9:16 P.M. PDT
July 12th, 2018
San Pedro Peninsula Hospital
San Pedro, California
Two hours earlier, an ambulance had roared up to the front of the Bartowski property in Rancho Palos Verdes. Casey and Mal had done a sweep of the property and determined it was secure.
Over Chuck's weak protests, he was loaded onto a stretcher and placed in the back of the ambulance. Devin insisted on riding along with him. Casey, Morgan, Jayne, Mal, and Simon loaded into Casey's Suburban to follow the ambulance.
Devin had called Don Russell to meet him at Peninsula Hospital. "Getting to a hospital was a good idea as far as precautionary measures go," Dr. Russell said, "but really, he'll be fine.
"Are you sure about that?" Devin asked.
"Devin," Dr. Russell replied patiently, "you're a neurologist. I'm a cardiologist. Trust me. It was a minor heart attack, and you caught it practically before it began. There's almost no damage to the cardiac muscle. I think Chuck should stay overnight for observation, but I'm going to leave that decision up to him."
And so a few minutes later, Devin was in Chuck's room, giving him the lowdown on the situation. Devin had kicked everybody else out when he came into the room.
"So, Dr. Russell says you can go home, but I'd really be more comfortable if you spent the night in the hospital."
"Devin," Chuck said, "how can I lie here in the hospital when Ellie and Kaylee and Sarah and River and Zoe are all out there, somewhere, in God knows what danger? How can I just stay here?"
Devin cast his eyes to the floor. When he looked back up, a day's worth of exhaustion and anxiety had drawn itself on his face. "Chuck," he replied, "believe me when I say that I can't stand not knowing where Ellie is, and that the only thing I know is that she's been kidnapped."
He stopped and took a deep breath, then blew it out again in frustration. "But there's nothing I can do about it right now. As far as I can tell, there's nothing you can do about it either, and you're not going to help them any by stirring yourself into another heart attack."
"Devin…"
"Chuck," Devin said, his voice rising, "Dr. Russell is the attending physician here, but if I have to, I will get myself placed on file as the physician of record, and so help me, I will have you restrained and handcuffed to that bed if I have to. Your sister will kill me if I let you do anything to yourself."
Chuck, realizing he was not going to win this argument, put his hands up in defeat. "Okay, okay, I'll stay. Just as long as I can get up to go use the bathroom when I need to."
"Don't worry. No bedpan for the Chuckster."
Time Unknown
Location Unknown
After the five women had been handcuffed and herded into the helicopter parked on Little Santa Monica Blvd., Sarah (still unconscious) and Ellie had been blindfolded. Kaylee, Zoe, and River, however, were not.
"Why did you blindfold them, and not us?" Zoe asked Mullins.
"Because you don't have a clue where we're going," Mullins replied with an unpleasant tone. "They both live in Los Angeles and could easily figure it out.
"Now," he continued, "ordinarily, I would take away all your IDs, your phones, what have you. However, God knows what booby traps the CIA might have set up, so I'm just going to activate this."
He pulled out a device no larger than a small cell phone, and pressed a button on it.
"Nothing happened," Kaylee said quietly, still terrified at Jubal Early's threat to follow through on the promise he had made more than eight years prior.
"Nothing visible," Mullins corrected her. "But I just activated an electromagnetic field that blocks the signals from your phones and the ident chips in your ID cards. Nobody will be able to track you that way."
After about two hours of flying very low – so low at times that it looked like they were going to crash into freeway ramps – the helicopters swooped in for a landing at a small airport out in the middle of agricultural fields. Sarah had woken up twice during the trip and been zapped with a stun gun both times for her troubles.
"You are going to cause permanent damage to her nervous system if you keep doing that," Ellie had said angrily after hearing the stun gun for the second time.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Mullins replied. "Did I not mention that Director Walker here shot me in the FACE?! You'll forgive me if I could give a shit about her nervous system."
The helicopters had taxied into a hangar. From there, the five were transferred into a large yellow truck with no windows. Kaylee could see a silhouette on the side of something that looked like it used to say "Ryder." She wanted to ask what that was, but kept her mouth shut out of fear.
After the rear door of the truck was closed, it began to feel like it was descending. About two minutes later, the engine of the truck started, and they pulled forward.
They drove for what felt like forever without stopping. When they finally stopped, Sarah had positioned herself by the back door to attack whoever opened it – and was preemptively shot with a TASER, yet again, when the door opened.
"If you have to go to the bathroom, you will go now," Mullins said, a real gun in his hands rather than a TASER. "Although it looks like Director Walker doesn't need to anymore."
"Exactly how are we supposed to accomplish this?" Zoe asked.
"We pull down your drawers. You squat. You do your thing. We pull your drawers back up," Mullins said, with an almost bored tone.
Kaylee had the unfortunate experience of making eye contact with Early at just that moment. "Yeah, I don't need to go," she said, hurriedly heading back for the truck. The other three women agreed.
