As Ressler walked away from Red, he really didn't know what he was angrier about. The fact that Red had just killed their suspect, or the fact it had brought back memories that showed him he wasn't handling things as well as he'd thought. The slit throat. The blood. It was Meera all over again. It was Audrey, with blood spilled on a roadway. He had turned and left, attempting to walk off memories that were never going to be walked off. But at least he could escape the sight of the blood.
Walking around fallen trees, he sidestepped streams of water flowing down the road and kept his head lowered against the downpour. Right now, he actually welcomed the rain. It enveloped him in a misty shield, and gave him some privacy. He had expected Liz to follow him, and was glad she hadn't. He wasn't very good company right now. He came to the clear run where they had come up from the ridge and stopped, carefully sitting down on a fallen tree. He sat looking, but not really seeing the slope. His ribs and shoulder were throbbing, the pain making him feel a little nauseous. He'd give anything for one of those pain pills right now.
He pulled his phone out of his pocket, knowing it wouldn't have a signal yet. It didn't disappoint. He turned it back off to conserve the battery power, noting it was down to 61% remaining. Wiping the rain off it as best he could, he shoved it back in his inside jacket pocket.
He didn't know how long he'd been sitting there when he heard Liz's voice over the sound of the pouring rain.
"Ressler!"
He glanced sideways in her direction, then dropped his gaze to the ground again. He might have known it wouldn't have taken her long to come after him. Walking briskly in the rain, almost jogging, her hair hung wet around her face. She approached him and then sat beside him on the fallen tree. He didn't say anything, just looked at the ground in front of him.
"You okay?" she asked, out of breath from the exertion.
"Yes."
She looked at him, saw the clench of his jaw as he continued looking at the rivers of water on the ground. "That was..."
"Yes." he interrupted her. He knew what it was. It had been damn difficult. He licked his bottom lip, and then looked sideways at her. He realized then that she had been crying, though her tears were gone now.
"You alright?"
She nodded to him, smiling ruefully. He held her gaze a moment, before changing the subject for both their sakes.
"Liz, we need to try and find Jeremy Cole. We don't know that he didn't make it out of this..." he looked around them at the fallen pine trees.
She nodded to him. "If he stuck to the road, he may have been able to dodge the trees…" she trailed off, looking up the road into the mist and then back at him. He wasn't looking too good, and she could see the pain was getting to him now. They needed to get out of here. In the distance, they heard a chainsaw fire up. Dembe, of course, starting to clear the way again.
"But we also need to know if the bridge is passable at the river. Though, I doubt it is. But we need to know…and try and get off this mountain, Ress." She omitted to add 'and get you some medical attention'.
He nodded, before he carefully stood up from the fallen tree, wincing in pain as he did so. He wasn't sure if he had it in him to walk back up this mountain, but he had to try. The rain drummed steadily around them, flooding the already saturated ground. He looked nervously at the trees half out of the ground. The rain water was pooling around their half torn up roots, and it wouldn't take much for the rest of them to fall.
He reached for her arm as she jumped off the tree trunk, and in silent accord, they walked back to Red and Dembe.
###
Dembe was making short work of the tree branches that covered Red's car. Having found the gas can under a tree, he had set to work immediately, not waiting to be asked. If there was one thing he knew about his boss, it was that he liked to be comfortable. And right now, the only place he could be comfortable was sitting in their vehicle. He worked quickly, sawing through the tree as if it were butter, the soft wood of the pine tree giving way easily under the chain saw. Clearing the car of the main tree, he set the chainsaw down and opened the back door for his boss. Reddington sat down gratefully.
"Thank you Dembe. You're a good man," he smiled.
He looked at his boss and nodded, then picked up the chainsaw again and headed over to the nearest tree. It was time to start clearing the road again.
Looking in the rear view mirror, Red saw Liz and Ressler approaching. He stepped out, motioning for Ressler to join him in the car.
"Donald, sit with me." He got back in the car, not waiting for Ressler's reply.
Ressler scowled, but obliged, while Liz went over to see if she could access the cab of their crushed van. He eased himself into the vehicle, shuddering at the sharp pain in his ribs as he did so. Closing the door, it suddenly felt strange not to have rain pouring down on him. He looked silently at Red, who then turned to him and spoke, getting right to the point.
"Regardless of what I did to Liev, it may surprise you to know that I also needed him alive. He would have given me information on who hired him, giving me information on my…nemesis." Red stopped and looked away a moment.
