"If we want to make a statement about a man's nature on the basis of his physiognomy, we must take everything into account; it is in his distress that a man is tested, for then his nature is revealed."
~ Paracelsus
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The sound of helicopters echoed outside as the first round of people were carried out; and rumbling motors would soon follow suite. A hundred SWAT officers crowded around Slater as he spoke, while another officer handed out gas masks to each of them.
"We have confirmation that Virus 1-8-6-4-9 is indeed what killed Terry Bosner of Marietta, Georgia. And while we still have no clue as to whether he was an innocent bystander or not, Dr. Vickers, Dr. Cannerts, and Dr. Tate have concluded that there may be more samples of this virus in their base. Therefore, we must take all protocols to ensure that we do not have another epidemic on our hands. Senior Officer Carnahan will be leading the operation, therefore, you will answer to him. Alex,"
Lex stepped forward and cleared his throat, "Listen, guys. I know that these four days have been rough, but at the end of the day, we all have our reasons for standing there. We have wives, kids, brothers, sisters, mothers. And don't worry Paul, I didn't forget about Bradley," The officers chuckled as Paul went bright red at the thought of his husband.
"I don't know what's going to happen today, I don't know who's going to come out, or what's going to be inside. All I know is that I am proud to serve with you knuckleheads, and I couldn't think of a better group of officers to protect our city. We've done it before, and we'll do it again today,"
The officers gave him a round of applause, but Jake just kept his hands folded in front of him, and he said a little prayer. He prayed that he'd get home safe, that he'd get to see Quentin again, and hopefully, never have another extreme situation such as this. And he said a prayer for Katie, to watch over them, and held them make it out of here alive.
"Alright! Alright!" Lex shouted over the officers, "That's enough sissy talk. Let's get down to the plan," he directed their attention to a large blueprint spread across the table, showing the building plans for Plucky's Pennywhistle's Fun House.
"There are two main entrances, on the West wing and the South wing. There's also the service entrance facing the North, and the loading dock next to it. There are four floors, not including the basement. We're going to divide ourselves into two teams; Team 1 sweeps the first and third floor, Team 2 sweeps the second and fourth floor. TARU's going to cut the power, so we'll only have thirty seconds per floor until the emergency generators cut in. That's how long we have to get the upper hand on these S.O.Bs,"
"Are we looking for anybody in particular?" an officer asked.
"Any stubborn bastard who resists. Also, be on the look out for this man," he took out a photo of Max's Academy photo, "We have reason to believe that this man, Max Ridley, is somehow involved in this ploy. Take him in alive, I repeat, do NOT fire on him," he said. Jake glared at the photo, feeling as though Max's happy doe eyes were taunting him.
"The bomb squad will be standing by, as will EMTs. And finally, please remember guys, we are not super human! Nobody tries to be a hero," he looked at Jake as he spoke, knowing fully well how Jake was going to take this.
"Alright. I'll be leading the first team, Officer Riley will lead the second team. Let's pair off and move out," he said.
The officers divided and split, and with their equipment in hand and at the ready, they piled into vans and began to the ride to the fun house. All sirens were off, and the police scanners were shut off to prevent their op from blowing up. Jake sat up at the front with the driver and kept his gaze out the window the entire time, wondering if Jenna had made it out yet. There was something that made the hairs on his neck stand on end, and he just couldn't shake it.
"You want to pick up Danny and Caleb on the way?" the driver, David, asked him.
"Yeah, I'll radio him now," Jake pulled out his radio and tuned into Danny's signal.
"Hey Berlet, Lezebnik, we're coming to pick you guys up. Be ready in five, copy," but he got in reply was static. The driver gave the radio a suspicious side eye; Danny always replied on the radio call. Jake smacked the bottom of the radio a few times before trying again.
"Berlet, this is Riley. We're sending a unit to pick you guys up, do you copy?" but the static continued.
"They wouldn't cut the radio lines too, would they?" David asked.
"Not if they wanted to communicate amongst each other," he retuned his radio to reach Will at the shelter, "Hey Will, it's Riley. Did Lezebnik and Berlet check in with you?"
"Negative. I haven't seen them since they went to pick up that kid you were with," Jake started to feel sick.
"Alright. Thank you," he set the radio back down.
"What do you want to do, Jake?" David asked. Jake just stared straight ahead, remembering what Lex had said earlier.
"Nobody tries to be a hero!"
"Keep going. Maybe their radio went dead," but a little voice in his head kept telling him he was wrong.
Another five minutes down the road, they passed the shelter, casting a tall and imposing shadow over them. But that wasn't what caught Jake's eye. It was the body lying in the middle of the street.
"Stop!" he suddenly exclaimed. David slammed down on the brakes and stopped with a harsh skid, just ten feet away from the body.
"What the hell?"
