Chapter 21
Three Heroes
As part of the Colonial Day celebration during the third year of Cylon occupation, the leading newspaper, The Caprica Tribune, sponsored an essay contest. The subject was 'Colonial Heroes'. The essays were limited to five hundred words. Thousands of entries poured in. The winning essay, written by Umo Tacasari, a student at Caprica University, was read by President Adar during his Colonial Day speech. The essay began, "All of us have passed a hero in the street without realizing it. All heroes are not larger than life, all heroes are not celebrities, and all heroes don't have their names written in history books or in the pages of a newspaper. The potential for the heroic exists in all of us and is realized when character, circumstance and conviction come together to produce the extraordinary act of courage, the resolution to stand up for beliefs, or the choice of sacrifice for others."
-Bartell, History of the Second Cylon War
.
"How is interrogator training coming?" Bill asked Lee as they were having lunch at a small restaurant near the Capitol.
"I've found a true cure for the worst insomnia," Lee answered, "watching tapes of interrogators at work. The only thing that can put me to sleep faster is reading the transcripts."
"You haven't gotten to sit in on an interrogation, yet?"
"I've watched through a two-way mirror as your garden-variety criminals are questioned. That's as close as I've come. The basic paramedic training course I'm doing is a hundred times more interesting."
"It's only been a month. You need to give it more time."
"Instead of flying a Viper, I'm learning eighteen ways to ask somebody where he was on the night of the crime."
Bill sipped his coffee. "I'm sorry, son. I could probably request you as an attaché on my staff. I think I could arrange it so you would still get to fly one day a week."
"No offense, Dad, but the only thing I can think of that would be more boring than what I'm doing is politics."
His father smiled. "Welcome to my world."
Suddenly Lee felt a wave of sympathy for his father. Bill had given up the command of a battlestar for a job that was, in Lee's opinion, only slightly more exciting than watching wet paint dry on a wall…at least the job that any of them knew about.
"We can't always get the dream jobs, can we?"
"Not always. Your mother wants you to come over for lunch on Sunday. Zak's going to be there."
"I'll try. How is Zak doing at the Academy? I saw him at McGee's last week. He was throwing darts with some of his friends and generally having a good time. We didn't have a chance to talk."
"Zak's not doing as well as I'd hoped," Bill said. "His end-of-terms were low. He's on academic probation for the second semester."
"We both know he didn't want to go to the Academy. He wanted to try out for a professional soccer team. He said it would get him more girls. The way a couple of female cadets were hanging all over him when I saw him at McGee's I don't see how he can handle any more girls."
Bill chuckled. "His mother caught him last year with one up in his room."
"I'll bet they were studying," Lee said wryly, "each other's anatomy."
Bill nodded.
"What did mom do?"
"She shut the door and called me. I told her to leave it be. I talked to Zak when I got home and made sure the girl was at least sixteen. She was eighteen like him. Then I told him he should be more considerate when his mother was at home. I didn't want to make too big a deal out of it."
"Good move," Lee said.
Bill gazed out the window of the restaurant. "I'm glad you were such a good kid. It's not that Zak's a bad kid. He just doesn't have your drive or your high ideals. In some ways he's probably more like me."
"He's not like you. You had a purpose when you were Zak's age. You wanted to fly a Viper and defend the Colonies. Zak's like John where women are concerned. They're both babe magnets. Although I'll admit after John started living with Lissa, he settled down."
Bill smiled. "I mentioned the situation with Zak to John when we were having lunch not long after it happened. He said once kids are eighteen, all you could do is hope you'd done your job while they were growing up. He told me that even if Zak was a handful that I was lucky I still had you and Zak. I was sorry I'd mentioned it. I'd forgotten about John losing his daughter."
"He thinks Kara's dead," Lee said. "I told him not to give up hope, but I don't think he listened to me."
"She probably is dead. Most of the time when someone vanishes without a trace that's what has happened. You've got to consider there were three days of bombing around where he left her. Anything could have happened to them."
"It's just so unfair. After all he did to save her life, it just seems so wrong that now he's got to accept losing her."
"I know, Lee, and I agree it's not fair. John will never get over it either, son. You can't expect him to. No father ever gets over losing a child. It would leave a hole in your heart that nothing could fill."
"The last few times I've seen John he's seemed preoccupied. He and Lissa are having some problems, but that's nothing new. There's something more going on with him."
Bill looked out the window again. Finally he turned back to Lee and said, "Laura used John to get information from his girlfriend about Dr. Baltar's lab. She seems to have justified it to herself, but I'm having a problem with what she did."
"I don't understand."
Bill took a deep breath and told Lee his take on what had happened. When he finished, Lee was stunned. "So John quizzed Lissa, got her to talk about stuff she'd agreed not to talk about, and then fed that information to Laura? Why would she ask him to do that?"
"Baltar's project was taking funds away of Laura's education budget. She wanted it back. She said she'd appealed to John's humanity. She then used her knowledge to bluff Baltar into thinking she would go to the press. She got her funds back, but there was a cost. I had lunch with Laura yesterday. Apparently Baltar has one-upped her by letting D'Anna Biers interview him and some of his staff. Laura thinks they've set up an alternate lab that is concealing what they're really doing."
"I know John doesn't agree with what Lissa's doing at her job, but he's still living with her. I can't believe he helped Laura by betraying Lissa like that."
