With those words, Parker swept out of the room, and Eliot limped along behind her. He stopped at the door and turned around.
"Nate, Doc brought in Gabby's and Rachel's parents, and if I know her, she has them in one of the apartments upstairs if you would like to talk to them. I don't know if she's had a chance to tell you yet or not. I know she's had her hands full this afternoon. I'm going up there to talk to her now. If you have questions, you can meet us there in about twenty minutes."
Nate nodded and Eliot limped on out the door and down the hallway, fighting the urge to scratch at the dried blood on his face.
(0o0)
Eliot knocked on the door, more to warn Doc of his presence than anything else. He stopped short as he stalked inside the door, so shocked by her appearance that he even forgot he was supposed to be angry with her. Two large, lurid bruises covered parts of skin he could see, and one eye was purple, on its way to turning black.
Two pairs of expert eyes each appraised the others injuries. Eliot spoke first.
"Good lord, Kat. What happened?"
"Nothing. Mr. Quinn and I had some unfinished business to settle, that's all."
"Where is Quinn?"
"Vance heard the commotion in here and came to see what was going on. It was over by then, but he wanted a word with Quinn."
"I imagine he did. Who got the worst of it?" While Eliot was speaking, he was wetting a rag under the tap. He threw it in a bowl, then opened one of the cabinets in the kitchenette and brought down some salve.
"I'll let you decide for yourself after I find out why you are limping. Come on over here and sit down."
Eliot limped over to the cot next to where Doc was seated, and sat down, stretching his legs out in front of him. While Doc slid his pant leg up and started gently probing his joints, he set the bowl in his lap, took the rag out of the bowl, rang it out, and started washing the dried blood off of his face.
"What happened, Eliot?"
"Nothing serious. The man who got away from us swept my feet while we were trying to subdue him, and I think I overextended my knee. It hurts, but I can walk."
"And the cut?"
"I tried to tuck and roll, but I was already overbalanced. When I went down, I hit the corner of the wall and cut my forehead."
"I see." She moved over next to him and gently probed the cut on his head. He winced slightly. Deciding it didn't need stitches, she placed a bandage over it and taped it in place.
Unscrewing the cap on the bottle of salve, Eliot took Doc's hand and slid her sleeve up to her elbow, and rubbed the salve onto the bruises there. Then, she handed him two pills. He shot her a questioning look.
"Prescription strength ibuprofen—for your knee. Stay off of it until it takes effect."
(0o0)
Eliot watched the alley where Parker had been abducted initially from a well hidden distance. He had been thinking about every aspect of Nate's plan to use Parker for bait, and he wanted to be sure that all of the contingencies were covered. The more he thought about it, the more he understood why it was necessary, and the less he liked it. With no way of knowing how closely her abductors were watching, and whether they would risk coming to the team's headquarters, knowing the reputation of Nate Ford's team, and that they were now on alert and watching, the team saw no choice but to set it up in the alley. Truth be told, he was more worried about the bad guys smelling a trap, if they suddenly left Parker in the treatment room alone.
He had taken care to make sure she wasn't alone at all since the abduction, though this was Parker, so he hadn't perhaps been entirely successful, but the idea was to send a message to her captors, that she wouldn't be alone, and he thought they'd done a pretty good job with that.
Eliot recognized Parker's captor by his photo when he walked into the alley. A part of him wanted to go after the man now, but he knew they weren't ready. The rest of the team wasn't even here, and if he gave away the fact that they were watching, he gave up any element of surprise they might have. He stifled a growl and kept watching.
Suddenly, he saw something that caused him to bolt upright and he whacked his head on a heavy iron pipe that ran above his hiding place. Looking around sheepishly to see if his quarry heard the noise, he decided not to take chances, and he ducked back under cover of darkness. They could look for a long time and wouldn't find any trace of Eliot, especially if he didn't want to be found.
When he was sure he was out of earshot and no one was following him, Eliot spoke softly into the air. "Change of plans. This thing is bigger than we thought. Meet me back at Headquarters."
(0O0)
Nate Ford was seated in front of the table screen, when his hitter walked in. The other members of the team crowded in behind Eliot, following him into the room. Nate turned to stare at his hitter, and Eliot stared back.
"Care to explain your statement?"
"While I was watching the alley, I saw David Kelley. There was another man with him. I don't know his name. All I know of him is that he is one of Moreau's business associates. If he is involved, you can bet Moreau's involved somehow as well. And he's seriously bad news."
"So what do you want to do?"
Eliot looked at him with an expression Nate couldn't read, and when he spoke, all traces of the jovial hitter were gone. He was deadly serious.
"I want us to be very, very, careful, Nate. If we haven't crossed all of our T's, it is Parker who will suffer for it. I have an idea. Give me twenty minutes, then meet me upstairs."
Nate nodded, lost in thought.
(0o0)
Parker entered the alley just as the sun was setting below the horizon, painting the sky with hues of orange and pink. She looked furtively around and then settled in to wait. As darkness fell, there was no movement, no action of any kind, except for her own, and Parker wondered if they had been mistaken.
Nervously, or perhaps out of boredom, she began shifting from foot to foot. Parker had finally decided to keep herself calm by thinking about scaling the buildings in the alley. She was picturing what her rig would look like when she heard, "Well, well, well, what have we here?"
Her eyes focused back in on the alley, and her pulse quickened when she saw David Kelly standing right in front of her. Before she could speak, he grabbed her roughly by the arm and she stifled a scream.
"What are you doing here, girl?"
"I'm supposed to be meeting a friend." She didn't know why she had said that. It wasn't part of the original plan.
"Let's get her back to HQ. Boss wants to talk to her." Parker hadn't seen anyone else, but another man had suddenly appeared at Kelley's side, and it was him who had spoken. When Parker heard those words, she began to struggle, until one of the men reached out and touched her, and she went limp, more or less falling into Kelley's arms.
"Let's go." Eliot whispered over the coms.
"NO! Not yet," Nate replied, then, anticipating what Eliot might have to say about that, he spoke again. "If we follow them back to their Headquarters, we will know where it is, and we can shut down the whole operation."
Eliot stepped right into the mastermind's personal space, staring him down. His stare was so intense that Nate took a step back.
"If this thing goes south and anything happens to her because of this, you'll answer to me."
So, they watched as the two men scooped Parker up and left the alley with her. Eliot said something the others couldn't distinguish into the air, and they all jumped into Lucille to follow. The ride was a silent one, as none of them felt like talking.
Eliot drove fast, with a single minded purpose, through the streets near the docks. The two men must have anticipated being followed, because they turned suddenly down various side streets, cut in front of other cars, and then accelerated to drive across a train track while the lights were flashing and the arms were coming down.
Eliot cursed mildly as he was forced to stop. He turned to Hardison.
"Tell me you have her." Hardison stared at him for a moment, then almost imperceptibly shook his head. "I'm trying," he said. "I'm getting a lot of interference with the signal. Almost like it's being jammed."
Eliot hit the steering wheel in frustration. "So, we lost her. Parker's in the wind with known killers, and we put her there."