DISCLAIMER: The Sentinel and its characters are the property of Paramount Studios and Pet Fly Productions. These stories are offered for the enjoyment of the fans. No money has exchanged hands.
Trust, Part 2 by Sue Pokorny
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Joel wiped a hand over his tired face and leaned back in the leather chair. It was a comfortable chair, well built and sturdy, but he had no desire to take up permanent residence in it. He was worried about Simon. He had not heard from the captain since he had blown out of the bullpen almost two days ago after a short but cryptic phone call.
Joel had done a pretty good soft shoe routine between the commissioner and the chief, trying to cover for his friend. But the brass was beginning to become insistent, and he was running out of excuses. He wished to hell that Simon would call in -- or better yet, storm back into Major Crime, demanding that Joel get out from behind his desk and get back to his cases. But somehow, Joel knew that wasn't going to happen.
Between the murder investigation and search for Jim, the disappearance of Sandburg and, now, Simon's vanishing act, Joel was at a loss as to where to turn. Not only did the brass want Ellison on a platter for the murder of Jennifer Conroy, the Feds had been back, insisting on speaking with the missing detective. Add to that the attack on Sandburg, then he and Simon both suddenly going AWOL., and Joel couldn't help but add everything up into one big mess. Somehow this all fit together, but Joel was missing one vital piece of the puzzle. If he only had a clue what that piece was...
The phone on the desk rang, catching the big man off guard. "Taggart."
"Joel, it's Blair."
"Blair!" Joel looked around as he realized his voice had jumped quite a bit in volume. Henri Brown met his eyes from his desk directly outside the captain's office and quickly stood, making his way to the open doorway. "Blair. Where are you? Are you all right?"
"Yeah Joel, I'm fine. So is Jim."
"Jim?" His eyes widened at the name. "You found Jim?"
"Yeah, Joel. Listen, I need to explain some things to you, and I don't have much time."
"Blair, is Simon with you?"
There was a pause on the line and Joel could hear the young man take a deep breath. "Listen, Joel. Lee Brackett has escaped. He's behind everything. We're pretty sure he's the one who killed Jennifer and kidnapped Jim. He wanted Jim to break into some plutonium plant in South America, but..."
"But Jim decided not to cooperate."
Blair gave a small laugh. "You could say that. We're on our way to meet Brackett now."
"Where?"
Another pause. "I can't tell you that, Joel."
"Blair, you need backup. You and Jim can't take Brackett on alone."
"No choice, man. Brackett has Simon."
"Damn." Joel closed his eyes and leaned heavily on the desk. "What do you want me to do?"
"We know the Feds are looking for Jim. Probably knew all along Brackett would come after him. We also know Brackett set Jim up for Jennifer's murder. We need you to take care of that. We'll take care of Brackett and get Simon back. But I don't want Jim to have to deal with a murder charge when this is all over."
Joel smiled, knowing how much Blair worried about the welfare of his partner. Here they were, about to take on an ex-covert military man bent on revenge and the kid was more concerned about his partner's reputation. "Don't sweat it, Blair. We'll take care of it. We found traces of Jim's blood type in the truck. According to the splatter patterns, whoever killed Jennifer Conroy was outside the truck. And we found drag marks outside the driver's door indicating the driver was pulled from the truck. I don't think it's going to be too hard to convince the D.A. that Jim was a victim as well."
"Thanks, Joel. Just get it cleaned up, okay? We'll be in touch as soon as we can."
The connection was severed and Joel slowly replaced the phone in its cradle.
"Well?" Brown was still in the doorway, but he was now flanked by Rafe and Megan Connor.
"Lee Brackett is involved in all this." Joel looked at the detectives, an unfamiliar anger sparking his eyes. "He's the one who had Jennifer Conroy killed, and he's the one who took Jim."
Megan looked confused and Joel remembered the Aussie Inspector had yet to come aboard when Lee Brackett had held the city ransom with the threat of releasing the Ebola virus into the air. He quickly explained how Brackett had used the threat to force Jim to break into a top security military installation so that he could steal a prototype aircraft. Jim and Blair had managed to outsmart him, but Brackett had vowed revenge on the two men who had dared to beat him.
"This Brackett sounds like a real nut case," Megan observed.
Joel nodded in agreement. "And he'll stop at nothing to make sure Jim pays."
"Can Jim handle him?"
Joel exchanged a knowing look with Brown and Rafe, the two detectives nodding to affirm his own opinion. "With Jim and Sandburg together? Brackett doesn't stand a chance."
Act II
Clouds obscured the faint light from the moon, casting the docks in a blanket of darkness. A single lamp shone from above, bathing the wooden pier in a faint, ghostly glow.
"I am not liking this, man." Blair pulled up the collar of the army surplus jacket Jack Kelso had provided for him and hunched his shoulders against the chilly wind blowing in from the sea. He squinted out into the darkness, seeing nothing but the rolling waves in the inky blackness of the night. "It's creepy."
Jim glanced at his friend and gave him a small smile of encouragement. "Creepy, huh? Anybody ever tell you that you have an amazing grasp of the English language, Chief?"
"I'm standing on a dock, in the middle of the night, waiting for some madman to kill me. Excuse me for not being terribly eloquent, Jim."
