When the Chips Are Down (14 page)

“Yes, I remember.  The Titanium-Aluminum Triphorate was a new invention designed to increase patient mobility.  It was only used in a very small group of people before the microchip bill was passed and the rods were outlawed, but according to her medical chart, she spent two years in a coma.  When the microchip bill was passed, her rod was probably never removed because she had been in a coma for over a year. Patients who remain in a comatose state for at least one year after injury usually never regain consciousness,” Rheinpreck explained.

“So, you’re saying that Brooklyn has a revolutionary new metal in her arm that no one else has, and it makes her resistant to the radio waves of the microchips?!” Trent said in astonishment. 

“No one w
as talking to you,” Preston grunted.

“That’s Brooklyn, she’s one in a million,” Trent said
with glee.  A smile came across her face.  She was equally astonished.  There were not words to describe how relieved Trent was that the chip had not worked. 

One of the lab coats left the room and emerged with a chip scanner in hand.  “The scanner will detect the presence of radio waves if the chip is working.  We should rule out a defective chip as the problem,” he informed.  He grabbed Brooklyn’s wrist while passing the scanner over her arm.  It beeped when it reached her injection site.  “The chip is working,” he said turning toward Preston and Freeman, “It’s just not working on her.”

“You’re telling me that a microchip is useless on her?” Preston said angrily. 

“It certainly
appears that way,” Rheinpreck replied. 

“IVAN,” Preston shouted.  Ivan took his place beside Preston.  “She is useless to us.
  She’s not worth the time and expense it would take to have that rod removed. 
Kill her
,” he demanded.  The room echoed with the sound of Trent screaming.  He fought so hard against his restraints that he lifted the two front legs of the table several inches into the air.  It came back down with a loud, metallic thud. 

Ivan retrieved his gun from the holster and pointed it directly at Brooklyn’s face.  The lab coats quickly backed away.  Brooklyn was paralyzed with fear.  She expected her life to flash before her eyes, but decided that must only be a cliché depicted in far too many books and movies. 

She glanced at Trent one last time.  He was still screaming and thrashing violently.  Her mind drowned out his screams as she recited The Lord’s Prayer, an old ritual of her Catholic upbringing.  Ivan stared at her and then at Preston and Freeman.  “What are you waiting for?  Do it!!” Preston shouted.

“No,” Ivan said. 

“What!” Preston shrieked. 

“I didn’t sign up for this,” Ivan s
aid, lowering his weapon.

“You signed up to do what we tell you,” Freeman emphasized. 

“If that involves shooting an unarmed woman strapped to a table, then I quit,” Ivan
declared.  Trent stopped screaming.  A sigh of relief escaped from Brooklyn. 

“You always were spineless,” Preston said, grabbing the gun from Ivan’s hand and pointing it at the side of Brooklyn’s head.  Her relief turned to terror once again as she squinted her eyes tightly.
  Trent began shouting every vulgar name imaginable at Preston.  “You’re next!” Preston shouted back.

A red dot appeared on Preston’s temple.  “Think twice,” a voice said.  Brooklyn’s eyes opened.  Lars stood at the top of the staircase leading to the utility room with laser scope rifle in hand.  “Put down your weapon now!” he demanded.

“You put down
your
weapon or I’ll put a bullet straight through her head,” Preston shouted, turning his head to face Lars. 

“I’m a trained marksman.  I’ll make your head into a canoe before you can even think of squeezing that trigger,” Lars
shouted back.

“Do you want to bet thi
s woman’s life on it?” Preston yelled.  His face turned red with anger.  Freeman slowly began to inch towards the wall.

“He’s going to shoot me anyway,” Brooklyn said. 

“Shut up!” Preston screamed as a vein in his forehead began to bulge.

“Take the shot, Lars,” Brooklyn shouted. 

“Drop your weapon now.  I’m losing it,” Preston sh
rieked with his finger on the trigger.  “Take the shot, Lars!  Take the shot NOW!” Brooklyn screamed.  A deafening bang echoed the walls of the room.  Brooklyn flinched when she heard what sounded like a fire cracker going off in her ear.

Preston fell to the ground, landing on his side; his eyes wide open as Ivan’s gun fell to the floor.  Brooklyn’s face and torso were splattered with blood and skull fragments.  Blood began to leak from a hole in the back of his head and pool around him.  Puzzled, she looked behind her to see Caleb standing in the doorway with a gun in his hand.  “Caleb!” she cried, “You shot him?!”  He nodded as he opened the door and motioned for someone to come inside.  Marcus and Zane both ran inside with weapons in hand.

Zane put his gun away as soon as he saw Trent and ran to untie him.  “Are you guys alright?” Zane said. 

“We’re ok.  You did it, man.  You did it!” Trent
exclaimed. 

“We
did it,” Zane said. 

“Put your hands where I can see them,” Marcus
told Freeman, pointing his gun at him.  “Don’t shoot!” Freeman cried flailing his arms. 

“All of you get up against the wall,” Marcus
ordered aiming his gun at the lab coats and then at Ivan.  “He’s ok,” Brooklyn said, glancing at Ivan, “We don’t need to tie you up, do we?”

Ivan shook his head.  “But he’s one of them,” Marcus protested. 

“Not anymore,” Ivan
replied.  He picked up his gun from the floor and placed it in its holster.  Marcus glanced suspiciously at him for a moment before turning his gaze back to Freeman and the lab coats.  Once untied, Trent ran over to Brooklyn.  He unfastened her restraints and lifted her up from the table as Lars came down the stairs. 

Caleb stood beside Brooklyn, Trent, and Zane.  “I can’t believe you shot somebody. I didn’t know you had it in you,” Trent exclaimed.

