Breaking Ground Snippet

By Dusty Tyree

Jim Ellison brought his truck to a halt in front of the parked Volvo. He knew already that it was empty of it's driver and passenger.

"I'm going to kill him, I'm going to kill them both," he muttered between clenched teeth.

Cassie Welles was going to have to learn that she was a forensics expert, not a detective.

He would have words for his partner too; he knew Blair was attracted to the young woman, but he thought that by now, the grad student would know when to do what Jim told him, especially in a murder investigation.  

He ran up the steps and into the building and burst into the apartment, his eyes automatically cataloguing the messy interior.  The room had been virtually trashed, by someone who'd been very angry. 

"Welles," he began.

Cassie, sitting at the computer raised a hand.  "I didn't touch anything but the computer..."

Jim looked round. "Where's Sandburg?"

"In the car..."

At Ellison's raised eyebrow and exasperated look, Cassie shrugged. "Maybe he went for coffee..I don't know... look at this."

The way she dismissed his partner's whereabouts, set Jim's teeth on edge.  Not only did she tempt his partner to skate on thin ice where the case was concerned, it was apparent, that Cassie hadn't a thought in her head about safety – her own or Blair's.

     Grabbing onto his self control with both hands, Jim listened to what she was saying.

Blair was scared.  The red-haired guy had opened the car door and pointed a gun at him, ordering him out of the Volvo. Intent on working on the gold cypher, Blair had been taken completely by surprise; he’d had no choice but to do what the red-haired guy said.

He’d been taken to another car parked out of sight at the side of the building and ordered into the passenger seat. Clutching Cassie’s laptop he tried not to show his fear.  This guy was ruthless.  His mind kept flashing to the scene at the University. He could still see Emily lying on the floor of her office, her bruised face and blank eyes, all that remained of a bright and intelligent woman.  He shuddered.  If his captor was indeed the killer, and he didn't have much doubt on that score, he didn't think much of his chances of surviving the night.  Why the hell had he come with Cassie in the first place?  He knew they should've waited for Jim. 

Jim!

Oh Hell!  Ellison was going to kill him.

Although, this time he had stayed in the truck - well, his own car - and he'd still been grabbed by the pyscho of the week.

Maybe Jim would accept that as an excuse.

Blair almost snorted.  Yeah! Right!

His thoughts were interrupted when the car stopped and the gunman waved at Blair to get out. He was then directed at gunpoint towards the long black limousine parked outside the dig site. Getting into the back he recognised the other man sitting there.  Mark Cantor!

Cantor stared at him, then turned to his accomplice who’d also got into the back seat.

“He’s a cop.”

“Well, no... I’m not actually...” began Blair.

The redhead pointed his gun in Blair’s face. “Shut up!”

Blair wisely, closed his mouth.

“So?”

“We can’t kill a cop,” Cantor said.

Red’s smile was cold and ruthless.  “Maybe you can’t. Me? I have no problem with the concept.”

The slanted green eyes showed no mercy, or even a hint of being human.

Blair’s blood ran even colder, and he had to repress a shudder of revulsion and fear.

Tossing the missing gold piece at his prisoner, Red watched for a few minutes as Blair studied it, typing slowly on the laptop.

“Can you decipher it?”

Blair shrugged. “I don’t know...” he said hesitantly.  

Red pulled back the slide of the gun and shoved it forward.

“Quit stalling. You’ve already got half of it in there.”

“It’s gonna take time.” Blair’s voice rose, he was starting to get angry.  “Unless you have a scanner, I’m going to have to program each letter one at a time.”

Again the gun was cocked.  “Then get to it.”

Blair had had enough of being pushed around.  He raised his hands from the laptop and looked the killer straight in the eye.

“You know what, man?  Just back off.  If you kill me, you’re never gonna find what you’re looking for.”

Red stared at him, then reluctantly sat back.

Back at the apartment, Ellison heard from Cassie what the killer and his accomplice, whom he now felt certain was Mark Cantor were looking for.  Buried gold treasure. Sounded more like a Boys Own adventure, except that the bad guys in this instance were cold-blooded killers.

