76: Endgame

Even as they listened to Farrell and Alex talking, Glorfindel was issuing final orders. "Shoot to maim, not to kill," he told them. "I want them alive."

The others nodded. They heard a sudden crash and Glorfindel yelled, "Maethathanc!" even as he pushed open the door and leapt out, rolling to the floor to avoid any gunfire, competently bringing his bow up with an arrow already notched, aiming not at the Men but between them. Finrod and the others boiled out, also shouting in Sindarin and Quenya.

"What the hell?!" one of the agents yelled, falling back as another arrow sped past his shoulder. He raised his gun to fire and then screamed as an arrow found his shoulder.

"Fall back!" they heard Farrell order. "Get out! Get out! Pegg, help me with Meriwether. You’re gonna pay for this, you bastard," he snarled and they heard the sound of a fist hitting a jaw.

Glorfindel rose from his crouch in time to see two of the Men fleeing, one of them clutching his shoulder. He grinned at the thought of them being confronted by the Twins and Mithlas, one of the deadliest bowman he’d ever met, nearly as deadly as Beleg. Farrell and Pegg were last out, carrying the chair with Artemus still tied to it, apparently unconscious. Glorfindel held up his hand to forestall the others from following.

"We can only exit one at a time and they have guns," he explained. "Let us return to the tunnel and then we’ll approach from the woods."

Finrod nodded. "A wise maneuver. The sons of Elrond and Mithlas will keep them occupied."

"Even if those goons manage to escape the ambush, using Alex as a hostage, they can’t get far, not with the truck disabled," Vorondur commented as they all entered the tunnel.

There were grunts of assent from the others as they ran down the tunnel, coming out to find Legolas standing guard over the two Mortals. Glorfindel was glad to see both Derek and Zach awake, though Zach looked the worse for wear and he was holding his left arm in a way that suggested that it might be broken.

Legolas confirmed his fears as they approached. "They broke his arm," he said in Sindarin, gesturing with his head at Zach. "The other is in better shape, but both are weak from their ordeal."

"We’ll need to have that arm looked at soon," Glorfindel said as he crouched before the two Men. "I am sorry you have been hurt," he said, addressing them in English. "We will see to your injuries as soon as we can."

"Alex?" Derek asked faintly.

"He is still in the hands of the agents," Glorfindel replied, "but the Twins and Mithlas are covering the entrance and they will not get far at any rate."

"If they use Alex as a shield, they can escape in the truck," Derek said.

Glorfindel shook his head, giving them a smile. "Finda and his gwedyr followed your example and let the air out of the tires."

Derek just raised an eyebrow while Zach grinned. "Good for them," he said, then gasped as an inadvertent movement on his part brought pain.

"I can splint it," Legolas suggested.

Zach shook his head. "I’m fine for now. Go rescue Alex. Farrell will kill him just out of spite."

Glorfindel could not argue with that. "Splint the arm anyway," he ordered Legolas as he stood up. "It’ll be easier on him when he’s being transported to the hospital." Legolas nodded as Glorfindel gestured for the others to follow him through the woods. They were coming to the clearing before the grotto when they heard Farrell yelling, "Let us go, I said, or he’s dead."

"And how do we know you won’t kill him anyway?" they heard Elrohir ask coldly.

"Lay down your weapons," Elladan ordered, "and we give you our word we will not kill you."

"With what?" Farrell sneered. "Bows and arrows? Who do you think you are, Robin Hood?"

Glorfindel reached the edge of the woods to see Farrell holding a still unconscious Alex in front of him, now released from the chair but still tied up, a gun at his temple. The other agents also had their guns out pointing into the trees. The one with the arrow in his shoulder had apparently had the presence of mind to snap off the shaft so he was not as encumbered as before, but he was pale from pain and blood loss and swayed back and forth while another agent held his right elbow in support. An arrow came whizzing out of nowhere, landing neatly between the feet of the agent with the arrow in him. He yelped and jumped back, and they all waved their guns nervously, though there was no target in sight.

"I do not know this Robin Hood," Glorfindel heard Mithlas call out, "but I gather he was a famed bowman of your people."

