Chapter 12 :

Jack was at his office scanning – once again – through the evidence they had on Miranda's disappearance. He knew it was a pretty hopeless task – he had done this over and over again – he wouldn't find anything new. He wasn't even sure why he was doing it after all – in the end it was just something to do, something to keep his mind working and seek for some hope...

Yet he still had himself entangled in his task some way deeper than he had actually wanted, for he was disturbed – causing him to wince slightly – as the phone on his desk rang. Getting ripped out of his thoughts, he unwillingly picked up the phone and stated his name.

"Malone?"

There was silence on the end of the other line, longer than it would've been usually. Long enough to make him feel slightly impatient. He was about to piece some harsh words together and get a good chance to end this call and get back to his work, when the silence suddenly ended.

"Jack, this is Sam."

Something about her voice made him rise in his chair and listen extremely closely to her words. He didn't like her tone – the signs of desperation and fear in her voice. Whatever she had called him for, he definitely wouldn't like what she would be telling him. But she hadn't said anything else, like she didn't know how to find words and now she was still waiting for his reaction.

"What is it?"

He asked in a soft tone, forgetting all about his slight frustration as he had been interrupted some seconds earlier. His complete concentration was up to Samantha and to the hope that she would give him some information, would tell him what was wrong and why she had called him. But still silence lay between them as she didn't seem able to respond in first place. He was just about to try again as she finally chocked out a few words.

"We have been attacked..."

These four little words were letting about a million questions appear in Jack's mind and he wanted to ask at least ten of them at a time. How could this have happened? Where did it happen? Who had done it and why? But right now he had one most urgent question at hand and it hadn't taken the slightest effort to stick to that one first.

"Are you both alright?"

Once again there was a moment of silence and it seemed to last even longer then it had when she had taken her time to tell him about the actual events. Maybe he was just paranoid or too overeager to know about the current situation. But he was pretty sure what her silence meant, pretty sure how to interpret it.

"No, we're not. Danny's injured – he was shot, Jack..."

"What the hell happened down there – you were simply supposed to question that school's psychologist!"

He hadn't been able to control his emotions any more. It was not like he was angry with his two agents. He was just concerned and he needed to find out how the situation had occured. He hadn't meant to yell at Samantha, he hadn't meant to disturb her, but he simply had lost control for a short while and now it was too late to still take the tone of his words away. But luckily she didn't seem to care much.

"I'm not absolutely sure. We were just about to cross the school yard to get to the main entrance as we passed by a group of teenage girls. And all of a sudden and without any warning one of them was shot through the head. The poor girl was dead immediately. We tried to get to a safer place, but we obviously hadn't been out of the shooter's range. Another boy was injured, who was standing at the main entrance. The third bullet had hit Danny to his back. I guess the shooter must be some way above. I highly suggest it's the schools little observatory the shots came from. Since that moment everything's calm – there haven't been any more shots."

Silence fell between them as she ended her report about the earlier events. Jack was still trying to piece this together. He was asking himself what it meant – it couldn't actually be a case of very bad luck. That in the very same school a young teenage girl just disappeared, another one had now lost his mind and temper and started to kill the people around him...

He hadn't even realized he had been taking his time, but obviously he had stayed silent for a while, not gigving any more words to Samantha for she had started explaining again.

"I already called an ambulance, but they told me they won't get here... Seems like someone from the principal's office already called police. They're getting the whole area closed up for public as long as they don't know about the shooter. They won't let anyone through... You need to help us down here! We need that ambulance!"

He changed subjects, hoping to cool her down with it and make her lose the desperation still clinging in her voice. She wouldn't be able to tell him anything usefull if she started to get hysterical. He needed her to stay absolutely calm and think. He just hoped he was about to achieve that.

"How is he?"

"I don't know Jack – I'm not a doctor..."

She could hear her take a few steps and lower her voice to a whisper. He knew what she had done – she had gotten out of Danny's range so he wouldn't hear her talk, he wouldn't hear her give her opinion to Jack and he already considered that a pretty bad and alarming sign.

"I'm not sure Jack, but he doesn't look too good. I mean his still conscious and actually not in a lot of pain... But that's what worries me the most – he was shot goddamn it – he should be. I guess he's in some kind of a shock and there's nothing I can do about it. He needs a doctor and a hospital – someone to properly take care of him. The sooner, the better."

"This is no event of a federal matter – it doesn't fit into our authorities... I can't just go there and intervene with the business of NYPD, it's not our case. There's not much I can actually do!"

He didn't know why, but he felt like he had said something extremely stupid. He hadn't said anything untrue or wrong, but still he felt this way. Maybe it was that silence Samantha was keeping up, like she was preparing to tell him something really grave, something that would make him change his mind.

"Jack, I believe it couldn't concern our matters any more..."

He had already seen it coming. He had known she would be insisting against better knowledge, because this was about someone being injured they all cared about. But it wouldn't change the facts – he couldn't do anything against police's decisions – having an injured agent of his involved or not. He just needed to convince Sam about this.

"Look Sam, I know that you care, but..."

"It's not about that! I mean... sure it is, but that wasn't what I'm trying to say..."

"What are you trying to say?"

"I believe it's Miranda who's shooting, I believe she's taking some kind of revenge..."