How long he stayed shrouded in the empty shifting mist, he didn’t know. It enveloped him. A grayness swirled around him and, senseless, he hovered. The only thing he could tell was the vapor became darker. The murky gray haze transformed into ashen clouds.
Far away, he heard a sound. He wanted to continue his free fall into the vacuum and embrace death but from somewhere outside the ether, a voice called to him.
“Jack.”
The mist began to vanish, and he could see the monitor.
It was Michelle’s voice. She looked directly at the camera, straight at him, and called out his name.
“Jack,” she called to him again.
“Jack,” Replacement’s voice echoed in the tube.
“Please,” Michelle and Replacement called out at the same time. One voice in the here and now and the other from the tape, but their pleas blended together.
“The scrawny bitch is loose,” Missy shrieked. “Brendan, you idiot. I told you to make sure she couldn’t get out of the restraints.”
Jack felt the stretcher being pulled out of the tube. Replacement tugged at the strap on his wrist.
As Replacement yanked on the restraint, Brendan rushed up behind her. He grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her into the air as her legs flailed wildly.
She twisted around in his arms, and her fingernails raked his face.
Brendan shrieked.
He dropped her, and she fell down against the stretcher.
“Punch her in the head,” Missy screeched.
Replacement turned and tore at Jack’s leg straps. She managed to pull the first part of the restraint out of the buckle. She flashed a brief smile before Brendan’s fist slammed into the side of her face. The strike was so hard her head snapped around. Her body went limp, and she crumbled over Jack’s legs. He looked down into her face. Her eyes were open, but they were black and dilated. Jack knew the vicious blow had knocked her out cold…or she was dead.
Brendan grabbed her limp body and pushed, dumping it on the floor.
“What’re you doing?” Missy hissed. “Make sure she’s dead.”
Brendan looked toward the control booth. “Fine. We can’t use her now anyway.” He walked over to a cabinet, reached in, and took out a syringe.
Deep down inside, Jack knew he was a violent man. There had always been a beast inside him, wanting to break out of its cage. He feared it. He knew what it was: hate, pure and simple. He’d locked it away, but the monster didn’t die; it grew. Finding Michelle that day had begun to release it. The hate remained just below the surface, semi-restrained inside its broken cage. Part of him wanted to close his eyes and run from the blackness that burned through his veins, but now Jack embraced the hate. He released the beast.
Jack yanked up, his chest muscles tightened, and he felt as though his ribs splintered apart. He was frothing at the mouth and biting the gag as he screamed. Spit flew upward into a red mist. Jack felt something on the gurney crack as he contorted his body. The burning from the drugs flowed even hotter through his veins, but he didn’t feel the pain. He only felt the hate. He pulled his arms down tightly against the restraints, and his eyes rolled back in his head. His legs shot up as fast as they could, and he felt the gurney bend. Screaming, he pushed with everything he had.
Brendan walked over and stood next to the stretcher. “Go ahead and fight. You’ll never break those straps.” Brendan pushed the plunger of the syringe and a reddish liquid sprayed out. He walked around the gurney and began to lean down over Replacement.
Alice. Not her. Don’t let her die.
Jack planted his heels and thrust with all his might. The restraints on his legs ripped free from the stretcher and pieces of molded resin flew through the air.
Brendan turned, and Jack kicked him squarely in the face. The force of the blow sent him back into the glass wall, and he fell to the floor.
Jack struggled to release his arms, but the restraints held them fast.
Brendan shook his head as he stood back up. He looked around for the syringe.
Jack roared in frustration and pulled against the wrist straps.
Brendan picked up the syringe from the floor. He sneered as he slowly approached Jack and raised the syringe in the air.
Jack twisted and angled his legs toward the oncoming attack.
Brendan chuckled.
“Get him, Jack!”
The familiar but unsteady voice came from below him. As he turned, he realized his restraints had been set free. Replacement slid out from underneath the stretcher. She held up two cotter pins in her trembling hand. Tears mixed with the blood on her face, but she still smiled up at him. “You want at him, boy? Go get him.”
“He’s loose. Kill him.” Missy’s shout echoed over the speakers.
Jack leapt to his feet, and Brendan stepped back, surprised by the sudden turn of events.
Jack staggered, and his vision blurred as he ripped the bit from his mouth and the tape off his eyes.
Brendan charged with the syringe held in front of him. Jack’s left leg flashed out and smashed into the side of Brendan’s hand. The syringe flew out, but Brendan’s momentum kept him coming forward. Jack stepped to the right, and his elbow crashed into the side of Brendan’s head. He grabbed Brendan by his collar and belt. Pulling him against his leg, he twisted his body and pivoted his hip. Brendan’s feet went straight up, and Jack cried out in agony.
As Brendan reached the pinnacle of the flip, Jack slammed him down. Brendan hit with a sickening thump and his body went limp on impact.
“Jack,” Replacement cried and pointed to the control room.
As Jack spun around, he saw Missy through the glass. She held his gun and pointed it straight at him. Her lips curled back in a triumphant snarl. Then she turned and aimed the gun at Replacement’s chest.
