By The Grace Of God
Chapter Four
"What the hell's going on down there Nate?" Eliot screamed. The silence wasn't good.
"Eliot?" Kenna stood behind Maloney.
"I don't know." He looked at her. "Hardison?"
"Yeah…Nate went in to back you up and all hell broke loose. I think he lost his ear bud in the tussle." Hardison took a deep breath. "I'll send you the footage. I got a few minutes and then it went black."
"We're going up to the NIC U and find Bananno." Eliot motioned to Kenna, she handed him her phone. Maloney was on the ground.
"Jason?"
"I'm okay, it just grazed me." Eliot looked at the detective.
"Kenna…are you okay?" He looked at her.
"Yeah, you pushed me out of the way." She looked at him. "How about you?" Kenna gave him the once over.
"I'm good." Eliot watched the footage of the ER bank. Three gun men came in right after Nate. There were only a few nurses and doctors and about five uniformed officers milling around the lobby of the ER. "This is making less and less sense."
"Do you think this has something to do with Grace?" Kenna asked.
"Maybe it started out that way." The doors opened and Bananno stood at the nurse's desk.
"What the hell is going on down there?"
"Three men with semi automatics took over the ER. Nate's down there but I don't how or why. My tech guy sent us the footage of the takeover before the camera's shut down." Eliot handed the phone to Bananno.
"Guys, the elevators are shut down and the stair wells locked themselves down." Hardison informed them.
"Can you get them back?" Eliot asked.
"I'm trying. You want me to send Parker in?"
"No! The three of us trapped in her is bad enough. Find out who those men are Hardison."
"Doing my best, hang tight."
"So we're trapped?" Bananno asked.
"For now. How many people do you think are here?"
"Two hundred employee's about a hundred cops give or take." The lieutenant looked at Kenna and Eliot. "They have Ford?"
"That's the way it looked. But one thing 'bout Nate is that he can talk his way out of a paper bag if he had to." Eliot looked around. "I'm still thinking this had nothing to do with Grace." Kenna shook her head.
"Not her but maybe the money."
"You really think someone kidnapped her for her medical fund?" Jason asked. Eliot and Kenna already know what people did for money and kidnapping a sick child wasn't even the worst thing they ever heard about.
"I think we better get to the bottom of this before the whole hospital goes crazy and we have a riot on our hands." Eliot looked at the people milling around the area.
"I'll radio the floors and make sure everyone stays put and doesn't try to leave." Eliot was pretty sure Bananno didn't know how to handle this any more than he did "All electronics are down, including cells and my radios."
"Eliot." Nate's voice came though the com.
"What the hell is going on?"
"Check with Bananno and see if there's some VIP in the hospital. Someone German, possibly a Polish diplomat."
"Hardison can check it out to."
"I don't think so. It seems something's up but it's all very hush, hush."
"Can you give me anything to work with?"
"Three men armed to the teeth. They're defiantly talking German. I can make out bits and pieces but nothing concrete." Nate knew that he could only stay hidden for so long. "Keep me in the loop. I gotta go." Eliot looked at Kenna. She came up next to him.
"You still don't think this is about Grace, do you?" Kenna asked.
"You heard Nate. Something bigger is going down." He went to Bananno. "Do you know if there is some kind of German VIP at the hospital?"
"No, I think I would have been told when we started looking for the baby." Eliot saw movement from behind Kenna he took a step forward but it was too late. Jason was behind Kenna with a gun pointed to her head.
"Oh man, that is not a good idea." Eliot looked Kenna in the eyes. "You don't want to mess with her Jason."
"I need to get out of here, now." Bananno went for his gun. Eliot put his hand up.
"Jason, come on. We're all in the same boat here. We all want to get out of here and find Gracie and go home." Kenna swallowed hard. "I'm telling you son, back off."
"I'm leaving." He started dragging Kenna backward with the gun still at her head.
"There's no place to run Jason." The detective grabbed a key card and slid it through the reader and pulled Kenna through the door.
"Son of a bitch." Eliot headed to the door. "Kenna, kick his ass and get back here."
"Where are you taking me Jason?"
"Kenna don't do this. He's ready to derail woman, now is not the time to play hero." Eliot tried the door that had just slammed shut.
