Chapter 4

Friday, October 3, 1924

Andrew slowly opened his eyes and looked around. The plane was on the ground that was a good thing and more or less in one piece. The wings were off the plane he noticed, obviously sheared off by some trees probably on their way down, he thought.

He immediately felt the pain in his left wrist and his head pounded. His mind was a little fuzzy, then he realized he wasn't alone. Lucas had been flying the plane. He tried to find his voice. "Lucas, Lucas" He croaked out. But he received no response. Andrew took off his cap and goggles and threw them to the ground. It was still daylight but dusk was settling in. He very gingerly tried to get out of his seat but he was pushed up pretty tight against the instrument panel. With some effort he was able to get his seat to slip back into place.

He attempted to get out of his seat and was finally able to stand up on the seat. He leaned over to the front cockpit of the plane and started shaking Lucas who was slumped over the instrument panel. He whispered under his breath. "Lucas, please don't be dead, please." When he still got no response, Andrew shook him harder. "Come on Lucas wake up. I need some help getting us out of this mess." He told his friend. Andrew sighed and shook his friend again. "Lucas, I need you to wake up." Andrew could feel his panic rising.

"Andrew please stop shaking me." Lucas responded as Andrew breathed a sigh of relief. Lucas lifted his head ever so slowly. "My head is pounding and that shaking is making it worse." Lucas told him.

Andrew gently got out of the plane lowering himself to the ground. He looked up at Lucas. "Can you get out of your seat?" Andrew asked him.

"I think I'm wedged in here pretty tight." Lucas told him.

"The seat has a release toggle on the right side, hopefully you can slide it back enough to get out." He told him. Lucas fumbled with the toggle and was finally able to release the seat enough to barely slip out from under the instrument panel. Then he carefully lowered himself to the ground, as he did, he realized his lower right leg really hurt. He immediately took a seat on the ground, leaning up against the plane. He took off his cap and goggles touching the gash on his forehead cautiously.

"Well, I wasn't expecting that kind of landing today." Lucas said with a chuckle. "What did you say about my needing to experience problems in the air. Was this what you had in mind?" Lucas asked Andrew very seriously.

Andrew broke out into an uncontrollable belly laugh. "No governor, you have taken this a bit further than I would have liked." Andrew told him. "But honestly, you did a hell of a job landing the plane. I couldn't have done better myself. I'm proud of you. You didn't kill us, there's a positive right there." Andrew said with a cocky smile.

Thanks. Happy to oblige. If I had it might have made Christmas with your family a little awkward." Lucas chuckled at his brother-in-law. "So do you have any idea where we might be?" Lucas asked wearily.

"I'm going to guess we're about 15 miles outside of Benson Hills. Exactly where is anyone's guess. It will be dark very soon. If you're looking for some good news, we both should be missed very soon. The bad news, no one will know where to look for us. Given that, I believe we will be spending the night in the forest." Andrew told him gloomily. "So, when you were a secret agent, did they teach you survival training in the wild?" Andrew asked him with all sincerity.

Now it was Lucas's turn for a full-on belly laugh. "No, they did not. I was not that kind of agent. But I believe I will be telling Daniel to add that to the training program for all agents from here on out." Lucas told his companion. "Let me take a look at your wrist, it looks broken from here." Lucas told him.

Andrew walked over to where Lucas was sitting and extended his arm out for him to take a look. Upon further inspection, Lucas concluded that Andrew did indeed have a broken wrist. "Let me find a good strong stick and then I'm going to try and set the bone, it looks to be a simple fracture. Lucky for you they did give us medical training." Lucas told him as he tried to stand up.

His leg was killing him. He sat back down to check his leg. He saw he had a nasty deep cut just above his ankle and it was bleeding quite heavily. Lucas took off his jacket and pulled on the sleeve of his shirt to rip it off so he could use the material to wrap the wound. It wasn't helping that this was his bad leg. Although he had regained full mobility in his right leg after the shooting, it would never be hundred percent again. He didn't think anything was broken but it sure did hurt.

Once his leg was wrapped, Lucas got up and started limping around trying to find a stick he could use to stabilize Andrew's broken wrist. He finally located one and then used his tie to secure the stick in place around Andrew's wrist once he had the bone realigned.

"It's starting to get dark; we need to start a fire. I don't suppose you have any matches?" Lucas asked him questioningly.

"No matches but I do have my Pist-O-Liter, that should be able to get a fire started." Andrew said with a smile as he held up the long-barreled pistol that was capable of producing sparks to start a fire.

At least they wouldn't freeze to death Lucas thought. But the truth was they were in trouble, big trouble with not a lot of options.