"Laura is a beautiful woman, and John has a weakness for beautiful women. A lot of men do…especially one like her. And she appealed to another one of his weaknesses, his hatred of the Cylons. You can't forget what an intelligent and determined woman she is. That determination and her courage made her a hero when it came to the refugees. Without her a lot more of them would have died of starvation and disease, but she's stirred a hornet's nest by going against Baltar and his Cylon friends."
"You think she's personally in danger."
"I do. There's already talk among some people inside the government of asking Laura to run for President when Adar's term is up. If he doesn't run for re-election, then Laura might get a shot at the Presidency next year although I've got my doubts the Cylons would ever allow Laura to be elected."
"What do you think they'll do?"
"I don't know, but you can bet it won't be something that can be traced directly to them. It would hardly help keep the peace if the Cylons assassinated the Secretary of Education, especially if she's a Presidential candidate."
"You think they'll use someone inside the resistance to do something to her?"
"What better way to point the finger elsewhere. Think of the kind of damage that would do to the resistance. Laura's a hero to a large number of people for standing up to Cavil over the refugee camps. And now she's gone up against them again over education funding. The Cylons could eliminate her as a potential Presidential candidate and strike a blow at the resistance at the same time."
"You still care about her, don't you, Dad?"
"What do you mean still?"
"I overheard my grandparents talking one night. I know you were in love with her once."
Bill tried to hold his son's gaze but couldn't. He looked out the window again. "That was a long time ago."
"Not long enough, apparently."
His father's voice had an edge for the first time. "That'll do, Lee. It's not your concern."
"Does Mom know how you feel? Does Mom know you're living a lie with her?"
His father's voice was low and sharp-edged. "My relationship with your mother is not your business. She's forgiven me for being gone so much while you and Zak were growing up. She's forgiven me for a lot of things."
"So you're saying she understands your feelings for Laura and is okay with it?"
"My feelings for Laura are none of your concern either. You of all people should understand that sometimes we have obligations that we need to honor. Sometimes we have to put aside our personal feelings for the greater good of us all. How do you think the President would look at me if I left my wife and took up with his Secretary of Education? What do you think that would do to her career and how her colleagues and the people view her or her chances at the Presidency? Do you think the people would still want her if the press labeled her a home wrecker, and that's exactly what would happen. Believe me. Even if I could do something like that, I don't know that Laura would still have me. She's dating Charles Winters now."
"Laura's dating Colonel Winters?"
"A lot happened while you were on the Triton."
"You're right, Dad. It's none of my business."
"I've got to get back to the office. I've got to make a report on something to the President this afternoon. Boring political stuff."
"As boring as reading interrogation transcripts?"
"Not even that exciting, but even boring jobs have their demands and pressures."
"Every time I pick up one of those transcripts I feel the pressure…to stay awake."
"At least you get to fly a Viper one day a week," Bill said. "I don't even have that."
"Why don't you come out to the base one afternoon? We'll take a Raptor up. I'm sure I can arrange it for us."
"Maybe I'll do that. And try to come to lunch on Sunday."
"I will," Lee said. "I'd like for all four of us to sit down at the table again."
...
Kara tapped lightly on the open door of Jack Fisk's office. He looked up.
"I need a big favor," she said.
"Are you finally going to ask for a day off? You're the only person I have working for me who never asks for a day off."
"I need to borrow one of the bikes tonight."
"You know that's against policy."
"I thought you were the boss. Who makes policy?"
"Our insurance carrier does when it comes to the bikes. They're not insured for personal use. What are you trying to do? Impress a guy?"
Kara grinned. "You've got no idea."
"How about this, then…I'll pretend you didn't ask and if something happens to the bike, I'll fire you."
"Deal," she said. "You know that bike is my true love. I'm not going to let anything happen to it."
"Be careful. I'd rather lose the bike than my best rider."
"I'm always careful."
...
Kara met Jared at Zeno's after she got off work at seven. She was such a bundle of nerves by then that it was a struggle to sit still. She took off the black leather jacket because it had the MediFirst logo and name on it and swapped it for a plain black ski jacket that Jared had bought in a thrift store. The jacket was big enough that she could wear the down vest under it. She told him she couldn't give up the leather pants. The night was too cold to ride in just her jeans, especially once she got out of Caprica City and up into the hills.
Jared gave her a small black backpack that contained the night-vision goggles and headgear for them as well as the black ski mask.
"Do you need to look at the pictures again? I've got them in my pocket."
Kara tapped the side of her head. "They're all up here."
The night before Jared had pulled up some pictures on his laptop computer and had shown her the Cylon doctor called Simon. She'd seen his picture before on the news, but it helped to see him again. He had also shown her pictures of the other two Cylons, the blond woman and the older man. Then he had shown her Gaius Baltar's picture. His hair was longer and his face thinner and more stressed-looking, but it was the same man she had seen on the television three years earlier when she and Karl were living at the little stone house.
"Better give me your mother's dog tags now," Jared told her.
Kara pulled the chain with the dog tags out of her turtleneck and snapped it open. She slid the tags off and handed them to him. The chain now had only the silver ring she'd taken from the dead Viper pilot. She always thought of the ring as her father's wedding ring even though he and her mother weren't married. It symbolized both of them now, their union, their love, and her, their child. She closed the chain and dropped the ring back down the front of the black turtleneck.
"This hasn't been off my neck in over three years. It's my good luck charm."
Jared put the dog tags in his pocket. "I'll keep these safe."
"You'd better," she said. "What time is it?"
"Not even eight o'clock. It won't take but thirty minutes to get there. You don't need to leave for another three hours."
"I can't sit still," Kara said. "Let's go walk."
