OUT OF THE ABYSS
Sam awoke in the back seat of a car, mind groggy and body listless. Where was she? Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a shadowy figure. Her mind snapped to alertness, and she jerked up. A heavy belt, strapped on her waist, constricted her movements. She looked at it and froze, seeing the bomb and not knowing how sensitive it might be.
Jack was standing outside the car. She could hear the joyful malice in his voice, like a cat who'd just licked a whole bowl of cream. "You have 89 minutes to bring Malone to me. The rest of the instructions are in the note. Tick tock." He turned on his heels and walked to another car. He must have driven it here before he drugged her.
Sam watched him drive away, then she gingerly inspected the bomb to see if it had a visible timer on it. There was one, and the time remaining on the clock was 88 minutes.
She felt a rush of satisfaction. Jack had played into her hands perfectly. Now, all she had to do was pray that Bailey would be ready for this, her desperate attempt at rescue. She rose from the back seat and arranged herself to the driver's seat. A note was taped to the wind shield.
"A phone at the south-west corner of Adams Park will ring five times at 2:25 pm. Bring Malone and no one else."
Sam checked the time. It was 1:43 pm. Just over forty minutes to the deadline. Jack had taped a map on the other side of the note, marking her location. She was a long way from downtown Atlanta. She turned the key and steered the car down the road.
She drove as fast as she could, mindful of the stakes. She couldn't risk being pulled over by traffic police and losing precious time.
Sam pulled over on the curb outside the VCTF building. She couldn't spare the time to look for a legal spot to park in. She buzzed the door and positioned herself and the bomb in full view of the security camera, tapping her foot and a mantra "Please be ready" on constant replay in her head. After a time that seemed like an eternity, the door was unlocked. Sam threw the door open and hastened inside.
The lobby was empty, but the smoking cup of coffee on the security guard's desk spoke of someone departing for safer parts in a hurry. She started to make her way towards the desk when the staircase door opened. In strode a figure in bomb defusing gear. Her knees almost buckled under. Bailey had known. He must be okay.
The figure kept his distance and brandished a large cardboard card saying "Are you alone?" Out loud, the man shouted "Is that you, Sam?" Sam croaked her affirmative reply, catching onto the ploy. They must keep their guard up in case Jack had attached a bug on the bomb.
The next card asked "A bomb?" She opened her jacket gingerly to let the ATF agent a look at the bomb.
The agent signaled to let Sam know he'd get closer and approached her cautiously.
"Where's Bailey?" She had to know, had to hear that he was okay. She also needed up keep up the pretence for the possibly prying ears.
The agent was inspecting the bomb. "Agent Malone is in the command center. He's coming up as we speak." He handed her a note with Bailey's hand writing on it. The note simply said "I'm okay." Relief washed over her like a tide.
The man stood up and tugged on the jacket, nodding at her. Sam took this as permission to shed the garment.
Sam continued with the questions. "Is he okay? I need to see him, now."
"He is okay, relatively speaking. What does Jack want?" She launched into an explanation, giving the agent time to assess the bomb. Sam allowed herself to breathe a little deeper, knowing that she would be out of her predicament soon.
The agent handed her a note that said "Stay still. Cutting the detonation cord." He took a pair of pliers from the kit assembled at his knees. He shot a look at Sam, who took a deep breath. He then cut the cord.
It had taken Bailey every ounce of self-restraint to not fly through the door when moment he heard Sam asking after him. When the ATF agent peeped his pager with the words "all clear", he pushed the door open and was greeted with the most beautiful sight in the world. Sam's head whipped to the sound of the opening door, and he could see her body deflate a little, finally letting go of some anxiety. A brilliant smile danced on her lips. The agent held up a hand so Bailey would stay back for the time being. He still needed to study the device before removing it.
Bailey wanted to comfort her in any way he could from this loathsome distance. "Chloe's safe." Sam bit back a sob of relief.
Sam ran her eyes over him, needing to make sure he was alright. Her eyes landed on his left shoulder and the sling around it. "I'm so sorry, Bail."
