Elimination

by Jackie D.

  Caden jumped into the driver’s seat. “Glass, change of plans. We have injured. We’ll meet you at the embassy. Call ahead, tell them to have medics waiting.”

  Jennifer responded immediately. “Not advised, police on the move. They have your description. You need to make it to the helo. There’s a paramedic on board. I’ll tell them you have another passenger coming.”

  Dylan coughed from the back seat, finally coming around. “No embassy. Take me to the helo.”

  Caden started the car and skidded out of the storage facility. “Both of you better pull through this, goddamnit. I’ll kick your asses if you die on me.” She pressed the comm. “What’s the update on O’Brien?”

  * * *

  Emma pretended to sip her champagne as she looked around the ballroom. People were laughing, dancing, drinking, acting as if they didn’t have a care in the world. She could practically taste the money that oozed from their skin. Blood money. All of it. These people profited off the cruelty, despair, and fear in the world.

  Carol passed by her, and Emma checked her watch. She felt her skin prickle and sweat started to form on the back of her neck. She rolled her shoulders, trying to get the sensation to go away. It was time.

  Emma walked up to Carol and put a hand on her shoulder. “Have you seen Sasha?” She made sure to slur her words a bit, wanting to give Carol the impression that she was inebriated.

  Carol’s face said she was disgusted that Emma would even think to touch her. “No. Why would I know where Sasha is?

  Emma shrugged. “I saw her go off with Steven and Nikolai.”

  Carol exhaled loudly to articulate her annoyance. “They had an errand to run.”

  Emma shook her head. “No, they’re back from that. They went off together again five minutes ago. But I’m bored. I want her back now.”

  Emma knew Carol wouldn’t be able to help herself. The idea that the three of them could be working together without her knowledge would drive her crazy. She’d want to know if it had to do with her. Carol wasn’t one to be left in the dark, and this would be no exception.

  “Never mind. I’ll find them.” Emma clumsily patted Carol’s shoulder again. “Thanks for your help.”

  Emma walked slowly out of the ballroom, pretending to look around as she went, making sure Carol was following her. She glanced down at her watch when she turned to the final hallway. Two minutes. Carol was still about fifteen feet behind her, pretending not to care what Emma was doing.

  “Sasha, wait,” Emma yelled when she made it halfway down the hall. Emma slowed her pace, wanting Carol to see where she was turning.

  Emma turned into the small maintenance area, surprised to see Brooke already there. Brooke put her finger up over her lips, indicating that Emma should be quiet. When Carol finally came around the corner, her face turned a shade of white Emma had only seen on paint samples the moment Brooke stepped out of the alcove behind her.

  Brooke smiled and something flashed in her eyes. “Hello, Carol.” Brooke pushed a needle into her neck before Carol had a chance to respond and held her against the wall by her throat until the drug took effect and she stopped struggling. Before Carol fell to the floor, Brooke had thrown one of Carol’s arms around her shoulders. “Help me get her out of here.”

  Emma got under Carol’s other arm, and they moved as quickly as they could to the service entrance. They pushed open the door and dropped Carol into the back of the van. Brooke secured her wrists behind her back with zip ties. Emma climbed in after her, stepping over Carol’s inert body as she moved through the van. Brooke started the vehicle, and Emma quickly changed out of her dress and into clothes that were much more suitable for climbing onboard a helicopter in the middle of a field.

  “Is it wrong of me to say that I thought that would be a little more difficult?” Emma buttoned the pants Dylan had given her, pulled on a black shirt, and secured the radio in her ear.

  The squeal of tires sent a chill up Emma’s spine. She looked in the side mirror and saw a black SUV gaining ground on them.

  “You jinxed us.” Brooke hit the gas, practically flying out of the parking garage. “Glass, we have O’Brien and a tail. What’s the status?”

  “Monroe, Styles, and Prey are on their way to the helicopter,” Jennifer said.

