Near Death (A Jake Townsend Science Fiction, Action and Adventure, Thriller Series Book 1)

by Richard C Hale

  “Right, they’re in that drawer.”

  Nicky pointed to a set of drawers right behind Teri that read ‘Order Forms J – Z.’

  Teri slapped her forehead and said, “Duh?” and walked over and opened it. “Thanks.”

  “Anytime, sugar, anytime.” Nicky picked up the phone, dialed an extension and was soon requesting some test for another patient.

  Teri thumbed through the folders and found Respiratory and pulled out a single order form. What she really wanted was in the folder just in front of Respiratory and glancing quickly over her shoulder at Nicky, who was still on the phone, she pulled out the Radiology folder and grabbing an order form, slipped it under the Respiratory one she already had. Quickly, she put the Radiology folder back in and closed the drawer.

  As she turned to leave, Nicky hung up and said to Teri, “Who’s getting the therapy? I don’t remember seeing any orders for a new Respiratory treatment.”

  “Uh—well,” Teri fumbled over her words for a second, “the order is for a patient in Two East, but they didn’t have any forms left.” She held up the two pieces of paper in her hand and added, “Can I take two?”

  Nicky looked a little irritated and said, “You tell Jeanette in Two East she had better get her butt down to supply and get her own damn order forms. She’s always borrowing mine.”

  “I will,” Teri said. “Is it ok?” she asked again, holding up the forms.

  Nicky smiled and said, “Yes, it’s fine.”

  “Thanks!” Teri said and turned to go.

  “You better find your badge, girl,” Nicky said to Teri’s back. “If security sees you without it, they will have your butt.”

  Teri feigned surprise and looked around at herself saying, “I had it earlier—what the heck happened to it? Oh—I bet I know. Mr. Leese in 2217 was out of his head and all grabby. He kept reaching for me while I was giving him his treatment. I kept swatting his hands away, but I guess he got a hold of it. I’ll go check.”

  “Hopefully he didn’t put it somewhere the sun doesn’t shine,” Nicky laughed.

  “Really,” Teri said. She turned and headed for Two East, the forms clutched in her sweating hands.

  At Two East she turned left past the nurse’s station, out of sight of Nicky, and headed straight for the elevators to the first floor and the parking garage.

  Back in the car with Jake and Maddy, she said, “Thought I was going down for second. One of the receptionists made a remark about my missing badge and if security caught me without it, they would have my ass.”

  “What did you say?” asked Maddy, an anxious look on her face.

  “I told them a patient must have grabbed it off of my jacket and I would go back to his room and look for it. She seemed to buy it.”

  “Ok,” Jake said. “We’re on. Let’s go.”

  Teri gave Maddy her lab coat while Jake slipped his on. Jake took the radiology order form and quickly wrote an order for a C.T. scan of the head for Frank Lucas in room 2427. He scribbled a signature that could be anything, but looked very much like a doctor’s hurried John Hancock. Teri thought it looked great.

  “Good luck,” she said, and Jake and Maddy walked off together for the elevators.

  Teri hoped it would work. That Nicky girl was on her game and definitely in control of her realm. Jake needed to be calm and confident. She sat back in the car and waited for the signal.

  51

  January 19, 2010 3:00 p.m.

  Jacksonville, Florida

  Jake had called the hospital earlier in the day and learned Frank had been weaned from the ventilator and then transferred to room 2427 at around noon.

  His condition had improved, but he still remained catatonic. Since it was now approaching three o’clock, the nurses were full into shift change and the confusion that often came with it. Jake was hoping it would give him and Maddy the edge they needed to pull off what they had planned.

  First, they stopped at another wing on the second floor and got a wheelchair out of Two East’s equipment closet.

  Jake noticed Maddy glancing around nervously and he whispered to her, “Relax. It will be fine.” She nodded, but didn’t look any better.

  They pushed the wheelchair up to Two West and straight in to room 2427, which was right across from the nurse’s station. The nurses were busy giving the new shift a report on each patient they had been responsible for during the day. A lot of people were in the area, but no one paid attention.

  Entering Frank’s room, Jake saw him sitting up in his bed with the head cranked up, but staring blankly at the wall in front of him. As Jake and Maddy approached, his head turned toward them and his eyes focused on Jake and he grinned.

  Jake smiled back and said, “It’s time Frank.”

  Frank nodded imperceptibly and then he was gone again, replaced by the empty shell he had been only a moment before.

  It took all their strength to get him in the wheelchair.

  They almost dropped him but Frank ended up sitting in the wheelchair, a blanket across his lap and drool running down his chin. Jake had to rest for a second and catch his breath.

  They wheeled him out of the room and as they were passing the nurse’s station a voice called out, “Hey! Where are you guys taking Mr. Lucas? Hey! You two—hold it!”

