Chapter 13

Hotch and Kahlan watched the medics load Sarah, the little girl Hotch had found, into a waiting ambulance. Kahlan took a deep breath and Hotch grabbed her hand. "You ok?"

"I need to find Chuck," she told him as she let him pull her into a hug.

You didn't answer the question. He sighed as he rubbed a hand down her back. "I know, but are you going to be ok?"

"I need to find Chuck," she told him again as she pulled away from him.

"Go. I need to make sure. . ."

"I know," she told him and took off running toward the other side of the park.

He shook his head and started for the throng of people who were trying to get everything under control. There hadn't been another explosion, but there was still a general feel of panic throughout the park.

Kahlan went to the river. It was one of the few places she couldn't see clearly when she had arrived. Several emergency personnel were helping to clear debris from one of the fishing piers that had been destroyed. Her breath hitched in her chest when she noticed an arm sticking out from under one of the broken pylons in the water. Her heart started racing as two firemen waded into the water to retrieve the body, but she let out the breath she'd been holding when it was obvious that it wasn't Chuck. She felt bad for whoever it was, but she was glad it wasn't Chuck. She took a deep breath and silently prayed that she'd find her longtime friend unharmed as she headed further down the shore of the river.

After she had walked about a hundred yards, automatic gun fire rang out. Son of a bitch! She thought as she instinctively ducked.

Hotch and every other law enforcement officer also instinctively ducked and drew their weapons. They were all looking around trying to figure out where the shots had come from, but the trees and the hills disguised the sounds enough that none of them could pinpoint its location.

Charles Leroy Lane! Kahlan mentally screamed. Something in her told her Chuck was linked to the shots. Being basically in the woods, Kahlan knew where the shots came from. She took off running up the trail head.

Hotch looked around for his wife. He didn't see her and his stomach twisted. Clam down! She can take care of herself! She's ok. She's ok; he had to keep telling himself so he could concentrate on getting everything under control.

Kahlan could hear someone yelling as she got closer to a rise in the trail, so she slowed to stealthfully walk through the woods to outflank whoever it was. Once she got around a thicket of bushes, her heart leaped; Chuck was alive! He was busy trying to wrestle an M4 from a burly man, though, and Kahlan actually felt sorry for the man by the look on Chuck's face. She knew Chuck was pissed. Chuck hardly ever got pissed, and she knew the shots she had heard had been aimed at Chuck.

Suddenly two more men came running down the side of the hill towards the fighting men. Kahlan wasn't worried until she saw one that of the men raised a gun and aimed at the wrestling men. "Three o'clock!" She yelled, and Chuck turned just in time to use the man he'd been fighting with as a human shield. The man took a three shot burst to the back, and Chuck pulled the gun he was fighting for out of the dying man's hands and turned it on the approaching men. Chuck pulled the trigger once as Kahlan threw a knife she had hidden at her waist. Both men went down before they could even figure out what they had gotten themselves into.

Chuck turned and smiled at Kahlan. "It's about time. . ."

She advanced on him quickly and cuffed him the back of the head. "You stupid idiot! If you ever scare me like that again, I swear, I will kill you myself!"

He laughed and swallowed her in a hug that lifted her off the ground. "Awww, were you worried about me?"

She chuckled and hugged him back. "Maybe just a little."

He sat her down as the man he shot moaned. They walked to him. "At least I took mine alive," he told her with another smile. The shot had caught the man in the thigh.

She looked at the man she had targeted. "Look again," she told Chuck with her own smile.

Chuck quickly looked at the man she was referring to. He was lying on his back with a big goose egg sticking out on his forehead. He laughed as he realized she had hit the man with the butt of the knife to just knock him out. "Show off!" He went to the man he had shot and rolled him over onto his back roughly, reached into the side pocket of his cargo pants, pulled out a zip-tie, and secured the man's hands behind his back. "You got a tie?" He asked Kahlan as he went to the other man.

"No, but you can use this," she told him as she took off a braided bracelet off her left wrist and threw it at him.

He quickly broke the plastic clasp and started to unwind the paracord. "I bet most people don't even know the real reason for these things," he told her as he grabbed her knife that had fallen to the ground, cut off a piece of the paracord, and tied the still unconscious man's hands together.

"Probably not," she told him as she caught her knife as he threw it to her. "Wake him up before someone comes."

He smiled. "You gonna question him here?"

"Yeah, and I don't want Aaron to see it," she told him with an evil grin as she went to the first man Chuck had secured. She turned him over to face her with her foot and then leaned down next to him. Her heart ached when she realized how young the man was. He couldn't have been much over fifteen, and she knew his father had probably dragged him into the fight. "What's your name son?"

The young man swallowed hard. "Tommy Jones."

"That your dad?" She asked as she gestured to the other man they had captured.

Tommy shook his head and looked at the dead man lying not too far from them. "He is."

Kahlan's heart ached even more for the boy. "I'm sorry."

He shook his head. "Bill killed him. I told him not to shot. I told him he might hit my dad, but he didn't care. He. . . He. . ." He broke down crying.