Jim gave a soft chuckle. He knew Blair's constant complaining was the younger man's way of trying to keep Jim from overextending his senses. They had been standing on the pier for nearly four hours, and the waiting was starting to eat at their nerves. Brackett's deadline had come and gone, and Jim was really starting to get annoyed with this game. His patience was wearing thin, and he was beginning to get one hell of a headache from the effort of keeping his senses on alert.
A low rumbling from out on the water grabbed Jim's attention, and he turned to look out over the waves.
"What is it, Jim? Do you see something?"
"No. I hear something. It sounded like a motor of some kind. " He continued to scan the area, his sentinel sight slicing through the darkness.
"Just relax," Blair intoned. "Get a fix on the sound, then let your eyes follow your ears. You can do this, man."
Jim nodded and did as instructed. The darkness lifted and he gazed out over the water, his eyes locking onto a small jet boat about a quarter of a mile out. Lee Brackett sat perched on the back of the driver's seat, a pair of night vision binoculars raised to his face.
"Welcome home, Jimmy." Brackett's voice floated to him from across the distance. "I know you can hear me, so why don't you just listen for a moment? There's a boat anchored at the end of the pier. I want you and Sandburg in it. I know I have quite a head start, but I'm sure a man of your talents will be able to track me quite easily."
"Jim?"
Blair had kept his voice down to a mere whisper, but Jim still winced. "He wants us to follow him," Jim relayed, his attention still focused on Brackett.
"In case you're interested, your captain is fine -- for now. I'll take you to him if you can keep up."
Brackett laughed and laid on the air horn, making Jim gasp from the sudden sound. He placed a hand over his ears to ward off the resulting ache, only slightly aware of the distant sound of the boat's engine as it roared to life and sped off into the darkness.
"Jim! Jim, are you okay?"
Ellison shook his head to clear it and turned to look down the dark pier. He could just make out the hull of a small boat rocking against the wooden structure. They had discovered the boat when they had first arrived, but at the time had no idea it had been Brackett who had anchored it there.
"He wants us to take the boat at the end of the pier. He wants to lead us on a wild goose chase."
Blair looked down the pier and out into the open water. "Are you gonna be okay with this?" He remembered Jim's fear of open water and hoped the sentinel would be able to keep the fear under control.
"I'll have to be. Let's go, Chief."
Jim kept his hearing and sight closely focused on the small jet boat which cut through the dark waters less than a quarter of a mile in front of them. Blair handled the chore of driving through the choppy waters, leaving the sentinel free to concentrate on their prey. Jim had seen no sign of Simon within the craft and they could only hope they would have a chance to rescue the captain before Brackett initiated whatever he had planned.
They were perhaps ten miles out into open water when the island came into the sentinel's view. Brackett's boat veered toward the distant piece of land and disappeared around the far side of the island.
"He's heading for that island." Jim had to raise his voice to be heard over the thrum of the motor. He raised his hand and pointed toward the small patch of land just becoming visible on the dark horizon.
Blair squinted, seeing nothing more than a darker black shape in the middle of the already black night. He nodded and swung the boat to the right, following Jim's direction, heading straight for what he hoped was the island. He knew there were hundreds of little islands of the coast, most of them nothing more than the tip of a burnt out volcano or tiny patch of rock in the middle of the vast ocean.
As they approached, the island loomed large before them, and Blair slowed the boat, steering it around to a dark cove on the far side. His heart skipped a beat as his eyes picked up the faint outline of the jet boat bobbing in the water near the shore. At Jim's silent command he cut the engine, remaining quiet as the Sentinel focused his senses on the area.
"I can hear a heartbeat a short distance inland." Jim's voice was hushed, blending with the soft lap of the water against the boat.
"Brackett?"
Jim shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe." He listened for another second, then shook his head again. "No. The rhythm is too relaxed. Whoever it is hasn't been moving around. They're either unconscious or asleep."
"Simon?"
By the faint light of the moon, Blair could see the hope in his partner's eyes and knew the same emotion was reflected in his own. He hated the fact they had been driven to question their trust in the captain, and he knew they both desperately wanted the chance to give Simon the opportunity to explain.
Jim turned the key and was rewarded with only a slight sputter and whine of the engine. "Damn!" Another attempt brought the same results.
"What?" Blair moved closer, his eyes darting around in the darkness.
Jim narrowed his eyes at the controls, laughing quietly as his sight landed on the gas gauge. "We're out of gas."
"What?!" Blair's voice transmitted his surprise.
Jim shrugged. "I guess Brackett didn't want us making any unexpected stops. Looks like we go in the old fashioned way." Finding two plastic oars attached to the inside of the hull, they rowed the small craft the rest of the distance, securing the boat a few yards from the other. Jim quickly checked the other boat, recognizing it as the same craft he had seen from the dock.
"It's his boat," Jim confirmed, looking around the small cove. "But I can only sense the one heartbeat."
"Maybe he had another boat waiting?"
"It's possible. I lost track of him once he went around the cove." He moved back to the shore and pulled his gun from his belt. "Stay close, Chief."
Blair nodded, "Consider me your shadow, man."
Jim grinned at the thought and led the way inland.
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This page last updated 9/27/00.