Get up, she thought as she completed the roll to her left, the two now separated by a couple of feet. The report of a handgun filled the library as she saw the book next to her head shred to pieces. She ducked, receded and tried to calculate the location of the shot. Certainly, still ground level and likely the stack to her left.
She ran top speed down her column searching for another Shinobi knife. The woman appeared 10-feet in front of her, gun at the ready. Donatella could see her knuckles flex as she prepared to pull the trigger. With two knives on either side of her middle finger, she let loose while diving headfirst to the ground.
The round exploded from the gun and this time impacted her left shoulder, spinning her 180 degrees. She slid on her back, blood oozing from her wound as the woman fell face first to the right of her. Donatella tried to move her left arm and the signals firing from the brain were not being received by the arm. “Shit!” she said out loud in a low voice.
She could hear the footfalls of the man preparing to enter this column. The gun the woman was carrying was now tucked slightly under her lifeless body. She tugged at the barrel of the gun, praying it didn’t go off as the footsteps grew near. She extracted the weapon and spun it on the ground until the handle hit her palm.
The man stood over her, triumph in his eyes, her Sig Sauer in his hand. With a smirk he leveled the pistol at her head. He opened his mouth to say something and Donatella placed two rounds through the opening before he could formulate a word. His head, and his body blew backward as her gun fell to her lap. Eleven down, she thought and let her head fall to the ground.
Chapter 21
A s Detective Sampson rode the down escalator, he realized how deep he was infiltrating the museum. If Jasmyn Thompson was not in location Beta, they would have to search the entire building. He looked down at his watch. Fifteen minutes left. He didn’t know what would happen when the time limit expired and in everything he learned about this Terri Buckley – he didn’t want to find out.
At the bottom of the escalator he made the turn leading him toward the Exhibition Gallery. BJ warned breaking into this location would take some work. As part of the security mechanisms, a retinal scanner had been installed. He had a couple of theoretical ideas to defeat this security measure, but his confidence level was low.
“I’m at the door,” came a hushed, harsh voice from Sampson.
BJ, as always, was prepared and read off the 10-digit sequence for Sampson to enter. Before entering the final digit, Sampson muttered a silent prayer. The electronic lock disengaged and he let out an audible sigh of relief. He needed something to go right because up to this point so much had already gone wrong.
This next part, the retinal scanner, was the biggest crapshoot he ever saw in his life. Even when BJ explained the plan, Sampson thought it was risky.
“What we will do is take a high-resolution picture of Sampson’s eye – in fact, let’s do both to be safe. Images are stored as their ASCII values which have been encrypted before resting at the database. Within the hour, I will have cracked their encryption and will have the key necessary to store the images supplied by Sampson.”
“What’s the probability of this being successful?” Donatella inquired.
“Roughly 32 percent.”
“That’s it?!” yelled Marcellous. “We are risking the life of my wife on a 32 percent chance of success?”
“Given the situation we are in, that unfortunately, is the best we can do. This security system is pretty airtight. If we make it that far, under any other circumstance, this would be considered a win.
The moment of truth was now staring him in the face. “Please scan eye” was written across the screen and the location where the eye was to be scanned glowed an ominous green.
Sampson muttered another, yet slightly longer, prayer and positioned his eye next to the scanner. His mind raced as the laser raced across his eyeball and imminent failure began to register in his mind. Three seconds later the light turned green and again, he let out a sigh of relief. He pulled his sidearm from the holster, opened the door and stepped through the entrance – he was in.
Inside the Exhibit Gallery Sampson spotted a freestanding white structure about 20 paces diagonal from his current position. Bright lights were bursting from the seams of the structure as if it was hastily thrown together. This feels right, he thought as he stalked forward.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps moving toward the entrance of the structure so he slid behind a vertical pillar just to his right. A woman in a full set of green scrubs walked through the exit followed by two armed guards. The guards didn’t seem to be interested in the woman as they gazed the horizon for pending threats. The woman pulled down her mask and extracted a cell phone from her pocket. Sampson was close enough to hear the numbers report with each press on the phone. The woman put the phone to her ear.
“We are all set here. The patient is still sedated and per our plan she will be awaken after the procedure.” A pause ensued and then she continued, “Confirmed, we will start immediately.”
She placed the phone back into her pocket and turned to head back to the room.
In that moment Sampson knew he had to make a decision – and he decided. He stepped from behind his hiding spot, leveled his gun at the mullet cut being sported by the man closest to him and squeezed.
The back of his head exploded in a red mist as Sampson swung his pistol to take aim on the other armed man. The sound of the gunshot echoed in the space and was enough to get the other assailant reacting. Before Sampson could line up his shot the man flattened to the ground and searched for cover.
The woman ran back to the entrance as two more guards came filing out of the structure.
“Shit!” he said out loud and into the mic. “I think I have found Jasmyn in location Beta. Being engaged by hostiles. One down, three more present.”
He fired at the second man coming through the entrance clipping him in the neck.
“Two down.”
