Chapter 18:
The relatively calm waters after lunch gave Gibbs time to think about how to keep an eye on Erikson and Myers later that evening. Since they hadn't made any attempt to go off by themselves at lunch it was a pretty good bet that they would try when they thought that everyone was asleep. Gibbs figured the thing to do was to watch them in shifts. That way both he and Tony would be able to get some much-needed sleep. It wouldn't do for them both to be pushing themselves if it wasn't necessary. Gibbs figured he would ask Tony later if he wanted to take first watch or not.
Up ahead Gibbs could see the beginning of the next stretch of rapids. Reaching out, he tapped Tony on the shoulder and said, "Let's try to avoid the rocks this time."
"Like we aimed for them on purpose the last time," Tony said sarcastically.
"Just watch Erikson, Jim and Jason and don't follow too closely," Gibbs told him. "Let them find the rocks first."
Tony laughed but slowed his pace a bit as he watched Erikson, Jim and Jason approach the rapids. Sure enough, as the two rafts moved more towards the right did the rocks appear. Erikson managed to avoid most of them, however Jim and Jason had less luck. Their raft bounced off a few of them, causing them to drift sideways for a moment before they were able to right themselves again.
Deciding to see how going more towards the left worked out, Tony angled the raft away from the right. The water was rougher than the right side, but at least there were no rocks to collide with. To Tony it reminded him of the time Gibbs had driven over a few speed bumps during a car chase. Except this time, thankfully, there was no roof for him to hit his head on.
After some careful navigating, Gibbs and Tony managed to travel through the rapids without too much difficulty. As they eased out of the last of the rapids they quickly glanced back to see that Gary, Ray and Myers had followed them through the rough water. Gary gave them a wave and Gibbs nodded his head in return.
"There's something to be said for not being in the front of the line," Gary called out as he and Ray approached Gibbs and Tony.
Laughing, Gibbs nodded. "Let's just hope they don't want to switch places anytime soon."
The rest of the afternoon passed by rather quickly. By the third round of white water everyone had started avoiding the rocks with greater ease than what they had earlier that morning. Gibbs and Tony both mentally monitored their progress and direction, thinking ahead to try and anticipate where they would be stopping to set up camp for the night. There were few possibilities for them to stop along the way where there would be enough room for them to make camp and even fewer options for a safe place to pass along drugs to the next carrier. Neither Gibbs nor Tony thought that the Petty Officers would be careless in selecting their location. If they were, then the FBI would have caught them a long time ago.
It was early evening when Erikson and Myers called the group together while they were in calm water.
"We are going to be stopping for the night soon," Erikson told them. "We will be pulling off to the right when we approach it, as that side has more space to make camp than on the left."
"It will be getting dark in a few hours," Myers pointed out. "We want to make sure there is enough time to set up tents and get a fire going before it gets too dark. Don't need anyone getting hurt wandering around in the dark."
After that the group broke up, returning once again to their original order. It was about 45 minutes later when Erikson started to veer off towards the right, waving to everyone behind him that they were to follow. Like they did for lunch, everyone waited patiently for those in front of them to pull up to shore, get out and carry their raft off a ways from the water. Once on shore the rafts were unpacked and the group hiked up a small hill where there was a clearing.
"Everyone spread out and start pitching up your tent," instructed Myers. "If anyone needs any help just ask. Once we are all done we can gather some wood for a fire and relax for a while before dinner."
Everyone spread out enough in order to make sure that they had some privacy for later that night. Speaking quietly, Gibbs and Tony were able to discuss their plans for the night as they set up their tent without raising suspicion.
Pulling out the tent from its bag, Tony spoke softly to Gibbs. "Not exactly the ideal spot for a drop."
Gibbs nodded his head in agreement as he retrieved the poles, pegs and hammer from another bag. "There's no easy access route to get here besides the river, not even hiking trails. I can't see anyone wanting to go through so much trouble of walking through a forest just to pick up the next delivery."
"Dealers don't usually like things to be complicated," said Tony as both he and Gibbs opened up the tent and spread it out on the ground. "Myers himself said that it could be dangerous walking around here in the dark."
"All the same, we'll still need to keep an eye on them tonight," Gibbs said as he moved to place the pegs through loops in the tent, then hammering them into the ground to keep the tent in place. "You want first watch or second?"
"I'll take second," answered Tony without hesitation as he started putting the poles together. At Gibbs' questioning look, Tony added, "Would you really even go to sleep if I took the first watch?"