"Then why kill him?" Ressler shot back at him.
Red turned and looked at him squarely. "Donald, the truth is, you were never going to get anything out of Liev. He could never reveal who killed Meera because he didn't know. Whoever hired Liev gave him one task - to kill you and Lizzie. He wasn't privy to any other information on Meera or Harold, I can assure you of that. His one mission here today, was to dispose of the two of you. And that is all Liev knew. And I wasn't about to stand by and let that happen."
Ressler gritted his teeth, and shook his head. "He wasn't going to kill us. WE had the rifle!" he hissed at Red.
Red regarded Ressler a moment, and then shook his head. "You may have had the rifle right then, but that man was not going to stop until you and Lizzie were crossed off his Whitelist. He would have killed you, no doubt about it."
Ressler glared at him. "You think I'm that bad an agent?"
Again, Red looked at him a moment before answering. "Not at all Donald. I think you're an excellent agent," he said sincerely.
Ressler looked at the criminal, seeing the honesty in Red. He felt the anger drain out of him, then sighed, leaning back on the headrest a moment.
"But he was a better assassin, Donald," added Red quietly, and Ressler glanced sharply at him, before leaning his head back again. He was tired, and in pain, and it felt so good to sit down. And deep down, he knew Red was right.
Red regarded him, seeing the tiredness and pain in the agent. "As for our next course of action, might I suggest that we split up. You and I head back up the mountain to see if we can find what's left of Jeremy Cole. Dembe and Lizzie can continue down the mountain, clearing the way to the river."
Ressler looked at him. It was what he had been going to suggest. Only in his mind it had been him and Liz going back up to find Jeremy. "Why send Liz to the river?"
"Donald, I'm going to assume here that it's because you're in a great deal of pain that you're not thinking straight. Lizzie may get a signal on her phone at the base of the mountain, and will have the correct access codes to call someone at the Post Office. Neither Dembe or I can do that. Right now it is in our best interests to keep an FBI agent in each team." He looked at Ressler's arm in the sling. "And let's not forget the obvious - she can drive the tractor, and you are unable to right now."
Ressler nodded. Once again Red was right. He really hated that about Red at times. Given a few more minutes he'd have come up with that on his own, he told himself. He looked up at a knocking on the window. Liz was out there, holding something up and smiling in the rain. She opened the door and handed Ressler a couple of aspirin in a foil pack. It would help take the edge off, at least.
"Found them in the glove box of the van. I have a few more in my backpack for later."
He looked back to Red, then up at Liz again. "Well, best give them to me, since I'm going up the mountain, and you're heading down."
###
Fifteen minutes later, they parted ways. Dembe and Liz turned from them and headed down the mountain. Dembe walked out in front, while Liz drove the tractor mower, her job to clear the trees after he had cut them into smaller sections. Ressler watched them leave, and then turned and looked back up the road.
"Come on Donald, let's get going before we lose the light." And he and Ressler started their trek back up the mountain.
Their progress was interrupted time and again as they searched under fallen trees for any sign of Jeremy Cole. If they found his body (as Ressler half expected) crushed under a tree they would simply turn around and catch up to Dembe and Liz. But tree after tree revealed no sign of the man. Wearily, they walked on, ever upwards, skirting around fallen trees here and there. The number of fallen pine trees was greatly reduced though. Pretty soon they were walking on the clear road that they had chain sawed and cleared just that morning.
Ressler's entire chest was one mass of pain. The continual walking uphill was becoming very, very difficult, and Red had been listening to the agents labored breathing for a while.
"How are you doing Donald?"
Ressler was startled when Red suddenly spoke, after walking silently for about thirty minutes. How am I doing? "I'm... fine," he replied.
Red chuckled at that. "We'll tell Lizzie that when we see her again. But for now, let's take a breather for a few minutes."
The road started to curve to the right as they approached the cliffs, and they heard the sound of running water now. Ressler was about to tell Red he was fine and could keep going when they both stopped in their tracks. An almost solid sheet of water ran over the cliff face, forming a waterfall that then ran over the road and down the embankment. Several piles of debris had piled up after they had cleared it this morning.
"Whoa..."
"Yes indeed Donald. THAT is a lot of water."
Approaching cautiously, they stood at the edge of the river of water pouring down the slope.
"I'm not too sure we can walk across that safely," said Ressler dubiously.
