Chapter Eight- Plans
An hour had passed since the building had exploded. Backup had arrived to secure the scene within minutes of Matt's report to the ARC that the mission had gone horribly wrong. Not long after that, the previously abandoned construction site was buzzing with activity as paramedics, fire crews, and search and rescue teams came flooding in, presumably on Lester's orders. Lester himself had come to the site after being briefed by Matt and, after a short conversation with the leader of the fire crew, had spent nearly the entire hour engrossed in a conversation on his mobile, hovering just out of earshot.
The medics had looked over Connor as soon as they arrived and had confirmed Abby's suspicion that he was suffering from a mild concussion. They had tried their best to convince him to accompany them back to the hospital to run further tests, but Connor refused to leave the site, insisting he be allowed to help with the rescue effort. Though Matt was concerned that Connor might be pushing himself too hard, he was pleased to see Connor's devotion to the team. His close work with Philip Burton had put a strain on his relationship with the other members of the team, especially Abby and himself. But here in the face of a new crisis, he was the old Connor again.
Matt had quickly located the man in charge of the search and rescue teams, a stern looking man named Peters. According to one of his men, he was a retired combat engineer who had been appointed as the head of domestic search and rescue with the Home Office several years earlier. That same man had also mentioned that his "retirement" had not been entirely voluntary, and was more the result of his attitude towards rescues. Apparently he had become jaded over the years, and though he was a gifted engineer, he was often difficult to work with.
Armed with this information, Matt introduced himself to Peters, using the vague cover story Lester had drilled into all of them. Introducing yourself as a member of the Home Office often invited a lot of questions from other government officials, but the story Lester had concocted for them was so boring, no one dared inquire about their work for fear of being answered.
"What's the situation?" he asked Peters, motioning for Abby and Connor to join him in the foreman's trailer, which had quickly been established as headquarters. Lester caught his eye and motioned that he would join them in a moment.
"The explosion was mostly directed upwards, not outwards. If the explosives had been wired into the building as they were supposed to be for the demolition tomorrow, the entire building would have collapsed in. The destruction could have been much worse."
"Then how soon can we get down there?"
"Look, you need to be realistic," Peters replied dispassionately without looking up from the schematics his assistant had handed him. "At this point, we're looking at a search and recovery approach, not search and rescue. If your people were down there when the explosion happened, the odds of them having survived are-"
"Excuse me?" Abby interrupted him, drawing Peters' full attention away from the papers in front of him. "Search and recovery?"
"He means he thinks they're probably dead and the most we can do is find their bodies to return to their families," Connor explained, walking up behind her with his laptop in tow.
"We're not just going to write them off," Matt said firmly, staring down the older man. "If they were far enough away from the blast, they could just be trapped underneath the debris. We're going to assume they're alive until we find them otherwise."
"I'm sorry, have you ever led a search and rescue before?" It was quickly becoming obvious to Matt what Peters' "attitude" problems had been.
Matt crossed his arms and leveled his gaze at him. "Yes, actually."
Before Peters could reply, Lester snapped his mobile closed as he entered the trailer, inserting himself into the conversation.
"Right, let's make this simple, shall we?" he said briskly. "Matt is in charge of the search. I'm not going to have some arrogant moron who has already dismissed the possibility of rescue looking for my people. You and your men will report directly to him. Is that clear?"
The engineer looked infuriated and opened his mouth to voice his objection but was cut off by the sound of his own mobile ringing.
"You'll want to get that," Lester said, nodding towards the mobile. "It's your boss. Strictly speaking, it's your boss's boss. He'll confirm what I just told you."
Peters stared blankly at Lester for a moment before turning away from the group to quietly answer his mobile. Connor and Abby stood staring speechlessly at Lester for a moment before Abby threw herself at him, pulling him into a crushing hug.
"Thank you, Lester!"
"I never knew you cared so much, Lester," Matt said dryly, taking Peters' place behind the desk.
"I don't," Lester insisted tersely, carefully extricating himself from Abby's tight embrace. "You have no idea how much paperwork is involved in replacing you people. Now," Lester continued, straightening his tie and turning to Matt, "how exactly do you expect to find them?"
Matt nodded to Connor, who stepped forward and help up his laptop. "Becker had a black box with him. I saw Jess give him one."
"According to your story, she also gave him an earpiece," Lester pointed out, "which he isn't answering."
