by JJ Aughe
Her back to Jessie as she paced toward the window Melissa froze in mid stride. I have never told anyone the real story behind my locket, she agonized. It’s so personal! Yet, I have to say something because I don’t want Jessie to think I don’t trust her. But what can I say that won’t sound like my grandfather was a thief?
She turned to face Jessie to explain, but, again froze as the tinted window behind her suddenly shattered. Something hissed by her head, striking the wall, piercing it and traveling on through, exploding somewhere beyond.
The explosion rocked the building, tumbling Jessie to the floor. She scrambled to her feet. Seeing Melissa seemed frozen in place Jessie leaped at the woman, grabbing her by the waist, dragging her to the floor. She had to shake Melissa to get her to look at her. Seeing the terror in the woman’s eyes, Jessie yelled over the roar of the fire the explosion had caused. “We have to get out of here, Melissa!”
Melissa just looked at her with a vacant stare. Without another word Jessie grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing her along the floor ahead of her as she crawled toward the doorway. “I hope the hallway isn’t completely ablaze,” she mumbled to herself as she positioned Melissa and herself against the wall beside the door. Cautiously, she reached up and felt the inside of the door. Though the wood felt warm she didn’t think the fire was too close. She was about to turn the doorknob when gunfire erupted outside and bullets began to pierce the walls of the room. The door suddenly flew open.
Sean rushed by her as Bailey grabbed her by the arms, hauling her to his chest. After making sure Sean had Melissa, he grabbed two blankets from the bed. Throwing one blanket to Sean he wrapped the other cocoon-style around Jessie and pulled her into the hall. Sean carried Melissa into the hall as the overhead sprinkler system activated, immediately drenching all four of them. Seconds later they were in the bathroom of Bailey’s room and at the entrance to one of the escape tunnels. As he slid the bulletproof bathroom door’s safety bolt home Bailey instructed Sean on how to open the door to the tunnel’s entrance.
An eerie silence followed as the heavy door silently slid closed behind them, effectively blocking out the sounds of gunfire and explosions. Battery-powered lights immediately came on revealing a steep stairwell leading to the escape tunnels below.
Bailey used the key Agent Winfrey had given him to open the small red door Dennis had said held emergency supplies. He handed a fully loaded .40 mm Glock and two extra quick load, twelve load clips and a box of ammo to Jessie and another to Sean. He glanced at Melissa. “Do you know how to use one of these?”
Terrified, yet knowing her life depended on her getting control of her emotions Melissa nodded and took the small thirty-eight caliber pistol and box of ammo he was holding out to her. Forcing back her fear she calmly stated, “I can and will use it if necessary.”
Bailey silently nodded his approval then spread Jessie’s blanket on the floor. Empting the remaining contents of the compartment onto the blanket he quickly fashioned an impromptu carrying bag by securely tying each of the blanket’s corners together to make loops. He slipped his left arm and head through two of the loops, letting the bundle settle at his back. Then he led everyone down the steps to the larger, brightly lit, main tunnel below.
There were stenciled arrows at the corners of each the walls of the four tunnels with either a capitol N, E, W or S below them indicating the directions of the compass. Going north would be the most logical way for them to get out, Bailey reasoned, but that would be toward the exit road and he was sure Almed would already have had that route pretty well guarded. The same went for the westward route. That left the eastern and southern routes. He had just decided on the eastern route when Agent Winfrey’s urgent voice came booming over the speaker above their heads.
“Gilmore! We’re losing this battle! Mace and Willis are dead! Tom is here with me but I have lost track of Bealour. I don’t know how long we can do it, but we will hold them off as long as we can. Get the others out of there! Take the tunnel you are facing and don’t waste any time! Use that key again in the electrical utilities door at the end. Not fifteen minutes ago I put info in there just in case. Use it! Good, , .” A series of explosions suddenly rocked the tunnel drowning out Winfrey’s words.
When the explosions stopped, the speaker was ominously silent.
