Chapter 9

It's a painful and frantic drive to the hospital with Sasha at the back of the car and Adam in just as much panic as Keri. They storm through the hospital doors where the nurses take over in wheeling Keri up to the maternity section. The next hour is terrifying for both of them as they do not know what to expect and what the consequences of premature labour entails.

One of the doctors approaches Adam "Mr Hunter, please could you wait outside for a minute while we conduct our scans. Your daughter is sitting out there on her own and it's 4:15am."

Adam kisses Keri on the head "I'll be right outside with Sasha ok? Everything is going to be alright."

As he walks out of the room he sees Axel and Sammy sitting next to Sasha.

Axel: "We drove down here as soon as we got your message, how is Keri?"

Adam: "Bearing up. We won't know if there are any complications until the birth at this stage but we could be here another four hours at least". Adam turns to Sasha, "baby girl your uncles here are going to take you home so that you can sleep".

Sasha: "Is mommy and the baby going to be ok?"

Adam pauses: "Yes, they are doing great and he will be out of her tummy soon".

Sasha: "I don't want to go, I want to stay here with you!"

Just as she finishes her sentence Max, Blaze and Luca burst through the corridor. Max: "we got your message, what can we do to help?"

Adam: "Max did you bring your car? I need one of you guys to take Sasha home please".

Sasha cuddles up to Blaze "Hey Sash, aren't you tired?" The little girl shakes her head and looks up.

Blaze turns to Adam: "How's Keri and the baby?"

Adam places his hands over his head in a mix of exhaustion and worry "I really don't know. This is so crazy I can't go back in there right now I need some air for five minutes".

Blaze places her hands around his arms: "Listen to me, Keri needs you and you need to hold it together. Get some air and a coffee right now then get back in there. You can't leave her like this alone! We'll take care of Sasha ok?"

Adam nods and sighs "ok".

Axel follows him out of the building to get some fresh air.

Adam: "This is all my fault Ax. All the stress, all the work all the fighting over the last few weeks I've stressed her out and done this!"

Axel: "These things sometimes happen but Keri is a strong woman, her and the baby will be ok and the situation is under control."

Adam: "I don't know how much longer I can do all this. We have so much to do but my family need me. I let her down".

Axel: "You got this Adam. Pull yourself together, that baby and Sasha are the luckiest kids in the world to have parents like you and Keri who will do anything and I mean anything to protect them. Everything is going to be ok, you will get through this I know you".

Adam: "Thanks man, look I'm sorry about earlier".

Axel: "No I'm sorry".

Inside the building a doctor comes out and addresses the group "where is Mr Hunter?"

Max: "Adam's just gone to get a coffee, what's wrong?"

Dr: "She's in a lot of pain, we've given her an epidural so far which has helped but can only do so much. Can someone please step in with her for the time being, the midwife will be back in 20 minutes."

The three guys all look to Blaze at the same time who then gets up to walk into the room.

Blaze rushes over to hold her hand: "Keri! What did they say?"

Keri smiles: "I'm so glad you're here. Still a couple of hours until I fully dilate they think but they will keep coming back to check on me."

Blaze: "Don't worry we're all here, even your mother is on her way!"

Keri laughs through the pain "aren't you supposed to be in some sort of coma yourself?"

Blaze laughs: "Please, I am not missing this for the world. I'm fine now I woke up yesterday and Dr Gilbert took care of me".

Keri: "I'm sure as hell glad Adam didn't drive me to his lab, could you imagine the first face my child sees being Zan's scary one!"

Blaze laughs: "I don't think midwifery is in his skill set anyway".

Keri looks down for a moment as her laughter turns into fear "Blaze I'm so scared right now".

Blaze gives her a hug and a kiss on the head "everything is going to be ok. You and this baby, Sasha and Adam are going to go on one long vacation when this is over then you're going to come back, finish the wedding plans and then we're going to have the craziest bachelorette party you can ever imagine! The boys got nothing on us!"

Keri smiles for a moment before squeezing Blaze's hand as another contraction starts, just in time as Adam comes through the door.
Blaze: "Good thing you're here, your girl is going to break my hand any minute now!" She gives Keri a cuddle before getting up to leave.

Adam: "Thank you".

Blaze walks out of the room "hey guys I'm just going to get a drink, does anyone…"

She looks down at the chairs to see Max asleep with Sasha also sleeping on his lap and Sammy dozing off with his head up and mouth wide open snoring on and off. Luca and Axel are talking by the vending machines further down the corridor.

Blaze: "Ok, looks like it's just one hot chocolate for now".

She starts walking towards the cafeteria on the next floor past many nurses and doctors running through the corridor with women about to give birth who have just been rushed to hospital. It's all surreal as she passes through a section of the corridor where new born babies are kept in the room with their parents just outside who are smiling and looking through the glass windows to admire their children.