"Take him down to Aaron," she told Chuck as she helped the boy up into a standing position.

Chuck looked at her and then at the man who was starting to wake up. By the look on her face, he could tell that Kahlan was mad, and he almost felt sorry for the man she was about to question. He nodded to her and picked up the boy in a fireman's carry. He would have made any man walk, even with being shot, but he couldn't bring himself to be mean against the young man.

The man on the ground was fully awake by the time Chuck had disappeared into the woods. He rolled himself over and looked around franticly. Kahlan was sitting on a fallen tree, staring at him. He gave her a dirty look. "What are you looking at bitch?"

She smiled. "Why must every man, when he's afraid of a woman, call her a bitch?"

"I'm not afraid of you!" He demanded as he got himself into a sitting position.

She giggled through her nose. "You should be."

He huffed and struggled to get out of his binds, but Chuck had tied the cord expertly. "What are you, a cop?"

She laughed. "Nope," is all she told him as she got up and slowly walked to him. "What's your name?"

He eyed her coldly. "Like I'd tell you!"

She quickly brought up her foot and slammed into down onto his left thigh. His femur snapped and he screamed in pain. She went behind him quickly and put her hand over his mouth so silence him. She didn't want anyone to be able to find them. "I'll ask you one more time," she whispered in his ear.

He nodded quickly and she took her hand away from his mouth as he gasped for air, trying to breathe past the pain in his leg. "Bill. William Martins."

"Good boy," she told him and tasseled his hair. She figured the man was older than her, but she loved humiliating men who thought they were tougher than they actually were.

"You can't do this!" he demanded.

She could see fear in his eyes, and it made her smile.

"What are you, a fed?"

She knew he was searching for a reason for her to not be able to treat him so badly. "Nope. I'm just a mother who got really pissed off when I got to witness what one of your explosions did to a little girl!" She told him through clenched teeth as she felt her anger starting to boil over.

He looked on the verge of panic.

"Who is in charge of your little group?"

"Never!"

"You know, there are over two hundred bones in the adult body," she started as she stood up and moved in front of him with a wicked smile on her face. "And I can break about ninety percent of them without a weapon."

His eyes went wide and he tried to scoot back away from her, but he didn't get very far as the pain in his thigh stopped him. A whimper escaped him as he tried to make his leg more comfortable. "You wouldn't!"

She raised her brows. "Try me," she told him simply as she got closer to him.

He swallowed hard and she could tell he was trying to decide what to do. He didn't answer quickly enough, she kicked him in his upper chest. His right collar bone snapped under the pressure and another scream escaped him as he fell to the ground. "Alright!" he yelled as soon as he could and she went to stand close to him.

"I'm waiting!"

"James," he started as he breathed heavily. "James Dunn."

She studied him. "Is that the idiot who you all call 'Han'?"

He nodded his head quickly.

Suddenly she heard Hotch yelling her name and she winced. She reached down and grabbed the man's shirt making sure to agitate the broken clavicle. "This didn't happen. You fell down the hill when you were trying to get away!" She told him venomously. He nodded again quickly and she pulled him up into a standing position. He screamed as the move put too much pressure on his broken leg.

Suddenly two uniformed police officers came over the rise. She shoved the prisoner over to them, and they caught him as he fell. "Careful. I think he might have broken his leg," she told them with feigned pity. They nodded and started to take him down to the trail as Hotch and several other people came into the clearing.

Hotch eyed the prisoner warily and looked at his wife.

"What?" She asked innocently.

He raised his brows at her and she knew that he knew exactly what had happened.

"He fell," she told him simply.

"No doubt," he told her as he went to her. "Are you alright?" he asked her quickly as he took in the dead man lying not too far off.

She took a deep breath. "I'm fine," she assured him with smile.

He looked back toward the man who was being escorted down the hillside. "You get anything useful?"

"Of course," she told him with a wink and started out of the clearing.

He shook his head and followed her.

XXX

By the time the team was back at the BAU, Garcia was already running down everything she could find on James Dunn. Hotch sat in his office and pinched the bridge of his nose. The day's activities had left him with a headache. The blinking message light on his desk phone told him he had a recorded message, so he picked up the receiver and pressed the keys to hear whatever had been left for him. His headache got worse as he realized he was listening to the proclaimed leader of the Rebellion:

'We have attacked the parks to show you exactly how serious we are. Maybe once you all see how many innocent children have died, you will believe us. We want change, and we will not stop until we get it.' The voice paused and Hotch could hear paper rustling. Is he going to actually demand whatever change he's seeking? 'We want you to fear us Agent Hotchner.' Hotch's brows furrowed. He didn't like that the man knew his name. He apparently knows I'm in charge. Shit! He knew that that meant there was a leak somewhere, and that thought made his free hand ball into a fist. 'Once the government puts an end to all of the wrongs against the American people, we will stop.' What wrongs? 'Until that happens, expect more bloodshed,' and the message ended. Hotch slammed the fist down on his desk. You crazy bastard! Do you even know what you want? He hung up and then dialed Garcia. He was pretty sure the call had come from an untraceable phone, but he had to at least try.