By 4am, Red's team and the Task Force were assembled on the road at the approximate place where Ressler had spoke to Cooper on the phone. Dressed in heavy outdoor wear, boots, hats, gloves and strong lights on their helmets, Red's team looked ready to take on an army. Red spoke with Gavin, the leader, who then turned to his assembled team of eight men.
"You have your search grid. Fan out in two-man teams and let's get this side of the road searched. You know the drill. Move out!"
"Where do you want us?" Liz asked Gavin.
"For now, right here. If the teams see any sign of your man, then we'll see if we can get you down to him to assist." At Liz's frustration, he added, "I know, but I don't want you guys traipsing around in the dark and us needing to rescue you as well as your agent. Please, ma'am. We're trained for this stuff. Let us do our jobs."
She nodded, knowing Gavin was right. "Thank you." Returning to the warm SUV, she climbed in the front passenger seat. Samar looked across to her from the driver's seat. "Let me guess. He told you we have to wait here so that they don't have to rescue us too?"
Liz just nodded and leaned her head on the headrest. The wait was agonizing.
In the rear seat with Cooper, Aram had his laptop with an interactive map and topography of their immediate area. "It's very steep down there. It will be difficult for us to get down if they do find him."
"When they find him," Liz clarified.
"Um, yes. When."
"I know this is hard. For now, we let Red's men do their jobs." Cooper opened the rear door, then strode over to climb in beside Red as he waited with Dembe in his car.
"How good are these men?" Cooper asked.
Red turned to him. "Harold, surely you know by know I only surround myself with the best. If Donald is down there, they will find him."
###
Ressler lay immobile on the back seat, unable to move his coat back over himself. If there were lights out there, he could no longer lift his head to see them. Painful breaths caught in his throat, as the icy air infiltrated his body. He would never feel warm again. He would just slowly freeze to death right here. A small thought came to him, amid the painful cold. Weren't you supposed to feel warm right before you froze to death? If that was the case, then bring it on. Anything to feel some semblance of warmth in his bones.
His eyes closed for what he felt might be the last time. He drifted downward, just wanting to stop feeling his cold, painful body. Just needing to escape to someplace where the cold couldn't reach him.
###
"Screw this," Liz said, reaching for her door handle.
"Where are you going?" Samar and Aram asked simultaneously.
"If he had and accident along this stretch of road and went off it, there would be some sign, right? We'd see something! Broken branches or damaged trees, right?"
Samar looked at Aram, who turned to Liz. "But the snow will have covered everything. Liz, we're not going to-"
"I don't want to hear it, Aram! Either help me or stay here!"
"Um, I only meant that…" He looked plaintively to Samar, who nodded and opened her door. Aram grabbed his flashlight and joined the two women outside the vehicle. Together, they walked to the side of the road the teams were searching on.
"Shine your lights on the trees. The snow will have covered any tracks by now," Liz told them, and together they began to walk slowly, their flashlights lighting the trees and bushes to their left. Though snow covered, there were pockets where the trees showed through. Cooper exited Red's car and jogged over to them. When they explained what they were doing, he nodded. It was a long shot, but he wasn't going to tell his team they couldn't play a part in the rescue of their friend and colleague.
Below them, the teams were searching, climbing down the embankment in the dark. Red joined Cooper on the road as Liz, Samar and Aram walked away, their flashlights shining in the dark.
"We're going to find him, Harold."
As they walked, Liz felt the icy air tugging at her skin and entering her lungs with each breath. She pulled her woolen hat closer over her head and ears and lifted the hood of her weatherproof coat, tying it securely under her chin.
"Man," Aram said behind her, "I can't believe how cold it is, and this wind is just…" he stopped. They all knew how cold it was, and that Ressler had been out in it for over 13 hours.
Samar patted his back, and on they walked.
###
Ressler could no longer wake up. He tried a few times, but in the end accepted his fate and let nature take its course. Dying like this sucked, on a scale of '1 to worst ways to die', but he'd be with Audrey and his baby girl soon. He drifted downward, and finally there it was. There was the long-awaited break from the cold. Warmth flooded his body. He cried with the joy of it. The cold was leaving his body. It felt wonderful.
And there they were, coming for him. Audrey coming out of the light again, and behind her, the small shape of his child approaching him. There she was, coming out from behind Audrey. His beautiful baby girl, with dark hair and red highlights and his own blue eyes. She was so little and perfect and so beautiful, just like her mother.
