Hi All,

Thanks for the kind reviews (blush). I hope you continue to enjoy this story.

Special thanks to the Usual Suspects for their help and in put, I couldn't do it without you! Oh, any mistakes are mine, not theirs.

Chapter 5

Colby strode purposefully toward Hutch. To become a successful hit man, he had learned to be adaptable. Things could and often did change quickly; he found opportunities and used them. He always prepared as best he could for each hunt and this time was no different. He had always been a good actor. He had to be, in his line of work. He was a chameleon, changeable, adaptable.

He watched Hutch watch him approach and saw the blond stiffen slightly, their eyes locked. Hutch's eyes were angry; the light blue of them spat a propane-blue flame at him. Good. An angry Hutch was somewhat reckless and with no Starsky around to interrupt or pull the blond back… this reunion should prove to be quite interesting. He maintained his bland exterior as he approached Hutch.

Colby eyed Hutch and they squared off, unconsciously squaring their shoulders and straightening their posture as they sized each other up.

"Hutch"

"John"

"It's been a while" Colby's eyes took in his former friend's face. So blond, so perfect, such a superior attitude and so in need of being taken down several pegs. He had always resented Hutch for that, though he had never shown it. Starsky, he could take or leave. It didn't matter so much. But Hutch had beaten him in a fight. Beat him at his own game there on that beach. It galled him to no end.

Hutch looked him in the eye for several seconds before answering "Not nearly long enough, John. I thought you said that you wouldn't make it. That they would have a contract put out on you and you would be dead in six months. Looks like you lied. Again" the blond shook his head. After all this time, it still bothered him that he and Starsky had been friends with this man and he had used them. Used their friendship to his advantage, how could they have been so fooled by him?

"Why are you so upset by that Hutch? Huh?" Colby laughed.

"I can't believe that you would do such a thing. You had a great future ahead of you and you threw it all away"

"That rather depends on what I wanted for a future. I had what I wanted. Until you and Starsky messed all up. But then you always did tend to think the best of your friends. Poor Hutch, always trying to save the world, well Mr. Boy Scout, are you gonna try to save me too?" he snorted.

Hutch shot him a look "What if I am?"

"Then I'd have to ask, what's in it for you? What's your angle Hutch? Huh? I know you've got one. Everybody does… oh, that's right… you're perfect. You play by the rules. You play fairly"

"And the problem with that is… what?" A single blond brow rose in question.

"There is no problem. I think I know how we can do this. What do you say we have a rematch… here and now... just you and me"

"Hey! We don't have time for this… it's late and we have a long way to walk, let's just kill him and go" Hank Ruth had had enough of these two posturing at each other "This is pointless!"

"Shut up Hank, it's not pointless, it's personal" Colby's eyes never left his adversary's.

"Don't worry Hank, this won't take long" Hutch slowly stretched and twisted his torso and limbs, trying to limber up a tad before the fight; he didn't need any pulled muscles to add to his discomfort "You wanted to know my angle, what's yours John? Huh?"

"Simple, I win; you act as pack mule and hump our gear out of these woods"

"And if I win?" Hutch played along, stalling for time.

"I let you go, I can't spare you any food or water, but you being the Boy Scout that you are, I'm sure you can manage, somehow" He gave an indifferent shrug.

"You can't do that, you can't just let him go-" Hank interrupted.

Colby whipped out a gun and pointed at Hank, though his eyes were still locked on Hutch "Stay out of this" he thumbed the hammer back, the barrel was unerringly pointed directly between the agent's eyes.

Hank threw up his hands and backed away "Fine, whatever, knock yourselves out, really, I mean it, knock your selves out" He went back to the plane and sat on a wheel to watch the fight.

"A gun John? I thought knives were more your style"

"Whatever I can get my hands on is my style" Colby's words were smug as he lowered the weapon.

"S'not really a fair fight now John, you have a gun… and I can only assume you also have my gun" the blond had realized only a few minutes ago that his Magnum was missing from his holster. The comforting, familiar weight was gone, leaving him with a strange, empty feeling. It took a second to realize that he felt vulnerable without the nearly three pounds of metal strapped under his armpit.

"Well, I couldn't let you keep it, now could I? I think I'll add it to my collection… oh, that's right… I don't have a collection anymore. The police confiscated it. That's all right. Your gun will be the first piece in my new collection."

"Not for long" Hutch gritted and shucked his jacket and holster, tossing them to the foot of the tree behind him.

Colby followed suit and placed his gun and Hutch's (which he had had shoved into his pants) on top of his folded coat, he placed them near the plane. He took up a defensive three-quarter stance and brought his fists up, balancing on the balls of his feet as he did so, now he was ready to move in any direction.

Hutch took up a similar stance "I beat you last time John, I'll beat you again" he taunted.