"Suit yourself," Mullins called to their backs.
After being closed back up in the truck, they drove for quite a while longer. When they stopped, the door was opened again, and Sarah was shot with the TASER once more. "You're a monster, you know that?" Zoe asked Mullins angrily.
"You have no idea, lady."
They were in a parking structure of some sort. Mullins, Early, and the third man, who Kaylee had heard Mullins call "Richter", herded them over to a bank of elevators. They boarded one, and Richter pressed the button for the 33rd floor.
As the elevator ascended, Kaylee nervously dug her fingers into the rear pockets of her jeans – and felt something in the right pocket.
Her California ID card.
She had been keeping it in her back pocket in case she needed ID, so that she wouldn't have to dig around in her purse for it every time she needed it. And now, it might just be the answer to prayer.
Almost imperceptibly, she checked to her right and her left, making sure that neither Richter or especially Early was watching her. Agonizingly slowly, she used the first two fingers of her left hand to slip the ID out. As it came out of her pocket, she let go of it, letting it slide down the back of her leg to the floor. Ever so slightly lifting her right foot, she let the ID fall to the floor, and then put her foot back on top of it.
When the elevator doors opened, they were ushered out into a set of offices. Kaylee held her breath as they exited the elevator, but neither of the men who had been standing next to her seemed to notice the ID card lying face down on the floor of the elevator.
Please, God, please let this work, she prayed to a God she barely believed in.
11:31 P.M. PDT
San Pedro Peninsula Hospital
Morgan sat alone in the lobby of the hospital, staring blankly at his Palm Pilot. He felt incredibly lost in this situation. Of all the men who had been at Chuck's place earlier in the day, he was the only one who didn't have a very personal connection with any of the kidnapped women. Oh, sure, he had had a crush on Ellie back in the day, but that was it.
And he didn't feel like there was anything he could contribute to the situation. He was just a GSA lackey, assigned to help Chuck oversee Nerd Herd/Omaha operations for the greater Los Angeles area. He felt utterly useless.
So Morgan sat there, giving a half-hearted attempt to a game of Solitaire, when a small red box began flashing in the upper left hand corner of the Palm screen. "No way," he said in disbelief.
He tapped the box with the stylus, and the ident-tracking application popped up. "No WAY," he said again. Looking up, he scanned the lobby. Where the hell was everybody?
Morgan popped out of his chair and sprinted for the cafeteria. Only one person was in there – but it was just the person he needed. John Casey had fallen asleep on a table.
"Casey!" Morgan shouted, racing across to him. "Casey!" He shook his shoulder.
"Huh? Mom?" Casey slurred, coming awake. Then he looked up. "Morgan? What the hell?"
Morgan didn't say anything, just put the Palm on the table in front of Casey. Casey went from practically asleep to wide awake in less than a second. "Christ," he uttered.
Standing up, he strode rapidly out of the cafeteria. Morgan grabbed his Palm and ran after Casey, struggling to keep up with the much taller man.
A moment later, Casey swept down the hallway toward Chuck's room. "Wake up, wake up!" he called, pulling Mal, Simon, and Jayne, all asleep in the hallway, out of their slumber.
Turning to the left, he barged into Chuck's room. Chuck was awake, watching the Tonight Show; Devin had fallen asleep. "Wake up, Doc!" Casey said.
Devin's eyes popped open, and Chuck hit the mute button on the remote control. "What's going on?" he asked, as the three Serenity crew piled into the room.
"Five minutes ago, we got a positive track on Kaylee Frye's ID," Morgan reported. "It just popped up on my Palm Pilot. It came out of nowhere."
In an instant, Chuck was out of his bed. "Pardon my nakedness," he cracked, stripping off the hospital gown and grabbing the pair of jeans that was on the chair next to his bed.
"Chuck," Devin warned.
"Shut up, Devin," Chuck replied. "What's the location, Morgan?"
"Chase Bank Tower," Morgan said. "201 North Central Avenue. In Phoenix."
Casey, Devin, and Chuck all just looked at Morgan. "Phoenix?"
Morgan nodded. "As in Arizona."
A determined look set in on Chuck's face. "Let's go to Arizona."
11:57 P.M. MST
33rd Floor, Chase Tower
Phoenix, Arizona
The five women had been tied to chairs facing a wall. Kaylee was tied up next to Sarah, and she sensed that Sarah was beginning to stir.
"Sarah," Kaylee whispered. "Sarah, if you're awake, nod your head a little."
Almost imperceptibly, Sarah's head moved forward and then back.
"I think I may have been able to let your people know where we are," Kaylee whispered. "I had my ident card in my back pocket, and I was able to slip it out and drop it on the floor of the elevator."
A grim smile grew on Sarah's face. "Good job," she whispered back, her speech slightly slurred. "We'll make an agent of you yet."
