Chapter 20: Code 10-1 (Part 2)
Palin Correctional Center
Laundry Room
Detective Harrison rushed over to his wounded partner, Detective Tran, as she leaned up against the wall of the Palin Correctional Center's dirty and overheated laundry room. Multiple acts of violent gunplay, including a defensive shooting at the hands of Harrison himself, resulted in the deaths of four correctional officers, who were ostensibly quite corrupt.
"Oh God", Harrison uttered as he instinctively pressed both hands against Tran's wounded right side. The female detective had been struck by shotgun fire across the top right side of her body, mainly through her right shoulder. "Hang on, sweetie!" Harrison said in a calming tone despite his own emotional shock and nervousness, "You hear me, Sunny? You hang on, okay?"
All Tran could do in response was groan in pain and tentatively nod. Harrison briefly looked up and found an industrial first aid kit mounted on the wall right above them, at which point he hurriedly and desperately pulled the kit's attached lid. Still pressing his right hand against his partner's bleeding shoulder wound to apply the appropriate blood-staunching pressure, he used his left hand to grab some rolled gauze from the kit. He promptly unrolled the pair of gauze, pressing them both against the wound.
"Ow!" Tran howled, "Damn, Troy! I'm hurting really bad, man!"
"I know you are, honey", Harrison said, "But I'm doing the best I can with what I've got, alright?"
Tran nodded in response. "Thanks, partner", she said.
Harrison mustered a nervous smile as he suddenly sensed someone coming up behind him. He freed up his left hand to slowly withdraw his gun from its holster. Pulling the weapon out by its grip, he turned and one-handedly pointed the firearm at the person behind him.
Having apparently made it through the physical abuse inflicted by the now deceased corrupt officers, inmate Raul Lionzo raised his hands in yield. "Whoa, whoa, Officer!" he said, "I'm not a threat to you or your partner, alright? I saw what happened and I want to help."
An apprehensive Harrison sighed deeply with relief and holstered his gun. He then motioned to the open first aid kit and the nearby laundry sink with his eyes. "Okay then", Harrison said in a very commanding tone, "Wash your hands in that sink over there, grab some gloves from that first aid kit, and put them on."
Lionzo did as he was told, washing his hands thoroughly in the laundry sink before donning a pair of blue latex-free first aid gloves. He then knelt down to where the detectives were, at which point Harrison motioned to where his own hands were currently pressed. "My partner has a pretty bad wound on her shoulder here", Harrison explained, "As soon as I move my hands away, I want you to press both your hands right in this same spot, okay? You need to apply pressure to slow down the bleeding."
As soon as Harrison moved his blood-drenched hands away from his partner's open wound, an initially hesitant Lionzo pressed his gloved hands exactly where the detective's hands had just been. Harrison, meanwhile, took a quick-thinking moment to wash and dry his dirty hands before grabbing his portable radio off the belt clip of his jeans, keying the mic.
"Thirty-Four-Henry-Edward", he said into the radio, "Emergency! Ten-One, repeat, I have a Code Ten-One in the basement laundry room at Palin Correctional Center! Shots fired at the police and by the police! Officer Down, repeat, Officer Down! I also have multiple DOA's on scene, over!"
"Squad to Thirty-Four-Henry-Edward", a male dispatcher replied through the radio, "We copy you. Backup and an ambulance are on the way. All available units in the vicinity of Palin Correctional Center and units on all channels, Ten-One situation is in progress at Palin Correctional Center, basement laundry room. Please keep all channels clear of non-essential radio traffic until further notice. All units, be advised, we have an Officer Down at Palin Correctional! All available hands, please respond Code Three!"
Gaffney Chicago Medical Center
Emergency Room
15 Minutes Later
As dire and terrifying as the situation had been, the tragedy that befell Detectives Tran and Harrison was met with some pieces of good luck and fortunate circumstance. As soon as Harrison's "10-1" call had gone out over the Citywide radio frequency, a Chicago Fire Department ambulance that had been waiting at a red light two blocks away had overheard the transmission and raced to the scene, arriving in mere minutes.
Likewise, the Chicago PD's SWAT unit had just completed a training exercise at a location just one block over from Palin Correctional Center. They just so happened to be in their van on the way back to CPD Headquarters when Harrison's call went out, and therefore, they arrived to assist just as the ambulance was rolling up. Pretty much every police patrol unit on that side of the city stepped up and volunteered to hold traffic so that the ambulance's trip to the hospital wouldn't be impeded in any way by an unnecessary multitude of other cars.
Detective Tran remained stable, alert, and awake during her five-minute ambulance ride to the Gaffney Chicago Medical Center. This state-of the-art city hospital was known by nearly every Chicagoan, especially police and other first responders, as simply "Chicago Med", and was renowned for its excellent emergency medicine and surgical care. Tran was promptly rolled into Chicago Med's busy but always well-prepared and expedient Emergency Room, where trauma surgeon Dr. Alec Willhite determined that she needed to be rushed into surgery right away.
Detective Harrison, meanwhile, was met by the entire command staff of District 34, as well as Hank Voight and Alvin Olinsky. Sergeant Mahoney was the first to approach him as he somberly sat in the waiting room.
"Hey kiddo", Mahoney said as she sat down in the chair beside him and put a hand on his shoulder, "How are you holding up?"
A still stunned Harrison shrugged his shoulders with a sort of unpleasant uncertainty as anxious tears rolled down his face. "I've never seen my partner get shot right in front of me before, Sarge", he replied, "I mean, think about it. I was an FBI agent for an entire decade before joining you guys here. I pulled and fired my weapon…I don't know how many times. I've never been shot; my partner back then never went down either. I come here to a new city and a new job and my partner gets blasted by some corrupt asshole with a shotgun."
"I hear you, buddy", Mahoney said, "The good news is that Doctor Willhite said that all he has to do is remove the shotgun pellets from Sunny's shoulder blade and close the wound. It's never a good situation when a cop goes down, especially in this city, but I think it goes without saying that things could've been a lot worse today. Sunny will be okay."
Harrison nodded. "I know", he replied, "What still sucks, though, is that we're going to be short a detective for a while. Do you think Dobbs, Brooks, and I'll be able to handle everything while Sunny's on the mend?"
"I already thought of that", Mahoney said, "Have you ever met Trudy Platt? She's the desk sergeant over at the Twenty-First District?"
Harrison scoffed. "I've never met her in person", he said candidly, "But I hear she's a real battle axe. By all accounts, she certainly doesn't share your upbeat disposition."
Mahoney grinned. "Thank you for that, number one", she said, "Number two, Trudy and I go way back. I convinced her, and she in turn convinced their commander, to loan us Voight and Olinsky for the next two weeks. You and the guys may have to be on your own for a time after that, but it shouldn't be long."
Harrison smiled and wiped the tears from his eyes. "Cool", he replied, "at least I'll be working with some people that I already have a connection with."
Their conversation was suddenly interrupted by the musical ringtone of Harrison's cell phone. He excused himself, at which point Mahoney got up and went back out into the ER's entry area. "Harrison", he dryly answered.
"Detective", Aiden Pearce replied from his end of the line with an overwrought and eager tone in his voice, "It's Aiden Pearce. I need your help."
Harrison sighed. "Aiden", he replied, "You kind of caught me at a tough time, man."
"I'm sorry", Aiden replied. The deep panting in his voice led the detective to suppose he was running with the phone to his ear. "You don't understand. My sister's been kidnapped." Two beeps were then heard, indicating that the call had suddenly dropped for whatever reason.