Red walked over to the cliffs and looked along their length. "No, but we can walk behind it. Look at this." The water falling over the cliff had created a clear tunnel behind it.
Ressler looked down the tunnel of water in front of the rock face, and then looked at Red. "I'm game if you are."
Red nodded, and with Red leading, they stepped into the tunnel. The gap was wide enough for them to walk through, in single file. The sound of the water filled their ears. Not deafening, but certainly loud. Ressler put his hand out into the falling water, and was surprised at the pressure on his fingers before he drew them back in.
It didn't take too long before they could see the end of the waterfall ahead of them. As they approached the opening, they stopped. Both had heard something over the sound of the water. Red turned back to Ressler as they listened.
"That's a vehicle!" said Ressler, over the roar of the water.
###
About two miles further down the mountain, Dembe and Liz were making good headway. They had a good system going now. Dembe would clear the way, cutting a tree into two or three large pieces. Then he hopped onto the tractor as Liz drove the tractor mower through, blade down, clearing the debris to the side. They would then drive slowly to the next blockade, and Dembe would hop down, chainsaw in hand. It was still pouring down, though thankfully the thunder and lightning had stayed away.
She watched him working his way through the tree with the chainsaw as she waited on the tractor, the canopy giving her some relief from the rain. Dembe came back to the tractor now, his latest tree cut in two, and she moved the tractor forward, clearing the pieces of trunk out of the way. Once clear of that tree, they had a clear run for about a quarter of a mile. It felt so good to actually be moving some distance. They came to the next tree and stopped. As the sound of the engine died down, they looked at each other, hearing a loud roar through the trees.
"That's the river! It must be huge to produce that much noise!" she exclaimed, her eyes wide.
They made their way cautiously now, aware of how close to the river they were. Or more to the point - how much closer the river had come up to them.
They could see fast moving water through the trees now, as Dembe hopped down to clear one last fallen tree that had been blocking their way. Liz looked through the trees worriedly. Once back on the tractor, they drove a little further, rounding a slight bend, the sound of the water very loud now. Liz suddenly stopped the tractor at the scene that lay before them.
"Oh my God..."
The river was monstrous, and far worse than they could have imagined.
The road in front of them ended abruptly and simply disappeared into a raging torrent of brown, churning water. Silently they climbed down from the tractor, took a few more steps and then stopped, afraid to get any closer. The bridge was nowhere in sight. Whether it had been swept away completely or was intact but submerged under all that churning water, they couldn't tell. The small, gentle river they had crossed when they began their ascent of the mountain had been replaced by a raging, boiling torrent. Downed trees lined the river, hanging in the water as the swirling water undermined their roots. Even as they watched another tree was dragged from the ground, and thrust into the maelstrom. The current took it very fast, and it disappeared from sight swiftly. Numerous trees were making their way down river, churning in eddies, whipping around as they continued their descent.
"Oh my God..." she whispered again.
There was no way they were getting off this mountain over the bridge.
Liz forced herself to stop looking at the torrent of water, turned, and pulled her phone out of her backpack. Turning it on, she waited to see if it could get a signal, being closer to town. No such luck. She typed out an email to Aram, just as she and Ressler had discussed before they split up. It was short and to the point.
Aram, we are trapped on the mountain above Harrisonburg. All four of us are here - myself, Ressler, Red and Dembe. Objective not achieved. It was an elaborate trap. Jacob and Jessie Cole are dead. Jeremy Cole is at large. Look for info on a Russian - Liev Rostov. He was hired to kill us but is dead now. We need air support to get off this mountain. River is NOT passable due to severe flooding.
We have no phone signal. This will sit in the outbox until we hopefully get a signal. I am leaving my phone at the base of the mountain, so I cannot reply IF you get this. Aram, we need help!
Liz
PS - Red has an arm wound (shot) and Ressler has broken ribs and recovering from a dislocated shoulder. Need medical help also.
She put in her credentials at the bottom of the email. As an after thought, she snapped a photo of the raging river and attached a small version of it to the email. IF a signal came back, the email would send, and she needed it to be as small and quick to send as possible. She quickly added Ressler's email address as a cc, looked it over, and hit Send. It sat there, looking for a signal.
