Search and Rescue
by Deb Jacobsen
(see part 4 for e-mail address)
Mulder stared at Blair for a moment, letting the words sink in, and feeling an anger build. "I'm sure she's ok, man," Blair said triying to reassure him. Watching Scully saw her partner's expression, causing her to approach, "What 's wrong, Mulder?"
"They have Samantha, Scully! The son-of-a-bitches have Samantha! "
"Mulder, we have to stay focused on our purpose here and not go off on a rampage," Scully cautioned in her diplomatic voice.
Looking now at Scully, Mulder responsed, "It's focused better than ever now, Scully."
Glancing at the Gunmen, listening, Mulder concluded, "We will talk about this later, right now there is a conference I have to attend."
Approaching Byers, Frohike, and Langley, Mulder asked, "Talk to me boys, what's going on?"
Exchanging glances, Byers spoke up, "Don't take this personally, but we don't trust Skinner. We don't think he's being straight with us."
Nodding, Mulder, added, "Comes with the job, something else on your mind, this is when to tell me."
"We have enough explosiveson the three of us to knock out the main power source and get a distraction going while you get inside." Frohike gleamed.
"That would be ideal if we knew what we're up against. Let's get an eagle eye view of the place first. Find a time when you won't be noticed to go and do your work." Mulder smiled.
The terrain aheading was composed of mountain size hills and coniferous forest. Moving quickly in a snow covered forest, was anything but easy. Simon's familiarity with the land, and Mulder senses appointed them for leading the team. Skinner, and Scully watched their backs. while Blair was sandwiched between the groups for his own protection.
Atop a bluff, the group saw what lay in store for them. An open snow covered field lay before them as the bunker sat undisturbed. The bunker itself appeared to sit partially inside the hill behind it, enveloping the scene on either side were tall coniferous touching the sky.
"This is such a tranquil view, are you sure this is the place?" Banks whispered to Scully, "This place gives me the creeps!"
"You mean its Spooky, Simon?" Scully added
"Yeah! Exactly!" Simon concluded.
"Mulder, turn your hearing up to its maximum and slowly filter the sounds out one at a time." Scully said, from where she was.
Hearing his partner advise, Mulder followed through. Finding only a few sounds, Mulder quickly detected the sounds of armed land mines throughout the peaceful looking field. We will have to enter from the back, preferably on the bluff behind the bunker."
"I knew it was too good to be true!" Simon grumbled, causing Blair to panic.
Moving up by Mulder, Blair spoke up, "What do you mean! Can't we move cautiously ahead? The bunker is so close!" Seeing the outburst, all around the anthropologist saw the effect on the separation between Guide and Sentinel.
Mulder spoke quietly, focusing on the area around the bunker, "If we go straight in this way, we will not have a chance to save Jim. The field is littered with mines concealed by the snow. We can use the trees and the brush to camouflage ourselves."
Nodding, Blair allowed some of the pain to show, feeling Mulder's hand on his shoulder. "This , place isn't what it appears, on the bluff behind the bunker, are cameras, ones we have to eliminate. The generators are off to the side. We will come in from the other direction, a better chance not to be spotted." Pausing, Mulder finally spoke, "This place, like this case, is full of contradictions."
"Mind letting us in on what you're talking about, Mulder?" Skinner commented, sensing the speech was aimed at him. Not at all, sir. It appears there is another that is in the same room as Jim, also being held against their will." By the way Skinner responded, Mulder assumed he was in the dark as much as he was now, "It's Samantha! Whoever abducted Jim, has been holding my sister in the same place. Can you honestly tell me now that the Cigarette man is not involved with both cases!"
Skinner nodded, "No, I can't; the sooner we get Ellison out of there, the better, so, how do you want to play this,. Mulder."
Looking around, Simon finally asked, "Has anyone noticed our freelance militiamen have disappeared?"
Knowing her partner, Scully asked, "Mulder? Where did they go?"
