Three days later
We were on a call to a high school shooting in the east side of the city, a rough area that was full of hookers, drug dealers and black market weapons – sounded like London to be honest! We had been on a standoff for nearly four hours as the attackers had barricaded themselves into a room full of young children and adults; I had spent most of the four hours treating injuries and protecting the EMS while they transported the wounded and dead to the ambulances. Jules was struck from behind as we climbed the stairs and was taken by gunpoint, I had laid down cover fire so we could try and get her out but that ended with a gun against her throat. We backed off and Wordy got eyes in on the room and I was called in to assist along with Spike. We met up on the stairs and got into positions.
"Ed, Spike and Wordy – tactical entrance on my order; Mac your with me in the lobby, let's try and get a connection going again with Matt."
We nodded and split up into our groups and I followed the boss down into the lobby and checked over the CCTV and snake cam we had installed through the vents. It was not looking good and the subject was escalating rapidly.
"Boss this is going to end badly, let me get up to the vents in the room so I can see what's going on, possibly create a distraction with the sonic grenade?"
He looked at me, we hadn't mentioned the marksman training since a few days ago but he knew I was right about the location for the sonic shot and distraction.
"Boss, let her do it, the vents are too small for us to get in but she should manage, if the distraction doesn't work then she can be my spotter or tactical entry surprise as required," Ed said through the comms.
He looked at me then nodded; it took me four minutes to run to the vent room and crawl through the vent system – I really hated vents – spiders! I got into position and stabilized myself over the vent and took aim with the sonic amplifier through the large slats.
"Non-lethal in position, I have the solution!" I whispered.
Ten harrowing minutes later I watched as he threatened the lives of everyone in the room with his weapon, no-one else could get a clear shot due to the human shield he had around him and I was in clear sight of him for lethal and non-lethal firing options.
"Mac do you still have a solution?" Ed whispered.
"I have the solution for all entry options but he is escalating rapidly!" I replied.
I could hear him check with Ed, Wordy and Troy, none of them had visuals and he clicked back to my channel and I heard the sigh.
"Mac go lethal, only on my order!" Parker confirmed.
I holstered the sonic grenade and brought my MP5 around to position again, I slipped the safety off and squared up for the shot if required.
"Mac you're confirmed as Sierra, on my order!" the boss whispered.
"Copied, Sierra one has clear visuals and I have a solution," I whispered.
I could hear the negotiations going badly, the subject was delusional and escalating rapidly again; I slowed down my breathing and zoned in to the target and kept focused over the boss negotiating.
'Sierra One – Scorpio'
The subject dropped to the ground with a dime sized hole in the back of his cranium; I had just taken my first lethal. I breathed out and put my weapon onto safety as I crawled out the small space and looked at the school kids who were leaving the area. They recognised where the shot had come from and now knew who had taken it as I turned left and headed towards the policeman wearing the latex gloves; he directed me down the stairs to the lobby where the rest of the team was making sure Jules was alright. I raised my hands as the officer and SIU took all my weapons and nodded towards the door and car waiting for me. I saw the others standing waiting for me beside the SUVs and Parker made his move towards me; I shook my head at him and stopped as the Inspector from SIU came over to me.
"I understand this is your first lethal under orders and we can go through everything you may need during the interview, your representative will be there waiting for you and we should be done in a couple of hours."
"Understood," I replied simply.
I got into the car and smiled at them with another 'thumbs up' and a wink to Spike; he nodded back and watched as I was driven off to the SRU for interview.
"She's good boss," Ed whispered to the group.
"I hope so cause the SIU will dig in and get the claws out in this one." He replied.
Five hours, five bloody hours of going over from starting the shift to the nightmare at the school, every single detail was gone over with a fine toothcomb and then scrutinized under the microscope. I went over the victim numbers of the injured and dead, the transcript and the decision to allow me to become Sierra and then the order given and my immediate response. I was released about ten minutes later and informed I would be contacted in due time – I nodded and headed out for a long awaited bathroom break. Ten minutes later I was in the break room chewing on some porridge, I was starving and needed the warmth of something from home, I read the Scottish newspapers online to catch up with what was going on and I was laughing at the stupid cartoons in the paper; the door opened and in walked Jules.
"Hey, how's the invalid doing?" I said waving to her.
"Hey, he's good and should be out in a few days – the prognosis is good thanks to you! I ah, heard the news – everything alright with SIU?" she replied sitting opposite me.
"Yeah standard procedure, told them like it happened and no other issues."
She was looking for the stress fractures as she leaned back in the chair; I grinned and laughed at her expression.
