No Return

78

At 7:25 P.M., as Lars was walking out of the building where he’d been held overnight, Lieutenants Jenks and Wasserman were climbing aboard the helicopter they’d commissioned and were strapping themselves in. Up front the pilot and copilot were going through a final check so that they’d be ready to lift off at 7:30 on the dot.

Wasserman was carrying the GPS tracker, already pre-tuned to the chip the commander was carrying in his shoe. According to the display, the commander had just arrived at the rendezvous point in town.

Both lieutenants watched the screen as the dot representing Commander Forman began to move at a much slower rate than it had been.

“He’s on foot,” Wasserman said.

Jenks checked his watch: 7:29 p.m. He touched a button and spoke to the pilot. “Let’s go.”

There was a momentary delay, then the engine began to ramp up. Jenks put a hand on the seat, anticipating the rise, but at the moment the engine reached the liftoff pitch, the rotors suddenly began to cycle down.

Jenks pushed the mic button again, “Why aren’t we in the air?”

“You’ll have to ask them,” the pilot said, pointing outside. “We were ordered by the control tower to power down.”

Three men were walking purposefully toward the helicopter.

“Who the hell are they?” Wasserman asked.

“I’ll check,” Jenks said.

He disconnected his restraint, opened the door, and hopped out.

“I don’t know what you think you’re doing,” Jenks said, “but we have a mission that’s supposed to have us in the air right this very minute.”

“Are you Wasserman or Jenks?” one of the men said.

“I’m Lieutenant Jenks. What’s going on?”

The two other men moved past Jenks to the open door of the helicopter.

“Sir, you’ll come with me now,” the first man said to Jenks.

“The hell I will.”

“Sir, if you’d rather, I could place you under arrest right here.”

“Arrest? Who do you think you are …?” He was about to address the man by rank, but realized for the first time the man was not wearing a uniform.

“NCIS, Lieutenant. Turn around and put your hands behind your back.”