Thunder Investigations
Dallas, TX

Briiing. Briiing.

Trent Malloy and Carlos Sandoval both looked up from the magazines they were reading to eye the phone. It was the first time it had rung all afternoon. Which was pretty bad considering it was just about 5 o'clock.

Briiing. Briiing.

"It's your turn to answer it," Carlos said smugly. Kim, their secretary, was away on vacation so it was up to them to answer the phone. He liked being a PI but had a tendency to say the wrong thing to customers and neither Trent nor Kim would allow him to negotiate payment deals anymore.

Trent just smiled as he reached for the phone. "Hello, Thunder Investigations. Oh, hi, Mom. What's.... I'm sure he's fine. He probably just lost track of time. Did you call.... They haven't seen him?"

Carlos had gone back to reading his Hot Rod Car magazine when he realized it was Trent's mom, but the concern in his friend's voice had him putting aside the magazine and sitting up straight.

"I know, Mom. It'll be all right. Carlos and I will...Mom?! What is it? We'll be right there." Trent was on his feet and hanging up the phone before Carlos could say anything. "I'll explain on the way."

Carlos just nodded following him out to Trent's convertible. Neither of them bothered with the doors, simply jumping in instead. Once they were on the road Carlos asked, "What's going on?"

"Mom called because Tommy hadn't come home yet. She'd called all his friends that she could think of and none of them had had seen him since just after school. I wasn't able to get much out of her but I think while we were on the phone a van pulled up in front of the house and dumped Tommy out. It...it didn't sound like he was in good condition."

"Madre de Dios," Carlos swore.

Fifteen minutes later they pulled up behind the ambulance in front of Trent's mom's house. Trent was out of the car before it even shutdown. "Mom?"

"Oh God, Trent," she cried, hugging him.

"What happened, Mom? How's Tommy?"

"I...I don't know. There was a van. They pushed him out. So much blood. There was so much blood, Trent." She began sobbing even harder, no longer coherent. Sensing Carlos come up next to him, he said, "Mom, Carlos is going to get you and the kids in the car. We'll take you to the hospital, okay? I just want to talk to the EMT's first. I'll be right back."

"Come on, Mrs. Malloy. Is there anything you or the kids need from the house?" Carlos nodded to Trent as he gently steered the distraught woman towards the two kids sitting on the front steps.

Making his way to where the EMT's were loading Tommy onto a stretcher, Trent tried to think of who would have done this and why. For the life of him he didn't know. The sight of blood covering his brother's clothes and the swelling already beginning to show on his face made Trent slightly nauseous. "How is he? Will he be all right?"

The EMT packing up the equipment looked up at him, "You are?"

"His older brother, Trent Malloy."

"He's in pretty bad shape, Mr. Malloy. We won't know how bad until we get him to the hospital. Oh, he said to make sure you got this," the medic held up Tommy's blood-covered backpack. "He was real insistent. Wouldn't let us help him until we promised."

"Thanks." Trent took it numbly, staring at the blood covering the nylon and leather. Carlos was at his side, gently guiding him to the mini-van. Without thinking he got in the backseat with his younger brother and sister. Carlos got in the driver's seat. He quickly got the van onto the street following right behind the ambulance. They were halfway there when Trent started to come out of the shock.

"Walker. I need to call Walker. Where's my cell..."

"I already called him, buddy," Carlos said soothingly. "Walker, Trivette, Alex and CD are going to meet us there. It's all taken care of. Everything's going to be all right. Tommy'll be just fine."

They arrived at the hospital the same time as the others. Alex immediately went to Mrs. Malloy, hugging her then helping her answer the nurse's questions. CD took the kids to the candy machine, reassuring them all the while. Walker and Trivette nodded to Carlos before turning concerned eyes on Trent.

"What happened, Trent?" Walker asked gently. The blonde man still had the look of someone in shock, his face even paler than usual.

"I don't know. Mom called because Tommy hadn't come home yet. The next thing I know she was shouting 'Oh God', and then she was saying they needed me and hung up. When we got to the house the ambulance was there and they were already loading Tommy inside. There was blood all over him. It was everywhere. So much..."

"Trent! He's gonna be okay. You hear me?" Carlos shook Trent's shoulder, getting his attention before he could start re-living past nightmares. "Tommy's going to be okay."

Trent nodded numbly. Wisely, Walker decided not to pursue that line of questioning until they knew for sure if Tommy would indeed be all right. He noticed Trent was clutching a blood-splattered backpack in his hands.

"Is that Tommy's?" he asked.

"What?"

"The backpack. Is it Tommy's?"