  Why is Dylan with them? She was supposed to be halfway to the CIA safe house by now. “Everyone in one piece?” Emma braced as Brooke took a hard left onto a side street.

  “There were some issues. I don’t have details.” There were several seconds of silence before she came on the line again. “Hart, take the third route we discussed. That should help you lose the guys behind you. I don’t have anyone in sight on that route.”

  Brooke made a hard right. Tires screeched behind them again. The sound of gunshots came next, a few coming through the back of the van and out through their windshield. The car behind them was closer to the ground and handled the turns better than their vehicle, which bounced off cars as they drove down some of the narrower streets.

  “Do you want me to fire back at them?” Emma asked as she clung to the door of the van, her heart in her throat.

  “No. This isn’t a movie. If you poke your head out of that window, you’re going to get shot.” Brooke’s knuckles were white as she gripped the steering wheel.

  “Glass, can you put me through to Styles and Monroe?” Emma wasn’t sure how she and Brooke were going to get out of this, but she wanted to know if Dylan was okay. It didn’t make sense that she was in the car with them.

  “Negative, Quinn. No distractions, just get to the pickup location. Brooke, take the left turn six hundred feet in front of you and then an immediate right.”

  Brooke pulled on her seat belt, making sure it was secure, so Emma did the same. The shots were coming in more rapid succession now. Two more went through the windshield from the back, and Emma willed herself to breathe. They rammed the back of their bumper, and the vehicle jumped forward.

  Brooke took the left turn at the last possible second, causing two of their tires to come off the ground. Emma felt her butt lift off the seat and then slam back down as the van leveled out. Brooke took the immediate right, and the tires came up again. Metal scraped against metal like the world’s most massive aluminum can was being crushed. There was yelling and car horns, and more gunshots.

  After a few moments, all the sound started to drift away. Emma glanced over at Brooke, who was still focused intensely on the road in front of them. She hadn’t reduced their speed and took several more turns. Emma assumed it was to put more distance between themselves and their assailants, on a path they’d never think to take.

  Emma grabbed her radio and Brooke shook her head. “Don’t.”

  Emma looked at her, confused.

  “Don’t do that to yourself. The what-ifs will kill you. We’ll be there soon, and you can see for yourself.”

  Emma decided Brooke knew better than her in this instance. She busied herself by going into the back of the van and checking on O’Brien. Her pulse was good, but she’d have a few nasty bruises because of the car maneuvers, though it was amazing she didn’t have any bullet holes in her, given that the rear door looked like Swiss cheese. At least something good had come out of the chaos. Carol deserved much worse than a few bruises. If Dylan was hurt, she’d kill Carol herself.

  Dylan. A myriad of possibilities ran through her head. If she was with the other two, something had gone terribly wrong. Four percent. The number flashed behind her closed eyes. They all knew the risks when they’d gone down this path, and the success rate was low. Emma had just assumed they would beat the odds. She felt the hot tears start to stream down her face. She could tell herself the tears were a byproduct of the stress she’d just endured, but she knew that wasn’t true. No, her tears were from the possibility that Dylan wasn’t okay. She put her hand over her heart, hoping it would still be in one piece tomorrow.

  Chapter Thirty

  At first, the bouncing around in the ca
r made Dylan want to cry out in pain. She hadn’t immediately realized she’d been shot. She saw Ivan’s arm coming down as he fell to the ground. She saw the fire explode from the end of his weapon and felt the searing pain in her chest immediately after. At first, she thought she’d fallen on something. She tried to get up, to move off the object that was obviously lodged in her back. When she’d finally forced herself to roll over, she realized she hadn’t fallen on something. The pool of blood underneath her and the waves of heat and agony that came from her chest proved to her that she’d been shot. Blackness threatened, and the world around her was nothing more than a pinprick of blurry images and far-off sound.

  Caden had grabbed her and pulled her behind something metal. Storage containers. Yes, she’d been in a sea of storage containers. Time was messy now. Black spots were consuming her memory like small insects, carrying their food away. Voices were traveling through her mind. Directions on where to go, how much time they had, where to meet. Who are we meeting?

