Jack rubbed his hands over his face and up through his hair. Too late to go back to sleep. He pulled out a change of clothes and headed for the bathroom to get a shower before waking up Daniel.
Jack emerged from the shower to find Daniel on the phone ordering coffee. "Daniel, you look like hell."
"Just tired, Jack." Daniel flopped back onto the bed. "What time is it?"
Jack picked up his watch from the night stand. "0620 hours. You going to tell me what's going on between you two? I came back with food to find you sleeping with her and this morning you're back here."
"Nothing's going on between us. Nothing can until she gets Connor back." Daniel sat back up and shoved the heals of his hands into his eyes.
"Danny, just be careful. I sure as hell don't want to see you... Well, just be careful." Jack thought about running a comb through his hair and decided to skip it. It never stayed combed for long anyway. "I'll go wake her up while you get into the shower. The coffee should be here by the time you get out."
Daniel grabbed a change of clothes and stepped into the bathroom. Jack opened the door to Rori's room and called out to her. "Rori! Time to get up. We're crossing the border this morning."
XXXXXXXXXX
By 0800 they were waiting in line to cross the boarder. It seemed they'd picked a fiesta day to visit and the turistas were out in full force. They were walking across since the rental car couldn't be taken into Mexico without all kinds of extra paperwork and none of them wanted to waste half the day filling it out.
"When we get across, we can get a cab to take us to the address I've got." Jack hoped this could go down easily. Getting caught in another country breaking laws was a really bad idea. They could sit in jail for weeks or months before being allowed to call for help. Been there, done that.
XXXXXXXXXX
The cab pulled up to the address Geraldo, Sr. had given Jack. Daniel paid the man and asked him to return in fifteen minutes. They didn't want any bystanders getting in the way, but they still needed a way to get out quickly. Jack and Daniel each removed their Beretta from an inside jacket pocket, shoved a clip into the gun and made sure a bullet was in the chamber before slipping the gun into the back of their pant's waist. Jack pulled Rori off to the side of the house and nodded to Daniel.
Daniel walked to the front door and knocked. A young woman appeared and Daniel spoke to her in his rapid-fire Spanish for several minutes. She shut the door and Daniel walked back to Jack and Rori.
"She says that Jason showed up here last night with his son…"
Rori took several steps toward the house before Daniel stopped her. "They aren't here now. There's a parade downtown in about half an hour and Jason took Connor down to watch."
Rori nodded slightly. Daniel looked closely at her, concerned about her physical and emotion strength. "Rori, are you going to make it okay?" He turned to Jack, "I think maybe we should find someplace to leave her while we go looking for Connor."
"No!" Rori's eyes pled with Daniel, "You can't leave me now! We're going to find him today and he needs me to be there." The panic in her voice sliced through to Daniel's heart and he pulled her into his arms for a reassuring hug.
Jack stepped behind Daniel so he could see Rori's face. "I promise we won't leave you out of this – as long as you do what we say. I know you're an Air Force officer, but you're not front line. Daniel and I deal with armed idiots for a living and we'll get Connor back."
Huge blue eyes bore into warm brown ones over Daniel's shoulder. She took a deep breath and nodded slightly. "We're just so close and I'm so scared that I…" Her voice cracked with emotion and Jack reached around Daniel to clasp her uninjured shoulder and give it a quick squeeze.
"Let's go kick some butt and get Connor back." Jack waved an arm at the cab as it turned toward them from around the corner.
The cab took them to the middle of the parade route and dropped them off. Jack turned to his companions and thought for a moment. "Okay, here's what we're going to do. Daniel, we stay close enough to each other to see, but separate to have a better chance to find him. Rori, you go with Daniel – and stay close to him. We're taller than most of the people around here, so it shouldn't be too hard to see each other." Jack looked around. "Let's go this way first," he pointed to the west.
XXXXXXXXXX
Daniel spotted Connor sitting on Jason's shoulders, towering above the heads of the surrounding crowd, across the street. He grabbed Rori's hand and began edging through the tightly packed multitude of fiesta goers.