Dropping it in a plastic shopping bag from her backpack to keep it dry, she looked around for a place it would be safe. Dembe pointed up at one of the standing power poles. He maneuvered the tractor closer to the pole, and standing on it, he reached up and tied the plastic bag securely to a cross member. The phone was still on, the unsent email waiting for a signal. The battery life was 56% and would drain faster now that it was continually searching for a signal.
They turned to look at the river again, Dembe now beside her. Another tree rolled past them, swept down the fast current. They stood together, mesmerized by the sheer power of the turbulent water.
###
The sound of the truck engine grew louder as Red and Ressler listened from behind the waterfall.
"It has to be Jeremy Cole!" said Ressler, the truck now becoming visible as a blurred shape as they looked through the wall of water in front of them.
Ressler looked at the gun in Red's hands. "Don't you dare kill him!"
Red simply looked at him, his weapon raised, turning now as the sound of the truck engine was almost upon them.
"Now!" said Ressler.
They both stepped into the water, emerging through it, shaking their heads against the torrent. Ressler let out a cry as the water pressure hit his shoulder and ribs. The fast moving water coming of the cliffs churned around their ankles, dragging at their feet, making each step a very unnerving experience. They stepped carefully, neither of them wanting to add 'washed away over an embankment' to their list of mishaps.
Their weapons raised, they faced the pickup - and Jeremy Cole.
"Hold it right there!" Ressler yelled at him.
Jeremy saw the two men materialize out of nowhere through the water, and slammed on the brakes. He went to put the 4WD truck into reverse, but Red was beside him now, Jeremy's own gun pointed right at him.
"Hello Jeremy. How nice to see you again," said Red, as Jeremy reluctantly dropped the driver's window.
Ressler was in front of the truck, his weapon pointed right at Cole. He had a momentary thought that Cole could very easily run him down, and moved to the passenger side of the vehicle. Damn, he really wasn't thinking straight right now. Holding his gun with his right hand, he aimed it through the passenger side window, tapping the window until Jeremy lowered it too.
"Key's out of the ignition, Cole!" he told him. Jeremy looked at the road in front of him. "Don't even think about it!" warned Ressler.
Cole looked at Red, then Ressler both aiming their weapons into the vehicle at him. "All you two will do is shoot each other."
"Oh, I wouldn't say that, Jeremy." Red pressed the gun against Jeremy's head wound, his dressing still in place. He smiled a little as Jeremy winced at that. "Your head will take the impact of this bullet quite nicely. Agent Ressler won't even need to fire."
Jeremy reached for the truck keys, turned off the ignition and handed the keys to Red.
"Get out of the vehicle, Cole," Ressler told him, still on the passenger side. "And then get in the back seat."
Red 'encouraged' Jeremy to get out of the truck, his gun on him at all times, motioning for him to sit in the back. Ressler opened the back passenger door and climbed in beside Cole, as Red sat in the driver's seat.
"What have you been up to since you left our company?" asked Red pleasantly, "Besides dodging falling pine trees. Obviously successfully," he added.
Jeremy glared at him. "Burying my brothers."
Ressler looked evenly at Jeremy, and again felt that pang of sympathy that this guy had just lost both his brothers. Jeremy turned to look at him.
"Nice scarf, by the way," he added, looking at Ressler's sling.
Ressler ignored Jeremy's comment. "Where were you going? You said yourself the bridge had to be out with all this rain. So where were you going?" Ressler asked him.
Jeremy ignored him, and turned to look out the window. "Then let's keep heading down, and you can tell us when we get there." Said Red, and turned and started up the truck. Driving slowly through the runoff from the waterfall, he avoided the piles of debris. They headed down the road, keeping at a steady pace in the rain as Red moved around the cut trees. They came to Red's car and their crushed van, and cautiously made their way around the trees, driving in the underbrush on soggy ground. The wide truck tires handled the wet ground perfectly, barely slipping at all.
They had just gone past their vehicles and back on the cleared road again, when they heard a sound.
Squawk and static - from a radio.
"What the...!" said Ressler.
Red stopped the truck suddenly and quickly opened the glove box, revealing a CB radio. "Well Jeremy, you've been holding out on us all this time."
And right on cue, a voice came over the radio. "Jer, you there? We're almost at the river with the boat! You better be there to meet us!"
"A boat huh?" Red smiled hugely. "Well Donald, we may yet get off this mountain after all."
Red passed the microphone into the back seat. "Answer the man, Jeremy. Tell him you'll be there." He held the microphone in front of Jeremy, and pressed the button to talk.
