Chapter Thirty-Nine
Have You Ever Thought About How Fast Time Passes
Ever Thought About What You Leave Behind
Ever Stood Up For Something You Believed In And Drawn A Line
Truth Is, Every Man Dies
Not Every Man Lives
Monday September 12th about 11:30 PM in Boston
Patrick Bonanno carefully eased one of the cups of coffee from the tray he cradled to his left side and handed it to Nate. The man took the cup with a mumbled word of thanks as Bonanno moved on to hand a cup each to Sophie and Emma. The two women sat close to each other on the other side of Nate and they both smiled their thanks to the tall detective.
Bonanno moved to pull the last cup free of the tray, then toss the tray in the nearby trashcan before he sat down on the other side of Nate in one of the hard-plastic chairs in the hospital's waiting room. He never got over the fact the hospital waiting room had always had these awful chairs.
He thought it would be easier if people waiting to hear word about their loved ones could at least be comfortable, but then he knew from experience that the chairs really didn't matter when you didn't know what was going on...like now.
The past few hours had been a blur, but Bonanno knew he needed to get all the details straight if he was going to be able to explain everything away. When he'd arrived at the flower store it already resembled a war zone and that was probably from the explosion he witnessed. But at seeing Hardison and Parker looking like they had, well that had unhinged Bonanno just a bit.
He knew the young hacker wasn't equipped to handle war situations, but he was on Nate's team, so he'd expected the man to be more coherent and that wasn't what he'd found. Alec Hardison had been covered in dirt and debris and looking like he'd just crawled out of a bad situation, which Bonanno knew he had. But he hadn't expected to find the man so totally upset and it had taken him a few minutes to calm the man down. It didn't help that Parker couldn't help him with that.
From what he'd gathered, Hardison had come outside to do what he did, work with his computers and he'd seen the armed men storm the store and he'd tried to warn Nate, but it had been too late. The men, Bonanno now knew belonged to Evan Chapman, had been everywhere and they were attacking the building from the ground and from the air. From the building across the street, Parker had informed Hardison that there were snipers in the building. How she'd gotten from the shop's building across the street to the other building, Bonanno was a little fuzzy on that, but she had, and she'd risked her life to do it.
Hardison had been able to take control of both buildings security cameras and he had tried to hack into the systems that controlled both buildings' maintenance. He'd managed to do that with the vacant building, but not the one that Nate and Sophie as well as everyone they were with were in. Hardison had locked the vacant building down, and the men there weren't getting out anytime soon, but he couldn't stop them from shooting at the apartment his team was in.
Bonanno knew that Hardison had tried to help his team, but he couldn't; so, he'd contacted Bonanno who was already on his way and relayed everything that was going on while the detective traveled to the scene. He'd told him everything he could while he worked his computer magic.
As Bonanno turned onto the street, he'd seen the vacant building as it was virtually destroyed from the explosion. He now knew that Parker had somehow managed to use her taser to help Hardison overload the main circuit breaker and after the subsequent fire started, it hit some volatile chemicals stored in the lobby of the building. She had barely escaped by jumping from the rooftop over the alley and landing on a dumpster. Hardison had seen her jump and had raced to her aid, trying his best to get to her before she landed, but not quite making it.
He'd just pulled her off the dumpster when the entire first floor of the building blew from the chemicals igniting and causing a domino effect as each floor above collapsed into the one below. They'd both dove into said dumpster and that's where Bonanno had found them. Wrapped in each other's hold covered in dirt, dust, trash...and blood. Probably Parker's blood.
Parker was currently resting in a 4th floor room along with Hardison who hadn't left her side since they'd arrived at the hospital. Parker had sustained a concussion, a dislocated shoulder and multiple cuts and bruises, some severe, but she'd live after that stunt she'd pulled. Bonanno could only figure the girl was part cat, and she was working her way through her 3rd or 4th life by now.
After securing Parker and Hardison in their van and sending them ahead to the hospital, he'd witnessed the arrival of the reinforces he'd called in when first heading to the scene. Together they'd stormed the apartment where Nate and the others were, only to find more surprises.
As they'd breached the door, the detective was just in time to take down the man standing over Nate and Sophie wearing a gas mask. The entire apartment was smoky from the concussion grenades and smoke bombs used to disorient the occupants, but Bonanno had seen his share of these types of situations so he knew what to do.
He as well as his men, went low and came in taking down all the men that had managed to gain entry to the apartment. After that everything was a bit fuzzy for the people there. Sophie was conscious, but Nate wasn't, and it looked like he'd taken a couple hits from the bruises on his face.