"Jules, part of the job and it is never easy to take a life, but I chose to apply for this role knowing what it involved. I have taken lives before in the field, it is rare for me to do so, but I have done it. Right now, since those leeches are finished with me, I'm just relaxing, munching on my porridge and then going to do my paperwork." I replied.
"You really have changed you know that. Whatever you went through in Afghanistan with your squad, whatever you needed to do – it worked. You seem stronger and more capable of dealing with the emotional fallout; I don't think your PTS was ever memory based now, I think it was all emotional based as being a medic; you're compassionate and empathetic to the pain of others." She replied as she smiled at me.
I fished in the pockets of my combats and passed her a small coin across the table, we both ended up laughing at the symbolism of the joke and after I washed my bowl out, we headed to go see everyone else in the area.
We were off the next couple of days and it gave me time to get things sorted with a training schedule for the newly rebuilt pool; it had been renamed in my honour as the only person to have caused structural damage to the barn – seems I was setting records for the future generations. I logged into the secure website and put up the advanced warning notice of the training schedules and when they would take place for each team; it was going to be an exhausting week but well worth it to see the whole of the SRU able to dive properly. Spike was away getting some DIY stuff from the hardware store as we decided to merge the bathroom and closet together to make it more accessible and smooth the layout of the house. The house phone went off and I headed off to get it in the bedroom closest to me, sitting down on the chair I answered it and had Winnie on the other phone.
"Winnie what's going on?"
"Team four have been involved in an incident that could be Biological, Hazmat and Decon are already on the way; the team are locked into a vented room in the basement of Dundas and George and Ross needs support," she replied.
"Copy that Winnie, I'll meet them at the RV point and have the rest of the team alerted not to eat or drink anything!"
"Copy that!" she replied.
I ran into our bedroom and got out the dress and put on my black cammo's and black t-shirt after I strapped on my combat boots and grabbed my gear from the library. I jumped my stuff into the car and hit the sirens as I sped off into the city to meet up with Team Three and the rest of the gang. Thankfully due to the alert that had gone out and the police clearing out a couple of streets, I made good time into the city centre and parked up outside the cordon line; I flashed my ID to the uniform on the segregation and he let me through. A few moments later I got into the CT and met up with Ross and the heads of Hazmat and Decon.
"Doctor Kelli and Doctor Garver, this is Officer Mackenzie Fraser SRU. She is our Bio-Terror expert and medic – thought some extra hands on deck would be beneficial." Ross introduced us.
"Good morning guys, what do we have?" I asked.
"Team four walked into a trap that released a fine white powder into the air through a device set into the doorway. There was no warning and no tripwire of any kind so they proceeded inside to find their subject. We think we can rule out Saran and Ricin due to the fact they are still alive so long after mass exposure but until we get down there to start tests, we won't know for sure and can't start treatment." Dr Garver explained.
"Protocol standing that you cannot enter the building with an armed subject running loose, do we have eyes and ears?" I replied.
Ross showed me the surveillance Team three had started and got into place in the different levels, all vents had been sealed by Team four and they are resting to conserve energy. He took me over the layout of the area and the plans of the huge basement network that ran under the full building block, it was going to be massive to search.
"Alright here is an idea that might work! Our team is resting in this room on the black wall, we need to set up a mobile lab space close to them to save time and my guess would be here," I pointed on the map.
"I can do a check of the area around that room and as long as I find no trace of white powder, then we can close off certain areas and get our guys out into more suitable environment. We would need maybe thirty minutes to do the full sweep of that area since I can only allow myself and Ross to go down."
Ross nodded at me as I looked up at him for support on the plans, he had roughly the same idea and we adapted it to have some of the showers built into the doorframes to save space and for the Hazmat teams to be ready to unload the gear we needed at a moment's notice. We grabbed our radios and we headed off to get changed in the Hazmat gear in the next tent and also to debrief about Team four since we couldn't do it in front of civilians.
"What channel is the team on?" I asked putting on the Decon suit and strapping on my radio for the SRU teams.
"Channel one for the moment and Brian is on channels two, he was injured and it has been treated but it makes him a bigger risk to contamination."
"Copy that!" I replied putting on the radio for the other teams and getting zipped up in the big yellow suit.
I was ready at the top of the stairs after getting my vest and combat gear strapped to me so I could reach my weapon as required – they weren't happy we were going in armed, but with an active subject in play, we had to secure that threat before the other. We checked with each other and then proceeded down the stairs into the basement and started running through the corridors and doing sweep checks – this could turn into a long day!