by Mike Ryan
Haley and Malloy jumped to the middle of the hallway, in plain view, on one knee, ready to shoot whatever came into their sights. Recker then rushed over to the door and opened it, finding it empty except for a few dead bodies that they had previously taken care of.
“We’re clear!” Recker said, rushing through the door.
Haley stood up and followed his partner, then Malloy. They started moving up the steps more quickly this time. The Scorpions already knew they were there. There was no use trying to hide it or move slowly now. Now, they just had to get ready for whatever was going to meet them next.
17
The team came around the corner, expecting to see some action as they approached the fourth floor. They were pleasantly surprised to not see anyone standing there. Instead of moving on, though, they stayed in place for a few moments, analyzing the situation. Malloy looked in favor of going, not liking standing still for any period of time.
“C’mon, why aren’t you going?”
Recker looked around. “It doesn’t feel right.”
“What do you mean? Why not?”
“There’s been men stationed at each floor. Now all of a sudden there’s not. Breaking away from pattern is always a cause for concern. Usually means something’s up.”
“They were probably part of the group that met us on the third floor,” Malloy replied.
“Maybe.” Recker then looked at his usual partner to get his reaction. “What do you think?”
Haley took a second to take in the situation, his eyes darting all around. “Yeah, I’m with you. It doesn’t feel right.”
“That’s just you guys being paranoid,” Malloy said. “C’mon, we gotta go. I’ll take the lead.”
“No, wait,” Recker said.
Malloy didn’t listen and kept going up the stairs. He passed by the door that led to the fourth-floor hallway. Recker and Haley followed him, though they kept a little distance between them. As soon as Malloy turned the corner to keep going up, the door opened, a couple Scorpions showing themselves as they fired off several rounds at him. Malloy turned around to return fire but had already been hit and fell to the ground. Before the two men noticed Recker and Haley coming up, they had already been fired upon. Recker and Haley took the men out easily and continued slowly moving up the steps, waiting for someone else to jump out at them. As they stood on the fourth-floor platform, with the door open, they could see a lot of people sitting around on the floors inside. There sounded like a lot of low whispering going on, and some crying, as the hostages weren’t sure what was going on.
“Mike?” Haley said.
“Yeah, I see them.”
“What do you wanna do?”
Recker turned his head to look at Malloy, who was sitting up with his back against the wall, holding his leg.
“Ask them if anyone else is on the floor,” Recker said.
As Haley went inside, Recker went over to Malloy to check on his condition. Malloy laughed as he came over.
“Guess I should’ve listened to you, huh?”
“Sometimes I know what I’m talking about,” Recker answered. “How you feel?”
“Like I’ve been shot. Freaking careless.”
As they talked, Haley went inside the floor, first looking for signs of further trouble. With nothing that presented itself immediately, he looked down at a bunch of hostages, mostly hospital staff, who were all silently looking up at him, wondering what was going on.
“Are there any others here?” Haley asked.
“Are you the police?” a doctor spoke up.
“Are there any other armed men here?!”
“Uhh, no, no, I don’t think so. I think it was just the two. There were more, but they left a few minutes ago to go somewhere else I guess.”
Haley looked around, seeing what he estimated to be close to a hundred people sitting in the halls. “All right, he’s what I need you to do. You need to get all these people into a room and lock the doors, you understand?”
The doctor and several other doctors and nurses around him stood up. “We will.”
“There’s still a bunch of dangerous people walking around and until we know they’re gone, don’t come out of your rooms until you’re told to, you understand?”
“We do.”
“All right, go.”
Haley stood there for a few seconds, watching as the people chaotically scrambled around to find a room to duck into. In less than a minute, all of the people had disappeared. With that taken care of, Haley walked back into the stairwell. He saw Recker butting a bandage around Malloy’s thigh to stop the bleeding.
“All right, I told them all to find a room and stay in it.”
Recker looked up at him. “Good.”
Haley then looked at Malloy. “What about him?”
“I don’t know. Think you’re good enough to move or you wanna stay put somewhere?”
“Just get me to my feet and I’ll be fine,” Malloy answered.
“You sure? We can put you somewhere and come back and get you after we get Mia.”
Malloy shook his head. “You’re not getting rid of me that easy.”
“I just wanna make sure you’ll be able to keep up and that you’re not gonna be an easy target.”
Malloy stuck his arms out. “Just help me to my feet and I’ll be fine.”
Recker and Haley reached down and helped pull Malloy back to his feet. Malloy grimaced and limped as he took a couple of steps, but it was nothing that he couldn’t push through. His partners looked at him, not sure if he could continue, but Malloy was adamant about not being left behind. He was still in the fight.
“Seems similar to that last time we got shot, huh?” Malloy said. “Remember that building?”
“Yeah, except that time we were going down,” Recker replied. “This time we’re going up.”
“Going up steps is gonna be hard with that leg,” Haley said.
