty bar an hour later and ordered himself a bottle of Jamison, then taking the bottle and a glass he made his way to a booth in the back which was covered by the camera's. He sat down and poured himself a glass. Ten minutes later two men walked into the bar and made their way to another booth at took their seats, they ignored Nate completely and Nate did not even look at them.

"That must be her guys." Eliot said watching the scene.

A half hour later five men entered the bar and came directly for Nate who made no move as they approached.

"Nathan Ford, Moreau sends his compliments, now you will come with us." The lead man said coming to stand in front of the Mastermind.

"I still have a lot of whiskey left." Nate said nonchalantly.

"Either I take you by force or you come quietly it is your choice." The man said ignoring Nate's remark.

"Well boys I think that it is going to have to be by force." He replied and moved quickly as he stood and rushed the man taking them all by surprise, Moreau had told them this man was not one that would fight, he would try to play games but not fight.

The two men who had followed him in turned and drew their weapons cocking them and holding them on the other four.

"Move and all of you die." Jason said, for a moment Jason thought they would go for their guns but then at the nod of the head of one of them they all moved their hands away from their sides. Drawing their guns now would only mean death, they would wait and see what happened.

Nate and the man he had tackled struggled on the floor and then there was a shot with the man on top of Nate becoming still. Sophie felt the angst rise in her as she heard Maggie's gasp at the sound. Eliot tightened his hand into a fist squeezing hard as he stared at the still figures on the ground and Paul closed his eyes saying a small prayer.

"Dammit." Nate said as he pushed the man off him and stood up and looked at the man he had just moved off him. He had a hole in his chest and blood was quickly pooling beneath him, he did not have to check for a pulse to know the man was dead.

"Mr Ford we need to go." Jason said, he had seen the barkeeper make a call he presumed it was to 911, they had to get out of there before the cops arrived.

"We only need one of them." Nate said turning to Jason who nodded and then stepped forward grabbing one of the men. Then turning his gun towards the other three.

"No." Nate said stepping forward. "No killing." Nate instructed. "I want this one." He said pushing one of the men forward, the one that had given the order not to draw on Jason and his friend.

"They will come after us."

"No they won't." Nate said stepping behind the men and dropping one of them with the butt of his gun and then the second man while Jason's dropped the man in front of him. Then the four of them exited the bar.

"He did it." Parker said as they watched the four men climb into the car and drive off shortly before the arrival on the scene of the police.

Sophie nodded not trusting herself to speak as she watched the car drive away through the traffic cams and then he was gone again. She had thought for one awful moment that she had lost him when she had heard the shot and seen them become still and she could feel the tears well. Quickly she swiped them away and pulled her son closer to her as they watched the blip on the screen that was Nate head towards the safehouse.

"Moreau's gonna kill you." She heard the man say. "He is going to kill you and your whole family."

"He is going to try." Nate replied.

Then silence fell as they sped along towards the safehouse.

"You did it." Isabella said as they walked through the door.

"Put him somewhere safe." Nate instructed Jason and then walked over to the bar and poured himself a drink downing it before pouring another.

"What happened?"

"We got what we went there for." Nate replied his voice hard, but she could hear it was also shaky.

"You are bleeding."

"Not my blood." Nate said downing the rest of his second whiskey before pouring another one.

"So now what?"

"Now he tells me what I want to know." Nate said then moved towards the room followed by the Isabella.

They entered the room and Nate put his glass down on the table then turned to the man tied to a chair in the centre of the room.

"Tell me where Moreau is." Nate said coming to stand before the man.

"I ain't telling you nothing."

"Let me talk to him Mr Ford. He will tell me what you want to know." Isabella said moving to join Nate in front of the man.

"No." Nate said turning to her.

"Aw this is sweet a lover's quarrel?" The man said watching the two face off.

"Isabella, leave the room." Nate said and she shook her head. "Leave the room now."

"I can make him talk."

"Get out of the room Isabella." Nate repeated locking eyes with her.

"Fine but if you do not get him to talk I will." She said then left Nate with the man.

"Do what you want, I ain't telling you anything." The man said as Nate turned back to him.

Nate said nothing. Turning he picked up his glass of whiskey where he had left it and then pulled a chair placing it in front of the man taking a seat. He sipped his whiskey but said nothing watching the emotions flood the face of the man in front of him as he tried to figure out what the Mastermind was doing.

"So I am Nate Ford, and you are?" Nate said conversationally.

"Christopher Pike." The man replied, there was no harm in giving the man his name.

"You like working for Moreau?"

"It's a job and it pays well." He said, this was not what he expected, he expected torture and death not a conversation.

"I am sure it does. But you are just a second-tier soldier, not worth much to the man." Nate said sitting back in the chair.

"You think you know everything don't you, you think you are so damn cleaver."

"Well I know more than you." Nate replied watching the anger build in the man.

"Yeah well, Moreau will come for me, and he will take you out too."

"Why, why would he bother with a nothing like you?" Nate asked raising his eyebrows and taking another sip of his whiskey. "I took out the man who really was in charge. The one Moreau trusted to get the job done."

"He wasn't the lead."

