Brute Justice (Justice Series) (22 page)

Clint took a defensive stance in front of everyone else. “Not nearly as long as you’ve been following us.”

Crain tuned to Jade, cocked his head. “I couldn’t place your face at first, when you were here last week. It wasn’t until after you had gone and I uncovered the discrepancies in the ultrasound when it dawned on me you were special… You were the delivery person at Sara’s a couple of weeks ago, weren’t you?”

Jade lowered her head, then looked back up to meet his gaze.

“We’ve not officially met. Your name really is Jade, then? Jade Hensley?”

“Yes, that’s right,” she answered with a determined expression set on her face.

“Oh, try little one,” he goaded, recognizing instantly what her intent was. “Try all you like, but your mental powers will not work on me. Not now that I know who you are. It took a little digging on my part, but I connected the dots eventually. At first I thought you were the one who was playing with my electronics. Now I know you were just playing with my mind.”

His smirk turned to Trey. “It seems we have royalty in our midst today. Hello, Mr. Connor. I remember your name from when you were just a baby. I didn’t realize you had come into your powers. I’ve very much been waiting to reconnect with you, especially seeing how well your father’s advancement has gone.”

“You leave my family out of this!” Trey spat back.

“I’d love to, but you see – they will be quite useful in keeping me out of trouble. I’m afraid I’m going to need people in high places as we move forward with our work.”

“Do you honestly think,” Lexi stepped forward, “you can lock us in this room, point a gun at us, and expect us to willingly come to you? Want to work for you? You may be able to charm others with your ways, but it doesn’t work that way for us.”

The smirk was gone. His eyes pierced into Lexi with a fury unlike any she’d ever seen. “Miss Dixon, that’s exactly the way it’s going to work. What you don’t understand is right now I’ve got about fifty pounds of C-4 packed into the parking bumper right underneath your brother’s truck. Right on the other side of this wall.”

Marcy gasped.

Plan C… Son of a bitch.

“The way I see it,” he continued, “you’ve got two choices. Either you surrender to me now, and play along with me, or I push the button in my pocket and blow Sam and his truck up. Tell me… Is Leesha in there too, listening? That would be quite the bargaining chip – two birds with one stone, pardon the expression.”

“You wouldn’t,” Trey challenged.

“Don’t put anything past me, son. You kids know way too much about me and what I’ve done. The fact that you’re standing here, working as a group, is proof of that. Either you agree to join me and help with my end of the project, or I need to destroy all the evidence – including those who know the details.”

Silence filled the room as the standoff began.

Crain let them think just a moment longer. “No response? Pity. You know, no one is indispensable. Not even you.”

Sam? Are you there?

“Hang on,” Sam said back. “Just give me a-”

It happened all at once. The room went completely dark, and both Lexi and Clint charged Crain. A shot fired. Outside, the reverberation of a sonic boom sounded. Marcy screamed. The air filled with a pungent dusty smell and beyond the inner walls, more cries of confusion filled the air.

Inside the room there were muffled sounds of bodies shuffling, crashing medical equipment, stammers of confusion. Suddenly the office door opened, revealing a blinding light, and then it was gone as quickly as it had appeared. The last thing Clint saw was the white bustle of a lab coat in retreat. Darkness fell on the room again.

Clint struggled to reach the far end of the wall and reached back with his fist, plunging it through the drywall and exterior brick wall. A hole about the size of a basketball helped let sunlight into the dark room.

“Is everyone okay?”

Marcy was huddled in the corner with Jade. “Lexi? Where are you?”

“I’m over here, Mom. I’m fine, just shaken up a bit.”

Clint pulled the two gals up while Lexi helped Trey to his feet.

“Did anyone get shot? I heard him get a round off,” Clint asked.

“I’m fine.” Trey answered.

“Me too,” Jade echoed.

“Sam…” Marcy wailed, turning toward the hole in the wall. “Oh my God. Sam.”

“Hang on, Mrs. D,” Clint said. “Everyone stand back.”

He kicked at the wall twice and created an opening large enough for them to escape from. To the left, employees were pouring out of the front entrance, screaming for help. Directly in front of the exit Clint had just made was an empty spot, the space Sam’s truck had been resting in just seconds earlier. About twenty feet away lay what remained of his truck, upside down in a charred mass of twisted, smoking metal.