 Realising that Sandburg had been gone far too long for someone who'd just gone for coffee, Jim hurried out into the street.  He stared at the still empty car, only half hearing Cassie rant on about her missing computer.  The woman hadn't a clue.  She either didn't understand the danger Blair could be in, or didn't care, he only hoped it was the former. He searched the wet ground for any sign that would lead him to his missing partner.  His Sentinel sight homed onto the gleam of silver on the road.  Picking it up, he knew the heel tap was a match for the footprints he'd found at the University after Professor Watson had been killed.   Jim kept seeing the dead faces of Professor Watson and the student, Martin Gilman.  The killer had no qualms about killing anyone who didn't deliver what he wanted, or got in his way.

//Chief, I'm going to whack your behind.  How many times have I told you...//

Well, he'd have to find him first, and he had a pretty good idea of where to look.

"The killer's got him," Jim said, rising to his feet.

"Killer..? What killer?"

Cassie's complaining voice followed him as he ran to the truck.

She had some explaining to do, as well.

She'd persuaded Blair to come with her - then conveniently forgotten the danger, and left him by himself.  You didn't do that to partners.

No matter how good Cassie thought she was at being a detective, she had no real idea of how to work with someone else.  

Back at the dig site, Blair, with Cantor’s help, was trying to force open the iron door Jim and he had discovered when he’d fallen through the floor.  Red was holding the laptop and his ever present gun.

Finally the door’s rusty hinges squealed in defeat and the way was open for them to enter the long hidden passage.

A flight of wooden stairs led down into the tunnel. Red shone the torch he held, and Blair averted his eyes as the bright beam blinded him.

“Alright. You first,” said Red, waving the gun at Blair.

Cantor objected. “We should kill him now and get it over with.”

Okay, Cantor definitely had no objection to killing someone who was not a cop.

Red glared at his partner. “’Cos I want to make sure he programmed this right,” he snapped. 

Motioning to Sandburg he said. “Go. Get moving.”

Taking another torch from Cantor, Blair led the way down the stairs, trying to be cautious. He knew that the underground tunnels had to be very unstable.

It would be nice if Jim showed up about now.

He knew for a certainty that his Sentinel would find him, he only hoped it wouldn’t be too late this time.

Jim’s truck skidded to a halt beside the parked cars and he was out in an instant, gun in hand as he checked the limo.

Cassie was still ranting about hunches.  “I can’t have hunches, but you have hunches,” she cried, almost in his face.

“Can we have this discussion another time?”  Jim said almost absently, his senses intent on following his partner. 

He ran across the muddy ground, careful of his footing. The rain had made the site even more treacherous.

Cassie followed, still not understanding, but beginning to realise that if Jim was this worried, it had to be something very dangerous.

Climbing down to the iron door, Cassie was gasping for breath.  Jim knew she was in no shape to come with him even if he’d wanted her there.

Cassie shook her head... “I want to help Blair...” she gasped.

A bit late for that was Jim’s uncharitable but honest thought.

Pressing the cell-phone into her hand, he said.  “You can help by breathing. Call Simon Banks for back-up...”

He hadn’t time for this.  He couldn’t search for his partner and look after Cassie at the same time, he had to concentrate on getting Blair away from his abductors before it was too late.

At last Cassie nodded and coughing, she started up the ladder.

Jim breathed a sigh of relief and started down the steps.

Stretching out his senses, he sniffed deeply; yes there it was, faint but unmistakable, the scent of his partner’s shampoo.  His hearing reached out and he also heard the faint beeping of what sounded like a laptop battery reaching the end of its charge.

Blair was getting even more nervous.  Red had refused to go back and recharge the battery, and he knew that neither he nor his captors would be able to find their way out of this maze without the map on the computer for guidance.

He’d already made one mistake, a deliberate one in the directions, hoping to delay them, but Red was so fixed in finding the treasure he wasn’t rational.

Cantor was getting nervous now too, beginning to realise that his accomplice would stop at nothing now, even if he had to kill them both.

Coming to the end of the tunnel, he stopped short.  It was blocked by fallen rubble.

