CHAPTER 37
Vanessa paced the room impatiently.
She'd gone through a whole gamut of emotions as she'd watch the action on the screens. At one point, she ended up on the sofa in a scrunched and whimpering ball of mess, convinced Joe and Con were killed.
Mrs Holliday wasn't as persuaded and stood with her arms folded, continuing to watch the CCTV. She held off calling Vanessa back to the desk until Ezra Collig walked into the complex and Joe and Con were both up on their feet again.
Mark's typing had gone silent too, probably of the same mind as Mrs Holliday.
Vanessa felt they'd been forgotten. No one had updated them as to the state of play for a long time. The last she saw of the team, Fenton and Con had disappeared through the door to the corridor, and James and Nancy had been transported away in an ambulance.
Mrs Holliday now sat at the computer, fielding emails. They'd completed their main objective, so the hackers were now working to gather information on the engineers and anyone else involved with Pandora - following electronic trails, pinpointing home addresses and pulling evidence. She stored all the gathered information in a secure account Vanessa had every intention of turning over to Chief Collig once things calmed down.
Some Dark Net Army members had already taken vengeance into their own hands by attacking the sources themselves, to unleash hell on their equipment. Vanessa, Mark and Mrs Holliday didn't care; they could do what they liked.
Mrs Holliday sensed Vanessa's growing impatience. "Stop worrying, my dear. I'm sure you're more likely to hear bad news than good."
"I hate this silence!" Vanessa said and went to sit down on the sofa. Rebel came across and rested his head in her lap, so she slid down onto the carpet next to him and gave him a hug. She stroked him and felt instantly soothed.
"Is Vanessa all right?" Mark asked Mrs Holliday.
"No, but she thinks she is," Mrs Holliday answered. "Why don't you have a lie down, Vanessa?" she suggested.
"No, I don't want to yet, not until I know Frank and everyone else are safe."
"You look like you need rest, real rest."
"Look at the CCTV," Mark said.
Mrs Holliday looked up and rose. "Come and see Vanessa," she said and waved her forward. "Come, come look, Child!"
Vanessa quickly stood beside her. They watched a mass of people running across the asphalt, to one of the ambulances with a stretcher carried between them. They saw Fenton and Joe following quickly after, Fenton with his arm around Joe's middle. They couldn't make out the person on the backboard, but assumed it couldn't be anyone other than Frank, especially when they helped Joe onto the ambulance too.
"Oh thank heavens, they got him." Vanessa said, but then frowned. "Where's Dad?"
Her computer went wild with her new internet friends messaging congratulations.
"Where's Big Con?" Mark asked. "Tis confusion!" at first, the three of them seemed to be only ones who'd registered his absence from the scene, but then other texts were joining Mark's comments.
Vanessa put a call through to Con, but it switched to voice mail. She cut the phone off and dropped it with a clatter onto the desk top. Her hands went over her eyes.
Mrs Holliday put her arm around her middle, "Vanessa, don't assume—"
The phone rang and Vanessa snatched it up again, and hit answer. "Hi Van," said Con. "Did you call me? I was talking to Nancy."
"Dad, you scared me!" She chastised. "We've seen Joe and Fenton with Frank on a stretcher. Why aren't you with them?"
"I stayed to help The Chief. I'm on my way back now. I didn't mean to scare you."
Vanessa blew out a shaky breath and smiled at Mrs Holliday.
Mrs Holliday sat down to type a message to Mark.
Vanessa went and sank down on the sofa. "How's Frank?"
"I dunno. It looks bad."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't want to tell you over the phone what happened, but it got out of control and Frank hasn't come out of it well. I think they'll be working on him for a while before they leave for the hospital. I'm coming to get you. I want to take you to have your throat examined properly."
"What about James?"
"His leg's a mess, but I'm sure they'll fix him up."
"And Joe?" Vanessa got up and moved to the screens to watch again.
"Van, you know Joe. The usual…fought for his family and absorbed every hit. He's battered, bruised and shook up." He laughed fondly. "Thick-headed idiot! Bet he didn't follow-throw the shoulder." Con walked into view of the screen Vanessa watched, through the main gates. He headed across to the ambulance. "Get yourself ready Van and—" An EMT approached and cut him off mid-sentence.
