Carter stared at the satellite phone laying across her lap, closed her eyes and prayed.
One more time she grasped well-worn note, the last shred of coveted paper John had handed her the last time she'd seen him. She could still feel the heat of his fingertips, the way they'd purposely been left to linger against the skin of her opened hand.
If only she had grasped him instead - held on - refused to take it. Something! But she hadn't, she'd accepted the little piece of inscribed paper along with his fate.
She shook herself, angry at her useless thoughts and dialed the sat-phone number she'd memorized as many times ago. She nearly choked when it connected.
"John? Oh my God! You know how long we've been trying to get you?!" She snapped her fingers at Fusco now staring at her from across his desk.
"Detective? No it's Finch. Has something happened?"
Carter collected herself with trained efficiency. "Finch. You guys are in danger! We know who's behind the..."
"As do we. Eleanor Wright."
"Back from the grave... and not even surprised?" Fusco muttered in the background. "Figures..."
"Mr. Reese has already had a run in with Mrs. Wright, and from the sounds of it, a rather large and adapt accompaniment. He managed to get our Numbers away, and is heading this way. I'm afraid our best laid plans were somehow compromised, we'll..."
"Finch! Listen! It's worse than that. We saw the video tapes Rourke made of his clients. Eleanor isn't the only one calling the shots..."
"Oh dear..."
Reese stayed on high alert, keeping a sharp eye while trying to hear passed the whipping trees and crunching footsteps, but the storm made it impossible. It was bad enough beginning out in these treacherous conditions, but to be such easy targets was pushing to the top of his list of bad ideas. Might as well paint a glowing bullseye on our backs. He shook his head in frustration. "Keep moving. It's the only way to actually get there." Reese pushed.
"That's far enough!" In that instant, the simultaneous and all too familiar, sounds of cocking weapons managed to filter through the rustling trees from multiple directions. "Toss your weapons and turn around!" The female's voice commanded.
Reese had no choice, they were caught in the open. The soldiers were too spread out to take them all down before one of them reached the Wrights, and he couldn't shield them both. He slowly turned.
Somehow they'd been flanked. Two men stood off in the trees about 25 yards away with fully automatic rifles trained right on them - neither needed to be a remotely good shot to cut them down. Eleanor, along with two more well armed men, fanned about 20 yards behind him. "Ah-ah! Nice and slow!"
Reese reluctantly threw his pistol into the deep snow, then unslung his rifle and did the same. "You don't have to do this. I know what Edward did to you. You don't have to kill him to get justice."
Eleanor laughed looking right at Edward. "Don't even try! I'm not gonna watch as some high-powered lawyer and bought judge let this murderous snake off with nothing more than a hand slap over drinks. I've been planning this a long time."
With his influence, Reese knew that was a distressing possibility. After all, wasn't it because of such a flawed system that they did what they did in the first place? "Think about your son. Hasn't he been through enough? He just got you back." It was that inopportune moment his sat-phone chose to ring.
John heard the unmistakable flick of a gun's safety from directly behind him. A wash of self recrimination hit along with the hyper-clarity as the last piece of the puzzle dropped into place. Why they'd always been one step behind the attacks. How they'd always found them, and why they couldn't find the leak.
"I'll take that..." Anthony Wright vehemently hissed.
Reese slowly pulled the phone from his pocket and hit 'answer' just as Anthony snatched it from his hand.
"You won't be needing this!" he bit and hurled the hardware over the nearby drop off. "Don't pretend that you know what we've gone through!" Anthony lashed out. "My Dad tried to have my Mom killed, but not before she and I were subjected to a lifetime of abuse!"
"Anthony? Son? I never meant... You.., you can't be a part of this..." Edward's pitch rose in staggered shock.
"And you! I can't believe you have the guts to act innocent? God - you probably don't even think you did anything wrong? As long as everyone thought you we were the perfect family, then you remained the model dad and husband of the year. But only as long as it all stayed hidden - right? When Mom threatened to expose your perfect façade? You had her killed. Well it's our turn now!"
John couldn't help but feel a pang sympathy for them; no one should live abused and in fear, especially not at the hands of family. Reese understood how desperation could push a person to do extreme things.., but he feared this would take a damaged man and irreparably break him. "You can still put an end to it all, the right way. Don't let him ruin your future too." John reasoned.
Anthony ironically laughed. "Future! That's why we're doing this, so Mom and I can have the future we deserve. As far as anyone will know, the mob killed him. Then I'll get it all. Who gets to decided what's 'right!?' Definitely not you!? We're here now because of you! This would have all been over days ago. Clean - fast - done! But thanks to your, save-the-world, heroic ass... here we're freezing our's off!" Anthony turned to his mother in sudden concern, "Mom, you ok?"
She clutched her bandaged shoulder. "Nothing can stop me from enjoying this. Get rid of him." She ordered, "so we can get this bastard back to the city and finally do this right!"
Reese felt the piercing burn of the bullet before his brain could accept that Anthony had actually pulled the trigger. To the very last second he'd held out hope for the young man, but as his knees buckled, he knew that Edward had already stripped hope away from his son a long time ago.
"Finish him, we can't have any witnesses!"
Anthony snarled a grin and leveled the gun on Reese once again, too preoccupied by the act to notice John suddenly launch himself into Anthony, knocking him off target just before vaulting sideways over the edge of the icy drop off.
"Get him!" Anthony wailed, scrambling up to the edge to fire into the inky darkness.
A battery of automatic fire joined him, shredding through the trees and impacting with ricocheting pings off rocks.
"That's enough!" Eleanor called out, laying a hand on her son's shoulder. "He's dead either way. If the bullets didn't get him the storm will. Let's go. We need to find another vehicle."
"Why would you go to such lengths Eleanor?" Edward begged. "Why not just kill me the first chance you had?"
She bitterly laughed. "In hindsight we probably should have, but it was just too much fun manipulating your idiot henchman, O'Connor. I'm sure he purposely botched running you off the road, but after we threatened to take his traitorous involvement in my murder public, he fell in line. Killing him was a liberating reward after five years!" She broadly smiled. "Then by some twisted miracle you managed to get the only capable watchdog in New York - effectively screwing everything up! You have any idea what this endeavor has cost me because of him? Even so taunting you, and those pompous, old company-blowhards has been just rewards - it'll be nothing getting them to sell out now."
"And Paulinski? Why kill him? He had nothing to do with it."
A look of genuine sorrow darkened her face. "Paulinski was a good man. Only trustworthy man I've ever known. That was a regrettable accident meant for you.. A tragic irony really, since Paulinski's the reason I survived. You son-of-bitch! He's the one who warned me of your plan five years ago, and helped me stage my death."
"What about Anthony! You're hired fools almost killed your own son!"
"Hardly. Your cowardice eyes saw what you wanted to see. We always knew exactly where he was and you, right down to the lying teeth in your head. You know that root canal? Dr. Epstein was kind enough to give us a fail proof way to track you by implanting a fake molar, a transmitter we could turn off and on as we needed, leaving it undetected."
"Mom, lets go!" Anthony gently gripped her gun hand. "We have to get out of this weather! Flint had us heading to another cabin not far from here. It must have been his backup plan. I'm sure he has a truck stashed."
Eleanor lovingly stroked her son's cheek before finishing her venting tirade. "Can't have a convincing plot without some build-up! You taught me that darling! And it's simply poetic laying the blame on those filthy Russians. For your just deserts, we've even chosen your favorite getaway house, where I'm sure you and O'Connor came up with your treacherous plan. Now move!"