Hill sifted through any and all ideas in his mind to get him out of this mess and retreive the upper hand. He could make himself disappear, but Face had his gun right at his back. The odds of him shooting before he disappeared completely were too great, since he might be expecting it. Trying to contact the control room was a moot point, as well. For now, it looked as if he'd have to play prisoner. He glared at Jordan. This was all his fault. He arrived carelessly and allowed those idiots to get the upper hand. Considering all of the rooms were now visible, he assumed they managed to gain access to the control room, itself. But there was no way Hill was about to wave the white flag just yet.
"Take Murdock in here," Face ordered as they approached one of the rooms at the end of the long hallway. "Lie him down on the table and make sure he's nice and comfy. Your lives depend on whether he lives."
Jordan and Hill gently placed him on the table and Hill instantly planted an oxygen mask on Murdock's face.
"How do I get in touch with control?" Face asked.
"You'd need to find it," Jordan snorted.
Face shoved his weapon hard into his back. "You'd better watch your mouth before I get really angry. Hill; how do I contact your control room?"
Damn, Hill cursed to himself as he took off his watch. "Here. It's a communication device. Just hold the button there and talk," he showed him.
Face snatched the watch away and put it to his mouth. "Hannibal, are you there?"
Hannibal's voice came back loud and clear. "I read ya, Face. What's going on?"
"Little change of plans. I found Murdock passed out in the hallway while we were on our way to where Ella is. He's pretty bad. I got Hill and Jordan working on him, but I trust 'em about as far as I can throw them. Any way we can get that nurse we talked to earlier in here?"
"Yeah. I'll have B.A. retrieve him from the supply closet. You stay there until you see B.A. with the nurse. Then you can go and bring Daniella back here. We need to get both she and Murdock to an actual hospital."
"Copy that, Hannibal," Face responded, putting on the watch and glaring at Hill. "You won't be needing this."
Hill inserted an IV into Murdock and grimaced. If I can just play along until that nurse gets here, I should be alright. They may have the upper hand, but I'm still in charge. "Jordan, I need you to get me some more antiseptic. We need to stitch up his head here."
Face looked up. "Ah-ah-ah. Nobody leaves until B.A. comes back with the nurse. Then you can stitch him up. You just focus on his vitals and bringing him back to consciousness."
Hill silently cursed again. How could he have been so careless? If Daniella had still been a child and this had been ten or more years ago, there would have been no way he could have been defeated.
At least they still don't know about that chip I implanted in her all those years ago. So no matter what happens to me, if she is close enough, I can always have control over what she sees, hears and dreams, he thought, looking for the one silver lining he had amongst all the clouds.
B.A. carefully followed the directions from the layout on the computer to find the supply closet. He could hear the male nurse pounding on the door. "Shut up! I'm gettin' you out!" he yelled before he unlocked the door. "We need you to go in with Murdock and help him. He's in real bad shape and your boss don't have his best interests at heart. So you're gonna go in there and do your job to save him. You got me?"
The male nurse nodded. "I-I'll do my best. What about Ms. Sanford?"
"As soon as you get in there with Murdock, we're gonna go and get her. After we make sure she's alright, we're gonna take 'em to a hospital. A real one!"
"Okay. But what if Hill tries to-"
"He won't," B.A. cut him off. "I'll be in there. He tries anything, I'll knock him into next week."
The male nurse smiled weakly. "I'm sure you will. My name is Roland, by the way. Hill took a bunch of us college students in here. Told us he'd help us get jobs. He took half nurses and half computer technicians. Unfortunately, he's just made us prisoners. We either do what he says or we get killed. Most of us haven't seen or heard from our families in months. A couple of these guys even worked for Hill when Ms. Sanford was a child. Jordan was one, but Hill never let her see them. They just helped him control her mind."
"How'd they do that? How can he control her mind?"
"One of the guys working in the control room said it's a computer chip embedded in her hand. Said Hill inserted it the day after he first kidnapped her. Then he uses the computers to manipulate her. He can make her have weird hallucinations; bad dreams and all that. It's creepy," Roland told him as they continued walking.
"Man! That sucker is one sick and messed up fool!" B.A. slammed his fist into his palm angrily. "How can he do that to a kid? She was just a kid!"
Roland gulped. "He's a psychopath hooked on power. And sadly, we are all afraid of him. Before you guys came along, we thought we'd be here forever. Now we finally have some hope."
"Don't worry, man. Hill and Jordan are gonna pay. Nobody messes with kids. And nobody tries to hurt our friend!"
As Roland and B.A. reached the room where he knew where Face was via surveillance camera, B.A. slammed his fist into his palm again. Now that he knew just how sick and twisted Hill was, he knew he needed to keep an eye on him. For Daniella and Murdock's sake. Then once he made sure they were alright and the other kids were safe, he, Hannibal and Face were going to destroy Hill once and for all.
Daniella stirred as the sedative wore off and she could feel the fog lifting. She had to check on Murdock. She wasn't sure how long she'd been out. It could have been hours or days. "Murdock...are you there?"
When she received no reply, she turned her head towards his bed. She saw his baseball cap lying on the white bed liner, but the bed itself was vacant. Where did they take him? Was he hurt? Did he escape? Was he-?
"Murdock?" she asked loudly, her voice slurred. "Murdock, where are you?"
Suddenly, she heard a deep moan from somewhere in the room and she gasped. "Murdock? Is that you?"
"Uhhh..." came the unintelligible reply. Daniella managed to look towards the bathroom. The noise sounded like it came from there.
As her eyes began to focus more, she could see a man on the floor, wearing a brown jacket and khaki pants. Murdock!
"No! Murdock! Wake up!" she cried, tears forming in her eyes as she struggled against the ropes. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a cart within fingers' reach of the bed. If she could rub the ropes against the sharp corner of the cart, she might be able to break free. She had to try. "Don't worry, Murdock. I ain't a child no more and this ain't some game. It's high time that Randy Hill learns that Daniella Sanford ain't gonna take no more o' his sh...got it!"
She breathed a sigh of relief as the corner successfully cut through the rope. Untying the rest of her body, she drunkenly slid off the bed and over to the man's unconscious body. "Murdock, can ya hear me?" she asked, rolling him over. "Oh my God!" she gasped when she saw that it wasn't Murdock, but one of the nurses. "Way to go, Murdock! Way to go! Now it's time for me to show what I'm made of!"
Stumbling slightly, she made her way towards the door of the room. When she opened the door however, dizziness overtook her and she lurched forward into someone's waiting arms.
"It's okay, Ella. Faceman's got ya," she swore she heard him say before she blacked out.