Part Forty-Four

Military Police
Memphis NAS
0850 Local

Perez leaned back from the computer screen and looked over at Harm and Gunny, "We have eleven arrivals and/or transfers during the first week of Jarvis's disappearance. Three are women, so that leaves us with eight possibles."

Harm looked at him, "Do you have any other information on them?"

The Captain shook his head, "Not in these particular files. All I have are names and where their new duty posts are. We'll have to get into the personnel files after this. I've printed out the list of names. The printer's in the other room." He nodded his head to the left and turned back to the computer to begin tapping out commands.

Walters got up, "I'll get it, sir."

Harm watched him get up and frowned slightly, "Gunny?"

Walters paused with his hand on the doorknob, "Yes sir?"

"Are you okay?" Harm wasn't even sure why he asked the question.

The Gunny was silent for a moment, looking down, "I'm not sure, sir. I feel... twitchy. Like I'm standing in somebody's crosshairs." He turned a little to look at Harm, "We need to catch this guy and soon." He opened the door and left.

Harm tried to swallow the uneasy feeling he gotten at Gunny's words. Mac would be okay, the Admiral was with her and there was a guard outside the door. Koslov was dead, his network had to be floundering. The bad guys were on the run. He looked over to see Perez watching.

"I'm sure she's safe, sir." He turned back to the computer, "I'm in Personnel. Let's see... Miller... no, too young. Just graduated from the Academy, this is his first posting." Harm got up and came around the desk to peer over Perez's shoulder.

A few minutes later, Walters walked back in with the list. Harm looked over at him, "Cross off Miller, Svenson and Espisito."

Five minutes later, they'd narrowed it down to three. The Captain printed out the information on them all. Harm looked at the list and sighed, "Jarvis could be any one of these. We'll have to go see each man." The uneasiness Gunny had awakened was making Harm begrudge every moment Jarvis was unaccounted for.

Perez picked up the phone, "Let me call and make sure these guys are available." Harm went back to re-reading the file, looking for anything that might be a flag. He looked up when Perez hung up the phone and then stood. The Captain looked grim, "Saunders and Otis are at their posts, Nichols never showed up."

"Damn!" Harm shot to his feet and headed for the door, Gunny right behind him. He looked over his shoulder, "Call your people at the hospital, Bobby. I'll bet my stripes that son of a bitch is there."

Mac's Room
Base Hospital
Memphis NAS
0915 Local

Slowly, AJ turned to face the two with his hands extended to each side. "Who are you and what do you want?" he asked calmly. He watched the scowl deepen on the man's face as he glanced over at Mac. The muzzle of his gun began to track towards her as well. Unobtrusively, AJ began to sidle over to the bedside, trying to break into the man's line of sight. He froze when the gun swung back to him. He tried again, "You realize if you start shooting, you won't get out of here alive?"

"Shut up," the man said. He looked at the two officers, "Either of you try to attract the guard's attention and I will start shooting."

AJ tried again, "What do you want?"

The man smiled, "Lots of things, Admiral." He looked over at Mac and his eyes grew colder, "I'll settle for taking the Colonel on a little trip. I'm sure she could use the fresh air."

"The hell you will," Chegwidden took a step forward. He heard Mac's quiet 'Sir! No!' behind him.

The man's gaze snapped back to AJ and he took aim at the Admiral, "Sit down." AJ remained motionless. The man gave a mirthless smile and swung the pistol towards Mac, "I said sit." Chegwidden turned back and dropped onto the seat. "Tie him to the chair," the man said, gesturing towards the woman. "Give me your gun first," he added as an afterthought. Keeping a weapon trained on each officer, he waited for the woman to finish tying AJ. Then he sauntered over to Mac's bedside. She watched him warily. He glanced back at Chegwidden before lashing out at the shoulder on her injured side. With a gasp, she folded over, curling around the pain. He shoved the muzzle against the side of her head and looked over at AJ, "Not a word, Admiral or you'll make me pull the trigger." He watched for a few moments and then as he turned away, he looked into the livid eyes of the Admiral, "You give me trouble and she pays, remember that."

AJ, his jaws clenched tight, nodded slowly and looked over at Mac. She finally rolled back, collapsing against the pillows, still trying to get her breathing under control. She saw him watching her and gave a ghost of a smile. His eyes narrowed in confusion. He saw her glance at the man, who was whispering heatedly to the woman, and then glance down at the bed. He followed her gaze and realized that the wire to the callbutton now ran under the covers. AJ gave her an approving look and then turned his attention back to their two captors.

The man and the woman continued their quiet argument until she finally shrugged. The two headed towards the door and the man flattened himself against the wall as she went out. After the door shut, he walked back into the room, "Your ride should be here shortly, Colonel." He chuckled, "We wouldn't want to go against hospital policy."

"You're Alan Jarvis." Mac said quietly, "I thought I recognized your wife."

The man grinned and gave her a mock salute, "Very good, Colonel. Want to guess what's going to happen to you?"

Mac eyed him for a moment and said, "If the past is any indication, you'll try to kill me and fail miserably. You're a helluva screw-up." AJ looked at her in disbelief, was she out of her mind?

That wiped the smile off his face. Jarvis took an angry step forward, pointing the pistol at her head, "What if I just blow your brains out right now?"

