Flashback- Chapter 25
As Sara and Warrick crouched down the boulders they were using for cover, the driver of the second humvee, Officer Ames, peeked over their cover and scanned the area ahead of them with his night vision goggles. Slowly he lowered the glasses and looked down at the CSI's.
"It's been pretty quiet for the last few minutes, and I hadn't observed any movement," Ames said softly.
Warrick looked up the soldier and saw the hesitancy in his eyes.
"Okay? Is something else going on?"
Ames nodded slowly. "We're supposed to contain this guy, right?"
Warrick straightened up and took the goggles from the officer. Peering through the glasses, he could make out a shadowy figure creeping along a narrow ledge that was half way up the steep cliff. There was a second figure being half-carried along that ledge.
The tall Afro-American sucked in his breath. "Damn," whispered Warrick.
Sara glanced at her colleague. "Warrick, is it Petersen?"
"Yeah, Sara…and it looks like he's going to try to make a run for it. He's trying to take Griss with him."
"What? Grissom's with him? I thought he wasn't in any condition to be moved," Sara asked, starting to rise to take a look herself.
Warrick placed a firm hand on her shoulder and looked down at Sara, choosing his words carefully so as not to panic the young woman. "Sara, it looks like Petersen's carrying him…at least, dragging him along. It looks like Griss isn't conscious so he's not in any pain right now. He's certainly not in any condition to be trying to stop Petersen."
As he finished speaking, they could hear the distant sound of at least one chopper in the distance. Sara nodded and was immediately on her radio to Jim Brass.
"Jim…Jim, do you copy?"
"Sara, Catherine…what's up? How are you guys holding up out there? Brass and Bower are conferring with the SWAT teams and EMT's right now," shouted Catherine over the roar of the choppers that had just landed.
Sara could just make out Catherine's voice over the speaker. "Catherine, Petersen's on the move. He's got Grissom with him. What does Brass want us to do?"
"Griss is with Petersen? Sara...,"Catherine sputtered into the radio speaker.
"Warrick says….Warrick says that Petersen has to practically carry him…that he's just dragging him along. With this light, it's impossible to tell if he's…he's still alive," Sara managed to say.
"Okay,,,okay," said the strawberry-blonde, trying to think through all the possibilities with this new information. "Don't do anything. Keep down, but track them. Don't let them out of your sight. Don't let Petersen see you guys. Okay, Sara?"
There was a pause and then Sara's voice came through, "Okay, we can do that…but Cath…Griss…"
"Sara, you can't do anything for him right now as tempting as it might be. Just…just don't lose sight of them, okay? I'm going to talk to Jim right now. Just hang on…"
Catherine walked quickly over to Brass, who was preparing for the drop. Tapping the police captain on the shoulder, the senior investigator swiftly had his attention.
Brass immediately saw the concerned look in her face and shook his head at her. "Really Cath…I know what I'm doing…"
Before he could go on further, she held her hand up to stop him. "Jim, I know better than to try to talk you out of this. Listen, Sara just radioed in. Petersen's on the move…"
"Warrick and Sara? They're okay?" he demanded.
"Yeah, yeah, they're okay, but Petersen's got Grissom with him. Apparently, he's trying to escape. They're just holding back and keeping an eye on him. They should be okay in keeping him in sight since they have the night vision goggles."
As he hurriedly finished buckling up his straps, Brass asked, "Okay, okay, just let me think for a second,"
The police captain stared off in the direction of the cliffs.
Turning to Bower, Brass watched at the doctor finished adjusting his own straps.
In an impatient tone, Brass demanded, "Okay, Doc. Did you hear that? This plan has us getting to Petersen at the cave before he tries to leave. Any bright ideas?"
Bower paused and then looked at Brass. Spreading out the map on the hood of the nearest SUV, grimly he replied as he pointed on different areas of the map, "This operation has to be carefully choreographed. We will need your SWAT teams to approach from this direction. They need to simulate an attack but we don't want any friendly fire causalities. We will parachute in from the opposite direction."
Brass cast a Bower a steely look, "When we make our drop, how will Petersen know we're the good guys? How do we know he won't try to shoot us out of the sky?"
"He'll see the choppers. We own the skies over there. He'll know it's got to be CSAR. It's the best chance we've got to get you man and Petersen out alive, Yes, the men out there facing Petersen are taking a big risk, but I want you to remember this much, except for your two perpetrators, Petersen hasn't killed anyone or injured anyone."
"Wait a sec. That's not true. You seemed to have forgotten that he tried to kill Nick," interrupted Catherine.
