Yankee in the wind, p.13
Yankee in the Wind, page 13
Jack jumped up, heading through the plastic curtain. More gunshots came from the area where the oversized MRI machine was located. Simultaneously, he heard through his earpiece how somebody cried out in pain. He didn’t know whether it was Fox or Ace, but he knew his friends were in trouble.
25
Lilly raced toward the building alongside Michelle.
“Jack is gonna be furious,” Michelle warned.
“Yeah, well, I’m gonna deal with that later. Right now we have to help him and the others.”
She’d heard the shots from inside the facility, and knew they’d come from their enemies, because they were too loud to come from guns with silencers.
“I have to find the backup generators,” Michelle said. “Help me with the search on the outside of the building.”
“I can’t,” Lilly said, “I have to get Tiger out of the machine, or he’ll suffer permanent brain damage.”
Arriving at the front entrance, Michelle let out a harsh breath. “Be careful. Or Jack will have my head too.”
“Find the generator. Go!” Lilly said and opened the unlocked front door.
Inside, she looked around. She’d heard the men talk about quadrants and their various directions on their comms, but northwest and southeast meant nothing to her. Couldn’t they just have said front left or back right? No, they had to use cardinal points, as if she knew her way around a compass!
Pallets stacked up high blocked her view to the back of the building. Letting her eyes roam to her left and right, Lilly made her way to the left edge of the pallets, where a path led deeper into the interior of the building. At the corner, she peered past the pallets. She saw the top of the MRI machine behind a forklift truck and a few metal shelving units. From behind them, there were grunts and other sounds indicating that several men were involved in hand-to-hand combat, though she couldn’t see much. Glass and metal items shattered, and again there was a gunshot. She caught a glimpse of Jack being thrown against a metal rack, and a man dressed in black diving after him.
Shit! She had to help Jack and the others, even though she knew she had no chance if one of the bad guys was coming after her. But with Ace, Fox, and Jack fighting their opponents, she was the only one who could disconnect Tiger from the machine.
Lilly ran down the narrow path between the stacks of pallets, staying low so that nobody would see her approach.
“Ace, on your left!” she heard Jack’s voice in her earpiece.
Hearing Jack’s voice meant he was gaining the upper hand on his opponent. But she had no time to look for him or Ace or Fox to see if they were doing okay. She headed straight for the MRI machine. She could see it clearly now. In front of it, a man in a white coat lay on the ground, bleeding profusely from a chest wound.
On the gurney lay a black man. She couldn’t see his face since his upper body was inside the machine. He was dressed in green scrubs, and barefoot. His wrists, feet, and waist were chained to the gurney with leather straps. Lilly had to assume that his head and shoulders were equally restrained. On the top of his left hand was an IV port, which was connected to a drip hanging from an IV pole.
Next to the MRI machine was a console, a server tower, and two computer monitors that looked like they were recording brain waves, as well as another panel with buttons. She had to assume that this was the electronic equipment which controlled the machine. She cast a look to her left and saw Fox fighting with a man in blue overalls, tossing him against a door. Behind Fox another guy lunged for him.
“Fox, behind you!” she yelled into her microphone.
She saw Fox whirling around on his heel, but the guy was already grabbing him.
“Lilly?” Jack said through the earpiece, sounding winded. “Get the fuck out!”
“I’ve gotta get Tiger out of the machine,” she said and turned back to the control panel. She placed her gun on the table, while she searched frantically for an off switch, but there was none. There were several buttons with symbols on them.
Fuck! She hated guessing. She took a breath. Four buttons had arrows. She pressed one of them and looked at the gurney. It moved farther into the machine.
“Crap!”
She pressed the button with the arrow pointing in the other direction. The gurney moved in the opposite direction. Lilly breathed a sigh of release as she saw Tiger’s chest, and finally his head coming out, while the MRI machine was still droning on and continuing its circular motion. Tiger’s head was locked in a brace. It almost looked like a helmet, though it was made of plastic. She rushed to his side.
“Tiger, I’m here to get you out,” she said quickly and examined the locking mechanism.
