The Wild - Chapter Two
Master Post is here
Chapter Two
It is easier to hide in a big city than in a small one and that made this dusty little town damn near impossible to stay inconspicuous in. With it's population of just shy of two thousand any newcomers were gonna make waves. This was both a blessing and a curse for the team. It made them easy to spot but it also made the ones they were looking for easy to find. Or so they thought.
Nate took on the role of a writer in search for a secluded place to write, Sophie was his wife and Hardison his assistant, driver and jack of all trades. They managed to find a house up for rent at the outskirts of town and settled in, getting ready for a long stay.
"It feels really odd havin' a briefing without Eliot and Parker..."
"I know Sophie, Hardison, continue..."
Hardison pressed a button on his remote. There was no wall of screens here, just the one TV and his laptop, and the presentation wasn't the prettiest he'd ever done either. His mind was on other things and it showed. The other two in the decimated team didn't seem to care though.
"Ok, what we know is that the call that Eliot made came from within the area of this cell tower right here. Now had we been in a larger city we might have been able to triangulate it better but out here towers are further apart. As you can see on this satellite image there are not very many buildings or structures here. Add to that that the buildings that are in-fact in the area are all residential or small business and things start smelling fishy." He was getting into his speech now and was clicking and gesturing almost as usual.
"We don't know much about the people holding Eliot and Parker." He is careful not to mention that they don't actually know if Parker is in the same place as Eliot, or if it was even the same people taking them.
"Since both of them were captured rather than killed we can assume the people who picked them up wanted them alive and since we haven't seen any heist or job go down with either of their rather special brand of skills chances are the kidnappers are keeping them locked up and out of the way for some reason. God only knows for what. Anyway, moving on - Sophie, you've done the snooping around the city."
"Gossiping you mean? Yeah, our neighbours have been very forthcoming with information about life in our new hometown. As you know we are a bit away from the main tourist streaks, some still trickle by but not so many that new people, like us, don't get noticed. Unfortunately for us the latest addition before us was an elderly couple and their grandson who moved in seven months ago. Hardison already checked them and the only thing they are hiding is the fact that they moved to get the kid away from bad company - he got picked up on a minor drug possession some time before they came here. Besides them nothing "interesting" has happened for ages..." Sophie went silent again after her spot on impersonation of Mrs Gordon, the city's hairdresser and information mistress.
"What this means is that whoever has Parker and Eliot is either fantastic at hiding or have been here long enough for people to regard them as part of the city. I've narrowed it down to three possible suspects or scenarios." A click brought up a satellite photo of a fenced in compound just outside of town. "First we have the home of local religious wackjobs. They call themselves the Blessed Chosen and have just barely managed to stay off the governments watch-lists. Now considering the fences and security they would be a pretty good option for our bad guys but any self-respecting evil organization..."
"We don't know that they are an evil organization, Hardison"
"You are right, but the kidnapping people of the street in broad daylight does kinda makes it likely. So, as I was saying, any self-respecting evil organization would know that since Waco any religious secluded group is gonna get at least a cursory glance now and again from the government which makes it a pretty lousy cover for someone pretending to be something that they are not. So. Moving on to suspicious area number two." Another click brings up a different satellite photo, this one of a ranch with one big barn and several smaller buildings.
"Now this is the McNally farm, everything points towards this being just your average farm, nothing sticks out and nothing seems odd, though this in itself is rather suspicious it is also the only other bigger cluster of buildings within the area covered by the tower that picked up Eliot's call. I took a peek into the finances of the McNally family and found a tiny little discrepancy. About a year ago the farm was very close to going under like so many other's had done due to the financial crisis. Then suddenly they squared their debts and got back on even footing. Officially the money came from a new financier but that entity is hard to pin down. Of course if you are an evil organization trying to hide behind an honest business-" He ignored Nate's look and continued. "- you might not want to save a sliding one but instead acquire a well off one with some money under the table to be as invisible as possible."
"Yeah, according to Mrs Gordon the McNally's were saved by a long lost rich uncle who suddenly got an urge to reconnect with his family but Miss Forrester the manicurist says the money came from a settlement with a celebrity who is the actual father of Sioban McNally." Sophie shrugged. "I am more keen on agreeing with Mr Gordon who claims the McNally's found a hidden treasure, it seems more romantic to me..."
