Chapter 18
RPOV
By morning we were no nearer in finding Steph, the teams who'd been surveying the four men had nothing to report, there was no word out on the street, and nothing had been found in her bag. I was trying hard not to feel frustrated. Hell, we were supposed to be the best at finding people, so how could we not find her, again. In my heart I knew she'd been taken against her will but there was the tiny niggling doubt that maybe she'd run off following a stupid idea, that would always be one of the annoying things she would do.
I rechecked the information she'd collected trying to find some snippet that would help but each time I came up with nothing. By the end of the afternoon I was chomping at the bit, I was bad tempered and tired, hell how could one person make me feel like this, the one person who could always manage to get herself into trouble. At the evening meeting I noted that most of the men were quiet.
"Does anyone have anything new?"
"That company you asked me about, many layers, something not right"
"Do you know what?"
"Not yet, getting there"
"I may have a lead to follow on Buckley"
"What's that Santos?"
"I'm heading over to the house where his parents lived, strange because it was in his mother's family name. Anyway, it's never been sold so I thought it may be worth taking a look at"
"Who's with you?"
"Ram, he needs to finish up processing the prints he found on Beautiful's bag then we'll head out"
"Where is it?"
"Just outside Asbury, upriver, it's a remote place so maybe Buckley could be hiding out there"
"Take someone else with you"
"Okay, I'll let you know one way or the other"
"Mateo, any information on how the fire alarm started"
"No, weird really, it looked to have been an internal system failure but corrected itself"
I watched as the men started to leave the room and then made a decision.
"Santos, I'll be you and Ram"
"Okay, meet in the garage in twenty"
I felt better having made that decision to go, staying here in the building was driving me insane especially as we had nothing to follow. I made sure I had all of my weapons on me and brought out a Kevlar and then some infrared goggles, then went out of the office to go and meet Santos and Ram. I was about to enter the stairwell when I heard my name being called and turned to see Mateo walking toward me.
"Ranger are we going to be going to the other company?"
"Other company?"
"You know Joules"
"Probably"
"Well I was thinking of maybe doing another run through of their alert system"
"Why, Hector has that in hand?"
"Well maybe"
"Look Mateo I'm in a hurry so this can wait until I get back"
"Well it's just that"
"Talk to Hector"
I slammed through the door and ran down the stairs hitting the door into the garage, seeing Santos and Ram waiting for me, the car engine running. As I got into the front Santos just gave me a look.
"I got held up by Mateo"
"Okay, no problem. Ram has your comm unit"
The journey took us upriver and out of Trenton, past the suburbs and the more expensive residencies until there was only darkness surrounding us, the lights from the car hitting trees and fields as we passed by. Santos turned onto a single-track graveled lane and after about a mile pulled into the side of the track.
"The house is about 100yards up here, we'll park here and go on foot just in case"
I could see the sense of that, the noise of the car and the lights would warn someone of us coming, if there was anyone here. As we left the car, we each put a bud in our ears and the mic around our throats testing them as we walked.
We quietly approached the house not seeing anything out of the ordinary. Ram and I went to the right while Santos headed to the left. As we approached the rear of the house, we both dropped to our haunches, we had both heard that unforgettable sound of a sniper rifle.
"Santos"
"I heard, ahead, across at the tree line"
"You go left, Ram right"
I headed forward through what could have been the back yard and then dropped to the ground as the sound of running came through from the trees, more shots sounded, a dull thud as they hit the ground. I moved forward to the tree line and stopped removing the goggles from my utility belt.
"Sniper ahead of me, he's using an infrared laser for aiming, shit there's someone running through the trees and that's who he's aiming for"
"Santos you take down the sniper, Ram there's a heat source on the ground just ahead of you in the tree line. I'll go after the runner"
"Shit he's seen me, taking fire"
I heard the retort of a handgun knowing Santos was responsible for those shots and caught sight of the runner ahead. I ran forward as the sound of the shots diminished to see the runner falter and fall, hell was it Steph, but how had she been here? Forgetting all sense of safety for myself, I had to get to her.
As I found the spot where I'd last seen her my heart sped up as I looked around, there was a small fall off where she'd been heading and there, part way down was the outline of Steph. I scrambled down to find her laid on her side; she hadn't moved nor made any noises. As I turned her onto her back, I supported her head and then looked down in horror, every nerve in my body suddenly going into overdrive.
Her jacket was covered in blood and there was a deep gash at her hairline. Did I panic, probably, but not before I lifted her sweater to try to find where all the blood was coming from. I ripped the sweater up the center until I found where the damage was, a bullet hole to her shoulder. I took off my Kevlar and then my T-shirt using the T-shirt to push down on the wound.
"Santos, where the hell are you?"
"I'm on my way"
"We need to get Steph to a hospital"
"On it"
Looking around all I could see were trees and then open fields however we got her to a hospital we would need to be nearer to a road.
