"I'm sorry, boss," Louis said for the fifth time. He had to almost jog to keep up with Terrence's swift pace. Leaves crunched and twigs snapped as they tramped through the forest.
"Quit saying that," Terrence growled, without looking at the college student. "And don't call me 'boss.'"
"Sorry, T," Louis said.
Terrance paused long enough to glare at him. Louis opened his mouth to apologize again, but quickly shut it.
"How could you be so stupid?" Terrance asked as they started moving again. "You shot someone who saw you selling, left the body behind, and dropped the merchandise? You never drop the merchandise, Louis."
"I know," Louis said miserably. "I panicked. I-I didn't know what to do."
"So you thought you could hide this from me?"
"No! I wasn't hiding… I just thought I could fix it myself. I came back here, to find the drugs-"
"Merchandise," Terrance corrected.
"Merchandise, and to try and cover the body, but the cops had already found it. I saw that yellow tape on a tree. When I went towards where I thought I might have dropped the bag, there were two feds there."
"And they chased you?"
"Yeah, but I got away. They stopped."
Terrence stopped moving. He turned around, slowly and deliberately, to face Louis.
"Why did they stop?"
Louis shrugged. "I don't know."
"Feds don't just stop chasing a suspect, for no reason. What happened?"
"I…well, I heard screaming…the one closest to me, he turned around and went back. I…I couldn't see his partner."
Terrence leaned in until his nose was mere centimeters from Louis's. "Are you telling me you shot a federal agent?
Louis looked miserable. "I- I don't know. I don't think so… I just fired to scare them. I wasn't really aiming… I'm not a very good shot, really…"
Terrence didn't move. "Give me the gun."
"S-sure, T. I've got it right here." Louis quickly dug the small handgun out of his coat pocket and handed it to his boss.
He examined it closely. "Loaded and ready to fire," he said disgustedly. "You're lucky you didn't blow your foot off, carrying it around like that. I never should have given it to you in the first place."
"T, I'm sorry…"
"You're sorry?!" Enraged, Terrence grabbed Louis in a headlock and held him close against his chest, his arm cutting off the younger man's air supply. "Sorry doesn't cut it. You've cost me a lot of time, money, and effort today. You will be making it up to me. Understood?"
"Yes," Louis whimpered. Terrence let him go, and the young man gasped for air.
"Now, come on. Are you sure you know where you're going? Can you at least manage to not get us lost?"
"Yeah, sure I can. I do lots of transactions out here." Louis pointed to a break in the trees ahead of them. "We just follow that main trail for a bit, then head into the woods by the big double oak tree. It's not very far from there."
"Stay behind me," Terrance commanded. "We've got to be careful. There's probably feds all over the place. If anyone asks, we're just out for a walk." He glanced at his sick-looking associate and reconsidered. "Actually, if anyone asks, you just keep quiet. Let me do the talking."
"There," McGee said breathlessly. "It's finished."
The phone Tony held in his hand bore little resemblance to a regular cell phone, at least, from the back. It was a strange mess of wires, metal, chips, and pieces of both of their watches.
"You think it will work?"
McGee glanced up at Tony apologetically. "I hope so."
Tony nodded. "I'm going to walk around and try to get a signal." McGee looked ahead, not really focused. Tony knew that the effort had worn him out. He was more tired and pale than ever. This has to work.
Instead of walking in circles as he had before, Tony headed directly ahead of the tree McGee sat against. The land in that direction had a rise to it, and signals were usually clearer at the tops of hills. He walked slowly, keeping his eyes down. The phone was awkward to hold, with its mess of wires and metal pieces sticking out of the top. Tony had already brought up Gibbs' number, so that when bars appeared, all he had to do was push "send."
He walked for a long time. No bars appeared. Tony felt panic rising in him. McGee was fading fast; they had to get help quickly. He was about to give up when the screen flashed. Two bars appeared, then quickly dropped to one. One bar. Would it be enough?
Carefully, with shaking hands, Tony pushed "send."