Bailey took an involuntary step in her direction. "Don't be, there's no reason."
The agent scribbled something on a pad of paper. "Okay if bomb belt off?" She gestured to be given the pad and pen. She wrote a note "Only if I can still put it on." The agent nodded. He took off the belt and withdrew to a corner to check it for bugs.
Sam was free of the bomb and she rushed to Bailey. She remembered to be careful of his wound, hugging him from her left, wrapping her left arm around his waist and winding her right arm around Bailey's neck. He wrapped his good arm around her, palm ending up between her shoulder blades. All their fears over the past seven days relinquished their hold on them. They were together again.
"It's Sheriff Boats," Sam whispered after a while. She buried her head in the crook of his head and neck. Bailey tightened his arm around her. "We know." She breathed out a sigh, happy to have someone to share her horror. Her mind finally registered that Bailey's upper body was uncommonly rigid. "You're wearing a bullet vest," she murmured in amazement, her hands confirming her realization before traveling to wrap around his neck. "I know." She giggled, then was surprised that such a noise could escape her lips after the torture she'd been subjected to.
The ATF agent hadn't found any bugs, so he'd given the all clear. Bailey silently thanked the heavens that Jack's hubris had driven the killer to underestimate his opponents. Sam barely realised that the lobby was swarming with people as she sought solace in Bailey's embrace. They broke off their hug when Grace, John and George approached them. She hugged them all, and introductions were made with Agent Foster.
"Sam, this is Agent Eric Foster. He was assigned to our investigation" Bailey explained.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Agent Waters, and a relief to meet you alive."
Sam shook his hand. "Pleased to meet you."
Foster observed the woman in front of him. Even though she seemed engaged with her colleagues and himself, she hadn't really stepped away from Malone's reach. Their shoulders were touching and they were standing at an angle towards each other.
"I look forward to closing this case and discussing it with you." Waters acknowledged the obligation to recount her story to the agent at a later time with a tight smile and looked at Malone for encouragement. He placed his right hand on her waist.
"What is Jack's plan?"
"He wants me to bring Bailey to him so he can... finish the deed. The bomb has a timer on it. The note in the car said that he'd call me for further instructions."
Bailey snapped to leadership mode. "Where and when?"
"He's going to call the phone booth at the south-west corner of Adams Park at 2:25 pm."
"George, I want all calls to that phone booth to be routed through the command center to my cell phone. And assume control of the traffic lights."
"I'm on it." George gave Sam a brief hug and looked at the profiler and her mentor. "Be safe, both of you. I'll be in touch." He rushed to the elevator that was about to descend. He would need to re-route the phone calls, take charge of the traffic lights and keep track of the duo's location via the skin implant Grace had injected into Bailey.
Sam turned to Bailey. "Jack expects to see us in 55 minutes, wherever that may be. Do you have a flak jacket and a gun for me?"
Bailey pulled Sam aside, his protective instincts screaming at him. "Sam, you should stay here. Let other agents capture Jack. He'll reveal his location on the phone and that's it, the game's over. The place will be crawling with agents. He won't escape this time."
"No. I can't take that chance. We have to get him, and the only way we can ensnare him fully is to dangle both of us in front of him. When he's looking down at the barrels of our guns, then I'll trust him to others." Sam raised her voice to ask John to bring her a flak jacket.
Agent Foster had trailed them in silence. He said in a low voice: "You know that he will probably try to kill you, Agent Waters, when he realises he's lost?" Malone looked at the blonde with hesitant worry, but she returned the gaze with a look of love and jubilation.
She answered in a clear voice: "Agent Foster, Jack's already lost and I've already won. He let Bailey live." She took the bullet vest John offered and retreated to the guard's back room behind the lobby desk. Grace joined her. Bailey and Foster started making arrangements for the back-up team, who'd be trailing them, leaving ten minutes after Sam and Bailey. Bailey then walked over to thank Agent Mann, the ATF operative who'd been stationed at the VCTF ever since Bailey had contacted the ATF brass. The director was only too happy to help out once he heard there was a chance to get revenge on the killer who'd killed Coop.
