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Eliot said, “There’s somewhere we need to be.”
Eliot said, “It’s not safe to travel together,” and gave them co-ordinates.
Eliot said, “I’ll meet you there.”
Eliot was a big, fat liar.
*
Hardison hadn’t realised, at first. He arrived at the co-ordinates first, within twenty-four hours of them splitting up in Cairo. Eliot had emphasised the importance of speed, but also subtlety. They couldn’t be seen travelling together, he’d said, so Nate and Sophie should go together, Hardison, Parker, and he would split up. Ones and twos. Hardison wondered now if it was because he trusted Parker and Hardison to trust him, but knew Nate was more likely to go rogue without Sophie to keep him on track. It was equally possible he’d checked the flight patterns and realised that for them to arrive within his thirty hour window, two of them would have to travel together.
It didn’t really matter, Hardison supposed, as he sat down to wait alone in the long grass with a rucksack on his back and a passport for Michael Harridge in his hand.
Parker arrived second, less than two hours after Hardison.
“Where the hell have you been?” he called grumpily as she picked her way through the field in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, thank you Eliot, he’d been sat in alone for the last who knows how long, bored out of his goddamn mind because there was no signal in this damn empty space. They were somewhere in South Dakota, but past that Hardison could not tell you because the map in his hand was vague as hell and, oh, yes, his GPS wasn’t working. “Do you even know how remote we have to be for my GPS to stop working?” he grumbled. “My GPS? Pretty damn remote!”
Parker rolled her eyes. “This is boring,” she whined.
“That’s because there is nothing to do. There is nothing here. We’re in the middle of damn nowhere!” Hardison grumbled.
“I get it, Hardison, your phone thingy isn’t working. Why are we even here? Are we stealing something?”
“My phone thi- my phone thingy. Phone thingy!” he repeated in disbelief. “Do you mean my state of the art, personalised, hand-assembled, technologically superior communication devices that I built exclusively for our personal and professional uses? Those ‘phone thingys’?”
“Whatever.”
“Okay, then, Parker. What do you think we’re stealing? Could we be robbing those cows over there? Milk rustle? Long con on Daisy?” He threw his hands up in the air. “We aren’t stealing anything because there’s no-damn-thing to steal!”
Parker looked around. “Why would Eliot tell us to come here?” she asked.
He looked at her. “Mama, your guess is as good as mine because this does not look like our scene.”
“Maybe we should call him.”
“With what signal, Parker? The phones don’t work!” He took a deep breath to repeat his rant about the lack of signal in the area when the unmistakable click of a gun being cocked interrupted them. They threw their hands up and spun around to see a man with a sawed-off shotgun half emerged from a door that had been hidden in the grass.
“Do either of you idjits ever shut up?” the man snarked in a way Hardison assumed was rhetorical as he climbed the rest of the way out of the hole, gun pointed at them. He backed away enough to make Hardison think that maybe he was going to leave and then stopped. “Right, in you both get.”
“In- in the hole? You want us to get in your hole in the ground?” Hardison squeaked.
The man looked unimpressed. “Why don’t you climb in before I have to shoot you and drag you in. Lord knows its better than the alternative, which appears to be you two yapping loud enough to draw every big that ever did bad right to us!”
Hardison swallowed. His eyes flicked to Parker who was breathing shallowly next to him. “Now, look, we’re very sorry. We didn’t mean to disturb you and your, um. Your privacy. We just are waiting for some friends, we’re having.. a party! Kind of an annual thing, a bunch of us from college throw a dart at a map of South Dakota and show up wherever it lands. It’s usually pretty lame, last year we got ‘Milbank’ so you can imagine how boring that was. Right, honey?” he forced out, nudging Parker with his leg.
“Right!” She laughed too high.
The man pointed his gun at them. “Get in or I shoot you.”
“Right, right. No, of course. We’d love to. Just, um. Come on, honey. To the lovely, um, hole. Can’t wait.” Keeping himself between Parker and the gun, Hardison slowly made his way towards the hole, pausing so Parker could head in first and him second. “Watch your step, there.”
The hidden door revealed some steep steps which they slowly made their way down. Eliot will find us, Hardison thought over and over as he tried not to think about the man in question standing in the field above them while their corpses rotted down here. Even his beacon wouldn’t send any kind of signal this deep underground, it was a total dead zone.
The stairs levelled out into some kind of stone corridor and Hardison noted with a sinking feeling in his stomach the impressively sturdy structure of the place and the alarming satanist designs painted roughly onto the bare walls and ceiling. Their captor had followed them in and closed the door above him, leaving them in darkness for a second before there was the sound of a flick and the corridor was lit up by a row of pale yellow lights along the wall. Did this place have electricity?