“We only got one more floor to go,” Malloy said. “I’ll get there.”
Recker nodded at Haley for him to take point. He wanted to stay back with Malloy to make sure he didn’t drag behind. Recker wanted to make sure that Malloy kept up, mostly because he didn’t want him so far behind that he risked getting surrounded or ambushed and killed. Haley left the others behind and went up to the next floor alone. He wasn’t charging in blind though, and still took his time to get up the steps, trying to do it as quietly as possible. As he got to the fifth floor, he peered around the edge of the steps, looking up at the platform, and was surprised to once again not see anyone there. He kept his position and waited for the others to catch up to him.
“We’re clear here,” Haley said, just wanting to let them know before they got there.
Recker and Malloy began moving, Malloy going first, as Recker stayed behind to make sure they didn’t have any surprise visitors sneaking up on them. He was in a good amount of pain, and moving definitely wasn’t easy on him, but Malloy somehow was able to keep his leg moving. Haley kept his eyes peeled, surveying the situation until the other two got to his position.
“Anything?” Recker asked.
“Nothing,” Haley replied. “It’s a cinch they’re in there though.”
“No question about it.”
“Just a matter of how many.”
“It’d be nice if we could somehow get in there by surprise.”
“Not happening. There’s no way.”
“I’ll tell you what we could have done,” Malloy said. “Since we had the fourth floor cleared off, two of us could’ve snuck around and came up the other way. While they expect us to come in the front, we come in from the back too. That would have caught them by surprise.”
“Might still be able to do it,” Haley said.
Recker quickly nixed the idea though. “It’s too late for that now. Might’ve worked if we did it right away. All we’ve done now is allow them more time to catch up. Besides, we already know they had people in that other stairwell. Might just be tra
ding one problem for another.”
Cummins got on his radio. “What’s the status down there?!”
“They’re off the third floor. Think they just passed the fourth too.”
“Hurry up and get up here!” Cummins looked at Maglio. “What do these guys want?”
Maglio looked at the hostages on the floor for a second. “Think it’s pretty easy. They either want to finish Tommy or they want one of these people.”
Cummins took a quick look around at the people sitting on the floor. “Nobody would be dumb enough to come in here just for one of these people.”
“Must be Tommy then. I guess they wanna make sure he doesn’t get out of this hospital alive. If these guys come up here, maybe we should get these people out of sight?”
“Why?”
Maglio shrugged. “I dunno. That way they don’t get in the line of fire.”
“Screw these people. I don’t care if they’re in the line of fire or not. If they get hit, so be it.”
“OK.”
“Did you take the phones off those nurses you brought up here?”
“No, I didn’t even check them, why?”
“What if one of them is the reason these guys are here?! Why would you not check them?”
“Didn’t think it was necessary.”
“I told everyone before we got here that I wanted all phones confiscated so there was no outside contact with anybody!”
“Didn’t think it was important,” Maglio replied.
Cummins looked perturbed and sighed, angry that his orders weren’t fully carried out. “Where are they at?”
Maglio looked around, then pointed at two of them. “Those ones over there. Then the one you shot is in that room.”
Cummins went over to the nurses and demanded their phones, which they promptly handed over to him. They were locked, so he asked for their pin numbers so he could login and check them. Once they did, he checked their message and call history. There was nothing there since the Scorpions took over the hospital. He tossed them to the side on the floor.
“It’s not them,” Cummins said. “Where’s the other chick?”
Maglio pointed to the room Mia was in. “In there.”
Cummins barged into the room, seeing the doctor and nurse checking on her. “She got a phone on her?”
The doctor reached into his pocket and removed Mia’s phone, knowing that’s what they were looking for. “Not that I know of.”
Cummins went over to Mia and started combing through every pocket he could find, not having the slightest concern over her well-being. The doctor put his hands on Mia’s arms to hold her still, and also slid the phone under her back.
“A little more care please,” the doctor said.
Cummins finished checking Mia’s pockets. He took a step back and looked at the doctor. “How ‘bout you? She give the phone to you?”
The doctor shook his head. “She handed me nothing.”
“Put your hands up.”
The doctor did as he was asked and threw his arms up. Cummins then came over to him and checked all of his pockets as well. Pants, shirt, doctor’s coat, there was nothing. Cummins, a little unhappy, then started walking toward the door to leave.
“May we please have our equipment so we can operate on this woman?” the doctor asked.
“Why, is she gonna die?”
“She may if we don’t get this bullet out.”
“Let her,” Cummins said, walking out the door.
18
The team stood there for a minute, trying to think of their next move. They knew they had almost no time to stay there any longer than that.
“We’re gonna have to move,” Malloy said. “They’re gonna be coming up behind us any second now.”