"Oh, yeah. The medic said Tommy made them promise to give it to me. Refused treatment until they did."

"Do you know what's inside it?"

"His schoolbooks I guess," Trent shrugged, frowning down at the bag.

"Whatever is in there, it sounds like Tommy thought it was important you get it. Maybe we should take a look?" Trivette suggested, already reaching into his jacket pocket for some plastic gloves.

"That sounds like a good idea," Walker agreed.

Carlos asked a passing nurse for some plastic bags while Trivette took the bag from Trent and put it down on a nearby table. Carefully opening the zipper all the way, he stepped back before pulling open the top flap. It looked like Trent had been right. "There's some books. Math, History, Spanish class. A notebook and these two articles. One's from a Texas paper, the Tascosa Herald. 'Bounty Hunter Cleared of Murder Charges.' And the other is an old Times Magazine cover; 'Hero Lost In Peru Is Found'. There doesn't seem to be anything to connect the two, although Tommy drew the same symbol on both."

Trivette shrugged and started to show them to Walker when Trent suddenly gasped. "Can I see them? Where's the symbol?"

Trivette turned the articles so Trent could see the symbol that had been drawn over the face in both pictures. They watched Trent turn an ashen color as he stumbled back, tripped and ended up sitting on the floor. His voice was hoarse as he whispered, "God, what have I done? Oh God, Tommy. Oh God. Oh God. Oh God."

"Snap out of it, Trent," Carlos knelt in front of his best friend, grasping his upper arms as the man began to rock. "What does the symbol mean, hermano? Who are those men?"

"Captain Ellison and Private Tanner. Friends of mine in the Rangers. The symbol belongs to...to a monster. A monster we put behind bars 8 or 9 years ago." Trent gripped Carlos' arms tightly as another thought came to him. "I have to warn them. They have to know, if it's not too late already. God, if he gets a hold of Vin..."

"Easy, Trent. Why don't we find someplace quiet to sit and you can tell us the whole story," Walker said gently, then to the nurse who stood nearby watching them worriedly, "Is there somewhere private we can go?"

"Sure. You can use the nurse’s lounge. It's right..."

"No, I need to know about Tommy," Trent tried to argue.

"Someone will let us know as soon as there's word," Walker reassured him. "All right?"

Trent nodded and allowed himself to be led to the lounge. He was thankfully his little brother and sister hadn't seen him lose it like that, nor his mom. The last thing he wanted to do was add to their worries. In the nurse's lounge he sank down onto the couch, his head dropping down into his hands. Carlos sat next to him, a reassuring hand on his back. Walker and Trivette pulled up chairs to sit across from him.

"Why don't you start from the beginning, Trent. Who is this man and what did he do while you were in the Rangers?"

Trent took a deep breath. He still remembered the whole nightmare like it was yesterday and he hadn't even been at the center of it. That honor had gone to the poor kid, Vin. He almost snorted at that thought. He was only four years older than him. "While I was in the Rangers I specialized in teaching martial arts and self-defense to new recruits. The base I was at was predominantly the Rangers. Lot of Special Ops launched out of there. We had some of the best stationed at that base. One unit in particular, Ellison's Jags. They had the highest success rate, never lost a man. Some of the guys believed Ellison was part jaguar. He was that good. After sparring with him a couple of times I could see the comparison. The man moved like a cat and was scary as all hell to those who didn't know him. Even those who did feared his temper. But the Captain was a good man. His men were family. That's how he treated them and that's how he protected them. You never messed with one of his men and didn't expect to feel his wrath.”

"So one day he shows up in the gym with this scrawny-looking kid trailing along behind him. Says to me, 'Malloy, this here is Runt. He needs to learn how to defend himself properly. Teach him.' Then he says to the kid, 'You mind him, Tanner, or you're hamburger. Understand?' Tanner just gives him this slow nod and watches him walk away. All the while he's slouching against the wall. The second the door closed it was like watching a Jekyll and Hyde. He straightens to full attention and barks out his name and rank. 'Private Vin Tanner, sir. Where would you like to start, sir?' Tanner had a Texas drawl so thick even I had a hard time understanding him. Figured out later he used it as a way of keeping people at a distance.

