Chapter 8—Playing It By Ear

(Monday 5:45 pm) Chance was sitting in the back of the ambulance that Guerrero had requisitioned. Winston had teased him mercilessly for some time about the "gown," but had finally had pity on him and given him some white scrubs. Guerrero was driving the ambulance, much to Winston's dismay. Chance believed that he had taken a few "wrong" turns just to torque Winston off. They were all wired so they could keep track of each other once they had to split up inside the hospital. Guerrero's doctor was going to meet them there. If everything worked out they would be out of there within the hour. They were under the assumption that Kado would be anesthetized, so preparations had been made to use the ambulance as their escape vehicle. Winston had already sent all the evidence to the police, and it was set to be delivered in a little less than an hour. If things did go wrong in there hopefully help wouldn't be too far behind. But Chance tried to think positively that this was going to work. Then they were all going to take some time off.

Guerrero pulled into a parking spot just outside the back door. Winston hopped out and tested his mike. "Alright, let's pray this thing goes smoothly. I'm headed in. I'll find out what room he's in then stall about bringing Chance in." he glanced at Guerrero. "You get him out of there fast enough and we'll all rendezvous back at the ambulance and make tracks." Guerrero nodded his assent. Winston was more nervous than he would admit. There were so many ways this thing could go wrong.

Guerrero piled into the back with Chance to await the results of Winston's meeting. He was prepared to wheel Chance in on the stretcher, then wheel Kado back out to the waiting ambulance while Chance covered their tail. He slipped a gun under the mattress of the stretcher just as added precaution.

Winston walked rapidly into the surgical waiting room, ready to get this over with. He saw at the end of the corridor he was walking down, the president—Donald Novak. He was whispering to a tall dark haired gentleman next to him, and then he took off practically running around the corner at the end.

"Uh oh."

"Uh oh, what?" said Guerrero back.

"I have a bad feeling about this." said Winston

"You have anything more to go on than a bad feeling dude?"

"Well, Novak was here, and he took off like greased lightning." he said into his wire tap in a low voice. The dark haired gentleman was approaching. As he got closer he could read his name tag—Dr. Ramirez.

"Good evening Mr. Scott, everything is ready, right this way please. Your doctor was just here, come with me."

Winston followed him down the corridor and then into a hospital room, expecting to see Kado in one of the beds, but both beds were empty. He turned sharply to face the doctor. A "What's going on." died on his lips as he met the end of a pistol with a silencer on it.

"Move it." said the doctor as he motioned him further into the room.

"Take it easy, no need to point that gun at me," he said mostly to alert the guys on what was happening.

"Where's the donor?" asked Winston.

The doctor gave him a small laugh. "Don't you worry about him; you'll be joining him soon. Too bad you had to stick your nose into this. Everything was going great till you guys came along. We have someone headed out to the ambulance to take the guys out you came with." At Winston's surprised look he continued. "Oh yeah, we knew you guys were coming. Gave us time to set everything up to get rid of you guys once and for all."

Meanwhile Chance and Guerrero were already on the move. As soon as Winston has slipped the part about the gun into his conversation, they had both left the ambulance. Chance had retrieved the gun from the stretcher and stuck it in the back of his pants, glad now he was wearing scrubs and some good running shoes. A quick change of plans had been made. Guerrero was going to scout out the place and try to locate Kado, so he took off with the empty stretcher. Chances was going to head toward Winston's location and try to diffuse the situation. He headed cautiously into the hospital knowing they would be after him so he had to keep a low profile.

Winston had been joined by the second doctor- Dr. Malnoy. He was trying to talk his way out of this, or at least stay alive until reinforcements arrived. He was pretty sure his partners were already on the move. They would just have to play it by ear from here on out.

"You guys do know that we've already turned all the evidence over to the city? It's just a matter of time before they get here." stated Winston calmly

Dr. Malnoy just looked disgusted. "What evidence, you can't prove anything."

"Oh yeah, well what about the five separate deposits of 5 mill into each of your accounts? I think that may catch their attention."

Shock registered on both of the doctor's faces, and Ramirez finally managed to sputter out. "How did you know about that? Those accounts are hidden."

"Oh, we have our ways, but trust me; we're not the only ones who know. Even if you kill me, they are already onto you. It will just be a matter of time before they catch you," said Winston smugly.

At that the two doctor's turned on each other. "Let's get out of here; I'm not going to jail." "Are you crazy, we have to get rid of our witnesses first." "I'm not going to kill in cold blood." "You've already killed, what's different about this?" Their argument came to an abrupt end as Dr. Malnoy spun around and fled the room. Winston started to step towards Ramirez, but the doctor spun back around after watching his colleague flee.

Chance had finally made it to the surgical area and saw Dr. Malnoy exiting a room rapidly and practically running down the corridor. 'Winston must be in that room' he thought and he eased to the door, and then very slowly started to ease the door open. Winston saw him coming and tried to distract the guy with more talk about his eventual capture. It worked perfectly. Chance held his gun to the man's head and said "Drop it."

Dr Ramirez froze, but didn't drop his weapon. He continued to point it at Winston. "I said drop it." And this time Chance butted the back of the guys head with his gun. Then Winston's eyes got large and Chance knew things were about to take a turn for the worst. He swung around to face the door, but his favorite bad guy had emerged once again. He was too close to fire at the giant, who grabbed his gun arm and slammed it against the wall, causing him to drop it. Then he motioned Chance back to the far wall. Chance limped over reluctantly shooting an apologetic look at Winston.

Guerrero in the meantime had fared well. He had used his "persuasiveness" on the nurses to find the "donor." Kado had been unprotected, and knocked out just as they had figured. He had Kado on the stretcher now, and was rolling him into the ambulance. He had kept tabs on his two friends, and now that Kado was safe in the ambulance, it was time to find them and end this.

Back in the room Ramirez seemed to have finally made up his mind. "Ok, Jocko, we kill them both and then hightail it out of here."

"Jocko!" said Chance. "Finally, you have a name. Got tired of calling you big blond dude." adding a smirk to his face.

Jocko replied to the doctor. "It will be a pleasure to kill this one." Pointing at Chance as his grin began to spread.

"Here, take this." Ramirez handed the pistol to Jocko. "Finish them off."

Chance knew they had mere seconds to make a move, so when Ramirez handed the gun off to Jocko he made his move. He lunged at Jocko, and Winston matched his move, going for the doctor. The ensuing fight was enough to knock the gun from the blonde's hand, but Jocko knew his weakness and took him out with a kick to his bad knee. Chance yelped, but he hit the floor rolling and rolled quickly back onto his one good leg. Before he could move towards his opponent again Jocko grabbed the gun from the floor, threw it up, and fired. The bullet caught him in the left shoulder, slamming him back to the floor. Winston, who had the doctor in a head lock by this time, let go and started for Chance. Jocko stopped him with an "Annh, annh, unless you want to buy it too" and motioned him away with the gun.

Ramirez said. "Take this one as a hostage until we can get out of here. Forget about him," motioning to Chance. Chance had not moved since hitting the floor, and Winston's gut twisted. 'No, this can't be happening' he thought. He could see the blood which had started to seep through his white scrubs and it was all he could do not to rush over to him. Winston was pushed forcefully out the door by the big fellow, taking one last glance at Chance as he went out and hoping like heck that wasn't the last time he saw him alive……

TBC

Alright folks, we are almost finished. I have one more full chapter and the Epilogue and it's finished ;) Thanks for following along. Please review so I know you still like it. Hoping to post the next chapter sooner than my 2 day norm. Don't forget to contact FOX and request a Season 2!!!!