"Ranger hospital air ambulance on its way, St Mary's is the closest hospital"
"Direct them to the field behind the house. Is the area secure?"
"Secure"
"Ram?"
"I found Buckley, shot through the neck; I'd say he bled out. Sorry Ranger but he's dead"
I carefully lifted Steph into my arms and started to walk toward the field, back in the direction we'd come from. Santos caught me up as I gently laid her down on the ground to wait for the helicopter. Hell, she looked so pale and she was so still, I just wanted to pull her into my arms and tell her everything was going to be all right.
"I lost him, he knew I was there and headed out to the far end of the trees. There was a car there, and I think there was someone waiting in it"
"Any idea of who he was?"
"No, but the way he shot that rifle I'd say he knew what he was doing. He must have been at least 100 yards away"
We all looked up at the sound of the approaching helicopter. We used our Maglite's to pinpoint where we were and then having to stand to one side as the medic quickly came out.
"Santos you and Ram search the house and surrounding area, take Buckley back to Rangeman"
"You sure about that?"
"Not really, but he seems to be involved in this, check him over for any clues and then transport him to the coroner"
"What should I say?"
"Say we were bringing him in for medical attention and he died on route"
I watched as the medics did their job and then made sure I was with Steph in the helicopter, one look from me made sure of that and probably the way I was dressed.
"Which hospital are we headed for?"
"St Mary's"
I pulled my phone from my pocket, there were things that needed to be in place at the hospital.
"Ranger, you find anything?"
"Tank arrange for guard duty at St Mary's hospital Asbury"
"Who's hurt?"
"Steph"
"Shit"
"Santos and Ram are clearing the area but they're bringing in a cold one"
"Okay, I'll sort things out from here"
The trip was short as we came onto the pad at the top of a building and there was already a team waiting for the medics to unload Steph. I followed racing down the corridor next to her until a hand on my chest firmly blocked me and a door was closed in my face.
"I'm sorry but you can't go in there"
Turning I saw one of the medics who'd been on the helicopter.
"We need some details of her and if there's any medical insurance"
I followed him further down the corridor into a spartan waiting room taking the forms he handed to me. I could fill the answers in without even thinking, her age, date of birth address, even information on her recent medical checkup that had come across my desk a few weeks ago from Bobby. I knew so much about her and then wondered who would know anything about me, maybe Tank or Bobby and even Santos. In some ways it hurt that Steph knew so little about me, but that was the way I had dealt with it, was that something maybe to change in the future, something to think about later?
I looked up as boots sounded in the corridor and watched as Tank came and sat next me.
"How is she?"
"I don't know"
"Bobby's talking himself into there"
"Good. Guards?"
"They're on their way. What happened?"
"We arrived to the sound of a sniper firing, Santos went after him and Ram went to another heat source"
"Buckley?"
"Yeah. I saw someone running then fall and found Steph. Hell Tank she was covered in blood"
"How was she injured?"
"Bullet to the shoulder and a crack to her head, which I presume she got when she fell"
"How the hell had she ended up there?"
"I don't know, maybe Buckley was the one with her at that warehouse"
"You think she went with him?"
"No, although it is something she would do, but I'm sure she wouldn't leave without telling me"
"I hope not because she sure as hell had us worried"
I really didn't know what to think and this time I wasn't going to jump to any conclusions, I needed to trust her, needed to believe that she wouldn't have done that.
"No Tank, I know she can be flighty, but I won't jump to conclusions this time until she tells me what happened"
"Hell, Ranger that's a first for you"
Was he laughing at me, yeah he probably was, but before I could make a response Bobby came into the room and sat down next to me.
"They were worried with the amount of blood she'd lost, hell she was lucky, the bullet nicked her axillary artery, but they've stopped the bleeding and removed the bullet. The head injury is giving them the most concern, the CT scan showed some minor bleeding but they're hopeful"
"How long?"
"Give them 30 minutes to transfer her to a room. I spoke with the hospital administrator; she's agreed to Steph being in a private room where the men can guard her"
"Thanks Bobby"
"I'll take you up there, but it could be a long wait for her to wake up"
As we walked into the hospital room, I only had eyes for Steph, she was so still as she laid there and so pale. I then noticed the nurse who was checking the machines and the drip, they had no idea how annoyed Steph would be to wake up to that.
"I'll be in every hour to check on her vitals, no visitors please"
Yeah like that was about to happen. I watched Bobby record his own figures and took a chair from the corner, placing it next to her right side. Her left arm had a sling on it, I presume to stop her from moving her shoulder, so had to take what solace I could from her right hand, being careful not to push on the cannula.
As I held her hand in mine and felt her warmth flow into me, I let out a sigh, she really did affect how I felt, affect my need to be with her. I mean if this had been one of my men, I wouldn't sit with them like this, but I needed to be here with her while she slept and definitely when she woke, why I had no idea, something to think about later
