Vin stretched and smiled into the early morning sunlight as he climbed out of the tent. There was nothing like dawn in the wilderness to make him feel truly at home. Enjoying the quiet, he crouched by the fire ring and set about brewing their morning coffee. The smell of the coffee was enough to rouse Chris, and by the time the pot was done, the rest of the team was awake and sitting around the fire.
“So, what’s our destination today, Vin?” asked Nathan.
“Blue Falls,” Vin said, pulling out his map. “It’s a real pretty spot and there’s a nice campsite right next to it. We should be able to make it there by mid-afternoon.”
“Yeah, as long as Ez don’t slow us down too much,” Buck grumbled.
“Hey, where is he, anyway?” JD asked, looking around the campsite.
“Maybe he’s down by the river,” Josiah suggested.
“I’ll go look for him,” JD said, jumping to his feet.
“No need to rush, kid,” Vin said. “He’s probably still sleepin’.”
JD ignored him and headed for the river, stopping short at the spot where their backpacks lay in a pile.
“What’s up, JD?” Buck asked. “You forget something?”
JD turned around and walked slowly back to the fire. “Ezra ain’t at the river. He left.”
Chris frowned. “What do you mean, ‘he left’?”
JD thrust the paper he was holding at Chris. “I mean, he’s gone,” JD said angrily. “He went back.” He looked around at his friends. “I hope you guys are happy now.”
“What are you talkin’ about?” Vin asked.
Chris sighed and handed the note to Vin. “He apologized for ruining the trip and said he was going back to avoid causing any more catastrophes.”
“Damn fool,” Nathan growled.
Josiah groaned. “Our brother can be a bit impulsive at times.”
“What are you doing, JD?” Chris suddenly asked.
Without looking up from what he was doing, JD answered, “Goin’ after him.”
“What for?” Buck inquired. “He can take care of himself.”
JD opened his mouth to deny that claim, but remembered his promise to Ezra and said, “I don’t care, Buck. It ain’t good to be out here by yourself.”
Vin narrowed his eyes in suspicion. JD had wanted to say something else – he could tell by the look on the younger man’s face.
Buck snorted. “Ezra likes being alone. Why the hell d’you think he’s been such a pain all week? He don’t want our company.”
JD glared at him. “You can be a real ass sometimes, Buck.” He clipped the waist belt of his backpack and started toward the trail.
“Hold it, JD,” Chris called. “Buck’s right. Ez doesn’t need you going after him.”
“It’s bad enough we got one fool taking off by himself,” Nathan added, nodding in agreement. “We don’t need another one with no sense.”
“Too late,” JD said. “I’m going.” He kept walking, ignoring the protests of the others.
Vin had watched the proceedings quietly, and found himself agreeing with JD. It wasn’t smart for anybody to hike alone, especially if you weren’t comfortable in the woods. Vin frowned and turned his thoughts back to the previous three days. Ezra obviously did not want to be here, but he usually complained when he was subjected to any form of discomfort. Instead, he had been quiet – more than quiet, he had been positively silent, avoiding conversations and sitting by himself most of the time. The only time he had ever witnessed that type of behavior from the southerner was right after his mother had visited and embarrassed the hell out of him by telling stories of his childhood. But what could Ezra possibly have to be embarrassed about out here?
His eyes widened suddenly as it hit him. JD helping Ezra cook the fish; the disaster with his attempt at fishing and the mess he had made when trying to cook the camp dinner; the brand new hiking boots... it all made sense. Ezra wasn’t only uncomfortable in the woods, he was clueless. When he thought about it, there were plenty of clues indicating Ezra’s inexperience in the woods, but he, like the others, had assumed that the man had at least some familiarity with hiking and camping. Vin had believed the southerner was just being difficult and had completely missed the obvious signs that contradicted that assumption. Some crack team of agents they were. Of all people, they should have known better than to assume anything when it came to Ezra Standish.