  A bulky nurse with bright orange hair and dark blue scrubs caught up to them. “I said where are you guys taking him?”

  “C.T.,” Jake said.

  The nurse turned back to the nurse’s station and yelled, “Nicky, is Mr. Lucas scheduled for a Cat scan?”

  Jake watched the receptionist look at something on her desk and then say, “Not that I can see, but he just got here from ICU a little while ago.”

  Jake held up the radiology order form saying, “Here’s the order.”

  The nurse snatched it out of Jake’s hands and scowled as she looked at it.

  Jake said, “We went to ICU to get him, but they said they transferred him here. I’ll bet they forgot to note it in the chart.”

  “Dianne,” another nurse yelled from the nurse’s station. “Come on! I want to go home.”

  “Hold on Jen, just a sec’.” To Jake and Maddy she said, “How long will he be gone?”

  Jake took the order back from the nurse, looked at it and said, “C.T. scan of the head—about an hour. Shouldn’t take more than that.”

  “All right, but he has some medication due at that time, so you guys make sure he’s back by then or else I’ll hunt you down.”

  “No problem,” Jake said.

  “Dianne…!” the other nurse yelled again.

  “All right, all right—coming,” and Dianne, the orange-haired nurse went back to the station and continued her briefing.

  Jake and Maddy wheeled Frank out of Two West and turned right, heading past the bank of elevators on their left. A security guard rounded a corner on Jake’s right and almost ran straight into the wheelchair.

  “Whoa! Sorry guys,” the guard said.

  Jake nodded and kept moving.

  The guard let them pass, and then called back to them, “Hey! You two! Hold it!”

  Jake ignored him and pushed Frank faster down the hall.

  The guard jogged after them and grabbed Jake’s shoulder stopping him, “Hold up guys,” he said, looking them up and down. “Where are your badges?”

  Jake looked over his uniform, acting surprised and said, “I don’t know. I had it a minute it ago.” He looked through the blanket over Frank’s lap and then turned back looking the way they had come as if searching for the badge. “Maybe I dropped it in his room.”

  “Well, you need to go back and get it,” the guard said. “You know you’re supposed to have it on at all times.” He turned to Maddy and said, “What about you?”

  Jake said, “She’s new. She doesn’t have hers yet.”

  “They didn’t give you a temporary badge?”

  Maddy shook her head no and said, “They were out.”

  “What?”
the guard asked. “Those idiots! All right, well let’s get you fixed up. Follow me.”

  The guard turned and headed back the way he had come.

  Jake said, “We don’t have time for that now.”

  The guard turned and said, “You’ll have to make time.”

  “You don’t understand,” Jake said, forcefully. “This man needs to go to C.T. right now. There was some confusion when they transferred him from ICU and the nurse is going to kill me if I don’t have him back in an hour. We’ll come to Security right away after we drop him off. I promise.”

  The guard frowned looking Jake and Maddy up and down. “All right—but you find your badge and get her a temporary one right after. Don’t make me come find you. What’s your name?”

  Jake said, “Ben Worthington. And she’s Sarah Mills.”

  The guard scribbled the names on his notepad and said, “All right—get it done.”

  “Thanks,” Jake said, and pushed Frank past him down the hall.

  They had gone about forty yards when Maddy turned around and said, “He’s still watching us and talking into his walky-talky.”

  “Hey!” came a shout from behind them and Maddy said, “Shit! Here he comes.”

  Jake pushed Frank faster and took a hard left almost toppling the wheelchair over. An elevator door opened up to their left and Jake steered the chair quickly into it, barely missing a lab tech.

  “Hey!” the lab tech said, “Watch it!” and glared at Jake and Maddy.

  They could hear the guard’s footsteps chasing them down the hall while Jake pressed the close button repeatedly, but the doors remained open.

  “Come on!” Jake said frantically, “Close!” The doors finally started closing just as the guard rounded the corner.

  “Hey! Stop!” But the guard couldn’t keep them from shutting and Jake watched him talk into his radio as they came together.

  Jake pressed four.

  They rode the elevator up two flights and bolted out of it as soon as the doors opened.

  Turning right and then immediately left, they headed for the walkway to the DePaul parking garage. Jake knew they only had seconds to get out of the hospital as the whole security force was probably alerted by now.

  They took a hard left and then right, past a sign that said DePaul Medical Building and Jake heard a radio chattering behind them.

  “Call Teri,” Jake said to Maddy, “tell her change of plans. Meet us in the DePaul parking garage on the fifth floor.”

  Jake picked up speed and sprinted down the hall with Frank while Maddy called Teri and told her the new plan.

  They got to the elevators for the DePaul building and Jake pressed the up button. The doors opened immediately and they rode it up one flight to the fifth floor.

