Chapter 2

Jane looked up. A silhouette loomed over him. A tall frame, square shoulders, a furrowed brow: Rigsby. He dropped to one knee beside Jane. "Are you hurt?"

Jane heard the words like they were being spoken through water, but he could read Rigsby's lips. "I think I'm okay." Jane said, rubbing the back of his head. His first thought was Where's Red John? Out loud he asked "Where's Lisbon?"

Rigsby said something and gestured over to the collapsed wall they had been crouching behind. Jane noticed the tension in his frame and realised Lisbon must be hurt. He felt an instant pang of regret that he had thought of Red John before he thought of her. She had been the one to make him risk the shot, he remembered. He realised she had begun to put his vendetta before her own safety, the safety of the team. He was corrupting her.

He bowed his head a little as Rigsby rose and held out a hand to him. Rigsby heaved him to his feet and Jane realised how badly he had been winded. His eyes widened as he struggled to take a deep breath. "The EMTs are on their way." Rigsby mouthed slowly and pointedly. He had caught on that Jane's hearing was suffering. They picked over the rubble to where an ashen-faced Cho was lifting chunks of wall and support beam off a debris pile.

Jane blanched, and reached out to steady himself on Rigsby's shoulder. Lisbon's legs were sticking out from under the pile. Cho's eyes met his briefly, and Jane did not have to be a mentalist to discern the barely-contained anger written in them. He blamed Jane for Lisbon's state. He might even have been tempted to get violent if he had not happened to see the tears glistening in Jane's eyes.

Cho turned his back to give his full effort to lugging stones.

The EMTs pushed through and made Rigsby and Jane go out to the ambulance to be treated. Cho refused to step back, and when Lisbon had been unearthed, he was the first to hear her muffled groan.

"Boss? Can you hear me?"
Lisbon groaned again. "J-Jane?"
"It's me Boss, Kimball." Cho said gently. "The EMTs are going to take you to the ambulance now." He followed her stretcher back to the ambulance and then got out his phone and dialled Bertram.

"We've been hit pretty bad here." He said the moment Bertram answered. "Red John is Brett Partridge, forensics specialist and former state employee. He detonated a small incendiary device at 450 Felpham Crescent. Lisbon, Jane and Rigsby all got caught in the blast."

Rigsby, ignoring the EMTs' protests, struggled out of the second van and grabbed Cho's arm. "You've got to tell them: Red John's got Grace."

Cho pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at him for a moment. Rigsby looked like a wild animal caught in the trance of highbeams on a freeway. Bertram's disconnected barking on the other end of the phone snapped Cho back to it. He put the phone back to his ear. "Agent Grace Van Pelt is missing, Partridge claims to have her. We need a state-wide search focusing on any of Red John's previously known Sacramento locations as well as warehouses and abandoned real estate within a 50-mile radius of the house." He gave Rigsby a grim look. "We have reason to believe that she's still alive." Cho ended the call and stared into the torpor of space. Rigsby made a fist and beat the side of the van before climbing back in.

Cho looked up. "You're bleeding." he noticed.
Rigsby and the female EMT in the back of the van looked up in surprise. His right trouser leg was soaked in blood. The EMT strapped him into the stretcher and said to Rigsby over her shoulder "Looks like you might have taken a bullet in the gluteal region."
Rigsby looked puzzled.

Cho gave him a quick, absurd grin, in spite of the situation. "She means you got shot in the ass. I'll follow you to the hospital." He shut the door and tapped it as it pulled off. Other CBI teams were beginning to pull up at the scene. Soon reporters' vans would arrive in response to the explosion and the place would be chaos. He looked longingly after the ambulance, wanting to forget he was a cop for a moment and go with them.

But somebody had to coordinate the search for Van Pelt.