While Ezra had only been with the team for six months, they should have been able to recognize when the man was putting on an act. Vin sighed, disgusted with his own lack of awareness. He considered himself to be fairly observant, but he had really dropped the ball this time. Worse still was the way he and the others had been treating Ezra, believing that at least some of his clumsiness had been contrived. Vin cringed when he remembered the look on the southerner’s face after he had lost the backpack in the river. There was nothing false about the embarrassment and defeat he had seen there. “Damn,” he muttered. No wonder he left.
“Hey, JD!” Vin shouted. “Wait up!”
“What are you doing?” Chris asked as Vin hurriedly finished his coffee.
“I’m goin’ with him,” Vin said, stuffing Ezra’s sleeping bag back in its sack. “You guys can follow the map. We’ll meet up with you later.”
“Vin...” Chris said, rapidly growing exasperated with his three youngest agents.
“Save it, cowboy,” Vin said. “The kid’s right.”
“Why don’t we all go?” Josiah suggested, uncomfortable with the idea of splitting up the group.
“Nah,” Vin said, shaking his head. “I don’t think Ez’ll take it too well. He’s feelin’ bad enough already. Me and the kid can handle it.”
Chris sighed, knowing that Vin spoke the truth. Of the whole group, he and JD were the closest to the reticent undercover agent and would have the best chance at getting through to him.
“All right,” Chris conceded. “Any idea when we’ll see you?”
Vin shrugged. “Depends on whether we can get Ez to cooperate. We may not see you ‘til you get back.”
“You got enough gear?” Chris asked.
Vin nodded and strapped the sleeping bag on his back like a backpack. “JD’s got plenty of stuff, and I know Ez has extra blankets. We’ll manage.”
“Watch out for those two,” Nathan said.
Vin smiled and gave a brief salute as he jogged into the woods.
* * * * * * * * * * Ezra yawned and tried to shake off his weariness as he trudged along the trail. His ankle hurt, making him move more slowly than he would like, but he wanted to get as much distance as possible between himself and his associates. He spotted a faded trail marker and smiled. He might be a novice in the woods, but he had an excellent memory and was a fast learner. During their trek, he had paid close attention to his more experienced teammates, eager to absorb what knowledge he could, in order to decrease the number of embarrassing incidents that had plagued him the entire trip.
It had not been easy reining in his emotions and constantly ignoring the barbs being thrown by his teammates. Now that he was alone, the quiet sounds of the forest were starting to soothe away the tension of the previous days, and Ezra was starting to understand why Vin chose to spend so much time in the outdoors. For the first time in days, he felt like smiling. Too bad it wouldn’t last, though. His teammates were going to be furious with him for leaving them, even though they were probably glad to be rid of “Calamity Ez.” Larabee had all but ordered him to come on this trip, and didn’t take kindly to disobedience. The others, as always, would follow his lead. Ezra knew they didn’t like him much, anyway, and needed no further proof of that fact. Still, it felt good to be free of their constant criticism and scorn, even if it was only temporary.
* * * * * * * * * * “Damn,” Vin cursed as he squatted close to the ground.
“What’s wrong?” JD asked.
“Ez went the wrong way,” Vin answered with a sigh.
“How can you tell?”
Vin pointed to a patch of pine needles. “See that? You can tell where he kicked some of the pine needles aside when he turned onto the other trail.”
“I was afraid something like this would happen,” JD said. “He’s got a map, but he’s never done this before.” He stopped suddenly and turned to Vin guiltily. “I mean, he doesn’t do this as much as the rest of us.”
“It’s okay, kid,” Vin said. “I figured it out. He ain’t been camping before.”
“I promised him I wouldn’t tell anyone,” JD said, chagrined. “He’s real embarrassed about it.”
Vin shook his head. “Stubborn fool. He should’a told us.”
“It’s not his way,” JD observed with a shrug.
“Yep. And the rest of us hotshot agents never even noticed.”
“I knew something was wrong when I saw him staring at that pile of fish the first night,” JD explained. “He looked at it like it was an alien or something.”
