The Nexus

It was a nice day, though Eli was going to admire it from inside Tone's bed and breakfast. He was the ONLY person there. Aside from the hostess, who spoke French and very little anything else, but that was ok.. They had very good food here and anything else could be forgiven. It was here that he would be waiting on Isabella to arrive.

Stavanger, Norway. It was the last location that one of their own had been in before she went missing. Her last report came from here, and since then it's been silence and that has not sat well with anyone, really. Eli had tracked down the last place she had been at, at least it was a start, but from there it was not like he had a map of where the woman had gone. He had been in Norway for the last three weeks, figuring all of this out.. Maybe with the help of the Reyes girl then they would get done with this much easier.

Of course if it was Tone's B&B that she went missing in, then his time here would be very different.. This place would be locked down and the two who owned it would be tied up somewhere while he questioned them. Interrogations happened to be a favorite of his.

Eli spoke a few languages, luckily Norwegian was one of them, though he could maybe do to brush up more on Norwegian, but there would be time for that. For now he had eggs and bacon that he needed to stuff down his throat, as well as the coffee that had been set out for him. He liked this place.. as it was cheap and they had decent food. A regular hotel would have been nicer, but smaller locations were favored, as you would not be dealing with too many people, such was the case for him now. Three nights here and he had not had to deal with a single person other than the hostess and host.


He checked the time on his phone and harpooned another set of eggs with his fork. He knew of Isabella, though had maybe only met her briefly once. He knew her father a bit better and her brother even more so. If it were not for them, then he would not be where he was now, at least working with them. He'd probably be a mercenary by all fairness, though working for some other poor saps. He looked forward to meeting her again, in a way at least. He had a lot that he needed to brief her on when she came.. and for that they could leave or talk here, he did not really care.. It would be up to Isabella on that one, though he would finish his breakfast regardless of her decision.";

Norway always seemed windy when she went there... Of course, that had only been twice before, but she nearly felt she was going to be blown over. The taxi dropped Isabella off at the end of the little drive, and she looked up at the Bed and Breakfast, seeing a little sign that labeled it Tone's.

"Hardly seems like a place to set up," she mumbled to herself, before she began to make her way up to it, holding her hair out of her face. Casually dressed in jeans and a black tank top, she made her way up to the stairs, opening the main door, and glancing in.

She spotted Eli, as well as the hosts, and nodded to them all. "Elijah! Sarah just said you were here. You should have told me you were in Norway! I told you I was working on an project here!" Her Spanish accent was quite apparent when she spoke. She quickly made her way over to him, giving him a hug. "I think you were just avoiding me on purpose!"

She leaned back, pouting a bit. "At least you found this cute little place to stay, no? You have to catch me up on everything you are doing, okay?" She would glance over to the hosts and smile warmly. "Such a lovely place, thank you for taking such good care of him."

Eli finished off his breakfast and was taking a deep drink of his coffee when Isabella showed up. He was glad to see her here safe, if nothing else, at least. When she approached, he stood. "Heeey! Oh it's so good to see you Bella." He hugged her, offering soft pats to her back. "I was, but for good reason." He pulled away to sit down.

"Do you want tea or something? The food here is fantastic thanks to our hostess." He smiled to the woman. "I booked a double room, since I sort of expected that Sarah would tell you I would be here." He laughed a bit. "I have a surprise for you, Bella, and I do have something to show you." He tapped his camera. "So much to tell too, but that can come another time. Maxwell, my colleague wants me to meet him and I want you with me." It helped with talking to others.. He sounded nothing more like a photographer who was abroad.

She gave an excited sound. "That is fantastic. I hope it is good news from him, at least." She smiled, raising her hand to decline the offer of tea from the woman. "Thank you, but too much caffeine puts me on edge."

"I suppose I could stay. I wouldn't want to miss anything, after all. I miss modeling for you, you know. Was much fun; but now, I'm here in this place. Less fun for me." She gave pout, before she sat down next to him.

"Just remember, I have much work to do... as I'm sure you do as well, so we should discuss things when you... uh... finish your breakfast." She smiled as she pointed to his food.

He laughed. This madeup story of their lives and this conversation was more than amusing. He looked to his coffee and took another deep sip, finishing it off. "Max knows a bit about you." It was more or less that he talked about her a lot.. Then again Max was made up and he assumed Sarah was as well, though who knew.. "I miss those day, they are behind us, but I would not mind revisiting those photoshoots." His camera was collected. He'd like to take many pictures of her, but that was not what he was here for.


