A fleeting look of surprise crossed the bulky, heavy-set man's face as he found Horatio looking up at him from his slightly crouched position. The look of surprise was quickly replaced with a smug smile as the redhead's opponent sensed his weakness.
He knew the odds of winning a fight with the muscular man were not in his favour, he was bruised and bloodied and could barely lift his own head up, let alone take down at 250lb-plus man. His vision swam again as he narrowed his eyes, trying to make the two figures standing in front of him dissolve back into one.
He barely had time to see straight before a beefy arm shot towards his face, his reactions had slowed during his time in captivity and he only managed to get slightly out of the way before the fist came crashing towards his temple. It was only a glancing blow but it was enough to send him crashing into the wall as bells rang noisily in his head and his vision blurred once more.
He could feel his shaky legs give out as he gripped at the railing on the wall, trying to slow his descent to the floor. He felt strong arms grip him and shove him violently into the wall before punching him in the stomach. Had he been more aware of his surroundings, he would have noticed the blood that rushed to the back of his throat as he coughed uncontrollably at the air being forced from his body.
His punisher seemed angered by being covered in the redhead's bodily fluid and showed his frustration by throwing the injured man to the ground before pulling a 9mm Glock from the waistband of his trousers and disengaging the safety.
This is it, he thought as he found himself staring down the barrel of a gun.
He was sure that he could still hear the beeping of the cell phone's timer chirping in the background, although he was not entirely convinced that wasn't in fact the ringing in his ears instead. Time seemed to slow as he cast an eye back up to the man standing over him, wondering which would come first, the blast or the bullet.
Calleigh threw her cell phone down in frustration after trying, and failing, to make contact with either Ryan, Eric or the Coast Guard to raise the alarm and warn them about the explosives that were likely on the boat that Horatio was being held on.
The storm had meant that cell tower signals were severely interrupted and the further out at sea that her colleagues got, the less likely it would be that she would be able to make contact with them. The chances were that neither Eric, nor Ryan, would hear their phones ringing over the howling wind and driving rain.
Running to her Hummer, she picked up the handset of the radio and re-tuned it, trying each frequency until she finally managed to pick up the signal for the vessel that Eric had commandeered from a bystander.
"Eric. Eric, are you there?"
The radio crackled continuously until finally, the Cuban responded.
"Wea…..ther…..pretty…bad….You….ok?" was the garbled response.
"Eric, you need to slow down. The boat that Horatio is on…there's a bomb."
It seemed to take forever for Eric to respond and at first she feared that she had lost contact with him again.
"Understood…..Calleigh….. We'll be…. careful."
She did the same again to the Coast Guard, not exactly satisfied that she had done all she could to remedy the situation but resigned to the fact that there was little else she could do right now.
She made her way back down to the harbour, standing with Walter, Natalia and Andy as they looked out towards the water, none of them seemingly bothered about the rain and wind soaking and chilling each of them to the bone.
It occurred to her then what a cruel mistress the Miami weather could be, at times she was warm and gentle with her humid temperatures and cooling sea breezes. But at times like this, she would show what a fickle creature she could be as the wind and rain raised merry Hell on the crystal blue waters of the Miami coastline. The city was known for its changeable weather and it added to its charm but its residents knew that she could destroy whole neighbourhoods in one fell swoop should she choose to, and as luck would have it, today seemed to be one of those days.
"How long are you going to keep the in the car?" Andy shouted as he tried to make his voice heard over the fierce wind.
"As long as it takes. We've got enough problems to deal with without worrying what Kyle is going to do next. I'll let him out when we get Horatio back."
Without warning, a thunderous boom filled the air, causing everyone on the shoreline to duck for cover even though the sound had originated from miles away. They all assumed that it was a clap of thunder as dozens of sets of eyes looked to the skies; it was only when a bystander began shouting and pointing into the distance that everyone's worst fears had been realised.
