Fall Into Darkness
Deep In the Heart of Hell
Kenna closed her eyes and felt the pain radiate behind them. This wasn't the time for the headaches to start.
"You okay Hawks?" She looked up at Hunter Sinclair.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Did you ever tell Eliot about the migraines?"
"I haven't had one since before I went to live in Boston."
"So then he doesn't know." She looked at him.
"It hasn't been an issue." He handed her a piece of gum.
"It helps."
"What is it?"
"One of my foster monsters had TMJ. He chewed a piece and it helped him with his aches. I started using when I blew out my knee a few years ago. It's all natural." Looking skeptical she put the piece in her mouth.
"If I die, I'm coming back to haunt your ass." Hunter smiled.
"I wouldn't have it any other way." He was still cocky but he was starting to grow on her. Eliot came out of the woods behind the prison where they were camped.
"You two playin' nice?" Eliot looked at the two people in front of him.
"Oh yeah." Kenna smiled.
"I think I'm growing on her." Sinclair took the binoculars and looked toward the prison. "Anything the plans didn't tell us?"
"There's a whole new wing on the east side." Eliot looked over his shoulder. "I installed all the cameras. Hardison should be getting the footage right about now."
"Any sign of Sophie and Nate?" Kenna asked.
"Their rental car is parked in the lot next to the door to the orphanage. The doors were locked and their suitcases were in the trunk." He looked at Hunter Sinclair. He was tense. "You okay Sinclair?"
"Yeah." He looked over the Ukrainian landscape. Then the younger man shook himself out of the fog he was in. "I'll head in through the storm drain on the south side. I set the scrambler and see if I can hack into their cameras."
"We can go with you." Kenna went to get up.
"No, you two hang here, I'll call you when it's clear or I get eyes on Sophie and Nate. These guys are as mean as they come." Sinclair headed up the embankment. Kenna lay back on the hood of the car and looked up at the stars.
"Remember when we used to lay on the barn roof and look at the stars."
"You made me tell you what everyone of those constellations was."
"You never told me no." Eliot leaned on the hood.
"Kenna, I have never been able to say no to you…even back then."
(Flashback)
July 1985
"Please tell me again Eliot."
"That one's Orion."
"That's my favorite." Eliot looked at the blond ten year old next to him. His mom had told him to keep an eye on her but she annoyed the hell out of him most days. But tonight when she told him she didn't want to go home and asked if she could stay in the hay loft he couldn't tell her no. In the three years since she had been coming around it had been getting harder and harder to make her go.
"You need to tell someone about what's going on at your place Kenna Shane."
"Who would believe me?"
"There's people. We can call the state police."
"Eliot, I can't do that. My mom has lots of friends.
(Present)
It was a few weeks later when Eliot found out what was really going on at Kenna's house and he took her home and taught her the things she needed to know in case they ever made her go back. But nobody came after her after the day Eliot confronted her mother. When Kenna went to visit she always came back relieved she still had a home with the Spencer's.
"I'm glad you still can't say no." Kenna leaned over and kissed him. His hand moved to cup her cheek. He deepened the kiss.
"I want to take that trip we talked about when we get home…with the kids. We've been spending way too much time away from them Kenna and I don't want them to think we're not there for them."
"I like that plan. First we have to get Aunt Sophie and Uncle Nate home safe."
"I got them." Sinclair's voice echoed through their ear buds. "They're in the warden's office. They look fine but Sophie is wringing her hands so that can't be good."
"Can you get them to turn on their coms?"
"In between vent cams and the warden from hell, I don't think so. I may be able to send a small shock to one of the buds to give them a heads up."
"Oh, lovely. Let's shock them and hope they realize it's us." Kenna sat up. "Hardison was working on a remote method to turn the coms on."
"I'm working on it as we speak." Hardison answered.
"Get to it geek boy." She looked at her husband. "When was the last time you slept more than an hour?"
"Don't worry about it." He got up and went to the edge of the ravine and looked out over the prison.
"Damn it Eliot, I do worry. I have the God-given right." He turned and looked at her.
"I lose you one way or another when I close my eyes Kenna." She looked confused. "Since the whole horse accident at the farm, I lose you every time I try and sleep for more than an hour or so. I can't lose you again."
"Why didn't you say something to me before?"
"Because we have work and kids and four people who depend on us to be the back bone of this team."
"So you just don't tell me that you aren't sleeping?" She knew that since she got back from being missing for seven months that he felt the need to protect more than he ever had. "Eliot I'm reality, your reality. When you wake up I'm what you get."
"You don't know how real it felt. I've had dreams darlin'. You know I've had nightmares but Kenna those were worse than any nightmare I have ever had. I lose you to some other sick reality. It's never a better place. You're dead or I'm dead. You're in jail, hating me."
"When do you suppose the exhaustion will kill you?"
"I sleep enough." He turned back to look at the prison.
