Chapter Six
Oscar had been in the Navy; he'd been to war and served decades in civilian Intelligence. He'd seen the worst of what human beings could do to each other, but none of that compared to the heartbreaking scene that confronted him now. There was blood everywhere. Steve was in one rear corner in a crumpled heap. His legs were mangled, basically crushed, and smoking heavily. His head and face were badly bruised, but both of his arms were still wrapped firmly and protectively around Jaime.
Jaime was face-down, her body curved around and across Steve's, as though he'd been holding her. Her right arm hung limply and she was clinging to Steve with her left. Neither of them was moving, and the whole world seemed deathly silent. At first glance, they didn't appear to be alive.
"Russ," Oscar called into the datacom in a voice choked with emotion, "send Rudy down the second he gets here. It's bad..." Oscar could barely breath himself as he knelt down next to them. He knew it wasn't safe to move them, but he reached out and, with the gentlest possible touch, put a tentative hand on his wife's shoulder. "Jaime...? Steve...?" he whispered. There was no response.
"What made the car fall?" Oscar asked, without turning around.
"It's been malfunctioning for months. Unless the cable was cut..." his voice trailed off.
"What made it fall?"
"Probably the loss of power, Sir."
"Oh, my God...I killed them..." Oscar said, very quietly.
"Sir, I don't know what happened here, but I'm sure you were doing your job; you couldn't have known -" Oscar's position had been blocking Andrew's view of the injured couple, but when he sat back on his heels, overwhelmed by grief, Andrew caught a glimpse of Steve's legs. "What the hell -?" He was immediately pulled into a side office by several of the men who had followed Russ back down the stairs.
Russ stood in the elevator doorway, trying to find his voice. He was bleeding from one shoulder, but any physical pain was forgotten in his search for a way to help his friends – and their boss. "Oscar?" Before he could say anything more, the passageway erupted with activity. Rudy ran to the elevator, leading a near-fleet of paramedics with stretchers, backboards and supplies.
Oscar stood up and looked into Rudy's eyes, then back down at Steve and Jaime. Wordlessly, he pleaded with the physician to pull off just two more miracles, then stepped out of the tiny car to give him the space to work.
Russ put a hand on Oscar's shoulder and led him to a chair that Oscar gratefully sank into. "They'll be ok..." Russ told him, hoping he sounded more positive than he felt.
"Did you see them?" Oscar stared at the floor, waiting to find out if he'd just become a widower while barely back from his honeymoon.
"They're in good hands – the best."
Oscar nodded wearily. "I know." His shoulders slumped, and his face suddenly seemed twenty years older. "You need a medic, too."
"I'm ok; I'll get it looked at." Russ hesitated, then went on. "I heard what you said before. None of this is your fault. You need to know that – and believe it."
"When I find out who did this -"
Rudy's call from the broken car changed everything. "Oscar – they're alive! Both of them are alive!"
- - - - - -
With two critically injured patients, plus Rudy and several medics to assist him, there wasn't a spare inch on the medivac. The way Russ was able to drive, though, enabled Oscar to nearly beat the chopper to the hospital. The two men sat together in the small private waiting room, and while Rudy was taking charge of saving two lives, Russ very reluctantly began to tell Oscar the truth about what had just happened. When Oscar brought it up, there was no way that Russ could lie.
"At least they never got a chance to tamper with the water system," Oscar had begun, after a very long few minutes of silence.
There was no other choice; he had to tell his boss the real story, however painful it would be. "Oscar...this was never about the water system, after all." Oscar turned to look at his second-in-command, one eyebrow raised and questions in his eyes. "When I went up the stairwell, I found Jack Hansen at the top. He'd just shot out the upper control panel for the elevator."
"What?" Oscar was stunned. He and the NSB Director weren't friends, but (he thought) they certainly weren't enemies. "That's not possible? Why would he do that – are you sure?"
"I was just opening the door; I saw him do it. He turned and took a shot at me, and that's when Haynes and Burke took him to the floor. He...shot them both. Close range."
"My God – why?"
"He shot out the panel so Steve and Jaime couldn't use the emergency button to summon help, if they survived the fall," Russ explained.
"Then Jack...did...all of this?" Oscar couldn't fathom the possibility.
"I'm afraid so."
"But why? Did he say anything, once he was in custody?"
Russ couldn't look at his boss. He knew the answer would hit himhard"He was setting you up."
Oscar nearly choked on his disbelief. "Excuse me? He – what?"
"It was all a set-up, to force you into a situation where you'd supposedly cause the deaths of multiple operatives, including Jaime and Steve. I don't know why. Oscar...I am so sorry."
Oscar was overwhelmed, almost beyond the point of reason or comprehension. "This is all my fault, then. Steve and Jaime are in there, fighting for their lives – and it's all because of me."
- - - - - -