Trapped

by Nicol Leoraine

Chapter 8

The air was silent, no alarm blared, no fire and Warrick could take a look around. They were maybe forty yards from the building, more to the side. To the left they had the rocks, to the right was an open area.

"I think we should keep to the left," Warrick silently advised, getting a simple nod from Catherine, before his words get registered.

"Keep to the left? What do you mean?"

"Well, we need to get to the building,don´t we? We can try to go by the rocks. It´s dark, the sniper won´t see us-"

"But he saw as quite well before, Warrick," Catherine protested. "He´s probably using night vision. There´s no way to tell if he´s alone, either. I don´t think we should risk it - not before we know where the hell he even is."

"You´ve got a point there," Warrick agreed and started unpacking the bag. Catherine frowned at him but he didn´t mind. "I won´t be responsible for anymore equipment getting broken just because someone wants to kill us," he explained, getting an incredible gasp in reply.

"What do you want to do?" Catherine asked him after a moment, while her partner was looking around, searching. "Oh, damn it. No boughs, no sticks around. Well, we wont be using this anymore either," he said as he took the destroyed flashlight and put the backpack on it, then pushed it to Catherine´s hands.

"What?"

"Just keep it out and wave with it for a moment. Be careful so he won´t hit you." Then Warrick returned to the left side of the boulder while Catherine crouched on the right one, shooting him a questioning look. She realised what was his plan and with a sigh and a roll of her eyes, pushed out the backpack, using the flashlight as a stick from the broom, anything just not get into the way of fire. The shooter didn´t disappoint them when he once again started firing. While Catherine did her best not to throw the backpack away when the bullets flew through it, Warrick was peeking out and getting his aim. He could see the flashes of light from the barrel of the gun as the bullets were fired.

Taking aim, Warrick squinted and pulled the trigger. He fired out three more times until the sniper stopped shooting and Warrick returned to safety behind the boulder.

"You think you hit him?"

"That, or I just warned him I knew his position," Warrick slid down, his back leaning against the boulder and Catherine sit down next to him.

"What are we gonna do now?"

That was a good question.

"We can take a risk and try to run for it - hoping that the sniper is already on his way home. Or we can wait here until someone comes."

"It´s still dark. Can´t we use that?"

Warrick shook his head.

"He has night vision and an optical sight. Maybe if we could distract him... damn it, what´s going on here, Cath? Why are their cells out of reach if I can see Grissom´s car over here? And who the hell is trying to kill us?"

Catherine didn´t know what to say. She only hoped their friends were all right, but deep inside she couldn´t stop the cold feeling of dread and for the first time that night, she wanted nothing more than to go home and hug her daughter.

xxxx

Sara jerked as the alarm sounded and she wasn´t the only one. Her captor frowned at the display, for a moment looking confused, then simply annoyed. No sooner was he reaching into his pocket when a crackling sound resonated through the room and a voice spoke.

"We have a problem," the radio cracked and Sara´s eyes went wide at the implication. Until now, she hoped they were dealing only with one man - now there were at least two of them.

"I see it. Well, why don´t you get rid of them?"

"I´m trying, but that bastard was shooting at me!" the voice belonging to a man exclaimed, somewhat angrily, and for a second Sara almost shouted a satisfied Yes! before she realised that it probably wouldn´t be the smartest thing to do. She still couldn´t hide her excitement hearing that someone was in reality fighting back.

It quickly vanished though.

"For Christ´s sake, then shoot back. Are you a sniper or a whiny kid?" the captor growled. "Get rid of them, then get scarce. You know the plan." Not waiting for the reply, he turned off the radio and put it back into his pocket, then his attention was back on the monitors. He enlarged one of them. Sara turned her head, leaning forward as much as she could, wanting to see what was going on and just who came to their rescue. Her first reaction was to smile at seeing the all too familiar figures of her fellow CSIs. But it quickly vanished as she realised that they were alone. And out in the open with a sniper determined to kill them.

"Surprised? Well, you surely didn´t think I would be so stupid as to want to play cat and mouse with you guys all alone?" her captor asked, turning at her with a glare. Of course, Sara´s only reply was to glare back at him.

"Ah, I will guess. A black man and a woman. Who that could be? Mr. Brown and Ms. Willows, if I am not mistaken. What, no witty comments?" Despite the sarcasm, Sara caught the slight catch in his voice and suddenly realised that the man don´t wanted any surprises and that Warrick and Catherine definitely were a surprise to him.

Hiding the slight tug of her lips beneath the tape, Sara felt a little of her earlier confidence returning. Knowing Grissom and Brass, they would both do their best to save them all. She could only hope that they wouldn't be too late, Sara thought, as she saw Warrick and Catherine hiding behind the boulder, as the sniper did his best to triumphin his quest.