Bailey saw the stunned, shocked faces staring back at him. He knew they were as aware as he the silence of the speaker meant Winfrey and Tailor were probably also dead. Though he was as stunned by the agent’s deaths as his companions he knew he had to snap them out of it. “Come on! You heard her! Let’s get out of here!” Grabbing Jessie’s hand, his pistol held at the ready, he pulled her along behind him as he hurried into the tunnel marked with a capitol E.
They hadn’t gone thirty feet when Cal Bealour stepped from another entrance into the tunnel. When Bailey stopped everyone’s progress, Bealour shouted, “All of you come this way! Hurry! I’ve got a vehicle up there running and ready to go!”
Bailey caught a glimpse of a pistol Bealour tried to hold out of sight behind him and knew something was wrong. “I don’t think so, Bealour. We already have a destination in mind.”
Bealour only shrugged as if that was fine and started to turn to go back up the stairs. Suddenly his arm came from behind him, the muzzle of his weapon within inches of Bailey’s forehead. “Now,” he nastily growled. “I want all of you to drop your weapons or Gilmore is dead!”
The echo of weapons hitting the concrete floor was almost immediate. Stepping back and to the side, Bealour lowered his pistol but kept it trained on Bailey’s chest as he smugly grinned. “That’s better. Now, this is what is going to happen. Everyone is to go up these stairs ahead of me. At the top there is an open door. Someone will be there to meet you, so don’t get any ideas because one false move from any of you and I start shooting!”
Bealour smiled in triumph as Bailey took a step toward the entry. Suddenly Bealour’s eyes crossed as a hole appeared in the center of his forehead and a single muffled shot rang out from behind Bailey almost deafening him. Everyone dove for the floor as Bealour began to crumple, the automatic pistol in his hand erratically spraying bullets until it slipped from his lifeless fingers.
In the sudden silence that seemed to fill the passage Agent Winfrey’s familiar voice shouted from the next arched stairwell. “Is that you, Gilmore? I’m coming down, so don’t shoot me. I’ll have my hands empty and out from my sides”
From his prone position on the tunnel floor Bailey reached for his weapon, trained it on the entry, gruffly commanding, “Come on down, Winfrey. But make sure you have your hands empty and where I can see them!”
Blood making a track down her cheek and a bloody cloth bandage tied around her head Agent Winfrey stepped from the archway, her arms outstretched, her hands empty, her eyes taking in the scene. “I heard what was happening from up there,” she said as she stepped clear of the passage. Her eyes shifted, looking behind him. “Is everyone okay?”
With the suddenness of the appearance of Bealour and the following events there hadn’t been time for Bailey to check on anyone. Now the silence behind him was ominous and alarm shot through him. From his position on the floor he took a quick glance back. A few feet behind him Melissa lay atop Jessie on the floor of the tunnel, Sean sprawled across them both. None of the three were moving and he could see blood splattered on the bullet-pocked wall behind them. Fearing the worst, an agonized cry came from Bailey as he scrambled towards them. “NO-O-O!”
Jessie cannot be dead Bailey silently cried as he moved toward the motionless bodies. She can’t be! She has too much to live for to have her life snuffed out now! She has to be alive!
Covering the short distance in an instant, Bailey first quickly checked Sean’s pulse. He detected a weak one as Agent Winfrey knelt beside him. She helped him gently move Sean’s body off the women and onto the cement floor. They were stretching him out on the floor when one of the two women softly moaned. Hearing the moa
n gave Bailey hope as he glanced over at them. He was torn as to what he should do.
Agent Winfrey knowingly nodded toward the women. “I can handle this. You go ahead and check the women.”
That was all the encouragement Bailey needed. Preparing for the worst, he swung around, relieved to find Jessie conscious but with extreme pain evident in her emerald eyes. In a second, Bailey was cupping her cheeks with shaking palms.
“Where are you hurt?” he anxiously asked.
Between labored gasps Jessie answered. “I, , don’t, , know. Not, sure, if, I’m hurt. I, think, Melissa, was, hit though.” Seeming to gather strength, she finished with, “She hasn’t moved. I can’t feel her breathing.”
“I’m going to check her now, Jessie. When I move her off you I don’t you to try to move. You may have serious injuries.”