  More darkness. More pain. More confusion. Staying awake was becoming more difficult with each lucid spell. Her legs were getting cold. She just wanted to curl up under a nice warm blanket, next to a fire, and have Emma stroke her face. Emma. She’d been so worried she’d never see her again going into tonight and now she was almost certain that would be true. She’d never again hear her laugh, taste her skin, feel her touch. Emma.

  “What happened?” Emma’s voice broke through her haze.

  More talking. Another car. Nikolai. Escape. She wanted Emma’s voice back. She wanted to listen to her lull her to sleep. Sleep. All she wanted to do was sleep. Now she was being lifted. Vibration, wind, and choppy noise. Someone was pulling off her shirt. Shouting.

  She wanted to tell Emma that it didn’t hurt anymore, that she felt much better now. She wanted to tell Emma not to worry. She wanted her to know she’d be okay. She couldn’t feel the hole in her chest. Nothing hurt, anywhere. There was an absence of sensation, of feeling, of anything. The crystal clear absence should have been concerning, but it wasn’t. She was floating and grateful for the reprieve. She didn’t want to feel anymore. She was so tired. So cold. She wanted to let go, to release herself. She wanted to be free.

  “Don’t you go anywhere, you hear me?” Emma again. “Don’t you give up on me.”

  Dylan tried to move her hand. She wanted to touch Emma, to feel her. She wanted her to know that she could hear her. The blackness came again, but this time, it swallowed her whole.

  * * *

  “We’re going to have to make an emergency landing in Estonia. She’s not going to make it farther than that. Call it in.” The paramedic was yelling at the pilot.

  Emma racked her brain, trying to file through all the information she had on Estonia. She knew that they wouldn’t be landing somewhere that would put them in danger, and it made her feel better to be doing something. Estonian’s official languages are Estonian and Russian, but many speak English, German, and Swedish. It’s made up of a parliamentary government. Estonia uses the euro as currency.

  “Quinn!” Brooke shook her.

  Emma was finding it difficult to breathe. She looked at Brooke, unsure how long she’d been trying to get her attention.

  “You need to get off of her. They’re trying to stop the bleeding,” Brooke shouted.

  Emma looked down. There was blood on her hands, arms, coating her clothes. Not her blood, Dylan’s blood. She’d draped herself over her and was speaking into her ear, urging her not to give up. She moved away from Dylan but didn’t release her hand. She understood what was happening, but it was like she was watching it from somewhere else. How could this be happening? The medics were attaching bags of fluid to her hands. What is the right word for that? They pulled Dylan’s eyelids apart, flashing lights into them. They were applying pressure and bandages to where the blood continued to seep from her body. Dylan’s hand twitched in her own, forcing Emma to refocus.

  Emma leaned next to Dylan’s head again, making sure to stay out of the medic’s way. “Dylan, baby, I need you to stay with me. Listen to my voice. I need you to focus on my voice.”

  It was an hour flight. That’s what Emma heard the pilot say. But Emma didn’t measure the passing moments in seconds or minutes. Time blurred and she couldn’t find a point of reference. Time was being measured by the depth of the color of red. Time was now the way the bandages on Dylan seemed to darken to a crimson color Emma had never seen. Time was being measured by the small gasps of air Dylan was taking through the oxygen mask. Time wasn’t relevant if it meant Dylan couldn’t be saved.

  Someone was rubbing her back, and it didn’t make sense. Brooke was kneeling over Tyler, putting an ice pack against her face. Jennifer wasn’t there.

  “They’re going to do everything they can.” Caden was talking to her, trying to soothe her. That in itself was surreal.

  Emma didn’t want to be soothed. She wanted to know why this had happened. She wanted to understand what went wrong. She wanted someone to tell her why she’d spent her life being lonely only to find someone she could never have. She wanted to know what she’d done, and if she could take it back. She’d take it all back to save Dylan.

