Sam listened for the siren that he was sure would go off at any moment, but nothing happened. No alarms blared, no doctors or orderlies came to search for him, and no search parties or dogs were organized to find two mental patients who had escaped from a high security hospital. It was silent, except for the occasional sound of a hooting owl above and the natural sounds of the stand of trees.

"Fisher?" Carly was awake and tensely listening to the dark as though it might crowd in on her and pin her to the ground. He could see her eyes glowing like twin moons with his night vision. "Sam!" She called again much louder.

"What is it Carly?" Sam crouched next to her and touched her shoulder. She jumped like a skittish dog and backed away from his touch, only to come back to him again and throw her arms around his neck in a hug that would have choked the life out of him, if he hadn't been able to pry her arms from around him. "You're fine now."

He heard her whimper and let himself hug her fiercely for a moment before he let her go. She reminded him of his daughter when she had lived with him in his apartment. Sara had nightmares for the first month, after her mother's death and then again when she had been kidnapped by her own boyfriend in Jerusalem. The thought made him grit his teeth. He had wanted to hurt that Eli guy so bad…..it made his blood curdle to think of how badly he had hurt his daughter. She had told him very little of the exact happenings of those fateful nights, but he could fill in the gaps with what Eli had reported.

"What's going on, Sam?" Carly's voice made Sam start. He had practically forgotten that Carly was there with him. "Why aren't there any search parties out looking for us?"

"I was just wondering that myself." Sam stood back up and looked around the small clearing once more. "I haven't seen anyone go to pick up those guards, but they should be awake by now and sounding the alarm."

"It's so quiet." Carly whispered to make her point. It was like a loud echo in a library. "There isn't even a breeze. It's like a morgue." She shivered at the thought her words had conjured.

"I was thinking more like a library, but your analogy will work too." He sort of chuckled, when she went to slap him on the shoulder and missed in the dark. "Shhh…I hear something."

Something was breathing in his ear and Sam felt himself tense up, until he concluded that it was a sound coming from within his ear and not externally. "Sam?" Yup it was Colonel Irving Lambert of the NSA. "We've had luck in location you and Miss St. John. I had the team home in on your transmitter signal. although it was hard work, we have a general location within a mile radius. Since others that are closer may be able to pinpoint your exact coordinates, better than we're able to…why they took you out that far from HQ I'll never know…"

"Like you said they may be listening."

"I'll get right to the point then. I'm sending out a helicopter from somewhere local. They can pick you up and drop you off at a safe location. I need you to keep out of trouble and stay put."

"Since you know our location, do you think you could share that information with me?"

"No." Lambert didn't emphasize why not. "We won't be able to communicate until your in the air. I'll give you a call, once your underway. Hopefully they'll be there within the hour. Good luck Fisher." With that he signed off.

Sam conveyed to Carly what Lambert had told him and although the news was comforting, they were not at ease. They listened for a while, their breaths slow and even. The moonless sky was a blanket of stars that held no protection, but darkness was a sheer shield against their enemies.

"I don't like this Sam. We should get going. It's too dangerous to stay here much longer."

"Lambert said we need to stay put, but I guess you're right. This is way too dangerous. The least we can do is climb up that tree." He pointed to a tall spruce on his right and Carly made a noise like a mouse squeak, when she saw how high it was. "It's tall and sturdy and easy to climb, plus the piney smell should mask some of our odor...in case they have hound dogs. Its harder to shoot up a tree in any circumstance."

"Oh, that sounds great Fisher." She clenched her teeth to keep them from rattling out of her head at the thought of being treed like a raccoon and being shot at by high powered riffles. "Then we can be stuck up a tree to rot instead of down here."

"I don't plan on being any sort of shish-ka-Sam, so you go up that tree and I'll keep an eye on things from down here. You'll be safer up there if they do come anyhow. I'll lead them away and they'll likely not even notice you up there…if they do come." He knew they would come, but he didn't know when and how many would follow and with what, so he left the details blank. They would know when it happened and there was no use in him speculating now. "Lambert said he's sent an airlift. Hopefully we'll be out of this place before they strike. Now, shimmy up that tree and be as quiet as a church mouse."

"You'll have to help me. I'm still kind of woozy from the drugs they gave me and I can't see in the dark." She chewed on her bottom lip as she was guided blindly to the base of the spruce and her hand was placed on the bottom branch. "It's kind of sticky."

"That's good for gripping. OK. It's like climbing a ladder from here. Think of this as the first rung of the ladder and hoist yourself up until you can reach the second rung and you'll be fine." Halfway between the fourth and fifth branches he just had to add. "By-the-way, don't look down." He smiled although she couldn't see it.

She grumbled to herself. "Now I know why they say that in the movies. It just to make people want to look down. Good thing it's so dark, otherwise…bang, zoom to the moon…"

Sam could just make out every other word, but it was enough to make him want to laugh out loud, though he dared not.