The communications van was already crowded with agents when Wilson climbed in, followed by Chris and Vin.
"You and you." Wilson pointed. "Make room."
The two agents moved quickly, not questioning the order.
Chris moved further into the van. "You have Ezra?" He directed his question to the two agents sitting at the sound monitors.
"We've got Standish's radio," the dark haired one answered, looking at Wilson instead of the ATF agents. He seemed to cringe in his seat as Chris leaned closer. "We've tried to contact him,but believe he's lost the transmitter itself. Somehow though, it's still picking up his voice."
"Meaning?" Wilson asked.
"We can hear him, but he can't hear us," the other agent with light red hair cut in.
"He say anything yet? Is he conscious?" Vin asked quietly.
"It's hard to hear him, but he is conscious for now. His words are slurring together."
"What's he said?"
The two agents exchanged wary looks.
"Agents?" Wilson prodded, swiping absently at his nearly bald head.
"He said that agent Larabee was gonna kill him."
Despite the FBI agent's apprehension, Chris found himself smiling. He exchanged a look of humor with Vin. Ezra was awake under that house.
"Can you pinpoint his location?" Chris questioned.
The redhead shook his head. "No, the signal's not strong enough."
"What about thermal imaging?" Wilson proposed, but one of the agents standing near the front of the van cleared his throat, interrupting.
"We don't have the equipment here, we'd have to call in a chopper…"
"Do it then," Wilson commanded. "Then let's get the fire chief in here so we can…"
A static burst silenced the group and drew all eyes to the monitors.
"Need to stay awake."
Chris and Vin both stepped closer to the monitors. Ezra sounded weak and,as relieved as they were to hear his voice, the slurred accent gave away what rough shape Standish was in.
"Sad commentary for Christmas Eve."
They listened.
"Face it, Standish, Christmas is just not the holiday for you."
Chris closed his eyes at those words. Ezra had opened up enough over the last few years for them all to know what the southerner was referring to. Too many Christmases with strangers, too many alone.
"Damn it, Ez." Vin's whisper pulled Chris back to the current situation.
"I want one of my men listening at all times."
"You got it." Wilson gestured to the dark haired man at the controls. "Butch, call a chopper for the thermal and dig up a parabolic mic. If he's talking or moving at all, that might help us find exactly where he is."
Larabee left Vin in the van while he stepped out with Wilson. The rain had finally stopped, but he could already tell that the temperature was falling quickly back to itsseasonal norm.
The scene still looked like chaos as they approached, and a larger crowd had grown beyond the yellow tape. More news vans had joined the first few on the scene and reporters shouted questions at them as they headed toward Buck and JD and the fire chief. From the looks on his men's faces, Chris could tell that Buck and JD had already been arguing with the fire chief about the search.
"We can't just stand around here with our thumbs up our ass while he's under all that!" Buck shouted at the man but the Chief wasn't budging.
"That house is nothing more than a giant game of pick up sticks right now." The fire chief waved at his men. "If I send them or you in there, the whole thing will come down the rest of the way. If you want to save your friend, you'll back off and stay the hell out of my way!"
"You…"
"Buck." Chris stepped in front of Wilmington and faced the Chief. "I'm Agent Larabee, ATF. It's my man under that mess. We'll wait for your instructions, but we are going to be there beside you when you go in for him."
"Fine." The Chief's eyes flashed with both anger and understanding. "Just sit tight. I promise, we're doing our best."
Wilson followed the Chief, both already discussing the tactics they were taking to find Ezra while Chris pulled Buck and JD to the side. He caught sight of Josiah and Nathan and motioned them over as well.
"He's alive," he told them first.
"We know that or are we hoping?" Nathan questioned.
"Heard him myself."
"Oh thank god." Josiah closed his eyes and seemed immediately to breathe easier.
"How'd you hear him?" JD asked.
"We can hear him over his radio, but he can't seem to hear us, something…"
JD was already nodding. "Probably the.." His voice faded as Chris went on.
"They're calling in a helicopter with thermal imaging to try to find him as well asusing a parabolic mic." He made eye contact with each man. "We can't get him out of there until we know exactly where he is."
Wilmington's shoulders slumped in resignation.
"How'd he sound?" Jackson asked. "Is he hurt?"
Chris hesitated. "I don't know. He sounds real weak…like if we tried to get him to call out, we'd never hear him. He's talking to himself right now, said he needed to stay awake. My guess, yeah, he's hurt. I just don't know how bad."
"Hypothermia alone," Jackson looked at the house. "How can he not be hurt?"
"Cowboy."
Chris turned, surprised to see Vin beside him. "I wanted you to keep listening."
Vin held up a pair of radios. "Butch hooked us up." He handed one to Chris. "Only has two extra right now. Losta bunch in the explosion,but I think you need to be hearing this." He handed the other radio to Nathan. "And maybe you can suss out just what condition he's really in."
Chris hurriedly put the radio on. "JD,you get in the com van. See what you can do to help them narrow down Ezra's location.
He paused and listened, his eyes meeting Nathan's. Ezra was talking again.