Far in the distance, an explosion of some magnitude could be seen on the water's horizon as smoke and flames billowed into the stormy skies above the sea. The boat that had been holding Horatio and his captors had exploded, of that there was no doubt.
At first, the whole team stood by in state of shock as they watched the flames climb and pieces of smouldering debris began floating back to the water, none of them wanting to voice what they were all thinking. To voice their thoughts would give them validity and no one wanted to admit that what they had just witnessed was real.
Frank was the first to return to his senses, barking orders at his men as he bellowed over the rising winds. Making his way to Calleigh's Hummer he tried to reach Eric or the Coast Guard, hoping that neither of their vessels had been caught in the devastating impact of the bomb's detonation.
He tried several times before he finally raised a response.
"Frank…the boat….it just exploded!" Eric exclaimed as he struggled to control his own vessel's movement.
"Are you hurt, is Ryan still with you?" he asked, ignoring the panicked words of his colleague.
"We're fine. But…Horatio…he's…he was on that boat, Frank."
"I know," he said, trying to keep his voice level. "Can you see anything…any signs of survivors?"
He knew it was unlikely that anyone could have survived an explosion of that magnitude, but he had to ask.
"We can't see anything except smoke. The storm is getting pretty hairy; I can't make out much through the rain either."
"Keep trying, Delko. I'm gonna get hold of the Coast Guard, see what they can do."
It took another couple of attempts, but he finally managed to contact Captain Roberts on the Coast Guard vessel.
"We're doing all we can, Detective Tripp, but the weather out here is pretty dangerous and visibility is poor."
"You need to find him, understand. Do not come back in until you find him." He made the statement sound like a direct order but knew that he had no authority over the other man. He only hoped that the years of friendship and goodwill that Horatio had generated with the agency meant enough to the captain to keep his men out there until the lieutenant was found, one way or the other.
"We'll do our best, Detective. The chances of finding any survivors is slim at best, we'll more likely be looking for bodies instead."
"Just do what you can, please."
The team stood around helplessly as the storm worsened, none of them wanting to give up their harbour-side vigil until they had confirmation on their colleague's fate. And so they stood their ground as minutes ticked slowly by, not daring to look at each other for fear of what they would see in each other's eyes. To leave would be to admit that Horatio was gone and none of them were willing to accept that as reality.
The light began to fade as bystanders began to disperse one by one as the action seemed to grind to a halt, the gawkers losing their interest as the dozens of police officers and volunteers stood silently, heads bowed and refusing to move from their positions. The group of 'brothers-in-arms' all but silent as they waited for any sign from the vessels still out in the stormy waters off the coast of Miami.
Even though the wind was still howling, the crackle of the radio in Calleigh's Hummer could be heard over everything else as the team looked at one another. Calleigh was the first to move as she glanced quickly at Frank who nodded wordlessly in response. She ran as fast as her booted legs could carry her and grabbed for the handset.
"Have you found him?"
"I'm afraid not, CSI Duquesne," came the quiet response from Captain Roberts.
"We've been searching for the last 90 minutes but the visibility and sailing conditions have worsened dramatically in the last few minutes."
"But you're going to keep looking, right?"
"I wish we could but I can't risk my men out here any longer. We've already had to rescue your two colleagues when they got into trouble earlier. The storm is making the water too volatile, we can't see anything at the moment."
"No you can't. You have to stay out there, you have to find him!"
"We've found three bodies already; none of them match Lieutenant Caine though. The chances are that we'll be mounting a search for bodies to be recovered, not survivors."
"But he could still be alive!"
"It's unlikely, CSI Duquesne. I can't risk the lives of my men on such a small chance that he could have survived that explosion. I'm turning our boat around and heading back to shore, when the storm has cleared, we'll go back out at first light. We'll do all we can to find him, you have my word."
She felt the radio drop from her hand as the realisation hit her. Horatio was dead; they had been too late to save him. And, it was her fault.