"He could have lost his earpiece in the explosion or he's hurt and can't answer," Connor argued. "He could still have his black box on him. It's still transmitting from somewhere underneath the building. It could lead us right to him. It's worth a try."
"And what about Jess?" Lester asked, his voice softening. It was a well-known fact that the frosty administrator had a soft spot in his heart for the quirky field coordinator. "How are you going to find her?"
"There's no way to track her cell phone," Connor explained gently. "The signal can't get through all the debris. But I have a feeling if we find Action Man, we'll find Jess."
Lester nodded curtly before turning back to Matt. "Matt, anything you need..."
"Did you call Philip?" Connor asked suddenly, ignoring the dangerous look Abby gave him when he mentioned Burton's name. "I'm sure if he knew he would want to help with-"
"Philip Burton," Lester interrupted him, barely masking the contempt that filled his voice, "is not currently taking my calls. Apparently he has more important issues to deal with at the moment."
Abby glared triumphantly at Connor as he tried to process that piece of information. He cleared his throat awkwardly before asking, "What?"
"His assistant did mention that Philip asks that if you intend to work on your night off, he could use your help at Prospero," Lester continued, his gaze fixed on some invisible point behind Connor's head. "Something about not wasting your time on a futile rescue attempt."
It was a tense moment as they all turned to face Connor and waited for his response.
"Absolutely not," he said firmly, looking around at the small group. He seemed hurt that it was even a question of whether or not he would choose stay to help. "No, I'm not leaving until we find them. Philip will just have to get over it."
Abby smiled broadly and kissed him on his cheek as Matt nodded his approval.
"Good man, Connor."
The group shifted their attention back to Peters who was finishing his call.
"Yes, sir," he said into the mobile, nodding as he spoke. "Absolutely. I understand." He hung up and turned back to face the group. "Looks like you're in charge," he addressed Matt with a scowl on his face.
Matt nodded. "Good. Now what do you need?"
"My team should have everything we need to get started. Any equipment we don't have with us, we should be able to borrow from the construction site."
"Excellent," Lester said, clapping his hands together to show the matter was settled. "Whatever you need, say the word and it's yours. I don't care if it's the bloody crown jewels. You find my people."
"And Peters," Matt said, closing the distance between them, "this is still a search and rescue. If I hear the phrase "search and recovery" come out of your mouth again, you'll be needing some recovery time of your own. Do you understand?"
He nodded curtly and stalked out of the trailer, barking orders to men as he went.
Lester glanced at his watch. "Well, if you'll excuse me, I have a conference call with the minister to report on the situation. I suggest you all get to work."
Though Becker was doing his best to keep a brave face for Jess, he knew all too well the desperation of their situation. He did not want her to panic again, but he knew his injury was bad. He had seen far too many injuries like his in his time as a soldier. Keeping pressure on the wound to prevent further blood loss was a stop-gap measure at best; he was running out of time. Already he was growing lightheaded and it was becoming increasingly difficult for him to stay awake. On top of the obvious wound in his side, he had broken several ribs and his head was throbbing violently. He realized that he would not likely survive long enough to be rescued. His only regret in that would be that Jess would be left to wait for rescue alone if he did not hang on until then. He had long since resigned himself to his fate to die in the field.
"Could we please talk about something else, Jess?" he asked patiently, interrupting her nervous rant. She had been talking non-stop for nearly five minutes about various episodes of E.R. she had seen in which people has survived much worse situations than their own.
"Right, of course," she said apologetically, looking flustered. "Um… have you seen any good movies recently?"
He could not prevent himself from chuckling at her words, immediately regretting having done so when pain shot across his chest at the movement, jarring his broken ribs. "That's your go-to topic of conversation?" he choked out, trying to mask his pain.
Unfortunately, she had seen the expression on his face. "Are you okay? Are you sure you aren't injured anywhere else?"
Becker toyed briefly with the idea of continuing to lie to her about his condition, but dismissed it almost immediately, knowing he was caught.
"I think I cracked a few ribs," he admitted, somewhat sheepishly. "Maybe broken, I'm not sure."
"Becker!" she scolded him. "Why didn't you say something?"
"It's not like you can do anything for cracked ribs, Jess."
He saw tears begin to well in her eyes again. "I just wish there was something I could give you for the pain."
