Chapter Ten

"Control, we have shots fired in the South Parking Lot. Request immediate back up."

"Copy that."

He pulled his pistol out and darted out into the parking lot. Expecting at any moment to feel a slash of searing hot pain, a pullet ripping through him. He reached the front row of parked cars and ducked low, beneath the line of windows.

Trying to stay out of the sniper's line of sight, he kept low and ran along the row of cars. All he could hear was his own harsh, uneven breathing.

He reached the end of the row and cautiously raised his head. He could see the passenger door of the CTU car, lying open, see the body sprawled across the seat.

"Please God help!"

He took a deep breath and ran from cover. His shoulders tensed, knees almost scrapping against the rough tarmac, scrambling across the open ground. Tripping, stumbling, almost falling, the safety of the next row of cars tantalisingly within reach.

And then he was back in cover, wiping sweat of his forehead. He closed his eyes, trying to control his breathing. Ready for his next run.

xxxXXXxxx

He stood over the body of the nurse, his pistol still smoking. She lay on the clinic floor, her white shirt saturated with her own blood, a shocked expression on her face.

"What the hell have you done?"

"Shut up, Ashley." Jackson Alexander shrugged off his jacket, covering her body with it and walked away from the body, the harness holding the bomb strapped across his heavy chest creaking with every movement.

A door opened and a slight, balding, bespectacled man walked out. "What's going…"

He fell silent as Jackson Alexander pointed the gun at him. "Are you Dr Lester?"

Pale faced, the man nodded, raising his hands into the air.

Alexander gestured with the pistol. "Get over there." Dr Lester walked past him, his eyes flicking to the slumped corpse of his nurse. "Get on your knees, put your hands behind your head."

His eyes wide, Lester slumped to his knees. Staring widely at Ashley, at the door, desperately seeking escape.

"How many children have you murdered?"

"I'm not a murderer!"

Jackson Alexander laughed bitterly. "Of course you're not." He grabbed Lester by the throat, tilting his head back against the barrel of the pistol, forcing him to look up at Ashley. "You killed her child, ripped it bleeding from her womb."

Lester swallowed, his throat bobbing against Jackson's grasp. "I've never seen her before."

xxxXXXxxx

His body pressed against her, bearing down on her. His weight heavy across her, trapping her. She could feel his blood, soaking into his jacket, damp against her clothes.

Amy tried to struggle. Trying to force Nathan off her. "Please Nathan, please. Help me!" She raised her voice. "Please God, somebody help me!"

Her voice echoing desperately around the car park.

No one answered.

Nearly crying in frustration, the smell of Nathan's sweat and blood clogging up her nostrils, Amy coiled her limps underneath his torso, trying to lever his dead weight off her.

Then she froze, a sudden fear driving all the other thoughts out of her head. What if someone could see her moving? What if her movement, her struggles were attracting attention?

What if he was still out there, just waiting for a clear shot at her?

Amy stopped struggling, letting Nathan's body settle back across her (was he still breathing? Was he still alive? She tried to check for a pulse, tried to listen for the sound of him breathing, but all she could hear was the sound of her own increasingly paniced breathing.)

She could feel her clothes getting damper with his blood.

xxxXXXxxx

"What's going on back there?"

"We got a situation inside the Clinic. Jackson Alexander has hostages."

"Damnit!" Tony risked a glance from cover. "I can see Ashley, but I cant see Alexander. Do you have a clear shot at him?"

"Negative."

"Have you a way in at the back?"

"Neg…son of a bitch!"

"What?" Tony reached up, trying the window. He grimaced, finding it locked.

"Jackson Alexander has a bomb strapped across his chest. I repeat, Jackson Alexander has a bomb strapped to his chest."

"Shit. Anyway we can take him out before he detonates that bomb?"

"I don't know. I cant see the trigger. It could be a decoy."

"We cant take that chance. Hold your positions until you hear from me." He ran his hand across his face worriedly. He didn't want this, not today of all days. He just wanted to go home, hold Michelle, argue with her about baby names or about what colour they should paint the nursery.

