Chapter 9

Nate knew he was being followed, not only by Eliot's man but also by Moreau's man. He wanted them both off his tail. He wanted Moreau to come for him himself and that meant that he would have to get rid of Eliot's man and take out Moreau's in a way that the man understood that he had to come for him himself.

Ten minutes later Nate knew he had rid himself of Eliot's man and had ensured that Moreau's man was gaining on him. He reached over and took the gun out of the glove compartment as he drove into a less desirable part of the town. Then he pulled over and climbed out of the car waiting for the man to arrive.

"Welcome…" Nate said as the man pulled up the car and climbed out pointing a gun at Nate and smiling.

"You will come with me now. Moreau wants to see you."

"Well I am not too keen on seeing him though and that leaves us in kind of a predicament doesn't it?" Nate said stepping away from the car and walking towards the man. He assumed the man was under orders not to harm him, that Moreau wanted to do himself. He smiled to himself as he walked up and stopped mere feet from the man.

"Get in the car." The man said lifting his gun and pointing it at Nate's head.

"As my friend Eliot says, guns have a limited range…efficacy." Nate said drawing the man's eyes to him and then like lightning reaching out and grabbing for the gun whilst throwing his arm around at the same time connecting with the man's jaw.

The man was thrown off balance just enough for Nate to gain the upper hand and pull his gun firing a shot, the bullet hitting the man in the shoulder.

"Now I don't want to have to shoot you again." Nate said softly. "I want you to give Moreau a message."

"What message?" The man growled at him. Moreau did not treat people who failed him well and he knew it.

"Tell him he may think he knows me but he has no idea of who I really am and that if he wants to live he better run because I am going to find him and I am going to kill him. Tell him that running is his style just like last time, but this time there will be no plane to carry him away in the nick of time." Nate said his voice carrying no emotion and barely above a whisper sending a shiver down the spine of Moreau's man. "Now go before I change my mind and send him a body as a warning and not just a message."

The man looked at Nate briefly then climbed in his car and sped off. Nate watched him go and smiled to himself. Moreau would be confused by this, not sure what to do, but one thing he would realise is that he was dealing with a different Nathan Ford to the one he had dealt with in San Lorenzo. Nate quickly moved back to his car and sped off towards his apartment. He had to get there before the others and leave all the tracking devices that Hardison had put on him, he also had to get alternative transport.

Nate got to his apartment and removed his clothes, watch, and emptied out his wallet. He quickly changed and then left, he had to get away from here before Sophie and the others got there and he knew they would be coming. Leaving the apartment he walked out knowing exactly where the traffic cameras were situated he made sure to avoid them before hailing a cab.

Ten minutes after Nate had left the rest of the Leverage crew and Sterling arrived at the apartments to find them empty and all of Nate's stuff on the table.

"So what do we do now?" Hardison asked looking to Sophie and Eliot.

"I don't know Hardison. Can you find him?" Sterling asked.

"I don't know." Hardison said. Nate knew him, knew how he worked, and he was sure the man would make sure that he remained out of view of traffic cameras and other ways that he could track him.

"So what is his plan?" Sophie asked turning to Sterling. The man was the same as Nate, he was the best person to think like Nate and they needed that now.

"You asking me?" Sterling said looking at the woman.

"You think like him Sterling. He can't outwit you, but you can 't outwit him either, he admitted that to me once. We need you to think like him James." Sophie said softly.

Sterling looked from one to the other and sighed heavily. He had no idea what Nate was doing except that he was drawing Moreau to him. So where would he go, how would he get the man to come at him himself. They knew that Moreau had a man following Nate thanks to Grant, but they did not know what happened. He assumed that Nate had done something to ensure that the man gave Moreau a message that he was coming and that he was not the man he thought he was. That was the only way that Moreau would ignore the team and go for Nate full on.

"Ok well he would have had to deal with Moreau's man." Sterling said turning to the Hacker. "We need to know what happened with that. Can you track the car? We need to find out if it stopped anywhere and for how long, we need to see where to get an idea of what happened between the two of them."

"Well his car is still here so yeah I can do that." Hardison said heading for the door and the parking garage where Nate had left his car.

"And…" Eliot said as Hardison got out of the car.

"He stopped here for about fifteen minutes, it's a bad part of town man." Hardison said. "Then he came here, got here about twenty minutes before we did."

"Ok well let's go then." Sterling said heading towards the van.

They arrived at the scene of the confrontation and Eliot immediately started scanning the area. He saw the small pool of blood to the one side and scuff marks on the dusty ground. Somebody had been hurt during the confrontation, but he could not know who. He assumed it was not Nate thought because there was no sign that Nate was bleeding at the apartment, not on his clothes or in the place at all. He turned to Sterling and told him what he thought happened and Sterling nodded his expression darkening slightly.

"That was his message to Moreau. Come and get me or I am going to get you and don't send somebody because they are not good enough to take me out." Sterling said.

"So now what?" Parker asked.

"Well Nate will need a place to hold up. Where would he go? Does he have any other apartments, cabins or any other place he might go around here?"

"I don't know." Hardison said. "But if he does I will find it." He said setting up his computer and getting to work.

"Nate is still quite weak from his injuries and he will need a place to rest up and regroup after the altercation." Sterling said softly.

Sophie nodded at Sterling's words. She knew Nate was still healing and was far from at his best physically and she knew he was in a dangerous place mentally and emotionally. He was vulnerable on so many levels now and he was alone, he had chosen to be alone, to leave them and not to allow them, allow her to help him. She was angry at him, furious, but above all she was afraid.

"Would he stay here in Portland?" Parker asked also thinking about what Sterling was saying. "I mean we are here, and he wants to draw Moreau away from us doesn't he?"

"Good point Parker." Sterling said turning to the Thief. "So where would Nate go?"

"LA, Boston…"

"Boston." Sterling said interrupting Eliot. "Home, his home, David's home…that is where he will go."

"Fine. But where in Boston?" Eliot asked.

"Hardison, your apartment in Boston, Nate's apartment, what happened to it?" Sterling asked. That was home for Nate, above the bar his father worked out of, the place he grew up, the place David had grown up, yes that is where Nate would have gone.

"It was sold. When we left Boston because of…well because of what happened, we got rid of everything when we made the move." Hardison said changing his search to include all places in Boston and delving into who exactly bought Nate's old apartment. At the same time he was running facial recognition on all airport cameras as well as train and bus stations although he doubted Nate would travel that way.

"If he did leave, he would have to leave some soft of clue for Moreau to follow as well wouldn't he?" Sophie asked herself, how was Nate going to do that.

"Maybe that was part of the message he left with Moreau's man." Hardison said without looking up from his computer.

"Maybe, but Nate would not make it too obvious, he want's Moreau to think he is outwitting him, catching on to something Nate does not want him to know, but you are right Sophie, he would somehow let Moreau know where he was going and what he was going to do."

"It is where he confronted him the first time, at the airport." Eliot said thinking back four years ago to when Nate had confronted Moreau forcing him to flee to San Lorenzo.

"Ok so we are going back to Boston." Sophie said sighing heavily then turning and leaving the apartment with the rest following.