"Jason, come on please. You don't want to do this."
"Stop whining bitch." The sound of the hammer being pulled back echoed in her ear…and Eliot's.
"Hardison open the damn doors, NOW!"
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Kenna, being Kenna couldn't let the man push her around but the closer she got to the truth about what Jason and Samantha were up to the better. Nate knew those men downstairs were cops, so did Eliot. The masks didn't hide it.
"Talk to me Jason. I can help you. Bananno can help you." Maloney pulled her down the steps to the next landing,
"Some paramedic bitch can't help me." Kenna closed her eyes.
"You need to chill Jason…this can only end badly for you."
"Who says?" Kenna hit the instep of his foot and grabbed the gun, using her elbow right between his eyes.
"Says me." She turned the gun on him just as Eliot plowed through the door Hardison had somehow opened. "Now tell me what the hell is going on downstairs before I stop being nice." Eliot came up behind her.
"Kenna put the gun down."
"Eliot sometimes holding the gun get's better results." She didn't take her eyes or the gun off Maloney.
"I know that darlin', but the way you feel right now makes you holding the gun not a good idea." Eliot put his hand on hers and took the gun, handing to Bananno. "Now you know how to make him talk without that thing, I know you do." Kenna pushed the man up against the wall.
"What the hell is going on down there and remember I'm the good cop in this scenario so if you feel I have to bring the bad cop in, you're going to end up in more pain than one man should ever be in, so choose your words wisely detective." The man looked at Kenna and then Eliot. Bananno was already backing out the door and on the NIC U floor.
"Sam knew about the money. She figured whoever set up the fund would pay to get her back safely."
"What about the men downstairs?" Eliot asked.
"Friends. To make it look good. They aren't going to hurt anyone."
"Grace is hurting Maloney. Every minute she's not in that incubator her body temperature is going down. It's been four hours. Four hours without the meds she needs to fight the withdrawal." Kenna pressed him harder against the wall. "Where is she?"
"I don't know. Sam took her. She won't tell me where the hell she brought her." Kenna pressed harder against his throat. "She won't tell me." He gasped.
"I think he's telling the truth Kenna." Eliot leaned against the wall.
"What's the rest of the plan?"
"Get the money from the fund and we walk away clean. Grace gets to go home with her new family."
"You know that all you had to do was tell them you were her father and you would have access to the whole account."
"I didn't want the kid and Sam knew the money would help us have kids of our own." Kenna backed away and let the man slide down the wall.
"Finnish it Eliot." She started walking down the steps and Eliot punched Maloney so hard he fell to the floor. "Grace has got to be in the ER so Samantha can keep an eye on her." Eliot followed her down the steps. Parker was waiting for them at the ER floor.
"I thought I told you to stay put." Eliot said through clenched teeth.
"I want to help Eliot." He looked at the two women in front of him.
"So help me God if this goes south I want the two of you to hall ass out of here and don't look back." Eliot knew neither one of them would listen to him. That's just the way they were. "Nate can you talk?"
"I got a minute."
"Fill us in. Hardison, I need eyes in there."
"I'm working on it." Hardison said. "You all are lucky the coms are working. Whatever these guys are using is scrambling every damn thing."
"Everyone okay?" Nate asked.
"Yeah, we're all good. Parker joined the party." Eliot glared at the thief. "Did you get Maloney's confession?"
"Yeah, but Samantha Maloney isn't running this crew. She's as scared as the rest of the people here."
"So we have to figure out if there is something else going on." Eliot ran his fingers though his hair. "Nate rattle Samantha's cage and find out where is Grace is. We get her back the rest of this will be a cake walk."
"I'll work on her; you work on getting taking these guys down and getting us all out of here."
"Yeah, okay Nate I'll get right on taking down three armed men in a room full of armed men. How's that working by the way….did they take the guns off the cops?"
"Yeah, they had a couple of nurses' hostages when they came in."
"Where are those nurses?" Kenna asked.
"I don't know."
"They might have some answers." Kenna took a deep breath, "Let's figure this thing out before it's too late." Eliot and Parker both nodded. This thing was going downhill fast and unless they figured it out soon, nobody was going home.
