Rescue Me (26 page)

“Spencer,” she whispered and swallowed hard.
“You're scaring me.”

“I don't mean to, sweetheart. But I need to
talk to you. It's about the Haynes search.”

Oh, hell no.
She would not have the
shadow of that search looming over her. She needed to focus on this
search, not work herself into an anxiety attack over that one.
“This isn't the Haynes search.”

“Kathryn, there's something you need to know
about that search.” His voice was frantic and her worry drove
higher.

But she didn't want to talk about the Haynes
search. “Hey!” she interrupted, pointing behind him at the giant
black TREX vendor truck as it pulled up. Completely ignoring him as
he stayed on her like a shadow, she approached the truck as the
driver got out.

“Lunch is served.”

“Great. I'm starving.” She greeted the
driver. Spencer kept close by her side and she gave him a puzzled
glance. His eyes were unreadable. He didn't act like the Spencer
she knew and loved. And frankly, she wanted that Spencer back.

“Please Kathryn,” he pleaded with her and
stole a glance at the driver before leaning closer to her. “I need
to tell you something.”

She frowned at his urgency. The Haynes search
was over a year ago. What could possibly be so important he
couldn't wait until this one ended?

Kat turned to the driver, fighting the dread
filling her veins. “What have we got today?”

“Spaghetti and meatballs.” He leaned into
Kat. “Though I'd be a bit leery of the meatballs, if you know what
I'm saying. Fed them to a team yesterday and they had the screamin'
meemees within the hour.”

Her stomach cringed at eating what she hoped
was only day old meatballs. She thought of her options. There were
some Tic-Tacs in her purse and if she really fumbled around, she
might even find a stick of gum. The day old spaghetti started to
sound pretty good.

“You can set up here.” She pointed to the
other side of the Com Van. The driver jumped back into his truck
and pulled it around, leaving her and Spencer alone.

Spencer tensed as he pressed a finger against
his ear. “What the…” He then glanced off to the patch of trees
Gessler disappeared into. He clicked something on his receiver.
“Get me another radio. Now.”

A man she recognized as a member of Gessler's
team ran up from that grouping of trees, handed Spencer a receiver,
and disappeared again. She really hated that about TREX. They were
like ghosts, disappearing and reappearing at will.

Before she could ask Spencer to explain, he
shoved the receiver into her ear. At first it sounded like a prank
call with heavy breathing. But then she heard a distant masculine
voice scream, “
Get away from me!
”

“Sir. We are here to help you.”

She jerked her attention to Spencer, who
nodded in return.
Oh, shit.
Something was wrong. Her heart
hit the pit of her already churning stomach.

“Sir, please stop running.”

“Get away!” The frantic voice sounded again.
The man was terrified.

“Please, let us help you.”

A million scenarios raced through Kat's mind,
but she decided to focus on the safest one possible. The subject
was probably bipolar, confused, and damn scared. He must see the
team as a threat. People suffering from bipolar disease could be
very dangerous if they went off their meds. He could be bordering
on a psychotic break.

“What's happening?” she whispered as she kept
her focus on Spencer. He shook his head and narrowed his eyes as he
continued to listen.

“Get away. I can't go back. They'll kill me
if I do.”

Spencer touched the mic on his neck. “Team
One, pull back. Do not pursue. I repeat, do not pursue
subject.”

Kat nodded. It was too dangerous for them to
continue. If this guy was crazy, he could hurt them, or hurt
himself. She would not place any member of any team in harm's
way.

“Get away!” The subject screamed again.

“He can't hear you,” she practically cried.
“Someone's mic is keyed up and picking up our subject. Your
transmission isn't getting through. What if this guy is sick? What
if he doesn't know what he's doing?” She bit her lip and held her
breath.

“They know I'm here now because of you. If
you bring me back, they'll kill me!”

“Sir, put the gun down.”

“Spencer!” Kat reached for him, but her
fingers clutched nothing but air and the breath left her chest.

He was already gone.

This was not going to happen. The two men
from TREX Team One were going to be fine. He would reach them in
time. Spencer repeated his chant and glanced at the map he'd ripped
off the wall as he raced away from the Com Van.