“Everything alright, Bobby?” called a woman’s voice, and Hardison strained his eyes to see her as she walked towards them.
“All good, Jody,” the man, Bobby, replied as he poked Hardison in the back with his gun. “Keep walking,” he instructed.
“Where am I supposed to be going?” Hardison snapped. “It’s dark and I don’t know where I am!”
“Just keep forward. I’ll tell you when to stop,” he said.
“Are you sure, Bobby?” called the woman, Jody. “Because it kind of looks like you’ve got two people at gunpoint, there.”
The man swore. “Yeah, well maybe I do Jody, but can you just mind your damn business?”
“Oh, I don’t know, Bobby, do you think you can refrain from drawing unnecessary attention to this place, by, for example, kidnapping civilians?”
“Kidnapping civi- what are you on about? This is just Spencer’s lot arrived a bit early, is all. This idjit doesn’t know how to keep his mouth shut so I thought I’d bring ‘em down a bit before their time. Save the dramatics, you ridiculous woman!” Hardison drew in a sharp breath at the mention of Eliot but bit his tongue.
“Doesn’t actually tell me why they’re at gunpoint, Bobby,” snarked the woman.
Parker did not appear to possess the same restraint Hardison was currently exercising. “You guys know Eliot?” she demanded.
The man sighed and lowered his gun. “Yeah, alright. I’m Bobby, this is Jody. We’re gonna be, uh, looking after you while Spencer’s, you know, doing his thing.”
Doing his thing?
Jody walked up to them and took Bobby’s gun from him. “Which means we won’t be shooting you. Honestly, Bobby, I don’t know what goes through your head, sometimes.”
Bobby rolled his eyes. “I didn’t want to risk ‘em running - I’m not a spry as I used to be and chasin’ down two young things through fields and the rest of South Dakota was not on my list of things to do today!”
Jody scoffed. “Well then, thank God you didn’t do anything that might scare them into running!” She turned to Hardison and Parker. “Are you two okay? I thought Eliot was sending four.”
Hardison narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean ‘sending’? We’re meeting him here. He said we had to travel separate.”
Jody blinked in surprise. “Wow, when he mentioned you didn’t know, he really meant you don’t know, huh?”
Hardison bristled. “What in the hell is that supposed to mean?” he demanded.
Bobby shoved past them and started walking off. “Come on, then. You’ll take it better from him, no doubt.”
For a second, Hardison contemplated making a break for the door, but one look at Parker and they reached the same conclusion. No way they’d make it up the stairs before Jody had cocked the gun. Taking Parker’s hand in his, he squeezed it, and they followed Bobby into the ground.
*
“The thing about hunters,” Bobby began as he directed them into a surprisingly normal looking bedroom, “is that we take on a responsibility, not just of the hunting itself, but to the people we love. What we do, what we know, uniquely qualifies us to fight and defend ourselves, but leaves our loved ones… vulnerable. Now, there is the choice to train up everyone in your life to fight the good fight, but that ain’t exactly the best way to keep ‘em safe, and its sure as hell no way to raise your damn kids-”
“Bobby,” Jody interjected.
“Right. Anyway, point is that a hunter’s priority has got to be more than just himself.” Jody cleared her throat from the doorway. “Or herself.” He gestured to the double bed. “Sit. That’s where you guys come in. The whole uniquely qualified thing, that means a few things actually. Today it means something a little worse’n it usually does, that’s just because it’s being used to the advantage of some not very nice people.”
“Are you talking about us?” Parker interjected. “Because we have no idea what you’re talking about. Eliot’s not a hunter, he’s a hitter.”
“Spencer’s a capable kid. He dabbles.” Bobby sighed and sat down on a chair opposite the bed. “So, something’s come up. Something a little world-ending.”
Hardison’s eyebrows shot up. “What-”
“Don’t worry!” Bobby hastened to add. “That bit’s being handled.”
“And you need our help? You guys are our case?” Parker clarified.
“Actually, I’m not entirely sure on what it is you guys do.”
“We provide an-” began Parker.
“No, no. That’s okay. It’s a very different world to ours, we don’t need the details. Sheriff Mills over here feels the same, I’m sure. Right, Jody?”
Jody – a sheriff, Jesus Christ, Eliot, they were gonna have words – nodded firmly from where she was leaning on the doorframe. “Oh, definitely. No details for me, thanks.”
This whole situation was only making less sense. “So what exactly are we doing here?” demanded Hardison. “You said we could speak to Eliot.”
