Chapter 16
SIXTEEN
The stakes just got higher. A little girl’s life was teetering in the balance.
She needed that heart transplant if she was going to survive.
While Sandra had a point of focus with Jordon Maddox, now she had another one.
An innocent child. All the time Sandra had been speaking with Gail, she imagined the daughter to be older, even an adult.
Sandra spoke with the nurse for a few more minutes and provided her with her number. If something happened, Torres was to call Sandra. That’s assuming the jammer would remain offline. They didn’t know if it was just switched off or destroyed.
“Luis, would you have a first name for Nurse Torres?” Brice asked the hospital’s emergency director.
“One second…” He tapped away and soon after said, “Maria.”
Brice brought up her background. “Twenty-nine, single, lives alone. Clean record. Here’s her pic.” He gestured to the screen, and looking back at them was a beautiful Latina woman.
“And here is Gail Chapman,” Monica said, having brought up her background. Gail was pretty but plain, Caucasian with light-brown hair. “Gail’s thirty-five, lives alone as well. She’s a single mother.” Monica caught Sandra’s eye.
That would make losing her daughter more devastating.
Sandra’s bond with Olivia was strong, and she credited much of that to the two of them spending so much time together.
Olivia’s father was a good man, but not a good fit for Sandra in the long run.
They had never gotten married, but he was a part of Olivia’s life when he was in Washington.
Nolan Copeland was with the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team, and his work took him for stints around the world.
Sandra looked at the hospital emergency director.
“Luis, there is the chance this won’t be resolved in time for Phoebe Chapman’s operation.
If it’s not, what will happen to Phoebe’s donor heart?
” She was nauseous even thinking about the answer to that.
Luis took a deep breath and let his gaze pass over everyone in the vehicle.
“It would depend on the situation but considering that the operation is planned, it’s likely that they are taking the donor off life support to harvest the organs at a pre-set time.
That’s usually within a couple hours of a transplant. ”
There might be some hope then… “So if we could get a hold of the transplant coordinator at the donor hospital, tell them what’s going on here, we might be able to postpone this.”
“It’s possible. Though it’s also possible the heart would fall to the next eligible recipient. It depends on timing, and there’s the family to consider on that end.”
Sandra put herself in their minds. They were preparing to say goodbye to their loved one.
Prolonging that would only extend their agony.
She didn’t want to play God, but she would do all she could to get that heart to Phoebe as it was arranged.
She suspected other organ recipients were lined up too and wouldn’t be eager to postpone life-saving surgeries. “Could we call them?”
Luis nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.” His phone rang, and he took the call at the table.
“It’s infuriating sitting out here while people are dying inside,” Neal said.
“Rather a pointless comment when it’s a hospital and people die here every day,” Kreiger pointed out. “But this guy on the fourth discharged his weapon, and we have a witness swearing that he hit a person. That changes things.”
Sandra agreed, but sure hoped he wasn’t going to suggest they blow past protocol and swoop in early.
“This woman is dealing with a lot. She thinks someone was hit,” Brice inserted. “She didn’t see it.”
“No, but she heard it. The yelling, then the crying, and the silence. You’re telling me that doesn’t sound like someone was seriously hurt?” Kreiger pressed his lips and popped his eyes as if that reasoning was indisputable.
Sandra straightened her posture. “We can’t know the extent of this person’s injuries. As Special Agent Sutton just said, this witness never saw anything. Sounds can be misinterpreted.”
“Sure. Let’s play. Name one hypothetical.” Kreiger gestured toward her.
It took her a few seconds. “He fired the weapon, but didn’t hit anyone.”
“And the crying?” Kreiger volleyed back.
“A natural fear response.”
“Huh.”
“Do you dispute that?” Brice said, stepping in.
“We don’t know. I suppose that’s the bottom line. But being in the dark isn’t the place I want to be. You like being a mushroom and fed shit, all the power to you.” Kreiger flailed his arms, coming close to brushing the roof of the vehicle with his fingertips.
“It’s frustrating not knowing everything, sure,” Sandra said, feeling like she needed to de-escalate things inside the vehicle. It wouldn’t be the first time.
“Everything? I’d settle for something.” Kreiger rubbed his chin.
“We don’t have any eyes or ears inside and have no way of fixing that with the barricaded doors.
The perps aren’t talking to us through the radios, or even to each other.
