Chapter 18

Edgerton would look back on it later and count it as one of the few mistakes of his career. There were several smaller errors and circumstances that precipitated the final events, some of which were outside his control, but they were no excuse. There never was a good excuse for a botched mission.

His first, and probably biggest error, was becoming emotionally involved in the case; he had let Mansour get to him, and as a result his judgment was clouded. His second was lying to both of the Eppes brothers – to Don by omission, and to Charlie outright, by leading the younger Eppes to believe that Don had wanted Charlie to come out on the trail with him

He had plenty of justification. He had been involved in operations before that had put civilians in harm's way, all of which had come out well. Had he sat down and thought about it at the time, he would have had to admit to himself that civilian involvement in those cases had never been intentional, however – this time it was. Those situations had also been well planned in advance – this was not; it was a spur-of-the-moment decision.

If he needed more justification, there was also the fact that there was a man out there somewhere, taken by Mansour, with a wife and children at home. As responsible as Edgerton felt for all of the victims, he felt even more so for the deputy; the man was one of his brothers in law enforcement, and he felt duty bound to protect his own.

His biggest rationalization was that he knew that he would not let Mansour hurt Charlie. Ian was still in control of the situation, or so he thought. What he didn't know was that there were several variables that were going to affect that control, three of which were at that moment ascending the ridge behind him.

He had moved back up toward the top of the ridge, but keeping Charlie in view below him. He heard Charlie call out his name, and the panic in Charlie's voice caused him a spasm of guilt, that he quickly tried to squelch. He had to focus on Mansour. For the first time in his life, he felt nerves intrude on him. He always felt adrenaline in a tense situation, but not fear; not something that made his breathing faster, not something that made him sweat, and never something that made his hand unsteady on the trigger. This was different, way different.

He was trying to calm his breathing, his eyes scanning the ridge just above him like a hawk. He could hear footsteps; something was wrong – they were too loud – in fact now he could hear that there was more than one person.

He swore softly to himself, and backed quietly toward the noise, still trying to keep an eye on Charlie. Whoever the hell this was, he had to get them out of the area.

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Charlie stood for a moment, rooted to the spot by fear. Where in the hell was Ian? His first panicked thought was that Mansour had gotten to him, but there had been no noise. Charlie couldn't believe that Ian would have gone down without some kind of struggle. He must be reconnoitering, thought Charlie; maybe he had seen something and was investigating it. It seemed odd that Ian would not have told him that before he stepped away, but that had to be it. There was only one other alternative – that Ian had left him on purpose to draw out Mansour, and that was out of the question. The thought raised a nagging doubt in his mind, but he pushed it aside impatiently. Ian would never do that, he told himself

So, if Ian was checking out the area, Charlie assumed that he should stay put. That would be the logical thing to do. Logic was fighting a losing battle against panic, however. It was all he could do to contain the urge to run back up the ridge the way they had come. He looked around him, turning, nervously eyeing the thicker patches of smaller pines and scrub, starting at each little noise. The wind in the tree branches was picking up, the sighing was growing louder, drowning out the smaller noises; and for that reason; he didn't hear Mansour. He had no idea that he was there until he turned again, and saw him crouching, his eyes burning, next to a dense thicket.

Charlie froze for a moment, horror driving the breath from his body, then gasped and backpedaled toward the clearing, turning, stumbling as he did. He flailed his arms, maintaining his footing, but it was enough to slow him down. Mansour charged like a wild animal, leaping at Charlie and tackling him around the waist. Charlie screamed Ian's name, and the terror-filled sound reverberated through the forest, as they went down in a tangle of arms and legs.

He ended up on his back with Mansour on top of him, struggling frantically. Mansour grappled with him, and drew his arm back, delivering a fast vicious punch to Charlie's face, then another. Charlie turned his head slightly as the first one hit, and it landed on his cheekbone. He saw stars, and dazed, never realized the second punch was coming. It was an uppercut to the jaw, and it snapped his lower jaw into his upper with a force that drove his head backward, up, and into a rock behind it, and brought down a curtain of blackness, as his body went limp.