Grace gave Sam the once-over, assessing her friend's physical state. Grace could see she was nearly running on empty, and made her eat a power bar while Grace fastened the jacket around her.
Armed with the necessary flak jacket and a bottle of water, Sam shuffled back to Bailey. He shot her a look while handing a hand gun to her. "I thought you didn't do this part." Sam was relieved, for Bailey's words meant that he had pushed aside any doubts about their plan of action.
She smiled at the memory his words had evoked. "Bail, I'm doing this part with you, and that makes all the difference," Sam murmured. She stashed the gun in the waistband of her pants. The ATF agent put the bomb belt back on her and assured her that the device was now harmless. She asked to be shown how to take the belt off, should the need arise. After the tutorial, she threw her jacket back on. Bailey received word that a brief sweep of the car hadn't turned up any bugs. They'd be able to converse without the fear of Jack hearing every word.
"Everything ready to go?" Bailey nodded his assent. She spared one last glance at their friends and colleagues, before turning to Bailey and reaching for his right hand. "Let's bring this to its final end." They hastened out of the building, hand in hand. John, Grace, Agent Foster and others sprang into action. The back-up team was to leave in a matter of minutes.
Sam pushed the door open and made a beeline for the car. "Where do you want to sit, front or back?"
"In the front." Sam opened opened the shotgun door and helped Bailey maneuver himself onto the seat. Bailey reached to buckle the seat belt with his right hand, but in the process he leaned his left shoulder on the seat. He blanched, swore under his breath and his eyes flitted shut. Sam took the offending seat belt and fastened it across his lap. Taking advantage of her closeness, she pressed a soft kiss on his temple. His eyes flew open. She looked at him closely. "Better?" He made a small nod. "Good." She straightened her body, closed Bailey's door and climbed into the driver's seat.
They checked the time. They had sixteen minutes to reach the phone booth at Adams Park. Sam pulled into traffic.
Bailey broke the silence. "How are you?"
She spared him a glance, then trained her eyes once again on the road. "Better now."
Bailey both needed and feared the answer to his next question. But he needed to know before facing off with Jack, before allowing Sam in the same space with the madman. "Sam... Did Jack get physical with you?"
"What? No!" She looked at him, but he didn't look convinced, still fearing the worst. She reached her right hand to reassure him, caressing his neck. She locked gazes with him and uttered "Bail, no. I was careful to keep him at a distance. Okay?" Bailey nodded silently.
"How did you figure out why I wasn't dead?"
"Jack... Uh, he spent days in his version of regaling me. He told me of the final moments of each victim. When he reached you, he glossed it over. That's how I found out. I was so relieved, I can't even tell you." She shot him an affectionate look. "After that, I baited him into making a mistake, hoping to God that you'd be ready. How did you know what his plan would be?"
"John helped us figure it out. He made a joke about paper cuts and grenades." Bailey looked at the belt around Sam's waist. "What do you think he has in store for us?"
"I don't think he has a convoluted plan in place. His arrogance and impatience drove him to send me to you. He won't see this coming." This time, Sam looked at Bailey's injured shoulder. "Can you shoot with your right hand?"
"Grace shot my shoulder full of local anaesthetic. I can steady my aim with my left arm."
Sam was slowing down the car. They had two minutes to go before Jack's deadline. As Sam pulled up to the phone booth, Bailey remembered the picture of Chloe he'd been carrying with him ever since Tuesday. He'd taken it from one of the picture frames in Sam's office. He handed the photo over without ceremony.
When Sam realised what the photo was, a tiny piece of her battered soul healed. Bailey never ceased to amaze her. She made up her mind. She knew she couldn't let either of them walk into harm's way without telling Bailey how she felt. She jumped out of the car and rushed over to his side. She opened the door, placed her hands on either side of his face and kissed him gently yet firmly, spilling her love into the kiss. The sensation of her lips against his hadn't dissipated in the slightest when she croaked "I love you, Bailey".