Gibbs rubbed his temples in increasing frustration. Their case seemed to be stalling out, mainly because they couldn't figure out why their victim was at the crime scene in the first place. Tony and McGee were supposed to be looking for more evidence, but they weren't back yet and they hadn't called. So far, no one they had interviewed could figure out why Corporal Taylor would use his leave time to go to Shenandoah. The other marines said he usually went on leave to see his family or his girlfriend. There was no reason for him to be in the woods by himself.
"Yes, yes. Thank you. If you think of anything else, please give us a call." Ziva nodded in satisfaction and hung up the phone. "Gibbs! I think may have just gotten a break."
"We could use one. Who was that?"
"Amanda Jennings. She is Corporal Taylor's girlfriend. Or was… she said they broke up a few days ago."
"Yeah?"
Ziva nodded. "She said they were getting to serious, and she didn't want to settle down, especially since he will probably be deployed soon."
"How did he take it?"
"Not well. He was upset, crying."
"Violent?"
"No."
"Does she have any idea why he was in the woods three days ago?"
"Amanda said that Brandon loved the outdoors. He would go into the woods to think. He probably went there on a whim, after the break up, to clear his head."
Gibbs nodded. "That still doesn't tell us why someone would kill him."
"Could have been a hunting accident?"
Gibbs shook his head. "Unlikely. Abby confirmed that the bullets were from a handgun. Most people don't hunt with pistols."
"Maybe he overheard or saw something he shouldn't have. Wrong place, wrong time."
Gibbs looked thoughtful as his phone rang. He glanced at the I.D. "MCGEE."
"Yeah, Gibbs."
"Boss? It's Tony?"
"Tony?" The voice on the line sounded faint and far away. "I can barely hear you."
"Listen. We need help. McGee hurt…stepped in some…trap. We need medical…get a chopper?"
"Tony, you're breaking up. Did you say McGee is hurt?"
At her desk, Ziva looked up in alarm. Gibbs motioned to her, and she immediately began tracing the call.
"He's in bad shape…gotta get to us…forest rangers?"
"Tony. Stay right where you are. We're tracing the call now. I'll call the park rangers and give them your location."
"…not going anywhere."
"How did McGee get hurt? What's wrong with him?"
"Caught..leg…trap. Looks really bad, boss."
Even over the bad connection, Gibbs could hear the concern and fear in his agent's voice. "Just stay on the line. We've almost got the trace."
"Boss, we…man at…scene….shooting…"
"Tony? You're still breaking up." Gibbs glanced at Ziva, who nodded. Tony tried to say something else, but Gibbs heard only pops and static across the line.
"Hang on, Tony. We've got your location. The rangers will be there right away, and Ziva and I will meet you at the hospital." Gibbs disconnected and turned to Ziva, who was already dialing the Shenandoah forest rangers main office on her phone.
"Make sure you tell them they need medical attention immediately. Some kind of leg injury. And make sure they're armed."
Ziva looked at him questioningly.
"I'm pretty sure DiNozzo said something about a man shooting at them. Tell them to be ready for anything. And as soon as you're done, let's roll.
He could hear Tony's footsteps gradually getting farther and farther away, until finally he was alone with the sounds of the forest. He'd never been much of an outdoors person, preferring to stay inside and read or mess with a computer. Still, there was a certain peacefulness that he had never really appreciated before. No traffic, no people, no ringing phones… he could see why people came here to think, and to relax.
Maybe this won't be such a bad place to die.
He could feel himself getting weaker and weaker. Deep down, he didn't have much hope of their crazy cell phone working. He barely remembered putting it together with Tony. If it didn't work, Tony would leave and hike back to the car to get help. He would be alone. Somehow, the thought was quite as frightening as it had been ninety minutes ago. In fact, he wasn't really sure what he had been so upset about. He really just wanted to sleep…to take a nice nap…
The air was getting cooler, but he hardly noticed. The pain in his leg had subsided again, and a drowsy calm was coming over him. Gradually, he became aware of footsteps to his right, getting closer and closer.
"Tony?" He mumbled softly. "Did it work? Did you get a hold of Gibbs?"
There was no answer, though the footsteps were right next to him now. McGee lazily turned his head.
Two men stood only feet from him. The closest one had a gun pointed directly at his head.
END CHAPTER FOUR