A look at his face told her that he was semi-conscious.
“Stay with me, Tiger,” she said softly. “Stay awake.”
She tried to turn the helmet, so she could figure out how it was attached, and had to realize that the helmet was part of the gurney, and she couldn’t see any clasps or anything else to figure out how to open it so she could free Tiger from it.
Fuck!
Maybe if she took all the other restraints off him first, she would be able to move him sufficiently to find an opening mechanism. Quickly, she undid the leather restraints on his feet, waist, and wrists.
“Tiger, wiggle your hands and feet if you can hear me,” she said.
Behind her, she heard a stack of pallets crash, and men cry out in pain, but she had no time to look at what was going on. She had to get Tiger off the gurney, though she realized that he wouldn’t be able to assist her in any way: his hands and feet weren’t moving. He was paralyzed, most likely from the drugs they’d given him. She looked at the tray next to the console. A vial and a needle lay on it. Midazolam, just as she’d suspected. She yanked the drip from Tiger’s IV port but kept the port in his hand. Most likely the drip was just a saline solution, but she couldn’t be sure that it didn’t contain more of the sedative to keep him paralyzed.
“Listen to my voice, Tiger, stay with me,” she said.
Lilly had some difficulty loosening the leather strap that was tightly bound across Tiger’s pectorals and biceps. She had to yank on it, using all her strength to unhook him from it. Her heart beat frantically not only from the physical stress, but also the mental one. She cast a quick look to where the Stargate agents were fighting.
She saw Ace running after a man in a white coat as he tried to flee through the back exit. Fox was still fighting his opponent, trying to wrestle the gun from him. She didn’t have a clear view of Jack and the man he fought with. Their confrontation had taken them behind the pallets.
Lilly turned back to the console, looking for anything that would indicate how she could get Tiger’s head out of the tight helmet. Maybe one of the buttons with a symbol on it? She felt sweat collect on her nape and forehead but forced herself to remain calm. She had to keep her wits about her if she wanted to help Tiger.
A movement to her right made her snap her head in its direction. Too late. The middle-aged man in the business suit was pointing a gun at her. She froze.
“Step away from the console,” he ordered and made a shooing motion with his gun.
Her gun lay on the console, where she’d placed it earlier to free her hands. The man saw it too.
“I said step away from the console, Miss Davis, and not a word out of your mouth, or it’ll be your last.”
She recognized his voice then. It was the same man who’d pretended to be Henry Sheppard. This had to be Smith. She took a step back and away from the console. Why hadn’t he shot her yet? She glanced toward the area where Fox battled it out with the man in the blue overalls. He wasn’t looking in her direction. When she turned back to look at Smith’s gun, she realized that it didn’t have a silencer.
She understood then. He didn’t want to shoot her, because it would alert Fox and Jack. She remained stationary, hoping that one of the Stargate agents would eventually see that she was in trouble.
Smith walked closer to the server tower, his gun still trained on her. He was only three feet from her, when he leaned toward the server, pressed a lever on it, and a compartment opened. He reached for it and pulled out a component that look like a hard drive. He shoved it in his jacket pocket. This was why he hadn’t fled yet. He needed whatever data the machine had collected.
Smith leaned toward the console again and hit a button. With horror, Lilly watched as the gurney moved back into the MRI machine, Tiger still hooked to it by the helmet. And even if the mechanism gave way, he wouldn’t be able to escape, the paralyzing drug still in his system.
“Lilly!” Jack screamed from somewhere behind her, his voice echoing in her earpiece at the same time. Jack had seen the situation she was in. He’d get her out of it and help her save Tiger.
Her relief was short-lived. Smith grabbed her, and in the process her earpiece fell to the ground. He pulled her in front of him, one arm around her torso, imprisoning her arms, the other hand pointing his gun underneath her chin, its muzzle pressing against the soft flesh underneath her jaw.
She was his hostage and his human shield now.
26
This was his worst nightmare playing out in front of him. Jack had dispatched his opponent into the beyond and rushed toward the MRI machine to help free Tiger, calling out to Lilly, before he’d seen the man with the gun behind her.