Red shoved them forward.  “Get digging.”

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea...”began Blair.

His only response was the gun being shoved into his face.

Trying to be very careful, he and Cantor started to pull some of the loose boards away.

A small avalanche of dust and small stones filled the spot and Blair jumped back as the boards crashed down in front of him.

“The whole place is coming down on us, I’m not doing this any more...” he yelled.

Red’s grin was malevolent. “Then you’ve got no reason to live.”

Raising the gun he aimed it at Blair’s head, only to drop to the ground in shock as a bullet sped between him and his target and plowed into the tunnel wall.

Sandburg was quick to take advantage of Jim’s unexpected appearance, bending to scoop up the fallen weapon.

“You okay, Chief?” asked Ellison.

Blair nodded, relief and gratitude in his eyes.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”  //Now// he added to himself.

Cantor had his hands high.  “I can explain...” he started, but Ellison held up a hand. “Quiet!”

To his enhanced hearing the crack of boards giving way and the stream of dust breaking through the tunnel walls was loud.

“Everyone out,” he shouted.

Blair made a dash for the tunnel followed quickly by Cantor.

Ellison grabbed the redheaded killer and pushed him out ahead of him, but as another shower of dust and debris landed in front of them, the enraged killer swung back to where his treasure lay hidden.

Jim yelled at him to stop, but was forced to duck back as the whole end of the tunnel collapsed, burying the killer under tons of rubble.

Jim ran, knowing they had only minutes, maybe seconds, to get out of the complex of tunnels.

Dodging and ducking under the collapsing roof and walls, he managed to keep them on the right path out of here.

Blair stumbled and fell on the entrance steps, dropping the torch, but picked himself up and darted up the steps, Cantor hard on his heels, with Ellison only seconds behind.

Blair literally jumped up the ladder and ran for the boundary fence, not knowing how safe the surrounding ground was.

Ellison, last out, leaped for the ladder and made it to the top as a billowing cloud of dust followed him as the tunnel finally collapsed.

Catching up to his partner and Cantor, they all turned to watch as the canvas and scaffolding covering the site, sagged... flood lights popping and exploding, showering sparks and broken glass, until eventually, almost regally, the whole lot slid into the hole.  

The silence was deafening after the roar and rumble of the tunnel, and Jim, for one, was thankful that he could now turn up his hearing to normal again.

Catching Cantor by the arm, he led the way to the parked vehicles.

Later in the Bull Pen, Simon told them that Cantor’s Construction Foreman had told him that if the gold vault did exist, it was buried under foundations they’d already poured.  It wouldn’t be cost effective to dig it out.

“Wouldn’t be cost effect. Do you believe that?” said Blair in disgust, sighing for the history that was lost.

Simon also congratulated Cassie on her contribution to the case by finding out about Cantor’s involvement, then he said, sternly.  “Two words. Don’t fraternize.”

Cassie sneaked a look at Blair, who just put his finger to his lips.

Jim, not really understanding looked from one to the other.

Cassie put her hands together.  “Thank you Jim, for giving me full credit for figuring out Cantor’s deal.  Thank you.”

“You deserved it,” said Jim, exchanging a look with Blair. Sensing something was still not being said, Jim nodded to himself.

“Okay, I think we all know what’s going on here.  It’s time we had a little talk.”

Over-riding Cassie’s comment about this sounding serious, he said.

“Let’s all agree to be just friends.”

Cassie smirked. “Can you do that?”

Blair and Jim looked at each other, and shrugged. Yeah they could do that.

“Alright...” she got in the elevator still looking at them, trying to understand that maybe they wouldn’t be rivals, falling over themselves to date her.

Blair and Jim looked at each other, and grinned.

Their friendship was a lot more important than dating Cassie, no matter how attractive.

Anyway, she had the knack of annoying the hell out of Jim, and Blair knew he couldn’t trust her either.

There were plenty of other women – for both of them – a lot less troublesome than the Forensics Chief.

Yeah...

Butting chests in challenge, the two friends grinned at each other, and moved off to work.

(c) Dusty Tyree

July 2005