Fortier’s hand slammed down on the phone, disconnecting the call.
“What the hell are you doing?” Hawkins turned angrily to his man.
“We know where he is, Mr. President.”
“Where?”
“New Haven. At the hospital. We’ll get him.”
Chapter 65
“They expect us to go downstairs,” Sarah said.
“Then we should go up,” McCann suggested.
A line of patients and hospital workers were moving down the stairs in an orderly fashion. The fire alarm continued to buzz in the halls. They welcomed the alarm. It was a way to get people around them. There was safety in numbers. Bruce Dunn broke through the door near them.
“Where’s Brody?” McCann asked.
“Dead,” Bruce said under his breath. “Whoever this Kilo is, he was in Brody’s room. He’s armed.”
“I’m going back there.”
Amy reached around to grab McCann’s arm while Bruce blocked his path.
“You can’t. He’s got other help in the building,” Dunn said. “You would only be making his job easier. You must know something that you don’t even realize. That’s why they’re after you.”
“Please,” Amy added quietly, tugging on his arm again. “You’ll get them, but you have do it on your own terms.”
“They could be coming through that door any minute. We should hurry,” Sarah’s urging got them going again.
Amy tightened the blanket around her shoulder and followed Sarah’s path as she cut through the descending crowd. She glanced over her shoulder and was relieved to see Darius was right behind her.
“Let’s get out on the next floor,” Bruce suggested. “We can use a different staircase.”
At the landing, Sarah led the way into the hall. They followed her. The corridor was deserted.
“Does anyone know their way around this hospital?” Bruce asked.
“I know it a little. My father was hospitalized here for a week last year,” Amy offered. “What do you want to do?”
“I need to call for help,” Bruce said.
“Is there anyone out there that you can trust?” Darius asked.
“Good question,” Bruce said under his breath.
“I think we should get out of here first before deciding who to call,” Sarah told them.
“We have no car,” Darius said as he looked down the hallway.
Amy read the signs on the wall, trying to find her bearings. “I can get us to the emergency room. There’s a chance someone might have left their car at the entrance with the keys in it.”
“Lead the way,” McCann said.
A few steps away, through the small windows of a double door, Amy saw two security guards heading their way. They were opening doors and looking inside the rooms. Fear gripped her. A spike of adrenaline rushed through her body. She was back on the submarine again. People looking for her. Trying to kill her.
“Over here.” Bruce held a door open on their right. All four of them pushed into the small supply room. He turned a latch on the inside. With the door closed, total darkness surrounded them.
They waited, listening for any noise. Amy felt McCann’s hand on her shoulder. She took hold of it, needing his strength.
Footsteps approached. Someone tested the door. They all stared at the sliver of light under the door. McCann pushed Amy behind him. The door was tested one more time before they moved on.
Amy searched the shelves behind her. One of the stacks felt like scrubs. She took one and after a little struggle was able to pull it up her legs. She found the top on the same shelf.
“Those guards could have been harmless,” Sarah said quietly.
“We can’t be sure,” McCann said.
“Only a handful of people were told about you three being brought here,” Bruce informed them. “One of them must have leaked the information.”
Amy was able to pull the shirt over her head, but some of the bandages caught and came loose. She tugged at them, ripping the rest off.
“What’s the story with Barnhardt?” McCann asked. “Sarah said he was the one that called to warn you.”
“I can’t tell you. But he seems to know quite a bit about what’s going on.”
“Maybe he’s the one we should call,” Sarah suggested.
“Let’s get out of here first,” Bruce told them, opening the door. He looked down the hall frst before motioning them to follow.
“You changed,” Darius said to Amy as the light poured in. “But what did you do to your head?”
Amy touched the stitches and pulled some of her hair over it. “They heal much faster exposed to the air.”
“With the scrubs on, you actually look official,” Sarah remarked as Amy led them through the labyrinthine hallways and down several flights into a different section of the hospital.
“Don’t let anyone pull me into surgery.”
The double doors that led to the emergency room were closed but not locked. No fire alarms were sounding in this section. Amy realized that Sarah was right — she did look official. A number of people they went by completely dismissed her, but they definitely noticed Sarah, Bruce, and McCann, dressed in their navy uniforms.
No one stopped them, and they soon found themselves at the sliding glass doors where patients were wheeled in from ambulances.
“You wait here. I’ll go outside and take a look,” Bruce instructed.
“No. You wait here. I’ll tell you when to come out,” Amy said, going through the door before anyone could stop her.
Stepping out onto the cold night, dressed only in the scrubs, she noticed that McCann was right beside her.
“I’m glad to know that I’m not the only one you don’t listen to.”
“No. I’m pretty even-handed when it comes to disobeying orders,” she said.
An ambulance backed toward the door with its lights flashing. A police car following the ambulance parked along the curb.
“Pretend that you don’t know me, will you?”
The ambulance came to a stop. Amy moved to the back door and opened it. An EMT stepped out of the ambulance and brushed past her. In seconds, he was pulling the gurney out of the back and another EMT followed, taking the head of the gurney. As it rolled out, the wheeled legs dropped into position. The patient already had an IV hooked up. There was blood all over his shirt. The two EMTs wheeled him in through the doors, and the two police officers followed them.
Amy looked over her shoulder at McCann and pointed to the police car with her head. He walked to the front of the ambulance. She took a couple of steps toward the ambulance’s rear doors and saw Connelly and Dunn coming out.
Amy opened the ambulance doors. The two agents climbed in. She closed the doors and went around to the passenger side.
“That was easy,” Dunn said as she got in. “Great job.”
“I think you’ve missed your calling, Amy,” Sarah said from the back as McCann steered around the police car and pulled out of the drive.
“Please don’t encourage her,” McCann said lightly.
Amy looked into the side view mirror to see if anyone was following them. No one seemed to be. The fire alarms were still blasting in other sections of the hospital. There was a crowd of people on the sidewalk and fire trucks were pulling in by the front doors. Everyone on the street focused their attention on what was going on in the hospital.
“Where am I going?” McCann asked.
Bruce’s cell phone rang. “Same number as the last time. It’s Barnhardt.” He answered it on the second ring.
“Yes, Captain.” There was a pause. “You were correct about that. But how did you know?”