The Protectors: Vigilante Justice (Vigilante Cops Book 1)

by Bernard Lee DeLeo

  * * *

  Dr. Morrison unhooked Morton from the heart monitor. Ellie remained at the door with the Glock still in her hand. Julie walked over near Ellie again.

  “What did you slap me for? What’s the Godfather movie have to do with this?”

  Ellie explained the movie scene with some irritation where the hospital floor with the Godfather lying wounded in a hospital bed is deserted to allow the rival mob to kill him.

  “I get it. If we move Detective Morton to a different room the bad guys won’t be able to find him,” Julie whispered.

  “I swear to God, Jules,” Ellie hissed in reply, still watching for any movement in the hallway. “I am going to chain you in a cellar somewhere and make you watch movies for a year. It’ll be like a geek reeducation camp. No… I take it back. That’s an insult to geeks.”

  Julie stifled a giggle seeing the agitation on Ellie’s face.

  * * *

  Connor returned after a few minutes of checking rooms, making sure Ellie was aware of his approach in the darkened hall. “There’s one empty three doors down. When we move, we have to do it quickly. I don’t want us caught out in the hallway with Luke. Can you take point, El? I’ll move the bed with the Doc guiding.”

  “Sure.” Ellie stayed near the door.

  Dr. Morrison quickly released the stops on the bed rollers. Connor moved the bed out from the wall carefully, trying not to jiggle the sleeping Morton. With Dr. Morrison guiding the bed Connor smoothly pushed the bed through the open doorway. Ellie walked in front, her Glock in firing position. It only took sixty seconds to push Morton’s bed down the hallway into the empty room but Connor breathed a sigh of relief as he cleared the doorway. After quickly moving the two empty beds in the room up against the wall, Connor positioned Morton’s bed so it was nearly out of sight from the hallway. Morton groaned as Julie reset the roller stops but did not awaken.

  “I’m going down and call this in,” Connor said. “Blockade the door after I leave with the chair under the door handle, El. It’s possible if anyone does come for Luke, they’ll see his room empty and leave. Doc, are you coming with me or staying?”

  “I’d rather stay with Ellie. If I’m with you and we see anyone, I’d scream and have an accident. If someone comes here, I can hide in the bathroom.”

  “That’s good thinking. I’ll use the stairs so it will take me a little longer but I’m not too crazy about arriving downstairs in the elevator. I’m hoping the cell-phone jammer someone planted up here is limited. I’ll try to call all the way down but I need to get to Claire anyway. If the bad guys come, they’ll need to control the front desk.”

  “Don’t you get killed going down there, Opie. Something happens to you and all I got is the Who-bird here.”

  “Duly noted. I have an idea. Help me check for spare scrubs in the drawers and bathroom.”

  The three searched through room cabinets with Ellie finding a set of blue ones inside the cabinet next to Morton. Connor stripped off his coat and the clean shirt he’d changed into at the precinct after the shooting, leaving his vest in place. He pulled on the surgical scrubs, glad they were nearly large enough. Connor grabbed a clipboard hanging on the wall. Julie handed him a stethoscope she found and Connor put it around his neck.

  “How do I look?”

  “Like Dr. McDreamy with a butch.”

  “Who?” Julie piped in on cue.

  “Madre de Dios!”

  “Be right back.” Connor was still chortling on his way out the door. He stopped at the nurses station long enough to pick up some loose papers for his clipboard and a pen.

  Ellie waited for Connor to clear the door. She shut it and dragged one of the visitor chairs over to prop at an angle under the door handle. Ellie tested the positioning by pulling on the handle. The rubber chair leg protectors jammed the door without giving. Julie hooked up the new room’s heart monitor to Morton, making sure the readings were normal.

  Chapter 18

  Heating Up

  Connor tried his cell-phone on the fifth floor with no success. On the third floor, the interference ended. Connor called 911. The moment an officer came on line, Connor gave his badge number and the situation. When he received acknowledgement they would send all available units, Connor kept the line open, explaining he was on his way to the hospital front desk to move the civilian nurse to safety.

