I'm so sorry for the delay in this chapter. I had a plot-related crisis. I'm still trying to piece it together but hopefully it'll shake itself out soon. I'll get the next bit out faster, I promise! Anyway, I hope you like this little instalment and please let me know what you think :)

Chapter Four

86 hours in

Henry knew that the people on the ground would have seen his plane by now.

Most likely they would have been aware of it for at least a few minutes, would have seen him circling as he scoped the area before coming in to land. Most likely they were readying their defences, possibly thinking that they were under attack.

He would have to be smart if he was going to avoid getting shot within seconds of landing.

Moments away now, he made his final checks as he brought the little plane in to land. He had chosen for his landing place a straight stretch of road to the northern edge of the town, one which started at the sea and ran to precisely nowhere, the land having been claimed back by the rainforest when the town was abandoned decades ago.

It wasn't abandoned any more.

Henry brought the plane down towards the rainforest end of the road, bracing himself for the impact of landing and saying a prayer to any God that happened to be listening that his plan worked. He didn't want trouble.

All he wanted was to find his wife and bring her home.

Elizabeth McCord was no damsel in distress, Henry was fully aware of that, but looking at the situation as he had sat in Washington he had been unable to fathom exactly how she was going to get herself out of the situation she found herself in, especially once he had found out who was holding her and the grudge he held against Elizabeth. She needed help, and when it had become apparent that none was going to be forthcoming from Conrad in any timeframe acceptable to Henry, he had found it necessary to step up.

He wasn't about to sit idly by while she was in trouble, and no doubt scared out of her mind. He had a duty to protect his wife and, more than that, he loved her above all else. He wasn't about to lose her now. He wouldn't be able to live with himself, or look her in the eye ever again if he did nothing. He wouldn't be able to look their kids in the eye.

The ground was getting closer now, closer, and then the wheels touched down and Henry felt the jolt throughout his whole body as the plane made contact with the earth. He applied the brakes and brought the plane to a gradual stop, before taking the time to manoeuvre it to face the other way, out over the ocean. He thought it would be worth the extra minute in the cockpit; there was a chance he and Elizabeth might need to make a very speedy getaway, and it would be easier if he had a clear runway to work with instead of a short run directly into the trees.

Finally at a complete standstill, Henry completed the task of shutting down the plane. Legs shaky and stomach still fragile from the flight, he climbed carefully from the cockpit and lowered himself down to the ground.

Time to move.

Five hours in

She woke a few minutes before she actually opened her eyes.

Elizabeth had been drifting in and out of consciousness for… she wasn't sure for how long. Several hours at least, she thought. She knew she had been moving for quite a long time, the hum and roll of a vehicle making her head spin and her stomach flip. She could feel a pain in her ribs where she had been lying on a metal ridge during the journey.

She was still now, definitely not in a vehicle.

She held herself steady and tried to force her mind to focus. There was something firm but yielding beneath where she lay – a cheap mattress? It was hot, too hot, and her head hurt, she thought from a combination of the heat and the stress and whatever drugs had been jammed into her veins by the people who grabbed her.

The people who grabbed her… She was assaulted by the memory of the spray of blood and bodies flying through the air as her convoy was attacked, and of the weight of one of her DS agents pressing her down into the scratchy carpet that covered the floor of her car. The too-heavy weight of one of her DS agents…

Oh God.

Panic made a play for her mind. Her throat felt constricted and her chest felt like there was a band tight around it. Her hands clenched into fists as she felt her heart stutter hard against her ribs.

Don't you dare panic, Elizabeth.

At least she was still alive, unlike so much of her detail and the team that had come with her on this trip to South America to promote Conrad's new climate change initiative. So many of them were dead, and so many of them could be dead or alive; she had no idea. They could be anywhere. But giving in to the panic that started to swirl within her would be doing them all a disservice.

Someone needed to be held accountable for the ambush in the rainforest, and she needed to find out what the hell was going on. Someone needed to pay. And she needed to get out.

Forcing herself to regulate her breathing, Elizabeth pushed the panic back down and let fierce indignation take its place – coupled with a healthy dose of low-level fear, which she figured was acceptable in the circumstances. Who the hell had taken her, and what the hell did they want?

Only one way to find out.

She opened her eyes slowly, blinking into grimy daylight bolstered by yellow electric light that bounced off the cheap ceramic patterned tiles that lined the floor a couple of feet below her. She could hear the hum of a nearby motor.

And she could hear a creak from somewhere just in front of her, and the sound of someone else's rasping breath. Head still foggy and thoughts still somewhat clouded, she looked up.

A man sat in a metal folding chair about two metres from where she lay on the hard, uncomfortable bed. Arms folded across his generous stomach. Feet pressing back against the tiles to rock the chair backwards. Sweat patches under his arms. His eyes fixed on her face.

Elizabeth looked back at him. Blinked to clear her vision. Froze. Time stilled. She knew the man's face. Recognised him straight away even though she had seen him mostly in photographs and only ever met him once in the flesh, even though she hadn't seen him at all in more than twenty years.

Yeah. She was definitely in trouble now.