From the other side of the street, Jack saw Connor and Jason at the same time as Daniel. He signaled to Daniel and then began maneuvering through the group of people toward Jason. Jason turned and recognized Jack as he approached him. He pulled Connor down off his shoulders, onto his left hip and pulled a gun out with his right hand. He turned around, seeking a quick escape route and saw Daniel pulling Rori in his direction.
Jason pointed his gun at Jack, "You come any closer, I'll shoot!"
The crowd surrounding him, mostly gringos from across the boarder in town for the fiesta, pulled back in panic. Jason saw Daniel running from the other direction and quickly pointed his gun in that direction, fired at Daniel, but missed.
Jack yelled, "Everybody drop to the ground! Todos, gota a la tierra!"
Daniel dropped Rori's hand and pulled out his Beretta. "Stay back, Rori. Jack and I will get Connor. Safe. I promise." He charged across the street, through the costumed paraders, and raced toward Jason.
Jason leveled his gun at Connor's head, facing Daniel. "Don't come closer."
Daniel and Jack both halted. Jack began to weave through the crowd behind Jason, seeking a way around the people to close in on him.
Daniel, gun directed at Jason, began to talk soothingly to Jason. "Jason, you know you don't want to hurt your son. Put him down and we'll talk about this."
"It's your fault! If you weren't screwing Rori, she would have been alone in the park and wouldn't have had the nerve to come after me now." Jason eyes continuously searched through the crowd for Jack, who had disappeared. "Where's the old guy?"
Daniel brought the gun up, bracing it with both hands, and took aim at Jason.
"You'd never risk the brat. You're too scared shitless." Sweat began to dot Jason's forehead.
"I'm not." Jason whipped his head around to find Rori planted behind him, her gun raised and pointed directly at his head.
"I can kill the kid and take one of you out before either of you can shoot!" Jason began slowly backing toward a parking lot.
Daniel's calm voice wafted over the heads of the cowering crowd. "And the other one of us will kill you before you get away. Just put Connor down and we'll let you go. We only want him back safely."
Jack emerged from between two buildings and fired without warning at Jason, but missed.
Jason fired back and Jack went down with a thump and a groan.
Jason dumped Connor on the sidewalk and fired at Daniel, shattering a storefront window while running into a parking lot. Rori rushed forward to grab her son.
Daniel fired back at Jason, who dropped behind a car fender. Daniel began running toward the parking lot where he'd last seen Jason. Rori snatched up Connor and ran back toward Jack.
Jason emerged from behind an old pickup and fired blindly in Daniel's direction. A soft thud, followed by a sharp scream told Daniel that someone had been hit. He pressed his lips together in a tight line and furrowed his brow in concentration. Daniel waited for Jason to make a move and fired at him, grazing him in the arm, but Jason kept moving from behind one car to another.
Jason ran between two vehicles, firing again at Daniel. This time the bullet found its mark and Daniel went down. Jason jumped onto a motorcycle parked in the corner of the lot and fled down the alley, leaving a trail of blood drops.
Rori ran from Jack, who lay in the street clutching his shoulder, to Daniel.
"Oh, god, Daniel! Talk to me!" Rori squeezed Connor closer to her chest as she dropped down next to Daniel.
"Bastard! Shot me in the leg – again! Janet will make me use those damn crutches!" Daniel lay back on the cement, his right arm thrown over his eyes and his left hand on Connor's back, checking to be sure he was real.
Rori began laughing with relief. "I guess you're all right if you can worry about what Janet's going to do," she finally managed to squeak out between bursts of relieved giggles, hugging Connor desperately.
Jack staggered toward Daniel and Rori as they heard the distant sound of sirens. "There'll be hell to pay with Hammond when he tries to clear this mess up with the Mexican government. He'll have me filling out paperwork for months to explain this." He moaned and clinched his teeth in pain. "Too bad Jason didn't shoot me in my right shoulder, then I wouldn't be able to fill out the damn forms."