"Daddy's coming sweetie. Daddy's here…"
###
They'd been walking for about 40 minutes and had just crossed a small bridge over a frozen creek when Liz stopped. "Look!" She waved her flashlight at a spot on a tree. The branch was broken, bent back away from the road.
"Oh, my God," Aram slid down the bank a little, hung onto the tree, and brushed the snow off the branch. "It's a fresh break!"
Immediately they scanned the trees around them. "And here! Another one!" Samar called, reaching down to another branch a few feet from the first one. They shone their beams down the bank, and there was further sign of something having gone through the trees.
"He went down here!" Liz grabbed her phone and with numb fingers dialed Cooper's number.
"We found it! We know where he left the road!"
Her face was numb and red with cold, and when she turned back to Samar and Aram they had the same features. But all of their eyes radiated from under their winter clothing. They knew where he was. They were close.
Still on the phone to Cooper, she heard him relaying the find to Reddington. He in turn radioed Gavin.
"We're on our way!" Cooper told her and hung up. "Damn," he said to Reddington. "We may just have a happy ending to this after all."
Red nodded, looking out the window at the fresh snow that had begun to fall. "Let's hope so," he said worriedly as Dembe started the car. As Cooper and Red drove to where the task force was waiting on the side of the road, they came across the small gathering a few minutes later, and were surprised to see two orange clad men with them. They parked and walked up to the group.
Liz turned to them. "This is John Beckham and his son, Will. They've been hunting on this ridge for the past couple of hours and haven't seen anything out of the ordinary."
Cooper turned to the men, who were armed with rifles, traps and lanterns that still bobbed and glowed around them. "You hunt in this weather?"
"Yes sir, night is the best time to find and trap coyotes, rabbits, and small game," the man told him.
"And the snow makes it easier to see their tracks," his son added.
"I'll take your word for it," Cooper replied. "Do you know this area well?"
"Grew up around here, Sir, so yeah, this is our stomping grounds. You got a man lost down there, I hear?"
"We do. Any help you can give us with your knowledge of the area will be of great help," Cooper told him, turning at the sound of the large truck with Red's team in it. "Come with me, and I'll let you talk with the leader of our search party."
As the hunters talked with Gavin, Liz and the team were once again shining their lights down the embankment. How far down there was he? Was he hurt? Was he still alive?
"We need to hurry," Liz said, her face drawn. Aram wrapped his arms around her, and she fell into his grasp, the tears finally flowing.
"We're gonna get him, Liz," he assured her.
###
Ressler was happy. For the first time in many, many years, he was happy. With Audrey at his side, and his baby girl laughing and giggling on his lap, he felt nothing but joy. And he was warm, surrounded by light and peace. If this was death, or the brink of it, it was okay. It was more than okay. There was no pain, no aching chill to his bones. His baby kissed his cheek and held his fingers in her tiny hands and he laughed until he felt tears of joy on his cheeks. He was home.
###
"Get that thermal unit over here!" Gavin called as his men poured over the ridge, following the track that Ressler's vehicle had taken. It was rough going, with an almost vertical drop. Searchlights shone from the top of the ridge, their lights cutting down through the snow and trees for some distance. And down this path of light, eight men descended, held safely by ropes and harnesses.
There was no sign of a vehicle, yet they knew it was down here somewhere, hidden under the trees and snow.
From the road, the men were quickly lost to sight, but their voices and shouts wafted up to the team huddled together. Cooper had insisted they wait in the warm car, but they would hear none of it. Stiff with cold themselves, their skin red and their noses dripping, Liz, Saram and Aram waited together in the cold wind for word. And instead of making them get back into the warm car, Cooper opted to hold vigil with them.
Below the ridge, Gavin had the thermal scope to his eye, scanning the area every few feet as his men fanned out below him. Nothing showed among the snow-covered trees. They descended further, and he checked again.
There. A pale yellow shape amid the darkness of the trees.
"He's there! Fan out to your left and down!" he shouted, and up on the road, they heard his shout come up to them.
"Oh my god!" Aram cried as they held onto each other.
And down below, Gavin's team descended on the yellow shape on the thermal scanner. The car was hidden under the snow, but as they brushed the snow off it, the full scope of the damage to the vehicle became apparent. Strong flashlights shone in the smashed windshield and crushed vehicle to reveal a still shape on the back seat.
They had found him.