The way the man in the suit held the gun to Lilly’s head meant that even an experienced marksman like Jack couldn’t take Lilly’s captor out before he killed Lilly.
“Drop your weapon on the floor,” the man ordered.
Jack hesitated, but he had no choice. He bent down and laid the Glock on the ground, before standing up again.
“Now kick it in my direction.”
Jack did as he was told, never taking his eyes off him and Lilly. Lilly’s face was a mask of fear, and he wished he could tell her that everything would be alright.
“Let her go,” Jack demanded.
A chuckle came from the man. “Not gonna happen. She’s my ticket out of here.”
“What do you want?”
The man ignored the question, and instead looked past Jack. Footsteps were approaching.
“Fox,” the man said, “drop your gun and kick it to your left, or I’ll blow Lilly’s head off.”
“You won’t do that,” Fox said. “You need Lilly alive to get out of there. It’s hard using a dead body as a shield.”
“Fox!” Jack warned. “Do as he says. He’s holding a gun right under her chin.”
The last sentence wasn’t for Fox’s benefit but for Ace’s and Michelle’s. They would hear him via their earpieces. However, no reply came from either one. Had Ace not defeated his opponent? Was he injured, or worse, dead?
“Listen to your friend, Fox,” Lilly’s captor said, and began to slowly walk backwards, dragging Lilly with him, using her as a shield so Fox wouldn’t get a clear shot. “I’m getting very impatient. And when I get impatient, I do irrational things.” He jerked the muzzle of his gun upward, driving it deeper into the soft area under Lilly’s chin.
Lilly cried out in pain. Jack saw her eyes fill with tears. Hopelessness spread in them.
“Fine,” Fox finally capitulated.
Jack heard him put the gun on the ground then kick it away.
“Well, was that so hard?” Lilly’s captor said sarcastically. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve got places to go, people to see…”
He walked sideways with Lilly still in his clutches, heading for the front exit.
Through his earpiece, Jack suddenly heard Michelle whisper, “Lights out in three.”
Jack glanced at the spot where his gun had landed, while counting in his head.
One.
Two.
The lights went out in the entire building, and the MRI machine finally shut down.
In the darkness, Jack lunged for his gun. Meanwhile, he heard shuffling, cursing, and grunting, and a cry of pain coming from Lilly. Lilly’s captor was trying to get away with her as his hostage. Jack searched the floor for his gun, but it took him several seconds to find it. Finally, he gripped the handle and rushed toward the opposite wall. He heard somebody crashing into a stack of pallets, the sound indicating that a stack was collapsing.
“Got the gun,” Jack whispered into the microphone.
“Me too,” Fox replied in the same way.
“Fox, cover me,” Jack said.
“Roger that,” Fox replied.
“Michelle, lights on in three,” Jack ordered.
Again, Jack counted in his head.
The lights came on, and at the same time, the MRI machine started humming again.
Jack stared in the direction that Lilly’s captor had taken and saw the stack of pallets that had collapsed. Next to it, Lilly lay, groaning. Jack raced to her.
“Lilly, are you alright? Oh my God, are you shot?”
He reached her and crouched down, letting his eyes roam over her body.
“No, he slammed me against the pallets when the lights went out,” Lilly said, wincing as he helped her up. She breathed hard.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine.” She pointed to the front exit. “I recognized his voice. He was the one pretending to be Henry Sheppard.”
“Then that must be Smith,” Jack guessed.
Fox was already running past them. “Let’s get Smith.”
“I need your help getting Tiger out of the machine,” Lilly said, already running toward it. “His head is stuck in a helmet attached to the gurney.”
“Shit!” Jack cursed, following Lilly.
Via his microphone he said, “Ace, where are you? Michelle, do you have a visual of Ace? Smith is escaping through the front.”
After a few seconds, Michelle finally replied, “Ace is okay. Got knocked out, but he’s alright.”
“I’m okay,” Ace said with a groan.
