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Chapter 21
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Special Agent Seeley Booth lifted his hand and made a gesture to the man behind him. The message was quickly spread throughout the team. Booth slipped out his hand and quietly turned the handle. Locked. He leaned back on his left leg and snapped his right leg out, toppling the door over with a violent crash. Shards of wood and particles of dust filled the room with a cloud of white. The team spilled into the hovel. Les and Reed, the kidnappers at large, jumped to their feet, completely taken off guard. Reed dropped the cards and his arms flailed in the air. The other man was quicker to respond to the onslaught. He leaped through a nearby window where he was immediately pummeled to the ground by a young strong agent who was overseeing the back of the shanty.
Bones was not too far behind. Her eyes searched the little room for her son. It wasn't a large room, so her search was quickly over and her heart sunk below the dusty floorboards. They were too late. They were too late. Booth saw the panic on Temperance's face and also searched the room for the cage, for the boy, for any sign of life.
His first reaction was fury. He flew at the man in front of him, snatching him by the collar and throwing his body like that of a rag doll's against the wall. "Where is he?" He growled. If it was possible, his eyes would be burning like the red embers of fire--spitting, popping, searing. The man only laughed in his face, which was like throwing fuel into the fire. Booth pulled the man back and then smashed the man into the wall harder. He doubled up his fist and slugged him. The impact threw his body onto the floor. He was a marionette at the hands of a very large and very angry father.
Brennan stepped into the man's eyesight, squatting so he could get a good look at her face. "Where is Samuel? Where is my son!?" The man's eyes gleamed with ire, pain, and sheer callousness. Not many men flashed such a look at Temperance Brennan without feeling the effects in the morning. She stood up quickly and struck at him with her boot, the collision causing two of his ribs to snap like twigs. He relented when the pain shot through his body. He pointed towards the little restroom door. There was no handle, just a hole where one belonged. Temperance pushed against the door with her shoulder. Something behind it kept the door from swinging freely with her weight. A cold shiver ran through her spine. She feared the worse. Was it a child's body that lay in the way? She pushed firmly and gently until just enough of a crack was created where she could peek around the door.
The cage. It was a cage. She breathed with relief and pushed again.
Inside of the malodorous latrine was a rusty cage. And within the cage was a little body. Her hands shook as she quickly untwisted the wires which held the wire door to the wire cage. She reached deep into the cage until her hands met the cold little body. She pulled him to her heart. Seeing her son with his face and hair caked in filth, his body punctured with thousands of tiny cuts, and his diaper full of feces and urine caused her heart to ache with the pain of guilt and sadness. Tears of elation and joy were mixed with those of heartache, which often comes at the end of a very unsteady road.