“This way,” he told Gessler as the other team
lead caught up to him. They both raced out of basecamp toward the
PLS of the team. They couldn't use their lip mics to communicate
since one of the TREX agents had his keyed up so they could zero in
on his location, as well as hear the play-by-play. Smart. Very
smart.

“It's McKenzie and Blaylock,” Gessler pointed
out. “Not the brightest bulbs in the box, but even they aren't
stupid enough to let a guy give them frontal lobotomies.” He
stiffened and gave Spencer a solemn look. “My bad. Seriously, dude.
I didn't mean anything by it. Lyons was one of the best.”

“Let's just find them and get their asses
out.” Spencer didn't want to talk about Lyons. He'd have time to
mourn the loss of his friend and mentor later. Right now, he had a
team of TREX agents to rescue.

Something caught his eye off to the left.

He nodded for Gessler to follow him. Making
no sound at all, they ran in the direction of the movement.

Small trees as thick as dog hair swallowed he
and Gessler. They had a hard time moving through them in silence.
Little branches grabbed at them, trying to hold them back from
their destination. More than once a branch snapped, giving away
their position. They'd both freeze and listen. Once they confirmed
no one picked up on it, they continued on.

The static from the mic increased in volume.
They had to be close. Kathryn had used a scenario like this once
during a mock search. With a keyed up mic, keying up another within
fifty feet would cause an ear-piercing pitch to feed through the
lines. It worked like the ELT on a downed plane.

At least it had during the training. Spencer
only hoped it would work that same way this time. On that mock,
they used K-SAR's radios, not TREX's receivers.

A man's voice resonated through the dense
trees. Spencer and Gessler sped up their pace, breaking into a
sprint by the time the feedback started. Small branches whipped at
their faces and pulled at their clothes. Spencer ignored the
stinging as the branches ripped at his flesh. The safety of those
men consumed his thoughts.

His radio screamed, the screech piercing his
ears. He spun around in all directions, looking anywhere and
everywhere for them. Gessler did the same. They had to be here. But
the trees were so thick he couldn't see a goddamn thing. Fear tore
through him. Why the hell couldn't he find them?

“Please. You don't need to do this.”

At once, they both twisted to face the
direction of the voice. Spencer stepped through another wall of
trees and spotted them first. The TREX agents both reached toward a
man with a gun against his temple. But that didn't have Spencer
stunned into slowing his movement.

It wasn't Salazar.

“Who the hell is that?” Gessler whispered
behind him.

Spencer turned his radio down. He and Gessler
communicated with the hand signals every TREX agent knew in their
sleep. Deftly, Spencer moved to the left, Gessler to the right, to
approach the subject from his backside. Slowly, carefully, they
crept closer. Spencer stood within a few feet when the subject
cocked his gun and pointed it at the agents.

And he saw red.

I will not lose another TREX agent on this
find.

Spencer jumped onto the man's back and
wrestled the gun out of his hand once he had him on the ground. The
man shouted something about how he couldn't go back, but Spencer
ignored him as he zip-tied him and pulled him to his feet, grateful
he reached the team in time.

“Son of a bitch,” Gessler said as he joined
them. “I wanted to get the jump on the bastard.”

“Next time get here first.” Spencer grabbed
the man by the collar and pushed him forward.

Gessler turned to his team. “What the fuck is
the matter with you two? You know better than to play games.”

“Sorry, sir.”

“Turn off your radio and get your asses back
to base camp.” Gessler stormed ahead, clearly pissed that he had to
retrieve his own team. He then slowed and turned to them. “Smart
move on keeping your mic keyed up, Blaylock. You're presenting that
on the next drill.”

Blaylock shut off his mic, killing the
dizzying squelch. “Yes, sir.”

“I can't go back!” the subject screamed. “I
can't. Give me my gun. I'll shoot you all and put you out of your
misery. You've seen me now. You are all dead. Don't you get that?
They know.”

Not in the mood to deal with the man's
psychotic ramblings, Spencer tightened his grip. “Shut up.”

“I know my Miranda rights. You can't restrain
me.” And yet he didn't even attempt to struggle.