Jeremy looked at him silently a moment, then looked at the two guns on him, and answered. "I'll be there." Red flipped off the mic before Jeremy could say anything more.
Ressler felt that knot in his stomach again. Unlike Reddington who had perked up at the mere mention of a boat, Ressler really didn't share the man's enthusiasm regarding them.
###
Dembe and Liz were sitting on the roadway, looking at the river as the sun was setting, casting an orange glow through the rain clouds.
"How far across do you think that is?" she asked him.
"How far is not really the problem. The trees and debris in the water are the problem," he said, and she smiled at his logic. "But I would say about 100 feet," he added.
"Too far...too fast and too far..." she said in awe of the massive amount of water churning below them. She was about to suggest they start to head back up, when they both saw vehicle headlights suddenly light up the trees to their left. Standing quickly to face the vehicle, they stepped to the side of the road. Liz shielded her eyes against the glare of the headlights, unable to see anything. The vehicle stopped now, still running, keeping the headlights burning.
"Lizzie! Dembe! It's just us!" called out Red, opening the rear door of the vehicle, as someone else stepped out. Ressler got out now, and he pushed Jeremy in front of him as he walked toward where Dembe and Liz stood on the road.
"I see you found him!" Liz called out, recognizing their companion now. But then, who else could it have been but Jeremy Cole, she thought.
Ressler held his gun to Jeremy, but his eyes were on the raging river below them, sharply lit in the truck headlights. Good God, he thought. That thing is a death trap!
Liz stood beside him, and offered to watch Jeremy for him. He looked down at her in tired thanks, and she raised her weapon on the man. Ressler dropped his trembling right arm to his side and shakily holstered his weapon. He took a few steps toward the water, taking in the sight. He thought he'd seen it all after the trees fell. But this...this was terrifying. And yet, he couldn't keep his eyes off the sheer power of all that water.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Red almost purred beside him, mesmerized by the water.
"What?!" He looked at Red incredulously. "No! And there is NO way we're going out on that. NO WAY Red!" Ressler yelled at him.
"Well, someone is. Look." Red pointed across the water.
On the other side of the river, a truck was reversing down the road, guiding a trailer with a large boat on it to the water's edge.
"Jeremy Cole's buddies..." said Ressler, unable to believe they were actually going to launch the boat into THAT.
"Oh my God. They're not! Surely they're not!" cried Liz, horrified, echoing Ressler's thoughts.
Ressler realized they were starkly visible against the headlights of Jeremy's truck to whoever was on the opposite bank. They ducked to one side, Liz dragging Jeremy with her as they took cover behind the pickup now. Dembe and Red made their way over to join them.
"Think they saw us?" she asked Ressler, and he was shaking his head. He didn't know. He didn't like this at all.
The boat trailer was being driven further into the water now, and the current was already moving it, trying to pull it downstream. It broke free of the trailer, and was held by a single, strong rope. Two men jumped out of the vehicle, dressed in wetsuits, and clambered on board the boat as it lurched dangerously to one side, straining against the rope that was holding it fast.
"They're crazy..." Liz whispered.
The men fired the engine of the boat and it roared to life now, twin jets of foam now visible behind it, righting the boat. Pulling the rope in, they reversed into the water. Picking up speed now, they stayed on course as they fought against the current. Turning, they headed the boat into the churning water, leaving the relative calm of the edge. The force of the water hit them full on, causing huge sprays of water to fall over the boat.
Liz couldn't watch. She turned, keeping her eyes on Jeremy Cole. He looked at her silently, and she saw fear in his eyes also. Those were his friends out there, and apparently it was scaring the hell out of him too.
Ressler watched, fascinated yet waiting for disaster to strike at any second. Amazingly, the boat was holding its own and about half way across now. But it was no match for the uprooted trees floating downstream. A tree slammed into the side of the boat, almost tipping it over. One of the men lurched dangerously close to the side, and almost fell in.
"No! no... come on..." Ressler breathed, willing the men on now. He didn't care anymore who they were or what their agenda was. No one should be out on that river.
"We need to give them more light," said Red, moving to the driver's door. They had a spotlight on the front of the boat, but it wasn't illuminating nearly enough of the dark water around them. Red moved the truck down the roadway now, stopping a safe distance back, and shone the headlights on high beam. He aimed them to one side, so they wouldn't outright blind the two boatmen.