“I’m just glad you figured it out,” Vin said. “Ain’t safe to be on your own out here.”
“It’s easy to get turned around,” JD agreed.
“’Specially when the trail markers are old,” Vin said. “Look at that.” He gestured to the faded stripes painted on the large boulder. “This marker’s so faded you can barely see the third stripe.”
JD squinted at it, then nodded. “I see what you mean. It’d be easy to miss that, even if you did know what you were doing.”
“We’d better get after him,” Vin said. “This trail’s not used much anymore. There were some rock slides a number of years ago and they stopped maintainin’ it. Most of the markers are probably gone by now, too.”
“Is it dangerous?”
Vin shrugged. “Could be. I’m more worried about Ez gettin’ lost, though.”
“Maybe he’ll figure it out and turn around,” JD said.
“Maybe,” Vin agreed. “Come on, let’s go. We can probably catch up to ‘im before too much longer.”
* * * * * * * * * * It was mid-afternoon before Ezra realized that something wasn’t right. The trail was supposed to run more or less parallel with the river, but he had yet to catch sight of any water. Heaving a weary sigh, he pulled out his map and tried to determine if he was truly following the right path. Chris had insisted that each of them carry a copy of the map, with the route they were taking marked in red pencil, just in case they needed to separate for any reason. Tracing along the map with his finger, Ezra quickly found his error. Another trail branched off of the one he was supposed to be following, heading deeper into the forest and away from the river. Worse yet was the fact that this trail was marked ‘closed’ on the map. He groaned aloud. He certainly was becoming an expert at screwing up. He had wasted almost the entire day heading in the wrong direction. The others would probably find this hilarious.
Ezra rubbed a tired hand over his face. After a night of hiking in the moonlight, and the better part of a day following the wrong trail, he was exhausted. Rather than make any more mistakes due to his weariness, he decided to find a nearby spot to rest for the night. The map showed a designated campsite near a sharp bend in the trail that he had passed a short time ago, so he turned around and trudged back down the path he had so recently traversed.
* * * * * * * * * * “It’s getting dark,” JD commented.
“Yeah,” Vin replied with a frown. “Clouds are gonna hide the moon. We’re gonna need to stop for the night.”
“I thought we would’ve caught up with him by now,” JD said.
“He must have kept goin’ all day,” Vin said. “We can’t be too far behind him.”
JD nodded. “So where do you want to stop?”
Vin stopped and took out the map, studying it for a few minutes. “We’re too far from any of the marked campsites, so we’ll just have to make do around here somewhere.”
“It looks pretty good over there.” JD pointed to a relatively flat clearing a short distance ahead of them.
“Works for me,” Vin agreed.
The two men quickly set up a small camp in the clearing, building a small fire to heat some water to rehydrate their dinner.
“I was hopin’ to catch some dinner in the river,” Vin said as he stirred the stew mixture in the pot.
“Guess we’ll have to wait until we get back on the other trail.”
“I hope Ez thought to bring some food with him.”
“He had some stuff in his pack.”
“Good,” Vin said. “I’d hate to think of him trying to forage for his dinner out here.”
“He’ll be fine for tonight, I think,” JD said, leaning back against a tree. “Maybe we can show him a few things on the way back.”
“If he lets us,” Vin said. “He’s probably gonna be a little touchy about us comin’ after ‘im. Might think we’re makin’ fun of him.”
“We’ll have to convince him we’re not.” JD looked at him earnestly. “It won’t be easy. I think we really hurt his feelings.”
“Yeah,” Vin agreed with a sigh. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it before. I just figured he was bein’ a pain in the ass ‘cause Chris made him come.”
“He’s good at hiding stuff.” JD shrugged. “It’s his job, after all.”
“He shouldn’t have to hide from us,” Vin said quietly.