Sara startled when her captor suddenly stood, tapping last commands into the computer then walking up behind her. She almost stopped breathing when she heard the rustle behind her, then as suddenly as he vanished, the man stood before her, his face reminding her of a kid on Christmas Day. Despite swearing to herself she wouldn't let the fear show, it was really hard to stop the sweat trickling down her forehead. If anything, it just made her captor smile a little wider. Though more threatening than the smile was the small tube in his hand.

Sara swallowed. It didn´t look good.

"You probably want to know what´s in this," the man spoke up in cheery voice which under the circumstances deserved minimally a kick in the gut, but she couldn´t even spat him in the face.

"Well, before coming here, I took a little vacation - you know, gather my strength. You won´t believe how easy it is to get some potent stuff in Jamaica. All the black magic and the shamans, you can imagine," the man smiled sweetly and pulled out a pair of gloves right from Sara´s pocket.

"I´ll borrow those for a moment. Now, you probably don´t believe in all the voodoo and such - as you´re scientist, right? But I know for sure you won´t have anything against a certain species that can be found there. Really interesting effects, too."

He wiggled the tube before her eyes and Sara couldn´t push back the panic. Did he wanted to drug her? Feeling her heart beat harder, Sara blinked, her eyes frantically looking for a way out. There was none.

"Ah, ah, aren´t we a little scared Ms. Sidle?" the man teased, then reached out and in a second snatched Sara´s ID card. She didn´t even know what happened until he waved it before her eyes. She frowned, confused.

"You see I don´t have any interest in drugging you. But I am really curious as to the reactions I´ll get from my friend." As the man spoke, he pulled up the gloves and opened the tube, pushing out a transculent gel. It rather reminded Sara of jello, only this was more disgusting. With careful circular motions, the man spread the goo across the surface of the ID card. Sara watched in fascination as he showed her the card. Maybe it looked a little smeared, but it was nothing an unsuspecting person would take notice of.. Surely not before it was too late.

xxxx

Jim Brass didn´t hear the shooting. He and Kevin were already two floors underground, currently trying to figure out how to get inside. It was to their surprise, then, that they found the door to the laboratories open. Throwing a cautious look at the younger man, Brass nervously stepped over the threshold, automatically scanning the corridor. But he couldn´t see a thing and he quickly reached for the flashlight in Kevin´s hand. Unlike on the upper floors, the lights weren´t blinking there. The whole floor was dark and eerily quiet.

Brass shook off the feeling of foreboding when he indicated to Kevin to follow him. He still didn´t know who was behind all of this, but he had a pretty good idea. And it made him all the more determined to catch the killer and save his friends. Because if he was sure of one thing, it was that his friends were in even bigger danger than he himself was.

"Where now?" Kevin asked in hushed voice, pointing the flashlight at the two separating corridors. Brass frowned and tried to recall where were the elevators. It looked like the laboratories underground were more extensive than the two floors above the ground. But it could´ve been just his imagination. Still, it was definitely not the same structure. There were more corridors running through the floor, making it harder to orientate - especially in the darkness.

"To the right. If Grissom and Nick are here, I want to find them," Brass said and headed to the right, but stopped abruptly as he heard a short buzzing. Frowning, he pointed the flashlight toward the sound then uttered a wholehearted curse.

"That bastard!" He was watching them the whole time, knowing their every step. It was only logical, but Brass didn´t even take notice of the cameras, though he was a cop and under any other circumstance, that would be one of the first things to do. Until now, though, Brass used the cameras only to his advantage, as a tool to see past events. But just as suddenly, he realised that it could be used also by the bad guys. With an angry growl, not caring how stupid it could´ve been, Brass walked up to the camera, as close as he could get.

"I will get you," he hissed, making sure that the person on the other side could read the threat from his lips. Then he reached up and with a swift move pulled the camera off the wall, smashing it to the floor.

Kevin was about to point out the futility of such action but having enough self preservation, he rather shut his mouth before he could say anything stupid. Brass looked his way, his face an angry mask.

"I know we can´t cut off every damn camera, but I sure as hell won´t let him watch our every step!" Brass uttered with resolve.

Kevin bit at his lower lip, he so was dying to ask the question.

"Do you know who´s behind this?" he finally lost the fight with his curiosity. But he didn´t get an answer. Somewhere, not too far from them, something crashed. They could hear the retreating steps before they started running.

TO BE CONTINUE

That´s all for today. Keep the reviews coming, and I will try to finish the story as fast and good as I can.

Have a nice week:-)