There was one woman, sitting huddled against one wall cradling a young girl that Bonanno figured must be Missy; there was another woman lying face up nearby, who was bleeding from a shoulder wound and there were two men lying unconscious near the front door.
In another area near the kitchen was another man slumped over the body of who Bonanno now knew was Just Quinn from Missy. Next to them sat a tall, dark haired woman of Iranian or Indian descent he guessed. He now knew this was the woman he'd spoken with earlier, Mikel. She was clutching a semi-automatic rifle and it was aimed directly at him. She had immediately lowered the weapon when she'd seen him, guessing he wasn't a threat he figured now.
All in all, there had been a lot of damage to the apartment as well as the occupants. He knew the names of the players now, but he was still fuzzy on how everything had gone down and he needed to get it from Nate. He'd covered for him the last six hours at least as he'd left his men in charge of the injured and gone with Nate, Mikel, Colonel Vance, Major Whitmore and his wife Emma to meet up with where Evan was headed.
Evan had learned from Quinn exactly how to reach Eliot and Kat and he'd wasted no time leaving with some of his men to handle it. It seemed Quinn, at the threat of Missy's life, had told Evan about a couple, Sam and Bella who could contact Kat. Evan had left to find the couple and from what Bonanno now knew, Evan had taken Bella hostage, leaving Sam to go find Kat and Eliot and deliver them a message to meet him at is now vacant warehouse or Bella was dead.
Bonanno had gotten some info from the group on their drive to where they now knew Eliot would be, but he didn't have the whole picture. He had paperwork waiting for him that was going to take ten years to complete on this case.
The woman Libby, who'd been shot was now in her room also on the 4th floor along with her brother, Eric who'd taken a blow to the head and had a concussion. Libby's daughter Missy was being allowed to stay with her mother, since her mother had turned out to be resident at this same hospital.
Mikel had left after they'd done what they'd done to get to Eliot. She was in the wind, Bonanno supposed, but something told him he hadn't seen the last of her. Not by a long shot. She' keep in contact.
And he had no idea what had happened to the Wilsons. He knew from the others that they'd been in the apartment, but they weren't there when he'd arrived and currently, they hadn't shown up anywhere. Right now, though they were at the bottom of his list.
Travis Quinn was currently occupying a hospital bed in the ICU department where they were sitting in the waiting room. So far, he was improving, but the bullet that he'd taken had pierced his liver and the man had almost bled out on the apartment floor. His doctors were optimistic though and Bonanno figured he'd be okay in the end.
Vance and Whitmore were no one to be seen, so Bonanno figured they were outside talking. Those two were always talking; hiding their involvement was going to be hard, but he figured they were trying to fix it so he wouldn't have to explain anything. Bonanno hoped the military was about to swoop in and take this all away so he wouldn't have to deal with it.
He smiled a little at the idea. It made sense considering their most valuable soldier was currently in surgery. Which led Bonanno right back to why they were there waiting in the waiting room right now.
Eliot had already been injured, but the two other shots he'd taken when they'd gotten to him were causing more trouble. His other lung had been punctured from a second chest injury and the bullet lodged in his leg had impacted his femur and fragmented. Doctors were currently working on the hitter while they sat waiting. The outlook was grim to say the least.
Nate looked at the detective when he heard the man heave a huge sigh. "He's going to be okay. He's always okay."
The detective didn't know if Nate was trying to convince him or his own self. He figured it was a little of both. "Yeah. Sure, he will. The guy's a ninja. He's been hurt before, he'll make it." He paused. "You know, Eliot is the only man I've ever met that can take a bullet and still clean a room of all dangers encountered, all while carrying on a conversation with Hardison in his ear."
Nate smiled at that. "Yeah. The guy's like Batman, as Hardison would say." He paused then to take in a deep breath. "I don't know how Kat's doing, have you heard anything on her?"
The taller man hesitated before he answered. "Ummm... to tell you the truth, I'm not sure."
Sophie turned to look at the man. "What do you mean, detective?"
"Well, not to cause any more stress here, but umm... Kat isn't here."
This time is was Emma who questioned the detective. "How can she not be here? She was injured when she took that last bullet that would have killed my brother for sure. Where is she?"
"All I know is after everything settled down and both her and Eliot were being transferred here via ambulance, hers didn't arrive here. Eliot's did of course as you know, but Kat isn't here. We don't know what happened or where she is. And as far as the ambulance that picked her up, no one got a good look at the paramedics or the ambulance number. We just loaded them both in at the warehouse and shipped them here."