"Team one- status!" Greg demanded.
"No harm." I radioed in, "Spike, Ed- you ok?"
I looked over to my left to find both Spike and Ed passed out beside me. I engaged my radio to radio in their status to Greg and Brad when one of the masked men approached me.
"Two of the cops are dead." He yelled out to his accomplice- "The chick's still alive."
"Take her out." Came his order.
"Copy that." The man said, as he pointed the handgun at me.
Me and Eddie were at the indoor shooting range. We were stationed at the 100 yard range and were practicing our Sierra shots. After we finished shooting five rounds, we recalled our targets and examined them.
"Good job Meg," Ed commended, "Much better than last time."
"Team One, hot call!" came over the intercom.
We quickly grabbed the rifles and the ammunition and started to run for the steps. "Time to put the practice to work." Ed commented.
We arrived on scene. Once there, we piled out and went into the command truck.
"What do we got?" Ed asked.
"Masked shooters in city hall." Spike said, as he sat down at the computers, "Security figures that there are 2 wounded and four killed."
"Thoughts?" Ed turned and asked me.
"We have to enter- hard tactical, and neutralize the threat." I replied.
"Which is what we're going to do- Me, Megan, and Spike will enter and neutralize, Brad and Greg in the truck. All information goes through you."
"Copy that." Brad said, as Spike got up from his chair and Brad replaced him.
"Let's move."
Me, Ed and Spike all grabbed our weapons and entered the building.
"Security thinks they might have entered the basement and Parker is coordinating with uniforms to create a perimeter." Brad informed us.
"Me and Megan as Alpha to the basement," Ed said, as we started down the steps, "Spike will deploy electronic counter-measures to prevent any bombs or IEDs from going off in our face."
Once in the basement, we quickly and slowly cleared the single hall that had several attached supply and custodial closets.
"Basement clear." I said, as we made our way back up to Spike, "Brad, anything on CCTV?"
"Nothing yet- they're either laying low, reloading, or they know this place." Brad replied.
"Do a filtered background search on the employees," I instructed, "Emphasis on employees with past criminal records."
"Copy that."
Spike finally finished typing on the tablet computer. "Electronic counter measures in place- if there are any remote detonators, or blast caps waiting for a signal to blow, they're rendered useless."
"Good job Spike." Ed said, "Alpha is picking up Spike, proceeding to clear first floor."
We continued down the hallway. Once past the security station, where we gave hand signals to the security officers to stay concealed, we found three of the four people reported dead by the shooters.
"This is ground zero, Brad." Ed asked, as me and Spike checked the bodies for pulses.
But there were no pulses to be found.
"First floor clear." I radioed in, as we ascended to the second floor.
"Ed," Greg radioed, "Team Six has just landed on the helicopter pad on the roof- they're going to clear the top five floors."
"Leaving four more for us, copy that boss."
As soon as we stepped onto the second floor, I had to be careful where I stepped, because there was the next body.
"Check it, Meg." Ed asked.
I bent down and removed my glove to look for a pulse.
"Ed, I have a pulse."
"Copy that," Spike said, as he knelt down beside the woman who was shot in the chest, "Brad we need EMTs on second floor, off of black wall."
"Ma'am," I whispered to her, as I brought myself closer to her, "The gun men, did you recognize any of them? Their voices- anything?"
"No…I'm thirsty."
"I'm sorry, I don't have anything on me." I lied, knowing fully well that in her condition that she shouldn't be drinking any fluids, "Do you know where they were going, or what they were looking for?"
"No."
"Megan, EMTs are here, let's go." Ed said, as the EMTs slid in beside us and went to work on the patient.
We continued on. On this floor, there were more offices, so Spike had the door stethoscope, as he placed the pad on each door and listened to see if there was any noises on the other side of the door.
There was quite a few with nothing, but then Spike signaled that he could hear something on the other side of this door.
Spike was already working on getting eyes in, while Ed stacked up to the door, and he signaled for me to go to third floor and get into position to go in from the window.
Once up on third floor, I heard two voices crying out for help.
"Ed, I got injured on third floor." I radioed in.
"Negative, Megan- we'll enter this office here, and we'll get to third floor when we get there."
I set up my harness and prepared a window charge.
"What do we got?" I asked.
"One masked man, handgun- he's going through a filing cabinet." Spike whispered.
"Less lethal?" I asked.
"Megan, you ready with window entry?" Ed asked.
"In position, waiting for your go."
"Me and Spike as alpha on door entry, Bravo is Megan on explosive window entry. Alpha is less lethal, bravo is lethal. Copy?"
"Copy that."
"Let's go!"
On Ed's signal I detonated the shape charge explosive and zip lined into the room. By the time I had my gun on the suspect; Spike was detaining him with handcuffs.
"One suspect requiring a uniform pickup on second floor." I radioed in.
"Coming to you, bravo." Brad replied.
Once the officer got there and took the suspect, we continued to third floor.
"Help!" the voices yelled out louder.
"One on the east side, one on the west- me and Spike have the east, Megan, you take the west."
I went west and found my target- a man, mid-forties, well dressed, with a gunshot wound in his lower get.
"EMTs, required on third floor." I radioed in, "Sir, did you recognize the shooters? Their voices, anything at all?"
"One of them sounded like Mike."
"Mike- Mike who?"
"Mike Currie- he works in IT."
"Does Mike have access to firearms, and does this sound like something Mike would do?" I asked, as I started to put pressure on the wound.