"These people have way to active imaginations..." Nate shook his head.
"So... moving on to the third alternative." A click revealed an entirely green area bisected by a grayish road. "Now this might seem like a satellite picture of a forest to you and in fact you would be correct. What's interesting about this particular forested mountainside though is this:" Another click and the image zoomed closer to a slightly darker green square in the green image. "A concealed building. Now I've done some checking and Sophie's done some asking and apparently the only thing up around this area is an old government facility that closed down after the cold war. I haven't found anything that indicates that it is anything but abandoned but that could just be the sign of a smart evil organization. Personally I'd say this is my favorite option although we still lack a lot of information. We really need to get closer and get a better look." He doesn't say 'we need Parker and Eliot to get closer and take a better look'. He doesn't need to, they are all thinking it anyway. Instead Hardison turns the screen off and sits down, wordlessly handing the briefing over to Nate.
"OK, this is what we are gonna do... We need to eliminate the other areas first. Sophie you make friends with the McNally's and get yourself invited to their home. Hardison, I'm gonna need you to be a bit Parker for me. It wouldn't make sense for my assistant to suddenly start taking an interest in religion and begin jonesing to join a cult so we have to be sneaky instead. Can you do that?"
"Of course... at least there are no skyscrapers I need to jump off."
"Right, let's get to it!"
"What are you gonna do Nate?"
"Me? I'm going for an inspirational walk in the woods..." Nate's smile almost came close to his usual one, just for a second, before faltering again. "Let's do this right from the start... I don't think Eliot and Parker have enough time for us to screw up the basics."
Hardison nodded silently and Sophie gently squeezed Nate's arm before they set out to continue working their most important job yet.
***
Nate was very close to falling asleep when a faint sound pulled him back to consciousness. He blinked and tried to find the source of in the room lit only by moonlight from the window. He tensed briefly at the sight of a figure near the door but relaxed when he recognized Sophie's form.
"Trouble?"
"No... I... Nate, do you... oh I don't even know what I want to ask. I'm just..." Nate interrupted her by scooting to the side and lifting the side of his comforter. She took the hint and slid down into bed with him. She was wearing an old over-sized t-shirt and the fabric was soft against his chest as he held her close. They lay silent in the darkness for awhile before Sophie spoke again.
"What if we never find him." Her voice was soft and barely audible.
"We will. We definitely will."
"What if he's dead?"
"Don't talk like that." Nate felt his chest clench at the thought.
"I just wish..."
"I know..."
"I've seen you you know. Seen you look too..." And Nate knew she had, he'd seen her too.
"He's a beautiful man."
"It's not only that though..."
"No... no it's not." An image rose to his mind, a memory in vivid color, Eliot was in the kitchen, stripped down to a tank top with a bandanna holding his hair back. His knife flashed in a ray of sun from the window and he was laughing at something Sophie had said from where she was seated on the other side of the bench. It'd been a perfect moment in time and the moment when he realised ... "I wish..."
"I know. We... we'll need to talk about this. When we find them." Sophie sighed.
"When we find them." Nate agreed and the fake confidence in his voice was only partly for her benefit.
"Can I stay here tonight? I... I don't want to be alone."
"That's alright... try to get some sleep."
"You too.... Good night Nate."
"Sleep."
They lay together in the darkness and listened to the other one breathe. The bed was small and had barely enough space for the both of them but still they couldn't help wishing there was a third person in it.
***
Nate tried to scratch sneakily but Sophie noticed and cleared her throat. "It'll only get worse if you scratch, darling..."
"It's easy to say... that damn cream isn't helping at all"
"I keep telling you to put some baking soda on that, Nana always said it was the best cure for a poison ivy rash, but anyway, at least your pain gave us some results. I took a closer look at these images and there are definite some good signs." Hardison zoomed the image on the screen until it is focused on a single lonely metal tube sticking out of the undergrowth.
