"Faith…Parker…you get that?" Nate's voice in his head, quieting the rage that was threatening to rise up and consume Eliot. He exhaled softly, willing himself calm. The girls were warned. Nate wouldn't rest until they were clear of the building. Eliot needed to focus on his own situation, and figure out how to turn things to the team's advantage.
"We got it," Faith said. "Don't worry – we'll keep out of their way. Hardison, can you find me a way up to Lindsey's office?"
No! Eliot felt the muscles along his jaw tighten, but he kept quiet – trusting Nate to do the strategically sound thing and get the girls out. That hope was dashed mere moments later.
"Y'all are gonna have to get back in the ventilation system," Hardison said.
"Faith," Nate added, "follow Parker through the system, and then you take the lead getting into Lindsey's office. Do not – I repeat – do not put her in the line of fire under any circumstances."
"Got it, Pops."
"Eliot," Nate said. "Be ready to move. We're on our way."
Eliot was touched by the determination in Nate's voice not to leave him behind. He could count on one hand the number of times the mastermind had made a purely emotional move that hadn't been entirely self-destructive. On the other hand, he couldn't let the team risk themselves without knowing exactly what they were up against.
"How long have you been watching Hardison?" he asked out loud.
"Faith…Parker… " That was Nate. "Stay low and hold position."
Lindsey studied Eliot for a long moment. Then he smiled. "Since the beginning. Alec Hardison has been monitored from the second he first hacked into the Wolfram and Hart servers. He hasn't seen anything I didn't want him to see."
"Wanna bet Zombie-boy?" Eliot almost smiled at Hardison's quip, but controlled himself at the last second. Wonder if you know how bad you just pissed Hardison off? The hacker was…disturbingly inventive…when his skills were challenged or subverted.
"Can they hear me?" Lindsey asked, drawing Eliot's attention fully back to the room he was standing in, and the guns that surrounded him.
Eliot thought about playing dumb, and then decided against it. Folding his arms across his chest defensively, he nodded.
Lindsey smiled, sliding open a drawer in his desk. "Good."
Eliot had a flash of heart-stopping panic, where he wondered if his twin was actually going to shoot him. The taser he pulled out was a perverse relief, then, a half-second before Lindsey fired and the two leads attached themselves to Eliot's chest.
He heard Hardison swearing, and Nate and Faith arguing, but it all faded against the backdrop of the electricity lighting up his entire nervous system. He dropped immediately to the carpet, body thrashing and stuttering as his muscles convulsed uncontrollably.
It wasn't the first time Eliot had been hit with a taser – not by a long shot. He forced himself not to fight the effects, breathing through the pain as best he could. The only thing he would not do was lose consciousness. Eliot had never been in a situation in his life where passing out led to anything good.
After what seemed like an eternity, the flow of electricity dancing through his body was cut off. A moment later, Lindsey stood over him. "I'm done screwing around." Planting a foot against Eliot's shoulder, he shoved him over onto his back. Eliot couldn't entirely suppress the cry of pain that slipped out at the forced movement.
"You're going into a cell to cool off, while I deal with my other project. After I convince your girlfriend to take the deal I've got for her, you and I are going to work on straightening out your fucked up priorities."
Faith had barely resisted yanking the com unit out of her ear when the burst of feedback had washed through the network. As it was, her head was still buzzing slightly from the hit. A quick glance at Parker told her the thief wasn't in much better shape. "Hardison, what's going on?" she hissed.
"I'm guessing taser," the hacker said. "I cut Eliot's com out of the network – no telling if it's even still working if it got hit by that much concentrated electricity."
"Have they really been watching you?" Parker asked. Faith suppressed a burst of irritation; it was a valid question, it just wasn't the one uppermost in her mind right now.
"It's not impossible," Hardison admitted, "but there's only so much of that sort of thing they can do. Now that I know they were thinking it, I'm adjusting to account for it."
"We're going after him, Nate," Faith said. "There's bad shit going down here, and I'm not leaving him in the middle of it."
"According to Eliot's intel, you've got at least three men with high powered semi-automatics in that room," her father said. "Not to mention whatever else Lindsey might have up his sleeve." There was a pause, and Faith could sense Nate struggling with what he was about to say. "I don't want to leave him either, but we need to be smart about this."
Another lifetime…grabbing a young lawyer by the back of the neck…rush of power as she slammed his face repeatedly into the polished surface of the heavy desk. "No," Faith said as the memory washed over her. Lindsey's eyes watching her – stain of fear on his soul…
"We don't need to be smart," she continued. "We need to be crazy." Her behavior so many years ago had marked Lindsey McDonald, Faith was sure of it. No matter what he might know about her reform, his default reaction was always going to be the younger version of himself who'd watched her maim one of his colleagues without flinching.
"Faith…" Nate began. Shaking her head, Faith spoke over him.
"Sophie – if you saw somebody attacked, saw them beaten almost to death, how would you react if the person who attacked them suddenly showed up on your doorstep?"
The grifter didn't hesitate. "I'd be terrified."
"Even if it's been ten years or more, and you've heard this person is playing for the good guys now?"
"Faith, no," Nate said. "You and Parker get out of there!"
But Sophie had spoken at almost exactly the same moment. "Especially if I'd heard they were playing for the good guys now."
That was all Faith needed to hear. "Hardison, get us a way in that office."