Chapter 4 - Playing the Game
The lead mercenary was recovering quickly, shaking his head to clear the ringing. He raised his gun, tracking Lily’s movement through the smoke.
But Lily didn't fire. She knew a shootout in a hospital ward full of innocent, bedridden patients was a disaster. Instead, she slid across the slick linoleum floor, kicking the mercenary’s legs out from under him. He crashed heavily onto the nurse's desk, shattering a computer monitor.
Lily stood over him, the barrel of her captured weapon pressed firmly against his chest.
"Who sent you?" she demanded, her voice dripping with ice. "Is it Blackwood? Answer me!"
The mercenary laughed, a bloody, wet sound. "You're too late, Sparrow. The whole hospital is surrounded. You think you can escape with a crippled SEAL? You're both dead."
Suddenly, a shadow loomed behind Lily. It was Dr. Concincaid. He had been hiding in the staff breakroom, and seeing Lily distracted, he grabbed a heavy metal defibrillator paddle, raising it to strike her from behind to save his own skin and curry favor with the attackers.
"Lily, watch out!" Mara screamed from under the desk.
Before Concincaid could bring the paddle down, a heavy metal object flew through the air with terrifying speed. It was the IV pole.
Caleb had thrown it from the doorway of Room 12 like a javelin. The pole struck Concincaid squarely in the chest, sending the corrupt doctor crashing backward into a medication cart, knocking him out cold.
Caleb walked down the hall, his stride steady, his breathing controlled despite the makeshift valve in his chest. He stood next to Lily, looking down at the mercenary she had pinned.
We need to move, Caleb signed, his eyes scanning the security monitors behind the desk. More are coming up the east stairwell. They are cutting off the floors one by one.
Lily looked down at Trevor and Mara, who were shaking violently beneath the desk. Trevor was crying so hard he could barely breathe. He looked up at Lily, the girl he had tried to humiliate just twenty minutes ago, realizing that she was the only thing standing between him and a body bag.
"P-Parker... Lily... please," Trevor begged, his voice cracking. "Don't leave us here. We're sorry. Please."
Lily looked at them. They were arrogant, cruel, and incompetent. But they were her patients, and she was a nurse.
"Stay under this desk," Lily commanded, her voice leaving no room for argument. "Do not move. Do not make a sound. If anyone else comes down this hall who isn't wearing scrubs or a military uniform, you play dead. Understood?"
Both Trevor and Mara nodded frantically, clinging to each other.
Lily turned to Caleb. "Where is the data drive?" she signed.
May you like
Caleb pointed down. In the hospital morgue. Basement level. I hid it inside a secure biohazard locker before I was admitted.
"Then that's where we go," Lily signed back, a dangerous smile touching her lips. "Let’s show them how a Sparrow and a SEAL play."