Bailey didn't have a chance to respond when Sam jumped slightly at the sound of his cell phone ringing. The call was early. He handed it over to her, and she considered it in her hands as if it weighed heavy in her grasp. She answered on the fourth ring, looking straight into Bailey's eyes.
"Hello?"
Her eyes glazed over and Bailey knew that Jack was calling.
She listened to Jack purring on the other end of the call. "Sam. I miss you already. It won't be long, though. Put Malone on the phone, unless you want to go boom."
She looked at him with worry in her eyes, but placed the phone in his right hand. "He wants to talk to you."
Bailey nodded and uttered gruffly "Malone."
"How does it feel to be walking to your own execution?"
"That's a question I'll be asking you in the future."
Jack cackled. "I doubt it. Drive to Field's End Road, Lot 5. Be mindful of the passage of time. I wouldn't want to hurt Sam." The killer hung up.
"Where does he want us to go?"
"Field's End Road. I'll alert the VCTF and the back-up team. They'll all stay two miles away until I send a page to George. Then they'll converge on our location." Sam nodded and turned around to reach the driver's seat.
Bailey tried to focus on preparing himself for the encounter with Jack, but his thoughts would, now and again, center on the kiss Sam had planted on him and her words. He wanted to ask what she had meant, if she really felt the same way about him, when she had realised it. But as always, Bailey was bound by his deep-rooted gift for denial, one that had prevented him from realising the true nature of his feelings for Sam. His romantic track record was a train wreck, and he was scared of tangling his best friend there in case he'd read more into the kiss than she had meant.
Sam, for her part, was worried to death with dread and fear for the approaching reunion with Jack. When she managed to escape her worries, she scolded herself silently for her moment of weakness, and yet she couldn't bring herself to regret it. She had always worn her heart on her sleeve when it came to Bailey, and she didn't have it in her to keep her feelings suppressed at a moment like this. She was both elated and scared.
She broke the silence to go over the plan once more.
Sam and Bailey stepped into the abandoned warehouse, staying close to one another. Sam took point, walking in front of Bailey so as to prevent Jack from shooting him point blank from afar. They stepped into a big industrial hall, where there was scarce machinery and little shelter to hide behind. They stopped there out of silent agreement, both of them knowing that Jack would surface here sooner or later. The timer on Sam's bomb read six minutes. They positioned themselves next to the back wall which had no windows, doors or crevices.
"Come show your face, you miserable bastard!" Sam shouted into the silence.
As if on cue, they heard a door open on the far side of the hall, the view of which was partially blocked by the machinery. Jack emerged and chuckled with menace. "So impatient, Sam. It only takes a second to shoot Malone." Bailey fingered the pager he had in his jacked pocket, sending the page to the back-up team. He then removed his hand to avoid arousing Jack's suspicion. Jack was approaching them fast with a gun in his lax hand.
"I see you told your precious Malone who I was," Jack remarked on the lack of shocked recognition on Bailey's part. The agents remained taciturn, moving so that they were side by side, facing the killer. Sam pretended to cower as Jack walked closer, while Bailey didn't have to fake the disgust on his face.
Jack was fifty feet away when both of them drew their weapons. Jack mistook their intent for a ploy to make him disarm the bomb while at gun point, and so he continued his approach, tutting "My, my. Put those away before I get angry and blow Sam to bits."
Bailey responded with an icy command "Stop where you are. You're under arrest."
Jack looked baffled and amused, before countering Bailey's words with "You seem to be forgetting that beloved Sam is about to be scattered to smithereens."
Sam taunted Jack "Think again." Jack stopped in his tracks, taking in the situation. Bailey ordered him to drop his weapon and get down on his knees, but he ignored the words, his mind buzzing with thoughts.
Sam dropped her gaze to the bomb to maneuver it off from her with her left arm. She dangled the belt in her hand, then let it drop to the floor. The steel was back in her voice. "Do as he says. It's over. You lost."