He ducked back behind cover as two shots flew by. He realized he was being reckless. If Jasmyn was in there, he couldn’t fire weapons freely. He needed to be careful. Furthermore, he didn’t have time to allow this gun battle to carry on.
Two more shots hit the pillar taking chunks out with each impact. This pillar is not going to hold at this rate. The second enemy on the scene ran across the opening while his partner laid down suppressing fire; however, Sampson decided to take his chance.
He spun from his cover while simultaneously hitting the ground in a prone position. He stitched a trio of rounds progressively moving from ankle to torso. He thought he heard to shots penetrate cloth prior to seeing the adversary hit the ground.
The man laying down suppressing fire turned momentarily to see his partner hit the ground and Sampson continued to press his advantage. He crab-walked with as much speed as he could muster. Once he reached the location the assailant was using for cover, he dove around the corner firing two more shots. Both bullets caught the man in the abdomen and he slouched over dropping the weapon in his hand.
Sampson wasted no additional time – he hopped to his feet and ran to the entrance of the structure.
Inside the room he saw Jasmyn stretched out on an operating table. The woman he saw outside just a few moments prior stood over Jasmyn’s lifeless body with a scalpel in hand. Fear gripped him, Am I too late? Then he recalled the conversation the woman had with the faceless voice on the other end.
“The patient is still sedated…”
“Drop the scalpel,” he demanded pointing the pistol directly at her head.
In a remarkably calm and poised voice the woman spoke, “I suggest you drop the gun. You’re likely too stupid to know that this scalpel is resting on Ms. Jasmyn’s carotid artery. With a small amount of pressure this extremely sharp instrument will splice through her skin and sever the artery. She will die and there will be nothing you can do about it.”
“I can shoot you between the eyes if I see one m
uscle flex in your body!”
“You could but it – ”
Sampson fired three shots, planting each one between the eyes. He quickly surveyed the room for any additional threats and saw none. He ran over to Jasmyn and pressed two fingers against her neck. Her pulse resonated and for the third time he sighed with relief.
“Jasmyn is secure. I repeat, Jasmyn is secure.”
Donatella heard the report over the earpiece from Sampson. He had Jasmyn, and that meant their primary mission was now complete. However, her job was not done. She had only been laying on the floor for 30 seconds before the all clear came in from Sampson. The feeling in her arm began to come back yet the bleeding had not stopped.
She sat up and looked over at her left shoulder. She saw the entry and exit wound which was a good sign as the shot was a through and through. She could move the pinky, ring, and middle finger, but her pointer and thumb were still giving her fits. She tried to raise her arm and was met with less than 10 percent in mobility. This will have to do, she thought pushing herself to her feet with her good arm while holding on to her Sig Sauer.
As she began to move away from the stacks, the room was pitched into darkness.
“I wondered how long you would lay your sorry ass on the floor,” came Buckley’s voice from the PA. I have to admit, the trick you did with the lights – I never saw that coming. Seems like you had some assistance. Strange for a woman who kicked her partner to the side because she preferred to work alone. Kudos to your tech on the outside. He – or she – was able to dip into our system undetected and managed to keep us out while you went on your little killing spree. Seems like killing is becoming easier and easier every time I see you.”
“The only person I want to kill at this moment is you,” Donatella said through gritted teeth. “Why don’t you show yourself so we can settle this once and for all.”
“There, there. No need to be hostile. All you had to do was ask.” A light illuminated in a room elevated roughly 20 feet from the floor. In the room behind a curved glass stood Terri Buckley. She stared down at Donatella with her arms placed behind her back.
“Seems to me all of your efforts are about to come up short. You see I just gave the go ahead to extract your newest godchild from your newest friend. It’s too bad you will not be there for the birth. I haven’t decided what to do with the baby, but rest assured the mother-to-be will never meet the baby. Once the precious bundle of joy is delivered, let’s just say the mother will be dealt with swiftly.”
Donatella realized Buckley did not know about Sampson and the fact he had just rescued Jasmyn. This was good as they could hopefully escape unnoticed.
“I figured the least I could do before ending your miserable existence was to let you know the fate of yet one more person you swore to protect. You seem to be a constant failure, it’s a wonder how you still have a badge.”
Donatella snapped the Sig eye level and emptied it in the direction of Terri. She wasn’t surprised to see Terri, still standing with a smirk on her face. There was no way she would be in the same room unless she had some sort of protection. Donatella released the empty clip, placed the gun under her left arm and retrieved a new clip with her right hand. She slid the clip into the butt of her Sig and then banged the gun on her hip to lock the clip into place.
“Seems like that left shoulder of yours always gets in the way. No worries, you will not live long enough to deal with the pain.” The emergency lights illuminated around the room. Circular sections of the floor around the room opened and long cylindrical containers began to elevate from the floor.