Lucas and Andrew gathered up some sticks and twigs and managed to get a fire going. It had rained recently so a lot of the wood was wet making it difficult to get a fire started even with the Pist-O-Liter. It didn't help that both men were not feeling their best. Andrew's arm and head hurt and Lucas's head hurt and his leg was on fire. Reminded him of what his leg felt like after he was shot that first time. Something told him this was probably not good. He was not going to let on to Andrew how bad he thought it was.

"So do you think they are out looking for us?" Andrew asked.

"My guess is, Nathan called in reinforcements from the Mounties. They will probably start looking at daybreak." He told him.

"I do have a flare gun but we will only get one shot at it. I was going to tell you we got an air mail contract and Alex was making the first run today. He won't be back to Hope Springs until sometime tomorrow. So, I doubt anyone will be looking for us from the air until he gets back. We can decide tomorrow if we try to hike out of here or wait for someone to rescue us." Andrew told him succinctly. Lucas gave him a weary smile.

"So, Lucas since we are stuck here for now. I have a question for you. One you probably won't like but I'll be honest I would really like to know the answer." Andrew told him candidly.

"You're my brother-in-law, I don't want us to have secrets. What's the question?" Lucas asked with trepidation.

"Ok. Can you tell me about the night Matthew died? I just want to know what happened. MaKayla told me it was one of the reasons that Jeanette was so angry with you. I mean I know this is a painful subject for you and if you really don't want…" Andrew trailed off as Lucas spoke up.

"No, it's fine. I guess I always knew the day would come when you would ask me about what happened. I guess I just thought we would both be drunk when you did." Lucas told him with a laugh that held no mirth.

"Well, if you'd rather wait until we'll both drunk, I can do that." He said with a wry smile.

"We need something to pass the time might as well get it over with." Lucas lowered his head for a moment and steeled his nerves.

"You know that Matthew and I joined the CSIS after university. It was fun or at least exciting but then Matthew met Jeanette when we were on an assignment in New Orleans. He fell in love and that was it for him, he quit. I went back to being an agent mostly in England. I was put on another case out of New Orleans in October 1914. I was so excited to be reunited with Matthew, it was like old times. My case also appeared to be going well. Several weeks after I arrived in New Orleans, the mark suddenly wanted to meet with me alone. At the time I thought the meeting request came out of nowhere but these guys liked to mix things up to keep everyone off their trail." Lucas sighed wishing he had a bottle of whiskey right now.

"Anyway, I was at Matthew's saloon and I told him about the meeting. He offered to come with me as backup but I told him no. After I left the saloon apparently some guy came into the bar and told Matthew that I was being set up. That they had an ambush planned. Needless to say, Matthew took off immediately to warn me what was about to go down. Except when he got to the warehouse he didn't wait outside, he went right in. The gunman thought he was me and opened fire on him. You know shoot first, ask questions later mentality. I got there about 10 minutes after everything went down." Lucas could feel his throat start to tighten up. Thinking about that night always gave him anxiety.

"Did you ever find out who the man was that told Matthew about the hit on you?" Andrew asked curiously.

"No, the other bartender working that night overheard the conversation and told me about it after everything happened. Anyways, when I entered the warehouse, I saw Matthew lying on the floor. He was alive but barely. He told me he was glad he got there before they hurt me. To go live a good life. He asked me to take care of Jeanette, make sure she was Ok. That none of what happened was my fault. Then he died in my arms." Lucas told him as the emotion overtook him and he had to stop for a moment.

"Jeanette never really forgave me for getting her husband killed. And for a long time, I didn't forgive myself either. That's it. The whole story." Lucas said glad that he had finally told Andrew what happened all those years ago.

Andrew was quiet for a little bit. "Lucas, did they ever catch the guys who killed Matthew? He asked somberly.

Lucas shook his head, "No, the case fell apart after that. The cartel high-tailed it out of New Orleans for a long time after that. I told Daniel I would never work another case in New Orleans again. And I haven't." He told him as the sadness that always came over him when thinking about Matthew's death brought on. Luckily when he thought of his son Matthew named after his best friend, he knew the best parts of Matthew Aucoin lived on and that gave him hope.

Lucas was brought back to the present once again as Andrew was now talking to him. "What makes you so sure that this supposed set up was meant to eliminate you? Did it ever occur to you that maybe the target that night wasn't you but was meant for Matthew?" Andrew asked him quizzically.

"Andrew, I was the one still with the CSIS, not Matthew. Why would anyone want to kill him?" He asked confused by what Andrew was saying.

"Think about it. Matthew was once an agent too. He had enemies same as you. He once worked a case with you in New Orleans years before that. He was no innocent, Lucas. Why does some random man tell Matthew about an ambush to kill you? Doesn't that seem peculiar to you?" Andrew asked him curiously. Lucas did not response as he pondered that thought.