"Then you'll be committing suicide, that guard will come in shooting," AJ jumped in.

Jarvis continued to glare at Mac and then lowered the pistol, "You'd like that, wouldn't you? Well, you can forget it, the only one dying will be you."

"You're out of your league, Jarvis. Coming here was a huge mistake." Mac pushed, trying to keep him angry and off-balance. AJ was staring at her, he obviously didn't like the direction this was going. She knew she was playing russian roulette but it was the fastest way to distract him.

"I know what I'm doing." Jarvis looked at her belligerently.

"Do you?" Damn, how long did it take for someone to answer a callbutton?

Whatever reply he had to that was interrupted when the door opened and Mrs. Jarvis hurried in, pushing a wheelchair. Letting go of it, she strode up to the bed and backhanded Mac with a full-arm swing.

AJ got out one short growl of protest before a gun muzzle was shoved against the side of his head. Jarvis stared at his wife, "What the hell is the matter with you, Liz?"

She turned towards him, brandishing the callbutton, "You idiot! Why didn't you pay attention? We have to get out of here!"

Jarvis let out a string of impressive oaths as he realized how Mac had played him. Closing the distance to the bed, he reached out and grabbed the still-groggy Colonel around the throat. Terrified that Jarvis had lost control and was going to kill her right there, AJ bellowed 'No! as he strained against the ropes. Liz Jarvis stared at her husband before glancing nervously back at the door. She was the one who saw an open-mouthed Ellie Perez standing incredulously in the doorway with the guard right behind her.

The guard reacted first, yanking Ellie out of the way as Liz screamed at her husband and pointed at the door. Startled out of his rage, Jarvis pulled Mac in front of him and fired a round at the guard. The young man threw himself to one side and Liz darted forward and slammed the door. Jarvis shoved Mac away and stood staring at the door, breathing heavily. He looked over at his wife, "They won't come in, we've got hostages."

Base Hospital
Memphis NAS
0920 Local

Harm, Perez and Walters hurried into the hospital and boarded the elevator to take them to Mac's floor. They had just reached the nurses' station when a single gunshot was heard. "Oh god!" was all Harm could say as they pelted down the corridor. Both Perez and Gunny got a hand on Rabb in time to stop him from turning the corner to Mac's hallway without looking.

"Stand down, Commander, you're on my turf now." Perez said passing Harm and easing up to the corner. Carefully, he peered down the hallway. Walters and Harm exchanged glances when they heard his sharp intake of breath. Several seconds later, Ellie Perez rounded the corner covered by the guard who arrived a few moments later. "Ell... ?" Perez said worriedly, reaching towards her.

She took a deep breath, squaring her shoulders, and gave her husband a brief smile. "I'm fine, thanks to Pvt. Timmerman." Perez backed off, recognizing her 'professional' mode - they'd deal with the rest of it at home. He looked at the two of them, "What's going on?"

"It's a hostage situation, sir," Timmerman said over his shoulder. He was keeping watch on the hallway. "Two of them, a man and a woman. The man had a 9mm pistol, I don't know if the woman was armed. They were dressed as an orderly and a nurse." He sounded chagrined, "It's my fault, sir. I let them in the room."

"Nonsense," Ellie interrupted, "There was supposed to be an orderly coming from housekeeping and nurses are in and out all the time." She gave Harm a quick sideways glance and then looked at her husband. "It's pretty volatile in there, Bobby," she said quietly.

"Damn," Perez said, pulling out his cellphone. He moved over to Timmerman while quietly issuing orders over the phone.

Harm pinned Ellie with a glare, "How volatile?"

She stared at him for a long moment, weighing her response. Finally, she said, "Come with me, Commander. I need to sit down." She turned around and headed back to the nurses' station. Frustrated, Harm watched her walk away. Goddammit, he needed to stay here and she was clearly taking away that option.

He heard Gunny clear his throat, "Go ahead, sir. I'll hold the fort here." With an aggravated growl, Harm hurried after Dr. Perez. The way everyone had banded together to get him away from the scene was scaring the hell out of him. He followed her into an empty room and folding his arms regarded the doctor impatiently. "Is Mac still alive?" he asked bluntly. That had to be Jarvis in the room, there was no telling how far he'd go.

Ellie sat down slowly and then looked at him, "Yes, I believe so."

His heart dropped at the qualifier. Taking a deep breath, Harm asked, "What did you see?"

Tilting her head a little, Ellie said, "First, let me say that the reason I went to her room in the first place was because I was at the nurses' station when the callbutton went off. Actually, it kept ringing like someone forgot to take their finger off. I'd just turned the corner when I saw a nurse enter the room pushing a wheelchair." She paused for a moment, "Did you know there's a light above the door that flashes when the callbutton is used?" Harm shook his head and she continued, "I walked in right after they'd realized Mac had been calling for help."

"And... ," he didn't know if he wanted to hear the rest.

"And the woman was standing near the foot of the bed, the Admiral was tied to a chair and yelling and the man was choking Mac. He stopped when he saw us and pulled Mac around in front of him as a shield. She looked semi-conscious. Then Timmerman yanked me out of there." Ellie watched Harm's face redden with anger and said quickly, "I don't think he'll do anything else, he needs her now to try and get out of here."

"He's already done enough," was the clipped response. "And it's going to end here." Harm pivoted and strode out of the room.