Extreme Medical Services Box Set Vol 1 - 3

by Jamie Davis

  Dean recognized the officers as part of the Unusual police unit. He waved to them as they approached. They looked around, then the driver, Officer Jimmy Shorter spoke.

  “I thought you were suspended? What are you doing out and geared up tonight?” he asked.

  “Hi, Jimmy,” Dean said. “I was out advising a CERT response team at the Barrens fire earlier tonight. We came back here and parked to regroup following that incident before dropping folks off at their homes. Most of my team was pretty shook up by the traumatic event. We were ready to pack up and head home for the evening when two black SUVs pulled up and a group of men kidnapped one of my team members, almost getting a second one before she fended them off.”

  He pointed down the street from which the police had arrived. “They drove off down that way when they left. The whole thing happened pretty fast. It couldn’t have taken more than a minute from start to finish.”

  Another police car pulled up followed by an unmarked sedan with a flashing blue light on the dash. Dean surmised the second vehicle would be a supervisor or detective. The two officers left his side to walk over and talk to the ladies. Dean watched the unmarked police vehicle for a moment and then felt his shoulders sag when he recognized the detective who climbed from the driver’s side. It was the same detective who had come for him following the finding of Zach dead in his apartment.

  “Mr. Flynn,” Detective Ricketts said as he approached. “I would have thought you’d want to stay out of any sort of police trouble considering the actual charges on the table against you.”

  “I am innocent of those accusations, Detective Ricketts, and this attack was unprovoked and a complete surprise to us,” Dean said. He supposed that distrust and suspicion was a job requirement for people in Detective Ricketts’ line of work, but that didn’t keep Dean from adding a tinge of anger to his response. He recounted the kidnapping again for the detective, stressing that he was afraid for Gibbie’s well-being. If The Cause had him, then Gibbie was in severe jeopardy. The detective wrote some notes on his spiral notepad, told Dean to stay put for the moment, and then went over to interview the women. Dean pulled out his phone while that was going on and called Celeste. She would know the best way to get ahold of James if he wasn’t home. Dean was sure he was still out managing the efforts to get the Barrens refugees some place to stay.

  “Hi, Dean, what can I do for you,” the redheaded vampire said in her characteristic Southern drawl. “Is everything okay?”

  Dean gave her the rundown on the rest of their evening since leaving the Barrens fire. He told her about the kidnapping of Gibbie, and the attempted abduction of Marian. She listened until he finished giving his report.

  “Okay, I’ll pass that along to James, as well as Rudy. As pack leader, he’ll want to know that one of his pack was attacked directly and bit someone. It’s not something they take lightly.”

  “It wasn’t her fault,” Dean interjected. “She was being attacked, and they were trying to kidnap her, too.”

  “I’m sure they’ll take her age and inexperience into account,” Celeste said. “It’s just the lycans, like the vampires, take turning a human into one of them very seriously. It is drummed into them from a young age that if you bring someone into the fold, you are responsible for them. This was an extreme case and situation, but that is likely one of the reasons she is so upset.”

  “Well, that’s good to know,” Dean said. “I still don’t think she had a choice. I’ll tell Rudy as much myself when I see him.”

  “I’m sure he’ll want to talk to you and Marian, when you get back,” Celeste surmised. “When will you be able to return the team to the Nightwing building? Based on this attack, I think James would like to see all of you. He wanted to thank the team for their work at the fire. Now I think he’ll want to find out what he can do to get Gibbie back.”

  “We should be finished here shortly. There’s really nothing else for the police to do,” Dean said. “There isn’t any evidence or stuff like that to collect. I think once they get finished talking with Marian, Wim, and Dora, the detective will let us leave.”

  “Okay, text me when you’re on your way,” Celeste said and then she disconnected.

  Dean pocketed his phone and walked over where Ricketts was wrapping up his interview with the dryad twins. He gave each of them his card and urged them to contact him if they remembered anything they didn’t tell him already. Ricketts turned to Dean and walked with him a short distance away.

  “Do you have any idea how they found you here?” Ricketts asked.

  “What do you mean?” Dean replied.

  “Well, it looks like they targeted you specifically if this was The Cause,” the detective explained. “Did you see anyone following you after you left the Barrens?

  “No, it was pretty deserted. It was like three AM when we finally left. There weren’t that many cars on the road.”

  “So, they either found you by chance. You know, recognized the van, and waited for you all to leave the shop where you stopped. The alternative is that they tracked you here somehow. Any thoughts?”

  Dean pondered the detective’s line of reasoning. How could they have tracked him and the CERT team when they didn’t know who they were or even what they were doing? He and Gibbie had gone to great lengths to keep the group separate from the Fire Department in every way. They had set up their own dispatch system and locations. The only recognizable thing was Gibbie’s van. Perhaps someone saw the van at the scene earlier with the Barrens fire and put two and two together? He knew that Artur was aware they were operating a response system on their own. He could have put The Cause on the lookout for them. If someone recognized him at the Barrens and saw Gibbie’s van, they would have targeted them. He told Detective Ricketts of his suspicions.

