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He could save them, Hardison knew. He always kept travel documents for their aliases on hand. They could be out of the country within the hour, and once they were holed up in an international safehouse, Hardison could rig it out with air filters and seals and they could wait out the worst of it. They could even tip off the international community and hope they'd get ahead of quarantining the US. It'd be tough, but they'd have each other. He could keep them safe. If only they would thank him for saving them, if it meant failing to save everyone else.
He could save them, Eliot knew. The right bullet, or enough of them, would stop him eventually, but not before he took out Udall. His endurance was too good, and his motivation too strong, to fail. He would stop the man who had masterminded the greatest bioterrorist threat of the century, because taking bullets meant for others was his only means of redemption for the lives he’d taken. With Udall out of the way, Parker could take care of the briefcase. He could see it in Parker’s eyes now that she would take care of it, and she knew as much about how to neutralize it as he did. She knew what to do, and if she couldn’t Hardison would. Eliot’s job was to save them, so that they could save everyone else.
She could save them, Parker knew, but only because of the steps they had all already taken to save everyone. It had taken all three of them to identify the threat and what had to be done about it. It had taken all three of them to hold each other together to even get this far. Hardison had found Udall, had made it possible for them to be having this confrontation, right here on this evacuated subway car. Parker had managed to stay with him and stalled the car for long enough for the other two to catch up. Eliot was going to take care of Udall; she could see it in his face, as surely as she knew he could tell from her own that she would destroy the briefcase and its threats even if it cost her her life. Hardison would take steps if they failed, but they weren’t going to fail, because failing this meant not just failing the city and the nation but failing Hardison, putting Hardison in the line of fire, and knowing that they were risking their lives to keep him safe was the drive that united them. They would save him; they would save everyone, except perhaps themselves, because that was what they did now. It was the glue that had brought them together as a team, it was the glue that had held them together as partners, it was the force that kept them all changing whenever one of them did, for better or for worse. They would save the people who needed saving, no matter what the cost. And if the kiss they’d shared for luck worked, they’d save each other, too.