JD nodded and stared into the fire. He could understand why Ezra was so reluctant to admit his inexperience to the rest of them. The aloof southerner hadn’t had an easy transition from the FBI, and JD knew from personal experience how difficult it was to be the ‘new guy’, especially with the baggage Ezra carried with him. Other agents, sometimes including his fellow teammates, often treated JD like he was stupid, making it more difficult for him to earn their respect. It also made it harder for him to ask for help when he actually needed it. Pride was a complicated emotion. He just hoped that Ezra would be receptive to them once they found him.
* * * * * * * * * * Ezra opened his eyes, blinking against the early morning sunlight. Something had disturbed his slumber and he lay quietly, listening to see what it might be. He was ready to chalk it up to the unfamiliar sounds of the forest, when a whisper broke the silence.
“You know ‘im?” the voice said.
“Nope,” a second voice answered, just as softly. “Ain’t one of Sammy’s boys.”
“What should we do?”
“Find out who he is,” the second voice said after a pause.
Ezra tensed as soft footsteps drew closer. He was at a distinct disadvantage. He was alone, against two potentially hostile parties, with his weapon several feet away, tucked discreetly into a pocket of his backpack. There was no reason he could discern for these men to see him as a threat, unless they were up to no good. Sifting quickly through his options, he decided to play along until he had more information. It took all of his skills to feign sleep as the two men approached.
A hand grabbed his shoulder and Ezra opened his eyes, blinking sleepily at the two men while he studied them. The man on his left was tall, with shaggy brown hair, brown eyes, and a face that was red with sunburn. He was wearing a tan jacket that had seen better days and dirty blue jeans with holes in the knees. His companion was shorter and stockier, having dark hair and sporting an unkempt mustache and beard. His clothing consisted of a grubby blue plaid jacket and olive green fatigues. Both men had the look about them that said they were no strangers to violence.
Ezra smiled. “Good morning, gentlemen. Is there something I can do for you?”
“Who are you?” Tan Jacket demanded gruffly.
“Ed Stern,” Ezra replied, affecting a confused expression. “Is there something wrong?”
“What are you doing out here?” asked Blue Jacket. “This trail is closed.”
“I know,” Ezra said sheepishly. “I took a wrong turn yesterday and didn’t figure it out until it was already dark.”
Blue Jacket looked unconvinced and reached out to grab Ezra’s pack. Inspecting it quickly, he opened the pocket containing Ezra’s handgun and looked up in surprise. The two men exchanged a look, then Tan Jacket nodded. The men turned back to him and pulled him roughly to his feet. “You’re comin’ with us, Eddie.”
Instinctively, Ezra began to fight them, throwing off the hands that held him and landing rapid blows on the unsuspecting men. They regrouped quickly, however, and began attacking in earnest. Ezra was beginning to make some headway, when Blue Jacket landed a lucky punch, knocking him off his feet. He rolled to the side, trying to regain his equilibrium, but he wasn’t fast enough. Something solid slammed into the back of his head and his world faded to black.
* * * * * * * * * * Vin ran his hand lightly over the dirt and frowned. Stretching up from his crouch, he silently scanned the area, searching for anything out of place.
“Something wrong?” JD asked, concerned by the sudden pensive look on his friend’s face.
“Yeah,” Vin said. He pointed to the ground in front of him. “There was some kind of scuffle here. Someone was dragged away.”
“How can you tell?”
Vin pointed to two parallel impressions in the dirt. “Somebody’s feet made those.”
“Are you sure this was Ezra’s camp site?” JD asked, his voice heavy with concern.
Vin nodded. “I recognize his boot prints.”
“Damn,” JD muttered. “What now?”
Vin contemplated the question, then sighed. “It’ll take too long to get the other guys here. We have to go after ‘em ourselves.” He turned to JD and asked seriously, “You up for this?”
“Hell, yeah,” JD answered determinedly.
“Come on,” Vin said, clapping the younger agent on the shoulder. “Let’s go see what trouble Ez got himself into this time.”