"This here is a ventilation exhaust and if this facility was closed and abandoned like the official story says no one would care if it was overgrown and blocked but someone apparently does in this case. That someone has taken the time to clear around it and considering that the plants look different on this side I bet that if we where to film this with a heat-sensitive camera we would see warm exhausts coming out right here." Hardison pointed to the side of the metal column.
"OK, stating the obvious here but since the other places turned out to be exactly what they seemed to be, and I still can't believe the McNally's actually found an old treasure, this not so abandoned place is our prime objective. So, can you hack them?"
"Not from the outside, no, at least not this far out on the outside. They are smart and doesn't have a direct connection to the Internet. I do bet they still need an internal network though, not even a secret evil organisation would want to run about with usb-sticks all the time."
"OK, so how do we get you close enough to get to their network?"
"I have a plan for that actually..."
***
He didn't starve, but when the food finally came he would have eaten anything that was put before him no matter what it smelled like. What surprised him was that while the food, still as badly cooked, smelled different it didn't smell wrong like before. Despite his hunger he took an extra sniff. Maybe they changed the drug, maybe they put some kind of odourless poison in it this time, maybe... Eliot stopped himself before he go lost in the what ifs. He was shaking from hunger and even the sad overcooked potatoes seemed appetizing.
Die fast or die slow... he decided to chance it and started eating. There were no strange tastes either and when he was still alive and awake quite some time after finishing the meal he decided they were fucking with him. They were trying to screw with his head. Staring out into the dark room he reached the conclusion that they were succeeding too.
He had no idea how long it had been since he made his last escape attempt. He knew the wound on his knee was almost completely healed but considering the other changes in his body he wasn't sure he could measure the time passed from that. They kept him on the edge of starvation and he didn't dare move anymore that strictly necessary. He needed to conserve the energy he got, he would need to be strong to get himself and Parker out of there. And he was beginning to doubt anyone was coming to help them. Maybe he'd keyed in the wrong number, maybe it got lost in the ether somewhere, maybe there was no one out there to receive it. For every uneventful waking period he persuaded himself more that the others had been caught too, that they too were sitting in dark cells wishing for someone to come get them, waiting for him to save them.
So he started planning escape. The only time the door to his cell opened lately was when the food arrived and then he was pulled back against the wall so he couldn't get close. He had to get them to come inside and release him from the chain to have a chance and recently they hadn't been very prone to do that. It was obvious they were punishing him for the last escape attempt but they hadn't killed him which mean they at least cared a bit about their investment still. Eliot felt he was close to something now, but hunger made it hard to think and pacing was out of the question so he sat, cross-legged on his cot, and tried to focus his thoughts.
Unbeknown to Eliot, Parker was sitting in the exact same position a few rooms away. She was also thinking, planning and plotting. She knew they were coming soon, the men in the white coats, coming to take her to the bright room with the needles and the soothing voices or the big room with the ropes and the mirror and the boxes. She would run this time, they didn't know the needle didn't make her sleepy anymore, they didn't know she was awake, aware and angry. She would find the others, find them and free them and then they could all go back to being right.
That's when the alarms started.
The lights came on so quickly both Eliot and Parker flinched in pain. While they were both blinking and trying to focus the doors to their rooms flew open to reveal persons in white with breathing masks over their faces. Eliot shifted into a defensive stance automatically while Parker scampered backwards to get away.
"It's me! Parker it's me... don't be afraid! Oh my dear lord what have they done to you?" At the sound of Sophie's voice all the tension poured out of Parker's body and she threw herself into Sophie's arms.
"Eliot, man, it's OK..."
"Hardison?"
"Yes... are you... can you... where are your clothes?"
"You're here... you really are here?"
"Yes, sorry for taking so long. So sorry..."
"Later! Do we have a way out?"
"Yeah, but here... you'll need this." Hardison held out a mask to Eliot. "We kept the gas out of this corridor as much as we could but the rest of the way you'll need it."
"Parker?"
"Sophie's got her. She's just over there..." Hardison gestured outwards and Eliot started moving. "Man, I can't let you run about like that. Here take this." Hardison shrugged out of his lab coat and handed it to Eliot who accepted it with a thankful nod. The two of them stepped out into the corridor and started moving. Just as Hardison had said Sophie stepped out a room nearby, Parker in her arms, wrapped in a lab coat..