Clint ran to the smoldering ruins, afraid of what he might find inside. The truck was destroyed, almost to ashes.

There’s no way a body could have made it through that kind of explosion…

He turned back to face the grief-stricken expression on Marcy’s face and his heart broke.

Suddenly a second round of booms and the sight of black pillars of smoke pouring out from all four corners of the building grabbed his attention. Crain had not just set explosives under Sam’s truck, he had also rigged the building as well. He could hear shrieks of panic coming from all around him, and then time slowed down to a halt in his brain, as he recognized some of those screams were coming from inside – newborn babies.

He ran over to Lexi. “Get your mom as far away from this as you can. I don’t know if the explosions are done, and she needs to be clear of this. Call 9-1-1 and report the emergency. I’m going back in.”

“You’re what?” Her face showed her shock.

“Can you hear them, Lex? There are people in there, trapped. I have to get them out.”

“I’ll help you,” Jade said.”

“Me too,” Trey chimed in.

“Okay,” Clint turned to face them. “Jade, I need you to corral the nurses. The most important thing you can do is to calm them down, get them focused. Can you set up a triage station in the lawn across from the front door?”

Jade nodded. “Sure.”

“Good, that’s where we’ll start bringing people. Trey, you stick with me, and I mean close. Let’s not get separated, okay?”

“You got it. Lead the way.”

Clint turned to face the windows, which were all being licked with bright orange flames. Every few seconds the sound of another pane of glass could be heard shattering in the distance. The building was disintegrating rapidly before their eyes. There wasn’t much time.

“Clint,” Lexi pleaded, as she grabbed his elbow.

“Yes?” he said, turning back to face her.

“Be careful,” she whispered.

“I will.” He touched her cheek, then turned to run into the fire, with Trey right on his heels.

Chapter Forty-two

The fire was hotter than anything Clint had ever experienced. It came from every direction, searing into his skin, the smoke stinging his eyes. All the electricity had been blown out, so the only source of light was either the daylight coming in through the holes in the walls and roof or the hot yellow glow of the fire.

“Trey!” he yelled, trying to find his help behind him. “Where are you?”

“Right here,” he said, coughing up phlegm from the black air.

“You okay in here?”

“For now. Where are we going?”

“Follow me. Let’s head to the nursery first.”

They charged through the exam room they had just come from, and when Clint found the steel door still securely locked, he kicked it open with his boot. The metal buckled under his strength and hit the wall behind it with a resounding thud. He paused in the hazy hallway to listen for the cries, then turned abruptly to the left, charging as fast as he could.

About thirty feet down the hall they came to a wall filled with observation windows which looked into the newborn intensive care unit. The ceiling was falling in, already engulfed in flames, and Clint saw eight hospital bassinets – all occupied by new patients.

Go figure. Of course Crain rigged the nursery. These are his test patients. No evidence left behind…

“Hurry!” he heard Trey say from behind him.

He snapped back to attention and ran for the door. It was also locked – most likely on purpose by a security device installed with the explosives. Instead of punching it in, toward the helpless babies, Clint held Trey back with one arm, and pulled the door out of its facing and into the hallway.

“I’ll take the back wall,” Clint yelled to Trey. “You get the front four.”

“How do I carry them all?!” Trey was starting to panic. His breath was labored and he kept glancing nervously at the roof above him which was raining on them in bits of flaming pieces.

“Transfer all of them into one plastic bed. We’ll carry them out in those.”

It took them less than ten seconds to group the newborns into their carrying tubs. Clint looked down at his four. All were crying, but at least they were still alive. He glanced quickly at Trey’s bassinet. Three were screaming, and one looked grayish-blue, his eyes fluttering.

“Come on! We’ve got to get them to help. Follow me – I’ll try to find a route where we can get through quickly.”

Trey nodded in agreement. Clint ran back down the hallway they came in from, but when they reached the front waiting room, the entrance was completely engulfed in flames. Moving quickly, he set his babies down on the floor, picked up a lobby chair and threw it through the window. He raked his hands and fists around the opening, and cleared an exit like he was sweeping away a spider web.

As Trey stepped through the makeshift exit, a chunk of brick and burning drywall fell from above, slamming down on his left shoulder. The blow took him to his knees. He gingerly set the basket of babies down on the pavement and rolled to his side in agony.