  “We will look into that,” Ricketts said. “It’s an interesting theory. Do you know how we can get in touch with this Artur character? Maybe we can rattle his cage and get him to give up some information.”

  Dean snorted a laugh, “I don’t think that Artur is easily ‘rattled,’ and he is not going to have anything to say to you. He is way too old and sharp to be tripped up in an interrogation. You’re welcome to try, though. I guess it can’t hurt. Maybe the increased scrutiny will pressure him to leave Elk City. You can get his contact information from James Lee or his assistant Celeste.”

  “I have to talk to him, at least,” the detective said. “We have to give it a try, and we will also look into his background. Maybe some of his business dealings will lead to a connection to The Cause. Look, I don’t think you did anything wrong here. As for your other legal problems with Zach’s death, the evidence points to you, but it’s too easy. You have a reasonable alibi that almost clears you, and we know that something bigger is going on here in the city. We just want it all to stop. Things used to run smoothly here, and everyone lived together and got along. Now we’ve got attacks on the streets, arsonists fire-bombing homes, and bigots trying to run people out of town. It’s not right. I just wanted to tell you what I thought.”

  “Thanks, Ricketts, I appreciate that,” Dean said. “I just want to get back out and start doing my job again. There are a lot of people, Unusual and otherwise, who are not getting the medical attention they need. We could be serving them. Instead, we are running around and dealing with the attacks and the fear. Hopefully, you can uncover something and get things ironed out.”

  “We’re trying,” Ricketts replied. “I have everything I need. You all can head home if you want. We will try and review the traffic cameras, as well as any security cameras in the area. We will see if we can figure out who took your friend and where they took him.”

  “Thanks,” Dean said. He took Gibbie’s recovered van keys out of his pocket and climbed into the driver’s seat, starting the vehicle. He waited while the ladies and Kristof climbed inside and buckled up. The whole situation made him angry. He had brought them here to help defuse the tension and stress. They had taken on a lot of that
when they responded to the Barrens fire. Now this attack had destroyed any headway he had made with the team on dealing with their stress. They were back where they started before the trip to Ireland, and he didn’t have any more tricks up his sleeve to talk them back down. He did the best he could engaging them in conversation while he headed back to the Nightwing building. Marian’s parents met them in the underground garage. Her dad came around to the driver’s side of the van to talk with Dean as soon as he got out.

  “I’m upset, Mr. Flynn. Upset that my daughter got caught up in this,” Marian’s father said. “We had hoped that her interest in this would keep her out of trouble, not get her in more trouble and attacked by those human monsters.”

  “I don’t blame you for being angry, Mr. Gregory,” Dean said. “I’m upset about this as well. I’m glad she is safe, but I’m very upset that she was forced to defend herself in such a direct way. I assure you that she bears no responsibility for this. In my opinion, she did what she had to do to avoid getting kidnapped like our friend.”

  “That may be true, but I hope you understand that she will not be coming out with you for a while,” Mr. Gregory said. “I will be keeping her home and close until this whole mess with this Cause blows over.”

  Dean nodded. He understood completely. He was glad she could afford to sit on the sidelines. No teenager should be mixed up in a mess like this. “I understand. Hopefully, we can get her back engaged with this work after we solve this current situation. I’ll make sure that we let you know what is going on.”

  The two men shook hands, and Dean walked with the others over to where James and Rudy waited to talk to them. He stood behind the group while the leader of Elk City’s Unusual population praised them for their work and told them that he was working with authorities to get Gibbie back. He then offered all of the CERT team a ride home with his personal security team to ensure their safety. Dean just wanted to go to bed and get some rest, like the rest of the team. On his way to the elevator, Celeste said she’d make sure to call him later in the afternoon in time to come up to the penthouse for a planning dinner that evening. He said he’d be there and pushed the button to take him up to his floor. It was time to put this night to bed.

  Chapter 72

  The dinner meeting that night was sedate, to say the least. Dean, Ashley, Brynne, and James all sat around the table in the penthouse apartment of the Nightwing building in silence, the only sound being the occasional scrape of a fork or knife on a plate. The aftermath of the Barrens fire and the later attack on Dean’s CERT team were on all of their minds. Twenty-eight bodies had been found in the search after the fire was contained. Of the injured, four or five more might still succumb to the burn injuries they sustained getting out of the burning trailers. It was a devastating loss for the Unusual community, and it took the attacks by The Cause to a whole new level.

  Domestic terrorism was a real problem, Dean knew, but for some reason, the situation in Elk City had avoided Federal attention. Perhaps because it was directed at the Unusual community and not the human community. Still, Dean found it hard to believe that the national leaders could so easily afford to turn away from the attacks of the previous evening. They couldn’t just let local authorities handle it, could they? Dean believed that they had made a grave error. It was the underserved and voiceless who needed the extra protection, and any Federal involvement now might be too little, too late anyway.

