Chapter 7

Last Chance

"Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival." - Winston Churchill

The house where Nate Hudson's girlfriend lived was an ugly concrete edifice in a field miles from anywhere. The flat uninspiring rocky environs seemed to go on forever. There was nowhere to conceal the SUV, so Rossi drove it right up to the door.

"Morgan and JJ, round the back, Prentiss, we'll take the front."

There was no point in covering their arrival; they would have been seen while they were still miles off. Morgan and JJ ran round the back of the house. They could hear Rossi hammering on the door and identifying themselves. Morgan saw a curtain move in an upstairs window, and at the same moment, a man ran out of the back door and ran across what would have been a garden in a past life. Morgan and JJ raised their weapons.

"Nate Hudson, freeze! FBI!"

There was no cover for any of them. Morgan and JJ threw themselves to the ground as Hudson turned as he ran, and fired at them. The first shot went wide. He fired again, and the bullet kicked up dust on the ground in front of them. Nate continued to run, firing at the same time. Morgan shouted to him again.

"Hudson, FBI! Lower your weapon."

Hudson showed no sign of complying. Rossi and Prentiss rounded the corner of the house, and quickly ducked back again. Rossi ran across the stony ground towards Morgan, his body bent, drawing fire. Hudson turned his weapon on Rossi and lined up to shoot. Morgan aimed at the man's leg, and fired. Hudson chose that moment to kneel in a firing position, and Morgan's bullet hit Nate Hudson in the side of his rib cage, straight into his chest. The gun dropped from dead fingers and Hudson fell back onto the ground, dust rising around him.

"Crap!" Morgan yelled. "Son of a bitch! I didn't want to kill him!"

Rossi was the first to reach him. He kicked the gun away, knelt down and felt for a pulse. But the man was obviously dead. Blood was oozing from the entry wound, and running from his mouth. His eyes were open and he was staring at nothing.

Morgan stood over him, his gun hanging from his hand, the other hand on his forehead.

"Shit. Son of a ..."

A shriek behind them made them all turn around. A woman was running from the house towards the body lying in the dirt.

"You killed him! You bastards!"

Morgan caught hold of her before she could reach the body of her boyfriend. She struggled and kicked him in her effort to get away. Morgan held her fast until she sunk her teeth into his arm and drew blood. He yelped and his grip loosened. She ducked out of his grasp, and was stopped when Emily swung a punch to the woman's face. She sat in the dirt, stunned for a moment. Emily rubbed at her hand.

"We are going to need to have a heart to heart with you." Morgan said, pulling her up and swinging her around while Rossi cuffed her hands behind her. Rossi and Morgan pulled her into the house, Emily and JJ following.

-0-0-0-

Spencer was being loaded into an ambulance. He had been intubated at the scene, and the heart monitor attached to his chest. There was no exit wound, so the bullet was lodged somewhere in his chest, near his heart. They were most worried about aortic bleed. If the bullet had severed the aorta, he would have bled out by now. But sometimes the damage was a small tear, just leaking a small amount of blood into the chest cavity. But damage like that could break at any time, and then he would die in seconds. For the moment, the ventilator kept his lungs working. But they needed to get him into theatre asap.

"Is there no-one to travel with him?" the paramedic asked the gathering crowd.

"He had a friend here," a security guard stepped forwards. "He left a note for me to give to Dr Reid when he came out of the witness stand." He held the note out to the paramedic, who took the note, and slipped it into his pocket. He would call the friend later if he could find the number. He hoped that Dr Reid had a mobile on him, with a name listed to match the note.

"Thank you. I'll see that he gets it." adding in his mind, if he makes it...

-0-0-0-

They pushed the woman into a chair. Rossi stood behind her, Morgan in front. JJ and Emily stood by the door.

"A Federal Agent has been kidnapped. We believe that Nate Hudson was involved." Morgan crouched down to her level. "We need to find the missing agent quickly. If you know anything, and do not give us information that you know will lead us to him, you are making yourself an accessory to murder."

With fury and rage on her eyes, she spat in Morgan's face. "I will never help you, murderer. One more fed off the street can only be a good thing!"

Morgan resisted the urge to hit her. He pulled her to her feet and marched her into the kitchen where he cuffed her to a pipe.

"Ok," Rossi said. "Search the place. Prentiss and I will check the grounds."

Morgan's mobile rang, and he snatched it out of his pocket. It was probably Reid, telling him that he had finished giving evidence. He was surprised when it came up as 'number unknown'.

"Morgan."

He stood and listened, the others waiting to hear. Morgan reached for a chair and sat down.

"Oh god...oh no!...ok, thank you."

He closed his phone and looked at the others, shocked and stunned.

"It's Reid." he said. "He was shot by a sniper outside the court house. It's touch and go. The bullet is lodged near his heart, and he's got less than an even chance."

Emily paled. "Oh god."

"Let's get this search done then, and we can get back to him." Rossi said. " Aaron is our first priority. Reid is being taken care of."

They sprang into action, searching the house and grounds. Hotch was being held somewhere air tight, so there was a limit to the places where he could be held. JJ went down into the basement, gun drawn, tense and anxious. There was a freezer in the corner. She crossed to it and undid a catch that was holding it closed. She opened it and pushed the lid back against the wall. It was empty. She wasn't sure if she was relieved or not. She slammed the lid down, and continued her search. She felt her mobile vibrate. Emily.

"Get out here, JJ. We've got something!"

Emily's voice was shaking. "What is it, Em."

"Just get out here, Jayj."

JJ snapped her phone closed, running outside to where Prentiss was kneeling. "What is it, Em...oh my god! No!"

The patch of ground in front of JJ was freshly dug in the stony ground, and there was a narrow rubber tube lying in the top. Emily was tearfully digging with her bare hands.

"Rossi and Morgan have gone to find something to dig with." she said. JJ knelt down and began to pick up handfuls of stones and dirt.

The men came back with two shovels. The women stood back as the men dug into the soil. Emily wiped tears away, leaving a dirty smear across her face. She reached out for JJ's hand, and they stood numb with shock as the men dug.

Frantically, they worked, the grave got deeper. They stepped into the hole, and dug, sweat pouring off them as they worked their way down. At one point, Morgan paused to pull his shirt off. Then at last, Rossi's shovel hit something hard.

"I've got it!" he said, but his voice had lost that positive note. They knelt and pushed the remaining stones and soil from the top of the box. Morgan was speaking to Hotch under his breath.

"We're here, Hotch. Hold on, we're here..."

The lid of the box had been screwed shut, and it was not easy to remove it. But Morgan wedged the blade of his shovel into the gap around the top and levered down. The wood creaked and split and the lid was raised. Morgan stared in shock, as Rossi bent down and reached in to Aaron.