  They were landing. Dropping onto the ground from a helicopter would’ve been something she’d like to see, but not now. She wanted someone to fix Dylan. It was taking too long and she was mad at herself for not being able to do anything but watch. Finally, there were people jumping out and others jumping in the helo. Caden grabbed her and pulled her away from Dylan. Instinctively, she fought against the hold. She didn’t want Dylan to be alone.

  “They need to get her into the hospital. They’ll take care of her.” Caden again. Voices seemed far away and echoed off her panic. She knew Caden was standing next to her, but she seemed somewhere else.

  Emma watched as they wheeled Dylan into the building and away from her. “Can we go with her? We have to go with her. She won’t know where she is.”

  Caden nodded and put her hand on her shoulder. “Let’s go talk to the nurses.”

  Emma followed Caden inside. It wasn’t a hospital but rather a makeshift area for medical emergencies sustained during a military accident. There were only a few chairs inside the building, and the front desk wasn’t much more than a table with some files and a phone. A doctor ran in from another area and disappeared behind another door.

  There were men and women in uniforms she didn’t recognize. She wanted answers, but she didn’t feel like she could move. She couldn’t see Tyler or Brooke, either. Her feet were stuck and she stared around the room, numb and lost.

  Caden sat her down in one of the chairs. “Wait here, I’ll be right back.”

  Emma listened to the beeping instruments coming from somewhere else. Personnel were yelling to one another. Giving directives, she assumed, in a language she didn’t understand. She covered her face with her hands, finally letting herself cry.

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Tyler thanked the officer who’d allowed her to use the phone. She wasn’t comfortable with the idea of powering up her cell phone until she knew what was going on back in the States. Her wounds had been superficial, but a minor concussion was causing her head to throb.

  “Do you have a room I can meet with my team in?” She rubbed her brow. She knew it wouldn’t get rid of the pain, but she tried all the same.

  “Of course. We’re happy to help, however we can.” He stood. “Follow me, and I’ll direct the rest of your team where to meet you.”

  Tyler sat in one of the empty seats and chugged down the bottle of water on the table.

  Brooke looked like she wanted to check on her again when she entered the room but sat next to her without saying anything. Right now, all their focus had to be on the mission. Caden and Emma came in next. Emma was looking over her shoulder as if she could see the hospital from a building on the opposite side of the base.

  Tyler pulled out her notepad and flipped it open. She needed to make sure she covere
d all the information she’d received from their superiors. “I was able to speak with Deputy Director Martin. I informed him that we have O’Brien in custody and that she’s being held here in Estonia until we get transport back home. One of the Marines who escorted us on the helicopter is guarding her now. Captain Hart and Director Walker made it to the embassy without issue. Glass made it safely as well. They’ll be sent back to the States on a military transport tomorrow evening. Walker is being charged with treason, conspiracy against the United States, and conspiracy to assassinate the president and vice president. I’m sure there will be more.” Tyler took another sip of her water. “They want O’Brien back as soon as possible. We’re scheduled to be transported to Germany, and then to the States. Obviously, the helo had to leave without us, but we’ll get another ride without a problem.”

  “When?” Emma’s voice was void of emotion.

  “Tomorrow night,” Tyler said.

  “I’m not leaving Dylan here alone.” Emma crossed her arms.

  “I don’t feel good about it either, but they want O’Brien back. They want us all debriefed, and they aren’t keen on us staying here. Estonia is one of our allies, but we don’t know Nikolai’s reach, and the longer we stay here, the more dangerous it is for everyone.” Tyler knew none of that would matter to Emma. Brooke had told her that Emma had become single-minded after Dylan had been shot.

  “We don’t even know if she’s going to pull through yet. We can’t just leave her here alone.” Emma was growing more agitated with each word.

  “The Marine with O’Brien right now will stay with Dylan until she can be transported to Germany to fully recover.” Tyler kept her voice calm, hoping her words would sink in.

  “Then what? Where will she go when she’s healed?”