"Alert EMTs, we got another one," Jake said as he jumped out. He kept his hand over his gun as he ran over to the body, and he was disheartened to find it was Danny with a big fat bullet hole in his head.
"God dammit!" he snapped.
"Jake!" David stuck his head out the window to try to get a better look. Jake pulled off his helmet and ran his hand through his already sweaty hair.
"It's Danny!" he called.
"What about Lezebnik?" he asked. Jake took a look around, the sickening feeling in his gut growing exponentially.
"No sign of him or the car," he said.
"You think they got to them?" he asked.
Jake looked down the expanse of the street, just imagining the scene that could've played out. Danny and Caleb could've dropped of Jenna, and while doing a final sweep, they may've been blitzed, killed Danny and took Caleb as a hostage. Or, they were never going to the shelter in the first place. Which meant Jenna didn't make it.
He needed to hit something, bad.
"I think we got a couple loose ends to tie up," he hopped back in the van, "Start driving,"
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There was a harsh, throbbing pain on the side of Jenna's head. And it hurt to open her eyes. But when she did, she wished she could just close them again. She was in an empty room, no pictures, no posters, and only a window that had a padlock on it. She tried to move, but her arms and legs wouldn't budge. She was tied to a chair with thick chord, and when she tried to speak, all that came out was a muffled jumble of noises. She was gagged, bound, and left alone. Slowly, the events of what happened started to come back to her, and the more remembered, the more she struggled to get free.
Then suddenly, the single red door opened, and in a figure, she couldn't see him well on account of the lack of light.
"Hey, nice to see you're awake!" his voice sounded... almost cheerful, "I hope Caleb didn't hurt you too bad, you know the poor guy doesn't know his own strength. He's like the Little John of our movement," he said.
Jenna huffed and tried to speak, "Ah eas rovin hoon ha hi morem sraigh!" she tried to snap.
"Oh! Sorry about that. Let me just remove this," his long, bony fingers reached out and pulled the gag out of her mouth. Jenna took a deep, merciful breath, then she let her anger loose.
"At least Robin Hood had his morals straight!" she snapped, "You guys are more like Darth Vader and his Jedi,"
The man laughed heartily, "It may not seem like it, but I have my morals pretty sorted. I mean, look at what I was able to achieve with red nitrite liquid and hydrogen!" he turned on a light, and Jenna's eyes went as wide as saucers.
"You!" Max Ridley, "You got blown up!" she exclaimed.
"You could say that my death was... greatly exaggerated. Nevertheless, there's nothing better than a good pull-over on some of the government," he said.
"You were supposed to protect us! You killed over two hundred people!" she asked.
"Khrushchev's biggest achievement was separating the East from the West, and took great pleasure in punishing whoever disrespected him," he replied.
"News flash, psycho. This is not the Cold War. There is no purpose for your war," she said.
"Of course there is. There's always a purpose for war," he pulled up a chair and sat in front of her, "Oskar Schindler made over 1.5 million dollars in the second world war. And the Roosevelt administration poured over 12 million dollars of relief money into Europe afterwards. War gives people a sense of purpose, to fight for something they believe in," he said.
"So, what? This is just a sick get-rich-quick-scheme for you?" she asked.
"We're all fighting for something, Jenna. This is my calling," he replied. Jenna scowled.
"Lex trusted you! Jake trusted you! They all mourned for you! I was there!" she said.
"Are you kidding me? Lex dumped me on Jake because he didn't to make me a problem on his ass. And Jake actually had the balls to abandon me! I mean, there's a fine line between throwing them in the deep end and letting them rot in hell," he said, "They don't care about me. Nobody ever cared about me,"
He wasn't talking about Jake and Lex anymore, "What happened to you, Max? What was so bad that you decided to take your anger out on the city?" she asked.
Max gave a pithless chuckle, "Sixteen years ago, 9/11. You remember that, right? The entire country was on high alert. My family and I? We were Hindus, we didn't cause any trouble. My dad was the assistant manager at Rooney's, my mom was going to night school to become a nurse. But then, some bully at my school decided that it would be 'funny' to call the cops and tip 'em off that my family was somehow involved in the attack,"
He pulled at his collar, loosening it as he continued to speak, "Seven SWAT officers burst into our house, and they made my mom and dad get on their hands and knees. Then they chained them from head-to-toe like animals, and they dragged them out,"
"What happened? I mean, they eventually figured out the whole truth, right?" Jenna asked.
"Not before my father died in prison. He had an allergic reaction to the food he was served, and they buried him in those fields were they send the unclaimed prisoners. And my mom? She got out, but she died a year later because he heart couldn't take the stress. And they sent me to a foster home, where I was repeatedly mocked and taunted because apparently, I was a terrorist!" he exclaimed, "And you think I didn't complain? I sent numerous complaints, letters, spoke out at rallies and I even tried to see the commissioner. This country is so paranoid about terrorism, they won't even listen to reason," he said.