  At the first floor stairwell, Connor drew his .45 Colt, cocked it, and placed it on the clipboard. He clamped the barrel in place with his left hand around the clipboard base and the barrel. Exiting the stairwell, Connor walked toward the front desk with the clipboard tilted upward, acting as if he were writing furiously. He spotted the dark complexioned man with longish hair standing next to a very tense Claire. Not seeing anyone else within his peripheral vision, Connor approached the desk without looking up. When he reached the desk, Connor looked up and smiled at the nurse without glancing in the man’s direction. The man acted as if he was busily straightening papers on the desk and Connor could see both his hands.

  “Hi Claire, I’m heading home. Do you have any messages for me?”

  “No Doctor,” Claire answered, confirming Connor’s suspicions.

  “Very well then.” Connor put his pen down. In one fluid movement he gripped the Colt and with a sweeping overhand arc Connor smashed the barrel across the man’s temple.

  Dropping the clipboard, Connor vaulted the counter, landing over the fallen man with his Colt pressed against the man’s forehead.

  “Lord Jesus! Connor… there’s three others on their way up!”

  “Help’s coming Claire.” Connor stripped off the scrub top and stuck the Colt into his waistband. After confiscating a knife and a Taurus 9mm automatic, he threw the unconscious man over his shoulder in one quick movement. “Don’t go outside. Chances are there will be a driver right outside. Can you stay out of sight here and tell the rescue team where we’re at?”

  “You bet. He was going to…to kill me. Thanks Connor.”

  Connor waved without glancing back at Claire as he jogged with his burden toward the elevator. He hit the up button and a door opened right away. Connor tossed the man inside. He took the still broadcasting cell-phone out of his back pocket. The 911 dispatcher was repeating his name every few seconds. Connor closed the elevator door and hit number seven.

  “I hear you,” Connor answered. “I have one perp down and three headed up towards my partner and Detective Morton. Tell all available units situation is hot. One or more perps will be in the parking lot armed and dangerous. I repeat, armed and dangerous.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  Connor heard her repeating his warning. He put the phone in his back pocket again and lifted the man on the floor up in front of him, clamped tightly with his left arm. Connor held his Colt once again by his leg. The elevator doors opened at the seventh floor. Connor could already hear the distinct sound of weapons firing. Another man standing opposite the elevator doors looked at his unconscious comrade in surprise. Connor shot him in the knee, the hollow point.45 caliber slug tearing the joint apart in a bloody spray. The would be killer pitched backwards, screaming as his weapon clattered to the floor. Connor kicked him in the face. He threw his burden across the other downed man and picked up the discarded MAC10 machine pistol, briefly wondering what a burst from it would have done to him in the elevator.

  * * *

  Ellie moved one empty bed so its head was against the propped chair. Julie set the wheel locks. Ellie then moved the second empty bed crossways against the base of the other bed, forming a tee. Julie again locked the wheels in place on the second bed. Finally, the two moved Morton’s bed closer to the wall where it was completely out of sight from the door.

  “Jules, I don’t think they can get in here,” Ellie said with satisfaction.

  “I hope Connor’s phone works on his way down. There’s still no sign of a nurse. I thought you might be wrong about the movie scenario, but not anymore. If I keep getting into trouble
with you two I’m going to get a conceal-carry permit.”

  “Nothing wrong with being prepared – Connor and I will take you to the range with us. We usually get there a couple times a week. Does this mean I have to get a psych degree in case you shoot someone?”

  Julie laughed. She shut up quickly as they heard the elevator doors opening and running footsteps down the corridor. The two women ducked down behind the second blocking bed. Three figures ran by the small observation window in the door. Ellie sighted in Donaldson’s Glock at the observation window. She smiled over at Julie.

  “What do you think, Jules?” Ellie whispered, realizing her hands weren’t shaking a bit. “Should I call out my identity and demand their surrender?”

  “Frack ‘em!”

  Both muffled laughter. They heard curses in a foreign language and doors slamming down the hall.

