Pete was already back when Alex and Blair got back to the cabin.  As they entered the cabin, all conversation stopped, and Blair was instantly suspicious.  "What's going on?" he demanded from the three men sitting in the living room.

 

"Nothing."  Pete smiled.  It was a fake smile, the one that Blair already knew was Pete's "I'm up to something but I'm not going to tell you what under pain of death" smile.  "I'm going to be sending Kit and Jesse to do some research.  Gotta get us a plan together, you know."  Pete glanced at Alex and silent messages were sent.  It was all Blair could do not to scream at all of them.

 

"Look, I'm not stupid," he said calmly.  "What is it?"

 

"I'm just trying to find out where Rose could be.  That's all.  Jesse and Kit are going to be doing some reconnaissance.  When we have something concrete, Blair, you'll be the first to know.  I swear."

 

"I know you're lying to me."

 

"No, we're not." Kit assured him.

 

"Then I'm not getting the whole truth.  Don't tell me that I am."

 

"Blair, please, try to trust me for a little longer here."  Pete held out one hand in entreaty.

 

Kit and Jesse got up and left the room.  Blair looked at Pete for a moment longer and then followed them.  He entered the bedroom that the two had been sharing and found them packing.  "Kit, I just have one question."

 

"What?" His friend did not look at him.  He just continued to pack.

 

"Can I find the truth on the spirit paths?"

 

Kit sighed.  "You'll always find truth on the spirit paths, Blair."

 

"Then how do I get there?"

 

Kit looked at him then and gave him a sad smile.  "You already know how, Blair.  You've been there before.  You can go again.  You just have to be open and believe that you can.  And remember how to listen."

 

"That easy?"

 

"Oh yeah.  For you, yeah.  You're strong, Blair."

 

"Hey, Blair, don't worry about anything.  We'll take care of it.  Everything's going to be fine," Jesse spoke up.

 

"It would help if I knew what you were going to take care of."

 

"We're going to take care of Baker and Rose and Barnes," Kit told him.  He shouldered his bag.

 

"Well, don't forget to take of yourselves while you're at it."

 

"Sure, Buddy!  That's a given."  Jesse grinned at him as he closed up his gym bag.  The two men passed by him and Blair let them go.

 

"I told them to just find the bastards.  Not to go after Jim until you and I get there.  Though I did tell Kit if they found a location to go in if necessary to make sure Jim was there," Pete told Alex when they were left alone in the living room.

 

Alex nodded, reaching up to take his antique pistol off the mantel over the fireplace.

 

"We have to take them out.  That's all there is to it, because Baker will keep coming, and he's got the connections to fuck us."  Pete shook his head.

 

"It won't work," Alex said without looking up from his inspection of the pistol.  It needed cleaning.

 

"Excuse me?"

 

"Pete, you kill this Baker and someone in his organization will just take his place.  We can't kill them all.  We'll probably never even find the vast majority of them.  No, think about this.  Men like Baker have people behind them just waiting for the opportunity to step into his shoes.  He might have even designated someone.  That person will have all Baker's money and connections at his disposal, and we will right back where we started."

 

"Jesus, you're right." Pete sighed and leaned back into the comfortable couch.

 

"However, I think I have a solution which will be satisfactory and maybe even get us paid."  Alex grinned at him.

 

"We have to work with the cops.  Right?"

 

"If Baker goes down, his money and assets will be frozen and confiscated.  His connections will run for cover.  His organization may survive, but not unscathed and much weakened.  And if you think about it, the Pentagon and the CIA are not really very happy about being screwed over by Rose, am I correct?"

 

"Yes, you are.  I see where you're going.  Man, you gotta love outsourcing!  We offer to represent their interests in capturing Rose and Baker, and they pay us to rid ourselves of this thorn.  Oh, that's devious.  Why didn't I think of that?"

 

"Emotional involvement.  I don't know what happened with Baker and Kit, but you are as pissed about it as he is."

 

"It was just bigotry, Alex.  I don't know.  I've worked for that man before and before Kit came along, I figured it was not my problem if Baker was a jackass.  His money spent.  But he was so hateful to Kit."  Alex saw shame in his boss's face.  "Mostly, I guess I'm pissed at myself for ever taking the bastard's money when I knew what his agenda was.  And Kit, let's just say I have never seen him so mad.  It's funny.  I've seen him ignore so much shit, but he was not willing to let Baker slide."

 

"Perhaps because Baker is more than just a few insults.  Words don't hurt, but when someone has the sticks and stones and, in this case, the organization to go beyond words, he can no longer be ignored.  Or it could be the fact that he was in your office.  It would have pissed me off to find someone who hated me for no good reason cozying up to you in your office.  Probably a little of both of those."