Smirking, Gibbs responded, "Probably not." He finished putting the pegs in place about the same time Tony had put the last of the poles together. They made quick work of pitching the tent, threading the poles through loops at the top of the tent. After checking to see that the tent was secure, Gibbs and Tony picked up the rest of their stuff and placed it inside the tent. They both placed the head of their sleeping bags close to the entrance of the tent, providing them with an easy vantagepoint for surveillance later on that night.
As Tony finished setting up his sleeping bag, he asked, "So when do you think they will try to sneak off, if they do?"
"Depends on how late we stay up tonight," responded Gibbs. "Probably not until your watch."
"Which means you won't be getting any sleep then," Tony said with a laugh.
"Can't let you have all the fun now can I?" teased Gibbs.
Gary and Ray walked up just then, halting any comment that Tony might have had. "Erikson and Myers told us to head out and start gathering some wood for a fire tonight, wanna help?" asked Gary.
"Like there's going to be a pile of firewood just lying around," Ray said sarcastically.
"Do you just want to eat dinner out of the can?" Gary asked. "Cuz if not, then I suggest we get started on gathering those branches." And with that he started walking off away from the clearing, Gibbs following closely. Tony and Ray followed, a few paces back.
"How's his coffee intake been?" Tony whispered to Ray.
"He's on track, unless he mixed something else in that thermos of his that I don't know about," whispered Ray back. "What about your dad?"
"Same. Guess they are just encouraging manual labor for the fun of it," Tony said. "So what's the rest of the gang up to while we are out gathering ‘fire wood'?"
Ray chuckled at that. "Securing the rafts for the night, organizing a spot for the fire and making dinner preparations."
"Hope they don't strain themselves too much," Tony said. Tony wondered if the Petty Officers were using this opportunity to unpack the drugs from their raft. It would have to have been packed separately, away from the other supplies or run the risk of someone accidentally seeing it.
Between the four of them, they managed to gather a fair amount of thick branches to last them through the night. They all agreed that if more was needed for breakfast then they would gather it in the morning. While Gibbs and Gary were helping to start the fire, Ray and Tony stocked the branches aside out of the way so no one would trip over them later on.
"Hey guys, how was your hike?" Jason asked as he walked up to Tony and Ray.
"Doubt you could call it a hike," Tony said.
"According to our dads there is the right and wrong type of branches to use for a fire," Ray picked up.
"And not like this one has too many leaves or that one isn't dry enough," continued Tony.
"More like not the right size or too oddly shaped," finished Ray.
"Okay," said Jason. "So you guys want to take a hike then? Get away from them for a while? Just saw Erikson head out a few minutes ago, maybe we can catch up to him."
"Sounds good to me," Ray agreed.
"We better report to our dads though. Don't need them to scare the wildlife when they start yelling for us wondering where we are," Tony said.
"For real," Ray said. "We better make sure they have enough coffee to make a pot while we're at it."
"Your dads sure do plan their lives around their next cup of coffee don't they?" observed Jason.
"You have no idea," Ray said. "Hey Dad! We're all going to go for a hike, see if we can't catch up with Erikson."
"Just don't drink all the coffee at once," Tony advised. "We still have all day tomorrow to get through."
"You keep making remarks like that, you'll be finding your own way home tomorrow," Gibbs said lightly.
"I was thinking more along the lines of kicking him out of the tent," conspired Gary.
"Why not both?" Gibbs said.
"Indeed," Gary said thoughtfully.
Tony and Ray stared at them. "I think we better get going before we inspire any more great ideas," suggested Tony.
"I think you're right," agreed Ray.
"See you later, Dad," said Tony. "Don't worry; we'll be back in time for dinner."
"Since when do you ever miss a meal?" teased Gibbs. With that the small group walked off at a fast pace, hoping that they were headed in the right direction that Erikson had gone.
"Guess we could all use a breather, huh?" asked Jim as he walked up to Gibbs and Gary.
"At least we will be able to enjoy our coffee in peace without any nagging," agreed Gary.
"So what's Myers getting into?" asked Gibbs. It wouldn't do to loose track of either one of them.
"Securing the rafts," Jim told him. "Apparently I don't tie a secure enough of a knot or something. Told me and Jason to relax, instead."
"Some tour guides can be real paranoid about stuff like that," Gary said. "You going to want some coffee?"