"Looks painful; let me take a look," Vanessa heard the paramedic say.
"Friend, I'm talking with my daughter."
"I insist."
"That might be the case, but I'm on my way out of here, so I insist you go away. A split lip and a black eye can wait." Their conversation paused as Con watched the paramedic go toward Fenton, but eventually he said to Vanessa, "Get yourself ready, Girl, I'm coming get you."
"Bye." She disconnected the call and continued to watch the screen, as Con stopped, waved to get Fenton's attention and gesticulated in the direction of the main gate. Fenton raised a hand and Con strode out of view of the camera.
Vanessa watched the paramedic draw Fenton into a conversation, motioning to Fenton's head and hands. The EMT pulled Fenton to one side and they walked toward the second ambulance, the one which didn't have Frank and Joe on board. The medic led Fenton, his palm on Fenton's elbow, and helped him step up into the rear of the vehicle. Vanessa began to get a sinking feeling. "Oh no - no, no, no!" She picked up the phone, thumb it into life, and selected Frank's number in the hope Fenton still had the red phone.
"Hi Vanessa. Did you see—"
She burst into tears. "Mr H! Get off the ambulance. You're the only one with the code, they're going to take you away!"
"What do you…uh…no sweetheart, it's a legitimate ambulance. Collig wouldn't let a fake one get past him. No one's after me; we've taken care of everything. You okay?"
"No."
"The medic spotted my stitches and offered to clean my hands. I got Frank's blood on me and the medic doesn't want me to cross contaminate myself. Con's on his way to you isn't he?"
"Yes."
"Well hold on in there. Don't worry about us anymore. The man who attacked you won't do it to anyone else again, trust us on that. He won't be back."
"Okay."
"Hold tight, Con's coming. Let Mrs Holliday and Mark take charge."
"How did I do? I feel I should've done more."
"Get that idea right out of your head! You saved us in there; Nancy wouldn't have got to the PC without you, at least not as fast as she did. She was going the wrong way, we were sitting ducks. You got us the help we needed. Don't underestimate what you did today."
Mrs Holliday took the phone from Vanessa. "Fenton, I'll make her lie down. She's been running on adrenaline for the past hour."
Vanessa walked a few steps away and fanned herself with a pad of paper.
"If you wouldn't mind. Give her a hot, sweet drink, but no alcohol because Con's on his way to take her for a check-up. Thank Mark for us. Tell him we'll be in touch soon, and thank you, Mrs Holliday, you've been one hundred percent awesome. I must get back to Frank and Joe, they need me."
"Don't mention it. Great fun on the whole, like old times. Good luck to young Frank and James." She replaced the phone on the table. "Vanessa, go and lie down."
Vanessa stepped up to the wall and leant her forehead against it. "I don't feel so good." She huffed a couple of times and slid down gracefully to lie on the carpet.
-o0o-
Vanessa stared up at the ceiling, registering just how ugly the lights fittings were. Frank's good taste obviously hadn't run to attractive lampshades or mood down-lighting. Mind you, the carpet proved soft, comfortable, and warm…too warm. Weirdly Mrs Holliday sat next to her, patting a cool cloth across her forehead. "You having a lie down too, Mrs Holliday?" Vanessa looked down her body to find her legs propped up on Rebel, of all objects.
Mrs Holliday tittered. "You have a funny turn of phrase." She reached to put the cloth on the table. "You fainted, and you're running a temperature."
Vanessa's hands came to rest on her cheeks. "I do feel hot. Did I faint? It's never happened to me before. It's a weird feeling. I'm really a girly-girl now."
"Up you come." Mrs Holliday grasped her wrist to encourage her to move. "You'll have to help; you're too big for me to get you up on my own."
"You think I'm fat?"
Mrs Holliday laughed, "No, I think you're an Amazonian, like Frank said. I don't think you realize how beautiful you are, Vanessa Bender."
Vanessa clambered to her feet and Mrs Holliday aimed her at the bedroom. "What about Mark and the rest of them? I need to finish up."