"You need to eat something."
"It would probably come back up at the worst possible time." She eyed his beer. "I wish I could drink something."
"You know you can't take that chance."
"If it was warmer, I'd just go ride around. That always settles me down, just me and the bike."
"I'm jealous of that bike," Jared said. "Just seeing the way you sit on it gets me going. It makes me think about…"
"Oh, my gods," Kara said suddenly. "MediFirst's name is on the bike. What if somebody sees the bike?"
"Frak, you're right. Frak, how could I have overlooked something that obvious? Come on. We've got to go get something, some black poster paint or something, and cover it up."
"Are you nuts? I can't paint the bike."
"Okay. We'll ride over to that big discount store on Third that stays open all night. I'll find something."
"I don't have another helmet with me."
"I'll just have to take my chances."
They made it without incident. Jared finally settled on some black crepe paper and water-based glue. Back outside he tore the paper and glued it over the name and logo.
"I hope this stays on," he said. "If we ever use the bike again, we'll have to find something else to cover it up."
"What time is it" Kara asked again.
"A little after nine."
"I'm going. I can't wait any longer. I'll find a place to hide once I'm there."
"No, not yet. The longer you're at the location, the greater the chance of getting caught. You're not supposed to get there until midnight. Let's go down to the park and watch people ice skate."
It was a good idea. They got hot chocolate, sat at a little table inside and drank it. Kara watched a young boy help his younger sister put on skates. She thought of Connelly. His little girl would be eight or nine months old by now. It didn't seem like that long since she'd been at the camp. She wondered what Connelly was doing since all the camps had been shut down. She wondered if she would ever see him again.
She went to the restroom. While she was washing her hands, she glanced at her reflection in the mirror. It made her think of the night when she had looked into the mirror over the sink at Singer's airfield and cut her hair. It was shoulder-length again and pulled back in a pony tail like she'd had that night, the night Zarek had taken her father away from her. She pulled the elastic off her pony tail and ran her fingers through her hair before she refastened it.
She looked into the reflection of her eyes, her father's eyes. He loved her so much that he'd stolen a ship on Picon to save her life. He loved her so much that he'd taken Zarek and his men off Caprica to keep them from hurting her. He loved her so much he'd given his life to save hers. She was here tonight only because of his sacrifice. Her father was a hero to her. "I love you, Dad," she whispered to the eyes in the mirror. "We'll be together again, maybe even tonight if things go wrong."
She and Jared walked outside to the rail and watched a surprisingly large number of people skating around the big outdoor rink.
"You'd never know we were terrorists to look at us, would you?"
"We're not terrorists, Kara. We're resistance fighters."
"Whatever. I just hope I don't have to…."
"Pull that trigger?"
"Yeah."
He wrapped his arms around her and held her. His voice was soft against her ear. "If you have to pull that trigger, just think about your mom, and your dad, too. If it weren't for the Cylons, you'd still have both of them just like I'd still have my mom and dad. If you have to pull it, just know you're doing it for all of us, for you and me and Karl and Maggie and everybody else who lost loved ones to the Cylons. That's probably most of the people on this planet. That's why all of us are doing this."
What he said put everything into perspective for her. "I never thought of it exactly like that. Thanks."
He pulled back and took her face in his hands. "I love you, just remember that, too."
She nodded again. It seemed like the most natural thing in the world when he kissed her. Even as she kissed him back, she wondered why she couldn't feel the kind of love for him that he felt for her, why she cared so much for him, but couldn't love him the way he wanted her to. How could she let him touch her the way she did and still not give him her heart?
The kiss was reckless and passionate for where they were. Was she trying to make sure it was a good one in case it was their last? In case she didn't make it back? She was sure if anyone skating by looked at them that they didn't look like two terrorists at all.
Reluctantly Jared ended the kiss. "You'd better get going. It's almost eleven o'clock. Ride slow. I'll take the subway back to the apartment. I'll wait up for you. Be careful. Please be careful."
She went to the bike, put on the helmet and turned the key in the ignition. She looked back at Jared one last time. The love and fear on his face made her want to cry.
...
She took the I-6 Motorway north out of the city. Four miles and she passed the main exit to the research park where the lab was located. Two more miles and she exited onto the S-52, a four-lane secondary road. She stuck to the speed limit. Seven miles up the S-52 she turned onto a narrower two-lane secondary road, the S-419. It wound into the hills over the city and to the woods overlooking the lab. Ten point four miles and there was the dirt road, SA-1192 as the small blue signpost read. She turned onto it and rode slowly until she was around the first curve. Then she stopped the bike and got the night vision goggles out of the backpack. She took the helmet off and put the ski mask, goggles and headgear on. She strapped the helmet onto the back of the bike and turned off the headlight before she pulled the night vision goggles over her eyes.
Looking through them was disorienting, but if she rode slowly enough she could manage. Two miles later she reached the path marked by the three rocks. She backed the bike down it until it wasn't visible from the road.
She didn't realize how stiff and cold she was until she got off the motorcycle. Her breath vaporized in the night air. It looked funny in the night vision goggles, like smoke. She began walking along the narrow path. A quarter-mile in she startled a fox that was feeding on something near the path. Its eyes glowed for a second in her goggles before it ran in the opposite direction. She stood and waited for her heart to slow down and her breathing to return to normal. She had to settle down. She pushed back the cuff of her jacket and looked at her watch…11:45. She was on time.
