Maia shook her head in annoyance. "Look, you have a problem with my methods, suck it up. If you tie him up and he gets loose and we're still around, that's another hostile we're up against, you get me?"
"I'm still in charge here," Rick reminded her.
"Fine, let's tie him up," Maia retorted.
They used the ropes that had been their foot restraints to secure the remaining guard. Maia tore a strip of cloth from the guard's clothing to gag him. They took an inventory of their arsenal: two carbines, two 9mm, two extra magazines.
They also took a set of keys. There were no cellphones on the guards. Maia grabbed one of their radios.
Rick poked his head through the door and checked out the hallway.
"It's clear."
"Question is, which way is out?"
"Footsteps keep coming from the right so I guess it's that way."
"This looks like a big old house."
The two moved stealthily along the passageway until they saw stairs leading up. Maia saw an opposite hallway.
"I wonder what's over there. I see light shining under one of the rooms," Maia murmured.
"We do not have time to explore," Rick hissed.
Suddenly the guard's radio crackled.
"Stepan, come in. You forgot to check in."
Rick and Maia looked at each other with an identical "Oh shit" look on their face.
"Let's go!" Rick urged.
Halfway up the basement stairs, they heard the thundering of footsteps above; they were heading their way fast.
"Prisoners have escaped! They're at the basement stairs."
Too late they saw the camera that was mounted at the top of the steps.
"God damn it!" Rick cursed as he shot out the surveillance camera. "They're almost on top of us. We need to retreat."
"Over here," Maia said quickly as she bolted down the hallway where she observed the lit room.
"Damn it, Maia," Rick growled as he ran after her. A hail of gunfire peppered the ground behind them as Reznikov's men appeared at the top of the stairs.
"Go, go, go!" Rick barked.
Reaching the room, Maia hurtled through the door, startling a young woman dressed in a lab coat.
She immediately hunkered down with her arms up.
"I'll be damned," Maia said as she surveyed the laboratory before her. Reznikov was closer to producing the Rave-IX than she thought. There was medical equipment and boxes of raw material stashed almost to the ceiling. A couple of steel tables, high-swivel chairs, metal book cases and an old wooden table were arranged throughout the room.
"Who are you?" Maia asked the young woman who right then looked scared shitless.
"My name is Lizveta," the woman said in an accented voice. "Please, do not hurt me. I only do as I'm told."
"Maia!" Rick yelled. "Some help here! I'm almost out." He was taking cover behind a door frame while keeping the Russians at bay with a torrent of bullets.
"Here," Maia said as she tossed one of her magazines to him. Rick gave her an incredulous look as she continued to interrogate Lizveta.
"Where is the formula for the Rave-IX?"
Lizveta's eyes grew wide and her lips trembled. "Reznikov will kill me if I tell you."
"I will kill you if you don't tell me."
"Maia, what the fuck?" Rick snarled in disbelief at her methods.
Lizveta immediately unlocked a safe, took out a binder and handed it to Maia. She fingered through it quickly and tore some pages off, folded and tucked them behind her jeans. She then gestured for the other woman to move to the far side of the room.
"We can't outgun them," Maia said as she did another scan of the room.
"You think?" Rick retorted. There was a lull in the gunfire.
"You two can't escape!" Reznikov shouted from the other end. "There is no way out. Surrender now and we will make your deaths quick."
"The guy really hates you," Rick said sarcastically.
"Don't know why? I'm so lovable," Maia quipped as she rolled a tank of pressurized gas towards the doorway. Illeoic gas was a recently discovered compound that was used largely in pharmaceutical companies. It was lethally explosive and had zero burn.
"What are you doing?" Rick asked in alarm.
"What do you think? We're running out of ammo. Unless you have a better idea, get the other two tanks. I'll hold them off."
"You're fucking nuts, you know that right?" Rick said but he did what Maia told him to do.
Maia swung the carbine from her shoulder and leaned out to rake the base of the stairs with some gunfire.