"After all you were undercover, you didn't think your cover was made. Also why didn't the shooter check the body? Make sure you were dead, if they had they would have seen they just tried to kill the wrong man. Pull his body out of the way and wait for you. But they didn't do any of that. Also, you weren't dead. Surely, they realized that the next day. Why didn't they try again if they were so hell bent on killing you?" Andrew told him.

"I never really gave that any thought. I just assumed it was me they wanted; we all did." Lucas said quietly.

"We both knew Matthew well. He was a good man but he could, when needed, play fast and loose with the rules. Maybe he got himself in some other trouble in New Orleans when you were off in England. Maybe you were never the intended victim. You were just collateral damage in a mess that Matthew created, not one you created. You said after Matthew died that Jeanette got herself into financial trouble. Could they have been in financial trouble long before you came back to New Orleans?" Andrew said as he drew a picture that was rearranging the vision that Lucas had in his head all these years of what happened ten years before.

Lucas gave a soft laugh. "I don't know, but in the end does it really matter now? Matthew is still dead either way. I guess I will never really know what happened that night or why. But with your sister's help I have put that demon to bed once and for all. And now that I've told you, it truly is over for me." He said with quiet reverence.

"I guess you're right. But it just doesn't make sense to me that's all." Andrew told him. But Andrew knew he wasn't going to let this go. Lucas had tortured himself for years over Matthew's death and everything in him told him there was more to this story. He understood why Lucas might not want to pursue it but he felt Lucas deserved to know the truth. If Lucas wasn't the target, he deserved to know that and everything in him told him Matthew would want him to set the record straight. Sorry Lucas, he thought but this is not over not just yet.

"You're right Lucas it's in the past. Right now, I guess we just need to concentrate on our own precarious situation. I think we need to sleep in shifts, so one of us is awake to keep the fire going." Andrew told him.

"You get some shut eye first. I have a lot to think about." Lucas told him.

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Lucas slowly opened his eyes to the realization that he wasn't dreaming. They were still lost in the woods. He didn't think it was possible to feel worse than he did yesterday. But he would be wrong. He sat up and saw Andrew staring at him. "Good morning." Lucas said quietly.

"What is so good about it? Look around, we are still stranded in the middle of nowhere." Andrew said with a slight chuckle. "What I wouldn't give for a good strong cup of coffee. But I have other news." Andrew told him.

"Good news?" Lucas said hopefully.

"Nope. I was taking a look at the plane, trying to figure out what happened. Someone cut the gas line. Just enough so that we wouldn't be aware we had a problem until it was too late. Now who do you think would have a motive to cut the fuel line?" Andrew asked sarcastically.

"What are you trying to say, Andrew?" Lucas asked as his head was pounding.

"I think Balfour sent one of his goons to get rid of you in the least suspicious way possible." He told him.

"How would Balfour know that you and I would take one of the planes up and when? Lucas asked.

"Simple, I bet Balfour had someone following you. You had breakfast with Lee and lunch with Jack all in a public place. Did you mention to either one of them that you were going to come see me and possibly go flying?" He asked, sure that he was on to something.

"Yes, I probably did mention it. But weren't you at the airport all day? How was someone able to have gotten past you and into the hangar to cut the fuel line? Lucas asked him.

"I left for an hour to have lunch with Jenny at school. Plenty of time for someone to cut the fuel line. I only got back a short time before you drove up. I bet you when we get back, we're going to find that the gas line on the other plane was cut too. I mean the goon wouldn't know which plane we would take up." Andrew told him matter-of-factly. "So, he would have had to cut the line in both planes."

"So, help me if Balfour is behind this. I will make sure he pays." Lucas said angrily. "But knowing that doesn't really help us right now. First things first, are we going to try to hike out of here or wait by the plane for someone to rescue us? You seem full of ideas lately, what are your thoughts on that?" Lucas asked, interested in his response.

"How's your leg, do you think you can hike out of here?" Andrew asked.

"I just need to find a stick I can use as a support and I'm ready to go. I also think we need to find some water, I'm thirst." Lucas told him. Andrew nodded in agreement.

"We were headed west, so it stands to reason we want to head back in an easterly direction. Let's get this fire put out and get going. Hopefully we'll be back to Hope Springs by nightfall or some other nearby town by nightfall," Andrew told him.

Lucas nodded in agreement; he liked Andrew's optimism but wasn't sure he shared it. His leg was on fire and he wasn't sure how much walking he would really be able to do. Somehow, he thought they would be spending another cold, hungry, thirst night in the woods.