“We're not cops.”

“Then why am I restrained?”

“For your own safety. Now, if you know your
rights so well, how about you remain silent?” Spencer turned to
Gessler. “Where's the nearest rig?”

“Base camp.”

Although Spencer didn't want this maniac
anywhere near Kathryn, he had to get him to the SUV so TREX could
transport him to HQ for questioning. He thrust him toward the
direction of base camp.

“As soon as I'm back, I'm dead. We're all
dead. Dead!”

“Remaining silent wasn't a request. Now shut
the fuck up.” Spencer grabbed the man by the arm and lifted him so
his feet barely touched the ground, dragging him with such fury the
man didn't say another word.

“Whoa, Allen.” Gessler grabbed the man's
other side and slowed them down. “You're going to rip his arm out
of his socket.”

Before Spencer could answer, the suspect
spoke. “Allen?” Spencer threw him a vicious glare. “Spencer
Allen?”

Spencer answered by dragging him faster. He
didn't want to give this man information about any of the TREX
agents. This asshole had already proven he'd snapped. Acid hit the
back of Spencer's throat. To think, if he had been any later, those
two TREX agents would have been on the wrong end of a gun, just
like McKoy and Lyons. He shuddered.

“The squelch died. Did you find them? Are
they okay?”
Kathryn
. Her voice shook. He wanted to reach
through the line to touch her. But they had to get the subject to
HQ. It would be his final act for TREX.

And then Spencer would tell Kathryn his role
in the Haynes search before anyone else could. He'd never leave her
side again.

“Not after I get through with them,” Gessler
stated into the lip mic. He then gave the signal for radio silence.
The men switched off their radios before Gessler turned to Spencer.
“Jesus Christ, man. Have you lost your goddamn mind? You gave her a
radio? We don't need her listening in on our frequency.”

Spencer gave him a single nod in agreement.
He then dug his fingers into the subject's arm when the man tried
to jerk it out of Spencer's grip. “Don't be fucking stupid. You're
not going anywhere.”

“You
are
Spencer Allen, aren't you?
The TREX agent. You're all TREX agents.”

Screw his question. Spencer had a few
questions of his own. “What did you think you were doing, pointing
your gun at those guys like that?”

“It's all part of my training. If I'm caught
by the enemy, I put a bullet in my head to avoid capture.”

“You weren't pointing it at your head,”
Gessler pointed out. “You were pointing it at my guys, you son of a
bitch.”

Spencer spiked his brow. Did this guy think
he was some James Bond? “No cyanide pill, huh? It seems your plan
didn't quite work then, did it? You've been captured anyway.”

The man shuddered and closed his eyes. “You
have no idea what you've done, what your involvement has done.
Now
...” The man opened his eyes and met Spencer's. “...and
then
.”

Spencer and Gessler exchanged knowing
glances. A powerful vise clamped across his chest, his heart
dropping to the pit of his stomach. “What are you talking
about?”

“What comes around goes around. I'm sure
Emery Haynes would say the same. How far are you willing to go to
keep me quiet? We know what you did to ensure Emery's silence.”

Spencer skidded to a stop. Gessler did the
same, a shocked look on his face. Only two people outside of the
man that gave him the order knew the details of that find. Weber
and Spencer. Not even the SAC's best friend knew Spencer's role on
that find. Fuck.
Fuck
. Who was this guy and how did he know
anything about that find?

He nodded for Gessler to hold the subject
then whipped around to face him. “Tell me how you know about that.”
When the man didn't answer and instead spread a sly smile across
his lips, Spencer connected his fist with the man's jaw, knocking
both him and Gessler back. “Tell me, goddamn it!”

“Let's just say it
is
a small world
after all.”

“Wrong answer, fucknut.” Gessler pushed him
forward. “Let's get this lunatic back to HQ. Any other conversation
could be hazardous to his health.”

Spencer's insides clamped down. If this man
knew about the details of that find, that meant others did, too. If
he didn't tell Kathryn what really happened, if she found out from
someone other than him about his involvement, all hell would break
loose. She would never forgive him. There's a chance she wouldn't
forgive him even if she heard it from him.