"He'd been taken right from boot camp and tossed into Ranger training. Apparently some General saw him on the firing range taking out targets with a handgun that most guys couldn't hit with a rifle. He was Ellison's new sniper. Vin was also real good at disappearing into the brush. If Ellison was a jaguar then Vin was his shadow. And you knew if either if of them ever said they had a bad feeling about something all hell was about to break loose." Trent paused again, sipping from the juice Carlos handed him

"About six weeks after I started working with him, he and five other recruits were sent out on a training mission with a Sergeant Andrew Moran and three of his goons is the only way to describe them. I remember Vin had been real uneasy about going. He couldn't give a solid reason for not going and we hadn't learned yet to trust his instincts. I wish to God we had. Moran turned into a monster. The man went totally insane. According to Vin it started out normal enough. They went into the field on foot in full gear with Moran and his men driving along side in two jeeps. About two miles out they stopped and Moran forced them to hand over all their weapons. Their hands were then bound together and they were tied three each to the two jeeps. They were then forced to run to keep up. If one went down they all went and were dragged until Moran felt like stopping to allow them to get to their feet. They traveled six miles like that on a mostly dirt road. When they finally stopped for the night they were told the objective of the training mission had changed. Instead of searching for and neutralizing a target location they were going through POW training."

"POW training?" Walker frowned. "First year recruits are never put through POW training, and I thought that was all done at Fort Lubbox?"

"Wait a minute. What's POW training?" Trivette asked.

"Torture," Trent said simply. "Certain Special Forces units go through POW training when they are likely to be going into high-risk information sensitive situations. They're put through all the forms of torture they're likely to encounter."

"Before that happens the trainees go through a whole range of psychological testing to weed out those who are completely unsuitable. The military isn't in the habit of driving it's soldiers insane on purpose." Walker added.

"So your friend Vin and those other guys weren't supposed to be anywhere near this POW training and this Sergeant Moran knew that right?" Carlos asked, wanting to make sure he had everything straight.

"Yeah, Moran knew it. I still don't know how he expected to get away with the whole thing. It was a six-day training mission. Moran was supposed to report in each night. When there was no contact on the third day a unit was sent after them. Ellison and his men wanted to go but the General in charge of the base wouldn't let them. Good thing too otherwise Moran and his men wouldn't have come back alive. Not that they deserved to live after what they did to those boys." Trent got to his feet, pacing a few steps, keeping his back to them. Carlos was a little stunned by the anger and hate he heard in his long-time friend's voice. He'd never known Trent to hate anyone and certainly not with such passion.

"What happened to them, Trent?" Walker asked gently, bringing the younger man back to the present.

Trent turned back around and leaned against the wall, his arms folded over his chest. "I'm still not entirely sure of everything that was done to them. The trial was closed to everyone. The only people allowed in the courtroom were those who were directly involved, the JAG officers, and Captain Ellison. Material witnesses were there only for the duration of their testimony. I was called to the stand because I'd been training Vin and I'd had a previous run-in with Moran over one of my other students. Anyone could tell that the only thing keeping Vin together at that point was Ellison. I do know that they were beaten, put on water rations, a couple of them were whipped, and one of them had his arm broken. They branded Vin with hot pokers. I suspect they also assaulted him, but I don't know for sure and I wasn't going to ask.

"Of the six of them that went on the training mission four took a medical discharge from the army, one of whom killed himself six months later. Vin and the fifth, Private Peters stayed in the Army. Peters took a desk assignment as a Colonel's aide. That Colonel is now a three-star General and Peters is still with him. Vin, well, he stayed with Ellison's unit. Didn't say a word though unless he absolutely had to for close to a year. You could talk to him but he'd just sit there and stare at you with this unreadable look. Then one day he comes back from a weekend leave and it's like the past year never happened. Oh, he'd still get a look in his eyes every now and then, but somehow he'd moved past it. The thought of Moran getting his hands on Vin again." Trent shook his head, his gaze dark as he locked eyes with Walker. "I need to find Vin. I need to warn him and Ellison."

"What about the other victims?" Walker asked.

"Moran won't go after them."

"Why not?" Trivette asked.

"They wouldn't testify against him. Only Vin did with supporting testimony from Ellison and myself. Moran swore he'd get even. But he's supposed to be locked up in an Army Psychiatric ward somewhere. He’s serving six consecutive life-sentences with no chance for parole."

There was a light knock, drawing their attention before any more could be said. A doctor stood in the doorway, waiting for them to notice him. "Trent Malloy?"

"That would be me. Are you Tommy's doctor?"

"Yes, I'm Doctor Gray. Your brother is going to be just fine. Most of his wounds were what we call bleeders. A lot of blood but very little damage. There's quite a bit of bruising and he's got a cracked rib. He'll be sore for a while, but he's going to make a full recovery. I've already talked with your mother. The plastic surgeon is still with him, but they should be moving him to a room in about half an hour. Do you have any questions?"

"No. Thank you, Doctor. For taking care of my brother."

