"Hey girl, you in position?" Hardison asked. Not that he would blame her if she wasn't. He hadn't slept much since Eliot had been taken. Just the thought of someone badass enough to kidnap Eliot Spencer scared the hell out of him. The fact that they had done it pissed him off.
*I'm here. Did you figure out a way I could cut off her air supply?* Parker asked, glaring at her tiny computer screen.
"It's an office building, Parker, not a spaceship," Hardison said. "It's not possible to make it airtight."
*There's a way to lock it down,* She said. *Although why it talks about zombie contingencies I don't know. I think they're crazy.*
Hardison kept his mouth shut; it took supreme effort not to say anything but he managed. It was almost painful.
*Parker, stay on task please,* Nate said.
The blonde thief gave a frustrated sigh. *Fine but I'm not letting her out of the office. Did you know their windows can block all UV and if you tell them too they can block out light? It's also soundproof in there,* She said. *Maybe I'll just turn the sound up on her stereo.*
*Parker,* Nate, Sophie, and Hardison said in unison.
*I never get to do anything fun.*
Nate sighed as he walked to the bar and ordered a drink, ignoring the worried look from Sophie on the other side of the room. He nodded his thanks to the bartender and found a quiet dark corner to sit in.
"I'm sending you the passcodes now. Once that's cleared, I've got a worm that I will send your netbook. Load that into the system and I'll take over from here. But we gotta be quick," Hardison told her as his fingers flew over the keyboard.
*Just promise me this is going to hurt,* Parker said.
"Oh it's gonna hurt somebody," Hardison said. "Don't worry about that."
*fine. It's in,* she said
"That's my girl," Hardison said.
*Since you won't let me torture her, I'm going to go find out what they keep in their vaults.*
"No," Tara said abruptly.
Hardwick looked at her questioningly.
"No. I didn't just forget my sister's birthday," She said sheepishly, "I just need to make a quick phone call or I'm going to be in the dog house for the next twenty years."
Hardwick laughed. "Forgetting birthdays is why I am no longer married. "
"Her loss," Tara said and made a point of taking her cell phone out and heading out of the bar. "Parker leave everything in the vaults. I can't explain but just please do not steal anything from there. Money, information, that's fine, but nothing out of the vaults."
*what aren't you telling us Tara,* Nate asked.
"I can't tell you why but it's more dangerous than you know."
*Tara-,* Nate said.
"They're evil. The things they have locked up are things that they think are too dangerous to be out in the world. Do the math, and leave it where it is. There is no room for discussion on this."
*No time at any rate. We'll revisit this in the morning,* Nate said. To his way of thinking the things that evil people kept locked away from the world were exactly the sort of things that needed to be liberated, but there was no time to argue and he needed Parker to stay focused anyway.
"Thank you," Tara said and recomposed herself as she walked back into the bar. "So where were we?" She asked smiling at Hardwick. She needed to keep him occupied and in that bar until Hardison was done.
Parker rolled her eyes, *Right. Nothing in the vaults.* She let out a long sigh and turned her attention back to the video feed of Lilah's office. *Hardison, how do I connect to the video feed from Eliot's cell? I can't pull it up,* she asked as she started playing with the lights in Lilah's office. She turned them back on, then once the woman looked relieved she set them flashing on and off at irregular intervals.
"I'll be on that in just a minute. There is a lot of shit on just one server. It's going to take a minute or five," Hardison told her. "In the meantime, I need you to let her out of there and get into that office. "
*No, I'm not letting her out. I'm not letting her give any more orders.*
Nate knew the warning signs. Parker was losing it. *Parker, Wolfram and Hart is a hydra. You cut off this head three more will take her place. Do you understand what I am saying? *
*She's the one that hurt Eliot. The other. heads. haven't.*
"But they will," Hardison said. "Unless we make it so that they don't want to."
*And believe me, her bosses will hurt her far more than you ever could,* Nate told her.
She sighed. *I don't have to let her out to get in there without her seeing. What do you need me to do?"