"Do you need help?"
"No, she's light as a feather..." Sophie's voice was calm but the wrinkle on her forehead betrayed her worry at the physical changes in Parker.
"Nate's waiting just over there - we have to hurry, we don't know how long the gas will last..."
The four of them rushed towards where Nate was guarding the door, as they got closer he opened it and they all sped towards the exit. Along the way they passed people in lab coats collapsed in little heaps randomly in the corridors and Eliot cast a questioning look at Hardison.
"Unconscious... we used their own defense-system against them - this gas was supposed to stop the test subjects, you guys, if you tried to run. I guess they didn't count on us." His eyes crinkled with a smile and Eliot couldn't help but smile back. His nose was assaulted by smells even though the breathing mask, the faintly sweet wrongness of the gas and disinfectant but overriding all that was the smell of his friends, it was a happy smell, a safe smell. They had come for him, for them... they had come.
***
They left the small town as soon as they could. Packed themselves and Hardison's gear into a van and drove off in the middle of the night. About half way through Idaho Hardison started cursing loudly. All the bugs he's placed were getting turned off one by one.
"They must be sweeping room for room with a bug scanner... this is not good..."
"Why? We got them out, why are the bugs important?" Sophie asked.
Eliot fidgeted in his seat. After so long without clothes the denim in the jeans felt rough and the smell of the fabric softener used on the shirt tickled his nose.
"We don't know what they did to them..." Hardison glanced at Parker who was sitting close to Sophie and hadn't said a word so far. "Their research data was encrypted so hard I would have needed a super computer to crack it and we didn't have time to steal one..." He trailed off, distracted but yet another bug going offline.
Didn't have time before they broke us, Eliot thought.
"... so I planted the bugs to see if I could pick up some chatter to at least give us some leads. But now they smashed them and all I know is it had something to do with merging genetics." Hardison finished as he closed the lid on his laptop and disconnected the modem.
"Well, anything is better nothing." Eliot tried to sound more relaxed than he was. Genetics... what the fuck did they do to him with those needles? And to Parker. God, he wanted to punch something!
Chapter Three
Chapter Two
It is easier to hide in a big city than in a small one and that made this dusty little town damn near impossible to stay inconspicuous in. With it's population of just shy of two thousand any newcomers were gonna make waves. This was both a blessing and a curse for the team. It made them easy to spot but it also made the ones they were looking for easy to find. Or so they thought.
Nate took on the role of a writer in search for a secluded place to write, Sophie was his wife and Hardison his assistant, driver and jack of all trades. They managed to find a house up for rent at the outskirts of town and settled in, getting ready for a long stay.
"It feels really odd havin' a briefing without Eliot and Parker..."
"I know Sophie, Hardison, continue..."
Hardison pressed a button on his remote. There was no wall of screens here, just the one TV and his laptop, and the presentation wasn't the prettiest he'd ever done either. His mind was on other things and it showed. The other two in the decimated team didn't seem to care though.
"Ok, what we know is that the call that Eliot made came from within the area of this cell tower right here. Now had we been in a larger city we might have been able to triangulate it better but out here towers are further apart. As you can see on this satellite image there are not very many buildings or structures here. Add to that that the buildings that are in-fact in the area are all residential or small business and things start smelling fishy." He was getting into his speech now and was clicking and gesturing almost as usual.
"We don't know much about the people holding Eliot and Parker." He is careful not to mention that they don't actually know if Parker is in the same place as Eliot, or if it was even the same people taking them.
"Since both of them were captured rather than killed we can assume the people who picked them up wanted them alive and since we haven't seen any heist or job go down with either of their rather special brand of skills chances are the kidnappers are keeping them locked up and out of the way for some reason. God only knows for what. Anyway, moving on - Sophie, you've done the snooping around the city."
"Gossiping you mean? Yeah, our neighbours have been very forthcoming with information about life in our new hometown. As you know we are a bit away from the main tourist streaks, some still trickle by but not so many that new people, like us, don't get noticed. Unfortunately for us the latest addition before us was an elderly couple and their grandson who moved in seven months ago. Hardison already checked them and the only thing they are hiding is the fact that they moved to get the kid away from bad company - he got picked up on a minor drug possession some time before they came here. Besides them nothing "interesting" has happened for ages..." Sophie went silent again after her spot on impersonation of Mrs Gordon, the city's hairdresser and information mistress.
