Chapter 15 - THE TRAINEE HE CAME BACK FOR
The drive back to the hospital took nineteen minutes.
It felt longer than the entire night.
Ruiz sat in the front passenger seat speaking into three phones and one radio as agents tried to reconstruct how Daniel Warren had entered a secured hospital, reached Ethan Cole, and walked him out beneath the attention of local police.
Abigail sat beside Caleb in the second row.
Neither of them spoke.
The city passed outside in gray streaks of rain and morning traffic.
Lucas Bell had been taken to a guarded medical unit at another facility.
Pike was under protective custody.
Keene and Dane were separated and transported under federal guard.
Everything should have been getting smaller.
Instead the danger had narrowed into one frightened young cadet and one desperate man who believed betrayal justified anything.
"How did he get Ethan?" Abigail finally asked.
Ruiz covered the phone microphone with one hand.
"He used a stolen hospital maintenance badge and changed clothes."
"From where?"
"Utility locker near the ambulance bay."
"Police were watching Ethan."
"One officer was called away by a fake disturbance report."
Caleb's jaw tightened.
"And the other?"
Ruiz looked at the windshield.
"Unconscious in a supply room."
"Alive?"
"Yes."
Abigail exhaled.
"Mason?"
"Still secured."
"Does he know?"
"Not yet."
Caleb spoke quietly.
"Warren didn't take Ethan because he needed a hostage."
Ruiz looked back.
"Why then?"
"Because Ethan mattered to him."
Abigail stared at Caleb.
"He called Ethan a liability."
"In public."
"He told him he was just a cadet."
"Because Ethan was questioning him."
Caleb looked out the window.
"Daniel punishes people hardest when they threaten the version of himself he needs to believe."
Ruiz frowned.
"You think this is personal."
"It has always been personal."
"What does he want from Ethan now?"
Caleb took a slow breath.
"Forgiveness."
Abigail almost laughed from disbelief.
"He kidnapped him for forgiveness?"
"Or obedience."
"And if Ethan refuses?"
Caleb looked at her.
He did not need to answer.
The hospital entrance was surrounded by marked police vehicles when they arrived.
Abigail stepped out before the SUV fully stopped.
Ruiz called after her.
"Stay with us."
"I'm not going anywhere."
She walked through the emergency entrance where the floor still bore marks from the night's first confrontation.
A maintenance worker was replacing the shattered fire extinguisher cabinet.
Someone had mopped the spilled coffee.
Her chipped blue mug still sat beside the keyboard.
Still Standing.
The sight of it hit her unexpectedly.
Hours earlier, she had believed the worst thing about her shift would be cold coffee.
Mason sat inside a consultation room with two officers.
He stood when Abigail entered.
"Where's Ethan?"
No one had told him yet.
Abigail hated being the one to do it.
"Warren took him."
Mason went pale.
"What?"
"We are looking for them."
"No."
He shook his head.
"No, no, no."
Caleb stepped in.
"Mason."
"Chief will hurt him."
"Why do you say that?"
Mason stared at Caleb.
"Because Ethan knows."
Ruiz entered behind them.
"Knows what?"
Mason looked at the officers.
"I want a lawyer."
Ruiz nodded immediately.
"You should have one."
"But I need to tell you before it's too late."
"You can choose to speak."
"Ethan saw the accident."
Abigail felt a chill.
"Lucas?"
"Not Lucas."
Mason swallowed.
"Another cadet."
Caleb's face hardened.
"When?"
"Last year."
"Name?"
"Ryan Hollis."
Ruiz pulled out his notebook.
"What happened to him?"
Mason looked at the table.
"Officially, he washed out after a shoulder injury."
"Unofficially?"
"He stopped breathing during a water drill."
Abigail sat slowly.
"Did he die?"
Mason nodded.
"For about four minutes."
"Then he was resuscitated."
"Yes."
"And discharged?"
"I don't know."
"You said he washed out."
"That's what Warren told everyone."
Caleb leaned forward.
"What did Ethan see?"
"Warren ordered the safety diver not to pull Hollis out."
Silence filled the room.
Mason's hands trembled.
"Ethan was on the pool deck."
"Did he report it?"
"He tried."
"To whom?"
"Commander Hale."
Ruiz closed his eyes briefly.
"And Hale?"
"Told Ethan that what he saw was a stress-induced misunderstanding."
Caleb laughed bitterly.
"Same language every time."
Abigail remembered the false retraction.
Assumptions not medically supported.
Confused patient.
Training injury.
The pattern had existed for years.
"What happened to Hollis?" she asked.
Mason shook his head.
"I don't know."
"You never saw him again?"
"No."
Ruiz immediately called an analyst.
Within minutes they had Ryan Hollis's official record.
Medical separation.
No death certificate.
No hospital transfer.
No public address after discharge.
He had vanished into paperwork.
Caleb looked at Mason.
"Why didn't Ethan tell us this earlier?"
"Because he blamed himself."
"For what?"
"He froze."
Mason's voice broke.
"He could have jumped in."
Abigail leaned closer.
"Warren was the instructor."
"Ethan still thinks he should have done something."
Caleb understood that kind of guilt too well.
"Warren used that."
Mason nodded.
"He told Ethan he could make up for it by being loyal."
Abigail felt disgust.
"So when Warren said I ruined him—"
"Ethan believed helping him was his chance to prove he wasn't a coward."
Caleb's expression tightened.
"Daniel built a weapon out of the kid's shame."
Mason looked toward the door.
"Where would he take him?"
Caleb thought.
"Somewhere Ethan would recognize."
"Redwater?"
"Compromised."
"Iron Harbor?"
"Federal teams everywhere."
Mason suddenly looked up.
"The old boathouse."
Ruiz turned.
"What old boathouse?"
"Training annex on Back River."
