Silencing Joy (19 page)

“Take it easy!” Jen barked at me, holding
onto Jake.

Bill ran around to the side of the van,
sliding the back door open quickly and throwing himself in.

“Go!” he yelled.

I stomped on the gas, sending the van
screeching forward. Bill joined Jen and Kara in the small area
behind the driver’s seat.

“How is he?”

“I don’t know,” Jen replied anxiously.

“We’re taking him to the hospital,” I
informed Bill, trying to keep my focus on the road and not what was
going on behind me.

My brain was going a hundred miles an hour,
and the van was going fifty. Thoughts of Will, Derek, and Jake’s
blood loss wreaked havoc on my ability to think straight. But I
didn’t have time to sort out my thoughts of the issues at hand. Out
of the corner of my eye in the rearview mirror, I saw single
headlights and heard a familiar roar through the wind that pummeled
the inside of the van.

“Shit!” I screeched.

The loud rumble of the motorcycles got
closer.

“Jen! Switch!” Bill yelled.

Jen crawled over Jake to switch places with
Bill. Bill climbed into the passenger seat, quickly giving me
directions and motioning for me to take a left.

“Left, Joy!” He snapped at me. “Keep him
steady, Jen!”

“I’m trying!” she spit over the noise of the
wind hurtling through all of the broken windows.

Inside the van was a ton of commotion,
yelling, crying, and barking of directions. I couldn’t help but
continue to neurotically look in the side and rearview mirrors,
watching our pursuers as they swayed and zigzagged through the
streets behind us.

“Turn right, now!” Bill yelled, and I spun
the wheel, clipping the edge of the sidewalk and curb. “Take
another right, now!” I twirled the steering wheel once again and
let it slip through my fingers to right itself.

“Faster, Joy!”

I crunched down the gas pedal again, and we
propelled forward. My heart was skipping beats in my chest. Bill
raised his hand and pointed to a parking lot behind a
restaurant.

“Pull in there! And kill it!” Bill bellowed.
The tires screeched, and I flipped it around into a parking spot. I
threw it in park and ripped the keys out of the ignition. “Everyone
get down!”

I felt the van rock as everyone scooted down.
The thunder of the motorcycles passed by, and I slowly let out my
breath.

“Hospital,” Jen breathed out.

I looked over at Bill, his eyes closed, as he
leaned his head against the doorframe. I turned the key in the
ignition and backed out of the spot.

“Double back the way we came,” Bill
instructed me. I did what he told me on autopilot. My arms and legs
moved, but my mind was crying. I kept the tears locked away. I
yearned to see Will, and I hoped he and Derek could catch up to us
soon.

Derek:

“
She’s out,” repeats over and over again in
Derek’s head. The relief is overwhelming. He wants to get to her
and hold her again, but this isn’t over. He needs to keep his head
in the game. The team is counting on him to remain focused, whether
the plan has gone to shit or not.

“
Derek, look out!” Will shouts as a bullet whizzes
by his head. Mouse!

That fuckin’ weasel!

Derek flips the switch in his combat trained
mind...

Take ’em down!

He spins on the pavement and aims his gun. He is
barrel to barrel with Mouse. Even in the semi-darkness with only
the glow of the moon, Derek can see Mouse’s eye twitch
uncontrollably.

“
I don’t want to have to hurt you, Derek,” he says
nervously.

“
Really? And what was that? You tried to blow my
head off not two seconds ago,” Derek spits with anger and loathing.
He braces his legs and holds his gun steady. “I never fuckin’ liked
you!”

Will silently hides in the shadows by the warehouse
wall. Derek can feel his presence. It’s always been like that.
Since they first started together in the recruiting program, they
have always been in sync. They always know what each other is
thinking, can always find each other, no matter how difficult the
situation.

Mouse is wavering. He is second-guessing himself, and
that is never smart in this type of business. Derek sees his
apprehension.

“
What’s the matter, Mouse? Did you lose your
balls?”

Mouse’s eyes flash with anger for only a second, and
he moves his arm distinctly like he’s ready to shoot. A shot is
fired from the shadows, and Mouse crashes to the asphalt clutching
his knee. He writhes in agony as his gun spirals and skitters
across the ground.