He talked on and on about what he and max were doing and what they had planned. The story was solid and fabricated well enough so that it sounded neat.. He had spent enough time here to know locations. "We should go. Max is a great guy, but he can be a tad impatient." His accent showed through this conversation. Eli stood and offered his hand. "My car is around back." It was a safer spot for them to talk.

This entire situation was unfavorable. He was unsure exactly what they were to do.. Rescue the target, yeah, but.. She was one of their own. Would that mean that she would need to die? It was a strange situation. Rare to find such things occur, then again the world isn't as bad as most people make it out to be.. At least people wise and their morals and such. He sighed a bit and forced a wide smile for Isabella.

"Oh, yes," she said, taking his hand. She stood and would let him lead her to wherever, giving the host and hostess a nod of her head, to say thank you for letting her just sit there, when she really just showed up out of the blue. "Sarah was telling me you knew a little bit about you being here. At least, what she knew. Said that you were getting to know the area well, and learning its little secrets."

She would glance behind them, making sure that no one was following. Once they were at their safe spot, she would turn to him, still holding her casual stance. Anyone watching them would thing they were just having a normal conversation.

"So, what have you found out?"

Eli opened the door for her and looked inside the car for a moment, before turning to her. "She was last at the docks. I've combed for information all that I can, but I havent been finding much. She is still here.. Somewhere, at least the signs point to this.. I could be wrong though"

He motioned for her to get in. "We are leaving." His way of speaking changed, though it was still somewhat casual. "The camera has pictures of locations where she had been seen or been going. It stops at the docks though." He looked to her. "I've already taken many dips in the surrounding waters so.. I don't think if she was killed, that she would be dumped there." He also had been going over cargo and things like that.. "It's not great news, but it's a lead.. We can canvas around." It was strange doing this. This was police work.

"I see," she said, once they were in the car. "I hate doing this sort of work. It isn't my expertise. I am so much better at just taking out targets." She waved her hand in front of her, showing that she was a little annoyed. "But, you cannot refuse orders, no? To the docks it is. If that is the last place she was, then we have to start there."

She buckled in and looked over to Eli. "My father spoke highly of you, so you better live up to your name," she said with a wink. She trusted her father's judgement at least.

He shook his head, chuckling lowly. "I know how you feel, It's not that it's fun, but it's what we are good at.. I hate doing this work, because it becomes sentimental, I suppose.. Recon generally doesn't, but saving someone. Especially one of our own? This is the exact opposite of what we are usually hired to do." He scoffed. "No telling where she is.. I've heard Norway has a strange human trafficking problem, but she would have been able to handle some prick tryin at that. I'm sure."

"Your Father is a good man and he has good taste." He said, looking to her. "I've heard much about you. At least I like to think I have." A nod came from him as he thought everything over. "We have met before, briefly, though never worked together. So.. It's a pleasure. My name is Eli." He despised the name Elijah. It never has been his name and he never would use it outside of a 'civilian' visage. The reason why he properly introduced himself was the fact that it only felt right.

"I know," she said, when he spoke his name. "I remember a little bit when we met, but it was only when I was meeting up with my brother and father. I haven't heard much about you from them, probably because I haven't had much contact with them in the past year or so." She frowned a bit, before sighing. "Well, it is a pity that you know so much about me. Kind of ruins the mysterious connection, no?"

Back to the matter at hand. It was true that Arial could handle herself. This is what worried the leaders of the group so much. What if it happened to be another group, starting to pick them off, one by one? You had to nip it in the bud while you could.

"She might have been taken in, for tresspassing. She should be smart enough to know not to mess with officials, and that we would bail her out when we could. Did you look at the police stations?"

Eli laughed a bit. "Yeah, well. I'm nothing to really write home about. I do my job and I try to do it well." He looked to her and shook his head. "I said I liked to think I do. Perhaps we can test that a little later." His accent wasn't so very thick that he was hard to understand, but definitely showed through with some of the things he said. A smirk appeared soon after, but would go away with time, as they talked.

"I did not check so much into that, but you are right.. There is always a possibility she has been picked up." He sighed as they continued down the road. "Shall we go and look into it then? I might be able to pull a few strings and get us some more private information about people they've picked up in the last month or two." He couldn't be 100% sure of this, but it was worth a try. He knew people, but that did not mean that it was going to be so helpful all the time.

"Ah, perhaps a look at the docks to maybe confirm that or not? I mean, if we pick up a trail there, then it would be oh so easier on us." She was reaching down now, pulling open her bag and pulling out a small gun, slipping it under her coat.

"Just in case we run into trouble!" she smiled, patting it carefully, before she turned to look out the window. "Bleh, I would hate to live here, I think. It is either very windy, chilly, or rainy when I am here. I don't care for that too much."

