Arrival Overdue

Chapter 2
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Bosco had gotten back on the road after Hogan offered to drive, much to Bosco's amusement. After driving for about 20 minutes, Bosco noticed that the traffic seemed to get a little heavier. But then he realized that the traffic was basically only around him and he sat up a little straighter in the seat.

"How high up did you say this guy was in the drug operation?" he said quietly to Hogan who hadn't noticed anything until this point.

"I'm not sure, but he's one of the top guys. Why?" he asked Bosco, looking over and seeing a serious look on his face.

"Because I think his buddies are gonna try and bust him out. Hang on!" Bosco said as a car swerved into his lane trying to cut him off. Bosco tapped the brakes as he felt the cruiser being hit from behind. He fought with the wheel to keep it straight. He swerved to the left to enter the middle lane, away from the very steep shoulder on this stretch of the interstate, to give himself a little room to maneuver. The two cars moved with him and then another car appeared on either side of him.

"Get on the radio and see if you can raise anyone, but I don't think we're in range of Central," Bosco told Hogan. He glanced in his rearview mirror and saw Mason with a smirk on his face as he appeared to be trying to brace himself within the back seat of the RMP.

Suddenly, Bosco noticed that the car on his right seemed to drop back slightly and then he felt the car suddenly pull to the right - a tire had gone down.

"They're shooting at us," he heard Hogan say to him. "I'm not getting anything on the radio," he added.

"Yeah. Hang on," Bosco said as the car pulled sharply to the right. He fought and was able to keep the car on the road and glanced to his left. The car that was alongside of him began to veer closer. "He's gonna try to push us off the road," Bosco informed Hogan.

Suddenly, he heard the glass break and felt pain rip through his shoulder before he heard the gunshot. At the same the time, the car on his left slammed into them and Bosco lost half his grip on the wheel because of the gunshot wound to his left shoulder. Another shot rang out and Bosco quickly glanced over to see Hogan slump forward.

"Shit! Hogan!" Bosco yelled out as he tried to retain control of the vehicle. He felt the car being pushed again and this time the destroyed tire caught the edge of the road. He struggled to regain control and heard another shot ring out. He felt the bullet pass by the side of his head and strike the windshield, shattering it. He was unable to see where he was going and felt the car drop down to the right as it went off the road.
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Bosco felt his world coming back to him and was immediately aware of being upside down. He slowly opened his eyes and tried to look around. He was held in place by his seatbelt so his ability to move around was severely limited. He slowly turned his head to look for Hogan, being careful to stop if he felt any neck or back pain. The only pain that he began to feel was from the gunshot wound in his left shoulder. He called out to Hogan and got no response. He was able to reach over and feel for a pulse on the side of his neck and found none. "Dammit," he said to himself as he began to feel more pain throughout his body that he assumed was from being violently tossed about during the crash. He looked up at the rearview mirror to check on their prisoner, but the mirror had broken off. He tried to turn in his seat, but the belt prevented him. He decided he had to get himself out of the car and try to find help.

He reached with his good arm to brace himself against the roof of the RMP and with his injured arm unfastened his seatbelt. He fell onto the roof of the car and rolled onto his injured shoulder causing him to shout out in pain. After a few deep breaths to try to relax, he started to survey himself for further injury, discovering that he had some pain in other areas. For one, there was a strong possibility that his leg was broken and he had some tenderness to his abdomen, hopefully just from the seatbelt.

He twisted around to see if he could find out where Mason was and discovered that the back door of the RMP was open and Mason was nowhere to be found. He assumed that whoever had run them off the road was responsible for taking Mason with them. "With any luck at all, he's hurt bad," Bosco thought to himself. He reached over and again tried to find a pulse on Detective Hogan, hoping that he had just been at a bad angle before. No luck. Hogan was gone.

"Okay, Boscorelli. Think," he told himself.

He tried to reach for the radio and finally managed to get hold of the microphone. He hadn't signed out a portable because he wouldn't have been able to use it up here anyway. The radio was not working and Bosco realized for the first time that the car was not running and there were no lights on either. He looked at the ignition and saw that the keys were gone, most likely taken by the same people that had gotten him here to begin with. He managed to get his door opened and dragged himself outside of the car despite the pain shooting through his shoulder and leg. He noticed that there wasn't too much bleeding from the wound to his shoulder and thought that at least that was good news.

He finally managed to drag himself clear of the car and attempted to stand up, putting his weight on his good leg and pulling himself up with his good arm. As soon as he was standing he felt dizzy and sick to his stomach. He broke out in a sweat and leaned back against the overturned car. He looked up the hill that he'd rolled down and looked back at the damage to his car. "Now Faith's gonna really be pissed," he said out loud as he took in the totally damaged car. He thought to himself that there was no way that anyone was going to see the car down here unless they had seen it all happen and that was highly doubtful.

He tried to stand again and again experienced the dizziness and nausea. This time he felt darkness settling and knew he was going to pass out. He must have lost more blood than he thought, or there was more to his abdominal pain that he cared to think about. He fought to remain standing, but lost and soon darkness overtook him again.
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Faith had just finished locking up one of the jag-offs that she and the Lieutenant had attempted to serve a warrant on. He decided he didn't want it and made the mistake of trying to get past the Lieutenant. Surprisingly, Faith found out that the Lieutenant still had the street smarts and could handle himself well despite being off the streets for a while.

She walked back down the stairs to the desk where Swersky was completed the paperwork and looked at the clock. "Still no word from Bosco yet?" she said.

Swersky looked up at the clock. "Hmmm. They should've been back about an hour ago," he said to her. "Call up to the Detectives Office and see if they've heard from Hogan. If not, call Central and see if they can contact them on the radio yet. If no luck with that, call Albany and see if they can tell you what time they left. Maybe they got delayed starting back," he told Faith.

"Yes, Sir," Faith replied. She reached over to grab the phone and begin looking for signs of Bosco, Hogan and their prisoner, Mason.

After Faith finished making the calls and the Lieutenant finished the paperwork, they'd found out that they hadn't left Albany until Mason talked to his lawyer. Faith had even tried to call Bosco's cell phone, but only got his voice mail. She left a message to call her as soon as he got the message.

"Alright," Swersky said to the Desk Sergeant. "If you hear from Boscorelli, let me know. If you don't hear from him in the next half hour to 45 minutes, I want to know about it. Let's go finish up these warrants, Yokas."

"Absolutely," Faith said, following the Lieu out of the house.

"What d'you think, Faith. Should I be worried?" he asked her when they had gotten back into the car.

"I don't know about you, Sir, but I certainly am. Even if they didn't get a start until late, they should be within radio range by now," she said, voicing her concerns.

"We'll give them a half hour," the Lieutenant said, looking at his watch.
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TBC...