"No thanks are necessary, Mr. Malloy. It's what I do. If you do have any questions I'll be on duty for another few hours. Just have one of the nurses page me."

"Thank you." Walker exchanged nods with the doctor and the man left leaving them alone again. "Why don't you go stay with your mother, Trent? Jimmy and I will go see if we can find your friends."

"All right. Captain James Ellison. He was from Cascade, Washington if I remember correctly. Finding Vin Tanner though is going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack. He was from Houston, Texas originally then somehow he ended up in Denver, Colorado when he was ten or so. Lived on the streets but managed to get his high school diploma and joined the Army first chance he had. I haven't seen him since he left Fort Willis a month after Ellison's unit went MIA in Peru. Ellison volunteered him for a solo that kept him off that mission. I think the Captain knew something was wrong and was trying to protect him. Tanner went after the man who gave them the bad intel. Got himself court-martialed and assigned to a new base."

"We'll see what we can do," Walker assured him as they all walked back into the hallway.

"You just hang in there, Trent. We'll let you know as soon as we have something," Trivette added.

"Yeah. Thanks, guys."

"See you, Carlos." They nodded to the Latino before heading off down the hallway. Carlos looked at his friend in concern.

"You doing okay, buddy?"

"I'll be alright, Carlos," he said, leaning against the taller man for a brief moment, trying to absorb some of his strength. "I'll be even better when I know this monster is off the streets and can't hurt Vin anymore."

"You really cared for this guy, don't you?"

"He was a good kid, a good friend. Seemed like he never got a break until he was assigned to Ellison's unit. Even then he had Moran trying to take him down. Despite everything that was done to him he was a good man. He didn't let it destroy him. I just hate the thought of Moran getting a second chance at it. C'mon, let's go see if we can see Tommy yet."

A short while later they were all crowded into Tommy's hospital room waiting for him to wake up. Tommy began to stir slightly. Instantly Trent and his mom were by his side. A few more minutes passed before his eyes blinked open and semi-focused on his mom. "Mom?"

"I'm right here, baby. You're going to be alright. The doctor said you were going to be just fine."

"Trent?! Where's Trent, Mom?"

"I'm right here, buddy. It's okay. They're not going to hurt you again."

"Trent, my backpack. Did you get my backpack? He put something in it. He said you had to get it."

"Yeah, I got it. I know who did this to you and he's going to pay for it. I promise, little brother."

"He said he was going to get even for what you did to him. Said some guy named Tanner was finally going to learn his lesson and there was nothing you or somebody named Ellison could do about it. What was he talking about, Trent?"

"Something from when I was in the Rangers. He won't hurt you again, Tommy. I promise. Why don't you try and get some more rest, okay?" Trent said, seeing Walker and Trivette in the doorway. Tommy nodded, clutching their mother's hand tightly as he started to drift off to sleep again.

Trent and Carlos stepped out into the hallway. "What did you find?"

"You were right about Ellison," Jimmy said. "He's back in Cascade working as a police detective in the Major Crimes unit. Highly decorated. His partner's name is Blair Sandburg. We also found Tanner. He's living in Denver again and he is an ATF agent, working with a team of six other men. We talked with their superior and it turns out they're in Cascade this week for a week-long seminar."

"Huh. I don't know if that's good or bad. It's good because I can warn them both at the same time, but bad because it makes things easier for Moran. Did you get addresses for them? I have to go warn them and it'd probably be better if I did it in person."

Walker held out a folder. "Here's their addresses, some background information on Ellison, Tanner, and their respective partners. There's also two plane tickets in there. Your flight leaves in two hours."

Trent just stared at them for a moment, "But..."

"I knew you'd want to go warn them as soon as possible and I also figured Carlos wasn't likely to let you go alone."

"You got that right. No way I'm letting you face this guy alone, hermano."

"Thanks, Carlos, and thanks, Walker, Jimmy."

"No problem, Trent."

"What's going on, Trent?" Mrs. Malloy asked, coming out into the hallway.

"I know where the guy who did this is going, Mom, and me and Carlos are going after him. I also have to warn a couple of friends of mine. He's going to go after them next. He only hurt Tommy to get to me."

She nodded in understanding, knowing better than to ask questions she either didn't want to know the answers to or he couldn't tell her the truth about. "You get him, Trent. You bring this man to justice for Tommy, and for me."

"I will, Mom. I promise."

"Good. You boys be careful. I love you both and expect you to come back here in one piece."

"We will, ma'am," Carlos smiled and hugged her then stepped back so Trent could do the same. With a nod to Walker and Trivette they left to go pack and catch their plane.

Part 5