And while they worked on getting a fire going to brew up a fresh pot of coffee, Tony, Ray and Jason walked quickly to catch up with Erikson, with Jason in the lead.
"You have any idea where you're going?" Tony asked him, noticing that he seemed to be headed in a particular direction.
"I overheard our adventurous tour guides talking. Seems they are holding out on us," Jason told them. "They were talking about meeting up at some hot spot around here. Figured we could check it out."
"Why would they keep this ‘hot spot' a secret?" questioned Ray.
Tony was starting to get worried. He didn't like the idea of going into a potentially dangerous situation without backup; he especially didn't want to put Jason or Ray in any danger. "Maybe it's just a tour guide thing. Place to have some privacy," Tony suggested. "I know I wouldn't be able to tolerate families harping on each other all day long out here. We should probably just let him be."
"If that's true then we'll just keep hiking. It probably has a great view of the river," Jason said as he continued on.
"I dunno would you want to admit to paying customers that you wanted to get away from them for a while?" Tony pressed on.
"I think Tony has a point," Ray put in. "Last thing we want to do is piss him off, and I really don't want to get lost out here." Ray's attempt at humor didn't do much good, though. Jason continued to walk on as Tony and Ray slowed their pace.
"Well then you guys go ahead and turn around," Jason said. "I'm just curious, is all." With that he started to walk up a slight incline, leaving Tony and Ray behind.
"We shouldn't just let him walk off on his own," Ray said uncertainly.
"Yea," agreed Tony, who was beginning to get a bad feeling about how things were going. "Hey, Jason! Wait up!" Tony took off at a jog to catch up with Jason, Ray following closely behind.
Once they reached the top of the hill they stopped, finding Jason looking out over a small clearing by the water, showing a rather rough patch of rapids. "See, I told you there had to be a great view!" Jason said excitedly.
"No kidding," Ray agreed as he walked towards Jason to get a better look. Tony meanwhile hung back, taking in his surroundings. Erikson was nowhere in sight, and he was getting the feeling that they were being watched. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Erikson. He was looking towards Jason and Ray, not noticing Tony because he had stayed back within a few trees. Suddenly, Erikson raised his arm, pointing a gun at Jason and Ray's backs.
Tony reacted instantly. "Get down!" he shouted as he sprinted towards the pair. Ray reacted immediately, dropping down to the ground on all fours. Jason, startled by Tony's outburst, turned towards him with a questioning look on his face. Not wasting any time, Tony leapt forward and pushed Jason out of the way as a shot went off.
Back at the camp, Gibbs, Gary and Jim paused from their conversation as they heard the shot. "What the hell?" Jim asked.
"Gunfire," Gibbs said, as he stood up and took off into the woods. Gary and Jim hesitated only a second before following Gibbs. The three ran through the woods, following Gibbs as he headed in the general direction of where the shot had come from. He was just hoping that he wasn't too late, that no one had been hurt. But his gut was telling him something else, something he didn't want to think about, so he pushed it out of his mind and focused on running and tracking Tony and the others down.
"What the hell is wrong with you!" shouted Ray as he moved towards Tony and Jason. Quickly he rolled Tony over, and gasped. "Oh god…"
Jason moved, feeling the weight lift off of him. Looking over to see what Ray meant, he froze. "Tony…Is he…?"
At that moment Tony groaned and started to move to try to sit up. "Hey, slow down! Let me put some pressure on your side," Ray said as he moved to help Tony sit up.
"You guys alright?" Tony asked as he winced in reaction to Ray putting a handkerchief over his left side.
"You're the one whose bleeding and your asking us if we're alright!" exclaimed Jason.
"There's blood on your shirt," Tony pointed out.
"Yea, your blood!" Jason said, appearing to be going into shock.
At that moment Erikson stepped up, pointing his gun towards the three men on the ground. "That was a stupid thing for you all to do, following me."
"Well excuse us for not knowing about the possibility of getting shot at when we decided to go for a hike!" shouted Ray.
"Shut up!" snapped Erikson. Pointing to Ray and Jason he gave out instructions. "You two, move away from him. Don't try anything, I would rather not have to shoot you at the moment, but I will if I have to."
Ray and Jason glanced at each other, and then looked at Tony. "Better do what he says," Tony advised them, taking hold of Ray's handkerchief and keeping it pressed into his side.
