A/N: I hope you enjoy this story as much as I enjoyed writing it for you. I don't own Leverage or any of the characters, and make no money off of any of this. Thank you for reading, following, and otherwise supporting this story. Please review. They really do make my day!

Chapter 9

Vance used his military connections to find out where Conrad would be at various times over the next few days. He knew Eliot didn't want anyone too involved, for fear that Conrad would catch wind of their questions, but the man didn't know what kind of loyalty he inspired among their mutual military contacts. These were men whom they both trusted implicitly, and men who would die before selling out anyone else. They were also men who still owed Eliot Spencer a few favors. Any one of them would have used the skills they possessed to deliver Conrad into their hands, if that had been the request, but Vance knew that Eliot also wanted to keep their contacts out of this for the safety of the contacts as much as for any other reason. So, they would go to Conrad. He looked over to where he knew the other man was hidden in the underbrush, and thought about what he had been through over the past two weeks. He had sounded rough yesterday, when they met, but Eliot Spencer was not a man to either give up or give in, and his voice had gotten consistently better after an afternoon of drinking bottle after bottle of water from the sink in the stable.

According to the schedule he had obtained from a contact who worked closely with the CIA, Conrad was supposed to be in this field they were hidden in at any moment, carrying out a secret meeting with another of his protégés. Vance was beginning to wonder if his informant had been mistaken when he saw a figure move out from the cover of the trees and the underbrush, and stand, rather nervously he thought, in the middle of the clearing.

A moment later, he heard the sound of chopper blades just above the tree-line. This clearing was just large enough for the pilot to set the chopper down, and as he did so, small trees bent backwards, away from the violent wind created by the chopper blades. Grass lay flat and loose soil was caught and thrown into the air, and out, away from where it had been. Crouched to avoid the blades, Conrad climbed out of the chopper, his bodyguards behind him, and stood facing the young man before him. Vance couldn't hear what they were saying, and was in no position to take out either of the two bodyguards. He hoped Eliot knew what he was doing, and as soon as he had that thought one of the men crumpled to the ground, completely silently, to lay on top of the pilot Eliot had pulled out of his seat mere moments before. Half a second later, and the second guard lay jumbled up with the first.

Taking that as his cue, Vance stepped out from his position in the trees, and made short work of the kid to whom Conrad was talking a second before. A look of surprise crossed the older man's face, and he was about to demand to know how they had found him and what was going on, when Eliot spun him around and punched him hard, squarely connecting with his jaw and snapping his head back.

The man clearly hadn't seen hard combat; he was no weakling, but he crumpled easily enough under the single fisted assault.

"That was for trying to kill me with the nerve gas."

"Oh. You figured that out, did you?"

Eliot punched him again. "I did."

"You just made one mistake."

"Oh? What's that?"

"I wasn't trying to kill you. If I was, I promise you, you'd be dead. No. You are much more useful to me as a weapon against your team. The nerve gas just made it easier. I am not going to tell you just what kind of weapon you are. It will be far more interesting for you to figure that out on your own, in the middle of every day, normal situations. When it happens, you can blame Nate Ford for getting my attention, and also for potentially getting your team killed." When he heard those words, Eliot finished the job his fist had started a moment before, and Conrad's eyes rolled back in his head and he slid to the ground.

Vance so wanted to shoot the bastard, but he knew if he did so, there would be no hope of getting him to tell them what he had done to Eliot, or if he was bluffing. So, he contented himself with using zip ties to tie the man's wrists and ankles together, and depositing him on the pile with his buddies. Eliot made short work of permanently disabling the helicopter, and then there was nothing to do but wait for their captives to wake up.

Vance and Eliot looked at one another, and whole volumes of knowledge and ideas known only to themselves passed between them, as if riding on an electrical current. Finally, Eliot broke the silence.

"Vance—"he broke off and rubbed his eyes. He was still tired, and he hated what that stuff was doing to him. "I have to know if what Conrad said is true." Vance nodded. He knew this. Eliot continued, "If it is, I'm a danger to the team, until I figure out how to undo it. I can't ask you to be a part of this."

"So what? You expect me to just walk away and leave you to handle this situation by yourself? Not a chance in Hell."

Eliot met the other man's gaze and held it. "I may have to do some things that won't be, shall we say, officially sanctioned, to find the answers I need. That could turn out to be a career ender for you. I don't want to be the person who costs you your career."

"Listen carefully, Spencer. I'm only going to say this once," he gazed steadily at Eliot, until he was sure he had the other man's attention."We've worked together for a long time. Neither of us has clean hands. When we joined the service, we took an oath to defend the Constitution against ALL enemies, foreign and domestic. Don't you think a man like Conrad is an enemy to the Constitution? He uses his power to cover up illicit acts against innocent citizens and then kills or tries to kill to cover his tracks. Besides that, they're vets, Spencer. Men who made the same oath we did, who paid with good years of their lives to protect this country. I take that personally. Some things are more important than a career and pension—like brotherhood."

"I can't let him go, or we'll be looking over our shoulders for the rest of our lives, and he'll plan an attack we'll never see coming. He has the resources of the CIA at his disposal, and it's hard to fight that." He paused for a moment, and then spoke again. "If you won't walk away, come over here and help me with him."