"You need to have a lie down. If you keel over again, your father will never forgive me. Young Mark and I will finish up."
-o0o-
Once the Hardy brother's had been loaded onto the ambulance, a long period of highly charged activity surrounded Frank.
Initially, Joe found himself cast as a casual observer from the bench seat as he battled a building headache, but he got pulled into the action when they needed another set of hands.
On further investigation, one of the medics quickly confirmed his suspicion that Frank's lung was collapsed. He grabbed a scalpel and a piece of tubing from a kit as he readied himself to perform an emergency procedure. He quickly sheared Frank's shirt from his body with a pair of surgical scissors and then threw it to one side.
Meanwhile, in a frenetic hum of energy, his partner hooked Frank up to a portable ventilator and spun to take care of a heart monitor. He paused to check out the readings the machine threw out and then turned to check out Frank's blood pressure. "Damn! Systemic dropping, BP ninety over sixty—" He leaned over the older Hardy brother, flicking a light in his eye while gently holding up the lid. "Stay with me, Frank," he ordered urgently, and looked up at his partner. "Carl, get that lung inflated!"
"What does 'systemic dropping' mean?" Joe barked, panicked, rising from the bench seat. He glanced back at the open doors to find his dad, but Fenton wasn't there. He caught one of the police officer's eyes instead. "Where's my dad gone? I need him."
The officer looked confused, clearly not registering who Joe meant by 'Dad'.
"Let us concentrate, Joe. Sit down," the paramedic who wasn't Carl said, and leaned to pull the doors shut.
Joe groaned, but did a he was told.
The medic turned back to Frank. A bag of fluid found its way onto a hook above and an intravenous needle introduced to Frank's wrist. The EMT mumbled, complaining under his breath, finding it difficult to find a vein as they were collapsing every bit as much as his lung. Eventually the man managed to reach his goal and slid the needle in. His thumb held down the needle and tubing and he reached for some tape.
"Don't panic, Joe," Carl said in a calming voice as he used a scalpel to make a careful incision in Frank's chest and fed a piece of tube into his chest cavity. "Watch your brother," he encouraged. "You'll see a big change in a second."
As the tube found its mark, Joe heard air escape and saw blood ooze down the hose to be siphoned off into a bag, blood that had clogged his brother's chest, preventing his lung from expanding. Frank's face lost its ashen look, gaining more color as the intake of oxygen increased. "Whoa. Cool!"
"I always think so." Carl flashed a grin, grabbed more medical equipment, and said to his partner. "I'm administering five mgcs of Dopamine, see if I can't get his pressure up." He ripped a syringe from its wrapping.
"I'll re-pack the shoulder, minimise the blood loss." He went to the bandages, and turned quickly to Joe. "Could you do your brother a huge favor?"
"Name it."
"Squeeze that bag—"
Joe did as instructed, not feeling so much like a spare tire now.
Frank moved, apparently objecting to the medic's interference around his upper arm area. Frank reached for it, the first indication he had any level of comprehension and his eyelids fluttered. Joe leaned to catch the limb before the window of opportunity slammed shut. "Frank, you're safe. We're through the other side. Nancy's waiting at the hospital. Do you hear me?" Frank gave the briefest squeeze in response, his eyelids opening fully. He presented Joe with a dull, unfocussed gaze. "I'm sorry Dude, I'm sorry I didn't get there in time!" Frank frowned and clutched tighter. "I'm sorry."
"Frank, stay with us," Carl said. He finished administering the Dopamine and watched the monitor, reading Frank's vitals. "Okay, heart's responding well." He smiled at Frank. "You don't give up easy, do you Frank…Frank?" He watched for a few seconds, and then took Frank's hand from a confused Joe. "Frank, squeeze my hand if you can hear me." He pressed down hard on Frank's clavicle. "Steve, he's unresponsive to pain stimuli." He flicked a light in Frank's eyes. "Pupil's responsive."
"Is he okay?" Joe asked.
"Take a seat. I can take over now."
Joe sat and put his head in his hands.
"I'm done." Steve said. "Blood pressures rising, he's as stable as we're gonna get him. He reached and slapped his hand down on the driver's shoulder. "GO!"