 

"Good points.  Okay.  I'm going to go down to civilization and put this plan of yours into motion.  Even if we can't get the Pentagon or the CIA to pay us, we can get Chad and his office on board.  I'll call Banks, too and let him know that we're going to play this legal.  Or mostly legal.  He'll be happy.  You stay here with Blair.  See if you can calm him down or at least let him take out his frustrations on a target or something."

 

Alex saluted him.  "Be careful going out," he warned.

 

"Of course.  Do I look stupid to you?"

 

Alex opened his mouth to answer that.

 

"Don't!" Pete shook a finger at him.

 

Alex laughed as Pete walked out the door.   "Now, to find Blair," he muttered as the front door of the cabin closed.

 

Jim glared at Robert Rose as the man paced the small confines of Jim's prison.  Jim sat on his bunk and waited.

 

"So, Jim, how have you been?"

 

"Lousy, thanks to you.  How about you?"

 

"Lousy, thanks to you and Sandburg and your interfering friends.  See, Jim, I have a problem.  I can't seem to get through to Alex Barnes.  I have a feeling that only Blair could, but I don't have Blair.  Given that, my employer decided that I should acquire you, in the hopes that Blair would offer himself to save you.  But you and I both know that that is unlikely.  He left, and he's not been back in touch.  He probably won't even know that you're gone.  Unless Banks can find him.  Still, in the meantime, my employer wants a sentinel and if Barnes can't be that sentinel, then we will then look to you to fill that want."

 

"Your employer?  What?  You don't want me to know who your employer is?  That why you won't just say it?  Well, I already know.  George Baker is well known to me.  I'm a cop after all."

 

"I see.  Very well.  No more tiptoeing around this then.  You know Baker, and you know what he's capable of.  You and I could be in serious jeopardy if you don't cooperate.  I know you don't care what happens to me, but I'm betting that you'd like to live a little longer."

 

"You're right about that, but there's just one flaw in your logic.  Rose, I told you, I can't do it anymore.  I'm not a sentinel anymore.  The senses are gone."

 

Rose lowered his head for a moment then looked at him again.  "Well then, you'll probably die soon.  But not before you provide the bait and the motivation for Blair."

 

"You said it yourself, he probably won't even know that I'm gone.  Besides, he won't come for me.  Not after what I did.  And I suppose the extra bed here is for him."  He pointed up to the top bunk above him.  "You do get him and put him in here with me, he's liable to strangle me in my sleep."

 

"That may well be, but nonetheless, we'll find him, eventually.  And I think you're wrong.  He would come for you.  Then I doubt he could watch you die, anymore than he could kill you himself.  Once we have him, he won't let you die in front of him.  He's too compassionate for that.  He'll help us in exchange for your life."

 

There was too much truth in Rose's words.  It was all too likely a possibility.  Blair might hate him, but his compassion would not allow Jim's death.  "Shit," he muttered.

 

"Yes, well, we are in it, aren't we, Jim?"

 

"You're scared, aren't you?"

 

"Mr. Baker doesn't like failure.  Thus far, I have had little success.  If you could see your way clear to work with me, I might be able to keep you alive."

 

"And you?  You're trying to keep yourself alive too, Rose.  I can see it in your eyes."

 

Rose did not respond verbally, but he did not have to.

 

"I wish I could help you out, but I can't.  I know you think I'm lying, but I'm not.  No more Sentinel here."

 

 

They were armed with just a phone number and Jesse's laptop, but Kit knew that Jess had pulled off miracles with less.  Their first order of business was to get to somewhere actually in the 21^st century enough to have a cyber café.  If they were traced, it would make no difference.  They would be long gone before anyone could get to them.  From there, Jess would find the origin of that call.  If anybody could, Jesse could.

 

In the meantime, Kit worried.  He could not lie to Blair, but he could not tell him the truth either. So instead, when Blair asked the right question, Kit had given him all he needed to find what they were hiding from him.  He would know about Ellison and soon.  Alex and Pete could probably handle the fallout.  Still, it was an uncomfortable situation.  Pete, never a believer, would not buy that Blair had found the answers for himself.  He would think Kit told against his orders.  Maybe technically, he had.  He could not dwell on it, however.  He had to focus now on finding Ellison.  He personally did not care for the man, but Pete did and so did Blair, though he was not ready to admit that yet.  As much as he thought it was a bad idea, Kit found himself willing to orchestrate a reunion between Ellison and Blair.  For Blair.  Never for Ellison.  But for Blair, shaman to shaman, Kit would do what he had to do. 

 

Alex folded his lanky body to the ground not far from his new friend.  Blair was deep in meditation and Alex, used to the sight from working with Kit, did not want to interfere.  He would stay close though, just in case Blair wanted to talk when he was finished.  Alex sighed.  What a mess.  Pete did not want Blair to know that Ellison had been taken.  At least not yet, but if he asked, Alex would have to tell him the truth.  He had always been honest with those he considered friends, and he liked the young man before him quite a bit. 