  “Maybe they’ll leave,” Julie whispered anxiously as Ellie took aim at the window again.

  The door handle suddenly jammed against the chair, setting up a vibration through to the bed they were behind. A face peered through the window. Ellie fired. The window shattered and a voice cried out in pain.

  “Missed, damn it!”

  Ellie tried firing through the door as it bucked against the chair from the two men slamming into it without success. The snub nose of what looked like a machine pistol poked through the window, spraying a burst into the room. Ellie rammed into Julie, covering her.

  “Stay down!” Ellie fired at the window twice more from an angle, causing the attacker to fall back. She was very aware of only having one spare clip for the Glock.

  The machine pistol poked through the window again. Ellie heard the single distinctive crack of a .45 caliber slug. The machine pistol clattered to the floor outside.

  “Headshot’s here.” Ellie grinned at Julie in the darkness.

  * * *

  Connor peeked around the corner in time to see a man firing another MAC10 duck back from the doorway, clutching the side of his head and cursing in a foreign language Connor recognized. The two men then slammed into the door, trying to jar it open as Connor took careful aim. When the wounded man again poked the MAC10 through the observation window in the door, Connor put a round through his temple. Brain matter blew out onto the man crouching next to the shooter and the body pitched over him.

  “Oakland police! Get face down on the floor or I blow your head off!” Connor yelled at the remaining man who had shed the dead body of his companion.

  Screams of terror were coming from the patients unaware of what was happening in the corridor. The surviving attacker, his upper body splattered with blood and parts of his companion’s skull, dropped the handgun he held and slid to the floor as directed. Connor aimed at the man’s head as he lay on the floor.

  “Ellie! Can you hear me?!” Connor’s finger pressed gently on the trigger.

  “We’re okay, Opie!”

  Connor took a deep breath and eased off the trigger. “Come out, El. I need help!”

  As Ellie and Julie quickly removed the barricades from the door, Connor straightened while remaining in a position to watch the two bodies near the elevator and the man face down in the corridor.

  “Quiet down, folks!” Connor called out to the patients. “Remain in your rooms! Everything’s going to be fine!”

  Ellie emerged from the room. She aimed her Glock at the still alive man on the floor. “I got this one. Julie’s explaining things to Luke. He finally woke up when the shooting started.”

  Connor stuck the Colt into his waistband. He went to the elevator and grabbed the man he’d pistol whipped downstairs by the feet, dragging him down the corridor. Connor left his groaning burden near the surviving attacker Ellie watched.

  “One more, El,” Connor said.

  “I’m glad to see you, Opie.”

  “Not half as glad as I am to see you. Be right back.”

  Connor jogged toward the elevator, stopping as shots sounded outside the building. Knowing there was little he could do with the situation there, Connor continued on. He grabbed the wounded man’s arms. The would be assassin moaned, gasping for breath through his mouth. Connor’s kick had shattered the man’s nose. The gunfire outside ended as Connor deposited the remaining captive next to his surviving cohorts.

  “Yippee, three live ones,” Ellie joked. “Jules wanted to execute them all.”

  “Did not!” Julie’s voice called out from inside the room.

  Connor chuckled. “How are you doing?”

  “I’m fine except my ears are ringing like hell.”

  “Same here. Claire’s okay.”

  “Thank God. Did you hear what these guys were saying?”

  “They were speaking Farsi,” Connor answered, kneeling next to the unhurt prisoner. He rapped his knuckles on the man’s head. “Are you guys Iranian?”

  “I will say nothing!” The man cried out in accented English.

  “Clasp your hands behind your head,” Connor ordered. “I’m going to pat you down for other weapons. If you resist, it will be painful for you. Understand?”

  “Yes,” he muttered, putting his hands behind his head.

  Connor frisked him. He left all personal belongings for the FBI to confiscate. Connor found only one other mild threat: a knife. He repeated the search on the wounded man without finding any other weapons. Connor went inside the hospital room, bringing towels out with him. He wrapped the prisoner’s shattered knee with one towel, finishing the wound dressing by tying the second towel around the first. By the time Connor finished the man was crying out in anguish as he regained consciousness.