Checking for a pulse Bailey put two fingers to the side of Melissa’s throat. Finding a strong, but erratic pulse he ran his hands over the blanket covering her in a fast check of her back and legs for signs of exit wounds. He didn’t see any oozing blood so he gently rolled her off Jessie onto her back on the concrete floor.
He immediately saw a large lump forming on Melissa's forehead and fresh blood on the left side of the blanket she still had tightly wrapped around her. When he checked her upper torso through the blanket he couldn’t find any signs of her being hit anywhere there. As he removed the blanket from her left arm though, besides her previous shoulder wound, he found another wound just above her elbow. Though it was bleeding quite badly, it appeared as if a bullet had gone through the fleshy part of her arm, missing the bone.
Remembering the first-aid kit among the boxes he had stuffed into the blanket around his neck, he swung the blanket free, untied the corners and spread it out on the floor. Grabbing the kit he ripped the cellophane from it, opened it and searched the contents for something to use for a tourniquet and compress. Settling on a two-inch roll of gauze and a roll of adhesive tape he handed the first-aid kit to Agent Winfrey. Then, using the gauze, he formed a makeshift tourniquet, tying it securely around Melissa’s upper arm to stop the flow of blood. In seconds he had the compress on the new wound and the arm wrapped several times with gauze and tape. Then he removed the tourniquet.
As he removed the blanket from the woman’s other arm he was surprised to find the pistol he had handed her earlier clasp tightly in her right fist, the muzzle partially sticking through a fresh, powder burned hole in the blanket. Though he had wondered who had fired the shot that killed Bealour he would never have guessed it had been Melissa. Shaking his head over the realization that this slip of a woman had probably saved all their lives, he removed the weapon from her fingers, laying it beside him on the floor and checked the rest of her arm. Finding no injuries there he turned his attention back to Jessie.
Jessie watched in awe for the few minutes it took for Bailey and Agent Winfrey to take care of Sean and Melissa’s injuries. She had taken several first aid and CPR courses while attending the University of Washington and thought she was pretty good at giving first aid. Seeing the efficient teamwork with which Winfrey and Bailey handled this situation and especially the care Bailey used while tending Melissa, she realized that compared to their expertise she knew next to nothing. The knowledge had her shaking her head, for which she was immediately sorry! The back of her head suddenly felt like it would explode. Wincing, she closed her eyes at the extreme pain. When she again opened her eyes it was to find Bailey’s magnificent sky-blue eyes clouded with worry and staring anxiously at her, his hands hovering inches above her cheeks, as if he were afraid to touch her for fear she would not respond.
Jessie could not stop the automatic exclamation that escaped her lips as her arms immediately encircled his neck. Her lips finding his, she kissed him quite soundly. Though relieved Jessie seemed to be okay Bailey clasped her cheeks with both hands, pushing her away, breaking the kiss. Then he gently, but firmly removed her arms from around his neck.
“I told you not to move,” he gently scolded in a whisper as he kissed each of her palms. Looking into her hurt eyes he gave an encouraging smile, nodded and softly said, “I am going to check you for injuries now. So, please just lie there.”
When she slowly nodded he began checking her from head to toe. He was thankful that, though her clothes were spotted with blood and she had a bump forming on her forehead, he couldn’t find any open wounds. Finished, he helped her to her feet. Taking her by the waist with one arm he gently pulled her to his side as he stepped over to Agent Winfrey.
That woman was very busy!
Sean O’Donald was in bad shape. He had taken three direct hits to his upper left chest, one quite close to his heart. Besides those wounds, he had been grazed by a bullet just above his right ear that was profusely bleeding.
As Bailey and Jessie arrived at her side Carol applied a gauze pad to the head wound and tied gauze around his head to hold it in place. Knowing she had done as much as she could for the injured man she looked up at the pair. For the first time in years she had tears streaming down her cheeks. “I can’t do any more for him,” she woefully breathed. “He needs the attentions of a doctor or he is going to die and it will be my fault! I should have never have left my post to put that escape info in the utility room. If I hadn’t I would have seen something to alert me we were about to be attacked.”