Everything slowed. Jack stumbled sideways. He pushed off his rear foot; pain tore along his thigh as he ran forward.
He was too late. He saw the muzzle flash. Small flames flicked out of the barrel of the gun, and the recoil kicked it up and to the left. The glass in front of Missy spiderwebbed.
“Alice.” Jack heard a high-pitched scream as he lunged forward and tackled Replacement. They crashed onto the floor and slid across the black tiles.
He jumped up and knelt over her. His hands frantically searched her body to look for the entry wound. Replacement gazed up at him in bewilderment and shook her head. She turned her palms upward. They stared in disbelief at the window. The round lodged in the thick glass; the bullet hadn’t passed through.
Missy was screaming and holding her bloody hand.
Jack smirked. He knew what had happened. She had wrapped her fingers around his gun too high and the slide action had probably broken if not removed her thumb. Jack and Replacement got up and stumbled for the door. Jack attempted to turn the handle, but it was locked.
As he turned to look at Replacement, he saw her eyes go wide. “Jack!” He tried to move, but he wasn’t fast enough. Brendan smashed into his back and slammed him up against the wall.
Brendan’s fist caught him in the jaw, and Jack’s head snapped to the side. He saw stars and his feet slipped. His left arm grabbed for the wall as Brendan’s weight drove him to the ground. The back of Jack’s head smashed into the floor, and his whole body shook.
Brendan knelt down on top of him and raised his fist.
Block.
Brendan punched right and then left. Jack’s head whipped to the side with each blow. Jack knew what to do, but his body was not responding. Pain burned through every fiber of his body as the punches continued to rain down on him. A blow from the right split his lip open.
A loud twang rang out, and Brendon’s eyes rolled back. Replacement stood triumphantly behind him with the stool clutched in her hands.
Jack screamed in pain as he pulled his hands up and then thrust them down.
Spear hands to the groin.
Brendan groaned and fell forward, his hands landing
on either side of Jack’s head. Jack reached up and grabbed the back of Brendan’s hair in his left hand. He pulled down as he struck Brendan’s jaw with his right hand. Jack’s hands moving in opposite directions twisted Brendan’s head with such brutal force that his neck snapped. Brendan’s body fell forward like a marionette cut from its strings.
Jack shoved the body off him and despite the agony, he forced himself to sit up. He struggled to stand as each movement sent a wave of pain crashing over him. His hands violently trembled as he tore through Brendan’s pockets. “Where’s his pass?”
Suddenly, the whole room shook, and a muffled roar thundered from above. The lights flickered, and dust fell from the ceiling.
Jack looked to Replacement. “That was an explosion.”
He turned toward the control booth and saw that Missy was also perplexed.
The second explosion was so loud and powerful it knocked Jack off his feet. Ceiling tiles fell to the ground, and the lights went on and off as a power surge raced through the building. Sprinklers hissed, but no water came out.
“Replacement?” He crawled to where she’d been.
“Jack?” He heard the panic in her voice.
Emergency lights flicked on. The small lights cast a strange glow around the room.
“What the hell happened?” Jack pulled himself to his feet and helped Replacement up.
“I may have done that…” She smiled sheepishly.
The large machine sped up and whirled faster and faster. The electrical wires and lights hanging down bent toward it, as even without power, the uncontrolled magnet continued its insatiable pull.
“We have to go,” Replacement cried out.
Jack slipped his arm around her waist and moved for the door. He tried the handle. Even with the power cut, it still wouldn’t turn.
“It’s still locked.”
“It’s a keypad.” Replacement ran to the wall and frantically punched in codes. “Four digits. I saw the first three.” Replacement muttered as she kept typing and pulling the handle after each attempt. “Bingo.”
The door swung open. Jack stepped back. Smoke was visible in the hallway.
“Wait!” Missy’s muffled scream came from behind the glass. “Wait.”
Jack looked back into the control booth. Missy pounded on the window.
“I can’t get out. Something fell in front of the door. I’m trapped,” Missy yelled.
Jack took one step toward her, and Replacement grabbed his arm. He could see that the explosion had bent the control room door out of its frame.
“You’re going to get what you wanted, Missy. You wanted to find the God Spot? It looks like God has come looking for you.”
“Please,” Missy begged. “You have to help me. You’re a policeman,” she pleaded.
Thick black smoke drifted into the room.
Hate flooded Jack’s heart as he glared at his torturer. Jack gritted his teeth, but then he grabbed the stool and rushed toward the control room. He slammed it against the window, but the glass didn’t break. He groaned and swung the stool again.
The fMRI whirled louder and louder. A metal pipe blasted a hole behind Missy as it ripped through the wall.
Missy shrieked. “The shielding’s broken. Please!” She screeched and ran into the corner of the control room.
Metal objects from the hallway flew through the air and slammed into the glass. The sound of twisting metal made them look toward the ceiling. The sprinkler system in the lab was plastic tubing, but in the building, it was metal pipes. All of that metal started pulling toward the colossal super magnet now that the explosion had cracked the shielding.
The whole wall cracked as the metal bent toward the machine. Missy’s screams stopped as the ceiling in the control room collapsed in a deafening roar.
Jack grabbed Replacement and hurried through the door as they raced out into the hallway.