When she got to the clearing, one of the men was already there, kneeling with a small bag open on the ground in front of him. He glanced up. Actually both of them were already there, but the taller one was behind a tree and didn't come out until she had stood there for a minute. He holstered a pistol before he walked over to her. She understood his caution.
The other man stood up. The agreed upon sign was that they all approach and touch the knuckles of their right clenched fists. They did the bonding ritual, three black-gloved fists touching…their two larger ones and her smaller one. We're in this together.
She knew that she looked as weird to them as they looked to her with the night vision goggles over their black ski masks, like big exotic insects. She clenched and unclenched her fists several times. Her hands were still cold.
At first she though the taller of the two was Scarecrow, but then realized that he wasn't heavy enough. This guy was slimmer and better built than Scarecrow. The other guy was shorter. He had to be the explosives expert because he had a backpack as well as the bag on the ground.
The taller guy took her by the arm and walked her twenty-five or thirty paces through the trees to where the rifle was setup. It was already on the bipod stand. She noticed that it had a sound suppressor at the end of the barrel. That was good. If she had to fire it, the quieter, the better.
Kara shook her arms several times and flexed her hands again. She knelt, lay prone and nestled the rifle's fiberglass stock snuggly into her shoulder. She lifted the night-vision goggles and looked through the scope. It was extremely high quality, better than the goggles. Slowly she scanned the complex. She saw the lab building and the fire escape. She didn't see anyone at all on the back side of the building. She looked at the roof of each building and saw the stacked, dish-like monitoring devices for the audio detection system.
The guy knelt on one knee beside her and held out a piece of paper. She pulled the goggles back down and looked at the words block printed with a black marker. Rifle tested, scope accurate. She nodded. He zipped the paper back into a pocket of his vest and stood.
Kara looked at her watch again…12:05. They had nearly an hour to wait. She stood. She was still cold so began to walk round and round the clearing. It would help her nerves, too. She didn't think she had ever spent a longer or colder thirty minutes before both guys starting getting ready to begin their descent of the hill to the back fence.
The quarter-sliver of the moon Thyone had moved in the sky. The faintly visible shadows of the bare trees were a few inches longer than when she'd arrived.
Right before they left, the taller guy came over to her and took her right hand, the hand that would pull the trigger if she had to. He massaged it gently between both of his hands for nearly a minute. It really helped get the blood flowing and warm it. He put his hand on her shoulder and then made the sign to her. I understand. Was he telling her that he understood her apprehension or that he understood she might have to kill before this night was over?
Whatever he was saying, he was putting his life in her hands and they both knew it. She nodded. I'll protect you. He understood. Then he looked at his watch. She did the same…12:40. He signaled the other guy and they left the clearing.
She was back on the ground watching through the scope before they got out of sight down the hill. There was still no one in the back of the buildings until two security guards walked around the corner. 12:55, right on time. They circled the building and headed back toward the front of the complex. As soon as they disappeared around the front of the next building, she saw movement at the fence. There must have been two pairs of bolt cutters hidden close by because she saw both of her guys start cutting the chain link. They were through the fence, across the thirty feet of concrete and up the fire escape in twenty-five seconds. Perfect.
Then whichever one of them had the access card for the door dropped it through the metal rungs of the fire escape. A big pile of dead leaves from the trees along the fence had accumulated underneath. The card fell into them. The shorter guy must have dropped it because he started down the steps two at a time. The taller guy followed him and they both crouched under the steps and started pawing through the leaves, looking for the card.
Reno had been right. The five security lights above the fence illuminated the area almost like daylight. If anyone came back there, both of her guys would be seen immediately.
Kara began taking deep breaths and willed her racing heart to slow down. It didn't work.
Movement toward the front of the complex caught her eye. Two men came around the front corner of the building next to the lab and started walking toward the back. She looked at them through the rifle's scope. One of them was Simon, the Cylon doctor, but the man with him was Leoben, the man from the refugee camp. Kara took a deep breath, shut her eyes tightly and opened them again. It was definitely Leoben. Her heart rate climbed again.
What was a man from the refugee camp doing with a Cylon doctor at a Cylon lab? Could he be a Cylon, too? After he'd left the camp, he'd opened a book store near Caprica University, Conoy's New and Used Books. She had ridden the motorcycle by his place dozens of times on her deliveries over to University Hospital. Several times Leoben had been outside, putting books on a sale table on the sidewalk. He had glanced up at her once but hadn't recognized her because she had the sun visor on her helmet down. Another time she'd almost stopped and browsed, but changed her mind. There had always been something about him that gave her the creeps.
Simon and Leoben stopped walking for a minute and engaged in a discussion that looked like it was escalating into an argument. Leoben was gesturing angrily to Simon. Simon was shaking his head. She briefly looked at the fire escape. Her guys were still looking for the card. It seemed like minutes had passed, but she knew it had only been twenty or thirty seconds. She should be able to hear Simon and Leoben's raised voices, but the only thing she could hear was the blood pounding in her ears against the ski mask.
Her guys heard them, though. She glanced at them again, saw both of them freeze and stop digging through the leaves.
Simon walked off and left Leoben. Leoben caught up with him and was still trying to convince Simon of something. In ten seconds they would round the corner and her guys would be seen. It would take only seconds after that for them to alert the guards. Without another thought Kara put the cross-hairs of the scope in the middle of Simon's forehead and pulled the trigger. Then she nudged the barrel to the right and shot Leoben, too. The rifle's silencer was good, but her guys still heard it in the quiet night. They knew she'd had to do her job. If the complex's sound detection system picked up gunshots, then guards would be on the way soon.