Blaze blocks out any feelings she has towards this but the worst part of it all is when she passes another room on her right, this time empty and quiet with dead foetuses on the table. She gasps in shock and turns away to continue walking. In doing so, she accidently bumps into one of the nurses. The whole room is a blur and all Blaze can hear is the sound of her own heartbeat as time slows down when she realises that this nurse is the same one she witnessed in her dream.

The nurse smiles up at her: "Sorry dear, are you ok?"

Blaze is shaken up but ignores her and walks further down the corridor. She looks over her shoulder and sees the same nurse walking into the empty room with the foetuses. Blaze hides around the corner, inspecting what the nurse is doing. Soon after, a man in a surgeon's uniform and mask follows the nurse into the room. Something is really not right here Blaze thinks to herself. After about four minutes, the nurse and the man exit the room, looking around. Blaze instantly recognises the face on the man as he removes his surgeon's mask- it's Jack. What the hell would he be doing in a maternity ward of a hospital at this time of morning?

After they lock the door and walk away Blaze cautiously makes her way over to the empty room and picks the lock when it is clear.

The sights and smell of the room are horrific and upsetting but Blaze needs to know what is being hidden in there. It looks as if they have kept the babies to do experiments on them where all of the foetuses have some sort of abnormality. She hears a beeping sound in the corner of the room next to one of the body freezers. As she opens the draw to the freezer she is shocked to find an energy bomb that is active and could go off at any time.

She freezes for a moment then frantically runs out of the room back towards the corridor where the others were sat, except now nobody is there. She doesn't want to disturb Adam and Keri in the next room who are alone with each other so she desperately runs around this part of the building trying to find one of the others but ends up bumping into Axel.

Axel: "Hey what's up with you? You look like you've seen a ghost. You shouldn't even be here, Zan told you to rest!"

Blaze frantically looks around: "Where are the others?"

Axel: "Max and Luca have taken Sasha and Sammy home with them to get some sleep, it looks like Keri is going to be more than four hours. You should go home and get some rest also".

Blaze looks up at him in panic mode: "You have to come with me!"

After they enter the room, she opens the freezer containing the bomb.

Axel: "Shit! This is bigger than the last one and it's active. Those beeps you hear, were they louder before?"

Blaze: "No they were slightly quieter. I saw Jack leaving the room with one of the nurses."

Axel: "This thing contains Rakushin and could go off at any time, fuck! We need to disarm it. They must have experimented with the Rakushin on the bodies in here".

Blaze: "We have to get the hospital evacuated!"

Axel: "I don't know how much time we have. Get Zan on the phone now and get me some plyers and a screw driver from maintenance."

Blaze starts to panic, struggling to catch her breath "are you seriously going to try to disarm that thing? There's children in there, new born babies in the next room, Adam, Keri, the hospital staff how are we supposed to…"

Axel: "Blaze listen to me, that noise is getting louder and this is going off any minute now whether we stop it or not. Take a deep breath, break into next door and get the tools for me".

Blaze hesitates: "ok".

Less than a minute later and she is back with the tool box containing the most necessary equipment she could find. Axel is kneeling on the floor next to the bomb that he has carefully taken out of the freezer. He is focussed in conversation with Zan on speaker phone who is giving him the best instructions he can do to disarm the bomb. Blaze's hands shake as she hands over the tool box to Axel thinking how the hell can he keep his cool like this?

Axel: "Blaze can you throw over that screw driver on the left with the blue handle". He uses it to yank open the top compartment of the 1.5m long bomb which is now beeping even more loudly.

Zan: "You need to cut the red wire before the main blue one".

Axel: "Zan there's four red wires how to I know which one?"

Zan: "It's the one connected to the glass energy box inside, make sure you are wearing your gloves for this. I would say based on the noise you have three minutes".

Suddenly the door bursts open and Jack walks in.

Jack spots Blaze straight away and remembers her face at Barbon's bar. "You!"

He pulls a knife out of his pocket and throws it towards her but she is quick to dodge it. She runs over towards him and jumps on him as soon as he tries to move to Axel and the bomb. Jack pushes her off onto the floor but she is quick to use her chi to fire it at his legs which forces him to fall. He

starts to laugh hysterically on the floor as she picks up one of his knives and walks over to kill him.

Jack: "People like you are the whole reason why that bomb is alive. Don't worry there's more where that came from sweetheart".

Blaze kicks out some of his teeth to shut him up and lifts him off the ground by the shirt.

Blaze: "You don't know shit about me or my power." She continuously kicks and punches him until he is black and blue in the face.

Blaze: "And I'm not going to waste a drop of it on you". She looks into his eyes and pulls out one of his knives before stabbing him through the chest then abruptly pulling out the knife.

Axel looks up at her and focusses as he cuts the red wire. In a tense moment the beeping stops but nothing happens.

Zan's voice comes through on the phone: "You need to quickly cut the blue wire now!"

