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"Hey, Boss. How's your weekend?" Ed asked, securing the last strap of his body armor.
Signing a clipboard at the dispatch's station, Parker grinned in response. "Super. How's yours?"
Team One's team leader emitted a rueful smile. "Couldn't sleep much. Izzy had a fever, keep us up two nights straight. But she said her first word yesterday. Dada."
"Aww, that's so sweet," Winny gushed from her post. "How does Sophie take it?"
"She's ecstatic! And now she's teaching Izzy to say 'Up, Dada'. I guess I'll be on full baby-sitting duty at home from now on." Ed shrugged helplessly, causing the other two to laugh.
Just then, Spike appeared. He went straight to them and asked, "Has Sam arrived yet?"
They all shook their heads. "No. Haven't seen him come in."
Frowning, Spike took out his phone and started dialing as he walked briskly towards the locker room. They heard him muttered something under his breath before he disappeared around the corner.
"What's that all about?" Ed wondered.
"Have not the faintest idea," Parker replied. "Anyway, back to Izzy. Her fever. Was it serious?"
"Nah, it was mild but it made her real cranky. She's fine now. It's like what they said, infants normally have fever right before they learn new tricks. Izzy also had a fever before she took her first step. I thought it was just fluke, but—"
Jules chose that moment to arrive. She looked concerned about something. "Hey, guys. You've seen Sam?"
Again, they all shook their heads. Without another word, Jules turned and quickly left to change into her uniform.
Parker was puzzled. "Okay. What's going on? Are we missing something here?"
"Whatever it is, Sam better drag his butt in ASAP. Clearly Spike and Jules are anxious to see him," Ed remarked. "I wonder, what has he done now?"
"Good morning!" Raf greeted cheerfully when he appeared seconds afterward. He opened his mouth to speak more but Ed quickly intervened.
"Before you ask, no, we haven't seen him."
Raf stood there, blinking. "I'm sorry? Who?"
"Sam. He's not here yet."
"Why would I ask about Sam?"
Parker replied, "So, you aren't looking for him?"
"Uh…should I be? I mean, I went camping the whole weekend with some pals. Haven't heard anything from Sam. Why? Is he alright?"
"That's what we're wondering." The Sergeant began to frown. "In fact, he should be here by now. He has always been so early, unlike today."
"I guess we have to wait until Sam arrives. We can hear him out before we start today's briefing," said Ed.
To everyone's bewilderment though, Sam still had not appeared when Team One's shift officially started fifteen minutes later. They had to proceed with the briefing without him.
"Sam has a lot of explaining to do. He's not usually this tardy," Ed complained with a glance at his watch after the Sergeant had finished laying up the team's schedule for that day. Basically, they were in for a slow and quiet shift. No warrant calls, no mundane patrols. Team One just needed to be on full stand-by in case certain wackos decided to take people hostage or get hyper with firearms.
Parker already had his phone against one ear, frowning when all he got was Sam's voice mail. "His phone's off. This is so not like him."
Jules exchanged looks with Spike before she began speaking, "Boss, his phone has been switched off since Friday night."
Parker froze, his eyes widened. "What?"
"I've been calling him about a hundred times but could never get through. Not even once," she explained, looking slightly guilty. "At first I thought he refuses to speak to me after that episode in the parking lot. But now…"
"Jules then called me to ask if I had seen Sam, and so I went to his apartment on Saturday. He was not there," Spike said. "Then I called his sister, but she also hasn't seen him. None of his family members has."
"Why didn't you both inform us?" asked Parker, a tad annoyed.
"We didn't want to make a big deal out of it. We thought Sam just wants some privacy after…you know…after our disagreement," said Jules. "We really believed that he'll eventually show up today for shift. Looks like we were wrong."
"Spike, have you tried tracing the GPS on his phone?" Ed asked, starting to realize that Sam's absence could be a lot more serious than they thought. Obviously something had gone wrong.
"Not when it's off, no. I've tried." Spike shook his head apologetically.
"Okay, team. Let's think for a second," the Sergeant said, pacing back and forth. "Who saw him last?"
Ed cleared his throat. "Um…Boss, that would be us."
Parker paused. "Oh, yeah. That's right. Now who heard him last? Did he call any of you that Friday night after shift?"
They all grimly shook their heads.
"How's he like when you guys saw him that evening?" Raf wanted to know.
Sparing a glance at Jules, Ed replied, "Like his usual self, nothing odd, considering that he just got kicked in the nuts by someone in this room."
Raf gaped at Jules. "Seriously?"
She reddened. "It was childish of me, I admit it. But…God, he completely blew up my fuse! Look, I'm sorry I went overboard. I know I shouldn't have—"
"Jules, Jules. Easy," Parker said, soothing her down. "No one's blaming you of anything. What transpired between you and Sam was strictly personal. We understand that. Just let's not panic here."