“Fox is heading out the front, following Smith. I need to help Lilly get Tiger out of the MRI machine.” Jack reached the machine.
“I can cut the power again,” Michelle said.
“Yes, cut the power,” Jack said.
“No!” Lilly cried out. “I need the power to get the gurney out. Or Tiger will be stuck inside.”
“Did you hear that, Michelle? Leave the power on.”
“Okay.”
Jack watched as Lilly pressed a button, and slowly the gurney with Tiger on it came out of the machine, until Tiger’s entire body was outside. Jack instantly saw why Lilly needed his help. The helmet around Tiger’s head was fused with the gurney, and the gurney in turn was firmly attached to the machine. There was no way detaching the gurney and transporting Tiger with it out of the machine. They had to free him from the helmet now.
“Can you get the helmet off him?” Lilly asked frantically, while she riffled through the supplies of syringes and bottles on the shelf next to the machine.
“I’ll take care of it,” Jack said, then glanced at Lilly as she filled a syringe with a clear liquid from a medicine bottle. “What are you doing?”
“Tiger got drugged with Midazolam. I’m giving him Flumazenil to counteract the Midazolam.”
Jack took a closer look at the helmet and how it was closed around Tiger’s head. At first it looked like the white plastic was one solid piece, but then he sensed a groove with his fingers. He pressed against it, and suddenly the helmet parted in the front, and its two halves opened up like a clamshell.
“I’ve got it.”
He saw how Lilly injected the syringe into Tiger’s IV port, then set the empty syringe aside. She leaned over Tiger’s head. His eyes were open.
“You’re okay, Tiger, I gave you an antidote. I know you can’t move yet, but the paralysis is only temporary. I promise you, you’ll be fine.”
It looked like Tiger tried to blink, but the movement of his eyelids was barely visible.
“Tiger, I’m Yankee. You’re safe now.”
Jack looked over his shoulder when he heard footsteps rapidly approaching. He saw Fox, Ace, and Michelle coming toward him.
“Did you get Smith?” Jack asked.
Ace and Fox both shook their heads.
“He took off before we could get to him,” Fox said.
“Sorry, I wasn’t much help. That jerk I fought with had a mean right hook,” Ace said, rubbing his jaw. Then he pointed to the gurney. “How’s Tiger? Is he gonna make it?”
“Yes,” Lilly said. “He’ll be fine. But you’ll have to carry him out of here. It’ll be a couple of hours until the paralysis wears off.”
Ace nodded. “Okay, then let’s rig this place first. Fox, can you set up the charges, while Yankee and I bring all the bodies in here?”
Fox nodded.
“Did anybody else escape?” Jack asked.
Ace shook his head. “Only Smith.”
“We’ll worry about him later,” Jack said. “Let’s clean up, so we can get outta here.”
27
After removing all guns from the facility in Manassas and rigging it with explosives, Michelle, Lilly, Jack, and his fellow Stargate agents Ace, Fox, and Tiger, left to return to Ace’s mansion. Michelle captured the explosion via the hijacked satellite, and downloaded it to her tablet, before erasing everything the satellite had captured while redirecting and repositioning it to its original location. Both Fox and Michelle assured them that nobody would find any footage of what had happened at Smith’s secret facility.
It took several hours, until Tiger was well enough to sit up and tell them what had happened to him, and even more importantly, why Smith had captured him and tried to scan his brain.
Phoebe had prepared the large living room in the mansion, setting out food and drinks for the team to recover from their mission, while Lilly checked everybody for injuries and administered first aid.
Luckily, everybody had gotten away with only bruises. The bullet that had grazed Jack’s arm had done no real damage, apart from taking off a layer of skin. Ace’s face was swollen from the punches he’d sustained from his opponent, and Lilly had assured Phoebe that her fiancé showed no signs of a concussion. Finally, Lilly could breathe a sigh of relief. It was a wonder that they’d all survived without being gravely injured. While she was still concerned about Tiger’s health, and wished she could send him to get checked out at a hospital, Lilly knew that it wasn’t an option.