When Clint realized what had happened, he sprinted to the nearest nurse and handed off his set of newborns, then signaled Jade to come back with him to help Trey. When they reached him, he was writhing in pain from the blow.

Clint leaned first over the bassinette to check on the babies. Three of them were wailing loudly, their faces bright red with the strain. His focus found the ashen-colored infant, a boy in a blue hat, was stone still. His breathing was shallow, and his eyes kept lolling back in his little head.

“What’s wrong with him?” Jade asked, kneeling down beside him.

“I’m not sure, but it looks like he’s not getting enough air,” Clint answered. He put his giant palm on the chest of the baby, and hoped upon hope he could extend his healing powers to whatever was ailing the little one. One second, two, three…

Finally, the boy’s face drained of the bluish color and began to pink up again. He sputtered a couple of times, then joined his bedmates in the chorus of screams.

Clint turned to Jade. “Take these over to the nurses, see if they can sort them out. I’ve got Trey…”

She did ask he instructed, and Clint turned to grab Trey’s injured shoulder. At first glance, the blow had left a deep gash, almost to the bone, about four inches down the meat of his shoulder muscle. The fire must have cauterized the wound, because it wasn’t bleeding much, but it smelled of burned flesh.

Clint raised Trey to a sitting position, never releasing his grip on the injury. “Look at me, man. Stay with me. I still need your help around here.”

He nodded, his face covered in sweat and black grime. “I’m okay, just a scrape.”

Clint grinned, but at the same time noticed he felt the pain of the blow in his palm as he transferred his regeneration onto Trey. “Couple more seconds… Okay, there you go. All set, now.”

Trey looked down at his shoulder. The cut in his sweatshirt was still flapping open, but the wound that was just there was nowhere to be seen. “Holy cow! That’s amazing.”

“Keep it down, Trey. Just stay cool about it,” Clint reminded him. “Now listen, it’s too dangerous in there for you. I need you out here now, running communication.”

“But-”

“Don’t argue with me. This place is chaos out here, and I don’t know where Lexi and Mrs. Dixon are. I really do need you out here instead. Can you check with Lexi, make sure everything’s okay? And then help Jade with the nurses and the patients?”

Trey nodded. “Yeah, I can do that.”

“Good. I’m going back in,” he said, and helped Trey to his feet. They walked quickly over to the makeshift nurses’ station, where Clint tapped the first lady he could find in scrubs. “Where are the patient rooms? Are there still patients in there?”

“Yes. There are five patient rooms along the rear wall,” she pointed Clint in the right direction. “All the rooms are double occupancy, but one only has one patient. None of them have been cleared, and one of the patients must still have her baby with her.”

“What about staff?”

She looked around and did a quick headcount. “We’re missing four, I think. It’s hard to tell out here…”

Geez, I wish Sam were here. He’d know exactly how many were in there. And where to find them.

The grief almost took Clint’s breath away, and he pushed it to the back of his mind. He looked up at the sky, which was now filled with dark gray circles of smoke and chunky pieces of ash twirling in the wind.

“How do I get back into the patient wing?”

“The quickest way is through the lobby and the hallway door on the right. But you’ll need a key…”

“I don’t need a key. Thanks,” he brushed her off quickly and was gone before she could argue.

The air in the lobby seemed to have thickened considerably since he had just been there a few minutes ago. Already the smoke had filled the top half of the room, forcing Clint to stoop down to breathe in the cleaner air as he rushed to the back wall. Just as he kicked the door open to the patient ward, he heard a rumbling clatter behind him. Three quarters of the lobby’s ceiling had just given way and crashed down into the room, which was now completely engulfed in flames. There was no going back that way.

He charged through the door and stopped at the first door in the back hallway, which he threw open to find a restroom. The second door, however, opened to a patient room, and inside was a very scared young girl, holding a newborn to her chest. She was tethered to her bed by an array of tubes and IV bags, which when combined with a newborn baby, was more than the weak girl could carry. Tears traced down her face, leaving clear lines down her ash covered face.

“Hang on, I’ll get you out of here,” Clint reassured her. He shut the door to the hallway and ran over to the opposite wall. The window showed the parking lot was clear, except for a few cars. He turned back to the girl. “Cover yourself and the baby with your blanket, just for a second.”

She did, and as soon as they were protected, Clint smashed his fist through the window and used his boots to clear out the wall below it. As soon as he had made sure all of the glass and sharp edges were gone, he reached back to the girl and uncovered her head.

