Extreme Medical Services Box Set Vol 1--3

by Jamie Davis

  Gibbie turned the large iron key in the big green door to lock it behind them and placed it on the counter next to the cash register as Dougie had requested. The vampire said he was going out to warm up the van and asked Dean to make sure the shop door was latched behind them when everyone else left. The three women were chatting about their trip to Ireland and what they were going to tell family and friends as they walked out the shop’s entrance to the street outside. Kristof followed them out. Dean double-checked that they had left nothing behind and then pulled the shop’s door closed behind him, tugging the solid door until he felt the latch click. He checked to make sure it was locked and was turning to walk across the sidewalk to the van when chaos erupted on the street around the team.

  Two black SUVs raced up and screeched to a stop next to the van, and six men dressed in black pants, and black hooded sweatshirts jumped out. They tossed a loop of shiny, silvery cable around Gibbie’s neck. The tubby vampire shrieked in agony as his hands went to his neck to try and pull the loop free. Dean saw smoke coming off the cable where it contacted his skin. Four of the men pulled at Gibbie and shoved him into the open back lift gate of one SUV while two others were wrestling with Marian. The teenager screamed at first, and Wim and Dora’s screams of fear joined hers as the two dryads shrank away from the violence.

  Marian’s scream turned into a long, ripping snarl as she started to shift in front of Dean’s eyes. He had never seen a lycan shift so quickly. To his knowledge, it took a full minute or more most of the time. This transformation only took a few seconds as her hands sprouted talons, her face elongated, and her mouth sprouted large canines. The transformed teen werewolf turned and bit down hard on one of the men’s forearms. It was his turn to scream in fear as he let go, clutching his arm and staring at the bite in horror. The other man let go of his grip and backed away, but not fast enough. Marian’s clawed hands swiped across his face and chest, leaving bloody slash marks through the sweatshirt and across his face.

  The two wounded men backed away and then stumbled over to their SUV. They struggled to climb over each other to get back inside, away from the angry werewolf racing up behind them. The other black-clad men had finished loading Gibbie into the back of their vehicle. When they saw that the fight had shifted, instead of coming to help Marian’s would-be abductors, they opted to load up into their own vehicle. As soon as the last of them had climbed in, before the last door was closed, both black SUVs peeled out with screeching tires, driving away into the night. Marian chased after them for half a block, howling at the escaping attackers. It had all happened so quickly; Dean had barely taken two steps from where he had stood at the door to The Irish Shop. The dryad twins were huddled together in fear next to Gibbie’s van, Kristof had moved over to comfort them, and Marian was stalking back towards them, half in wolf form and half in human form, snarling and growling the whole way. Dean moved out into the street to intercept her.

  “Marian,” Dean said, trying to adopt a soothing tone, despite his racing heart. “The danger is past. You can return to human form. Can you hear me? Listen to my voice.”

  He kept talking as she walked up to him, her wolfish face tilted to one side as if questioning his words. He kept up the running dialog, trying to talk her back down. She stopped a few feet from him and stared at him for a moment, then, with a whimper, shifted back to human form. She collapsed to the street, sobbing, tears flowing down the restored teen girl’s face. When Wim and Dora saw she had shifted back, they ran over and crouched to comfort her.

  Dean stood in the street in front of Gibbie’s van and looked around in the darkness. There were no other cars in sight. No other signs of danger to his team. Not that there needed to be. The Cause had come prepared to kidnap a vampire. That metal cable must have contained a silver alloy of some sort. It was toxic to vampires and leeched away their strength as long as it was in contact with their skin. As prepared as they were for Gibbie, they obviously weren’t as prepared for a shape-shifting teenager, and judging from the looks on the one man’s face, weren’t properly inoculated against Lycanthropism, the disease that caused shape-shifting. Marian’s bite had almost assuredly infected him. Dean wondered what The Cause did with members who became Unusuals. Whatever it was, it probably wasn’t a good thing.

  Dean took out his phone and dialed 911, telling the dispatcher that he had to report a kidnapping. He stayed on the line, giving the details of what he had seen while he waited for the arrival of the police units that were on the way. Wim and Dora helped Marian stand and took her over to the van. Dean saw Gibbie’s keys lying on the street next to the driver’s door. While he talked to the dispatcher, continuing to answer the questions she had on the other end of the phone line, he walked over and picked up the keys. He could hear sirens in the distance, coming closer. Soon, a police cruiser with lights flashing and siren blaring, turned the corner, drove up and pulled to a stop in front of the van. Dean notified the dispatcher on the phone that the police had arrived and was advised to hang up the phone and talk directly with them.

  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.

  21

  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 i
n 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.