Chapter Seven: The Valley of the Shadow

Megan watched on the monitors as the team rushed the room. The second fugitive didn't even have time to raise his weapon. The man who was now holding a gun to Charlie's head turned quickly at the sound of the doors busting open. But he never had time to fire the shot. It appeared that all six members of the Alpha team and the four members of the Bravo team put two bullets in each perpetrator simultaneously.

It had taken less than twenty five minutes from first shot fired to last shot fired. But for Robin Brooks, it had been five minutes too long.

The four women that were huddled on the floor began to cry and sob hysterically as they were pulled to their feet and ushered out of the room.

David waited until his wing man checked both bullet riddled bodies. When the 'clear' signal went out, he shouldered his assault rifle and headed down the isle toward the two familiar figures on the floor. A movement between the benches got his attention and David quickly pulled his sidearm. A pair of kid sized shoes shot out from under a bench as a small body scrambled further away from the center isle. David quickly re-holstered the weapon and knelt down to look under the seats.

"Frankie? It's the FBI. You can come out now."

The boy turned his head and spotted him. Slowly, Frankie backed out into the isle and pulled himself to his feet. His eyes were streaming with tears as he stared at David and began to sob.

"He killed them. He killed them both."

Grabbing the boy by the shoulders, David looked him over for injury. Finding none, he turned to a passing agent.

"Get him out of here."

He watched Frankie cast a mournful glance over his shoulder as the agent lead him from the room. Then David turned back to the bodies on the floor. He reached Robin first and despite the pool of blood around her head, he checked for a pulse.

"She's dead, David."

Megan's voice was low in his ear.

He lifted his eyes to the security camera in the corner, where he knew she was watching.

"Yeah, I know. But……...I had to check."

Then he turned to Charlie. The quantity of blood that had saturated his shirtfront had lead David to believe that that his unique colleague…… …..his friend…..was already dead.

He was shocked beyond words to find a pair of docile brown eyes following his every move. The eyelids blinked, and a tear left a trail in the blood that covered the right side of his face. Robin's blood.

"Awww, shit. Charlie?"

Pulling Charlie's jacket apart he wanted to get a look at the source of the bleeding.

"Charlie. Just hang on, man. We're gonna get somebody in here to help you."

He found a small entry wound on the lower right side of Charlie's chest. As he felt around Charlie's back, a large saturated area confirmed that there was an exit wound and it was the primary source of the bleeding. When he took into account the amount of blood that saturated the front of his clothes and the floor around where had had been sitting, David could not comprehend how Charlie could still be alive.

Speaking into his headset, David looked into Charlie's eyes.

"Just stay with us, Charlie."

He had fought so hard………but he was fading now.

"Tell Colby, we need Don in here! Megan?"

Her steady voice quickly replied.

"They called in a Medivac Chopper already. It's just touched down on the roof, David. I'm sending them to you."

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Don was sitting on the stairwell floor, with his head in his hands. Colby had told him what had happened on the street outside the courthouse and what Megan had just witnessed on the security monitors. As David and the HRT rushed past him into the hallway, Don felt as if his whole world had just come to a crashing halt.

Charlie is down. That sentence had taken him to the edge of a cliff he had never wanted to get that close to again. For ten minutes he had teetered on the edge of that precipice, waiting for a reprieve. A reprieve that they had both gotten not that long ago…and somehow he had taken for granted that they would get it again.

But the cliff face was too steep this time.

Robin is dead. Those three words had just pushed him over the edge of that dreaded crag and he still wasn't sure if he would ever reach the bottom of this abyss.

A simple sentence had just altered his entire existence. Don wasn't sure if he would truly ever be capable of caring about anything, ever again. Everything had just vanished. Every good thing that ever happened to him had just been taken away by a single bullet.

Those bastards had never negotiated for anything. They had nothing to gain but their freedom and they had lost that chance when they met him in the elevator. Slain by the FBI, they would live forever in infamy, martyrs for their gang. And they had chosen to take two of the most important people in his life with them.

He wanted to be angry. He would have settled for fear or even sadness. But instead he felt nothing. Just empty. Numb and cold and empty. He couldn't cry, he couldn't move. He couldn't feel. And he didn't care. He didn't want to. Not anymore. All of these years he had made every effort to conceal what he felt almost ninety nine percent of the time. Robin had changed all of that. She had changed his life by showing him how to live it. And now she was gone. And now he had nothing. Numb and cold and empty.

Robin is dead.

"Don?"

Colby was still standing over him. He hadn't even realized that he wasn't alone in the stairwell. He had no perception of how much time had passed. He just felt so alone. Lifting his head to look at the younger agent, Don felt an obscure reaction to the look on Colby's face .………something like confusion.

"Don? Come on, man."

Don felt like he was climbing out of a deep hole and when he spoke, his voice was in monotone, almost completely devoid of emotion despite the words he spoke.

"Colby? I don't know what to do. I don't……….what do I do?"

When the younger man knelt down next to him, Don was appalled to see unshed tears in the corners of Colby's eyes.

"Charlie's dying, Don. Your brother needs you. That is what you do now."

He stood and stuck out his hand for his boss. Don took it and allowed Colby to pull him to his feet and lead him out of the confines of the stairwell and down the hall toward the courtroom…..to Charlie.

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Authors Notes: I am wowed by your comments. I'm glad you are so involved with this story. It's very exciting to get such positive feedback on something I have been rather nervous about. Thank you. And even the not so enthusiastic feedback is encouraging because I know you are still reading. Please keep letting me know what you think.

Chapter Eight: The Sky is Falling

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For those who are interested in the dialect of our Salvadorian gang members, ruthless killers that they are….…….since I cannot post an actual web address here (it won't let me) I'll just tell you where to look. Wikipedia has a pretty extensive section on Salvadorian Spanish. I don't use that sight as a primary source of information, but it seems to have a pretty complete section on the linguistics of Caliche. I can't find a straight up translation dictionary - but here is what I have used and what it means.

Está...Vergeado means 'He's all F'ed up.'

Verga - That one starts with an F too.

Puta - derogatory word for a female…usually interpreted as 'whore'

Ponerse huevos - we have to make an effort. Let's give it our best shot.

Hope that answers any questions. If you believe there are any errors in my translations please send me a private email so I have the opportunity to correct them.

Thanks!