"He hates working here, but everybody does. We'd never come in, guns blazing, you know?"
The EMTs were at my location.
"Ok, sir thank you for your information." I thanked, as I met up with Ed and Spike.
"And?" I asked.
"Massive blood loss, hit an artery, died while I was attending." Ed informed, "You learn anything?"
"That guy thinks that Mike Currie, works in IT, might be one of the shooters. Says he's a disgruntled employee, and that there are a lot of them around the office."
"There's motive right there." Spike added up, "And IT- that explains why Brad hasn't been able to get anything from CCTV- they're either looping the feeds, or their hiding in blind zones."
"Why shoot a co-worker?" I pointed out, "Why not go right to the head of the operation- cut it off?"
"Tunnel vision, not thinking and they no longer care." Ed guessed, "We need to keep on moving."
"Team One entering fourth floor." Ed radioed, "Team Six- what do you got?"
"One shooter detained on tenth floor. Tread carefully Team One Alpha- we found explosives in his backpack."
"How many shooters left?" I asked.
"Hard to say," Greg told us, "The guy down here is refusing to talk. Building security can't identify him, so Brad's running him through the facial recognition software."
As we started to walk past a corner, we had shots directed towards us.
I was fast enough to be able to take cover on the cubicle wall, across from Ed and Spike, who stayed covered on the opposite side of the corner.
"What do we got?" Ed asked to me.
I dropped my bag and grabbed the wheeled drone and its control pad.
"Deploying drone." I said, as I wheeled it into position, "Two suspects- one covering the other- looks like one is putting together some sort of explosive device."
"See any timers?" Spike radioed to me.
"Negative."
"Send me the image." Spike asked.
"Uploading to the PDAs."
Across from me, I saw Spike take out his PDA and examine the image.
"Designed to blow on impact." Spike reasoned.
"Meaning?" Ed asked.
"There either planning on throwing it, or shooting at it from a distance."
"Ed, I can lay suppressing fire- keeping them busy, and get you guys 20 feet closer." I suggested.
"Do it."
I peered out from behind my cover, and said suppressing fire while Spike and Ed got into position. I continued to lay suppressing fire, as I rejoined them.
"We need to work fast, or they'll have that bomb ready to go." Spike said, as he looked back at me.
"What are you thinking Spike?" Ed asked, as he turned back to see me.
Just as Spike started to open his mouth, I saw something being thrown into the air, in our direction.
"Take cover!" I yelled, as we automatically covered our heads, and took cover up against the wall to protect us from the explosion.
After the bomb went off, all I could hear was an annoying ringing in my ears.
"Team one- status!" Greg yelled into the radio.
"No harm." I informed, "Spike, Ed- you ok?"
I looked over to my left to find both Spike and Ed passed out beside me. I could tell that they were alive and well, because I saw their chests rise and fall, although barely, as the body armor covers it well.
I engaged my radio to radio in their status to Greg and Brad when one of the masked men approached me.
"Two of the cops are dead." He yelled out to his accomplice- "The chick's still alive."
"Take her out." Came his order.
"Copy that." The man said, as he pointed the handgun at me, "Any last words?"
I put my arms in the air, "I can tell you're upset…"
Then I saw Ed leap up and tackle the man to the ground, although at some point, I heard a gunshot go off.
I looked over to Spike, who was coming to, who turned his attention to me.
"Spike are you ok?" I asked.
"Are you?" he asked, as he grabbed my arm and put pressure on it.
"What the hell are you doing?"
Spike lifted off his hand to get a better grip on my arm, when I saw that the bullet from whoever fired their gun passed right through my lower arm left arm, just below my elbow.
"You don't feel that?" Spike asked.
The pain started to seep in, "I do now."
I engaged my radio, "Team One Alpha to Command- 10-33- officer down and wounded."
It was the last thing I remember doing, because at that moment, I passed out.
Spike stayed with Megan. Ed joined up with Team Six, who promptly responded to Megan's 10-33.
After a few minutes, Ed radioed to command, "Building is clear- all suspects contained."
Shortly after that, paramedics came to attend to Megan. One of the paramedics looked familiar to Spike.
Where have I seen her before?
"Oh my god! Megan!" the paramedic exclaimed, as she and her partner started first aid and were about to affix her to a stretcher.
Spike got up, as he looked carefully at the paramedic, who was now crying and muttering "Megan" over and over.
"Do you know her?" Spike asked.
The paramedic turned around and said, "Yeah, she's my girlfriend."
"Sara, right?"
"Yeah."
"She was telling me the other day how much she loves you Sara. You have to be strong, that way when she wakes up, you can tell her how much you love her."
Sara nodded, as she and her partner carried Megan's stretcher down the stairs.
I woke up in a hospital bed. They had an air mask on me. I looked down to the wound, where they had it dressed up, like they had just finished surgery. It looked like there was residual bleeding, but not too much.
I looked up and saw Sara. She stood at the end of my bed looking at the medical chart on the clipboard that's designed to hang off the end of the bed. She looked up at me.
She came over to my right side. "You're lucky." Sara said, "It was a hollow point bullet, passed right through. No muscle or tissue damage, but it severed some nerve strands."
Using my right arm, I lifted up the air mask. "What does that mean?" I asked.
"It means you're fine. But you may no longer have feeling in parts of your left hand or arm."
Sara took the air mask off of me, and kissed me, "I love you so much Megan."