No.
Nate scrambled to his feet, desperately seeking a better vantage. The problem was that other people in the audience had also gotten to their feet. They blocked his path as he tried to head for the doors – Hardison and Parker couldn't have been taken more than a few seconds ago…they could have gotten far…you can still catch up.
By the time Nate started shoving people out of his way, Eliot had come to the same realization about hacker and thief. Eliot didn't bother to shove – he decked the nearest person in his path. Nate froze, watching the chaos erupt around his teammate. Eliot's eyes were wild, and his expression furious. Parker and Hardison were gone, and Nate knew from painful past experience that Eliot would rip the building apart to find them.
And Eliot's method of progress, while a good deal more violent than normal, was at least effective.
Suddenly, Lindsey was there. Nate couldn't work out how he'd gotten off the dais so quickly, or slipped through the milling, confused crowd that still had the rest of them so effectively pinned down. Before Nate could yell a warning, the lawyer laid a hand on Eliot's shoulder.
What happened next was too fast for anyone to stop.
Eliot whirled around, paused for a fraction of a second at the sight of his twin brother, and then dealt the man a roundhouse punch that knocked him to the ground. Probably left his ears ringing too.
At the exact second Lindsey hit the floor, the feedback suddenly cut out – only to be replaced by the flash of several expensive cameras aimed directly at Eliot. Distracted, desperate and trying to shield his eyes from the unexpected assault, Eliot was easy prey for a two pronged attack by members of Lindsey's entourage, and the security guards that had been stationed by the doors. He went down under a swarm of bodies.
Nate saw him preparing to fight his way back to his feet, and spoke quickly into his com. "Eliot, don't! Stand down! Stand down!"
"You've got to be kidding me!" The two men were barely five feet away from one another at this point, but the room was still far too noisy for normal conversation. The coms registered their voices well enough.
"I can't find Hardison and Parker," added Sophie suddenly. "I managed to get out of the room, but there's no sign of them. Nate, we're too late."
"I know." It killed him too admit it, but he'd messed up. He'd misread the situation – been so focused on guarding Eliot that he'd left the rest of his team completely open to attack. Hardison and Parker were gone, and Eliot was compromised anyway. All he and Sophie could do now was cut their losses and retreat long enough to figure out how to get everyone back safely.
And I will get them back.
"If Lindsey's going to talk, he's going to talk to you," Nate said. "Find out what the hell is going on here. Find out what he wants. I will get you out."
"Not if Lindsey doesn't want you to, you won't." Eliot was being hauled to his feet, hands cuffed behind his back. One cop was keeping a safe distance while reading the hitter his Miranda Rights. Lindsey was already hurrying back on stage, swaying and staggering just enough to be effective without being unbelievable. He took the microphone, calling for order – trying to urge people back to their seats.
" Nate," said Sophie. "We need to get out of here. Before Lindsey decides to complete the set."
Nate nodded. "I know."
He looked back at Eliot, who looked back at him. His hitter clearly wasn't happy about the situation, but he nodded back. Nate had given him a job to do, and he knew Eliot would do it. Even if it meant talking to his brother.
Nate left the conference hall. He left the building, angrily brushing away the security guards outside who questioned him as to what had happened. Sophie was waiting for him at the bottom of the steps. Sophie was waiting for him, and that was all that mattered.
She fell into step beside him as he stalked towards the parking lot, where Hardison's van was waiting.
"We were played," Nate growled.
Sophie nodded. "We went up against Wolfram and Hart. We should have expected as much."
Nate got into the driver's seat, Sophie got into the passenger's seat. They sat there for a second, tense and scared and impossibly frustrated. In the span of less than five minutes, the team had been systematically picked apart, and they both knew all too well that there was so much they could have done to avoid it.
"All that chasing, all that running around, " Nate murmured. " 'Don't let Wolfram and Hart near Eliot, how are they going to go after Eliot.'" He shook his head. "Eliot wasn't the target on this one, Soph. He was the bait. For us."
"They knew we'd rally to protect him," Sophie finished. "No matter the cost. Even at the expense of our own safety." She put her face in her hands. "Oh, Nate, they employ vampires. What if…"
"No." Nate shook his head. "No. Lindsey's involved. Even if Eliot wasn't their main target now, it's all but certain that they still want something from him, if Lindsey's involved." He was grasping at straws, he knew he was, but the alternative was too horrific to contemplate. "If anything happens to Hardison and Parker, there's no chance in hell that he'll listen to anything they say. Lindsey's going to have a hell of a job talking to him as it is."