“I should’ve been helping you guys all along, but I was too afraid of being caught.  You were out trying to make a difference and I was busy being a coward, like I always have been.  I wasn’t goi
ng to let you down this time,” Caleb said.

“Well, you certainly came through for us today,” Trent replied.

“How did you guys get in here?” Brooklyn asked Lars
, wiping her face with her sleeve.  “Zane used his technical brilliance to shut off the security cameras and outside phone lines and I used my years of military experience to tactically penetrate this sick compound,” Lars said.

The six of them glanced over at Marcus who had cuffed Freeman and the lab coast’s wrists with flex cuffs.  “We need to get out of here. Zachary and Min are outside keeping guard,” Lars said.  He motioned for everyone to follow him as he crept toward the side door.  “Are we just going to leave them here?  They should be dealt with,” Marcus said, gesturing towards Freeman and the doctors.

“We don’t have time to deal with them.  We have to move
now
, brother!” Lars exclaimed.  Marcus reluctantly followed them as they cautiously stepped out the side door, one by one.

As soon as they were outside, Lars saw Min breathlessly slumped against the wall with her gun in her hand.  “What’s going on?” Lars said, moving toward her. 

“We just got ambushed.
They got Zachary; he’s down,” Min said. 

“Oh no!” Zane cried.

“Who’s Zachary?” Brooklyn said. 

“He’s……He’s a friend,” Zane stammered.

“Where are they?” Lars
asked.

“Two of them are in front of the building, using their vehicle as a cover; there’s another one, but I don’t know where he’s shooting from,” Min
replied. 

Lars leaned against the wall as he slowly moved closer to the edge in an attempt to peer around the corner of the building.  The moment he reached the edge, a shot rang out, missing his face by inches and covering him with chips of paint.  “Holy hell they’re close!” he cried, jumping back. 

“Why don’t we go back into the building and out through the utility room to the roof
and down the fire escape stairs,” Marcus suggested. 

“We don’t know where the third shooter is.  He could already be on the roof for all we know, and that could give the other two a clear shot” Lars said. 

“What are we going to do then?  There’s no other way out of here,” Caleb
exclaimed.  “Everybody go back inside the building now,” Ivan instructed, “I have an idea.” 

“DON’T SHOOT!  DON’T SHOOT! It’s Ivan!”  Ivan shouted, coming around the corner with his hands in the air.  The two security guards behind the van lowered their weapons as soon as they saw him. 

“Ivan, what’s going on in there?” one of them
cried.  The third guard stood at the edge of the roof, looking puzzled.  Ivan motioned for him to come down. 

“I’ve got the intruders subdued inside.
  They’ve killed Preston.  I need your help keeping them under control,” he reported. 

“Right through here,” Ivan said, holding the side door for the three guards as they walked inside.  The moment they stepped in, they saw Brooklyn and Trent sitting on the floor with their wrists duct taped behind their backs, writhing and squirming. 

“Where are the rest of them and why are
Mr. Freeman and the doctors bound and gagged?” one of the guards demanded. Freeman attempted to scream through the duct tape on his mouth, but it was to no avail.

The guards glanced to the right to see Lars, Marcus, Min, Zane, and Caleb standing in a semicircle, yielding their guns.

“You might want to surrender your firearms,” Ivan s
uggested, pulling his gun from its holster. 

“What the hell is this?” they
exclaimed. 

“It is what it is,” Ivan said plainly.

“Oh God,” Zane cried
when they had reached the parking lot.  Zachary lay on the ground with a bullet hole to his forehead and a pool of blood surrounding him; his eyes were fixed as if he were still staring at the person who shot him.  “I’m so sorry I got you into this mess,” Zane said kneeling beside him.  Trent, Brooklyn, Caleb, and Lars gathered around Zane while Min, Marcus, and Ivan looked on.

“He wanted nothing more than to be involved in this.  He was a warrior,” Caleb said.

“I would’ve gotten arrested back in Helena if not for this guy, and I never would’ve been able to come and save you,” Zane
turned towards Trent and Brooklyn, “Tommy and Davie were smart to stay behind.” 

“He was a true brother and he will be missed, but we need to leave now before
more guards show up,” Lars cautioned.

Zane nodded.  He reached down and closed Zachary’s eyes.  “The keys are still in the ignition,” Min said opening the door of the security van. 

“The security guard should be driving the security van
. It’ll look less suspicious on the highway,” Marcus gestured towards Ivan.  Ivan climbed into the driver’s seat and started the van.  The rest of the group piled inside as Ivan sped away.

Brooklyn was shaken and overwhelmed.  She sat in silence while everyone else argued over which road to take.  Trent stared at her until he could not contain his thoughts any longer. “I’m so glad you’re ok, Brook.  I can’t believe I almost lost the most important person in the world to me,” he blurted. 

“Let’s not talk about it,” Brooklyn said, not wanting to relive what had just happened.

“I can’t take this anymore!  Just tell her!!” Zane
exclaimed in frustration.   Trent could feel his face begin to flush. 

“Butt out,” he
snapped. 

“What do you want to tell me?  You regret that we broke up in high school, you were miserable during the two years I spent in a coma, and you’re hopelessly in love with me?” Brooklyn
said turning towards Trent.

Everyone turned to face Trent and Brooklyn.  Trent’s eyes widened as his face felt redder still.  “Uh yeah, I really couldn’t have said it better myself,” he said in an unusually high voice. 

“I kind of figured it out in the armored van,” Brooklyn
smiled.  Without another thought Trent drew Brooklyn into his arms and kissed her passionately.  She threw her arms around him, holding him tightly.  The van erupted with cheers and claps. 

“It’s about damn time,” Zane
said.