"Of course he wasn't you were." Nate said smiling at him. "You just had him take the lead so that if I had a gun I would shoot him and not you."

Christopher said nothing as he stared at Nate.

"You messed up Christopher and Moreau is not going to take that lightly and you know how he repays failure."

"That was not me it was Penrose, he fucked up."

"I'm sure Moreau will make that distinction." Nate said as he watched the man.

"I hear you have Eliot Spencer working for you." The man said smiling at Nate as he changed the tack of the conversation. "He was good in his day but even with him you have no chance. Now if you make me an offer..." Christopher said, he was done with Moreau, Nate was right, Moreau did not take well to failure and there would be consequences not good ones either. Loyalty had no place in his world, and maybe Ford was his way out of a tricky situation, if he could hire a man like Eliot, he would work with him too.

"Eliot does not work for me." Nate said softly.

"No…?"

"No. He is…family." Nate said smiling at the man as a look of confusion crossed his face. "So, where is Moreau?"

"I told you man I ain't telling you squat unless you are willing to make a deal." The man said he did not know what to think of this, he did not what to make of Nate's demeanour.

"True you did tell me that." Nate said then he stood and walked up to him and reached out. Christopher stared at him refusing the cringe at the onslaught he knew was coming, but then Nate reached into his pocket and pulled out his mobile phone. "Let's see what Moreau says about that shall we."

"What the hell." Christopher said as he watched Nate open his phone and smile at him as he pressed the re-dial button.

"Where are you? Get back here now and explain what happened."

"Love to Moreau, just tell me where you are, and I'll be right over." Nate replied.

"Ford." Moreau replied his voice full of surprise and a little fear, he had sent five of his men after the man and as far as he knew Ford was alone. He turned to his Hacker and nodded letting her know to put a trace on the call.

"Don't bother trying to trace the call Moreau, just wanted to say sorry about your men, but you know I will always beat you." He said then hung up.

"Well it has been fun." Nate said as he stood. "Make yourself comfortable, you are here for the duration." Then he walked out the room.

"So?" Isabella asked as Nate walked into the living room.

"Jason, your computer guy, the last number dialled get me a location."

"Cleaver." Isabella said as she replenished Nate's glass. "He won't know what hit him."

"Oh he will."

"What?"

"I spoke to him so he will know I will get his location." Nate told her.

"Are you insane Mr Ford?"

"No." You will take Jason and the others and make the raid, do it now before he gets to organised.

"You are not coming with me?"

"I have other things to do."

"You don't think Moreau will be there do you, he will get out but leave his men?"

"No, he won't be there, we need to take his resources, leave him with a bare cupboard." Nate told her. "Then he will be forced out of the shadows."

She looked at him with admiration, he had planned this, this was what he had wanted, to get Moreau to leave his haven and leave his men behind to take them on when they came for him. She doubted Moreau would go far, he would organise his men to lay a trap for Nate when he came and would be around to see if the man were killed in it.

"So he will wait for you to come at him, he will assume that you will lead the party yourself and then his men will take you out for him. So he won't pull his men out, very cleaver."

"Yes, well that is the general idea."

"So you are using me to do the heavy lifting."

"It will be a good takedown for you, and besides, turnabout is fair play wouldn't you say?"

She looked at him and then nodded before starting to give orders to her men. She also contacted her superiors and told them she needed backup giving them the address that Jason had got from the trace.

"Where are you going?"

"Don't worry about me Isabella, just get the job done." Nate replied and then watched her leave with her men.

"So he is alone again." Sophie whispered as they listened in.

"Eliot thinks that was his plan, to take out Moreau's team by having them engage with her, then force Moreau to come after him alone or at least not with the army he had." Parker said looking at Eliot for confirmation.

"It appears he is going to get that right although how he figured all of that out...How he got them all to do exactly what he wanted them to do…" Maggie said, but that left Nate to take on Moreau on his own and she for one doubted that Moreau would be completely alone.

"It's his superpower." Parker whispered, Nate seemed to make things happen, he had always been able to.

"This is where we step in right Eliot?" Hardison asked not liking the scenario that was running through his head.

They all turned to Eliot and waited to hear what he was going to say when the coms sprang to life again.

"Peter Krige."

"Peter it's Nate Ford."

"Nate, how the hell are you?" Peter said greeting his friend and client. "It's been a while."

"Yes, I need to see you."

"You still in Portland?"

"No LA I can be at your offices in about an hour."

"Ok well I have court at three, do you need me for longer than that?"

"No I'll see you in a while. Thanks Peter." Nate said and hung up.

"Who is Peter Krige?" Hardison asked pulling his computer closer to start a search.

"Nate's lawyer, and an old friend of his." Maggie told them.

"He set up the trust for Michael." Sophie added.

"So why does Nate want to see him?" Parker asked confused by this turn of events.

"I don't know Parker." Sophie said getting a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, why would Nate go and see a lawyer now, in the middle of all of this, unless he needed him to do something, unless he expected not to make it out of all of this alive.

"Well I suppose we will find out soon enough." Hardison said as he watched Nate's signal move out the house and then heard the engine start up as he drove away.