"It's all right. It barely hurts." He lied, a vain attempt to reassure her. His voice trailed off at the end of the sentence as his eyes began to droop.
"Come on, Becker, stay awake," she begged. "Tell me something."
"What would you like to know?" He asked with a sigh, forcing his eyes open again. He would stay awake for her for as long as he could- not for his own well-being, but because he did not want to leave her alone.
"I don't know," she said, and he could see her mind turning, searching for an appropriate topic. "Tell me about how you ended up in the military."
"That's a very boring story, really. Military boarding schools for most of my life and then the military. I always wanted to be a soldier and it's what was expected of me. I never even thought about doing anything else. Of course, I never expected that fighting dinosaurs would be a part of that."
"What about your family? Don't they wonder what you're doing now?"
Becker shook his head. "Both my parents died a few years ago. I was an only child."
"I'm so sorry, Becker. I didn't know."
"It's all right. We hadn't been close for a very long time." She nodded silently, and he decided to cut her off before she could continue with her interrogation, needing a moment to rest before speaking again. "All right, you tell me something now. How did a nice girl like you end up at the ARC? You were the top of your class in everything, graduated early with recommendations from everyone you ever worked with; you could have had any job in the world."
"How did you know all that?" Jess asked suspiciously. "I never told anyone about that."
Becker smiled faintly at his own blunder, realizing he had tipped his hand. "You're not the only one with access to the personnel files, Jess," he answered mysteriously.
"Been reading up on me, have you?" she teased.
"You're a fascinating girl. It made for an interesting read," he told her honestly and she blushed furiously and ducked her head to avoid his gaze. "Though it failed to mention your fear of the dark."
She rolled her eyes at his cheeky remark. "No one likes the dark, Becker." She shifted again, carefully keeping pressure on his side. "And besides, it could be worse. It's lucky I'm not claustrophobic," she said, pointedly looking around at their surroundings.
He chuckled at her joke and she beamed at him, truly smiling for the first time since they had woken up. He looked at her expectantly, wanting her to answer his earlier question.
"But how I came to the ARC... Well, I've never really… fit in anywhere before. I finished school when I was so young… I mean, I had friends, of course," she insisted quickly, "but no one close. Being a child prodigy doesn't make you terribly popular. My family was always very supportive of me, but it was still difficult sometimes. So when I got offered a job working on a top-secret government project… Well, it's not as though I had a social life to lose. And I wanted a new challenge. You can't get much more challenging than fighting dinosaurs."
"What about your family? Friends outside of the ARC?"
"My family lives just outside of London, so I get to see them a lot. They know I'm doing super secret work for the government, so they don't ask many questions. Before Abby and Connor moved in with me, I really didn't have many friends here."
"No husbands, boyfriends, or girlfriends waiting at home for you?"
She blushed again as he teased her with her own words.
"No, no husbands, boyfriends, or girlfriends to speak of. I don't really get out much, so there's not much time to meet someone."
"What about someone from the ARC? You and Matt seem to get along well." He asked, doing his best to feign indifference on the matter.
She gave him a strange look. "I realize you're injured, but me and Matt? Honestly?"
He shrugged one shoulder noncommittally, secretly glad to hear that she was not romantically interested in anyone in particular at the moment. Even though he wanted her to be happy, he had no desire to watch her begin a relationship with someone else.
"Besides," she continued, still clearly amused at his suggestion, "Matt's in love with Emily."
"Really?" Becker asked, truly surprised. He knew Matt and Emily were close, but he had seen no reason to suspect a romantic relationship between them. "And what makes you think that?"
Jess rolled her eyes. "How can you not think that? Trust me, he's crazy about her."
"I'll take your word for it. Relationships were never my strong point."
"Nor mine," she said quietly, avoiding his gaze.
So long as they were talking, she seemed to be calmer. Unfortunately, making small talk was not one of Becker's strengths under normal circumstances- a weakness that was not improved by his current condition. He could feel himself getting weaker by the minute and knew that no matter how hard he might try, he would not be able to remain conscious for much longer. Conversation was much easier when Jess was asking the questions.
"Anything else you'd like to know, Jess?"
A/N: I hope you enjoyed the chapter! As always, please review if you have a moment- I love feedback almost as much as I love Becker! I'm having some trouble with the next chapter, but am working very hard on finishing it, so with a bit of inspiration and luck, it should be up soon. Thanks for reading!