Chapter 15

While they were waiting for the sheriff, one deputy, the search warrant, and the horses, Hotch introduced the team to the five new deputies who had arrived. When he turned to Kahlan he paused, not sure how to introduce her; he didn't want to tell them that she was one of the missing boys' mother. "Agent Dunmire," Kahlan injected using the same name from the FBI badge she had. Hotch had decided to split up the extra deputies by having two go with Blake and the sheriff, one more would join his group, and added two more to Kahlan's group, giving each group four people. Hotch then went over the plans with the new members and spit them up into their teams. The individual agents then instructed each of the deputies on what they were going to be responsible for.

Kahlan looked the two deputies over. Barns was a young man, just out of the army and an MP to boot. Smith was a little older, but he had served in the marines and had two tours in Iraq under his belt. Kahlan was impressed. They were standing by the open trunk of Barns' cruiser and Kahlan noticed a spotting scope. "Can we use this?" she asked the young man as she picked it up.

"Sure," he said with a puzzling look.

She didn't elaborate, but instead she walked over to Hotch. "Hey, I've got an idea," she told him with a smile. Hotch looked at the scope and waited for her to continue. "My group can go in first, find a nice spot, and do a little recon to let all of you know if anything is going on in your sectors."

"Since you're holding a scope, can I assume you mean to do it from a distance?" He imagined her making her way through a camp and silently killing all the sentries.

She sighed. "Yes. I already promised to stay out of the way unless you need me as back up."

"Sounds good. Having eyes on the buildings to see where everyone is will be better than going in blind."

She smiled. Anything I can do to keep you all safe. She went back to her deputies to share the change in plans. She was getting anxious from waiting. She had never been a patient person, and waiting for the sheriff was killing her.

Morgan took the extra time to familiarize Reid with the ATVs that were loaded on a trailer. Hotch almost laughed at the lanky genius as he sat on the huge four wheeler.

The sheriff finally showed up and Kahlan noticed that the horses were already tacked up and was impressed by the fact that each of the horse had a rifle sheath with a rifle in it. The agents didn't have any rifles, and their pistols would do them no good if they needed range. Cook opened the horse trailer and reached in on the first horse and took out the rifle Kahlan was waiting for. He handed it to her; she was impressed. It was semiautomatic, had a scope, and a collapsible bipod. "You can go out back and shoot it a few times to get the feel of it," he told her with a smile. She returned the smile and left to do just that.

Kahlan took a pizza box out of the trash on the side of the station and went around the building. Hotch saw her with the rifle and decide to follow. She drew a line in the ground and paced off 100 yards. She found a large rock and angled the pizza box so its inside cover was open and could be used as a target. She quickly marked an 'x' in the middle of it with a marker from her pocket. She made her way back to the line and laid on the ground.

Hotch observed the whole ritual. He knew there was no reason to ask if she knew how to use the rifle. He could tell she was just as familiar with a gun as she was with her own hands.

She opened the bipod and stretched out to aim at the pizza box. Three shots, at two second intervals later, she was up and walking to the target. High and to the right. She adjusted the dials on the scope as she walked back to the line and took three more shots. She shook her head as she realized she had over compensated as the new shots were low and to the left. Hotch smiled at her frustration but kept quiet. Another adjustment of the scope and three more shots revealed only two holes that could be covered up with a quarter almost dead center. She smiled at the results, picked up the box and headed over to Hotch. She handed him the box.

"Impressive," he told her with a smile.

She knew Hotch held many awards for his ability with his pistol, so she beamed at the compliment. "Had to make sure it was zeroed in. I don't want an errant shot to hurt somebody."

"Hopefully those skills wouldn't be needed today," he told her as they walked back around to join everyone else.

"Better to have it and not need it, then to need it and not have it, as my father always said," Kahlan told him with a smile.

Morgan gave Hotch a look. Hotch handed him the pizza box. "At a hundred yards," Hotch explained. Rossi and Reid also looked over the target.

Morgan whistled. "Damn girl. Who taught you how to shoot?"

Kahlan beamed again. "My daddy." Rossi smiled at that.

"No way. A hundred yards?" Deputy Murphy, Kahlan's other team member, said. "Don't most people zero in a scope at twenty five yards?"

"Not if you're looking for distance," Rossi told him seriously. He looked at Kahlan and pictured her in a gilly suit of a sniper.

JJ started handing out Kevlar vests to the team as the local police did the same. Hotch took one to Kahlan. To Hotch's surprise, she accepted it without argument. She then reached into her bag she had removed from the SUV, and held out her hand to Hotch. He gave her a puzzled look but opened his hand. She let three ear pieces fall into it. "I only have four, but they will be better than the radios the sheriff passed out." Their own comm links wouldn't work so far out with no cell coverage. "They run by satellite," she explained.

He nodded his understanding and called Rossi and Blake over so each team would have one as he put one in his own ear. Rossi raised his brows in surprise at Kahlan. She shrugged as she put one in her ear. "Any other super-secret spy gadgets in that bag of yours?" Rossi jokingly asked as he put his in. Blake followed suit.