The taller guy stood up. He had reached the corner of the building, pistol drawn, when the shorter guy found the key card. They were back up the steps in seconds and this time they made it inside. She waited, freezing there on the ground and sweating, too. She felt sick. She was glad she hadn't tried to eat anything earlier. Even without the rifle's scope, she could see the bodies of Simon and Leoben sprawled on the concrete. Apparently the sound detection system didn't recognize gunshots. No one came to check it out.
She started counting slowly and silently. She had reached two hundred eighty-seven when the fire escape door swung open. The shorter guy came out first followed by the taller guy. The shorter one was on the ground and the taller one over halfway down the steps when the explosives detonated. The second-floor windows blew out with a roar. Both men went down. The shorter one was just knocked to the ground. The taller one went over the fire escape's metal handrail and hit the concrete hard.
Reno had told her the explosives were the incendiary type. They not only wanted to blow the place up, they wanted everything inside to burn, too. The inside of the building was immediately engulfed in bright, orange flame. An alarm under the edge of the roof started shrilling.
Come on, get up, get up, get up, come on, get up! She almost said the words out loud. The shorter guy scrambled to his hands and knees, made it over to the taller guy and shook him. The taller one was probably unconscious because he didn't move. Please, gods, don't let him be dead.
Kara saw three guards carrying assault rifles running toward the back between the two adjacent buildings. Scarecrow had told them that the guards carried guns with real bullets. If they spotted her guys it was all over for them. She shot at the concrete near the guards' feet. They stopped and scattered for cover. Carefully she took aim and methodically shot out the five security lights above the back fence. Her guys were now in the dark. They could see with their night vision goggles but they could no longer be seen.
Kara chanced a quick look at them. The shorter one had managed to get the taller one on his feet. They were both limping, but they made it to the hole in the fence and through. She should go now, but she watched them until she couldn't see them anymore. Before she left, she fired several more shots into the concrete around the guards. It might give her guys another minute to escape, maybe two.
She left the rifle. She had no idea how her guys were going to get away until she had almost covered the half-mile back to the motorcycle and heard the faint, high-pitched whine of a helicopter engine coming to life and then the thumping of the rotors as they started spinning. Through the goggles she saw it rise above the hill. It was small, painted black and it was flying low, fast and without lights. It was soon lost to the night.
Once again she thought of how her father's ship had disappeared into the sky that night at Singer's airfield. What would he think of her now? What would he think of his daughter, the resistance fighter, the daughter who had just shot and killed a Cylon and maybe a human, too? The daughter who had saved the lives of two men who had destroyed a Cylon lab?
I did it for you, Dad, for you and Mom both.
She tore off the night vision goggles and put them in her backpack, but she left the ski mask on before she put on her helmet and started the bike. She was going to have to ride fast and she couldn't do that looking through the goggles. She pulled out onto the dirt road and switched on the headlight. She was halfway to the S-419 when she met the car and knew she was in trouble. The hill rose steeply on one side of the road and dropped off steeply on the other. There was nowhere to go, nothing to do except stay on the road. In the motorcycle's headlight she saw the driver's arm extended outside the window with a pistol in his hand.
She had one thought. I'm sorry, Jared.
Just before the car reached her it hit a pothole in the road. The guard's arm was knocked up and then back down. He slammed on the brakes. She never heard him fire the gun. The muzzle flashes were her only indication that he had pulled the trigger. She was past the car before she felt the pain in her thigh. For a split-second it felt like a bee sting. Her next sensation was of a red-hot poker laid across the top of her leg. She gasped, sucking in the frigid air and kept going. When she reached the S-419, she opened up the bike. She was soon so cold that she could mercifully feel almost nothing.
Back in the city she slowed down to the speed limit until she got back to MediFirst. She pulled the bike into the garage and examined it. It looked fine. Her leg didn't look that bad, either. There was a small hole in the leather pants halfway between her left knee and her hip. She didn't even see much blood. There was no hole on the other side of her pants, though. As she began to warm up, the muscle on the front of her thigh started going into a painful spasm when she put weight on her leg. She was sure by then that the bullet was still in there.
She pulled the bike over to the drain in the floor and got a bucket of water. She took a sponge, soaked the black crepe paper, pulled it off and stuffed it into the backpack. She wet the glue and rubbed until it dissolved. The bike looked fine, not a scratch on it. She parked it in its normal place and made it into the locker room without being seen. The night delivery guy was either out on a run or in the break room. The dispatcher was in another part of the building. She put her helmet in her locker and stuffed the black ski mask into her backpack with the night vision goggles. She tucked her hair up under a black ball cap and pulled it low over her forehead. She exited through the garage and carefully locked the door behind her.
The subway was a block away. She looked at her watch…2:25. The ride to the apartment was ten minutes. She walked slowly and carefully, trying not to limp and at the same time avoiding the cameras on the subway and in the stations. If she couldn't avoid one, she looked down. All anyone looking in a monitor could see was the black ball cap. When she got back to the apartment it was nearly 3:00.
Jared was waiting up like he had said he would be.
The adrenalin had worn off and the endorphin-fueled high was gone. She was in pain. She was also dizzy. Jared had the door open seconds after he heard her key in the lock.
"I've been shot," was all she managed to whisper.
If he hadn't caught her, she would have collapsed on the floor. He got her to his and Karl's bathroom, locked the door and helped her get the backpack and jacket off before he unzipped the leather pants down both sides of the legs. She had bled more than she thought. The left leg of her jeans was soaked from mid-thigh down to her knee. The leather pants had kept the blood on the inside.
