Disclaimer: Don't own Automan—wish I did. Please don't sue. Besides ya' wouldn't get anything outta me right now, anyway. All of the disclaimer see Chapter 1.
Ch. 11--Out Of Danger?
Lt. Jack Curtis stood on the main floor of the old office building trying to get his bearings. He recalled the letter from Agent Mann that Roxanne had shown both him and the captain saying that they were trapped on the fourth floor and quickly started looking for a staircase he could use. He found a stairwell off to his right and sprinted towards it. He entered the stairwell and raced up the steps to the fourth floor. He exited the stairwell frantically searching for the room they were trapped in. Once he spotted the room, Jack broke in the door trapping Agent Mann and Wally in the room. He stood in the doorway frozen with shock at the sight that greeted his eyes. The image of Jack's good friend Nate Hester, who had also been shot by a professional hit man, lying dead on a stairwell landing flashed unbidden into Jack's mind. He managed to gasp out one word, "Wally..."
Wally was lying unconscious on the floor on his back with his legs resting on an empty crate box. A gray blanket covering him up to his chest rapidly rose and fell with every rapid, shallow breath he took. His naturally wavy black hair was matted to his head with sweat. His face was drenched with sweat and almost as white as the shirt he wore. Agent Mann was kneeling next to Wally's left shoulder. He had his business jacket off and pressed to Wally's shoulder. The fabric underneath was soaked through with blood.
Jack quickly banished the picture of Nate Hester from his mind unwilling to accept that the same fate would befall Wally. When Jack was finally able to find his voice again, he asked the one question he feared to know the answer to, "How is he?"
Automan had looked to the door when he heard and saw it broken in. He saw Lt. Curtis freeze in the doorway upon seeing Walter. He anticipated the question the lieutenant asked and quickly reassured him, "He is alive but in severe shock. We must get him immediate medical attention." Auto's reassurance and call to action seemed to snap Lt. Curtis out of his stunned state.
"The paramedics are waiting downstairs outside the main floor entrance," said Jack matter-of-factly.
Automan silently nodded acknowledging the information. He knew he had to find a way to disable the energy field first or he wasn't going to be able to get Walter out of the room, much less down to the waiting paramedics. Figuring the generator he had sensed before--and could still sense--had to be what was creating the energy field, Auto quickly changed his vision to infra-red and swiftly scanned the room. He spotted a small dot in a corner. He switched back to his regular vision and concentrated on the corner where he had seen the small, red dot. He noticed a small, black camera hidden in the shadows. He pointed to the camera and instantly instructed Lt. Curtis, "Shoot that camera."
Jack looked to the corner Agent Mann was pointing to. At first, he couldn't spot any camera. Then, he made out the small, black shadow of a small, surveillance-style camera hidden well within the surrounding shadows. 'How the heck was he able to spot that camera so quickly?' silently wondered Jack with renewed admiration for Agent Mann's abilities. Not questioning why Agent Mann wanted him to shoot the camera, Jack quickly took out his gun, aimed it at the small, black shadow of the surveillance-style camera and fired. Jack saw a small explosion in the corner as the camera shattered into hundreds of smaller pieces.
Automan saw that with the generator destroyed, the energy barrier surrounding the room dissipated. He nodded silently to Lt. Curtis in gratitude and went to Walter's right side. The blanket covering Walter slipped off as Automan effortlessly scooped up Walter into his arms supporting him in such a way that Walter's uninjured right shoulder was resting against Auto's left side and Walter's head was resting on Auto's left shoulder. Auto could feel Walter's rapid, shallow breathing against his neck and chest as he held him. He turned to Lt. Curtis and said, "I need you to keep pressure on Walter's left shoulder." Lt. Curtis nodded, went towards Auto's left side, and firmly pressed Auto's jacket to Walter's left shoulder. Walter flinched away from the pain but did not wake. Automan ran out of the room and into the hallway towards the elevator at the end of the hallway with the lieutenant sprinting beside him holding Auto's jacket to Walter's shoulder. As Automan held Walter, he could sense Walter's heart rate gradually increasing to compensate for his slowly falling blood pressure. Recognizing the change in vital signs as an indication that Walter was slowly slipping further into shock, Auto thought worriedly, 'Hold on, Walter.'
