Parker almost blended into the background as she knelt on the dark rooftop. Her blond hair was tucked into a black beret that matched the rest of her clothing. As she tightened the harness around her body, a voice came into her ear.

"Parker, are you sure that thing is going to be able to hold you and that statue?"

She scowled slightly.

"Hardison, it's a carbon fiber line and a secure five-point harness. It's fine," she said.

She quickly picked the window lock and eased the pane open.

"Nate, I'm going in."

"Remember the plan, Parker. Get in, get out. Nothing fancy," said Nate's voice in her earbud.

"Yeah. Right," she said.

Reaching in through the window, she screwed two rings to the metal frame of the building and threaded the two harness lines through them. With the second harness in hand, she jumped, descending to the floor of the dark room in seconds. Well, she wasn't the world's greatest thief for nothing.

She landed behind a stack of cardboard boxes and silently crept around them. The room was pitch black except for a tiny glimmer through the window from a streetlight. Cautiously, she clicked on a tiny flashlight. In such a dark room, it almost felt like she'd turned on a spotlight, but her eyes adjusted, and she stopped suddenly.

"Um, Nate? Do you want the bad news or the weird news?" Parker said.

"Parker, what's going on?"

She crouched down behind a box in the dark room.

"Well, the statue isn't here. I can't see it, and none of the boxes in here are big enough to hold it."

"OK, come on back, and we'll regroup."

Glancing around the edge of the box, she made a face.

"That's the thing. I found something else. There's a man tied to a chair."

"Did he see you?"

Parker stepped out and walked closer to the man.

"No, I think he's knocked out."

"Good. Now get out of there, Parker."

Her eyes widened. "But Nate, these guys here are bad guys, really bad. We can't just leave him."

"He could be a bad guy too, Parker. We need to get some more intel, and we can come back."

"We don't have time for you to come up with another plan, and I'm not leaving him here. What if they come back and do something bad to him?"

She reached into the pocket of the man's dark blue jeans.

"There's no wallet or ID here, but I still think we should help him."

Hardison broke in on the exchange in her ear.

"Excuse me, hacker extraordinaire here. I think I can get us that intel. Parker, do you have your phone?"

"Yeah."

"Bring up that scanning app I put on there for you. When you have it loaded, go over and put his right index finger on the scanner."

Parker pulled out the phone and gingerly took hold of one of the man's handcuffed hands. After tapping the phone screen a few times, she held it up to his fingertip and gently rolled it across the screen.

"OK, I've got it. Now what?"

"Now, you send it to me, and I can use my hack into the FBI to run it through all the fingerprint databases. It could take while, though."

Parker knelt down next to the chair, watching the man for any signs of movement.

Back in the van, Hardison clicked on his mouse a few times, then sat back.

"Now what?" said Nate.

"Now, we wait. It's running the guy's print through the state of California, Interpol, FBI, you name it," Hardison said.

He drummed his fingers lightly on the keyboard and took a swig of orange soda. After a few minutes, the computer chirped.

"And we have a hit," Hardison said with a grin. "Mystery man, this is your life."

As he scrolled through several pages, the grin faded, and by the time he looked at Nate, Hardison's expression had become downright serious.

"Um, Nate? This could be… well, I don't know if it's bad or good."

Nate raised his eyebrows. "Tell me what you've got."

"Well, our guy in the warehouse is Special Agent Don Eppes of the FBI. From what I'm reading here in his file, he's like scary good at his job. I'm surprised this dude even has time for a life with all the cases he's closed. He's in charge of the violent crimes division for Los Angeles. Dude has taken more murderers, kidnappers and armed robbers off the street than I can count."

Nate nodded. Eliot cleared his throat.

"Guy like this, we've got to get him out of there," said Eliot, clenching his fists. "He's a hero."

"The problem is if he sees us rescuing him, he could find out about all of us," said Hardison.

As Nate nodded again, the corners of his mouth turned up just a little bit.

"I know that look. It's the 'I have a plan' look," said Hardison.

Nate shot him a glare.

"I do have a plan, Hardison. But it's going to require some good luck. And Parker might have to be the carrot," Nate said.

"Nate, you know I'm not good at being the carrot. What about my problem with, you know, the stabbing?" Parker said in an agitated whisper.

"You'll do fine. You did fine with Vector. You can do this. Now, uncuff him and get him into the harness. Can you manage that alone?"

Parker smiled. "The cuffs are off already. I got bored."

Pulling out a pocket knife, she reached down and slashed the plastic zip-ties holding Don's legs to the chair. Immediately, his body began to fall off the chair. Parker caught him with a grunt.

"Oof. Super agents are kind of heavy," she said.

"You OK with him?" Eliot said.

"Yeah. Just give me a minute," she said, panting slightly. "Once I have him in the harness, it'll do all the heavy lifting."

She reached out and began pulling his arms through the loops of the harness. Don's left arm flopped around as she picked it up.

"Eliot, one of his arms is moving funny," she said.

"What do you mean 'funny'?" Eliot said.

"Well, it's like it's not connected right."

Eliot scowled. "Bastards probably dislocated his shoulder when they tied him up. Parker, it'll be fine. I'll fix him up once he's out of there."

"OK."

She resumed, pulling each of Don's legs through the harness as well.

"You know, it's funny he hasn't reacted to any of this. He must have gotten hit in the head really hard or something," Parker said.

Pulling out a carabiner, she hooked it to the center of the harness, near his waist, and to the second line.

"I'm ready to send him up. Eliot, I'm going to need you at the bottom outside to catch this guy."

She hit a button, and the motor at the top of the roof pulled both lines slowly upward toward the window. When they reached the top, she said, "Eliot? Are you there?"

"Send him on down, Parker."

Parker pushed Don through the small window feet first and followed him through. His body hung limply in the harness, leaning against the roof. She crouched next to him for a moment, then hit the button again to send them both down.

Eliot was there, as promised, and he eased Don over his shoulder into a fireman's carry as the motor finished their descent. Parker pressed a button, and both lines released, flopping to the ground. They hurried back to the van, where Nate and Hardison were waiting with the door open.

"I'm going to put him down. Nate, Hardison, catch him, but don't pull on his arms," Eliot said.

He leaned forward to push Don onto the van's floor. Hardison caught Don's back, and Nate guided Don's head to the floor. Eliot grabbed his legs and swung them into the van. Parker jumped into the passenger seat as Nate slipped behind the wheel. They drove away from the warehouse and down the highway before anyone knew they'd been there at all.