She found that small talk was good to lighten the mood, especially when they might come across something that they were unsure about.

He nodded, taking the turn for the road that lead near the docks. "Right. We can question some more of the workers.. I only got to a few." He sighed a bit, then looked to the gun with a chuckle. "Under the back seat is some stuff, as well as lining the spare." He had his pistol near his boot, a strange spot for it, but.. It was less noticed this way.

"Eh, it's not so bad. There are much worse places to be!" There were four contracts further east.. In undesirable post soviet nations. Eli didn't want to be dicking around with their sort, especially not when he didn't speak Russian. "What would be ideal for you, anyway?" He glanced to her for a moment, before taking another turn. "There is a radio in the duffelbag in the back. Has ear pieces and everything. We'll communicate like that when we are apart from one another." She had hair, so she'd be able to hide her's well. Him not so much.

She pulled herself around to face the back of the car, rummaging through the things until she found what he was talking about. These would be perfect. They could split up and search and let each other know what they may find.

Once she was situated back in her seat, facing forward, holding their earpiece in her hand, she thought on his first question.

"Well, to be honest, I would like to go back to my homeland. Spain. It was nice there, you know? People so friendly... I only remember a little about it though. I think the nostalgia is what is drawing me back."

"That could be it." He said with a small smile. "Entirely reasonable too." The car was stopped at one of the gates and Eli glanced to her. "Stay here." He said as he unbuckled and headed out for it. The chain was tugged on a bit so that he could get the padlock up. He'd work with it for a few moments, seemingly pushing something with one hand and working with the other. Soon the chain was pulled through one side and kept there with the padlock and he was pocketing his 'small box of tricks'

He pulled the gate open and would move back for the car. Technically they were not supposed to be here without being let in, but he had ways of getting around that. It had worked the first two times he hung out here for questioning. The security guards let him through, but this time he already knew they would get suspicious of him, so might as well go around it. "We are going to park up there." He pointed behind them. "If something happens, then we get the fuck out of here and go for the car." He got back in and would back up to the street and head across.

"Well, so glad you have this all planned out. I really thought we were going to have to improvise all of this!" she said, once he was in the car and driving again. She wasn't being sarcastic... because she was used to improvising, so having a half plan was a relief to her.

Once they were parked, she would step out of the car and look around. "Right, so, let's make sure we keep each other informed on what we find. I don't want us doubling places the other has already been."

She made sure her earpiece was in place, and that she had her weapons where they needed to be. Then she would give him a glance, making sure he was ready as well.

Eli chuckled a bit. "It's part of my job.. Or I make it to be at least. I've been here for the last few weeks, trying to get this all set up.." He stopped the car and ran his hand over his shaven head. "The workers shouldn't give you much trouble. They personally don't care, they just want to work, but still be careful. Anything can happen." He felt he had to say that.. "There are other civilians walking around, but not many. Security wants to keep the least amount of non workers out. Which makes sense, but it is incredibly annoying."

He stepped out of the car, "Of course." He checked his holster and nodded to her. "After this we can do as you brought up. Checking the police stations and their records would be the wisest thing to do, especially for a murder.. He was just unsure how they would be accessing this. If they got inside, he was sure he could do something, but then there was the issue with searching through files in a police building.

Isabella gave a nod and wondered off down toward the gates. She decided that going near him in his search my look suspicious, so she just continued on the way, appearing to just be taking a nice little stroll. A ways down, she'd stop and raise her hand, lifting up a portion of the fence with an invisible force and sliding underneath before anyone might see her. Sure she probably could have just walked in the main way, but who would answer any questions to a person who just showed up like that. This way, at least, she could try and blend in a bit.

He watched her for a moment or two, before he turned and headed down further, back to the gate which he had opened. The car was given a glance back, before he pushed through and continued onto the path that he had set in his mind.

Workers were the targets here for information, but he was sure that someone must know something.. Then again much happens at night when people hardly pay attention.. Maybe there is security footage that he had not been able to check.. But what if it were a bit too far back? And he doesn't know the exact day she disappeared. A whole lot of time would be spent on trying to find the recordings for the past month, and then going through each one.. It would just take too much time.

A low sigh was given as he approached a group on break, waving them over to have a bit of a chat.

Isabella was leaning against the side of the car, looking out toward the workers as she waited for Eli to return. She hadn't found out anything at all, and that was annoying to her. No one seemed to know anything, or if they might have, they didn't want to divulge it. Being in daylight like that didn't give her much opportunity to interrogate if needed.