Bobby got up. “Right, right. Of course.” He pulled out a CD sleeve from his pocket and switched on a dusty player that was causing Hardison physical pain to look at. While it booted up he kept talking. “So. Few people in the world able to help out with this big problem we’re having. And, well, it’s kind of a big deal. And some not very nice people have got it into their head that if they want this thing to actually, you know, end the world, then all they gotta do to keep these people occupied is go after their squishy little loved ones. That’s why you’re here. I’m running a sorta… day-care. For friends and family of hunters that are coming together to help fix the situation.”
Parker did not look happy. “Eliot looks after us just fine. We don’t need to be here.” she said as the screen flashed blue and white.
Bobby looked a little wrapped up in trying to wrangle the CD display into obedience, so it was Jody that answered. “Parker, right?” She asked gently. “Eliot just needs to be one hundred percent focused on his job right now.”
Parker shook her head stubbornly. “We’re his job.”
Jody smiled sadly. “This is different than what you usually do. I understand you take cases? Eliot keeps you safe, right?” At Parker’s reluctant nod, she continued. “This kind of work, there isn’t the room for watching anyone who can’t watch themself. There is no time to go back for someone, no option where you can all hide behind the physical defence of one man.”
Hardison felt his face heating up. “We don’t-!”
She winced. “That was clumsy of me. I’m not trying to insult you by implying Eliot is the only capable member of your team, I just mean from what I understand, you’re all good at different things, right? But this job only really needs you to be good at one thing, and this danger is something you guys have never seen before. There’s people, nasty people, who know that hurting you is the best way to make Eliot say screw it, the world can burn. You’ve had a target on your back from the second he agreed to help, and he needs to be able to focus on the task at hand. He can do that by knowing you’re safe. Here.”
Bobby made a triumphant sound from the CD player and the display screen filled with static. He hit it once from the side and Eliot’s pixelated face appeared. “What he’s doing is very dangerous, and very brave,” Bobby said as he got up. “We’ll leave you with this. Be angry if you gotta, but you should be proud of him, too. He’s a good kid.”
He and Jody left the room and it was just Hardison and Parker.
She reached for him and he clutched her hand tightly. “I miss Eliot,” she whispered.
“I know, mama. He’s gonna come back to us.” He always had before. “He’s gonna come back for us.”
She sniffed. “What time do you think Nate and Sophie will get here?”
He ran a quick calculation. “He gave us another four and a half hours to be here, so not long.”
She tucked herself into his side. “But too long to wait. We should watch this now, huh?”
“Yeah, mama, I think so,” Hardison replied, and with a grounding breath he pressed play.
“Hey, Nate.” Video-Eliot began. “I know, I know. Don’t con your crew. I’m sorry.
“You’ve figured it out by now, there is no job in.. where you are. Just Bobby and probably Jody by now, maybe a handful of other people, probably all about as mad as you are. All there for the same reason. Hardison, I’m assuming you arrived first. Sorry about the vague co-ordinates. I bet it’s a field or something. I bet Bobby made you wait.” He chuckled but it was a bit strained. “Bobby ain’t happy. He’s used to being where we are, y’see. Doesn’t like being side-lined like this. But truth is, ain’t no one we’d trust with our families like we trust Bobby, so for any of us to come in on this, he had to be exactly where he is. I don’t know how much he’s actually told you. Not sure how much you’re gonna be open to hearing. But the truth is, something real bad is going down, and it’s gonna be devastating. Worst I’ve ever heard of, and you know me, I get around. Anyway, we got a bunch of us in. Specialists. And the people responsible, they didn’t like that. Tried to take it out on the people we love.” He stopped talking and closed his eyes. When he opened them, they were wet.
“I know I am supposed to protect you, and I’ve failed. I’m the reason you’re in danger, and I can’t keep you safe right now, because I gotta deal with this. So,” he swallowed. “I’ve sent you to the best and safest place I know. Bobby will take good care of you, and I’ll come and get you when I’m done. And you can rage at me and cuss me out, and at the end, if you decide you’re done with me, then that’s fine too. I’ve lied to you and sent you away, and that’s not okay. But for now, I am begging you. Stay with Bobby. Let him protect you. Look after each other, but for Godssakes stay inside. Inside, you’re safe - even I don’t know where you are. The co-ordinates were encrypted, and everything’s been wiped now. So if anything happens, I won’t be able to give you away.
“Grin and bear this, if you can. Hardison, I know the lack of technology is gonna kill you; Parker, you’re gonna go a little stir-crazy, I’m sure. Nothing to jump off of. But Bobby’s ready for that. And at the end of it, you’ll be alive, and that’s all I care about, because frankly there’s no point in saving this damn world if you’re not in it at the end.”
He cleared his throat roughly and scrubbed his face with his hands. “So, yeah. Soph, look after them. I’ll see you on the other side.” He smiled tightly. “Let’s go steal a salvation.”