  Dean listened when they gathered for dinner as James told them that the FBI was sending a small task force including Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) investigators to look at the fire. He was afraid the incident would cause the Unusual community to dive deeper underground and avoid further contact with human government services, but he, as the leader of the Unusuals in Elk City, was obliged to welcome the Feds in and make sure he and his underlings cooperated with them. The Federal team would be made up of agents who were aware of the Unusuals and their presence in the U.S. population, that was certain, but what was their mandate? James wondered if they were just sent to make sure the incidents didn’t spill over into the human community. Dean knew one thing for sure: in light of the fire and the number of dead and injured there, they didn’t care about the abduction of one vampire responder. That was a local problem.

  It infuriated Dean that no one seemed to be looking for Gibbie. Anything could be happening to him right now. They could be torturing him, or maybe even already have staked him, ending his undead life. Dean clenched his fist and thumped it against his thigh in frustration. Ashley laid a hand on his fist, her fingers coaxing his hand to unclench and relax until her fingers interlaced with his. A gentle squeeze caused him to look at her where she sat next to him at the table. She gave him a tight-lipped, grim smile. He looked around at the others at the table. James was staring into the contents of his plain white mug, cupping the container of warm blood in two hands. Brynne was chewing a bite of food while she looked off into space somewhere out the windows at the nighttime skyline of the city. Everyone was stuck in their own, although similar, thoughts.

  “I think we should initiate our own search for Gibbie,” Dean said. He decided to break the silence and say what he hoped they all were thinking. “We can’t just sit here and do nothing.”

  “I’m not sure there is anything we can do,” Brynne said. She set her fork down and looked around at the others. “No one knows where they are staging their attacks from to begin with. All we know about them is they drive dark SUVs, but heck, there are hundreds of those driving around the city.”

  “I can’t believe there is nothing we can do, though,” Dean continued. “Isn’t there some sort of magical search we can do, some way to divine their presence?”

  “We used that route once, Dean,” Ashley said. “It pointed us to Fire Headquarters and confirmed Artur’s involvement. It did not uncover their hideout, though. The coven is still recovering from the blast, and even were they receptive to trying again, they will be unable for some time to make the attempt to pierce whatever concealment charms Artur has put in place.”

  “I still refuse to believe that there is nothing we can do to help,” Dean said. The police were no help. If there were a magical concealment spell on the hideout, humans would not be able to locate it. The police would literally drive right by it and see nothing. Dean knew that, but it didn’t resolve his feelings of helplessness.

  “We have to be patient, Dean,” Ashley said, giving his hand a reassuring squeeze under the table. “I sense no change in the future possibilities; there is still a major event to come that will require both you and James to act. That has not changed.”

  “Still no clue as to what that event might be Ashley?” James asked.

  “No, it is still hidden, but that is not unusual to me. I’ll not know it is directly imminent until almost the moment the event happens,” Ashley replied. “I can steer you and advise you on what I think you should do, but I’m not sure what effect any action you take will have until after it is done.”

  Brynne snorted a sarcastic laugh. “So we can have help, but not help that really gives us any real assistance. Typical.”

  “Brynne,” Ashley said. “I’m not here to tell you what to do. I’m a support network, to make sure you can make the choices required of you all when the time comes. But it still comes down to free will. You must arrive at your decisions on your own, without interference.”

  The female paramedic held up her hands, exasperated. “Ashley, I’m sorry. I’m not attacking you, I’m just frustrated like Dean and James are.”

  “No offense taken,” Ashley said with a smile.

  “So,” Dean interjected. “We are back to square one. We have no inkling what is happening and who we need to be dealing with next. Gibbie is still taken and needs our help. We have to do something more than sit here and bemoan our lack of solid plans.”

  “We may have a lead to follow-up on,” said a male voice from across the room. The group looked over towards the entrance to the penthouse
apartment. Dean experienced a glimmer of hope as he recognized Rudy, the werewolf pack leader, and James’ second. Rudy was leading the Unusual side of the investigation, informally at least.

  “What do you have, Rudy?” James asked. “Do we know where they are staging their attacks from?”

  “Close, boss,” the werewolf said with a feral grin. “I’ve been following up on the attack last night and the abduction of our friend. I decided to go and talk with each of the CERT team members who witnessed the attack. I started with the twins, and they didn’t remember anything different from what they had told the police. But, when I went to chat with Marian, I could tell that she was holding something back from me. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I could tell that there was something. I eventually had to go all alpha wolf on her to compel her to tell me what she was hiding. She told me about this.” He held up a smartphone, triumph showing in his face.

  “Whose phone is that? Is it hers?” James asked.

  “No it’s mine,” Rudy answered. “But it is not the phone itself that is the clue. It is what is on the phone. Our little counter-culture wolf-child hacked Gibbie’s phone when he wasn’t looking. She wanted to follow the CERT team calls at night, even when her parents wouldn’t let her out. She installed a spyware app on Gibbie’s phone so it would send its location to her phone. Not only that, but she also can remotely access the phone’s camera and microphone.”