Hardison sighed in relief. "Okay, I need you to power up the computer and use that flash drive I gave you."
*okay. I'm going in,* Parker told him and started playing with the sound in the office as well as the lights. She was dressed in black from head to toe. With the lights flashing from bright to black they would provide camouflage. Besides with the sound system going psycho, she figured Lilah would be too busy trying to turn it off to pay much attention to anything else. She dropped in through another panel in the ceiling, then dropped to a low crawl to get behind the desk, watching as Lilah, as she figured, rushed to the sound system. Parker was under the desk in no time tucked underneath in the foot well. She pushed the power button and winced as it made the Windows start-up sound. Fortunately, it didn't register in the cacophony to Lilah. She put in the flash drive. *Now what do I do?*
Hardison winced at the sounds coming his way through the com link. "Nothing. It's self-loading as soon as the computer recognizes the drive exists. And we're up and running. Take the flash drive and get out of there before we all go deaf. Damn girl."
Parker smiled a wicked little smile and made her way back to her line and up out of the room. She replaced the panel, then went back to her computer and shut off the lights again. *Now for med-lab.*
Hardison shuddered at the cheerful tone. "Be careful," he told her. He wasn't about to try and talk her out of it; from the silence on the com, apparently, neither was Nate. He copied everything off of Lilah's hard drive and uploaded a virus that would spread throughout Wolfram and Hart in minutes. He watched the upload process and when it was done he disconnected his laptop from the net entirely. It was disposable. He knew exactly where he planned to dispose of it but there was one thing he had to do first.
He wiped his prints off of the machine and passed it on to Sophie, who had pulled on a coat and gloves before picking up the laptop and staggering through the bar; bumping into people as she went until Nate conveniently assisted her into stumbling into Tara's table.
The laptop clattered to the table and into Hardwick's lap and Tara used the distraction to make sure the drinks wound up in hers. She stood up and started to argue with Sophie at the top of their lungs. A well-timed complaint from Hardison to the manager completed his job for the evening and he slipped out of the bar quietly.
Hardwick bit off a long stream of invective as he stood up, laptop in hand. "Are you alright?" He asked Tara.
"I will be once I tear her apart," Tara said heatedly.
"Yeah? You think you can take me, come on Blondie," Sophie slurred, in her best New Jersey accent.
"I think the two of you need to leave," The manager said. "I've already gotten complaints. "
Hardwick handed the laptop back to Sophie and turned his attention to Tara. "I should take you home." He said.
Tara shook her head. "No," She said. "I had a great time up till now, but other than that it's been a monstrous day and I just want to go home and sleep."
"If it's any consolation I think you'll be given another assignment soon. I don't see McDonald staying with the firm after the negotiations tomorrow. I can put in a good word and maybe you can move up the food chain."
Tara's blood ran cold. "Thank you. I appreciate that."
"Can you be appreciative outside, please?" The manager said and was rewarded with a glare from Tara who nevertheless started walking out the door.
Sophie had tucked the netbook out of sight. When asked, the manager would have seen it in Hardwick's hands, not hers. "See if I ever come back to this place," She said and walked out in the opposite direction from Tara.
The leggy blonde got on the first bus that came by, not caring where it was going. She called Angel and told him she was on the move and the bus number.
"Get off at the next stop. I'll be there in ten," He told her.
She took out the earbud and put it in her handbag. The others didn't need to hear her conversation with Angel. "How did it go on your end?"
"The tribunal is thinking about it," He grumbled. "I should know by tomorrow morning. But even if we are boxed in with the original site we'll get him out of there," Angel promised.
"I know. I can't wait to get home. This has been the day from hell."
Angel smiled a little sadly. Home. She thought of his place as home now. "Soon," He said quietly. "I'll have you back here soon. "
"For how long?" She asked. Why was it easier to have this conversation with him over the phone than in person? How could she be thinking of this now? With everything going on why did she need him to commit now?
"We'll talk about that when this is over," Angel said "I'm not going anywhere and neither are you. For now."
"For now," She echoed and pulled the cord to signal the driver.