Two of the agents immediately pointed in the direction of Mithlas’ voice, both of them firing at the same time. The echo of the gunfire reverberated for several seconds and then there was absolute silence for a long moment.

"You missed," they heard Mithlas say, his tone one of contempt, the voice coming not from the right on the other side of the path but now from the left. Finrod tapped Glorfindel on the shoulder and pointed up and to his left and they saw Mithlas sitting on a high branch four trees away, his face wreathed with a grin as he looked down, giving them a cheery wave.

Before anyone, Elf or Mortal, could react, Amroth dropped his bow and quiver and stepped out of the woods with his hands raised. "Farrell!" he called out and immediately, all four agents turned, their guns pointed directly at him. Glorfindel silently cursed the damn Silvan even as Amroth was speaking. "It’s me you want. Let Meriwether go."

"You!" Farrell exclaimed in shock mutating into anger. "You bastard!" And without conscious thought he fired, but Amroth apparently had anticipated his move, for at the last second he fell forward so that the bullet passed harmlessly above him. Unfortunately, it found another target and Finrod gasped at the sudden pain as the bullet ripped into his left shoulder. Glorfindel grabbed him as he fell.

"Ron!" he screamed, not caring who heard.

"Atto! Atto!" they heard Findalaurë cry out where he was hiding in a nearby tree. He practically jumped to the ground and ran to his father even as Vorondur was bending over Finrod, checking the wound.

"I am all right," Finrod insisted, gasping in shock and pain. "Do not worry for me."

"You let me decide that," Vorondur retorted. "Damn! He’s losing a lot of blood. He’s going to need surgery to remove the bullet. We need to get him to St. Luke’s as quickly as possible."

"Do what you can for him," Glorfindel said. He looked up as Laurendil joined them. "At least stop the blood flow. We’ll deal with the bullet later. Finda, where are Calandil and Elennen?"

Findalaurë looked up at the Elf-lord, his face streaked with tears, and pointed behind him. "In th-those trees there."

"Good, go to them and bring them here and then help Ron and Laurendil with your atar. They will take him to the clearing where Legolas watches over Derek and Zach."

Findalaurë did not argue but did as he was bid and in short order, he and his gwedyr were following Vorondur and Laurendil back through the woods, Laurendil carrying his liege lord while Vorondur walked beside him, a handkerchief pressed firmly over the wound to slow the bleeding, though it was quickly being soaked with blood.

All this while, a battle ensued with the Mortals firing randomly into the woods, while the Elves shot them with arrows, constantly changing their positions, neatly avoiding the bullets, though once or twice someone came very close to being hit. Most of the arrows were deliberately shot so that they missed hitting the Men, meant to intimidate rather than to injure. Alex had been dropped by Farrell as Amroth launched himself at him, both of them wrestling for Farrell’s gun. Alex, just coming out of his swoon and struggling to move away, managed to trip Grieve in the process and the other agent fell heavily on top of him, pinning him to the ground.

Then, off in the distance came the sound of sirens. "Disable them!" Glorfindel shouted in Sindarin and immediately the Elves stopped playing with the Mortals and several arrows found their mark, forcing two of the agents to drop their guns, both of them falling to the ground, clutching at arrows, moaning in pain.

Grieve was still struggling to get off Alex when Glorfindel ran up to him and placed an arrow directly over his heart. "If you wish to live, you will stop," the Elf-lord said coldly and the agent raised his hands, dropping his gun as he stared in disbelief at the Elf. Glorfindel motioned with his bow and the agent rose to his feet.

"About time you got here," Alex groused as he struggled with the ropes. "Get me loose, will you?"

"You heard him," Glorfindel said to Grieve. "Don’t try anything cute or you die."

The absolute sincerity of his tone convinced Grieve to do as he was bid and in a matter of minutes, Alex was unbound. Grieve stepped back and was turning around to face Glorfindel when the Elf simply hauled off and struck him in the jaw, neatly knocking him out.

