Chapter Four

"What the hell do you mean you can't find them?" Oscar ranted. "I don't care how dark it is! You know exactly where the explosion was, so get every man you've got out there and find my operatives!"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Goldman, truly sorry, but there's no boat left - just debris. Extremely small bits of debris. They very likely didn't survive the explosion. We'll begin recovery efforts first thing in the -"

"Maybe you didn't understand me," Oscar seethed. "You are to continue rescue efforts until my people are located. If you call your men in now, you'll be in the brig until you forget what daylight looks like! Understand?" He slammed the radio receiver down onto the table without waiting for an answer, and moved to the far side of the room to check on Rudy's progress. "Anything?"

"Still no signal from Jaime's emergency chip. I don't like that - not at all. I'm trying Steve's now." The doctor frowned with concentration as he hunched over the data bank. "Temperature's dropping pretty fast out there, and Russ just told me there's a storm headed their way."

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Jaime and Steve had been shivering in the cold for far too long, but they both knew that when they stopped shivering, it was really time to worry. That time had now come, and they began telling each other stories, sharing snippets of happy memories, to try and hang onto consciousness and to each other.

"I remember when you were about seven," Steve said softly, "and I tried to teach you how to hit a baseball."

"I hit it, alright," Jaime added. "Right through your parents' picture window. I was so scared."

"Yeah, but I got the spanking."

"Sorry 'bout that."

"No, you're not," Steve countered, laughing just a little.

"Ok, maybe I'm not, but if you won't buy the apology, how 'bout thank you?"

"You're welcome," he told her, kissing the top of her head. My God, he thought, she's so cold! She began to feel limp in his arms. "Hey, ya need to stay with me, Sweetheart...Jaime?" Steve jostled her gently, then a bit more insistently.

"Mmmmmm," she moaned softly.

"Remember when you were in kindergarten and that bully lifted you up by your pigtails?...Jaime?"

"Yeah..."

"He was three or four years older and twice as big as you, but you still raised 92 kinds of hell all over that kid. You need to fight like that now, kick the wet and the cold right in the shins and kneecaps."

"Can't..."

Steve hugged her, trying to warm her even as he himself was fading from the cold. "You have to -"

"We're...not gonna make it, are we?" She was almost too chilled to be frightened anymore.

"Of course we are."

"Too cold."

"Jaime..."

"At least we're together. We got to...find each other again, before -"

They both heard the first clap of thunder, and both knew it could very likely be their death knell, because with thunder...came lightning.

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"Coast Guard is reporting heavy storm activity across all search coordinates - thunder, lightning, the works," Russ reported.

Oscar blanched, knowing what this meant. "Bionics turn their bodies into lightning rods," he said grimly. "We're out of time. Make sure all of our teams and the Coast Guard remain on active search detail." Russ nodded. Oscar walked to the window, to the door and back again, feeling entirely helpless.

"Oscar! I've got a signal!" Rudy shouted, rousing the entire room from its funereal silence. Oscar had joined him in less than an instant. "It's fading in and out, probably due to the storm, but Steve's chip has a signal!" He scribbled some numbers on a piece of paper and handed it to Oscar, who passed it to Russ.

"Give those coordinates to the Coast Guard," Oscar told his assistant, then he turned back toward Rudy. "I'll bet you've got the same thought I do."

The doctor nodded. "This is our family we're talking about here."

"Russ," Oscar said, on his way toward the door, "you're officially in charge here. Rudy, let's go get our kids!"

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