Chapter 4, Under Fire

Later that evening, Spock and the security team lay in wait outside the building where Chapel and McCoy lay inside, trying to stay alert in case they were needed. It was particularly dark inside; they didn't dare use any illumination for it might alert any intruder as to their location, either inside or outside.

McCoy and Chapel lay stretched out after getting tired of sitting for hours waiting for something to happen. Leonard McCoy turned on his side, with his head on his arm and looked in Christine's direction.

"I think this may be what we used to call a 'snipe hunt,' he whispered.

"A what?" Christine wasn't sure she had heard him correctly.

"A snipe hunt." McCoy took a deep breath as though explaining to a dense child. "Darlin', when someone got too big for their britches, especially somebody not from around home or off-planet, we would challenge them to catch one of the rare and obscure little creatures. Whoever it was nearly always accepted the challenge. So we'd send them out into the woods with a bag and a stick to shoo it in with once they found it. Of course, they would hunt all night, but snipe are elusive little creatures. Very hard to snare."

"Oh, Leonard, that's cruel. Wasn't that illegal, even when you were a boy?" Her tone held all the strength of the righteously indignant.

He laughed and she quickly shushed him.

"Stop it. That's not funny."

"Christine," he finally caught his breath. "There ain't no such creature as a snipe." He suddenly drew up short. "And what the hell do you mean, even when I was a boy?"

_X

Spock and the security guards were placed strategically around the building; the Vulcan thought it was logical to assume whoever had placed the food for them wasn't a threat to them, however, if another who was a threat followed….it was reasonable to be prepared.

He quietly contacted Lt. O'Connelly, "Lieutenant, have you detected anything suspicious?"

And just as he had expected, a quiet, "No, Sir," came back to him. The team waited in the darkness all night with no sign of anyone or anything.

*****************************************************************************X

Christine walked out of the barn before sunrise and nearly tripped over another crude basket of foodstuffs. Dropping to her knees, she looked around quickly, spotting nothing out of the ordinary, but she did see Commander Spock coming toward her with what had to be an expression of disbelief on his face.

"Where did you find this, Doctor?"

"Right where you're looking, Commander. I haven't touched a thing."

Spock wasn't quite as inscrutable as he normally could be. "If it wasn't sitting here, I would say it was impossible, however, since the basket is obviously here…."

Christine picked up, "Someone was here, and somehow got past you and the security team."

Spock's face abruptly changed. "Come with me." He opened the door of the barn, holding it for her to follow. "We were focused outside, therefore, there is a distinct possibility that whoever is 'supplying' us is coming from inside here." Spock waved around his tricorder, and said, "They are not here now."

It was growing lighter, but still not light enough to see well. McCoy's gentle snoring went on around them.

Spock began to walk around the periphery of the structure and instructed her to do the same in the opposite direction.

"What exactly are we looking for—just something out of place?"

Spock spoke without looking up from his instrument, "I am not certain, Doctor, but I think we will know the second we find it."

Christine held her right hand against the rough wood of the barn and felt with her feet and the other hand in front of her. In short order, she had met with Spock. He instructed her to go back in a reverse manner out some distance from where she had searched before, in a type of circular grid pattern.

Without warning, there was a crunch and cracking of breaking wood. Racing back to where she last saw Spock, Christine fell to her hands and knees and crawled through the dirt. She found Commander Spock holding onto the sides of the cracked and broken wood frame trying to clamber back out of a hole about three feet wide. But the wooden edging was yielding to the Vulcan's weight, and there was no way he was getting out before the scaffolding collapsed.

"Here," Christine cried out, "take my hands; let me help you."

"I will make it, Miss Chapel, please step back," he practically grunted the words.

Before he could utter another word, the wood broke apart in his hands and he was falling into the darkness below.

"Spock!" Christine cried out and grabbed for his arms. She succeeded in grabbing his left, but the momentum had started. She lost her footing and tried desperately to hold herself back by locking her feet on anything she could find. It wasn't enough.

Spock went down into the darkness with Christine clinging to his hand, right behind him.

Dr. McCoy awoke abruptly, listening for sounds. "Musta a been a damn dream." He covered up his head and went back to sleep in the near darkness.