Chapter Seven

Hospital Security had found no trace of Jaime – and Rudy was too worried to sit and wait for news. Reasoning that Jaime had run off to try and help Steve with the case, he got into his car and drove as fast as he dared to OSI Headquarters.

The building was dark...and ominously silent. The express elevator didn't seem to be working, so Rudy got on one of the 'regular' cars and rode it up to the 7th floor, intending to flash his ID to the guards and walk the last flight of stairs. The door to the north stairwell was open, propped that way by a pair of feet protruding into the hallway. Rudy raced down the hall to find the fallen guard and his partner. The gunman's aim had been precise; there was nothing Rudy could do for either of them.

The bullet holes in the wall, the chemical foam and the broken extinguisher told him that this was more than a double shooting – a fierce battle had taken place here. He was about to head up to Oscar's office when a weak voice beckoned him from the stairwell below. "Rudy....?"

"Jaime?" he called back. Since each flight of stairs was bent into a U-shape down to the next level, Rudy couldn't see her. "Are you alright?" he asked, taking the stairs two at a time until he reached her.
Jaime didn't appear to have been shot but she was only vaguely conscious – whether it was from the drugs he'd given her or the angry-looking injury to her head, he didn't know.

"Honey, what happened here?" he asked gently, still taking stock of her injuries. "Who did this?"

"He's....down there...." Jaime replied, weakly motioning down the stairs.

Rudy knew he couldn't take whoever this was by himself, but he peered cautiously around the corner to try and learn who the attacker was. The 5th floor stairwell was empty. "Jaime, I have to call for help," he told her. "Can you walk?"

"Yeah....I think so." Jaime rose unsteadily to her feet but in addition to the fog, her head began to pound and she leaned back against the wall and sank to the floor. "Maybe not," she admitted.

Rudy didn't want to leave her, but they obviously needed reinforcements. Suddenly, the decision was taken out of his hands as a massive wave of penguin suits began flooding the stairway on every level. "She needs an ambulance!" Rudy called to the closest group.

"No I don't – but Steve does...he's upstairs." Jaime closed her eyes in an effort to block out the throbbing in her head. It didn't help.

Rudy bounded up the stairs, where another group of penguins was clustered around Steve. They parted to let Rudy through. "Who called you?" Rudy asked one of the agents as he tried to get a response from Steve.

"It's my understanding that the call for help came from Jack Hansen," the agent replied.

Rudy eyed him curiously. "How did he get so many of you here so fast?"

"Inspector Gregory was holding a security briefing, so it was just lucky we were all there."

"Uh-huh." Rudy nodded and turned his full attention to his patient. He made a fist and rubbed the knuckles firmly but carefully across Steve's breastbone, earning a groan in response. Slowly, Steve began to stir.

"Jaime...?"

"No, it's Rudy. Steve, can you hear me?"

"Rudy...Jack's in Oscar's office. Take my keys and let him go. Tell him...." The knockout spray still in his system, Steve fell silent.

Rudy took the keys and headed straight for the inner office. Surprisingly, none of the penguin-suits had found their leader yet. Hansen was still cuffed to the chair (which he'd managed to slide up to the desk) and his body was twisted in the painful position he'd assumed in order to wrangle the phone off of the console.

"What the hell is going on out there?" Jack demanded as Rudy set him free.

"I'm not sure," Rudy answered, "but there are casualties."

Hansen reached into the desk drawer where Steve had stashed the gun he'd taken from him. "You'd better stay here," he ordered.

"I've got two patients out there – and others might need my help," Rudy insisted, following Jack down the hall.

Two medics were lifting Steve onto a gurney and as they began to wheel him off, he raised his head. "Rudy....tell Jack...it was....Barney."

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