"Did Halsey get stuck to your face, Green?" Tex drawled. "That thing looks alive."
"As if you can talk, Duck Dynasty," was the immediate retort.
"Thank you for the compliment," Tex shot back.
Mike took a minute to consider both men. Two weeks in the woods certainly hadn't done much for any of their personal hygiene, but Danny's beard was particularly scruffy. "You both look like shit."
Tex gave a drawn-out sigh. "Seriously, the lack of appreciation..."
"Can it, Tex," Danny retorted.
"We have something." Wolf's voice crackled over the radio, interrupting the banter.
"Roger that. All teams return to base," Mike responded, following the protocol that they had established the first day in the woods, realizing that by splitting up into three smaller groups that they could cover far more territory.
It wasn't their first contact. In fact, over the past two weeks they had run into a surprising number of hardy survivors holed up in this remote area of the Appalachians, too cut off from civilization to have heard about the cure. Some had graciously accepted Mike's offer to vaccinate them against the Red Flu while others declined, suspicious of strangers bearing gifts sounding too good to be true. Mike could only hope that they would be unintentionally exposed to the contagious cure through contact with those who had accepted the vaccination (he was well past caring about informed consent, that was not his department), or would eventually check out civilization and discover that the cure was, in fact, real. Most were friendly enough once Mike explained their mission (the lack of uniforms certainly helped), although one man had chased them off with a shotgun for flirting with his daughter after the girl slipped Cameron a note begging for the vaccine that her father had refused.
Mike slipped back the next day to leave several doses of the cure and one of their precious dispensers with directions how to inject it, watching to make sure that the right person found the package, hoping that she would find a way to vaccinate herself and younger siblings without incurring her father's wrath.
But no matter how many people they found, nobody seemed to know anything about Allison Shaw, Roberta Price, Randall Croft, or Christine Slattery. Their best lead to date – tenuous as it might be – came from a group of campers they ran into two days ago, who recalled seeing a helicopter headed in this direction a couple of months ago.
Upon reaching the chosen rendezvous site, Mike took a moment to consider the nine men who stood before him, wondering how much longer he could justify keeping them out here traipsing through the Pennsylvania wilderness when every set of hands was needed back in St. Louis to undo the damage caused by Shaw and the Regional Leaders. Not that the choice was entirely in Mike's hands. President Oliver might have personally approved this mission, officially one to locate Shaw's kidnap victims (which just happen to include Mike's family), but Tom's increased evasiveness during their daily check-ins told Mike that Oliver was putting pressure on his CNO to deliver results, or scrap the attempt.
Still, even if Oliver was willing to let the search continue indefinitely, Mike wasn't. While the guys weren't complaining, it didn't take a shrink to see how burned out they all were, how much they all wanted – no, needed – to go home. To see their families. To sleep in their own beds. To have time to recover, mentally and physically, from all that had happened over the past year. Cruz and Miller were still healing from the injuries they acquired on Takehaya's island. Diaz was waking up at least once a night with nightmares about vampirates. Green had a four month old he had seem for a total of twelve hours. Tex was a single dad. The Burk brothers had yet to make it to Chicago to bury their parents. Taylor was still grieving Val's loss. And Russ, well, Russ had been through more than any man should long before the Nathan James left for the Arctic.
Each of the men before him was postponing his own life to be here, with Mike, on the slim chance that Shaw didn't simply record the video, and then turn around and slit Christine's throat – something that none of them would put past her. After all, the woman was sleeping with Michener at the same time she was planning his murder.
Mike glanced up at the sky, taking in the late afternoon light. There was time to check out this one last lead, and then he would call it. Ask Tom to pick an extraction point. Take his boys home. Go collect Kaito. Accept that his family was gone.
And start living his life again.
"Report, Commander Burk."
"We found a camp about two clicks north-northwest," Cameron explained.
"It's more fortified that anything we've seen before," Carlton added.
"Three buildings. Definitely people inside. At least two guards and a solid wooden fence enclosing everything," Wolf concluded.
Danny studied the rough map that Miller produced. "There's room in that clearing to land a helicopter. This could be our spot."
"Same routine as before, sir?" Russ inquired, his professional demeanor fully intact despite the fact that none of them had bathed in over a week.
Mike nodded. "So far we're batting 100%. Let's go with what works."
Tex rustled around in his pack. "Just need two minutes to change."
Like they had more than a dozen times before, the men spread out, surrounding the compound, getting a fix on the front door just in case everything went south. At Mike's signal, Tex headed towards the gate in the fence, Halsey at his side, whistling a cheerful tune.
"Hello? Anyone there?"
"Get away from here!" The response from inside the compound was immediate. From his position, Mike could see two men exiting the largest building, moving towards the gate where Tex waited.
"I'm not infected. I got the cure months ago. Just looking to trade for supplies," Tex responded.
"We're not interested," called the same, terse voice.
But Tex hadn't talked his way into fifteen other camps by giving up easily. "You know anyone around here who might be willing to trade? Got some doses of the cure that I could be convinced to part with for a pair of new boots."
He emphasized his point by holding up a foot, his red-sock clad toe clearly visible through a hole in the side of the boot that Tex put there for just this purpose.
"Captain, you better get over here. I have a girl in the back window who might be your older daughter," Carlton reported over the radio.