"Well, maybe if whack jobs like you weren't trying to kill us all the time, they'd be a little more lenient with you," she said. Max started to smile, wickedly like a devil.
"Maybe you're right. But we can't change the past. They wanted me to be a terrorist, so now, they get their wish. This is my purpose, and I have a duty to avenge my parents," he said.
"Max, what happened to you wasn't fair. But that's no reason to take it out on these people!" she said.
"You know how I got the idea? The cordon last year; just a little flu virus sent the entire city into a panic," he said. Then it started to fall together.
"That's why Demir was down in the school basement. All schools have direct access to the water mains and that was the only school inside the district. You were going to poison the water supply," she said.
"Emphasis on were, because the idiot Demir went and cut the wrong tank. No matter, I still have plenty of ways to spread the virus; and not just through a little sneeze, either," he said.
"You're murdering innocent people!" she said.
"And I'll kill a thousand more before I'm finished here. And believe me, Jenna, you just bought yourself a spot on that list," he said, "I'm generally impressed, I've never seen anybody stand up to Warren the way you did, and that guy could eat an elephant! And Alex? Well, he's not too happy with you at the moment, but he'll have his fun with you later,"
Suddenly, there was a familiar popcorn melody, a phone ringtone. Max took out his phone, and he chuckled happily.
"They're ready for you," he said. Jenna's heart started to race as he started to untie her legs, but not her wrists.
"Who is?" she asked warily.
"To put it simply, you're going to figure out what happens to mouthy girls with a wagging tongue. I hope you don't mind small spaces,"
"What the hell does that mean you sick son of a-" Max suddenly stuffed the gag back in her mouth.
"There. That's better," then he pulled her up onto her feet, "C'mon, Ms. Desmond. It's your time to shine,"
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"First and second floor are out," the tech reported. Jake slowly reached up and pressed down on his radio.
"Copy that. Lex, whenever you're ready," he said. He had fifty officers lined up behind, two in front ready to break the doors down. Adrenaline pumped through each and every one of them; they were ready with their guns armed and their gas masks equipped.
"Move in now," Lex called. The officers took a large metal cylinder and broke through the door, allowing the rest of the officers to flow in.
"Strike team two to second floor, now!" Jake shouted.
The first team flooded across the area, immediately taking fire from gunman. But they're equipment wasn't as sophisticated as the officers; they were showered in a round of bullets, immediately spilling their blood across the floor. Each sharp shot bounced off the walls with the same velocity of a staccato note, setting a steady beat for the yelling and harsh sound of boots stomping against the floors.
Machinegun fire cycled from fortified emplacements on the perimeter of the sub pens as defensive units became active, the slower, duller cadence of the heavy guns sounding in grim counterpoint to the quick-second bolt clatter of automatic weapons ported by the officers. Bright white flashes illuminated the walls, lashing out at their targets as the assault forces launched a two-pronged attack on the hostiles.
While the first strike team kept the shooters crewing the fire floor busy, the second strike team burst onto the second floor, meeting another wave of heavy gunfire. Jake and David yanked on the pins of smoke bombs and tossed them across the floor. Immediately, big billowing clouds of green and purple suddenly lashed out into the air, blinding the hostiles, while the officers moves swiftly across the floor, enabling or taking down the shooters.
The first strike team hustled up the stairwell, passing by the chaos on the second floor and they stopped at the door leading to the third. Lex pulled the pin from a smoke bomb and tossed it inside. After a loud bang, the room was suddenly filled with red smoke and flares, immediately disabling the hostiles, then they sailed in like a swarm of wasps.
Jake suddenly found himself separated from the mess, and suddenly, he was outside in the stairwell. Gunshots echoed from the doors outside, their pops ricocheting against his head like pellets. But amongst that, he could hear his own heart beating in his chest, coursing every heavy breath he exhaled, while he tried to collect his head.
Then, he suddenly heard the loud squeal of a rusty door hinge above him. He aimed his gun up through the bars of the railings, trying to get a glimpse of who was coming down. Softer, sweeping footsteps pattered down the stairs, increasing the flow of adrenaline in Jake's veins. The footsteps came closer, and soon a shadow emerged in the stairwell. And suddenly... there he was.
Max.
The two of them stared at each other, one in disbelief, the other trying to plan his next move. Jake gulped back his anger, and he aimed his gun at Max's head.
"I was hoping this wasn't true," he said, "I was hoping that maybe Vickers made a mistake, or that someone forced you to partake in this,"
Max sighed and shook his head, "Look, Jake... I understand how you're feeling right now," he took a step forward.
"Stop!" Jake snapped, "Get your hands in the air,"
Max put his hands on his head, "Like this?" he took a step back up the stairs.
"I said stop!" he shouted again.
"Honestly, Officer Riley, if I were you, I wouldn't be wasting my time playing shoot-out-at-high-noon right now... not when Jenna's life is in the balance,"