And now we have a four-year-old girl who will die if we fail.
” By the time Kreiger finished his recap, he was breathing heavily.
And it was no wonder after that emotion-infused summary.
Sandra could argue that nothing had changed. Phoebe was in that condition all along. They just hadn’t known. And there were likely many other similar cases inside at this moment. “We’re best not to get ahead of ourselves.”
“She’s right, Rick,” Neal said. “It’s not over until it’s over. We think we’re going to fail, we will.”
Kreiger waved a hand through the air. “New-age nonsense? From you? That surprises me.”
“How do you think we reach any goal in life?” Sandra asked.
“What?” Kreiger’s face bunched in confusion.
“Attaining a goal always comes from putting our minds on what we want. And that’s what we’re going to do today. What I do every time there’s an incident like this,” she said.
“Me too,” Monica said, backing her up.
Soon after, Brice, Gibson, and Neal added their voices to the chorus.
“Fine. But I sure hope something changes and soon, or I might not have a choice but to suggest that ERT move in.” Kreiger went to the alcove and made himself a coffee.
Luis raised a finger in the air, drawing everyone’s attention. “I’ve got good news.”
“It’s about bloody time someone had some,” Kreiger mumbled.
“That call I just took was from the hospital’s service provider for the internet and phone system.
They’ve been able to get the works back up and running.
” He pushed his glasses up his nose. “They were able to root out the virus and clean the system. They also locked it down remotely so it’s protected if they try to reinfect it. ”
“So that means the phone lines inside are working again?” Sandra felt hope spark in her chest.
Luis smiled at her. “Absolutely.”
“What about the surveillance system? We have eyes inside yet?” Kreiger asked Luis.
“Still working on that.”
Sandra understood Kreiger’s hunger for more, but she was happy with what she had just received. Phones meant a way inside. “Luis, I need the number for the nurses’ station on the fourth floor.”
“One second…” A moment later Luis was reading the number off to her from his laptop.
Sandra punched in each digit as he said it.
The line rang, and rang, and rang. Just when she didn’t think anyone was going to answer, there was silence except for the sound of breathing.
It was most likely the gunman. Anyone else would have rushed ahead asking for help.
She pointed at her headset to signal to everyone that someone had picked up, though they were listening in.
“This is Sandra with the FBI. Who am I talking to?”
“Mickey Mouse,” a man said.
Presumably, he was the man from the walkie-talkie, so the fact he was employing a sense of humor was unsettling given Gail’s statement of a shooting. “All right, Mickey, are you doing all right in there?”
“Peachy.”
“Glad to hear it. What about everyone else? Are they okay?”
“Yes.”
She prickled at the switch in his tone that went from light to dark. “Yes?” she parroted, hoping for an elaboration.
“That’s what I said.”
So much for that… “Maybe if I could talk to some of the people with you. Everyone must be scared in there.”
“Everyone is fine so far, but if you don’t leave me alone that will change.”
Brice wrote, Is he lying?
“Why does it have to change? We’re just talking.”
“No, we’re not! You need to leave me alone, or I will kill him, I promise you that.”
Only her training and years of experience kept her calm. “You will kill who, Mickey?”
The man let out a roar. “Stop calling me that.”
Sandra glanced over at Brice. It was the name he’d provided but the status quo had changed.
If she were to guess, his threat toward her made the situation more real for him, possibly pushing him out of his comfort zone.
But that was a dangerous assumption to make, as were any in the negotiation game. “My apologies. Who will you kill?”
“Jordon Maddox.”
The line went dead.
The vehicle went silent.
She took her headset off and set it on her desk. Brice turned to her, taking off his headset too.
“The guy’s a liar, and I can’t believe him when he says everyone is fine,” Kreiger said.
For once, she agreed with the lieutenant. There was something in the way Mickey articulated his threat. “‘Or I will kill him.’ That sounds as if he did shoot someone but they’re not dead.” She could be reaching but she trusted her years of experience in reading people, detecting nuances.
“Whatever the case, it doesn’t sound good for Maddox,” Neal put in.
“No, it doesn’t,” Sandra said, looking at Brice.
“We’re going to have to tell Rowe,” Brice said.
She nodded, not looking forward to that conversation with her boss, but she needed to get in front of this in case things turned sideways. “If you’ll excuse me.” She got up and left the vehicle.