"What this means is that whoever has Parker and Eliot is either fantastic at hiding or have been here long enough for people to regard them as part of the city. I've narrowed it down to three possible suspects or scenarios." A click brought up a satellite photo of a fenced in compound just outside of town. "First we have the home of local religious wackjobs. They call themselves the Blessed Chosen and have just barely managed to stay off the governments watch-lists. Now considering the fences and security they would be a pretty good option for our bad guys but any self-respecting evil organization..."
"We don't know that they are an evil organization, Hardison"
"You are right, but the kidnapping people of the street in broad daylight does kinda makes it likely. So, as I was saying, any self-respecting evil organization would know that since Waco any religious secluded group is gonna get at least a cursory glance now and again from the government which makes it a pretty lousy cover for someone pretending to be something that they are not. So. Moving on to suspicious area number two." Another click brings up a different satellite photo, this one of a ranch with one big barn and several smaller buildings.
"Now this is the McNally farm, everything points towards this being just your average farm, nothing sticks out and nothing seems odd, though this in itself is rather suspicious it is also the only other bigger cluster of buildings within the area covered by the tower that picked up Eliot's call. I took a peek into the finances of the McNally family and found a tiny little discrepancy. About a year ago the farm was very close to going under like so many other's had done due to the financial crisis. Then suddenly they squared their debts and got back on even footing. Officially the money came from a new financier but that entity is hard to pin down. Of course if you are an evil organization trying to hide behind an honest business-" He ignored Nate's look and continued. "- you might not want to save a sliding one but instead acquire a well off one with some money under the table to be as invisible as possible."
"Yeah, according to Mrs Gordon the McNally's were saved by a long lost rich uncle who suddenly got an urge to reconnect with his family but Miss Forrester the manicurist says the money came from a settlement with a celebrity who is the actual father of Sioban McNally." Sophie shrugged. "I am more keen on agreeing with Mr Gordon who claims the McNally's found a hidden treasure, it seems more romantic to me..."
"These people have way to active imaginations..." Nate shook his head.
"So... moving on to the third alternative." A click revealed an entirely green area bisected by a grayish road. "Now this might seem like a satellite picture of a forest to you and in fact you would be correct. What's interesting about this particular forested mountainside though is this:" Another click and the image zoomed closer to a slightly darker green square in the green image. "A concealed building. Now I've done some checking and Sophie's done some asking and apparently the only thing up around this area is an old government facility that closed down after the cold war. I haven't found anything that indicates that it is anything but abandoned but that could just be the sign of a smart evil organization. Personally I'd say this is my favorite option although we still lack a lot of information. We really need to get closer and get a better look." He doesn't say 'we need Parker and Eliot to get closer and take a better look'. He doesn't need to, they are all thinking it anyway. Instead Hardison turns the screen off and sits down, wordlessly handing the briefing over to Nate.
"OK, this is what we are gonna do... We need to eliminate the other areas first. Sophie you make friends with the McNally's and get yourself invited to their home. Hardison, I'm gonna need you to be a bit Parker for me. It wouldn't make sense for my assistant to suddenly start taking an interest in religion and begin jonesing to join a cult so we have to be sneaky instead. Can you do that?"
"Of course... at least there are no skyscrapers I need to jump off."
"Right, let's get to it!"
"What are you gonna do Nate?"
"Me? I'm going for an inspirational walk in the woods..." Nate's smile almost came close to his usual one, just for a second, before faltering again. "Let's do this right from the start... I don't think Eliot and Parker have enough time for us to screw up the basics."
Hardison nodded silently and Sophie gently squeezed Nate's arm before they set out to continue working their most important job yet.
***
Nate was very close to falling asleep when a faint sound pulled him back to consciousness. He blinked and tried to find the source of in the room lit only by moonlight from the window. He tensed briefly at the sight of a figure near the door but relaxed when he recognized Sophie's form.
"Trouble?"