Jared was as white as she was. "Oh, gods, oh frakking gods! I've got to get you to a hospital."
"No!" she hissed. "The bullet's still in my leg. Hospitals have to report bullet wounds. You want me to be arrested?"
"What are we going to do? That bullet has got to come out."
The dizziness increased. She leaned back against the wall and carefully slid down until she was seated on the floor. She unzipped her jeans. "Take my boots off and help me get these jeans off."
As he started easing the jeans down her legs, the pain got so bad that she had to grab a towel and stuff part of it in her mouth to muffle her moans. She nearly passed out before he finished. He threw her bloody jeans into the tub on top of her leather pants.
She could see the entrance wound on the side of her thigh. It was a small hole that had mostly closed and was barely bleeding any more. Jared wet a washcloth and she cleaned as much of the blood from her leg as she could. She handed it to him to rinse in the sink. He wasn't doing well at all.
"Hey," she whispered, "don't you dare pass out on me. And don't you puke on me either."
He swallowed hard and shook his head, then quickly turned and knelt over the commode. The sound of him retching and the smell was almost too much for her. He flushed the toilet, stood at the sink and washed out his mouth.
"Sorry," he mumbled. "I'm okay now."
The pain had eased. She felt better. Gingerly she began feeling the top of her leg.
"Small caliber bullet. It's got to be or it would have gone through. Frak, there it is."
Pain radiated as she felt a small lump. The bullet had entered high on the side of her thigh and traveled diagonally. It rested in the muscle about three inches above her knee. "It's maybe an inch deep. It's got to come out. You've got to do this."
"With what? A kitchen knife? It'll have to be done with a scalpel and then you'll have to be sown up. You'll need antibiotics. Kara I've got to take you to the hospital."
"No. I'll take the damn thing out myself," she said irrationally. "If I go to the hospital, I go to jail. Bullets mean ballistics."
"You can't cut a bullet out of yourself."
"You're right. What time is it?"
"Almost 3:30."
"We've got time before Maggie wakes up. Bring me the phone."
"What are you going to do?"
"Call Jack. He was a medic when he was first in the Marines, and we've got a big first aid kit down at work, the kind we take to the clinics. I know it's got a scalpel and sutures. One of the drivers cut his hand and didn't want to go to the emergency center so Jack sewed him up."
"You trust him that much?"
"I trust him more than I do a trauma doctor. Jack will probably fire me, but he won't call the police. I'd rather be out of a job than turned over to the Cylons. You know what they'll do to me."
The bathroom doorknob rattled. Karl asked, "What's going on in there?"
"Oh frak," Jared said.
"Just go get the phone."
Jared unlocked the door and opened it. Karl was standing outside in his flannel pajama pants and a t-shirt. He looked half-asleep until he saw her sitting on the floor and the bloody washcloth in the sink.
"What the hell?"
Kara put her finger to her lips.
"She's been hurt and not one word from you," Jared hissed as he went around Karl.
Karl came into the bathroom. "Hurt how?"
"Shot," she whispered, "and keep your voice down. We don't want to wake Maggie up."
"Shot?" His tone was incredulous. "How?"
Jared came back with the phone. She had Jack Fisk's home number as well as his office number programmed into it. He answered on the second ring.
"Hey, Jack, it's Kara…Carrie, it's Carrie."
"What's wrong?" He suddenly sounded like he was completely awake.
"The bike is fine. I'm not. I need your help."
"What happened?"
"I've got something in my leg that needs to come out. Like a metal splinter. It's deep. I need you to go by the office and get the big first aid kit."
"You need to go to the emergency center if it's that bad."
"I can't. They'll ask too many questions. Please, Jack. I wouldn't ask if this wasn't important. Please."
"Where are you?"
She gave him the address.
"It'll take me about twenty-five, thirty minutes to get dressed and get by the office. You'll be okay until then?"
"Sure. Don't get a speeding ticket getting here."
"That's what I'm supposed to tell you, remember?"
Kara handed the phone back to Jared. "He'll be here in thirty minutes."
"What happened?" Karl asked.
"I've got a bullet in my leg. Jack's going to have to take it out."
Karl said. "You still haven't told me how it happened."
"Long story."
"I'm listening."
Jared shut the door. With her sitting on the floor, the little bathroom was crowded.
Jared sat on the edge of the tub and said to Karl, "If we tell you and you breathe a word to Maggie, we'll probably all die for it. You've got to swear."
"I'm listening," Karl said again.
"Kara was helping me with…something I'm involved in."
"What?" Karl's voice was soft but Kara could tell he was furious. "What the hell are you involved in that got her shot?"
"I'm involved in it, too. This was my choice," Kara said.
"Oh gods, no!" Karl said. "Please gods don't tell me you two are mixed up with some terrorist group."
"Resistance. Not terrorists." Jared said.
"There's a difference?"
"We're fighting the Cylons," Kara said. "That's all you need to know."
"And when the police break down our door and haul you two away do you think they won't take me and Maggie, too?"
Neither Kara nor Jared answered him. They looked at each other. She should have thought about that.
"Maybe Jared and I should think about moving out," she said.
"And how do you think Maggie and I will afford this place? We don't earn the big paychecks like you two. You've got to quit. That's all there is to it. You've got to get out."
"We can't," Jared said.
"Why not?"
"The main reason is that we both believe in what we're doing."
"That's not good enough."
"Our comrades won't like it." Jared said.
"I ought to beat the crap out of you for getting her into this."