Mike stopped listening to Tex as he made his way to the rear of the compound where Carlton was waiting, heart pounding, eyes trained on the rear building. Falling to his chest, unable to say a word, he took the binoculars that Carlton held out, every fiber of his being praying that this was it.
That he was finally getting his proof of life.
For a minute nothing happened, and Mike thought he'd missed his chance. Then a figure appeared in the window – a girl, her long brown hair swinging around her face as she peered out, as though to try to catch a glimpse of the man with a Texas twang who was trying to talk his way inside – and there wasn't a single doubt in Mike's mind who she was.
Whitney.
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"What's the plan, sir?" Russ asked once they were back at camp, Ray and Rick staying behind to keep an eye on the compound.
"They'll probably be on high alert for the rest of the day," Cameron commented. "Might make sense to wait a day or two. Gives us time to do some surveillance too. See if there is a way to get in without a frontal assault."
"I'm not leaving my family there for a second longer than I need to," Mike practically growled the words, despite knowing that Cameron's plan was perfectly logical.
"How about first light?" Danny suggested in an obvious attempt to smooth over the tension. "They'll assume Tex is long gone at that point and the hostages should all be in one place, making it easier to get in and get out with minimal loss of life."
Minimal loss of life. Was it possible that he would get this close, only to lose them?
Mike shoved the thought away, recalling his words to Danny only weeks ago. Whitney was alive, and last he knew Christine and Shay were too. He would cling to that.
He had to.
Wolf nodded. "I agree with Green. First light gives us time to figure out how many hostiles we are looking at and to get an idea of their routine, but not enough time for them to move anyone or call in reinforcements."
"Unless they bring people in by helicopter," Carlton pointed out.
"Taylor and I can keep an eye on the clearing just in case," Teylor mentioned, eyes swinging to Mike. "Take them out when they land, if necessary."
"Go." Mike nodded, turning back to the remainder of the group. "As for the rest of us, we've got twelve hours to make a plan."
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Mike spent the night watching the compound, knowing that he wouldn't be able to sleep anyway and wanting the guys get as much rest as possible. Tex and Russ joined him for the first part of the evening, replaced by Danny and Halsey around midnight.
"How you holding up, sir?" Danny asked as he settled in next to Mike, binoculars trained on the darkened buildings before him where absolutely nothing was happening. From what Mike could see, there wasn't even an exterior guard. But he wasn't foolish enough to think that this would be easy. He had to assume that there were protections in place to keep the hostages from escaping, and the last thing he wanted was do was accidentally trip a wire and have them all go up in a giant fireball.
"Remember how you felt seeing that armament facing the Nathan James at Lomas Point?"
Mike could feel Danny tense involuntarily at the question, obviously recalling the moment when he realized that his future wife and unborn baby were running full speed into a deathtrap. "Only too well."
"Pretty much like that," Mike replied.
"Don't know what you're complaining about. Hell, you didn't even get shot that day," Danny murmured after a moment, causing Mike to snort at the unexpected humor.
"It was your own damn fault," Mike shot back. "Next time run faster."
The two men fell silent, the minutes ticking by until Danny spoke again. "You want me to take Halsey closer? See if he picks up anything we missed?"
Mike checked his watch. 0330. "Wait until 0500. I want the guys awake, just in case we catch someone's attention."
The next ninety minutes seemed to take an eternity. Finally, Danny rose from his position, slipping silently into the gloom with Halsey. Exactly fifty-nine minutes later, as the sun began to creep up in the sky, casting shadows through the trees, the empty spot was filled by Jeter. "It's time, sir."
Mike thought through the plan again – not that it was really much of a plan, despite the hours spent discussing it. Once they were through the front gate, he, Russ and Tex would take the large building where the guards were located, Carlton and Teylor sweeping immediately to the side to a smaller structure that appeared to be a shed but might be holding hostages. Wolf, Rick, and Danny would approach from the opposite side, coming through the back fence with Halsey and focusing on the rear building where Whitney was seen the night before. Cameron and Ray would remain in the trees to provide an eagle eye view and cover fire.
They would just have to wing the rest.
"Green, you in position?"
There was no response for so long that a chill swept over Mike, his hand rising to hit his mic again, his head going to a place that it shouldn't – couldn't – go right now, recalling the men he and Tom lost rescuing them from Takehaya. Then Green's quiet, breathless voice came on. "There was a loose board in the fence. Target one neutralized."
"Stupid overachiever," Mike muttered before clicking twice, the prearranged signal to go.
Each step towards the compound seemed to take a year, each branch cracking under their boots jarring Mike, each shadow taking the figure of Shaw returning from the dead to taunt him. Breaking through the gate was the easy part, Mike having made the executive decision to simply blow it open, not trying for a stealth entrance. Turning to his first objective, Mike smashed the window of the building, tossing in a smoke grenade to cover their entrance. Within a minute the four hostiles were neutralized, one never making it off the couch where he was sleeping, the others barely having enough time to rise from the table where they sat playing cards in the dim light. Sweeping through the building they found two more men, one managing to get off a shot at Tex before Russ took him out. The Nevadian waved them on as he wheezed, attempting to catch the breath knocked out by the bullet that hit his vest. Exiting the building no more than two minutes after entering, Mike and Russ ran straight into Carlton and Teylor.
"Structure is clear," Carlton called, and all four men turned to the final building.
Yanking the door open, Mike ran straight into the barrel of a gun.
