Danger Zone
By Divamercury
Wow! I really was on a roll in this chapter. It's not the last, but 33 will probably be so keep your eyes peeled. I hope you enjoy this super, super long post and I'm glad you've liked Danger Zone. Thanks so much to Spin and Pixie-Dust for all your help lately. Love you all! ;)
~DM
Chapter 32
Once downstairs, we followed the trail of wreckage that the five Speakers had left in their wake. They had not wasted any time starting their process of destruction by fire and the gasoline fumes and thick smoke stifling as the flames lapped at the walls and ceiling of the room. In addition to the blazing inferno we had just walked into, a line of fire shot toward us along the floor, creating a barrier between the living and computer rooms. Two of the Speakers jumped out, blowtorches in hand, protected by the line of flames. It seemed that they had poured out a good deal of gasoline, making a thin stream lead to a large lake that was centered in the computer area. They had ignited the stream to form the barrier and at the same time destroy the computers. The two Speakers stood there just long enough to taunt us and then disappeared into the flames.
The research!" Mac shouted between coughs. She was apparently unconcerned about the other damage done by the five men, only by the potential loss of the information gathered. As we were trying to find the Speakers, the fire-consumed ceiling behind us near the stairs collapsed, making escape impossible from that location.
I turned to Mac and asked, "Is there another way out of here?"
She nodded. Pointing to a door on the only wall that wasn't in flames, she said, "That's a staircase that leads to a storm cellar of sorts. A little flight of stairs from the cellar goes up to the ground."
"Okay, great. You five get out of here. I'll take care of this and meet you up there."
"Sara," Ian began.
"No, Ian. I'm doing this alone. I don't want any of you to get hurt."
"But it's okay if you do?" Gabe asked.
"Gabe, it's my job. This thing–" I said, raising the arm with the Witchblade, "–makes me take risks like this. Now get out of here. I can take care of these creeps hopefully without much trouble and I'll meet you above ground. Where are the research notes stored, Mac?" I asked. "While I'm down here I'll see what I can salvage."
"There's a box of floppy disks and CD's with information on them on a shelf over the third computer on the back wall. They'll probably be going for the computers themselves, thinking all the info's on the hard drives. Good thing I backed it all up."
"All right. I'll try my best. You guys scram." I smiled and headed off toward the computers, leaping through the line of flames before they could stop me.
* * *
I attempted to follow Sara into the computer area but Gabe and Jackson grabbed me by the arms and practically dragged me out of that room into the cellar. Between the fumes and the smoke, it was almost impossible to breathe in both the living room and the tiny cellar so we were relieved when Mac found the stairs that led to the outside and we climbed out into the open air. We staggered away from the building and collapsed to the ground, coughing uncontrollably.
After we were through we noticed night had fallen and the only light around came from the stars; apparently the flames hadn't climbed high enough to be seen from the outside yet and the blown transformer hadn't been repaired. Raven had recovered somewhat and was standing up on her own without Jackson's assistance. Mac and Gabe and I stared at the warehouse, waiting to see some sign of Sara escaping through the exit we had used.
While our attention was riveted on the building, the small crew of cowardly Speakers that had fled from the building earlier ambushed us. Armed with rifles and strong flashlights, they opened fire on us. I returned fire but it was useless considering I had only one gun left and that none of my companions were armed at all. Jackson was wounded pushing Raven out of the way of a bullet that seemed to have her name on it. Mac slowed all the bullets down to the approximate speed of a snail and then made them fall harmlessly to the ground. She and Raven exchanged looks and then combined their energies, forming a subtly luminous bubble around all of us that protected us from the bullets. Gabe checked on Jackson's wound, which was a superficial graze to the shoulder, and I kept an eye out for Sara.
* * *
I sped through the flames, hoping to find the Speakers before they found me. Unfortunately that wasn't the case and the Witchblade activated in time to deflect a few bullets. Luckily I wasn't in an area with an extremely high flame frequency.
"Are you guys crazy?!" I shouted. "Do you want to kill all of us?" I'm not sure if they heard me or not, but regardless they stopped shooting at me at least. I searched through the huge room, trying to find the box that Mac had described earlier. I reached the back wall and, avoiding the pipes in the corner of the room that extended up through the ceiling, counted over three computers. On the shelf directly over the computer a small box of floppy disks sat harmlessly. I grabbed it and slipped it into the inside pocket of my jacket. Damn, it was getting hot in that room. I turned around and was about to start running when I heard a weapon cock and saw Grant and his buddies emerge from the smoke. I froze.
"Not so fast, Ms. Pezzini," he said. "We have orders to take you in. And now that you have that information we've been looking for, you've saved us the trouble of searching through this burning building to find it. If you come quietly we won't kill you," he added, as if that was supposed to provide some comfort or something.
"But you'll turn me over to Irons, who wants me dead?"
"I just said that we wouldn't kill you. I made no guarantees about anyone else." Grant smiled wickedly.