Alex grunted in approval as he sat there rubbing his wrists, trying to get circulation back. He looked around and saw that Farrell had ceased to struggle against Amroth, who was the stronger, that, plus the fact that Mithlas and Elladan were standing over him with arrows pointed at his heart. Amroth grabbed Farrell’s gun and removed the clip, slipping it into a pocket as he threw the gun away before standing up.

By now, the sirens were closer and then they stopped, the silence that followed almost deafening. A few minutes later several police officers and deputy sheriffs came running down the path and even through the woods on either side, their guns out. Dave Michaelson and Carl Graff brought up the rear.

And right behind them came a woman, unknown to the Elves. Glorfindel noticed Alex’s eyes widening in recognition, and even Amroth looked surprised, as did Farrell. The other three agents weren’t in any position to notice much of anything just then.

It was Carl Graff, though, who broke the silence that had fallen at the arrival of the police, shaking his head. "Arrows? You used arrows against these?" He bent down and picked up one of the fallen automatics.

Beleg, who was coming out of the wood, sneered. "Their wounds are not life threatening. If we had meant to kill them they would all be dead. We will tend to them."

"You?" Graff demanded, narrowing his eyes.

Beleg did not back down. "Do you know how to treat arrow wounds?" he asked and then, not bothering to wait for an answer, he motioned to Mithlas even as he knelt beside Armstrong and competently began removing the arrow from the man’s shoulder as Mithlas held him down. Armstrong screamed as the arrow was pushed through his shoulder and fainted. The police officers and sheriff’s deputies all looked a little green at that, but the Elves just ignored them. Elladan, Elrohir and Laurendil helped with bandaging the wounds from a small first aid kit Elohir had brought along. "Their wounds will need suturing, but this will hold them until we can get them to the hospital," Elrohir commented as he pressed some sterile gauze onto Armstrong’s shoulder and taped it in place.

"Carl," Glorfindel said to the sheriff. "We need ambulances or a med-evac. Finrod’s been shot and my assistant, Zach Austin, has a broken arm. He and Derek Lowell, one of our students, were kidnapped, along with Alex Grant, and tortured by these... gentlemen."

Graff nodded and began issuing orders to one of his deputies to call Bettles and have a med-evac copter brought in. He turned to Glorfindel. "We’ll need to get everyone back out on the road. There’s no room for the copter here."

Farrell, meanwhile, was being cuffed by one of the police officers while Dave Michaelson began Mirandizing him. Farrell just sneered. "You can’t hold me," he declared before Michaelson got very far with reading the man’s rights. "I’ll be out in an hour."

"Are you sure about that?" the woman said, speaking for the first time. She flicked a glance at Artemus and Amroth, her expression revealing nothing of what she was thinking. "Hello, Ambrose. It’s been a long time. Meriwether, you have a lot of explaining to do."

Alex (as Glorfindel continued thinking of him) glared at the woman. "I have a lot of explaining to do? Where do you get off, Maddy? I was doing my job and this bozo was messing things up big time. You have a lot of nerve coming here and stating I have a lot to explain. What about you? Where the hell were you all this time? You never responded to my emails and you left me with these goons to deal with. I don’t have anything to explain."

"Oh?" Farrell said. "How about explaining why you let Elwood live?"

"I keep telling you...."

"I know who and what you are!" Farrell spat out at Amroth. "You murdered Sam Bradford to keep your dirty little secret."

"Who was Bradford to you, Farrell?" Amroth asked.

"He confided in me," Farrell replied, ignoring Amroth’s question. "Oh yes, he told me all about you. ‘You’re my ace in the hole,’ he said to me. ‘Files can be destroyed. If anything happens to me, find Elwood and avenge me’."

"Avenge him?" Artemus echoed. "So did he suspect that Elwood would do something to him, or was that just hyperbole?"

Farrell glanced at Artemus, his expression full of pain. "Two months later, he disappeared. No one knew where, but I figured Elwood had to be involved. He was in Kuwait, alone. Why were you in Kuwait? Bradford never let you go into the field alone."

"Always a first time for everything," Amroth replied with a diffident shrug.

"Do you deny killing Bradford?" Farrell demanded.

But Amroth remained silent and after a moment, he turned away.