Will steps out from the wall to stand next to Derek
in the faint light. The two of them stand over Mouse, watching him
thrash.

“
So...Will Harrison is alive!” The diabolical
voice of Tommy travels across the darkness. Will and Derek turn
back-to-back scanning for the threat. “You know, I never really
trusted you, Derek. I had my doubts. I should have gone with my
instincts.”

“
Yeah, you probably should have,” Derek grinds out
mockingly.

Tommy steps out from the deep dark shadows, the
barrel of his gun gleams in the faint light. Mouse is wailing.

“
Shut up! Mouse!” Tommy yells. “You are so fuckin’
annoying!”

Tommy trains his gun on Derek and Will. He creeps
forward. Anger mars his face. He knows his operation is crumbling
down around him. Matthews will be here any minute, and his one
trump card just screeched away in a van. Dammit!

“
Brian!” Tommy calls harshly. No response.

“
Where is my daughter!?”

Everyone looks for the origin of the sound. Stepping
out from around the building is their boss...Matthews! His big
brutish arm is wrapped around Brian’s neck, and he has a gun to his
head.

Derek restrains himself from firing, seething hatred
wells up inside him.

“
Calm down, dude...” Will whispers to Derek. He
can sense Derek’s flare of anger.

Tommy ducks behind a car and yells arrogantly, “She’s
dead if you...”

Tommy’s threat is cut off. Brian elbows Matthews in
the ribs and dodges away from him. Shots are fired from the
rooftop, and Matthews fires his gun blindly in the air, clipping
Brian in the back. Brian falls, skidding on the asphalt and landing
in a heap.

Agents dressed in riot gear flock the area. Derek and
Will dive for cover.

“
What the hell!?” Will curses under his
breath.

“
Get them!” Matthews barks to his men.

The team moves and rushes along the area.

We squealed into the roundabout in front of
the emergency room of Sundlun hospital. Bill jumped out and ran
through the automatic sliding glass doors to the nurse’s station.
Within a matter of seconds, medical staff was running to the van
and a gurney was wheeled outside.

Bill stood aside allowing to EMTs to gently
slide Jake out of the van and onto the gurney. Immediately, a nurse
placed oxygen over his face, and they wheeled him away into the
hospital. Jen followed anxiously.

More staff swarmed the van, examining and
helping the two abducted girls and Kara. Kara slumped with
exhaustion into the arms of a young male nurse.

“Miss? Are you hurt?” an older man asked me.
I shook off my fog, as people were lead away for medical
treatment.

“I’m okay,” I said softly.

Bill walked around to my side of the van and
opened my door.

“Why don’t you go inside, I’ll park this in
the lot,” he offered.

I stepped out of the van, propelling my feet
forward towards the magical doors offering solace and help. I sat
down in a chair covered in a padded red plastic in the center of
the waiting room. My head felt heavy, so I rested it on my
hands.

Will! Where was he?
I was so worried
that I was paralyzed in this chair.

The distinct smell of ammonia and
disinfectant permeated the air, keeping me grounded and aware that
I was in a hospital. I watched as people came and went around me.
The chairs that surrounded me were vacant and lifeless.

The doors slid open, and Bill walked through,
coming straight for me. He held a walkie-talkie, which perked me up
because I knew Will and Derek had ones just like it.

“Have you heard from them?” I asked with
anticipation. Bill shook his head no.

“I think we’re too far away. Any news?” Bill
asked.

“No.” No one had come over to give me any
updates on Jake, Kara, or the other girls we brought here.

“I’m going to call my wife,” he said and
walked towards a payphone next to the doors.

He was on the phone for a few minutes when a
nurse walked up and spoke to him. They mumble quietly, after which,
Bill motioned for me to follow him. I rose and walked to them.

The nurse led us to a room with blue curtains
drawn around a few beds. We stopped at the first one, and Kara lay
there. She was hooked up to an IV, and her eyes were closed.