"Lay off Jared," Kara said, "I told you I volunteered to do this."
"And it got you shot."
"It was worth it." She looked up at Jared, pride glowing in her eyes. "It was beautiful," she said. "Just gods damned beautiful."
"They did it?"
"Like fireworks on Colonial Day. Boom. Cylons won't be making any half-breeds in that place for a long time. Maybe never."
"Did the…others get away, too?"
She nodded.
"Injuries?"
"One of them got knocked out when it blew, but he was on his feet and okay the last time I saw them."
"Did you have to…do what we talked about?" Jared asked.
"Yeah, but I'm okay with it. We'll talk about it later."
"What are you two talking about?" Karl asked.
"Tell him," Jared said. He looked at Karl. "If you tell Maggie, I'll borrow Kara's gun and shoot you myself. I'd better go downstairs and wait for Jack. I don't want him buzzing the door and waking Maggie up."
"Before you do that, bring me that bottle of ambrosia from the kitchen. My leg is really hurting."
"I'll go get it," Karl said to Jared, "You go wait for Fisk. You're right. We don't want him waking Maggie up."
When Karl returned with the bottle, Kara took a long swallow. Karl lowered the toilet lid and sat. She drank again and told him everything except the part about Leoben possibly being another Cylon. Karl kept shaking his head. Through her whole story he kept shaking his head.
"You could have been killed," he finally said. "You could have frakking died! How the hell do you think I would have felt if you'd died?"
She shrugged. "I didn't die. I'm okay."
"No the hell you're not okay! You've got a frakking bullet in your leg! Aren't we friends anymore? Why didn't you talk to me about this before you got involved?"
"Because you'd have told Maggie. You tell Maggie everything and I don't trust her. All she'd look at would be how it would screw up her chances of going to the Academy if one of us got caught."
"What if she wakes up while Fisk is digging a bullet out of you? What am I supposed to tell her then? Huh? Just tell me that?"
She never got the chance to answer him. Jared opened the bathroom door. "Mr. Fisk is here," he said.
"Tell him I'm in my underwear," Kara said.
Fisk heard her. "I've got two daughters. I've seen girls in their underwear before."
Karl got up and let Fisk come in. "I can't do anything in here. Get her to the kitchen and on the table. You're probably both going to have to hold her. I looked all over down at the office. I couldn't find any local anesthetic. I'm going to have to take this, uh, splinter out without it. I can't believe I've got employees stealing my drugs."
Karl knelt beside her. "Put your arms around my neck." She did and he gently lifted her and carried her into the kitchen.
"Just remember all the times we stuck together," Kara whispered to him. "Remember everything we've been through."
"I'm going to kill Jared for this," Karl said softly. "I'd die if something happened to you. You're all I've got left."
"You've got Maggie," Kara said.
"That's different. You and me…that'll never change."
Fisk cleared everything off the table. "Have you got any disinfectant?"
Jared rummaged under the sink where Maggie kept the cleaning supplies. He came up with something that satisfied Fisk. They cleaned the laminated surface of the table.
Before Karl sat her down, she whispered to him, "No matter what I'm doing for the resistance, I'd die before I let anybody hurt you. I'll always feel that way. You and me…that'll never change."
Karl went over and shut the kitchen door.
Kara still had the bottle of ambrosia in her hand. She took another swallow.
"I'm not going to ask how this happened," Fisk said. "I'm guessing it wasn't a lover's quarrel. Do you know where this…splinter is?"
"It went in over here and ended up here." She put her finger over the spot.
He began to feel around the area. She clenched her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut. It was all she could do not to cry out. Finally he stopped.
"Give me that towel," Kara said to Jared.
Fisk put the big first aid kit on the counter beside the sink and opened it before he rolled up his sleeves and washed his hands and arms. He pulled on some latex gloves. As gently as he could, he swabbed the area over the bullet with something strong smelling and cold, but Kara still bit into the towel. She knew she left her fingernail impressions on the edge of the table.
"You're both going to have to hold her," Fisk said. "One of you behind her, arms wrapped around her holding her wrists, crossed like this. I can't take a chance she'll hit me or move when I start cutting. The other one will have to hold her legs. I had a Marine knock me out one time when I started picking some shrapnel out of his leg and it wasn't as deep as this splinter is."
"Karl's the strongest," Kara said. "Let him hold my legs."
Jared stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her. She crossed her arms over her chest and he took her wrists like Fisk had shown them. Jared pulled her tight against him. "I'm so sorry," he whispered. "I wish it was me."
"No you don't."
Karl held her legs just below the knees. Fisk took the scalpel and cut swiftly over the bullet, a short vertical cut straight toward her knee. Blood welled up and ran down onto the paper towels Fisk had put under her leg. Karl did okay. Jared turned his head to the side, though. Fisk held the small cut open. He'd done a good job. He didn't have to probe for the bullet. He took a pair of forceps and lifted it out.
"There's your splinter," he said. "Looks like maybe a twenty-two caliber splinter."
The short incision took three stitches. By that point getting the stitches put in was almost nothing. Fisk didn't sew the bullet's small entrance wound.
"It'll heal from the inside out," he said. "I'm just going to bandage it, and I'm going to give you an antibiotic shot."
"In my ass?" Kara asked.
"I ought to kick it when I'm through," Fisk retorted.
When her leg was bandaged and he'd given her the shot, he peeled the latex gloves off and sat down on one of the chairs they had slid back from the table. He picked up the bottle of ambrosia and turned it up.
"How much blood did you lose?" He asked her.