He forced the thoughts out of his head. He had a job to do.

How the hell were they going to get in there?

xxxXXXxxx

"We got shots fired in the parking lot!"

"Do we know where the shots came form?"

"Just working through the camera feeds now." Adam worked quickly, the footage blurring across his screen. "Should have an answer for you in a couple of minutes."

"Okay. Get a security team out to Nathan and Amy. Get them back into the building. Notify medical, let them know we might have casualties."

"Michelle." Adam called her over to his screen. "Shot came from the multi storey, here. See?" They watched in silence, as Nathan stumbled and fell. "What do you want to do?"

"Michelle, I got Tom on the phone for you."

"Put him through to Adam's station." She looked back at the screen. "Dispatch a team, close off the exits. Nobody in or out." The phone started to ring and she snatched it up. "Tom. What have you got?"

"Amy's car was tampered with. Crude device, but effective. She was damn lucky she didn't open the door. He got one of her people as well. Three shots, close range, probably with a silencer."

"Where are you?"

"I'm on my way back to CTU. Are Nathan and Amy there yet?"

"Nathan's been shot, Tom."

xxxXXXxxx

He watched them through the sniper scope. Watched the CTU agent be lifted off her, collapsing onto a nearby trolley. Watched them help her to her feet, her clothes covered with blood.

He wondered, briefly, if the man was still alive, then pushed the thought out of his head.

He took careful aim at her and squeezed the trigger.

xxxXXXxxx

She stumbled slightly as she stood, her legs too weak to support her weight, too unsteady to move. A guard reached out his hand, steadying her, standing between her and Nathan's body. She wondered if he was still alive.

"This way ma'am. Quickly please. We think the shooter might still be there."

Amy started to follow after him, when something caught her eye. Glinting in the sunlight. Nathan's sunglasses. They must have been knocked off his face when he had been….

He'd want them later. She would give them to him later, when she thanked him for saving her life.

She knelt suddenly, reaching out for his sunglasses. Her fingers had just touched the thin cool metal when she felt something burn across her shoulder, searing into her flesh.

She stumbled, dimly aware that her shoulder was in agony, that her suit jacket was suddenly damp with her own blood. Aware of the CTU guards, pressing around her and Nathan, rushing them towards the building.

Shielding them from him.

xxxXXXxxx

"I trusted you Ashley."

His voice, actually shaking with emotion, wavering on the edge of tears, shaking with anger and betrayal.

The pistol in his hand never wavered. Still aimed at the back of Dr Lester's head.

"I trusted you and you betrayed me. You betrayed us all. How could you?"

"I had to do it, Jackson." She kept her voice low and even, assured, throwing away her cover. If she had to die, she would die as herself. "I'm sorry."

"You're sorry?" Abruptly, Jackson brought the handle of the pistol down on the back of Lester's head. Stepping over his unconscious body before it had even touched the ground. He stalked over to her, pointing the gun at her face. "Open your mouth."

Reluctantly, she opened her mouth and he shoved the gun in. She gagged, briefly, tasting metal and smoke.

"I take you in, after you murder your child, and this is how you repay me?"

xxxXXXxxx

"What's the situation Chloe?"

"We think he's in…."

Tom cut her off. "I meant with Nathan."

"Tom." He looked around and saw Michelle, standing at Adam's station. He walked quickly over to her, opening his mouth to speak. She answered him before he could ask the question. "He's in medical at the minute. I've contacted his girlfriend. She's coming in." She looked steadily at him. "We still have a job to do, Tom. I need you on this."

"Okay." Tom ran his hand through his hair, across his face. "Okay. What's the situation with the shooter?"

"He's in the multi storey across the road. I sealed all the exits after the shootings. Nobody's gone in or out. He's still in there."

xxxXXXxxx

He could see them coming, moving around the exits. They were making no move to come after him. Not yet. They would wait, do it systematically, make sure there were no gaps for him to slip through.

They wouldn't have him without a fight.