"Well, you're excellent at breaking the bad news gently, Grant. Sorry to say I'm not going to play into your hands. You're not taking me alive, and I believe that that will greatly reduce the size of the chunk of change that Irons is providing you with. So I wouldn't do anything stupid if I were you."
Grant's eyes narrowed. "I'm willing to take that risk, Pezzini." He raised his gun and fired at me several times. I was able to dodge but his bullets went straight into the pipes in the corner.
* * *
An explosion shook the ground that we stood on, and the eyes of all of us, even the Speakers, flew to the warehouse. Flames had now broken out from the lower level of the warehouse and consumed the whole buildingor what was left of it after the blast.
"The fire must have gotten to the gas pipes in the basement!" Mac exclaimed.
And Sara had yet to come out of the building.
"Where's Chief?" Gabe wanted to know.
"She'snot out yet," Raven said slowly.
I rushed forward, escaping Mac and Raven's bubble, and ran to the warehouse, ignoring the shouts for me to stop. A sense of dread came over me and I knew that I had to find Sara. No doubt the Speakers had trapped her or something else had gotten in her way. Trying to ignore the smoke, I plunged down the stairs into the cellar and then into the main downstairs room.
"Sara!" I screamed, praying for a response. I ran through the fire and ended up in the computer room, which had been badly scorched by the blast. I passed several bodies as I went, obviously those of the Speakers. I counted four, noting that Parker Grant wasn't one of them. I ran farther into the room and finally spotted the activated Witchblade emerging from a pile of debris. I dug Sara out of the pile and checked her vitals quickly. She was breathing and had a pulse but was of course unconscious and had a small but deep cut on her forehead. I very carefully lifted Sara off the ground and sprinted for the exit, since I was unsure how much time we had to get out of the building. Climbing the stairs to the cellar and then those to the open air was a very difficult task, but I managed and no sooner had my feet touched the grass when the building was rocked by a second explosion and the rest of the warehouse collapsed to the ground. I didn't stop running until I reached the others, who were still far enough away from the blaze to remain safe. They huddled around us as I fell to my knees in exhaustion.
"Is she okay?" Mac asked worriedly.
"She's alive," I said between deep breaths.
Suddenly something fell away from Sara's unconscious form and landed in the grass with a rattle. Gabe picked it up and held it in the light from the blaze.
"Floppy disks?" he asked.
Mac snatched them from his hands. "She did it. She saved the data!"
"What about the other Speakers, Ian?" Raven asked.
"Dead. All except Parker Grant. He must have escaped somehow. I only passed four bodies on my way in. Slippery bastardI shouldn't be surprised."
"Slippery is definitely a good word to use, but he's going to get worse. He's a ruthless, ambitious manhe'll probably take over the Speakers now that I'm gone."
"Are you sure you have decided whose side you're on?" I asked him. He nodded and sneaked a look at Raven. "This is where I belong."
"Good to hear it, Jackson," I said.
"Ian, can I use your phone? We need to call the fire department," Mac said. I reached into my pocket with some difficulty because of Sara's position and Mac took it.
"I wonder how they found us. I mean, nobody that wasn't directly involved with the operation knew where we were headquartered," Mac said as she was dialing.
"Will?" Raven suggested.
"Maybe. But that would have basically tipped off the White Bulls. The Speakers weren't as involved in that part of all this mess." Mac sighed.
"They could have tracked someone here. Meor Jackson," I said, the idea suddenly hitting me. "Jackson, what happened before you came here?"
"Well, my secretary gave me this jacket before I left because she said it was cold outside. I found that odd because she never seemed to be that concerned with me before. I mean, the occasional cup of coffee out of the blue, but" he reached into the jacket's pocket and frowned. He withdrew a small capsule with a tiny blinking red light. "Damn!" he exclaimed, crushing the tracer between two fingers. "I'm sorry–"
"Save it," Raven said. "You didn't know it was there."
Sirens and headlights came closer and converged on the remnants of the warehouse and firemen rushed out to put out the still raging fires. We went up to the front where an ambulance was parked and the paramedics helped Jackson inside so they could treat his wound. I laid Sara on a gurney and the paramedics checked her vitals.
"Can we accompany you to the hospital?" I asked.
"Sorry, sir. You can follow behind but only family's allowed in the ambulance, and even if you were family, we've got this gentleman to take care of," one of the medics said, gesturing to Jackson at that last part.
"Don't worry, Ian, I'll keep an eye on her." Jackson gave me a reassuring smile as the medic closed the doors and the ambulance drove off.
We went over to the small area where we normally parked cars and piled into mine. "Mac, where are the rest of the Associates?"
"Oh, they don't stay as late as I do. They left a few hours ago. I practically lived in that warehouse, and you guys were just visiting. Don't worry, they're safe," she replied. She, Raven, and Gabriel had all piled into the backseat of the car, making the emptiness of the passenger seat painfully obvious. That was Sara's seat, and always would be in their minds.