Well before Automan reached the elevator with his precious load, he sub-vocally, almost desperately, pleaded with the computer controlling the elevator to please get them to the first floor as quickly as possible. Sensing Automan's near desperation, the computer immediately signaled its understanding and opened the elevator doors just before the trio reached it. They were whisked down to the first floor within a couple of seconds. Soon after they reached the first floor, Automan spotted the paramedics outside and rapidly headed in that direction with Lt. Curtis by his side still holding Auto's jacket to Walter's shoulder.
Roxanne let out a shocked gasp instantly recognizing the extremely pale, limp form cradled in Automan's arms as he exited the building in front of her and rapidly headed towards her and the awaiting paramedics with the lieutenant sprinting alongside Automan pressing what she could only assume to be Automan's business suit jacket to Wally's shoulder. Conceptually, Roxanne knew Wally had been shot and had lost a lot of blood, but to actually see him cradled in Automan's arms, unconscious and so deathly pale, still alarmed her. "Wally!" she cried out. She watched Automan gently lay Wally on the awaiting stretcher before he stepped back staring worriedly at Wally. She turned to Lt. Curtis. "Lieutenant, I'd like to accompany Wally and the paramedics to the hospital," she requested.
Jack had seen in her eyes the same fear and concern over Wally's condition that he felt as he watched the paramedics quickly treat Wally. They had cut the right sleeve of Wally's suit and were attaching an intravenous tube to his right arm. They removed Agent Mann's jacket setting it on the ground. (No one noticed when Cursor immediately derezzed the jacket figuring Automan wasn't going to wear it with Walter's blood on it as Automan's, Lt. Curtis', and Roxanne's attention were all on the attending paramedics and Walter.) The paramedics then quickly and carefully cut away the blood-soaked fabric on Wally's shoulder, and secured an extremely large white pad to Wally's shoulder. The pad was rapidly becoming soaked as a flowering pattern of blood formed in the middle of the pad swiftly spreading outward. Jack still kept his attention on the attending paramedics but addressed his statement to Roxanne, "Okay, Roxanne, go. I'll help the captain clean things up here. Then, we'll meet you at the hospital as soon as we can."
"Thank you." Roxanne flashed him a grateful smile before she headed for the nearby awaiting ambulance. The paramedics had covered Wally with a blanket up to his chest and were just putting an oxygen mask on Wally's face when she approached them. "I'm coming along as well," she stated. They wordlessly nodded to her before quickly securing Wally on the stretcher and loading the stretcher into the ambulance.
Jack watched as Roxanne climbed into the ambulance and it rushed off to the nearest hospital before glancing to the ground where the paramedics had placed Agent Mann's jacket. The jacket was no longer there--only spots of blood. 'Hmm. Strange,' silently thought Jack with a mental shrug. He turned to Agent Mann, who was also staring worriedly at the departing ambulance. He noticed a spot of blood on the forearm of Agent Mann's sleeve. "You're bleeding," he said with some concern pointing to the spot of blood.
Auto looked to where the lieutenant was pointing. He hadn't even noticed the blood until now. "It's not mine," he simply said.
Realizing what Agent Mann was referring to, Jack quickly changed the subject. "We have the sniper in custody. He's being taken to the precinct as we speak. I'm going right now to interrogate him there."
Mention of the sniper brought to the forefront of Auto's mind all the pent up rage over what the sniper had nearly done to Walter. "I want to be there when you question him," said he, his voice low with suppressed fury.
"Sure," said Jack.
"I'll meet you at the station. I have a slight problem I need to take care of."
"Okay." Jack turned and headed towards where the captain was standing outside of the building the sniper had been holed up in.
Auto had waited until the lieutenant had left before heading to an adjacent alley. "Cursor," commanded Auto. Cursor appeared and beeped and twitted to Auto in cursor talk.
"I don't know Walter's condition. I understand you're worried about Walter. So am I. I want to help Lt. Curtis get some answers on who set us up. But first... ," replied Auto.
Cursor understood and instantly line-drew the Autocar on an adjacent street away from the commotion going on near the old office building. Auto climbed in and headed for the nearest generator.
Jack saw the captain turn when he saw Jack approaching. Jack noticed something in the captain's eyes he hadn't totally expected. The captain was furious. As soon as he reached the captain's position, the captain said, "This was a professional hit. I want you to find out who hired this guy. No one does this to one of my men and gets away with it."
"Yes, sir," responded Jack. He couldn't understand who would want to do this to Wally or Agent Mann and was eager to get to the bottom of this himself. He found himself more than willing to carry out that order.