Axel immediately cuts it before hearing a malfunctioning two beeps.

Zan: "It should be disarmed know".

It is the biggest sigh of relief as Axel puts his hands over his sweaty forehead, taking a deep breath out. Blaze drops the knife on the floor next to Jack's body in disbelief.

Axel: "It's ok, it won't go off now."

Zan replies over the phone: "Good work, I will send two of my scientists to the hospital to dispose the contents, it can no longer be activated".

#Hangs up#

Axel gets up and walks over towards Blaze who is frozen in shock "come on let's inform the hospital security and let's get out of this room. It's ok, no one is going to die here today from this. I'll get someone to clear him up before the syndicate realise what's happened". He looks down at Jack's dead body.

Blaze: "Give me a minute ok?" She runs over to the sink and throws up.

Axel: "Take this!" He hands her a cup of water while she catches her breath back.

Blaze: "I can't believe we just survived that!"

Three hours pass and the sun has started to rise outside the windows of the hospital. Blaze, Adam and Axel have all taken turns in keeping an eye on Keri, buying hot drinks or calling Max and Sammy to update them. The hospital manager and section manager have also met with Axel and Blaze to thank them for preventing a catastrophe. They have agreed to keep it all quiet away from the public which is in their best interests.

A midwife rushes into Keri's room "not long to go now she is fully dilated!"

Adam takes a deep breath and pokes his head through the door towards his friends "wish me luck!"

Blaze: "It's Keri who needs the luck not you!" They laugh.

Axel turns towards Blaze who is sat next to him in the waiting area: "Zan just sent me a message, three of his scientists have successfully removed the bomb out of the hospital. They tested the room and fortunately all the radiation inside the bomb was contained, it was hit or miss".

Blaze: "it keeps going through my head what if we never found the bomb".

Axel: "How did you know it was in there anyway?"

Blaze: "I didn't! I followed one of the nurses she looked suspicious then I realised she came out of the room with Jack".

Axel: "Why did she look suspicious?"

Blaze: "What's with all the questions suddenly? I just sensed that something wasn't right that's all. You believe me don't you?"

Axel: "These are all the things the FBI will ask you when they find out that we've disarmed it".

Blaze: "How could you have stayed that calm in there with that thing?"

Axel: "I had to. When I was in the army I had to do this a few times with other types of explosives. If you don't stay focussed and calm, it only takes one wrong move even the smallest thing that can set it off".

Blaze: "I'm guessing you want these back then." She takes out the two dog tags from her pocket and starts to hand them over. He reaches for them but Blaze pulls them back "not so fast. I'll give them to you but I want to know what those numbers are first and where you found my necklace."

Axel: "I see you still have my chain on then. You will have to ask Adam, he found your necklace at the cemetery. As for those numbers, they are there in case I die."

Blaze: "What is it some sort of burial site?"

Axel: "No, they are coordinates to the Yamato temple where I trained. Their religion believes that someone with our sort of power must be burned when they die, a proper ceremony so that their spirit can be sent back to the stars".

Blaze: "and that's what this is?" She turns around the tag containing the seven marks at the back and hands them over.

Axel: "You know what that is but I can't tell you why it's there on you". He reaches for the pendant around her neck and turns it around.

Adam bursts out of the room as the doctors take the new born baby away inside an incubator. Axel and Blaze stand up and walk towards him.

Axel: "Is the baby ok?"

Adam: "Yeah, his heart beat is fine and everything seems under control for now. They have given him a steroid to help his lungs and the doctors need to keep an eye on him. The next 24 hours are crucial."

Blaze looks towards the incubator "he is so small but he's beautiful Adam."

Adam gives them an exhausted smile: "he's a little fighter, only three and a half pounds. Hey can one of you call the others and let them know what is going on, I need to stay here for the time being to keep an eye on Keri and the baby".

They give Adam a hug.

Blaze: "I'm going to head home for a couple of hours but call me if you need anything. I'll be back soon."

Adam: "Thank you both". Just as she is about to leave, four FBI agents walk through the corridor.

One of them speaks out "Captain Stone, Captain Fielding we need you to come with us for questioning".

Adam: "What's going on?"

Axel: "We will explain later".

They walk them away towards the exit of the hospital building.

Blaze glares at one of the officers: "Is that really necessary?" He cuffs her hands behind her back.

The officer responds: "Blaze Fielding, I'm charging you with the murders of Jack Bates and Minister Allan Goldberg. Anything you say or do may be used as evidence in a court of law".

Blaze: "What? I swear when this is all over I will personally have you and your team fired! Do you know who I am?"

FBI agent responds: "Captain of Red District"

Blaze: "Yeah that's right, higher than your sorry ass".

Axel shouts from a distance as he is escorted to another car "don't say anything else Blaze until Clark sends you a lawyer!"

FBI agent: "Get in the car!"