"Come and get us you Russian A-holes," Maia shouted as she shifted the carbine to single shot and took out one of his men who had dared to poke their head from behind the walls. She looked back to see how far along Rick had gotten.
"Rick, tilt the wood table. It's heavy and thick enough to use as a shield. That should absorb and block the blast energy."
"I'll take the shot."
"No! I need you to take Lizveta to safety or to dig me out in case I get buried. You're physically stronger, and I'm a better shot."
"I don't think I can miss a tank of illeoic gas, Maia," Rick snapped.
"We don't have time to argue. Do it!"
Rick grudgingly followed her instructions. After a few minutes, he gave the signal that everything was in place.
Maia ejected her magazine and gave the sound of an empty chamber trigger sound.
"Shit, I'm out!" Maia yelled dramatically, loud enough for Reznikov and his men to hear.
She slammed the door shut and secured it with a metal rod. She arranged the gas tanks at the base and scrambled behind the wooden table directly in front of the door.
Running footsteps echoed down the hallway and bullets started puncturing the door. "Get it open!" Reznikov screamed, his voice vibrating with uncontrolled fury.
Maia smiled; she could taste the end of her ardent adversary. She looked over at Rick who was huddled in a corner behind some metal bookcases with Lizveta. He was looking at her with a mixture of dread and worry. She gave him a salute.
When bullets pelted the edge of the table, she peeked out from her cover, took aim at the gas tanks and fired.
The tank exploded. The massive shockwave knocked the table against Maia and blasted her straight into the shelves behind her causing them to collapse on top of her. She tried to move, but her limbs felt weighted with lead, her hearing was shot, and it felt like she was being dragged into the depths of a black hole. And then suddenly, there was nothing.
***
The DEA district office in Baltimore was crawling with agents following the drug bust at Addison Music Hall the previous night. The Rave-IX and cash recovered amounted to more than 10 million dollars.
Jack and Derek arrived with a few AGS Guardians to receive new directives following the loss of the two leads from both agencies. A silver-haired, stocky man greeted the group and introduced himself as Joe Kennedy—Rick Grayson's supervisor. He led them into a conference room occupied by around eight other people who appeared to be talking or arguing at the same time.
"Jesus," Jack muttered to Derek. "Cut off two heads and you've got chaos."
"We're almost all here, we are just waiting for ..." Joe Kennedy started to say.
"I'm here," a familiar voice spoke from the doorway.
A tall, European-looking man with very light blond hair stepped into the room. His glacier blue eyes glanced briefly over Jack before settling on Derek.
"Derek." He nodded to the other AGS agents.
"Viktor," Derek replied in greeting. Before he could introduce Jack, Viktor moved further into the room and took the seat beside Joe Kennedy.
"He's not one for chit-chat," Derek murmured to Jack.
"I don't think he's very pleased with me at the moment," Jack replied. He observed the other man in Maia's life, the seemingly constant force in her existence. For him to show up personally in this meeting only underlined the gravity of his concern of the curren
t situation.
"So far we have no leads on the whereabouts of Agent Grayson and Miss Pierce," Joe Kennedy said. "Forensics have gone over every strand of hair and fiber in the warehouse and have confirmed a DNA match that Richard Grayson had been in the area."
"Are you sure you have extracted everything you can from Peter Coltrane?" Viktor asked in an authoritative voice.
"Of course we have," Joe Kennedy replied, not appreciating being questioned by his AGS counterpart. "What I do question is how one of your agents got nabbed?"
"Might I remind you how my agent was instrumental in the bust last night, not to mention the capture of Colt?" Viktor's eyes flashed with anger.
"Can we just focus on how to find them?" Jack interrupted impatiently. This blame game was not helping.
"That's just the problem, McCord, we are at a dead end. The warehouse was it," Joe replied.
"Bullshit," Jack said. "The warehouse was what Colt gave up. Have you gone through the list of properties that Peter Coltrane owns? Or maybe they're under his wife's name?"