"I know what you are!" Farrell fairly screamed. "You and your friends. Oh yes," he said as Amroth turned back to him. "I know all about you... and them." He sneered at Glorfindel and the other Elves who were standing about.

Michaelson had had enough, though. Before Farrell could continue his tirade, he motioned to his officers. "Get him out of here. Book him for the murder of Burrill Ersck and Bobby Snyder and for kidnapping, attempted kidnapping, assault and anything else you can think of on the way back to Wiseman."

"You can’t hold me," Farrell insisted, even as the two officers started dragging him away. "I have immunity."

"We’ll let the courts decide that," Michaelson said, unimpressed by the man’s words.

"And may I remind you that I said the Agency will handle this," Maddy Washburn interjected. "Farrell and his men go back to Washington with me. I already have a plane waiting."

"No."

They all turned around to see a very pale Finrod being held up by Vorondur and Findalaurë. Glorfindel ran to him. "What are you doing here?" he demanded, speaking Quenya. "You should be lying down."

Finrod gave him a ghost of a smile, then addressed the others. "I claim right of trial," he said, speaking formally. "This Man will be tried in my court."

"Your court?" Michaelson couldn’t help saying, giving the Elf prince a hard look. "I don’t care how things are done where you come from, but here, we have certain rules of law and you’re completely out of line."

Finrod did not back down. "What I say stands. This Man and his companions belong to me. They will be tried in my court, first. Afterwards, you may have them."

"How magnanimous of you," Michaelson couldn’t help saying, giving Finrod a sneer. Finrod did not respond but the other Elves, especially Findalaurë, looked affronted.

"You do realize you are speaking to Finrod Felagund, don’t you?" Glorfindel said with a wry twist of a smile.

"I don’t care if I’m speaking to the Queen of England!" Michaelson shot back, clearly frustrated and angry. "This is not Valinor and Graff and I are the law here, not him, not you, not even Ms Washburn, though she’s been pushing her weight around ever since she showed up in Wiseman thinking she’s God’s gift to the rest of us with her orders. We play this by the book. Farrell and the others are under arrest for murder and kidnapping and the only court they’ll see is Judge Harrison’s when we arraign them."

"Dave, Dave," Glorfindel said soothingly. "Shhh... take a deep breath and let it out. You’re getting excited for no good reason. Let’s just get back to Wiseman and we’ll sort it all out there, okay? Finrod’s not holding court any time soon, anyway. He needs medical attention."

"Med-evac is on its way," Graff put in.

Glorfindel nodded, then turned to Vorondur. "Where are Zach and Derek?"

"Calandil, Elennen and Legolas are bringing them along the road," Vorondur answered. "They’re both still weak and trying to get through these woods would be difficult for them."

"Conrad," Michaelson called out. "Go and meet them. Take one of the cars to transport them back to the road. Do they need to be evacuated or can they stand the ride back?" he asked Vorondur.

"I would prefer them to be evacuated," Vorondur replied. "Zach needs that arm set."

"Fine," Michaelson said, then pointed to the other three agents. "What about these three?"

"They can ride," Elrohir answered. "This one is only unconscious and the wounds of the other two are not life threatening."

"Then, let’s round everyone up and get the hell out of here," Michaelson declared and no one had any reason to argue with that.

Five minutes later, they heard the sound of the copter coming from the south and ten minutes after that, a protesting Finrod, along with Derek and Zach, were being air-lifted to Wiseman. Vorondur insisted on going with them as did Findalaurë. Glorfindel and the other Elves did not bother getting into the police vehicles, stating they could make better time running across the fields.

"And I want to look in on Fred and Ellen and make sure they are all right," he told Michaelson and Graff. Neither of them argued with him. Maddy insisted that Artemus and Amroth ride with her in Michaelson’s car, but they both refused.

"You don’t own me, Maddy, not any more," Amroth said before he joined the other Elves as they headed up the road to the Steiner farm.

"And I have nothing to say to you at this time," Artemus declared, then purposely climbed into a car with a couple of deputies who drove off immediately. He never looked back.

****

Maethathanc!: (Sindarin) ‘Attack!’, literally, ‘Let us fight!’.