“We gave her something to help her sleep. She
was crying out for someone named Derek,” the nurse informed us. My
heart twisted painfully for her. This poor kid had been through so
much.

A man in a long white coat with a stethoscope
around his neck and a small plastic ID reading “Dr. Morgan” hovered
by her bedside. In one hand, he held a clipboard.

“Hello.” He reached his other hand out to me,
then Bill. “I’m Dr. Morgan. I need to ask you a few questions. This
patient here...” he said, as he pointed to Kara, “we have her name
as Kara Matthews, but she refused to give us any other information
about her condition or next of kin.” He paused, taking a pencil out
of his pocket. “Are either of you related?”

We both shook our heads no.

“Do you have a number of a parent or someone
we can call?”

We shook our heads no, again. I doubted Kara
would want her father called.

“Do you know if she is allergic to any
medications?” he asked all business.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Is she going to be
okay?”

“Can you describe the incident that brought
her in?” he asked. “We have a person in surgery from a gunshot
wound, three others dehydrated and possibly under the influence of
illegal substances. I need to know more information for
treatment.”

I had no clue what to say or not to say, so I
decided to let Bill handle this. Bill took out his ID, showing the
doctor his FBI badge.

“I am a special-agent with the FBI. In the
operating room, you have special-agent Jake Reynolds, shot in the
line of duty. This girl and the two others were rescued from a
hostage situation that was already under investigation. Please do
not alert your staff at this time. The situation is extremely
sensitive.”

The doctor nodded. “Preliminary observations
show that the three girls are stable. I am running routine blood
work. Excuse me, I need to add to the blood work request.” He turns
to leave.

“What about special-agent Reynolds?” Bill
asked.

“Nurse,” Dr. Morgan called, and a nurse came
in. “Please take these two people to the waiting room outside the
OR.”

The nurse led us down a few different
hallways. All of them had rooms and medical equipment beeping and
humming. At the end of the last hallway, automatic doors opened and
a large sign over the door said ‘Operating Rooms.’

Around the corner were more padded red
plastic chairs. Huddled in one was Jen.

“Jen!” I called to her.

“Joy!” she cried, and held her arms out to
me. I ran over and hugged her tightly. “He’s still in surgery,” she
sniffled. Her eyes were red-rimmed and runny. I hugged her
again.

“He’ll be okay,” I said. She nodded
apprehensively and stared at the floor.

“How’s Kara?” she asked.

“Okay. Stable, the doctor said.”

“Good.”

“Any word on how he is doing?” Bill asked
Jen.

“Not yet. They rolled him in there, and I
haven’t heard from anyone since.” Jen grabbed a tissue from the box
on the laminate coffee table in the middle of the room, and she
blew her nose. Bill and I sat down with her to wait.

Bill was very worried about his partner, and
I couldn’t blame him. The wound didn’t seem like it hit anything
major, but he bled...a lot. Bill’s pocket rang.

What? Where did the phone come from? I didn’t
know he had a phone. Why did he use the payphone earlier?

Bill took the phone out of his pocket and
clicked the accept button.

“Go.” There was a long pause. “I’ll be right
there!”

Bill got up and walked to the door.

“Where are you going?” I asked him, miffed at
his sudden need to depart.

“It’s over...” he said cryptically, and the
swinging OR waiting room door closed behind him.

Derek and Will:

Derek and Will scurry for cover and brace for attack
by their fellow agents. They position themselves like they have
done so many times as a team of two.

“
You ready?” Will asks Derek.

“
Yeah.”

Derek and Will move out. They cover each other and
scan the area, watching for their brethren to strike at them at any
moment. The bureau is going down in flames.

“
Two on the south wall,” Derek says.

“
Three on the north,” Will throws out. “And one at
the fence.”

Their eyes dart around, soaking in everything they
can.

“
You better get the fuck out of here!” Tommy
screeches into the din.

“
Does he realize that he is surrounded?” Derek
asks Will under his breath, mocking Tommy.

“
Does he realize we are in a ton of shit?” Will
mocks too.

Matthews moves forward, his stance is arrogant. He
waves his gun around, closing in on the area that Tommy’s voice
emanated.