"Owned by who?"
"Navy stopped using it years ago."
"Warren still took us there."
"For what?"
Mason swallowed.
"Night water drills."
Caleb was already moving.
Ruiz followed.
"Address."
Mason gave it.
The location sat twenty-five minutes away.
Ruiz sent units ahead.
Caleb stopped at the door.
"No sirens."
Ruiz nodded.
"Agreed."
Abigail stood.
Caleb looked at her.
"You're staying."
"No."
"Abby."
"Ethan held a gun to my head."
"Exactly."
"And I still don't want him killed."
Caleb stared at her.
"Neither do I."
"Then I'm coming."
"Why?"
"Because if Warren is trying to convince Ethan that everyone betrayed him, I may be the one person Ethan expects to hate him."
Ruiz paused.
He understood.
Caleb did too.
Abigail continued.
"If I tell him I don't want him dead, maybe he listens."
Caleb hated the logic.
He nodded anyway.
The old boathouse stood at the end of a cracked road beside dark tidal water.
Its windows were boarded.
A weathered sign hung crooked above the entrance.
The NCIS team stopped two hundred yards away.
No movement.
No vehicles.
Then an agent spotted tire tracks behind the building.
Fresh.
Ruiz moved his team into position.
Caleb and Abigail waited behind an armored vehicle.
A negotiator called Warren's phone.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
On the third call, someone picked up.
Ethan.
His voice trembled.
"Hello?"
Ruiz handed the phone to Abigail.
"Ethan?"
Silence.
"Abigail?"
"Yes."
"I'm sorry."
"We can deal with that later."
A sob came through the line.
"He says I ruined everything."
"Warren?"
"He says if I hadn't questioned him, none of this would have happened."
Abigail closed her eyes.
"Ethan, listen to me."
"He says you're lying."
"I know."
"He says Lucas is weak."
"Lucas is alive."
Silence.
"What?"
"We found him."
Ethan began breathing harder.
"He's alive?"
"Yes."
"He told me Lucas was dead."
Abigail looked at Caleb.
"He lied."
A noise sounded on the phone.
Warren shouting.
Ethan whispered quickly.
"He has a rifle."
"Where are you?"
"Upstairs."
"Are you tied?"
"One hand."
"Can you move?"
"A little."
"Do not try anything unless we tell you."
"He says he's going to make me fix it."
"Fix what?"
The line went dead.
Ruiz looked at his team.
"We go."
Agents moved around both sides of the boathouse.
Caleb grabbed Ruiz's arm.
"Daniel will have the upstairs covered."
"We know."
"There used to be a boat lift underneath."
Ruiz looked at him.
"You know this place?"
"Different unit trained here years ago."
"Access from water?"
"If the tide is high enough."
Ruiz looked at the river.
It was.
He changed the entry plan.
Two agents approached by water.
Four moved from the rear.
The front team created noise deliberately.
A rifle shot exploded from an upstairs window.
Glass shattered.
No one was hit.
Warren shouted from inside.
"Stay back!"
Ruiz answered through a loudspeaker.
"Daniel Warren, this is Special Agent Ruiz."
Another shot.
"I know who you are!"
Caleb watched the upstairs shadows.
"He's moving left."
Ruiz raised the loudspeaker again.
"Ethan is not responsible for your choices."
Warren screamed back.
"You don't know anything about loyalty!"
Caleb's face changed.
He took the loudspeaker from Ruiz.
"I do."
Silence.
Warren recognized the voice.
"Preston."
"Yeah."
"You did this."
"No."
"You came back and poisoned everything."
"Lucas walked into a hospital before I knew any of this was happening."
"Your wife wrote the report."
"Because you hurt him."
A shot tore through the wall near the front entrance.
"I made him stronger!"
Caleb's voice stayed calm.
"You almost killed him."
"He needed to learn."
"Nathan needed to learn too?"
Silence.
Caleb pushed.
"Ryan Hollis?"
Warren shouted something unintelligible.
"How many people did you tell yourself needed to learn before you admitted you liked being the one who decided when they could breathe?"
Abigail looked at Caleb.
That question hit something.
No shots followed.
Then Ethan screamed from inside.
"Chief, no!"
The water team radioed.
"Entry made."
Ruiz raised one hand.
Everyone waited.
Gunfire erupted inside.
Three shots.
Then one.
Then silence.
Abigail stopped breathing.
The radio crackled.
"Suspect down."
"Hostage?"
A pause.
"Hostage alive."
Abigail closed her eyes.
Caleb exhaled.
Then the agent continued.
"Suspect is alive too."
They entered after the building was cleared.
Ethan sat against a wall upstairs with one wrist tied to a pipe.
His face was wet with tears.
Abigail knelt in front of him.
"Are you hurt?"
He shook his head.
"He told me you would want me dead."
"He was wrong."
"After what I did?"
Abigail looked at him.
"Wanting you accountable is not the same as wanting you dead."
Ethan's chin trembled.
"I pointed a gun at you."
"Yes."
"How can you even look at me?"
"Because you're still a person."
Ethan began crying harder.
Abigail did not tell him everything was okay.
It was not.
She simply stayed.
Across the room, Warren lay on his side with a gunshot wound through the shoulder.
Agents cuffed him while medics worked.
He looked toward Caleb.
"You think you won."
Caleb stood several feet away.
"This isn't a game."
Warren laughed weakly.
"You still don't know."
"Know what?"
"Anchor isn't the secret."
Caleb's eyes narrowed.
Warren coughed.
"Anchor is insurance."
"Insurance for what?"
Warren smiled despite the pain.
"Ask Hale about Operation Harbor Glass."
Ruiz heard him.
"What's Harbor Glass?"
Warren looked at the ceiling.
May you like
"The reason Nathan Cross had to die."