Holding each other up, they limped down the corridor. The smoke was already thick along the ceiling, and they walked hunched over. Jack was in agony with each step. Beneath his feet, the floor was moving.
Through the smoke, they could just make out an emergency exit sign and they stumbled toward it. There was a loud crash, and they were flung forward. Ceiling tiles and lighting strips rained down on them as the hallway behind disappeared into rubble.
“Jack, come on. Jack!”
Replacement’s voice, and the need within it, gave Jack just enough strength to shrug off the debris that littered his shoulders and pull himself up. He staggered back onto his feet. Keeping low, he grabbed Replacement’s hand and made a final dash for the exit sign.
They reached a stairwell that led up into the building.
“Here.” He took off his shirt and ripped it in half. He handed half to her and put the other half over his face.
“We can’t go up,” Replacement cried as she looked up the staircase filled with thick black smoke.
“Over here.” He led her around the staircase to the utility doorway at the bottom of the stairs.
The door opened to a narrow service corridor that had no emergency lighting. Blackness loomed in front of them.
“Follow me and don’t let go.”
He gripped Replacement’s hand and started down into the darkness. The smoke burned his eyes, and his chest heaved with the effort of breathing. With his right hand, he felt his way along the corridor. The whole building continued to shake, and Jack could feel the dust raining down on them.
He reached his hand out and felt the cold touch of metal. He waved his hand around until he felt a handle.
A door.
They burst through the door, out into the night. Coughing, they staggered forward as glowing embers fell all around them. Broken glass and debris, flung outward from the explosion, crunched under their feet.
A light snow was falling and the flames engulfing the upper floors cast strange shadows on the trees. Stumbling, they climbed the small hill and found themselves at the corner of the parking lot.
Replacement reached out and took Jack’s hand. He looked at her. The thoughts in his head swirled like the snowflakes that drifted around them. The rising flames drew his eyes back toward the building. Half of the psychology center had blown up, and the entire structure was now engulfed in flames.
They could feel the heat where they stood. He wasn’t cold; his body still burned from the drugs. He looked back at the fire and once again realized his fate could have been quite different.
Replacement must have realized it too. She closed her eyes and whispered, “Thank you, God.”
Jack pulled her close. The snow sparkled in her hair, and the fire reflected in her eyes. They held onto each other as they watched the large snowflakes fall to the ground.
Jack could hear the sirens approach in the distance. As they waited, he watched the snow create a veil of white on her hair and shoulders. He smiled. One of her eyes was swollen shut; her face was stained with soot, blood, and tears, but she smiled back.
“How did you do that?” He nodded toward the fire.
“Brendan chased me into the chem lab. I started trashing the place and mixing everything together, hoping it would set off the fire alarm. I didn’t think…” With wide eyes, she gestured to the destroyed building.
Jack laughed so hard that tears ran down his face in spite of the pain. He looked down at Replacement, and his smile changed to a crooked grin as he shook his head.
“Only you, kid.”
Replacement pushed him back and then pulled him even closer than before.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
I Got This One
The Impala cruised down the highway toward Fairfield. Replacement stretched her legs out onto the dashboard, and Jack winced. Her ankles were bruised from the restraints. Her jaw was swollen, and her eyes were black and blue. He frowned and looked forward.
He looked in the rearview mirror and caught a glimpse of himself.
I won’t be winning any beauty contests, either.
“Replacement?”
“Yeah?” She turned her head to look at him.
“What’s your favorite color?”
“What?” She wiggled around in her seat.
“What’s your favorite color?” he repeated.
“Green.”
“Green?”
“Green like my eyes.” She perked right up. “What’s yours?”
“Black, like my heart.” He laughed.
“Seriously, what’s your favorite color, Jack?”
“Pink.”
“Hey. You’re the one that started this.” She crossed her arms.
“Fine. Red.”
“Okay. I start next.” She sat up and turned to look at him, clearly enjoying the game.
“What’s your favorite movie?”
Jack smiled. “Rocky.”
“That boxing movie that you made me watch?” She rolled her eyes.
“It’s a great movie. It won an Oscar.” He saw her making a face. “Whatever. What’s yours?”
She wrinkled her nose as she thought. “The Wizard of Oz.”
“The flying monkeys didn’t freak you out?”
“I just like it.” She sighed. “It’s like my life.”
“Your life?” Jack raised an eyebrow. “And who are you, Dorothy?”
“Yes.” She impishly grinned. “You’re in it too.”
Jack sat up. “Me? Who am I? The Tin Man?”
“Nope.” She shook her head.
“If you say the Cowardly Lion…” Jack scowled.
“Nope.” She giggled.
“The Scarecrow?”
“No brain? A possibility but…nope.” She hugged her legs to her chest.
“Who then?”
“Toto.”
“The dog? I’m like the dog?” Jack looked at her in disbelief.
“Yeah. You’re always running around, barking at me. You follow me everywhere but…you’re loyal too.”
“Seriously?”
“See. There you go getting yappy, but if I give you a pat on the head you’re all loveable again.”
GIRL JACKED (Crime and Punishment Mystery Thriller Series) Page 27