He was gingerly unhooking the IV bags and laying them on the girl’s lap when he heard a familiar voice. “Clint, hand me the baby.”

“Lexi?” he asked, astonished when she appeared next to him. “Get out of here! It’s too dangerous… Wait, how did you get past the fire?”

“It doesn’t affect me, you know, when I’m… Hand me the baby.”

Clint looked down quickly at the petrified girl. “It’s okay, we’re going to get you out of here. But you have to trust me, because we need to move quickly. Go ahead, let Lexi take the baby. You and I will follow right behind.”

The girl’s face was clearly panicked, but she knew she didn’t have much of a choice. She slowly reached up and handed the infant to Lexi.

“Now look into my eyes,” Clint instructed her, and watched Lexi disappear out of the corner of his eye. “I want you to wrap your arms around my neck, and I’m going to lift you up. Can you do that?”

She nodded, silently.

“Okay, here we go.” He swiftly picked her up and ran out the hole, sprinting down the sidewalk right behind Lexi who had reappeared again. He caught up with her at the front of the building and they delivered the newly rescued patients to triage.

“Where’s your mom?” Clint asked hoarsely.

Lexi nodded her head toward the crowd. “She’s helping the nurses direct traffic.”

“Is there help on the way?”

“Yes, emergency services said they were sending ambulances and the fire department.”

“Good. You stay here and help. I’m going back in to get more.”

“The hell I am… I’m going with you, Clint!”

He paused, ready to argue, then decided against it. He grinned for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. “All right, lady. Come on, then.”

They hustled their way back to the exit Clint had just made in the last room, and stepped back into the building through the hole. A loud boom thundered in the air, signaling another explosion of some kind.

“It’s hot,” Clint shouted as he put his hand on the door to the hallway. “The fire must be making its way back to this end of the building! I don’t think we can go back in this way.”

“Hang on, keep your head,” Lexi said, then disappeared from sight. “There’s two in this next room.”

She reappeared and grabbed his hand. “We don’t have to bust our way through every wall,” she said, grinning.

They vanished and walked through the wall into the next recovery room. The smoke was so thick, neither of the patients saw them as they reappeared.

“Lexi, shield her as I make an exit for us,” Clint shouted, motioning to the bed nearest the exterior window.

She did as he instructed, and in a split second, he had forced another exit to the parking lot.

“Can you walk?” Lexi asked the teenager she was standing next to. The girl nodded, and Lexi wrapped her arm under the frail girl to brace her and assist her out the door.

Clint sprinted to the back bed, which had another young girl in it, plus a nurse who was huddled in the corner on the floor.

“Are you two okay?” he asked, pulling the nurse to her feet. “There’s an exit out that way, can you get out yourself?”

“Yes, but what about Brooke?” she asked, referring to her patient. “I don’t want to leave her here alone.”

“I’ve got her, you just get yourself out safely. Everyone’s gathered around the front of the building.”

She took one last glance at her patient and reluctantly headed toward the parking lot. Clint looked down at Brooke. “Can you stand on your own?”

She shook her head. “No, my epidural hasn’t worn off yet. I can’t move my legs,” she cried.

“No problem. I’ve got
ya
,” he said as he wrapped one arm under her knees, the other behind her back. He lifted her easily. “Hold on.”

 
He quickly made his way to the opening, but as he got there, the ceiling above the exit started to buckle. Clint stepped back in caution, afraid they’d get crushed under the weight of the building’s roof structure. Just when he thought it would give way and block the hole, it suddenly stopped in mid-fall.

How is that just staying there?

He looked beyond the hanging debris to see a dark-headed girl standing on the sidewalk. A crooked grin was plastered on her face as she beckoned him toward her.

Leesha. Leesha!

It took Clint just three long strides to meet her. “I’ve never been so happy to see anyone in my life. Thanks Leesh!”

“No worries. Here, hand her to me, I’ll get her to the front. I can’t bust into the next room like you can…” She reached to grab the patient from him.

He gently handed the patient to her. “Are you sure you can carry her?”

“Sure thing,” she said, winking at him. “She’s light as a feather to me!”

“Great. Go check on Lex for me, okay?”

“She’s fine. I just passed her.”

“Okay,” he said, watching her turn around. She easily balanced the patient with her telekinesis right above her arms, making it look like she was carrying her.