* * * * * * * * * * Cracking an eye open, Ezra found himself staring at a weathered wooden surface. He tried to move, wiggling his fingers experimentally and finding them capable of movement, despite being restrained behind him. Awkwardly, he rolled himself to a sitting position, closing his eyes as the room spun around him. Swallowing against the bile that was rising in his throat, he slowly opened his eyes and scanned his surroundings.
He was in a small, empty room in what appeared to be a cabin or shed of some kind that was lit only by the muted daylight streaming through a grimy window. There was nothing in the room to give him a clue as to where he was, so Ezra climbed unsteadily to his feet, using the wall for support, and moved to the window. Outside, he could see a clearing to his left, where three men stood talking. He recognized two of them as the men who had abducted him. They had been joined by another man, dressed in a leather jacket, whose features Ezra couldn’t make out through the filthy glass.
Turning away from the window, Ezra sighed and chastised himself, “You’re taking screwups to a whole new level here, Standish.” Indeed, he was in a less-than-promising situation. He was alone, facing three adversaries, and nobody knew where he was. He had taken the wrong trail, and even if his teammates came looking for him, they would be looking in the wrong place. It couldn’t get much worse.
The door to his gloomy prison banged open suddenly. Ezra backed away to the opposite wall as the three men entered.
“Well, hello there, Mr. Stern,” the man in leather said. “Or should I say, Mr. Standish, agent with the ATF?” He dropped Ezra’s federal ID on the floor.
Ezra sighed inwardly, cursing Chris once again for making him come on this trip.
The man moved closer until his face was inches away from Ezra’s. “So, Mr. Agent, you want to tell me what you’re doing out here?”
Ezra looked him in the eye calmly, despite the knots in his stomach. “I’m on vacation.”
His captor snorted derisively. “Sure you are. On a closed trail the day before our drop.” He drew back and planted his fist firmly into Ezra’s midsection.
Ezra doubled over, gasping for breath. “I... am on... vacation.”
“How many others are out there?” the leather-clad man demanded.
“None,” Ezra wheezed. “I’m here by myself.”
The man shook his head and sighed. “Now why don’t I believe you?”
Ezra shrugged. “Think what you like. I’m telling you the truth.”
“Jimmy, you and Reggie see if you can’t get our friend here to tell us something useful,” the man said to his two associates.
“Sure thing, Sammy,” the blue-jacketed man, now identified as Jimmy, replied, a gleam of anticipation in his eyes.
As the blows began to rain down on him, Ezra decided that he had been wrong. Things could always get worse.
* * * * * * * * * * “I count three of them,” Vin said quietly. “All armed.” He and JD were crouched in the bushes on one side of a clearing. On the other side, they could see a small log cabin at the very edge of the trees. Next to it sat a helicopter painted military green. From the camouflage netting that covered both it and the cabin, Vin deduced that, whoever these men were, they didn’t want to be found.
“You figure Ez is in there?” JD asked.
“Yep.”
“How are we gonna get him out?”
“You have your gun?” Vin asked.
“Yeah,” JD said, nodding his head vigorously. “Buck thought it would be a good idea, considering what happened on our last vacation.”
Vin smiled, remembering how their group vacation to Harvey Lake had ended with the capture of a group of bank robbers attempting to escape the police by boating across the water. Ezra hadn’t yet joined the team when that incident occurred, but it seemed the southerner had the same propensity for finding trouble as the rest of them.
“We should probably wait for dark,” JD said thoughtfully. “It’ll be easier to sneak up on them that way.”
“Good idea,” Vin agreed. “We can circle around this clearing and come up behind the cabin. We need to take ‘em out quietly, so’s they can’t hurt Ez before we get to him.” He removed a large hunting knife from a sheath strapped to his ankle.
JD nodded. “Okay.”
“Let’s go.” Vin gestured toward the woods, creeping silently into the forest with JD close on his heels.
A half-hour later, the two men were sitting, concealed in the bushes, behind the cabin. From inside, they could hear muffled voices, punctuated by dull thuds. Grimly, they stared at one another, recognizing the sound of flesh hitting flesh. It didn’t bode well for their friend.
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