The captain turned to Catherine and regarded her for a brief second.
"That's true, but your man attacked him," Bower held up his hands and continued, "I know…I know that Petersen was tracking him, but he could have easily killed your man."
Catherine shot back, "If it wasn't for Sara shooting him, Nicky would be on the way to the morgue instead of leading the way to find Petersen."
Brass stepped in between the two, holding his hands up. "Hey, hey, let's discuss the merits of Petersen's state mind and his motives later, shall we? Right now our first priority is to get both Grissom and Petersen safely out of the desert where we can get treatment for both. Can we least agree on that?" he said in a somewhat impatient tone.
Catherine took a step back and folded her arms.
"Fine, Jim. Don't you dare come back here without the both of them."
Jim gave her a smirk, "I don't think I have a choice, do I? You seem to always have the last word. Come in with the SWAT teams and let me know how it looks on the ground. They're leaving now, and so, you'd better get moving."
The strawberry-blonde quickly made her way to the SWAT SUV's that had just arrived. Brass and Bower walked over with her to brief the men. As they approached the vehicles, twelve officers from the SWAT unit greeted them.
"Gentlemen, we have a unique situation here," Brass informed them. Spreading the topographical map out on the hood of one of the vehicles, the police captain immediately laid out what they would be facing.
The SWAT officer in charge, Lieutenant Mason, studied the map and then turned to Bower. His serious expression spoke volumes about what he thought about what he and his men were expected to do.
Tracing his finger on the map where his men were to report, Mason spoke in a quiet voice to Brass, "Captain, I want to make sure that I have this straight. There's a Marine up there who thinks he is still in Afghanistan and that he's fighting the Taliban. In addition to that, CSI Grissom is being held captive by this guy."
Bower interrupted the lieutenant and added, "Yes, Lieutenant Mason, you have that about right. However, when you men move in on Petersen's position, your goal is to engage him but not harm him in anyway. You'll need to order your men to "shoot around" him, make him think that he's under attack."
"You do realize that you are putting these men in danger and basically handcuffing them?" the lieutenant stated calmly.
"Yes and no. Based on what I have observed and from the reports, except for when Grissom and Stokes were in direct danger, Petersen has not killed anyone. Yes, he shot at people in Red Rock Canyon, but no one was even remotely injured. He had ample opportunity to kill CSI Stokes, even if he was rescued by one of his colleagues. I think that subconsciously he is holding back. I don't think that your men will be in danger as long as there is not a direct assault on his position."
"Have you done anything like this before?" questioned Mason.
Standing a little taller and with as much confidence that he could muster, Bower answered back quickly, "To tell you the truth, no, but I know Petersen. It's redemption that he's seeking. I firmly believe that if we do this right, he'll earn that redemption."
"How do you figure?" Catherine asked incredulously.
Turning to Grissom's second in command, Brass said softly, "If Petersen had not gotten involved, both Nick and Grissom would be in the morgue, and we wouldn't be having this conversation. Let's get going before this situation gets totally out of control."
Catherine opened her mouth to retort and then promptly shut it. The good captain was correct and, like it or not, the situation wasn't going to resolve itself with them standing around jawing about it.
With that being said, Mason nodded solemnly and gathered his men together for instructions. Catherine Willows donned on a flak jacket and checked her weapon. She was going to occupy SWAT in whether Brass wanted her to or not.
Major O'Sullivan emerged from the lead helicopter and trotted over to Brass. Getting the details of the latest developments, the major nodded his head in understanding. Signaling to his pilots, O'Sullivan laid out the map for them and indicated the plan. The major would have his own men manning the helicopters'
105 mm Howitzers.
Both Mason and O'Sullivan gathered their men together and outlined the parameters of the mission. Both Brass and Bower were introduced to the assembled gathering. After handing out the perspective assignments, O'Sullivan turned to Bower.
"Captain, I'll be in the lead chopper with you and Brass. I want to make sure my men manning the guns are doing their jobs and be able to view the situation from the air in case there are any last minute complications."
The captain nodded his head to show that he understood. Tapping Brass on the shoulder, he cocked his head towards the lead helicopter which had restarted its engines. The police captain grimly acknowledged him by tightening his shoulder straps. He turned to Catherine and gave her a wide smile and a thumbs-up as he headed to the waiting chopper.
A/N: Okay, they're on their way…finally. The left hand is getting better at finding those keys and the school year is almost over- only another 5 days of grading papers! :D Hope to get on a regular writing schedule this week. Thank you, thank you to all of you who have encouraged me the last few weeks.