Chapter 16

Nate and Sophie were talking quietly over a glass of wine, when there was a mild commotion outside. Four massive black SUVs squealed a little as they turned sharply into the parking lot and came to an abrupt stop. All of the back doors and the hatches opened, and a small army of people jumped out and scattered in different directions. The front driver's side doors opened and Vance, and Kitty got out of two of them, and the other two drivers disappeared to wherever the others had gone. Even in plain clothes, the two senior officers made a striking pair, carrying themselves with a military bearing. Nate had walked to the window to see what was up, and he was a bit taken aback when he saw that many people descending on his building.

Moments later, there was a light tap on the door to his apartment, and Nate opened it to find Kitty standing on the threshold. Nate stepped back and held the door wide, so that she could enter. She nodded to the room at large, and then looked at Hardison. "Is our intel correct that you have two empty apartments in this building?"

Shooting her a funny look, Hardison said, "Yes, there are two empty apartments in the building. Why?"

"With your permission, Vance would like to set up in one, so that we are not right here on top of you all, and I'd like to set up the other for people who might need treatment, so I don't have to bring them to the treatment room here, yet I'm close enough to treat those that are here also."

Hardison nodded, but Nate interrupted. "Why here?"

"Have you read Edgar Allan Poe, Nathan?" Doc asked quietly.

Nate nodded once, and then said, "I'm guessing you will want to meet with us at some point."

"As soon as we've settled in and gotten the equipment set up." With that, she took the keys Hardison held out to her, and moved off down the hallway toward the empty apartments.

Hardison cast a sidelong glance at the mastermind, who was now pacing back and forth, seemingly lost in thought. The older man looked up and saw Hardison looking at him, and crooked an eyebrow.

"Why did she answer the way she did when you asked her why they decided to set up shop here? It doesn't make sense."

"It makes perfect sense, if you've read Poe." Seeing that his hacker still didn't understand, he asked a question of his own.

"What was Poe's favorite place to hide things?"

"He hid things in a lot of places."

"What do all of those places have in common?"

Hardison looked at him blankly and gave a slight shrug of his shoulders. He still didn't know what the mastermind was getting at.

Nate decided to go ahead and give him the answer. "He hid things in plain sight, and yet in places no one would think to look. Under a floor, behind a wall, hanging from the ceiling."

"By which Doc means what, Nate?"

"I think she meant that by setting up shop in the building, anyone else involved would assume that she or Vance had already questioned us or investigated our presence, and would therefore leave us alone. Let's hope she's right."

Nate left his hacker contemplating what he had said, and went about the business of gathering his keys and phone. To Hardison he said, "I'm going to meet Quinn at the safe house on the North side."

"And if Doc comes back in here wanting to know where you are, what should I tell her?"

"Tell her I had a couple of errands to run for the job, and I'll be back soon. While I'm gone, I want you to be sure our aliases are as secure as they can be. Doc and Vance know the truth, of course, but if there's a possibility of anyone else poking around, we need to be sure we're at the top of our game. When you finish that, see what you can find out about the two drawings Parker made for us. Complete backgrounds on both of them, as far back as possible. And make sure they aren't also someone else."

"Will do."

Nate walked out of the apartment and made his way quickly and quietly down to the parking lot. He tried to draw as little attention to himself as possible as he got into the black sedan and started it up.

Doc paused in setting up her treatment room when she heard the door to the staircase creak slowly open and heard distinctive footsteps moving off downstairs. She caught the eye of one of the men below, and nodded, and he moved to one of the black SUVs and watched until Nate's sedan cleared the parking lot, and then followed. Satisfied, she turned back to the task at hand, speaking quietly into a device on her wrist as she did so.

(0o0)

Quinn parked his truck under a tree in the parking lot of the address where Spencer had arranged to meet him. He walked around to the passenger side of the truck and opened the door, helping his charge down as he did so. She took two steps and faltered, so he scooped her up and carried her into the building through a side door, and up the back stairs. He put her down at the top of the stairs, amid protests that she could walk.

Alarm bells started going off in his brain. Something didn't feel right about this. He wanted very much to draw any one of the weapons on his person, but he didn't want to scare the woman with him, and there were only about two situations he could find himself in here, and in neither case would his weapons help him very much. The first was that Spencer was setting him up for some reason, and if that was so, he had no chance with weapons unless he could shoot from a distance and Spencer was too good for that. The other possibility was that someone had set Spencer up, and was lying in wait for him, and if they were good enough to get Spencer, his weapons would be no help to him. Still, out of habit, he put one hand on the weapon hidden in his shoulder holster, while he used the other to steer his charge down the hallway.

Spencer's text had told him to go up the stairs and to the third door on the landing. The door was standing slightly ajar, and that told him that something was up. In one smooth motion, he kicked the door open, escorted his charge inside, and crouched into a defensive stance to clear the room. A middle aged man with curly dark hair was seated at the desk, watching him intently. To his credit, the man didn't flinch away from him.

Quinn froze.

"Well well, If it isn't Nathan Ford. Where's Spencer?"

"He's around. Who is this?"

At that point, Quinn did draw his weapon and he pointed it at Ford.

"Don't ever lie to me again," he said, in a dangerous voice. Nate sat calmly, hands raised instinctually against the weapon. "I know Spencer well enough to know that if he were here, he'd be sitting there instead of you. Since I now know he isn't here, what's to keep me from killing you right now? I don't like games."

Nate swallowed hard. Most people wouldn't notice, but Quinn did, and it brought him a degree of grim satisfaction.

"I called you here to try to ensure your safety, since you are helping my team, however temporarily that may be."

"Explain."

"There's an epidemic in the area, and the military has been called in. The officers involved are acquaintances of Spencer, and they are setting up shop in our building as we speak. I didn't know if the Feds were looking for you or not, and figured I had some responsibility to keep you clear of them since you are helping us at the moment."

Quinn nodded in acknowledgement and thanks. "Where's Spencer?"

"He's been hit by the epidemic, and is ill."

"This is a young lady I found being held captive at the house. I captured one of the men holding her, but he got away while I was rescuing her. I doubt he'll be back, but I'll continue to watch the place for a few days anyway, to be sure."

"Thank you. I'll make sure she gets the care she needs. Can you describe the man whom you captured?"

"Average height, but really thin. Scraggly looking beard. Eyes that are just a bit too close together and bushy eyebrows. Mousy brown hair and brown eyes. Extremely pale, like he's been shut away from the sun for a long time. Seems almost sickly, but he's not the only one—he had somebody helping him."

"How do you know that?"

"He couldn't have escaped my bindings by himself, and I left him barely conscious."

"Good to know. Thank you."

Quinn left and the young lady he had brought with him sat watching Nate without speaking to him. He felt—safer somehow, and less intimidating. Catching her watching him, Nate said, "How are you feeling?"

She didn't answer. He cocked his head to the side, and tried again. "I won't hurt you. One of the members of my team is mixed up in all of this somehow, and I just want to help you both. Can you tell me your name?"

"Rachael."

"Thank you, Rachael. I need to ask you a few more questions, but I'd like to do it somewhere more comfortable, and I'd like to make sure you have eaten, and your medical needs are taken care of before we do anything else. Is that acceptable?"

She nodded, still not speaking. Slowly he approached her, not wanting to scare her, and putting one hand under her elbow, he steered her to his sedan and helped her to buckle herself into the passenger seat. Then, he sped off toward his apartment.

After a moment, the black SUV that was parked around the corner pulled out and began to follow him back, keeping enough distance so as not to make it obvious.