Colby smiled and feigned a roundhouse kick, trying to draw Hutch in.

The blond leaned away a little and then stepped forward to grab Colby's leg so he could flip his opponent. Colby stepped in and narrowly missed Hutch's face with a jab at his jaw line. Hutch blocked the punch with his forearm, snapping his wrist about to catch John's wrist in his hand.

Colby executed a front kick at Hutch's kneecap as the blond jerked him forward, effectively lessening the distance of the kick, thereby reducing its power and changing the angle so that it stuck his shin instead of damaging his knee joint.

Maintaining his grip on Colby's arm, Hutch pulled forward with one hand and planted an elbow strike to his opponent's midsection, doubling him over. Hutch, still keeping his grip on Colby's arm, reached up and grabbed his head with his free hand while turning and dropping his own weight to pull Colby over his shoulder, throwing him to the ground.

Colby rolled with the throw and grabbed hold of the blond's arm as he went, simultaneously kicking out, swiping Hutch's feet out from under him. Hutch went down with a bone jarring thump. Colby leapt to his feet and kicked him in the ribs.

Hutch rolled with the blow and then to his feet, briefly grabbing his now sore ribs. Colby moved in rapidly and struck out with his right foot in a sidekick that was aimed at the blond's chin.

Hutch angled back away from the blow as he in turn kicked Colby's other leg out from under him, knocking him back to the ground. Hutch pounced on him and tried to wrestle Colby onto his chest as, out of habit he reached back to grab his handcuffs from the small pouch located on the back of his belt. Thankfully, they were there. Hutch gritted his teeth against the pain of his headache and sore ribs. A few seconds more and he would be down to just one opponent. He briefly wondered how he was going to get the agent under control, seeing as the man was currently several yards away and packing a gun.

The heartbeat of distraction was all that Colby needed. He dug in his pocket and pulled out the small aerosol canister and directed the nozzle at the blond's face and pushed down with his finger. A satisfying hiss was emitted from the can.

Hutch startled at the hiss and reactively pushed away from the sound. His nose and throat burned a little from the spray that he accidentally inhaled. But it was nothing compared to the biting, gnawing pain that seared his eyes. It was as if someone had simultaneously stabbed hot pokers into his eyes.

"Aaah!" a reflexive scream was ripped from him as he dropped to his knees from the pain. He shoved the palms of his hands in to the red-hot charcoal briquettes where his eyeballs had been. His eyes flooded with tears as his body tried in vain to flush the irritating chemicals from his eyes. The burning somehow intensified as the tears flowed. Hutch fell to his side, writhing in pain. He gritted his teeth to prevent any further sounds from coming out. He was not about the give John the satisfaction. Water, he needed water to wash out his eyes.

Colby stood up and nonchalantly brushed dirt and debris off of himself as he watched his adversary start to blindly crawl towards the tree and the backpack located there. John walked over and removed the backpack. "Ah-ah-ah, can't have that just yet Hutch. Those chemicals need to stay in your eyes for just a few minutes more. They're much more effective that way"

Hutch panted through the pain "You just couldn't fight fair could you?" he spat the words as he continued to grind his hands into his fiery eye sockets. It didn't help much, but at this point anything seemed like an improvement.

"I said I wanted at rematch. I never said I would fight fair, you should have known that by now. I play to win and I did. That's all that matters in the end. The pain will lessen shortly. As soon as you can stand, we'll be loading you up, mule" Colby smirked as he made his way to the Fed's side.

"I'm not carrying your shit for you!" another wave of pain silenced Hutch's words.

Hank shook his head at the scene "We're taking too long. I hate being in the woods." He smacked at a bug that crawled on his arm.

"Well, would you rather carry the equipment yourself?"

"No"

"I didn't think so" Colby snorted as he collected his gun and Hutch's.

"What was that stuff you sprayed on him?"

"Just a little compound that a doctor I met in San Quentin mixed up. Seems he has a grudge against Starsky and Hutch too. He told me that they had messed up this sweet deal that he had at Cabrillo State Mental hospital, anyway, when he found out that I had a beef with them, he gave this to me and asked me if I ever got a chance, I was to use it on at least one of them."

"What does it do?"

"Blinds you"

"Is it permanent?" The agent was beginning to like this idea more.

"Does it matter?" Colby laughed.

"No, not to me it doesn't. Hey, can I see that for a second?" Hank held out his hand.

Colby handed the little canister over.

Hank rolled it around the palm of his hand for a second and moved as if to give it back, dropping it in the process. Colby bent down to pick it up and Hank pulled out his gun and shot the small can. Colby pushed back to evade the bullet and landed on his butt.

"What the hell did you do that for?" Colby snapped

"I didn't want you using that shit on me" Hank blew the smoke off the barrel of his gun.