"Eliot…" She touched his shoulder but he pulled away. "Eliot, I can't lose you that way. I mean I don't ever want to lose you but it's killing you by not resting. If you're not rested how can you protect them? Protect us?" He turned back to her and saw fear in his wife's eyes. Fear for him. For what this was doing to their life, here and now.
"I'll see what I can do once we get Nate and Sophie back in one piece." Biting her lower lip she touched her husband cheek.
"We'll see what we can do. You forget I'm almost a medical professional." He smiled a small smile and took her hand and kissed the palm.
"Kenna Shane, you have always been the best medicine for me."
"Not now. It's my fault."
"Kenna, if I learned anything from my little dream lives is that my life is always better with you in it." He kissed her again. Voices of Nate and Sophie whispering echoed in there ear.
"I think Hardison turned on their coms." Eliot whispered.
"I got the incoming but there is no way we can contact them." Hardison answered.
"Well at least we'll have some clue on what's going on inside." They sat and listened for a few minutes. They were fighting over how they were going to get out of their little predicament.
"Well at least I know that I wasn't paranoid about them being in trouble." Hunter came out from the bushes.
"Okay. All the surveillance is installed." Kenna looked at the two men in front of her.
"If I go to the prison door and fake being lost maybe I can get in there."
"NO!" The two men staring at her said at once. She shook her head.
"Wow, did you rehearse that?" Crossing her arms across her chest, she stared at the two men. "I'm a big girl, really."
"Those men in there are seriously bad ass, Kenna." Hunter told her.
"And I haven't dealt with that kind of trouble before?"
"Kenna…" Eliot knew about Hunter's past…a past that he didn't share with anyone. A past that made his look like a cake walk.
"They're like no other's you have ever come up against Kenna." Hunter sat on the big rock across from her. "They would kill those kids in a heartbeat if it wasn't for the revenue they bring in and the product they can move. Nate and Sophie must have stumbled into something big if they risked taking two Americans hostage." Kenna leaned against the car.
"We have to get in there." She looked at her husband. "You and me…lost tourist?"
"I can live with that." Eliot went to the trunk of the car and got a tie for his hair and his glasses. He handed Kenna a jacket. "Meet us at the back gate Sinclair. If we're not there with Sophie and Nate in an hour head back to the hotel and get Hardison and Parker the hell out of here." Hunter nodded. "Take care of my family Sinclair."
"You know I will." Kenna got into the car and Eliot slid into the drivers seat. He sat for a minute and looked at the dark, dank building.
"I love you Kenna." She looked at her husband.
"I love you too." He turned and looked her in the eye.
"Those men in there equal nothing but bad news."
"We've been down this road before. Together we can get through this."
"I know. I also know the last few months have been hard on both of us and that we lose this fight and…"
"And we keep fighting. You of all people, Eliot, should know that when things are at their darkest there is always…always a light at the end of it." He looked at the prison. "Nate and Sophie are in there and we will get them home. Them and the child they have waited for since as long as I've known them."
"You were always the pessimistic one of this team. What the hell happened?" She smiled.
"I got rescued by my own white knight." He pulled in front of the dark prison.
"You ready?"
"As I'll ever be." Eliot got out of the car and walked to the door and started banging on it.
"Hey! Anyone home?" Eliot called out. "I need some help please." He said in broken Russian. Two very big men came out of the prison.
"Eliot!" Kenna reached for the door handle
"Yeah, I see them. Did I tell you I really hate Ukrainians?"
"I know the feeling." Kenna got out of the car.
"Stay back."
"I'm not letting you walk into the flames all by your lonesome cowboy." The guards looked at the seemly harmless couple.
"Back in the car Kenna Shane, that's an order." Blue eyes collided with brown.
"You did not just give me an order Eliot Spencer?" Storming over to him the two men raised their guns. Kenna didn't even flinch when the sound of the hammers being pulled back echoed in her ear. Eliot cocked his head to one side.
"Like you'd ever listen anyway." He said between clenched teeth. Without another thought they both turned, grabbing the barrels of the guns pointed at them, disarming the two very large Ukrainian guards in a spit second. After a few strategically placed kicks and a couple of punches the men were down for the count.
"Well that was just way too easy." Kenna said as she took a deep breath. The sound of running footsteps on concrete alerted them it wasn't going to be as easy as it seemed.
"Ya had to go and jinx it, didn't ya." Eliot turned to her. "Now will you go sit in the car?" Smiling she shook her head.
"Are you kidding? And miss all the fun." Turning she saw four more men headed out the door. "We got this."
"You better hope we got this." He shook his head. Kenna never backed down from a fight but Eliot wished just once she'd know when to. They were holding their own but it the harder they fought the more pissed off the Ukrainian's became. "Get the hell out Kenna." Eliot said in between dodging punches and throwing them.
"I'm…not…leaving…you." She said, sounding as worn out as he felt. He didn't get a chance to answer because out of nowhere another guard emerged and Eliot Spencer's world went dark, the fight drained from his body. The last thing he heard was his wife calling his name and the sound of gunfire echoing off the prison walls.