"Mike, you've had better ideas before. Please, listen just this once."
His body wanted to, it really did, but his mind couldn't leave his partner behind, not in a million years.
Chong and his goon might be dead, but the case was far from over.
And so he continued to strut through the dense forest he'd mastered for half the night, trying to remember the exact route he and Gifford had taken, an impossibility considering the darkness surrounding them throughout the entire trip.
Next to him, Devitt huffed in frustration, the strain of fear and worry written all over his ashen features as he slowly followed along, traipsing over small rocks and branches here and there because he refused to take his attention off the obstinate Lieutenant.
"So did Conden. Nothing like letting us hang out to dry just because it got dark out. If you hadn't shown up when you did, we would have been toast. If you would have been allowed to leave sooner, we wouldn't have to go search for my injured partner in the middle of this godforsaken forest either."
He'd said those last few words with the utmost disdain, frustrated with the decision from the brass to delay rescue efforts even though part of him understood the reasoning behind it. Yet, it seemed as though some of the higher ups put a lot less emphasis on common sense than others.
"That's why I had Conden authorize that I bring Doctor Simmons along, just in case. We can handle it, Mike. I really would feel better if you would join Gifford back by the convoy. You are limping. And bleeding. And shaking. You're obviously injured. If you go down, you won't do us any good as we're trying to find Stephen. We'd have to drag both of you back."
"Let's worry about one problem at a time. I am fine.", Mike countered more curtly than intended, his nerves bare after the events of the past twelve hours.
His mind was still having a hard time coming to terms with the reality that Chong was dead, even after he looked at the bullet-riddled body, his fear that the mad man might somehow survive the mortal injuries nearly crippling his senses. The goon that was with him had been shot to death as well, the one down below sitting in the car had been injured, then decided to kill himself in front of the Special Operations Command from the Feds before anybody could talk him out of it.
Suffice to say, the trail of blood wouldn't just end with Chong's death.
"That's exactly what we're trying to do, Mike.", Roy argued stubbornly and gestured around the half a dozen people accompanying their rescue mission, "What more do you think you can accomplish by being here that Doctor Simmons and all these Fed agents can't? You've been through enough already."
Growing tired of the circular conversation, Mike stopped in his tracks for a brief moment, biting his lip when the pain from his battered body overwhelmed his senses, making him dizzy, then looked over at the tall blonde doctor dragging his case of supplies along, before glaring back at Devitt.
"Be there for my partner. That's what I can do. Prove to him that we didn't die and that Chong can't hurt us anymore. He's been alone and injured out in this freezing cold night long enough. The least I can do is be there when we find him."