"No... I... Nate, do you... oh I don't even know what I want to ask. I'm just..." Nate interrupted her by scooting to the side and lifting the side of his comforter. She took the hint and slid down into bed with him. She was wearing an old over-sized t-shirt and the fabric was soft against his chest as he held her close. They lay silent in the darkness for awhile before Sophie spoke again.
"What if we never find him." Her voice was soft and barely audible.
"We will. We definitely will."
"What if he's dead?"
"Don't talk like that." Nate felt his chest clench at the thought.
"I just wish..."
"I know..."
"I've seen you you know. Seen you look too..." And Nate knew she had, he'd seen her too.
"He's a beautiful man."
"It's not only that though..."
"No... no it's not." An image rose to his mind, a memory in vivid color, Eliot was in the kitchen, stripped down to a tank top with a bandanna holding his hair back. His knife flashed in a ray of sun from the window and he was laughing at something Sophie had said from where she was seated on the other side of the bench. It'd been a perfect moment in time and the moment when he realised ... "I wish..."
"I know. We... we'll need to talk about this. When we find them." Sophie sighed.
"When we find them." Nate agreed and the fake confidence in his voice was only partly for her benefit.
"Can I stay here tonight? I... I don't want to be alone."
"That's alright... try to get some sleep."
"You too.... Good night Nate."
"Sleep."
They lay together in the darkness and listened to the other one breathe. The bed was small and had barely enough space for the both of them but still they couldn't help wishing there was a third person in it.
***
Nate tried to scratch sneakily but Sophie noticed and cleared her throat. "It'll only get worse if you scratch, darling..."
"It's easy to say... that damn cream isn't helping at all"
"I keep telling you to put some baking soda on that, Nana always said it was the best cure for a poison ivy rash, but anyway, at least your pain gave us some results. I took a closer look at these images and there are definite some good signs." Hardison zoomed the image on the screen until it is focused on a single lonely metal tube sticking out of the undergrowth.
"This here is a ventilation exhaust and if this facility was closed and abandoned like the official story says no one would care if it was overgrown and blocked but someone apparently does in this case. That someone has taken the time to clear around it and considering that the plants look different on this side I bet that if we where to film this with a heat-sensitive camera we would see warm exhausts coming out right here." Hardison pointed to the side of the metal column.
"OK, stating the obvious here but since the other places turned out to be exactly what they seemed to be, and I still can't believe the McNally's actually found an old treasure, this not so abandoned place is our prime objective. So, can you hack them?"
"Not from the outside, no, at least not this far out on the outside. They are smart and doesn't have a direct connection to the Internet. I do bet they still need an internal network though, not even a secret evil organisation would want to run about with usb-sticks all the time."
"OK, so how do we get you close enough to get to their network?"
"I have a plan for that actually..."
***
He didn't starve, but when the food finally came he would have eaten anything that was put before him no matter what it smelled like. What surprised him was that while the food, still as badly cooked, smelled different it didn't smell wrong like before. Despite his hunger he took an extra sniff. Maybe they changed the drug, maybe they put some kind of odourless poison in it this time, maybe... Eliot stopped himself before he go lost in the what ifs. He was shaking from hunger and even the sad overcooked potatoes seemed appetizing.
Die fast or die slow... he decided to chance it and started eating. There were no strange tastes either and when he was still alive and awake quite some time after finishing the meal he decided they were fucking with him. They were trying to screw with his head. Staring out into the dark room he reached the conclusion that they were succeeding too.
He had no idea how long it had been since he made his last escape attempt. He knew the wound on his knee was almost completely healed but considering the other changes in his body he wasn't sure he could measure the time passed from that. They kept him on the edge of starvation and he didn't dare move anymore that strictly necessary. He needed to conserve the energy he got, he would need to be strong to get himself and Parker out of there. And he was beginning to doubt anyone was coming to help them. Maybe he'd keyed in the wrong number, maybe it got lost in the ether somewhere, maybe there was no one out there to receive it. For every uneventful waking period he persuaded himself more that the others had been caught too, that they too were sitting in dark cells wishing for someone to come get them, waiting for him to save them.