"Yeah, maybe Sam lost his phone somewhere," Raf lamely suggested.
"Or maybe for once he's really being a dick, intentionally giving us a scare while he has a big laugh about it," added Ed with a weak smile.
"You really believe that?" Jules challenged him, her eyes a little watery.
Ed gave her arm a consoling pat. "No, I really don't. Let's not jump to conclusion yet. There must be a sensible reason why he's being completely incommunicado."
"Yeah," Spike agreed. "Sam is ex-Special Forces. Don't these guys go on classified black ops even after they have left the field? Maybe he's running a secret mission for his Dad."
"Sam wouldn't do that without my clearance," Parker disagreed.
"Greg, there's a purpose why it's called classified black ops. No one is supposed to know, not his current employer, and not even us," Ed pointed out. He turned to Jules. "You notice anything peculiar about him lately?"
"Not in the least. But if he sometimes goes out at two in the morning to secretly go and infiltrate an Al Qaeda camp, he does a good job hiding it from me," she replied.
"This is all just speculations, guys. We need something concrete," the Sergeant interjected. "I'm gonna call General Braddock, just to confirm."
"You think he will admit it if his son is really working for him?" asked Ed, a little skeptic.
Parker pursed his lips. "No, but it's worth a try."
"Wait. Before you do that, let's clear up something here," Spike exclaimed. "Ed, you told me Sam declined your offering him a lift, and that he decided to walk home from HQ."
Ed, nodded. "Yes. What about it?"
"You're positive that he walked all the way home?"
"Well, we didn't actually see him walking because we drove off first." Ed looked at Parker and continued, "But it rained real heavily soon after, right? You think he still went on with it?"
"No, I don't think so. Sam is a tough guy but he's not stupid. Staying out in that cold rain could give you pneumonia, he knows that."
"So then how did he get himself home?" Raf wondered out loud.
"A taxi?" Jules suggested.
"That's it!" Spike brightened, already reaching for his computers. "I can check with the city taxi's databases, made crosschecks with the time and place of every car on duty that night. If we found out which taxi Sam might have taken, we can—"
The alarm suddenly whooped, followed by Winnie's calm voice, "Hot call for Team One. Shots fired near Grange Park. One casualty, subject still at large."
Spike groaned and rose with the others, albeit hesitatingly. "Jeez. Talk about bad timing."
"Boss, we're short of one man," Ed commented.
"I know, and that's why we'll have Team Three for backup," said Parker as he headed towards Winnie at her dispatch station, "We'll come back to Sam soon after we finish this. Priority of life, guys. The public comes first, whether we like it or not."
Sam shivered in the late morning breeze. It wasn't all that cold, as it was a clear day with no clouds and the sun shone so bright that a sunbeam broke through the trees and hit him square on the crown of his head.
No, it wasn't the wind that gave him chills. It was his own antibody going haywire. He had been ravaged with fever since the night before. At first it was just a slight rise of his body temperature, before it steadily rose higher. And then his heart beat became irregular, which prompted him to use some yoga techniques he knew to bring it back to normal. But his body only grew weaker and weaker by the hours.
He knew the signs. He had seen them a dozen times before in the field, in the warzone. It could start with something minor, like a paper cut. But when bacteria set in, it could cause real harm. Even fatal.
That was what his entire body was currently telling him. He had contracted septicemia, most possibly from the raw abrasions on his wrists. Or maybe from the Raccoon's scratch on his thigh, he didn't care which. The only thing that he cared about was to end this horrific nightmare. If only he knew how.
Sam had been sitting there immobile for four days now, which already felt like an eternity. He was extremely bored, he was quickly losing his mind, and he couldn't feel half of his body anymore. Most of all, he was awfully thirsty. He had hoped, prayed, that it would rain soon so that he could swallow some. But no one seemed to be listening up there.
As his dry mouth and parched throat begged for water, his belly had long since stopped growling with hunger. It simply felt hollow, almost bloating, with sharp pains jabbing constantly against his solar plexus. He could bear with it, as pain kept him sharp. But the thirst…my God. That was so unbearable.
Earlier he had thought he could possibly last a week of this torment. But after four days, he felt nearly half dead. To make matters worse, the wound infection was slowly eating away the live within his body. His strength was rapidly deteriorating, his resolve was swiftly crumbling, his hope for rescue got less and less profound.
Team One should have already figured out that he had been missing. They needed to move fast, no more time to waste. If delayed, they would still find him in the end. He never doubted their tenacity.
But by then, there would only be his lifeless body to bring home.
TBC...
Not long now. Our favorite military guy is getting close to be found. Hang on, Sammy. Just hang on!