"Someone is going through that right now. We've only had Colt for less than 24 hours. It will take time to coordinate raids."
"So it's not a dead end," Jack said with a degree of satisfaction. The problem with Federal agencies was the red tape. And the higher the position, the more likely it was to embrace the bureaucracy and slow things down.
"Has anyone checked the container at Baltimore Harbor?" a DEA agent spoke up.
"Yes, Colt gave up the container number but it was empty. There were some traces of the drug so we know it was the right container," Joe said.
"Do we really know how much was floating around?"
"No. Right now Forensics is going through Colt's laptop to figure out who his clients were. If they are outside our jurisdiction, we will send it to the appropriate DEA district office. According to Agent Grayson, he was allotted 100,000 pieces at fifteen bucks each."
"I want a crack at interrogating Colt," Viktor spoke up.
"Absolutely not!" Joe said emphatically. "He is in our custody, I'm not sure your methods are ... what we call ... legal."
Jack was losing patience. This meeting was going nowhere.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door.
"Come in!"
A woman burst through the door, her face brimming with excitement. Everyone in the room tensed.
"There was a report of an explosion in a subdivision just outside of Baltimore. We were able to get the address from the 911 dispatcher. The house belongs to the parents of the wife of Peter Coltrane. We're trying to get more information from the first responders."
The room erupted in chatter.
"Oh my God," Derek whispered as his eyes met Jack's. Jack couldn't form a coherent thought as multiple scenarios played through his head. All he wanted to do was get to the scene of the explosion immediately. He forced himself to wait patiently. The minutes ticked by torturously.
Finally another person entered the room.
"The details are hazy but we have confirmation that it's Richard Grayson, he doesn't appear to be injured badly" the man said as cheers and high-fives went around the room. "We have multiple fatalities in a basement explosion."
Jack felt his stomach plummet.
"What about a Maia Pierce?" Viktor asked as he stood up.
The man shook his head, more as a sign that he didn't know, than an outright no. "There was a woman reported to be in critical condition..."
That was enough to send Viktor tearing out of the room, Jack and Derek at his heels.
Viktor, aware that they were following him, said over his shoulder. "I have a chopper on standby, we can take that."
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Rick Grayson gripped his head as he tried to shake off the vacuum that had threatened to swallow him. He could barely hear a thing. He shook Lizveta beside him to get her attention and gave her the thumbs up to ask her if she was okay. She nodded her head, still in a daze.
Forcing himself to his feet, he trudged slowly through the aftermath of an illeoic gas explosion. It had punched a huge hole in the ceiling revealing the first floor. It's surprising that the whole house had not collapsed on them.
"Maia!" Rick shouted. His voice sounded strange and distant from himself. He winced at the carnage and tangle of limbs by the door. His heart sank as he looked at the area where Maia was supposed to be and found nothing. It was like a tidal wave had pushed everything to the back of the room.
"Maia!" Rick yelled again in increasing panic. He started turning over floor boards and God knows what other debris looking for a sign of the red-haired AGS Guardian. He saw the wood table and what looked like a dust-covered limb sticking out from underneath it.
"Oh My God," Rick muttered as he carefully heaved the heavy table away to reveal the unmoving body of Maia Pierce. "No, no, no," Rick sank to his knees as he reached out to feel a pulse. He couldn't discern one and started CPR. Almost immediately Maia coughed and started choking, Rick assisted her and rubbed her back. Then he made her lie down again as he gestured for Lizveta to approach.
"Make sure she stays awake," Rick ordered even if he wasn't sure Lizveta could hear him at this point but she appeared to understand.
Rick walked around the demolished laboratory looking for something with which to hoist them up. He made himself walk over the grouping of dead bodies to see if there was a way to use the basement stairs, but the explosion caused the wall and ceiling to cave-in and block the passageway.
Great job, Maia, Rick thought in derision.
Rick saw the flashing lights first before he could make out the sounds of the siren. He heard someone shouting but could not understand what they were saying.