So he started planning escape. The only time the door to his cell opened lately was when the food arrived and then he was pulled back against the wall so he couldn't get close. He had to get them to come inside and release him from the chain to have a chance and recently they hadn't been very prone to do that. It was obvious they were punishing him for the last escape attempt but they hadn't killed him which mean they at least cared a bit about their investment still. Eliot felt he was close to something now, but hunger made it hard to think and pacing was out of the question so he sat, cross-legged on his cot, and tried to focus his thoughts.
Unbeknown to Eliot, Parker was sitting in the exact same position a few rooms away. She was also thinking, planning and plotting. She knew they were coming soon, the men in the white coats, coming to take her to the bright room with the needles and the soothing voices or the big room with the ropes and the mirror and the boxes. She would run this time, they didn't know the needle didn't make her sleepy anymore, they didn't know she was awake, aware and angry. She would find the others, find them and free them and then they could all go back to being right.
That's when the alarms started.
The lights came on so quickly both Eliot and Parker flinched in pain. While they were both blinking and trying to focus the doors to their rooms flew open to reveal persons in white with breathing masks over their faces. Eliot shifted into a defensive stance automatically while Parker scampered backwards to get away.
"It's me! Parker it's me... don't be afraid! Oh my dear lord what have they done to you?" At the sound of Sophie's voice all the tension poured out of Parker's body and she threw herself into Sophie's arms.
"Eliot, man, it's OK..."
"Hardison?"
"Yes... are you... can you... where are your clothes?"
"You're here... you really are here?"
"Yes, sorry for taking so long. So sorry..."
"Later! Do we have a way out?"
"Yeah, but here... you'll need this." Hardison held out a mask to Eliot. "We kept the gas out of this corridor as much as we could but the rest of the way you'll need it."
"Parker?"
"Sophie's got her. She's just over there..." Hardison gestured outwards and Eliot started moving. "Man, I can't let you run about like that. Here take this." Hardison shrugged out of his lab coat and handed it to Eliot who accepted it with a thankful nod. The two of them stepped out into the corridor and started moving. Just as Hardison had said Sophie stepped out a room nearby, Parker in her arms, wrapped in a lab coat..
"Do you need help?"
"No, she's light as a feather..." Sophie's voice was calm but the wrinkle on her forehead betrayed her worry at the physical changes in Parker.
"Nate's waiting just over there - we have to hurry, we don't know how long the gas will last..."
The four of them rushed towards where Nate was guarding the door, as they got closer he opened it and they all sped towards the exit. Along the way they passed people in lab coats collapsed in little heaps randomly in the corridors and Eliot cast a questioning look at Hardison.
"Unconscious... we used their own defense-system against them - this gas was supposed to stop the test subjects, you guys, if you tried to run. I guess they didn't count on us." His eyes crinkled with a smile and Eliot couldn't help but smile back. His nose was assaulted by smells even though the breathing mask, the faintly sweet wrongness of the gas and disinfectant but overriding all that was the smell of his friends, it was a happy smell, a safe smell. They had come for him, for them... they had come.
***
They left the small town as soon as they could. Packed themselves and Hardison's gear into a van and drove off in the middle of the night. About half way through Idaho Hardison started cursing loudly. All the bugs he's placed were getting turned off one by one.
"They must be sweeping room for room with a bug scanner... this is not good..."
"Why? We got them out, why are the bugs important?" Sophie asked.
Eliot fidgeted in his seat. After so long without clothes the denim in the jeans felt rough and the smell of the fabric softener used on the shirt tickled his nose.
"We don't know what they did to them..." Hardison glanced at Parker who was sitting close to Sophie and hadn't said a word so far. "Their research data was encrypted so hard I would have needed a super computer to crack it and we didn't have time to steal one..." He trailed off, distracted but yet another bug going offline.
Didn't have time before they broke us, Eliot thought.
"... so I planted the bugs to see if I could pick up some chatter to at least give us some leads. But now they smashed them and all I know is it had something to do with merging genetics." Hardison finished as he closed the lid on his laptop and disconnected the modem.
"Well, anything is better nothing." Eliot tried to sound more relaxed than he was. Genetics... what the fuck did they do to him with those needles? And to Parker. God, he wanted to punch something!
Chapter Three