"Partway down the leg of my jeans."
"You should probably be on a saline IV, but I don't have one handy so you're going to have to take it easy for a few days. Drink plenty of liquids and not just ambrosia. Your body will replace the blood, but you need to take it easy. Eat well, too." He looked at Jared and Karl. "You make her do it, understand?"
They both nodded.
Jared lifted Kara off the table, put her in a chair beside Fisk, and without a word he and Karl began cleaning up, stuffing the bloody paper towels into a garbage bag and wiping the table down again with the disinfectant. While they were doing that, Fisk and Kara shared the bottle of ambrosia.
"Thanks, Jack. I owe you big time. I guess I'm fired," Kara said.
"Did you use the bike in this?" He asked.
"Yeah."
"Did anybody see it?"
"No, I covered the logo with black paper. It washed right off back at the garage."
"I covered it," Jared said. "This is all my doing. I got her involved."
"Let's not go through that again," she said.
"Did this have anything to do with Cylons?" Fisk asked.
"I thought you didn't want to know anything," Kara answered.
"I don't. Was it worth it?"
"Totally." She grinned for the first time since he'd gotten there.
"Am I going to see this on the news in the morning?"
Jared answered him. "I'm guessing the fire was probably four alarms, so yeah, it'll be on the news."
"It probably spread to the other buildings," Kara added.
"Lords of Kobol," Fisk said. "Put everything in that garbage bag. Everything. The bloody jeans, too. I'll take it with me and throw it in the incinerator in my apartment building. I'll watch until I'm sure it's burned. I'll throw the, uh splinter off the middle of the King's Bay Bridge."
"The leather pants have a small hole in them. They're bloody on the inside."
"Then trash them, too. Take a week off. I'll have you a new pair by the time you get back. Where did you say the old ones got stolen?"
It took Kara a moment to catch on. "I was trying on some jeans at Maximillian's. Somebody swiped the leather pants from my dressing room. So I'm not fired?"
"If you ever use the bike in something like this again, I swear I will. I'm a respectable, law-abiding business man." For the first time that night he smiled.
Jared left the kitchen with the garbage bag. When he came back it was tied up.
"I'd better get going," Fisk said. "I'd rather take the garbage to the basement of my building before too many people start stirring. I'm leaving you some extra bandages. Watch the leg carefully for redness, swelling, any sign it's getting infected. I'll come back later today and bring you some antibiotic pills."
Kara stood up. The leg wasn't too bad if she didn't put any weight on it. She put an arm around his neck. "Thanks…Doc. You saved me from going to jail, probably saved my life."
"You're a tough one. I'll give you that. Tough as any Marine I ever knew. Just take it easy on that leg for a few days. Don't get it wet for a couple of days, either. And I don't want to see you back at work for a week. I may have to keep you off the bike for a few days after that. You don't want to undo what's healed by then."
"You don't have another bike, do you? One I could buy?"
"Talk to me in a week. I've got an older bike at home. My wife doesn't want me riding it anymore. Maybe we can get Chief to work on it and tune it up. Maybe I'll sell it to you. Maybe. Let's see how impressed I am by what I see on the news later on."
After he was gone, she turned to Karl and Jared. "I had a little accident on the bike, understand? When Maggie asks, a sharp piece of metal stuck me in the leg and I had to have a few stitches. Fisk is taking care of it because he doesn't want to file the worker's comp insurance."
They both nodded. "Put everything back on the table like it was, or Maggie will notice it in the morning. And one of you help me to my room. I'm going to bed."
Maggie was still sleeping soundly when Jared helped Kara pull off the black turtleneck and the sports bra. He got a clean t-shirt out of the laundry basket by her bed.
"I need a shower," she whispered but he shook his head.
"Fisk said not to get the leg wet," he whispered back.
"Help me to my bathroom."
He did and she took a washcloth and bathed at the sink as best she could. She washed the rest of the blood off her leg. Jared helped her lie down on the mattress and gently covered her with the sheet and a blanket.
He knelt on the floor beside her, leaned over and kissed her forehead. "Hero," he whispered to her before he went out and quietly shut the door.
Despite the fact that her leg was throbbing with every heartbeat, she was surprised at how sleepy she soon was. Mentally she replayed her favorite image, the way the lab had looked just after the explosion, the bright orange flames engulfing the inside, and another image she liked, of touching her fist to the two guys' fists in the clearing. We're in this together. She thought of the tall guy massaging her hand to help warm it and get the blood flowing, the kindness of his act. She thought of shooting out the security lights at the fence and cloaking them in darkness, of keeping the guards away from the back of the building until her guys were on their feet and through the fence. She had returned his favor. She had protected them like she'd promised. They had all done a good job. Score one for the humans.
She thought of her father again. She thought of John Gallagher who had saved her life three and a half years earlier. Had that happened so that she could help take out a Cylon lab tonight? So there would be no half-breeds coming from there for a while? Maybe the gods had a purpose for her after all. Maybe her destiny was to help destroy the Cylons. Maybe that's why she had spent time in the refugee camp, why she had met Jared, why the real Carrie Warner had died, so that Kara Thrace could take her place and help fight the Cylons. Maybe there was something to the Fates after all, the Fates that Zarek had spoken of the night her father had taken her off Picon and saved her life, the night he had disappeared into the sky with Zarek and his men and saved her again, the night that had set her on this path.
She touched the ring on the chain around her neck.
"I love you, Dad," she whispered to the dark. "I hope you were proud of me tonight. You and Mom both."