Jules heard the footsteps she had been waiting for. The door opened and her captor returned. He headed towards the stove and used the knife to stir the contents. He turned to the table and chopped up something, which he added to the pot. He stirred the pot again, and held up the knife, as if to inspect it.
Jules watched him turn, and he headed towards her, the knife held at his side. He prodded the chains on her feet with a toe. The used his foot to pull at the chain, pulling it towards him. The leg irons snugged up, pulling her legs towards him. He looked at her, and she returned his gaze steadily. She held the nail in her hand with the point out, ready to use it as a weapon if necessary.
"You've been naughty while I've been gone." He said.
Without warning, he knelt and stabbed the knife into Jules' left thigh. She screamed, leaning forward. She desperately reminded herself to keep her hands behind her, so he wouldn't notice that her hands were free. Her leg throbbed, and she could see blood slowly seeping from it. He hadn't hit an artery. She thought with relief. She let herself fall over to her side, hiding the nail within her palm. He grabbed her and pulled her upright to a standing position. Her leg refused to take her weight. He pushed her against the wall.
He stared down at her silently. He brought the knife up to her face, drawing the point slowly down her right cheek. She felt the blade bite into her jaw. Unable to pull away from the pain because of his restraining hand, she glared at him. He moved the blade of the knife and added a second cut next to the first. She cried out from the pain of the second, deeper cut.
"Remember what I said about you losing your place on the team?" He said quietly into her ear. "I was thinking about the best approach to accomplish that goal." He moved the knife slowly down her throat and outwards towards her shoulder. He tilted the knife, until only the very tip of the knife was against her shoulder, in the meaty part just below the point where her collar bone met the shoulder joint.
"Rendering you physically unfit sounds like a great start." He said. He slowly inserted the knife into her shoulder. She felt every millimeter of the knife as it entered her. She cried out from the pain. The knife did not stop its forward movement until she felt the tip of the knife hit her scapula. He held the knife there for a few long moments, and then suddenly yanked it from her shoulder. She screamed and slid down the wall until she was sitting on the floor. He slapped her and she fell over to her side, landing on the injured shoulder.
She was roughly rolled onto her stomach, and he discovered the loose bonds. He pulled on the tie and tightened them.
"Where is it?" he demanded. He started searching her for whatever she had used to release herself. He pried her hands open, only to find them empty. In frustration, he kicked her in the ribs. She cried out again and attempted to curl into a ball to protect herself. Her injured leg would not cooperate. He continued to kick her, raining blows on her ribs, arms and back, until finally a blow to the head spun her into blackness and away from the pain.
Her captor stood above her inert body, breathing heavily. His anger at this little bitch had not receded. In fact, it had only increased as the beating had gone on. He was so close, but he didn't want to kill her. He wanted her to live with the knowledge of what she did. He went to the well head near the stove and drew a large pail of water. At this time of year, the water was icy cold. Walking back to her, he dumped the pail of water over her. She woke spluttering.
Jules opened her eyes and returned to a world of pain. Everything hurt. Her body was protesting the abuse that she had received over the last three days. She glanced up at her captor and started to look away when she saw Ed through the crack in the curtains of the window. When she looked again, there was no one there. Jules groaned. I'm starting to hallucinate.
Her captor stood over her, breathing heavily. Suddenly, there was a thump outside the cabin. The man moved to the window, drawing the curtain aside. He swore softly. Letting the curtain fall, he turned back to Jules. He kicked her once more and then plunged the knife through the back of her left leg. As she screamed, he moved out of her line of sight.
A long thirty seconds after that, the door to the cabin opened suddenly and something was thrown in. It went off with a loud bang and a bright flash of light. Jules blinked her eyes, trying to clear them. Ed was there, crouching over her.
"Jules!" Ed said. "Hang on! We're getting you out of here." Jules heard Ed report that he had found her. Greg was beside her, working to release her hands and her feet.
"Where is he?" Greg asked.
Jules shook her head. "I couldn't see." she replied.
Greg eased her onto her back on the floor, assessing her injuries. "Wordy! Get in here. Jules needs a medic."
Wordy appeared in the cabin and immediately started to apply field bandages to Jules' leg and shoulder. Jules started to drift away, their voices sounding as if they were distant from her.
"Come on, Jules." Wordy said. "Stay with me." He used a penlight to check her eyes and noted that they were not responding as they should.
"Boss, she's in bad shape. We have to get her out of here." Wordy said.
"Copy that." Greg said. "Wordy, Spike, get her to EMS. Keep a watch for Ridinger."
Wordy carefully picked Jules up and carried her from the cabin. Spike joined them, and they began a retreat down the access road.
"Ramirez, alert EMS that we're coming out." Spike said. The world darkened, and Jules lost consciousness.
Ridinger moved below the cabin, heading towards the access near the rear of the cabin. He heard voices above and knew that the SRU had rescued Jules. He heard Sergeant Parker tell one of them to head for EMS.
Watching and listening, Ridinger knew it was a matter of time before the SRU found the trap door. He paused at the edge of the cabin, but saw no one. Quietly, he climbed out from beneath the cabin and started at a run for the nearby trees. He heard a shout behind him and knew that he had been spotted.
He ran through the trees, zig-zagging between the trunks. He saw a flash of light reflected off something to his right and ducked to his left. He ran, changing direction at random. His only thought was to shake his pursuers. Night was falling, and he knew he would have the advantage in the dark. Suddenly, an SRU member burst from the brush in front of him. He skidded to a stop in surprise, and then immediately ran to his right. I must be close to the access road. He thought. He knew he had to be careful for the trip wires he had scattered around the cabin to deter Jules from escaping. He turned to his left, and headed towards where he thought the ledge was. If he could get to it, he might be able to escape.
He barely noticed the sudden catch on his ankle when the grenade detonated and killed him.
An explosion rocked the night near the access road. Wordy and Spike dropped to the ground, Jules beneath them. They heard Greg call for a report on the team members. "Spike ok." Spike said. "Wordy ok."
Ed's voice came over the radio. "Suspect down. Looks like a trip wire."
Spike and Wordy looked at each other. They picked Jules up and continued heading down the access road to the EMS team, taking care to make sure they encountered no additional traps.
The paramedics met them at the end of the access road, their headlights illuminating the road. They immediately started working on Jules.
"Will she be ok?" Spike asked.
"She's lost a lot of blood and she's very dehydrated." The paramedic replied. "But it doesn't look like he hit any arteries." They continued to work on her, inserting IVs in to her arms to administer fluids.
"We have to go." The paramedic said. "Her best chance is for us to get her out of here and onto a Mediflight to Toronto."
"Go." Wordy said. "Take her to St. Joseph's."
"Will do." the paramedic replied. He closed the rear door of the ambulance, and his partner started backing down the access road. Wordy and Spike watched them retreat with Jules and then turned back towards the cabin.
Ed and Greg were coming back down the road.
"How is she?" Greg asked.
"She's in rough shape," Wordy replied, "but the paramedics think she's going to be all right. They are going to Mediflight her to St. Joes."
"OK. Well, let's head back. It's going to be a long ride."
The team members headed back to the SUVs to start the long ride back to Toronto. As they left, local uniformed police streamed into the site to secure it and search for evidence.