Recker still didn’t move. He was almost paralyzed. He knew Mia was not too far away from him now. And he wanted to make sure nothing he did put her in further jeopardy. What seemed like a million thoughts were going through his head, trying to analyze every step they could make or take, and what the response to that action would be. What they could really use was some type of diversion.
“What are you thinking?” Haley asked, knowing it was something.
“We need some type of edge,” Recker answered.
“Can’t argue there. Whatcha got in mind?”
Recker instinctively put his hand on one of his pockets, feeling the edge of his phone. He then pulled it out and sent a text message to the doctor.
“Do you know how many of them are on your floor?”
“Cover behind me for a minute,” Recker said, wanting to get an answer before proceeding. A few seconds later, he got it.
“I believe six or eight.”
“I got an idea,” Recker said.
“What is it?” Haley replied.
“We’re gonna give ourselves up.”
“What?”
“Just listen.”
“Give this phone to whoever’s in charge. I’m calling in a second.”
The doctor didn’t question the orders at all and immediately walked into the hall, holding the phone out in front of him. Cummins noticed his strange behavior and walked over to him.
“What’s this?”
“I believe this is what you were looking for?” the doctor answered. “Someone sent a text saying to give it to you and expect a call.”
Cummins looked at him strangely, not sure what was going on. Five seconds later, the phone started ringing. Cummins gently took the phone from the doctor’s hand, almost like he was apprehensive about it.
“Who is this?” Cummins asked.
“I honestly have no idea,” the doctor replied. He then retreated back into the room to continue checking on Mia.
Cummins put the phone up to his ear. “Who is this?”
“That’s not important,” Recker said.
“Who are you and what do you want?”
“I told you that’s not important. I wanna make a deal with you?”
“What kind of deal?”
“We’ll give ourselves up, no questions asked, if you let the hostages you have on your floor go.”
“You’re crazy if you think I’m gonna do that.”
“You’d be crazy if you didn’t,” Recker said. “You’ve already lost ten men. How many more are you comfortable losing?”
“As many as it takes. We’ve still got enough to get you eventually. You’re not gonna be able to take us all down.”
“Maybe not, but we can significantly weaken your defenses for when the police eventually come through.”
“I’m not making any deals,” Cummins repeated defiantly.
“Suit yourself. But I’ll make sure you and Billings never leave this place if you don’t.”
Cummins cleared his throat and thought for a second. “What is it exactly that you wanna do?”
“I wanna see all the hostages you have on that floor gone. You let them go down the steps and me and my five men will step out and hand over our guns.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because I understand you’ve already hurt innocent people in there. I wanna make sure that doesn’t continue.”
“I think you’re trying to pull something on me.”
“I’m not. Just wanna make a deal that benefits everybody.”
“You’re just gonna give yourself up for everybody, just like that?”
“Yes.”
“Why would you do that?” Cummins asked again, not understanding the concept of someone sacrificing themselves for the greater good. It was something that he would never do.
“Is it a deal?”
Cummins waited a few seconds before responding. “Nah, no, no way. You’re gonna pull something. I’ll let those people go and all it’ll do is give you a better target to shoot at.”
“Fine, I’ll give you something better than my word.”
“What’s that?”
“I’ll give you me,” Recker replied.
Haley tapped Rec
ker on the arm, wondering what he was doing. Recker just glanced at him and shook him off though. He knew what he was doing.
“How’s that gonna work?” Cummins asked.
“I’ll walk through the door. I’ll be unarmed. As soon as you see me, you let the hostages walk out of there. Once they do, the rest of my men will walk through the doors unarmed as well.”
“With the hostages gone, how do I know they won’t come in shooting?”
“Well, I’ll still be standing there unarmed. You can keep a gun on me. If they start shooting, I’m obviously a dead man. Sounds like a winning proposition for you.”
Cummins started pacing up and down the hallway, scratching his head as he thought about the offer. It almost sounded too good to be true. In the back of his mind, he knew it had to be some type of trap. It had to be. Nobody would just give themselves up like that, he thought.
“All right, give me a minute to think about it.”
“Better call off your men first,” Recker said. “Because if I run into any of them before you accept this offer, then it’s off the table, and you’ll have lost another five men in the process.”
“OK, OK, just hold on.”
“Call me back at this number.”
A few seconds later, they could hear Cummins talking on the radio, that they still didn’t know Recker could hear.
“All Scorpions,” Cummins said. “Hold your current positioning. Do not move, do not engage anyone until further instructions.”
Recker, Haley, and Malloy all looked at each other. “Well that gave us a few extra minutes,” Haley said. “But what’s the point?”
Recker then explained his plan. “The point is, we need to get the hostages out of there before we go barging in.”
“Why?” Malloy asked. “What difference does it make?”
“Because the last thing we need is to go in there shooting and having a hundred people going all over the place in chaos.”
“Yeah, that would make things more chaotic,” Haley said.
“At least if we get the hostages off the floor, we’ll have clear targets.”