She watched him gently replace the phone in its cradle, and as he often did when he was upset, Oscar slid his hands into the pockets of his pants and began pacing behind his desk. Jaime swallowed hard but remained still, waiting for him to relay the information he'd been given. But instead, he kept up his soft path across the carpet of his office.

When she couldn't take it any longer, she spoke, "Oscar? What did Russ tell you?"

Oscar stopped his travels in front of the window behind his chair, his back to Jaime, his head and shoulders sagging slightly. He stared out the large glass pane for a long moment, a heavy sigh escaping his lips. Then he turned to face her, his dark eyes appearing almost like pools of liquid in sadness.

"There's a huge snowstorm," he swallowed roughly, "Russ confirmed that the plane went down, Jaime. We don't know where. The air force has been searching the last known radar position."

"Oh God…"

He moved to sit next to her then, taking her hand in his larger ones. "Come on, babe, all we know is that Rudy's plane is missing. The pilot may have made a safe emergency landing and we just don't know their current position."

Jaime fought the tears filling her eyes. "He shouldn't have been alone. Either Steve or I should have gone with him."

Goldman's eyes flashed a momentary pain of guilt as he withdrew his hands from hers, and his voice was slightly defensive in response, "We had no intel to indicate that the other side had any knowledge of Rudy's trip to Geneva to deliver the formulas for the genetic permutation coding, Jaime; it seemed like it would be far more dangerous to call attention to him. It was obviously the wrong call."

He looked away from her, and she could feel him emotionally retreating into himself.

Jaime picked up the large hand nearest her and squeezed it. "Oh Oscar, I wasn't accusing you of anything… I was just saying I wish one of us was with him, you know?"

His sorrowful eyes flicked up to meet her hazel ones. "Yes. I don't much like the idea that Rudy might be stranded somewhere or worse…"

"We can't think like that, Oscar, and you know it."

Oscar gently disengaged their hands and stood, his hands retreating into his pockets, his pacing resuming. "It's hard not to."

"I know," Jaime responded quietly.

The door to the office opened quickly and Steve entered, worry lining his face. "Oscar, I just heard and got here as quick as I could." He leaned down and kissed Jaime's cheek. "Is there anything new?"

"No," Goldman said softly, "nothing new. The air force is looking, Steve, waiting is about all we can do right now."

"What was their last reported position?"

"Somewhere in the Alps, Steve."

Austin let out a puff of air. "The Alps in the middle of winter. Not really the scenario I was looking for…"

"Nor I," Goldman agreed.

"When are we leaving, Steve?"

"Now wait a minute, you two—" Goldman started to say.

"Plane leaves in an hour, Jaime, you better get your gear together. And I know you hate it, but we'll parachute into the last known position and hoof it from there until we find them."

"No way. I am not sending the two of you into the Alps in the middle of a snowstorm by parachute."

"But Oscar—"

"—No 'buts' Jaime. The answer is no. The air force is having a hard enough time; I'm not risking the two of you."

"But if Rudy's alive and hurt, Oscar," Steve countered, "moving quickly is crucial if we're going to save him."

"Don't you think I know that?" Oscar growled through gritted teeth, "perhaps you think I enjoy the idea that Rudy might be hurt, stranded in a snowstorm because I made a decision to send him to Geneva alone…"

The silence in the office was stifling as Oscar tried to calm his temper and the realization of his tremendous guilt became clear to his two agents.

"This isn't your fault, Oscar," Steve said gently, "and nobody's saying that it is, pal."

Goldman released the sigh of air he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Sorry Steve, I know you're not pointing any fingers. I guess I'm just feeling guilty that I didn't send protection with Rudy in the first place." He swallowed. "I'm afraid for him. This might be a race against the clock to keep Rudy out of enemy hands. Even when you put the lid on this kind of thing, it has a way of creeping around the intelligence community. The Russians, Chinese, Middle East… any of them would want the formula." He looked away. "And none of them would hesitate in killing Rudy once they finished with him."

Austin moved toward his friend. "We have no way of knowing if the plane's disappearance was a planned attempt to get to Rudy, or if it might simply have been mechanical failure or pilot error."

Jaime stood then and joined the men. "Steve's right, Oscar, we're all too close to this to be objective. We need to know more before we can draw any conclusions."

Austin nodded. "In the meantime, I'd like for Jaime and I to start searching. Whatever the cause of the plane's disappearance, we still need to find Rudy."

Oscar looked from Steve's eyes to Jaime's and saw the worry for Wells in addition to the desire to be proactive in the search. He stepped away from them and once more turned his back to look out the window, his hands sliding into his pockets. They waited quietly while Goldman stared, then finally he looked down at the floor, his back still toward them.

His voice was soft when he spoke. "I'll have a helicopter fly you to Bethesda where you'll pick up a cargo plane." He turned toward them and finally met their eyes. "Please be careful."

"We will," promised Steve. "C'mon Jaime."

Oscar felt the lump forming in this throat as the two of them headed for the office door and exited quickly. As the door softly closed, Oscar whispered to the empty room, "Find him for me…"