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Colby trudged up over the top of the ridge, glancing back over his shoulder at Megan and David. He turned his head back forward, and nearly tumbled backwards in shock. Edgerton had materialized out of nowhere, and stood right in front of him, scowling at them.

"What in the hell are you doing?" Edgerton hissed.

Colby bristled. "I could ask you the same thing."

Megan and David ran up the last part of the grade, cresting the top, and stood beside Colby, panting.

"Where's Charlie?" demanded David, glaring.

"He's down there," growled Edgerton, jerking his head to a spot down the slope. "You need to back off. I have this situation under control."

"Like hell you do," snapped David, his eyes flaring with righteous anger. "Charlie's coming back with us."

Edgerton glared back, and was opening his mouth to reply, when Charlie's agonized scream ripped through the forest. "Shit," he hissed instead, and ran forward to get a view of the clearing below. He got into position behind a windfall, where he had a clear line of sight, just in time to witness the brutal punches to Charlie's face, and he winced.

The other agents ran up behind him, their faces drawn with shock. Colby started down the slope, but Edgerton flung out an arm, and pulled him behind the windfall. "Wait." Edgerton's mind was whirling. The situation was spiraling out of control, and he knew he needed to make a fast decision. This development would put Charlie out of the picture; he would be unable to help trace his steps, and if Edgerton took out Mansour, their chances of finding the deputy were remote. "There's another man out there. We need to let them go, follow Mansour to the canyon."

Colby stared at him. "Are you crazy?"

Megan eyed him with fierce intensity. "That's an unacceptable risk. Charlie's hurt; he needs medical attention." She looked at the clearing with growing panic. Mansour was crouched over Charlie, swiveling his head, scanning the woods around him, and they all ducked behind the windfall instinctively.

"He's been knocked out," retorted Edgerton. "A few minutes one way or another won't make a difference. For all we know, we're right on top of Mansour's hideout."

"No," said David angrily. "No way. What if Charlie comes to? How can you predict what Mansour will do?"

Megan was watching the clearing anxiously, half listening to the dispute, and her stomach clenched as she watched Mansour reach down and begin to lift Charlie.

"Does the other man's life mean nothing to you?" snapped Edgerton. "Tell me how we're going to find him if we don't do this."

"I don't know," growled Colby, "but this just isn't right."

"You listen to me," snarled Edgerton. "I'm still lead agent on this case. You will follow orders, or you will get the hell out. If Charlie comes to, or if it looks like Mansour is going to hurt him further, I give you my word, I will take Mansour out on the spot." He glared at them, and they returned his look with stubborn defiance.

Taking their silence as acceptance, he continued. "I need to follow them without Mansour's knowledge, and I can't do it with you on my ass. If you want to follow for support, fine, but stay well back of me. If you tip off Mansour, and he knows we're back here, he's going to try harder to lose us. Do you understand me?"

Megan was watching Mansour in the open space below with barely contained anxiety. Mansour had lifted Charlie to his shoulder and was nearly to the tree line at the edge of the clearing. She hissed with impatience. "You need to quite arguing over this – we hear you, now move!"

Flashing them one last angry glance, which was returned in triplicate, Edgerton turned and quickly headed down the slope after Mansour, who was disappearing into the forest.

"That son of a bitch!" breathed Colby, his face contorted with fury.

Megan looked at the other agents, who appeared ready to explode. She didn't like the situation either, but Edgerton wasn't giving them a choice. If they tried to fight him, they ran the risk of Mansour getting away. "Get a grip, guys. We need to keep our heads."

"He set him up," said David, between clenched teeth.

"We don't know that," replied Megan tersely. "They were together, and Charlie was okay, until just now. For all we know, we created the situation by distracting Edgerton."

They looked stricken at this. Colby saw Edgerton reach the clearing, and started to move forward, scowling. "He never should have brought him out here to begin with."

"I've got to agree with you there," conceded Megan, falling in behind him. Her gut clenched with sudden doubt and a feeling of premonition. How on earth did they get into this situation? "Stay back; give Edgerton his space, but whatever we do, we can't lose them."