Looking past Bailey she spied Melissa’s prone body. Her eyes clouded with self-incrimination as she blurted, “I suppose Ms. Hough is either dead or in need of medical help too! That’s my fault, too! I should have told Dennis of my doubts about Bealour. He was just too efficient! Too willing! It struck me wrong. But, because he had come with high recommendations from his C. O., I felt I should give him the benefit of the doubt, so I didn’t say anything. Now it turns out he has been a spy all along. And look what he has done! And it’s entirely my fault!”
Bailey, thinking to calm Agent Winfrey’s rising hysteria released Jessie’s waist and knelt beside the distraught woman. Reverting to his training as a wing leader he put a commanding tone to his voice. His hands busy closing the first-aid kit and stuffing it back into and retying the blanket, he ordered, “Get your head together, Winfrey! There is nothing you or I can do about that now. What we have to do now is vacate this area. I can handle carrying Sean out of here, but Melissa is unconscious and besides her previous wound she now has another wound just above her left elbow. You and Jessie are going to have to team up to carry her.” As he grabbed the wounded man by the armpits to haul him up to his shoulder he asked, “How far to the exit?”
Bailey’s commanding tone had the desired effect. The self-incrimination disappeared as she told him the exit was three-quarters of a mile away. Then an alarming thought suddenly had her mind racing and her hand reaching for Bailey’s arm. If, as it appeared, Bealour was a spy, he had been briefed on escape procedures. Wouldn’t it be reasonable to assume the attackers would know where the secret exits of all four tunnels were located? Wouldn’t those routes be covered by now? With two injured members in our group, if we go out through any of those exits we will be sitting ducks! But what other recourse do we have?
The solution to the dilemma came to her in a flash. No one but her knew there was another, albeit narrower, longer tunnel that her and her two brothers had dug years ago that opened almost a mile away! Bealour would not have known about it, therefore, the attackers would not have its exit guarded!
She saw that Bailey had succeeded in hefting Sean over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry and was turning toward the end of the tunnel Carol grabbed his arm and shouted, “We can’t go that way, Gilmore! They’ll have the exits covered! I know another way! I’ll explain later. Just follow Jessie and me.”
With that command she turned to Jessie, nodded for her to take Melissa’s legs as she lifted Melissa by the armpits. “There is no time to lose! We have to be gone before Bealour’s cohorts can get down here! It’s this way!”
Even though Bailey had on
ly known Agent Winfrey since the evening before he had formed a solid respect for her and followed with no reservations. They were near the top of the stairwell Agent Winfrey had come down when, at a turn in the stairwell, she suddenly half turned and kicked backward at the apparent solid cinder-block wall. Amazingly, a section about three feet wide by six feet high swung inward revealing a darkened tunnel beyond. His mouth agape, Bailey just stared at Agent Winfrey. Expecting his surprise, that woman again told him she would explain later and waved him on through the doorway.
A series of events happened almost simultaneously. As Agent Winfrey began to push the heavy fake wall closed, lights came on illuminating the narrow tunnel, something clattered down the stairwell and Agent Winfrey screamed, “Grenade!” She instantly let go of Melissa, braced herself against the fake portal, pushing with everything she had to get the heavy portal closed before the grenade could explode. Just as the portal clicked shut the grenade exploded, causing dirt and overhead tiles to reign down on the occupants of the narrow tunnel. The overhead lights dimmed, flickered a few times then went out. Their escape tunnel, their route to safety, could now very well become their tomb!
Chapter 10: Eddie
O’Donald still draped across his shoulders, Bailey, knocked to his knees by falling tiles, was trying to get back to his feet when he heard an agonized groan come from the direction he had last seen Jessie. “Jessie! Agent Winfrey,” he anxiously called into the dust laden black void surrounding him. “Are you two okay?”
The overhead lights blinked, came on, went out again, then dimly came back on. Though the dust was so thick he still couldn’t see them, their coughing eased his fear for them. Through the dust Winfrey told him she and Jessie were unhurt and that Melissa had just regained consciousness. Relieved, Bailey gained his feet, but with O’Donald over his shoulder was unable to turn in the tunnel's close quarters. Concerned Melissa was re-injured by falling debris he asked about her.