“Let me officially introduce you to ‘TDK’ – The Donatella Killer. No doubt you’ve seen the effects of its handy work in the aptly named GIS Massacre, and once again in the Penny Hampton case. The scientists worked to perfect its effects for months after our last encounter at Orbitz Technology. It received its debut at GIS and I have to admit, it performed well. However, death came too soon. There was not enough – agony. So, they tweaked the formula once again and the excruciating time it took for Mrs. Hampton to expire met the desired goal.”
“Now, before you decide to go all Rambo and shoot the containers, I’ll tell you that would be a grave mistake. You see, the faster the mist is dispersed, the longer it takes for the effects materialize. Counter intuitive, I know, but a design requirement I had from day one. The longer it takes, the more agony you feel, so I suggest you leave my canisters just as they are,” she mirthlessly chuckled.
“Now, I have a plane to catch. There is a certain someone I need to go and pay a visit.” The elevated room went dark and the lights to the library were once again fully lit.
Donatella spoke calmly over the comms, “BJ, I’m in the library. Find me an alternative route out of this room.”
She visually searched each corner of the room. The canisters were strategically placed so that the mist would reach each corner of the library at precisely the same time.
BJ came back on the comms, “Two of the four walls are load balancing and thus have been reinforced. The door looks to have been locked remotely and the encryption for this lock has been changed. I don’t have the key and it’ll take a few minutes for my software to break the code.”
The mist from the canister to her immediate left began to hiss and a lavender colored haze began to creep across the room.
“How much time do you need?” SA Dabria asked BJ.
“Five maybe six minutes,” came the reply.
“Hurry then, BJ. Hurry.”
Donatella took inventory of the room once again and went into action. She quickly removed her shirt, wrapped it around her head covering her mouth and nose. She pulled the binding tight and began moving.
She pulled the body of the girl that lay closest to her toward the canister. Working with one good arm, she pressed the body against the right side of the canister.
The mist coming from that side slowed as it pushed against the body but continued to blast in full force out the left side.
Satisfied, she moved toward the next canister. Five feet from the canister lay the body of another for who expired during the battle. Although his stature was small, he was compact – dense. It took more exertion than she would have expected but she finally had him in place.
She could feel the effects of the poison already coursing through her body. She had an unbelievably warm sensation running across her skin as if it was on fire. She did her best to ignore this feeling and the pain in her shoulder.
She ran in the direction of the next canister. There was a man lying on his back close to the canister, but he was nearly twice the size of Donatella. If she had the use of both arms, she could move him. However, with one being out of commission, she opted for the woman who was further away, but smaller.
As she dragged the woman, she lost her balance, and fell. Struggling back to her feet, she could feel a sensation tugging at her esophagus. The feeling made her want to clutch at her throat and with her bare hands attempt to rip out the pain. She blocked out this newest distraction and propped the woman in place.
“BJ, update,” she croaked barely recognizing her own voice.
“Another three minutes.”
Donatella began to run the mental calculations. Time was running short and her options were dwindling. The haze generated by the spewing canisters had covered roughly 70 percent of the room. She ran through a cloud of the poison closing her eyes and holding her breath until she reached the one closest to the door. There she realized two hard realities.
The first - the door didn’t have a keypad on the inside. Breaking the encryption would not do her any good.
The second – her legs had gone completely numb and she could not move them anymore. She fell to the ground, throat closing, skin burning. She thought to herself, before her world went dark, at least Jasmyn and my godchild are safe.
Epilogue
T he sound of machines chiming and the smell of disinfectant filled the air. The temperature felt a
bnormally cool, but somehow comforting. Hushed voices could be heard deep in conversation, but no discernable words could be made out.
Special Agent Donatella Dabria opened her right eye and then the left. The owners of the hushed voices stood in front of her in a white haze hiding all pertinent features. She tried to lift her left arm to find it had been immobilized. Her mind pressed for answers, though none were forthcoming.
Where am I? How did I get here? Why am I here? She blinked a couple of times to bring her eyes into focus. The person in front of her, she still couldn’t tell who it was, must have noticed some movement as they came rushing to the Special Agent.
“Donatella,” came the soft reassuring voice. “My name is Dr. Emily West.”
A few more blinks of her eyes and her vision began to clear. Standing next to the bed stood a mid-30s woman with auburn hair straightened to shoulder length. She wore what appeared to be frameless rectangle glasses but upon later inspection turned out to be silver.
“Welcome back,” she said picking up with the conversation. “We’ve been waiting for you to rejoin us.”
Us? Donatella turned her head back toward the foot of the bed. For the first time she noticed Detective Sampson and Marcellous Thompson standing there.
“You gave us quite a scare there for a while; however, you’re expected to make a full recovery. You’ll need to do some rehab for your shoulder to regain full range of motion, but other than that I think you’ll be good to go.”
She began to recall the gunshot wound she took to the shoulder and the fight that took place within the museum. Many of the details were still a little fuzzy as she tried to bring them to the forefront of her mind.
“I promised your visitors they could stay for only a few minutes. One or both of them have been here every day since you were brought into the hospital. I’ll leave you all alone.”
Hour of Reckoning (Donatella Book 2) Page 27