"Sorry, I left my laser capable watch back home," she told him with a smile, but Rossi wasn't sure if she was actually joking or not. "All you do is press on the center to speak," she demonstrated and they heard her voice clearly in their ears.

"Nice," Rossi said with a smile. Blake rolled her eyes, and before Kahlan could say or do anything about the nonverbal, Hotch called for everyone's attention.

Everyone gathered around the card table that was sitting in the street in front of the station, and Hotch went over the plan again. They had the photos spread out across the table and Hotch used them as he explained. Once he was done, and all questions were answered, they all loaded up in the many vehicles and set out to the staging area. The thirty five mile ride would be over before they knew it. Once they were at the staging area, they would split up into their groups and set off on their appointed mode of transportation to await the signal that everyone was ready.

Kahlan rode with Rossi and Hotch, of course, and the two men were silent as they concentrated on the task ahead. The silence was killing Kahlan, though. "Alright, I can't take it. Please turn on the radio," she pleaded with them. Rossi smiled at her and reached up and turned it on. Of course there weren't any stations available. She groaned but remembered her iPod in the glove box. She instructed Rossi on how to plug it in and turn it on.

AC/DC's 'Highway to Hell' started playing. Really? Like I don't already have a bad feeling! She groaned. "Please skip that."

Rossi did after she told him how, and Nickelback's 'If Today was Your Last Day' started. It was Hotch's turn to groan as soon as the chorus started. "Keep going," he told Rossi.

Rossi hit the screen, and Rodney Atkins' 'If you're Going Through Hell' began. "Really? Keep going." Kahlan all but yelled from the back seat. Rossi hit the screen again, and the familiar drums from Phil Collins' 'In the Air Tonight' started. "Oh my God! Just give it here!" she demanded.

Rossi laughed as he handed it to her. She scrolled through the songs and found a completely innocent 'Nice & Slow' by Usher. Well, maybe not completely innocent, she thought with a smile as Rossi shot her a look. Hotch smiled at her through the mirror and she winked at him. The rest of the ride went by without any more foreboding songs or innuendoes and she finally found herself calm and focused.

They arrived at the staging area and unloaded the ATVs and horses. Once everyone was ready, they all set out to their appointed places. Once they reached those, they all waited for Kahlan to reach her spot and let them know about her recon. It took Kahlan and her group the longest to get to their spot because they had to go all the way around and come up to the main place from the back.

Kahlan and her deputies dismounted and took out their rifles. They walked in a crouch as they made their way to the end of the little ridge Kahlan wanted to use for her surveillance. Kahlan sent up a 'thank you' when she noticed several fallen trees that would be perfect for hiding them. Deputy Murphy, or Murph, as Kahlan had taken to calling him, noticed one young boy going into the greenhouse in Hotch's sector. Before Kahlan could get the spotting scope on him to see who he was, the boy was inside. With binoculars, Barns saw one of the young men going into the farthest out building in Rossi's sector. Kahlan used the scope and scanned the rest of the outbuildings and found another boy, who she thought was Michael Jenkins, go into the garage that was also in Hotch's sector. As she got ready to tell everyone what she had seen, Murph nudged her arm. "House," was all he said. Kahlan swung the scope to focus on the house and her breath hitched in her chest.

Coming out of the backdoor were two young children and a young woman. What the hell! She watched the young children run to a little pen that housed a dog. She would have sworn that they little boy called the woman following them 'mommy', by reading his lips. "We have a problem," Kahlan said into the little mic that was sticking out from under her ear and extending about two inches toward her mouth. "I see two little kids, looks like a boy and a girl, maybe three or four years old, and a young woman. They are in the yard behind the house." None of them had known there was going to be other kids living in the house.

"Got it," Rossi told her.

"Hotch, you've got one boy in the greenhouse and one in the garage."

"Understand," is all Hotch said, but smiled mentally at her calling him by his nickname.

"Rossi, you've also got one of the young men in the closest building to you."

"Yep."

"That's it, we don't see any other movement. Well keep an eye out and let you know."

"Alright. Blake go ahead in and try to serve the warrant," Hotch told her through the comm link.

Within minutes Kahlan could see the sheriff's cruiser coming up the road toward the house. While it was still a few miles out, she saw a flurry of movement come from the house. "Two young men jumping in a truck headed your way, Blake."

"Holt's not with them?" Blake asked.

"Not that we've seen."

Hotch noticed Kahlan's tone and made a mental note to keep the two women away from each other in the future. Murph nudged Kahlan again and pointed to Rossi and them approaching from the west. She quickly scanned to the east and saw Hotch's group enter a little barn. Barns, who in charge of keeping an eye on the Sheriff told her that the pickup had stopped and blocked the path of the cruiser. It didn't surprise them, but she was worried about a conflict arising once they knew there was a search warrant. Hotch's group emerged from the little building, apparently not finding anything. Kahlan was concentrating on watching Hotch and JJ as they made their way to another building; she cussed when she realized they split up to also cover the greenhouse.

She jumped as a shot echoed across the valley.