  “I wish the cell-phones worked.” Connor held his up for a moment to see if the dispatcher was still on. She wasn’t. “Our back ups will be here any time now. We better stand inside the doorway. No use getting shot by our rescue team.”

  “What of us?” Their prisoner asked.

  “Frack you!” Ellie said, propping the door open.

  Five minutes later, the elevator doors opened. Heavily armed officers flowed into the corridor, weapons at the ready.

  “All clear!” Connor called out from inside the doorway. “Four perps down on the floor are the bad guys.”

  “Connor!” Donaldson’s voice called out. “Jesus H. Christ! What the hell did you get into now?!”

  Connor peeked around the doorway, seeing a squad of men with automatic weapons, helmets, and armor. “We were just visiting, Sarg.”

  Ellie waved from behind Connor. “Hi, Boss.”

  “Is Luke okay?” Donaldson signaled his men to fan out around the prisoners.

  “I’m good, Ben,” Morton called out weakly from inside the room.

  “We heard shots outside,” Connor said. “How’d it go?”

  “We had one wounded. Williams took a round through his upper arm. He’ll be fine. The driver and another guy in the car are dead. Thank God you have some live ones or Homeland Security would have my head.”

  “They cut the phone land-lines and had someone install a cell phone jammer. My guess would be whoever was supposed to be at the nurses’ station. When we took the elevator up and found the floor empty of hospital personnel we tried our phones and theirs with no success. I almost sent Dr. Morrison down to the main desk which could have gotten her killed.”

  “Claire told me.”

  “It was Ellie who thought of the Godfather movie scene where-”

  “Michael checks on the Godfather at the hospital.” Donaldson nodded approvingly. “Nice one, El.”

  Donaldson tried his own com unit. Only static sounded. He gestured at one of his men. “Martinson, go downstairs. Send up medical help and get the phones on line. Call the station and tell them I want a tech guy who can find a cell-phone jammer.”

  “You got it.” Martinson spun around at a dead run toward the elevator.

  “I see you have one dead here, Opie.” Donaldson noted as the other men shared a laugh at Connor’s new nickname. “Let me pretend I’m that bitch
Guzman. What the hell’s your problem, Bradwick? Do you have to kill everyone I want to question?”

  After general laughter at Donaldson’s imitation of Homeland Security Agent Guzman, Ellie spoke up.

  “He was getting ready to spray the room again with a MAC-10, Boss. The guy fired nearly a whole clip into the room. We had barricaded the door with a chair and two beds but he was firing through the observation window in the door. They wanted Luke dead in the worst way. Dr. Morrison was with me. She was aces under fire.”

  “You and Dr. Morrison did an incredible job. I have bad news though. They hit the private medical facility where Homeland Security was holding the two gangbangers for transport. Two agents were killed along with the gangbangers.”

  “Shit!” Ellie exclaimed. “Have you been in contact with Fulton and Guzman, Boss?”

  “They will be here shortly. You can imagine what kind of mood they’ll be in. I already received word from the Chief - we are in lockdown mode. Washington will be sending an army here to turn over every rock. We are to observe only, follow their directions, and stay the hell out of their way.”

  “I’m all for it if the bad guys stop hunting us,” Ellie pointed out.

  “We know one thing for sure – there’s another team out there like this one,” Connor said, gesturing at the prisoners. “I heard them speaking Farsi, one of Iran’s main languages.”

  “You sure?”

  “Positive, Sarg.”

  Donaldson nodded. “Let’s go in and see what Luke has to say about this.”

  The elevator doors opened, the men swinging weapons nervously to cover the corridor. Martinson had his hands up, leading a team of two emergency room doctors and four nurses.

  “A tech guy’s on his way. The land-lines are working now. These folks will take care of wounded and check on the floor patients.”

  “Good,” Donaldson replied. He pointed at three of his team. “You guys are orderlies until further notice. Help the nursing staff. The rest of you do not leave these assholes on the floor for any reason.”