Chapter 18
AVA
Ava continued to apply pressure on Chris’s wound. Sweat beaded on his brow, but it dripped from her chin and ran down her back after her efforts to let off excess power.
Her muscles ached from her efforts both with the power and Chris, but she couldn’t let up. She needed to keep it together.
But her mind was swirling out of control with worry.
At least Alex had managed to stop the influx of power that threaten to blow the plant sky high sooner rather than later.
But the threat remained high. And she needed to focus before someone died.
“Doc?”
“Yeah, Ava, I’m here,” Kyle answered.
“Uh, I’m keeping pressure on Chris’s wound, but…” Sweat ran into her eyes, stinging them.
“Calm down, Ava. You panicking is not going to help anyone.”
She nodded, swallowing hard to dislodge the lump in her throat. “I know. I’m not panicking.”
She bit her lower lip, forcing the wheeling emotions of fear and anxiety to take a back seat. “But I don’t think he’s doing too good.”
“Okay, I’m going to have you assess his vitals, okay?” Kyle’s voice, steady and calm, sought to normalize the situation for her.
She clung to it, aware that she needed to lean on his expertise.
“Now, I want you to keep a hand on the wound, but you’re going to take one off and use it to take his pulse. I need to know if it’s weak and thready or racing.”
Ava fluttered her eyelashes, pressing her lips together as she nodded again. “Okay,” she said in a shaky breath.
She lifted a trembling hand from his wound and pressed it against his neck. Her fingers slipped, blood smearing across Chris’s skin. A groan escaped her.
“Ava? What’s wrong?”
“Ah, I’m just…my fingers are covered in his blood. My hand slipped.”
“Ava,” Kyle said, his voice measured, “I need you to focus. Can you do that?”
She slid her eyes closed. The heat made it difficult to breathe. Her muscles were weak and strained, and her head swam with lightheadedness.
“I’m trying. It’s just really hot.”
“Okay, I get that. I want you to take a few deep breaths. Inhale for four seconds, hold your breath for four seconds, then exhale for a count of four, then another hold for four, okay?”
Ava nodded, sliding her eyes closed and performing the breathing technique.
Ava’s breaths came in rapid, shallow bursts, the oppressive heat stealing the air from her lungs.
She pressed her lips together, recalling Doc’s instructions.
“Inhale…hold…exhale…hold,” she muttered, her voice barely audible as she tried to steady her breathing.
She forced herself to follow the rhythm, a small attempt to control the chaos around her.
She went for three rounds before she opened her eyes again.
“Okay, I’m going to take his pulse.” She licked her lips and pressed her fingers against Chris’s throat. For a second, she felt nothing, but the shaky rise and fall of his chest told her he was still alive.
She pressed harder, finally feeling a weak thump against her fingers. “Okay, I got his pulse. It’s weak.”
“Is it racing?” Kyle asked.
“Uhh, no, it’s not…it’s barely there. Not racing.”
“Okay,” Kyle answered. “Okay, then I want you to keep steady pressure on his wound.”
“There’s not much else I can do,” Ava said, her voice breaking.
“You’re doing everything you can, Ava. And with the bullet out, there’s much less to worry about. We just need to keep him alive until–”
“Until what, Doc?” Her voice went an octave higher. “We’re trapped here. We can’t leave, and it’s way too hot in here. This doesn’t look good.”
“Listen to me. Shadow is on his way now. You just need to hold out for a little longer, and we’re going to get you out of there.”
She clung to his words, her eyes sliding shut again before more sweat could burn them.
Visions of Chris bleeding out on the floor, of the heat becoming unbearable passed through her mind.
Alex’s voice startled her back to reality. “Ava, babe, tell me you’re okay.”
“I’m okay, Ace. I’m okay. Tell me you have something.”
“I do. Grant’s engineers have a solution, but it’s risky. I don’t want to do this unless you’re on board.”
“What’s the solution?”
Grant’s voice broke through next. “We want to push the build-up to Harrington holdings. We have the capacity to take these build-ups and safely disperse them.”
“Okay, that sounds Iike a good plan,” Ava said, “what’s dangerous about it?”
“The transfer of power from that station could cause it to blow. We need direct contact with that control room.”
“Okay, umm, let me see if I can get Bob’s cell phone. Your engineers can call him directly.” Ava grabbed hold of the radio. “Bob?”
“Yes, I’m here,” he answered.
“We have an idea to release this build-up. But I need your cell phone. The engineers need to speak directly to you.”
“Wish I could, but our phone lines are down, and my cell phone is dead,” Bob answered.
Ava’s heart sank. She pressed the radio against her forehead as she thought through her options. “Grant? Did you hear that?”
“No. The radio is garbled.”
“Can I just hold the radio line open?”
“I’m not sure they’re going to be able to hear that based on what we just heard,” Grant answered. “We need a direct line to him.”