"Smart..." said Ressler, as he and Liz walked a few steps down the road, drawn to the men's struggle on the water. Liz held her weapon on Jeremy, but it was almost unnecessary. His primary focus was on his friends in the river.
The boat was struck by more floating debris now, knocking it off course. Heading down river now, the men fought for control, and brought the heading back to where it needed to be, moving ever closer to the road and pseudo boat ramp on their side.
"Come on!" Ressler raised his voice to the men. They were almost to this side of the river.
"You can do it!" yelled Liz.
They were cheering them on now, Ressler realized.
"Look!" Dembe yelled over the roar of the water, and they turned, seeing what he had seen. A huge tree - straight on course for the boat.
"No!" cried Liz. "Oh God!" she took a step closer to the water, trying to warn the men. But they had seen it too.
Dembe ran now, sprinting to the truck that Red was still sitting in. He banged on the window, and motioned something to Red. As he moved to the front of the truck, Liz and Ressler lost sight of what he was doing. They ran toward the truck now, Jeremy with them. Ressler ignored the pain in his ribs, too focused on the battle going on in the river.
Dembe had unwound some of the cable from the hoist at the front of the pick up, and was standing right at the water's edge.
"What are you doing?!" Liz yelled at him, but he couldn't hear her over the roar of the water and boat engines.
The huge tree struck the boat.
They watched in horror as it went over on its side, suspended in the air for a moment before plunging down, the water quickly filling it. The two men had no chance. Just a few more feet and they would have made it.
Dembe plunged into the water, the cable hoist hooked to his belt. He fought the current, swimming swiftly and grabbed one of the men. He literally threw the man behind him into the shallower water, before going a couple more feet downstream. They lost sight of him as he went under, and saw the hoist cable strain.
"No! Dembe!" Liz ran to the rivers edge now, as her and Red reached down and helped the first man out to safety. He lay on the roadway, coughing up river water. But he was safe.
Red ran back to the truck and reversed slowly, pulling the cable hoist. Not knowing what was on the end of it. He kept reversing, as they all stood in front of the truck. Jeremy was leaning down to his friend, Liz and Ressler focused on the end of the submerged cable.
Red pulled, and slowly, a form rose out of the water. Red kept on pulling and steadily the form came ashore at their feet. As the water swirled around, they finally made out Dembe, hugging the other man to his chest, refusing to let him go.
"Dembe!" Ressler leaned down to them now, checking for pulses. He felt one in Dembe's neck, thankfully! He couldn't feel the other man's neck because of the wetsuit.
"Cole! Get over here!" Ressler called to the man, and he hurried over. Liz and Jeremy dragged his friend out of the water and up onto the road. They didn't know if he was alive or dead. Jeremy pulled the cap off the guy's wetsuit, as Liz felt for a pulse.
"He's alive!" she yelled, and grinned with relief up at Jeremy.
Ressler was joined by Red now, as they leaned down to Dembe. Red slapped his face gently, and the big man's eyes fluttered open. He coughed up some water then, and rolled onto his belly, coughing up more water. Red patted him on the back, crouching down and smiling at his companion.
"You had us worried there for a minute, my friend." Dembe nodded to him, and then broke into another coughing fit.
Ressler walked over to Jeremy and Liz. "How's he doing?" he yelled, raising his voice over the roar.
"I think he's okay. He's stirring now..." she told him.
He nodded and walked to the first guy. He was sitting up now, still coughing a little, and looking in awe at the river. Ressler crouched down to him.
"You okay?"
The man nodded his head, looking up at Ressler. "Thanks to that big dude, yeah..." he motioned to where Dembe was also sitting up now.
Ressler looked back to Dembe and nodded. "That big dude's name is Dembe. What's your name?"
"Phil... Phil Roberts." he panted, coughing again.
"Well Phil, this is your lucky day. You've just come out of the frying pan and into the fire. We're the FBI."
"Oh, hell no... seriously? Shit, if I'd known that, I'd have let the river take us," he groaned.
Ressler grinned at that, and slapped the man on the back. "I'm not here to arrest you. Yet. Like I said, this is your lucky day."
He surveyed the scene, and couldn't believe no one had died in this monster of a river. However, they were very close to the edge and water was lapping at their feet. They needed to get out of here before the water level rose even more.
It was only as he looked back at Red and Dembe again that he realized the rain had stopped – and that they were about to spend their second night on the mountain.