The sight of Sam dropping the bomb took a moment to register in his brain. He didn't even hear her words as the walls came crashing down. He'd been so close, he had almost succeeded with his master plan. Now, he had failed and had been pushed into a corner. He tasted something bitter in his mouth as the adrenaline kicked in and he lashed out. He set his eyes on Sam and raised his gun.
Four shots rang out, two bodies collapsed to the floor. One had three bullet wounds, the other body had sustained one bullet hole that had been caught by the flak jacket. The impact of the contact was enough to send Sam into the wall, and she slid down, for a moment knowing nothing.
Bailey saw Sam go down out of the corner of his eye. The hardest thing he ever had to do was to trust that she was okay while he moved to clear the threat Jack posed. He walked over to the killer quickly, eyes fastened and his gun trained on the form on the floor. He kicked Jack's weapon away and checked the injuries quickly.
Three bullet wounds, all to the torso. The killer was still alive, but he would bleed out fast. Bailey backed away, never turning his back to Jack. He reached Sam and let his attention focus on her, swiftly inspecting her body for wounds. He thanked the heavens when he saw the bullet hole in the vest. Sam had just been knocked out of it by the impact of colliding with the wall, and she was already coming to.
Her eyes flitted to Bailey's, silently asking if he was okay. At his nod, she asked "Is he dead?", looking over at Jack's limp body.
"Probably soon."
Jack drew a ragged breath, trying to savour his last moments. All those times he'd taken an innocent life to feel alive, and now he himself felt alive because of the inevitability of death. In his foggy state of mind, he realised that Sam hadn't died when he heard her voice. So he wouldn't see her in death. The agents' exchange registered in his mind. The last word he heard on this earth was Sam's reply to Bailey's words: "Good."
Sam and Bailey remained by the wall, huddling together. Bailey looped his arm around Sam, and she rested her head on his chest. She allowed her eyes to close, while Bailey kept his eyes on Jack, ready to pounce if the killer showed movement. The back-up team would reach them shortly, and the team's arrival would introduce a flurry of questions to be answered. So, the agents took a moment to marvel the fact that a man hunt that had lasted for eleven years was finally over, and they had seen it to the end and had lived to tell the tale.
And so the back-up team found them, leaning against the wall, with Bailey resting his chin on Sam's head. When John confirmed Jack's death, Sam asked Bailey where his phone was, then fished it out of his inside pocket. She dialled Angel's number, greeted her best friend and asked to speak to Chloe.
Bailey listened as Sam spoke to her daughter. "Hey baby girl, I love you so much. I'm coming home within the hour, okay?" She listened intently to something Chloe said on the other side of the line. "I'm just fine. Remember that mama loves you. See you really soon."
Bailey and Sam finally rose up when Agent Foster walked over to them. "Agent Malone, I need to ask some questions from Agent Waters before she heads home." Sam followed Agent Foster dutifully, her reluctance at being away from Bailey apparent to everyone. She recounted the events of the car ride, the phone call and the events in the abandoned warehouse, leaving out the personal developments. Those were only between Bail and herself.
Agent Foster let her go after she'd given a precursory account of the chain of events. He'd ask the same questions from Agent Malone, but for now he was more than happy with the overview Waters had supplied and he didn't want to detain the agent's second happy reunion. He informed her that he'd need a more comprehensive statement tomorrow. She left him to make her way back to Bailey, who was talking with John.
Sam hugged the younger agent, then stepped closer to Bailey. "I'm gonna meet Chloe and Angel and then head home. See you there?"
"Of course." She pressed a whisper of a kiss on his cheek. Bailey's eyes followed her retreating figure as she moved towards the door. Before she walked out, she felt compelled to make sure he was okay. She guessed that it was an impulse she would grow familiar with in the upcoming months. She looked back at Bailey to find him regarding her. Maybe she wouldn't be the only one with this compulsion. Unbeknownst to each other, both of them was hit with the same realization: they were finally out of the abyss, the proof of which was the other person standing there, looking back. They had survived and become stronger, together. Perhaps the years to come would be their reward.
Sam gave a tiny wave and walked out the door.
(TBC... Final chapter on its way!)