Ava glanced at her phone. “Okay, I have sixty-three percent left on my battery. That should last.”
“Ava…you’re not near him. We can’t hear, and you relaying messages is going to take too long,” Alex argued.
She shook her head, grabbing the phone in a bloodied hand. “I’m going to take my phone to him.”
“Ava, you can’t!” Alex shouted. “You can’t get out of that room.”
“I’m going to have to fight my way out,” she said. “Doc, is there anything I can do to keep Chris’s bleeding at bay while I’m gone?”
“Not much…you can try tying something around him as tightly as you can.”
“Ava, no, you cannot do this. We’ll find another way,” Alex argued.
“Babe, I have to. We have to do this.” She grabbed hold of her jacket, shifting Chris.
He groaned as she wrapped the sleeves around his waist and tied them together, snugging it as tightly as possible.
“Okay, I have Chris’s wound dressed as best I can. I’m going to head for the control room.”
“Ava, please do not do this. We will find another way.”
“We don’t have time, Alex. Now, I’m going to save my battery and hang up.Wish me luck.”
“Ava, no. Please don’t.”
Ava sucked in a sharp breath. “I love you, Alex. Now, get my number to Grant’s engineers.”
With a shaky thumb, she tapped the end call button, tears forming in her eyes. She tried to steady her nerves, but her knees wobbled as she crossed to the door.
Her chest constricted, her heart hammering against her ribs. On the other side of that door, a woman with a weapon, a woman who wanted her dead.
She stole a glance over her shoulder, eyes flicking to Chris, his chest rising and falling.
Then, she scanned the room for a weapon.
A toolkit sat in the corner. She hurried to it and threw open the top.
A few wrenches sat in the metal box. She grabbed the largest one, testing its weight in her hand before she rose.
She was bringing a wrench to a gun fight, but it was all she had, and she had to make it count. She needed to get her phone to that control room.
With a deep inhale that she hoped would steady her, she wrapped her fingers around the doorknob, sliding her eyes closed as she offered a silent prayer.
Without another moment of hesitation, she whipped the door open, the sickening screech of metal on metal announcing her before she appeared.
Vanessa glanced up from her seat on the steps, her eyes wide as she pulled her attention away from her phone.
Ava’s legs powered forward, each step fueled by desperation.
She swung the wrench at Vanessa, putting every ounce of her strength behind it.
The clang of metal against concrete reverberated through the room as Vanessa ducked at the last second.
Ava’s arm vibrated painfully from the missed strike, but she reset her grip and lunged again.
Vanessa shoved Ava toward the stairs as she tripped down them. Ava rolled onto her back, kicking a foot to send Vanessa sprawling.
She wanted to turn and race up the stairs, but it was too big of a risk. If Vanessa readied the gun, she could take her out in one clean shot.
Fighting every instinct in her, Ava launched herself down the stairs, grabbing onto Vanessa, her fingers intertwining in the woman’s hair.
She whipped her head back before she slammed it forward, smacking it into the concrete wall.
The force wasn’t enough to knock Vanessa out.
Instead, the woman wrapped her hands around Ava’s and pressed them closer to her head. It took away Ava’s advantage.
She quickly swept her leg underneath Vanessa’s. The force dragged them both down.
Ava landed hard on the floor, the wind knocked from her lungs. She groaned but hurried to scrambled to her feet before Vanessa could.
She stomped a foot down on Vanessa’s wrist, forcing her to release her grip on the gun.
The woman grabbed hold of Ava’s foot and twisted, knocking her off balance. She rolled onto her belly and crawled toward the weapon she’d dropped.
Ava let out a growl, sliding sideways to grab hold of Vanessa’s shoulder. Vanessa tried to shake her off, but Ava kept a firm hold, using her leverage to crawl higher. She grabbed hold of Vanessa’s hair and rammed her head into the floor twice.
Disoriented, Vanessa ceased her movement toward the weapon. Ava used the moment to scrambled forward and grab the weapon. With shaky hands, she twisted to aim the weapon at Vanessa but heaved a sigh of relief when she found the woman unconscious.
Taking the stairs two by two, Ava finally burst from the door at the top, running directly into Sebastian.
“Ava!” His eyes went wide as he grabbed hold of her.
“No time. Chris is downstairs. He needs medical help. And Vanessa is unconscious at the bottom of the stairs. She needs to be secured.” Ava raced away from him, on a mission to get to the control room.
Sweat poured from her as she sprinted down the hall, banging against the door.
It opened a moment later, Bob’s wide eyes greeting her. She handed the phone to him. “Engineers from Harrington Global are going to call this line. They are going to talk you through the energy release. Listen to what they say.”
He grabbed the phone from her, nodding. “Are you—”
She never heard the rest. The world tilted, darkness swallowed her vision, and she felt herself falling.