Slowly, they moved towards the edge of the clearing. Keeping his gun trained on them, Erikson walked towards where Tony was sitting on the ground. The next thing Tony knew he was on his side again, Erikson having delivered a swift kick into his left side, knocking the wind out of him. Ray and Jason started to move to help, but stopped as Erikson shook the gun at them.
"Don't push me," he warned. Turning to look at Tony, he said, "We can't afford to have you slowing us down, bleeding all over the place. You should have saved your heroics for another day." As Tony struggled to regain control of his breathing, Erikson bent down and removed Tony's watch.
"Doubt you'll need this anymore," he said with a grin. Tony tried to grab the watch back, but Erikson kicked Tony again. Then he reached down, grabbed hold of his t-shirt and dragged him towards the edge of the small hill. "Nothing personal," Erikson told Tony as he threw him over and into the ragging rapids below.
"NO!" shouted Ray and Jason at the same time. Gibbs and the other two men heard their shouts just as they reached the clearing. It was then Gibbs knew that his gut had been right. Erikson stood by the water with a gun in his hands, now turning to point it towards the newcomers.
"Jason! Are you hurt?" Jim questioned his son seeing the blood on his shirt. He just shook his head. Gary noticed his son's hands covered with blood, and gave him a small squeeze on his shoulder.
"It was Tony…" Ray started.
"What did you do, Erikson?" shouted Myers as he approached the group, his own gun out and at the ready.
"They were following me, couldn't be sure what they saw or heard, I was just going to give them a bit of a scare is all," Erikson said calmly.
"Yea, well it looks like you did more than that!" Myers said.
"What did you do to my son?" growled Gibbs, having a pretty good idea, but wanting to know for certain what had happened.
Erikson turned towards him and laughed. "He wanted to be the hero, so he paid for his stupidity."
"He was protecting us!" interrupted Jason. "He told us to get down; I didn't move fast enough, he pushed me down. You shot him!"
"Like I said, he was stupid," Erikson said darkly.
"Where is he?" Gibbs shouted.
"They threw him into the water," Ray said softly.
"He would have slowed us down," Erikson said shortly.
"Tony wasn't bleeding that bad!" Ray yelled.
"You bastard!" Gibbs shouted, moving towards Erikson with lighting speed. Within seconds he had Erikson down on the ground and he punched him, blood splattering has Gibbs heard the satisfying crunch of Erikson's nose breaking. Just as he was about to deliver another punch, he felt a flash of pain as something slammed against the side of his head. The next thing he knew he was laying on the ground, surrounded by Gary, Ray, Jim and Jason.
"What did you do that for!" exclaimed Jim.
"He's lucky that's all I did, could have been worse," Myers said as he helped Erikson stand up.
"You just killed his son, I'd say it couldn't get much worse," Gary said darkly.
"Alright everyone, that's enough!" Erikson shouted, clearly pissed off. Waving his hand at Gibbs, he told them, "Help him up; we're heading back to camp."
Gary and Jim moved on either side of Gibbs and grabbed an arm, lifting him up to his feet. Gibbs swayed a little, but between the two of them Gary and Jim managed to hold him upright and slowly walked back towards camp.
The walk back was silent. Gibbs couldn't believe it, he had been too late. Ignoring the blood running down his face, he tried to come to terms with what had just happened. Just that morning he had promised Tony that he would always be there for him, no matter what. It tore at his heart, knowing that he hadn't been there to watch his six.
"Hey buddy, you with us here?" Jim whispered to Gibbs, interrupting his thoughts.
"He killed him, he killed Tony," Gibbs said, anger and sadness evident in his voice.
"Don't worry, we'll get through this," Gary tried to reassured Gibbs. "Tony will have justice, you'll see."
‘Yes,' Gibbs thought to himself as they continued to walk. ‘Tony would get justice.' Not knowing that Erikson had removed Tony's watch, Gibbs hoped that his team would soon take action once they realized that he and Tony were no longer in the same location. With the trackers on their watches they would be able to find Tony, and Gibbs gave in to the small comfort that at least he would be able to give Tony a proper funeral and burial. He deserved that much, and more, but the opportunity to do more had passed. Gibbs could only pray that his team and Fornell got there soon, because he knew that if any opportunity to take control of the situation presented itself, Gibbs would take it, consequences be damned.
Chapter End Notes:
Author’s Note: Ok everyone, hope you are enjoying the action here! Sorry I didn’t post sooner, I was working all day Saturday. Please review, would love to hear what everyone thinks about the way I am presenting the action. It’s only just begun, so stay tuned!