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Edgerton soon found himself in one of the most demanding situations he had ever been in. Mansour was tough to follow; he knew the forest, he moved fast and he was in a state of high alert, stopping frequently to listen, and using cover to try to lose anyone that might be following. Edgerton's tracking and shadowing skills were unparalleled, however; and Mansour was slowed down by his burden, so had it just been him and Mansour, he would have found the situation challenging, but doable.

The three agents behind him threw a whole different light on it, however. Although they were following well back of him, and were thankfully keeping a low profile, he had to be concerned not only about Mansour seeing him, but them also, especially when they hit more open areas of forest, where Mansour could see for a distance. As a result, Edgerton had to hang back further than he would have liked. There were a couple of ugly moments when he thought he had lost them, and he stopped, heart pounding, but in each case he caught a glimpse of them far ahead, and hurried to catch up.

As they moved on, he realized with surprise that they were heading back toward the park entrance, not toward the main trail; they were moving at more of angle, but it was definitely that direction. After about twenty minutes, they hit trail, and he realized suddenly where they were. This was a smaller trail that headed to the right out of the parking area, a shorter one that was used by day hikers.

This trail was about a four hour trip total, and could be less if the hiker wanted a shorter trip, because it was out and back instead of a loop. As a result it got a lot of traffic. In spite of the large number of hikers it saw, there was never an attack or a body found on it, so they hadn't committed much in the way of manpower to checking it out. 'Big mistake,' he thought to himself, shaking his head grimly.

Today the trail was empty. Still Mansour kept to the edge of it, now hyper-alert; ready to duck into cover. Keeping out of sight on the relatively open trail had become more difficult, and Edgerton was forced to walk off the trail, sticking to cover, and it was slowing him down. To make matters worse, cliff walls were beginning to rise on the left, and the ground began to slope away on the right. Soon, the only cover would be to the right, and it would be downhill of the trail, making it easy for Mansour to observe anyone that might be following.

As the trail curved around the rocks, and the cliffs began to rise, Edgerton realized grimly that he had no choice. His only option was to stay back, using the bend in the trail and the cliffs as cover, but staying out of sight also meant that he would lose sight of Mansour and Charlie. As long as they were along this section of the trail, he would have to allow them to remain out of his view, and wait until they got past the cliffs to re-establish visual contact. The only positive thing about it was the fact that he no longer needed to worry about Mansour picking up the agents behind him; the cliffs were hiding them as well.

Ian slowed slightly; he had no way of knowing how fast Mansour was going, and he couldn't afford to come bursting around a corner into his line of sight. The cliffs were rising more steeply, punctuated by thick pockets of small pines, some of which appeared to be growing right out of the rocks, and he stuck to the edges of them when he could, figuring he could duck into them for cover if he needed to. Eventually the trail reached its zenith and began to descend, and the cliffs started to recede. Edgerton breathed a little easier; Charlie and Mansour had been out of his sight for several minutes, and he was anxious to pick them up again.

He was certain that they had to be ahead on the trail; they could hardly scale the cliffs, and he could see for a long distance into the valley to his right. He rounded a large outcropping, and finding himself exposed, immediately ducked, sidling next to the cliffs. The trail dropped off and straightened suddenly, then curved right, exposing a long view ahead of him. His heart lurched as he scanned it, and saw nothing, no movement; no sign of them. His line of sight was unobstructed for the better part of a mile; they couldn't have gotten that far ahead of him.

He forced himself to stand still for a moment, watching the valley and the trail ahead for signs of movement. There was nothing, and apprehension rose in him. They had disappeared, seemingly into thin air. He felt an unfamiliar twinge of panic, and he wrenched his thoughts into order. He had to think, to keep control. He needed to backtrack, he told himself, to look at the trail behind him to see if they had left it somehow. Casting one more look at the valley, he headed back, treading quietly, heart pounding, his senses razor sharp, not knowing if he was going to come face to face with them at any moment, and hoping suddenly, desperately, that he would.

-------------------End Chapter 18------------------------------------------------------