Colby laughed, "No chance of that now, is there?" he rose and began brushing himself off again.

"Nope" Hank holstered his gun.

XXXX

Hutch sat up as the pain receded somewhat. His eyes were still tearing up. There was nothing he could do to control that, it was his body's natural defense. The tears seemed to make the pain worse instead of better. He forced his hands away from his eyes and looked out through the tears. Everything was black. He brushed the tears away and tried again. Black was the only color he could see.

Blind

He was blind. He had thought he had heard John say something about that a few minutes ago, but he had been too mired in agony to hear much of anything. Was it permanent? Or temporary? A wave of fear lapped at his feet. Being trapped in darkness tapped into a very primal fear. He was helpless. Escape would have been difficult before and now it would be close to impossible.

He knew he could try to escape at night and try to find a place to hide and hope like hell he didn't walk off a cliff or run into a bear, or a snake, or mountain lion… Hutch swallowed hard. It was frightening to know that it just might be safer for him to stay with two killers, at least for now. They needed him, well wanted him to carry their stuff. When his usefulness was over, they would kill him.

What was that saying? 'In the city of the blind, the sighted man rules' or it was something like that. A shiver worked its way up his spine. He controlled it as best as he could. It would not do for them to see just how badly this was affecting him. He was going to be ruled by not one, but two sighted men. However, there didn't seem to be any love lost between Colby and Ruth. Maybe he could figure out a way to use that against them, somehow.

The sound of someone approaching pulled him from his reverie. The person grabbed him by the collar and lifted him to his feet.

"Enough of this lollygagging around. We gotta get a move on before dark"

Hutch identified Hank Ruth's voice. "What was that shot I heard earlier for?"

"None of your business"

"Couldn't you just tell me?"

"No"

"Why not? What could it hurt?"

Hutch was pushed hard from behind and struggled to stay on his feet.

"It could hurt you if you keep asking, so shut up. And just so you know, I am against letting you live. So don't try to play any mind games with me, all right cop? I am an FBI agent. I have had extensive training in all the games people play"

"If you are so proud of being an FBI agent, why are you working for Manahan?"

"One more word out of you cop and I will gag you, got it? Put your arm out, mule. It's time to load you up so we can get the hell out of here"

Hutch complied. He needed time to think anyway. His eyes burned less now, but his world remained black. The backpack was heavier then he would have liked but there was nothing he could do about it. He normally would carry between twenty-five and thirty-five pounds. This felt closer to fifty. That might not seem like much, but it was and the weight would be made more difficult to carry if the terrain was hilly. One small plus was that is was a proper backpack with a frame and straps. The load was balanced correctly as well. It would still be work to carry it after a few miles. He wondered how far they would travel today. There were a few hours of daylight remaining. Hutch adjusted the shoulder and waist straps while he waited for his marching orders. He didn't have to wait long.

"Let's keep him in between us"

"All right, you lead Colby"

"Sure, just remember Hank, only Hutch and I know anything about surviving in the woods and he's blind" John chuckled.

If Hank Ruth replied, Hutch didn't hear it, a firm push from behind was his only cue to begin walking.

XXXX

Starsky looked at the massive green expanse below him. The forest went on forever. The Baron was flying as slowly as he could, keeping just above stalling speed. But the scenery below speed by. Spotting the downed plane… if it was here, would be next to impossible. The density of the trees reminded him of the jungles of Nam and for a moment, he could almost smell napalm in the air. Daylight was fading.

"Mr. Starsky, we're gonna have to try again tomorrow. I'm running low on fuel and this plane, she don't do so well at night, I don't have all the gauges working proper, so she's pretty much a VFR plane." The Baron added that VFR was Visual Flight Rules. Basically meaning that he could only fly the plane if he could see where he was going.

"Just one more grid, Baron" Starsky hollered over the drone of the engine, just a little more time... a few more seconds, he would see Hutch's plane in the dense woods below, some how.

"Sorry Mr. Starsky, the fuel is low as well. We'll land and pick it back up at first light"

"But-"

"I am sorry Mr. Starsky, I really am, but I'm the captain of this ship and what I say goes. Mark this spot on that map I gave you and we'll head back"

Starsky reluctantly complied. As the Baron executed a sharp turn, Starsky looked down at the trees, far, far below him "Hang on Hutch, I'm comin' for ya buddy, just hang on"

XXXX

Hutch stopped when he heard the drone of an airplane somewhere far above him. And though he could not see, he looked up anyway. And for a moment he wanted to wave his arms and shout that he was here. He sighed and stifled the desire. It was pointless. The plane was moving too fast and from the sound of it, was already well beyond being able to see the little group and judging from the muffled sound, trees were overhead, blocking any possible glimpse of them that the pilot might have had.

"Get moving" the words were accompanied with a push and once more Hutch began to walk.

TBC