"Yes. Yes I am."
Nate and Sophie both went very still and very quiet. The voice that had just spoken to them over the com lines sounded just like Eliot's, but it wasn't. It definitely wasn't.
Chapter Two
"Lindsey McDonald," Nate finally replied, slowly. "I wish I could say it was good to see you back among the living."
"I wish you could, too," Lindsey replied. "But I understand if you're upset."
"Why do you have Eliot's ear piece?"
"Oh, this isn't Eliot's. This is Parker's." As Nate and Sophie exchanged looks of frozen terror, the lawyer continued coolly. "Now, now. Have a little faith in me. As we speak, Alec Hardison and Parker are being transported by my human guards to my brightly lit suite with its very open windows. They'll be safe there."
"And what about Eliot?" asked Sophie, just as calm, just as cool. Nate was proud of her. Right now, she probably wants nothing more than to rip his head off and spit down his throat. But you'd never know it if you didn't know her.
"Oh, Eliot. Eliot is being transferred to the local precinct, there to be held on charges of aggravated assault."
"And those charges are being pressed by you?" Sophie asked, curling her lip in a sneer. "Let me tell you something, Evil Dead. If Eliot Spencer hit you and you still have all your teeth, you've got no right to add the word 'aggravated' to that charge."
Lindsey laughed. "I suppose not. But my employers are quite unhappy with the way things transpired. They keep a close eye on me, after all. The charges are mostly for the look of the thing."
"Great," Nate sighed. "Well, Lindsey, you have us over a barrel. You have three of my team, and there's no point in pretending that you couldn't have them all killed without any risk to yourself whatsoever. So the question we're left with is why? What do you want from us?"
There was a pause before Lindsey replied. Nate heard him removing the com from his ear, heard the faint murmurs of a conversation with someone else, and then the lawyer replaced the ear piece and spoke.
"Return to your offices. You will be contacted with more information at a later point."
Then Lindsey removed the ear piece again, and that was that.
Nate and Sophie drove back to the offices.
Eliot Spencer woke up.
The world was blurred and fuzzy. Someone was speaking; he couldn't make out the words. He was laying on something hard, his surroundings were basically grey.
"Nate…" he murmured. He raised a hand, an action which took far more effort than it should have, and touched his ear, checking for the com. It was a reflex, more than anything else. If the com was still there, things were all right. There was still hope. If the com was gone, they were blown. Things were bad. He had to escape, and now.
The com was gone.
"Hey. Sleeping Beauty. Get your ass out of bed already."
Sense and sensory input were all coming back faster, now. Things were coming into clearer focus. He recognized the voice.
It was his voice.
But the words weren't being spoken by him. They were being spoken by his twin brother, leaning against the bars of his cell door and looking utterly bored.
"You arrested me?" Eliot demanded, sitting up on his cot and putting a hand to his forehead. The world had lurched unpleasantly as he moved. Then, because he knew that the ache in his head and the heaviness in his limbs meant, he groaned. "You sedated me?"
"For my own safety," said Lindsey simply.
"Damn right it was," Eliot growled. "What the hell are you playing at, Linds? What the hell is this about?!"
"I wanted to talk to you. And I figured that the only way to do it without you snapping my neck halfway through was to have you behind bars." His twin smiled devilishly. "All these years, and I can still play you like a violin."
"Yeah." Looking back over those last few minutes in the conference hall, Eliot realized that he could, and he had. Eliot had been panicking about Hardison and Parker, he hadn't been thinking, he hadn't been under control, and Lindsey had known all of that. Lindsey had taken advantage of all of that. "Well, great. Once again, you're the smart brother. And if anything's happened to them, you're going to be the dead brother all over again."
"I know. You'll put me back in the ground yourself." Lindsey sighed, obviously bored. "You know I could take you. But that isn't why I did this. Your friends are fine. Hardison's probably halfway through Jade Empire by now, and it will take even Parker a while to crack my wall safe and get to my mad money." He took care to look Eliot in the eyes before adding. "I never intended to hurt them."
"Then why did you take them?"
"Simple reason, really. What does your boss always call it?" He snapped his fingers, making a play of fumbling for the answer, before smiling triumphantly. "Ah, right. Leverage."