Raven boarded my train of thought when she saw me glancing at the empty seat. "She'll be okay, Ian." The others agreed.
"It's my fault. I never should have let her go in there alone," I said, hitting the side of the steering wheel with my fist for emphasis.
"Ian, you know how stubborn Chief is. I mean, come on. Do you really think that any of us could have stopped her once she made up her mind like that? Not even a possibility. And she doesn't seem to be hurt that badly," Gabe pointed out.
"True," I conceded.
We followed the ambulance to the hospital and I parked as close to the door as I could. We dashed through the double doors and entered just in time to see Sara being wheeled into the emergency room.
"What's going on?" Gabe asked.
"What do you mean, sir?" the receptionist asked.
"We're here for Sara Pezzini, and we just saw her streak through those doors over there into the ER!" Gabe said.
"Oh, you mean the young lady that was in that warehouse fire?" the receptionist, whose name apparently was Amelia from a quick glance at her nametag, asked. The three of us nodded. "Oh, she has to have some emergency surgery."
"What? Why?" I exclaimed.
"I believe that while in the ambulance the severity of her injuries increased. They're taking her in to correct them. That's all I know, sir. I have no doubt that the doctors will let you know when she comes out of surgery." Raven and I left the desk and Gabe went off somewhere else.
I felt shaken. Sara was seriously hurt, much more so than I had thought. I sat in a chair in the waiting area, my face in my hands. My feelings obviously showed because Raven came over and sat beside me, putting a hand on my arm.
"Everything will be fine, Dragon. You'll see. Sara's tough. She's been through worse. You saved her life whether you believe it or not. She'd be dead for sure if you hadn't run in there after her. That's why you're her protector. That's why we rely on you."
"I thought you said it was a bad thing to rely on me," I muttered.
"I was wrong, okay? We all make our mistakes. I was angry and I said a lot of stuff I didn't mean. But there were a few things that I did mean. You do need to lighten up, and you need to come clean with Sara. You both deserve to finally have some semblance of a life, and I know you want to spend it together."
I nodded. "I just hope everything goes all right."
"It will. And you also need to work on having faith and not being so skeptical. I know the universe seems like it's out to get you–"
"–It is out to get me," I interrupted with a grin.
"Yes, well, anyway, you still need to have a more positive outlook on things. Learn to trust people."
"I'm sorry if I seemed like I didn't trust you, Birdie."
"It's okay. I'm over it now." She smiled.
Gabe came back over to us with a can of Sprite in his hand. "Heard anything about Chief yet?"
"Nothing yet."
All of a sudden Jackson emerged from the wings and ran over to us.
"Jackson! How's Sara? What happened on the way here? The receptionist made it sound pretty bad," Gabe stated.
"Thanks for asking about me," he joked.
"Sorry."
"No problem. I'm fine. They patched me up quick, but SaraI'm kind of worried, you guys. Her heart stopped on the way over here and they had to resuscitate her. She had some internal bleeding from traumaI guess from in the warehouse."
"She was buried in a pile of rubble. I had to dig her out," I said quietly.
"Andthe Witchblade apparently wasn't in the right place to really protect her. She had some pretty severe head trauma as well."
"Is sheis she going to be okay?" Gabe wanted to know, trying not to show that he was close to tears.
"Don't know. Nobody's let much slip."
"Guess we'll just have to wait it out," Raven said.
And that was exactly what we did. We were the only people in the waiting room except for an elderly couple sitting in the corner. We sat in silence for several hours, only breaking it a handful of times.
Gabriel had fallen asleep and Mac was nodding off when a man holding a clipboard dressed in scrubs and a surgical mask came out into the waiting room. He approached us.
"Are you friends of–" he glanced at the paper in front of him, "–Sara Pezzini?"
"Yes, we are," I said, and Raven nudged Mac awake, who in turn stabbed Gabe in the side with her elbow, waking him up instantly.
"I'm Dr. Harmon and I treated Ms. Pezzini for her injuries. She had some somewhat serious internal bleeding but that's been taken care of. We've been monitoring her vitals since she went into a temporary cardiac arrest in the ambulance but we haven't had any more problems in that respect. The only thing concerning us now is the head trauma. She became conscious for a moment right before we took her into the ER but she passed out again and that was the only time she's been awake, even after the surgery and the effects of the anesthetic wore offI'm afraid that she's slipped into a coma."
We were all shocked by this information.
"Can we see her?"
"She's stable now, so I suppose you can for a little while. I'll have someone show you to her room." Dr. Harmon signaled to a blonde-haired nurse who came over quickly. "Miranda, please take these people to room 65."
"Sure. Follow me," Miranda said, and we all got up from our seats and followed. It only took a minute for her to find it and we stopped in a miniature waiting room across the hall.
"We can only allow one person in at a time. Who wants to go first?"