Looking innocent, Mulder replied, "To do what they do best, to create a diversion, they will let us know when they are ready."
As the group started to move, Scully noticed her partner's faraway look, "We will get your sister out of there, Mulder."
Looking Scully in the eye, Mulder replied, "You really believe we will, Scully? I've been this close to getting her back before."
***
Jim was roused from his slumber, feeling his strength returning, Samantha watching over him.
Finding himself able, he started to sit up, accepting Samantha's help as he did. "How are you feeling? You were mumbling something in your sleep, I couldn't make out what though."
Jim put his fingers to his lips, hearing the electronic bearings tumbling as the locks disengaged themselves. Three people entered, one wearing a lab gown, the other two in fatigues. He knew their boss was close by the odor of the cigarette nearby. "You can walk on your own or be carried to your tests." the gowned man offered.
"Why should I make this any easier for you?" Jim said, as he stood up, feeling his muscles knot up. Zooming in on the tech, Jim noticed the syringe, as well as, the stun gun on the thugs that accompanied him. Throwing a punch at one of the men, he released some of the tension, and braced himself for the volts going through him the next moment. Before being taken out, the tech injected Jim with the drug used for the testing.
***
Scully purposely hung back with Blair in order to watch the effect of the pain throughout his system. The facade of "being fine", failed to convince anyone, especially Scully. Scully found Blair's movement's became more robotic as they progressed towards their destination. Climbing the butte that embraced the bunker, Blair's legs gave out from under him. When Simon and Scully helped Blair up off the ground, he looked at the two with glazed eyes, "Its starting again." Blair said, fighting the hysteria in his voice.
***
The Gunman approached the area where the generators hummed, taking out their pocket size sensors. Frohike grimaced, "This is not the main source of power, but a small back up unit."
"We will have to let Mulder know the bad news, they might have to depend on Skinner's jungle training." Byers said, disappointed.
"Let's plant the charges, I'll go back and help disable the cameras and infom Mulder." Langley volunteered.
***
Jim felt the restraints applied as he floated towards consciousness. Feeling the drug coarsing through him, a conductor for the white noise, penetrating his thoughts, creating a barrier between his senses and their conductors. Finding the threadof energy within, Jim reached inwardly, grasping at the thread, drawing the energy outward. Revitalized, Jim struggled to penetrate the mental barrier. Finding the barrier giving way, Jim pushed harder, unprepared when the barrier vanished along with the noise. Counterbalanced, Jim's senses rebounded on him, penetrating the link between the sentinel and his guide.
Quickly recovering, Jim mentally grabbed the dials, turning the senses downas tight as he could, hoping that Blair would be buffered from the feedback he just sent his guide. Bracing for a repeat performance, struggling to keep control of his sneses, Jim heard the panther within, now serving as a buttress in the link between his Guide and him.
***
Simon, and Mulder, were checking for traps along the path while Skinner proceeded to eliminate the guards, when Langley showed up, giving them the bad news. "You want to give us a hand in disabling those cameras, Langley? I will check with Byers." Mulder offered. Getting on the mic, Mulder stated, "I need a pinpoint on where those other generators are, Byers."
"Working at it as we speak, " Frohike chimed in.
Seeing Blair was finally resting within a makeshift shelter of tree branches, Scully went to check on the progress of the others. Blair felt his sense come to life, shocking his system out of exhaustion. Jim's senses overriding his, the need for him to be near his sentinel, dominated all thoughts. With his own senses accentuated, Blair picked up the scent, clawing his way out of the shelter. Taking off running, and blindly following the scent , Blair didn't see the embankment crumble , slipping along with the dirt, down the hill side to the ravine below. Ignoring the cold water around him, Blair didn't slow down until he was at the source, a welcoming party waiting for him.
Just before blacking out, Blair thought he saw an eagle soaring in the skies
above him.
Checking him over, the patrol leader called in, "The experiment worked, the
guide came to
us." Leaving the clothes behind, the group brought Blair down a well conceal
tunnel inside the
hill.