 

He even liked Jim Ellison, despite the man's reaction to him.  He could understand the reaction after all.  Once he had been like Ellison.  All black and white and two-dimensional.  It was a dangerous way to see the world, but it was not all bad either.  In fact, it tended to be surprisingly more pleasant than seeing the whole picture.  Made things easy, cut and dried, all or nothing, right or wrong.  The gray shadows were scary and confusing sometimes.  Forewarned was forearmed, however, and Alex grew to appreciate the shadows and shades.  Nothing surprised him anymore.  He liked it that way.  He wondered if Jim Ellison would ever grow to accept the things he did not want to see.  Alex had read his jacket.  He knew Ellison could see the shadows if he wanted to.  The man could not have survived some of the shit he had found himself in if he had not learned to see past the glossy surface of life.  For some reason, Ellison chose not to see.  Self-preservation probably.  Alex could imagine that with his odd abilities marking him as different, Ellison would try to hold on with both hands to normalcy in other aspects of his life.  Otherwise, it would be easy to lose one's sanity.  Alex could attest to that.  But he could also attest to that fact that ignoring reality only brought more trouble.  Acceptance and adaptation was better.  It certainly would have helped both Blair and Ellison avoid this situation.

 

Alex sighed and shook his head.  And Ellison was not the only one in that partnership with avoidance issues.  Blair had his own.  Blair's very presence here was avoidance.  The young man would eventually have to deal with his demons where Ellison was concerned or he would self-destruct.

 

Blair followed the wolf to the temple.  He stood on the bottom step and looked up into the doorway.  Instead of the fear and anger he felt the last time he was here, he felt safe but somehow restless.  The wolf paced and whined, and the feeling of restlessness grew in the pit of Blair's stomach.  The wolf tugged at his hand, and he turned to face it.  Gold eyes pleaded with him, and then the wolf bounded off.  Blair had to run to keep up with it.  When it stopped suddenly, Blair nearly ran past it.  The wolf whined again and walked slowly out into a clearing.  Blair followed again and nearly fell to his knees at the scene before him.  A black jaguar was trapped in a cage trap.  The animal paced frantically.  Blair reached out to it but brought his hand back quickly as a large snake struck at him from the grass.  Movement in the trees beyond the clearing, behind the cage, drew Blair's attention.  He could not see the animals there, but he could hear them, growling and snarling.

 

"Jim!"  His own voice brought him spiraling out of the self-induced trance.  Alex was sitting in front of him about ten yards away.  "They have Jim.  That's what Pete wouldn't tell me!  Son of a bitch!"

 

"I don’t know how you know that exactly, but I've known Kit long enough to know that I'm not meant to understand certain things.  Yes, Rose has Ellison.  Pete sent Kit and Jesse to try to find out where they're holding him, and he went to see if we can get some help from the other people who have an interest in seeing Rose brought down.  Pete was worried that you'd do something stupid like running off and putting yourself in the line of fire, so to speak.  But you aren't going to do that, right?  You're going to let us figure out a way to get Jim back and take these bastards down for good with minimal damage to everyone concerned, right?"

 

"Alex—"

 

"Right?"

 

Blair took a deep breath and bit his lip.  "Yeah, right."

 

"Good.  You won't do Jim any good if you aren't thinking."

 

Blair was thinking though.  He was thinking that he should not even care.  He was thinking that Jim brought this whole thing on himself, and that he was crazy for even feeling responsible.  But then he was thinking about Jim finding him when Lash was going to kill him.  And he thought about Jim taking care of him when the Iceman shot him.  And cooking his breakfast and carrying his backpack for him when he was on crutches after Quinn shot him.  Then there was the fountain.  Jim had brought him back from the other side.  Okay, so things had not been so great since, but after talking with Pete, Blair knew that a lot of that was Jim's way of trying to keep Blair out of Rose's radar.  Jim did not know that Blair was in Rose's sights all along.  Fear-based responses, he had written it himself.  Jim might be an idiot, but even an idiot did not deserve what Rose planned to do.  Perhaps idiot was too strong a word, now that he thought about it.  Jim was not stupid; he just did not think clearly when it came to certain things.  It was infuriating, but Blair knew that he had his own blind spots and could be just as infuriating, he supposed.  What the hell was he doing?  Was he actually talking himself out of being angry with Jim?  No, he was still angry and he had every right to be, but could he, in all good conscience, turn his back on Jim when he was in trouble.  The answer to that question was a definite no. 

 

Alex had been regarding him silently while he worked that out in his head.  "We will get him out of this.  Okay?"

 

"Okay."  Blair smiled tentatively.  "Thanks, Alex."

 

"Quite welcome."

 

"Can we practice a little?"

 

"So you can imagine Pete's face on the target?"

 

"I think it would help tremendously, don't you?"

 

"Oh yes, been there, done that."  Alex grinned at him.