"Here! We're down here!" Rick shouted.
A fireman peered down the open floor.
Rick pointed to his ears. "Explosion messed up my hearing. I won't be able to understand verbal instructions."
The fireman nodded and disappeared to return with a couple more first responders. They were assessing the stability of the structure. Some of them were shocked at the bloody mess by the door.
While they figured out how to get them out of the basement, they lowered some food, water and blankets to the survivors below. They also lowered a notepad so Rick could write down some contact information that may be useful, like the DEA's Joe Kennedy and what caused the explosion. Rick was tempted to write: Maia Pierce.
After what felt like forever, ropes were lowered and rescue workers started to rappel down. They had to call in people with the experience to deal with such rescue. Two people carrying a stretcher approached them.
"What happened?" the lead person asked.
"She got thrown by the explosion. She was hunkered down over there and ended up over here. I couldn't keep her conscious. Her name is Maia," Rick said.
The paramedic nodded grimly.
"Maia," the man said as he tapped her cheek lightly. "Maia, wake up."
Her eyes blinked and she croaked, "What...where am I?"
He waved the beam of a flashlight on her eyes. Her pupils remained dilated and she was unresponsive.
"Shit, she's got severe concussion and is in shock. We need to get her to the trauma unit ASAP."
The AGS chopper descended a short distance from the grouping of emergency vehicles parked in front of a massive colonial-style home. A gaping hole was visible in the side of the house. The implication of an explosion and someone in critical condition kept replaying itself in Jack's mind. He kept consoling himself that if Rick was okay, then Maia should be too. Hadn't she just survived a boat explosion? Christ, wasn't that just a little over a week ago? At the rate he worried about her, it was surprising he had not had a heart attack by now.
Jack spied Rick Grayson among the numerous police officers, firemen and EMTs at the scene. The minute the helicopter touched down, Jack jumped off and headed straight for the DEA agent.
"Rick!" Jack yelled. Grayson turned and broke into a smile.
&nbs
p; "Jack! Can't believe how glad I am to see your ugly face."
"You OK, man?"
"Banged up and a bit deaf but otherwise ..."
"Is Maia with you?"
Rick's face sobered which sent a twinge of fear racing through Jack's nerves.
"They're stabilizing her. They should hoist her up any moment."
"What?" Jack had trouble comprehending what Rick meant.
"Come on," Rick said as he walked over to the crater over the first floor. A police officer moved to stop them but Rick explained that they were part of the team involved in the operation.
"Jesus Christ, what happened here?" Jack said as he took in the rubble and the smattering of bodies and body parts. And then his heart stilled as he spotted Maia in a neck brace getting hoisted up in a stretcher. "Maia!"
Turning to Rick, "What the hell happened?"
"Short story?" Rick sighed. "We were running out of ammo, Reznikov and his men were bearing down on us, Maia decided an illeoic gas tank explosion was the best option."
Jack was speechless. Though he wanted to throttle his woman for coming up with such insane idea, he couldn't disagree that it wasn't an effective plan given the circumstances.
"Why am I not surprised?" Viktor muttered behind them.
"The blast threw her against the wall. Believe me, we were arguing about who was going to take the shot, but she insisted it be her. Said I was the most qualified to dig her out."
"Hmm, it would be a shame to have her survive the explosion only to be murdered by her boyfriend," Derek added as he watched Jack's jaw clenched in response to the news of Maia's disregard for her safety.
"And Reznikov?" Viktor asked.
"Somewhere between the wall and the floor, I presume," Rick said showing no regret about the Russian's brutal demise. Turning to the three men he said solemnly, "No doubt, Maia is one crazy chick and we've had our differences on how to handle things. But no question, she saved my life."
Rick suddenly gripped the crown of his head. "I need to have myself checked out. I have this blasted headache and my hearing is not a hundred percent. I'll probably see you guys around at the hospital."
Fire and Ice (Guardians) Page 22