  Jake pushed Frank through the exit and they waited for Teri inside the doorway, trying to stay out of sight. Right before Teri got there, a security guard in a golf cart whizzed by heading down the ramp for the fourth floor, his radio chattering away, but he didn’t see them.

  Teri pulled up after the golf cart passed and all three of them got Frank into the back seat.

  Jake ripped off his lab coat and threw it in the back, grabbed a baseball cap from the rear seat and put it on.

  “Maddy, take your coat off,” Jake said, “and put your hair up in a pony tail. You two walk back to the Dillon garage and take Teri’s car to Mrs. Lucas’s house. I’ll take Frank to the lab. Remember, act like you’re visitors now. Stay outside of the hospital and take the sidewalks to the Dillon garage. You should be fine. I’ll see you back at the lab.”

  Maddy kissed Jake and said, “Be careful.”

  “You too, both of you,” and Jake smiled, getting into the driver’s seat.

  52

  January 19, 2010 3:35 p.m.

  Jacksonville, Florida

  Jake made it out of the parking garage easily and as he turned right onto Shircliff Way, he watched Security scramble around the front entrance of the hospital.

  He scanned the street and walkways along it and was thankful to see they hadn’t expanded their search outside yet. Maddy and Teri should be fine.

  Jake drove Frank straight to the lab and pulled around to the back entrance. He and Bodey struggled with the dead weight, but managed to get Frank into a rolling office chair and maneuver him inside. They picked him up and sat him in Andee’s chair, trying to make him look comfortable.

  “How did it go?” Bodey asked.

  “As well as could be expected. I haven’t heard from the girls yet and that worries me a little. I’m going to call them now.”

  Jake pulled out his cell and called Teri’s number. She picked up on the fourth ring.

  “Hey,” she said, the connection breaking up a bit.

  “Everything ok?” he asked.

  “We’re here, but she’s not cooperating. I think we scared her. She’s threatening to call the police.”

  “Let me talk to her.”

  “Ok—I’ll put her on.”

  Jake heard Teri telling Mrs. Lucas that Jake was on the phone and after a second she said, “Hello?”

  “Mrs. Lucas? This is Jake Townsend, I…”

  “I know who this is,” she said, a little distortion causing her voice to sound tinny. “Just what do you people think you’re doing? You’ve kidnapped my husband from the hospital and now you want to hook him up to that machine of yours again? I think not! I expect…” static. “…to take…” garbled, “…police!”

  “Mrs. Lucas, I’m losing you. Can you hear me? Hello?”

  “I can –ear you fine. You bring him back…” static, “hospital, now!”

  Jake felt frustrated. He was getting nowhere with her and regretted involving her at this point.

  “Mrs. Lucas, please—just come down here. It’s very important. I know you don’t know what’s going on, but if you come to the lab with Teri and Maddy, everything will be explained.”

  Jake knew the phone conversation was being monitored, but he felt he had no other choice at this point. She had to be convinced to come down.

  “I’ll do no –uch thing. I’m calling the pol…” garbled, “now!”

  Jake made a decision. He never liked threatening anybody, but he felt he had no choice.

  “Mrs. Lucas, if you want to see your husband alive again, you’ll come down to the lab, now.”

  Silence for a moment and then Jake heard a very different Eve Lucas say, “Please. Don’t hurt him.”

  Jake hated himself at that moment.

  All the pain he had caused, the hardships he had put others through for his selfishness, it all hit him in that instant and the blow was palpable. He had to sit down for fear of toppling over. He hung his head, his resolve failing and could think of nothing to say. What could he tell this woman that would make any difference? He had taken her happiness away and now threatened to cast her even further into despair.

  “I’ll come,” Eve Lucas said through the tinny connection, “just don’t hurt my Frank.”

  “I won’t,” was all Jake could get out.

  He ended the call.

  53

  January 19, 2010 4:15 p.m.

  Mandarin, Florida

  After Peter and four of the General’s men got Omar settled into the second bedroom of the apartment, Peter checked on the monitoring equipment being used to keep track of Jake and his clan.

  He was not surprised to see they had found everything. Disappointed, but not surprised. This little group was relentless and he wondered what they were up to and why they had spent over an hour scouring the lab to make sure what they were doing was not seen.

  He punched a few keys on his computer and a log of the cell phone activity came up. He scanned it quickly and since they had used the phones so little over the last twenty four hours, the activity on Jake and Teri’s phones during the last hour stuck out like a sore thumb. He downloaded the audio file and listened to the conversation. He immediately called the General.

  “T
hey’re up to something, sir.” And he explained what he had just heard.

  “What do you think they’re going to do?” the General asked.

  “I can’t even guess, but they went to great lengths to get this man back to the lab. The wife mentions kidnapping during the conversation.”

  “Great. We need to find out what’s going on. Can you get down there?”

  “I’ll have to leave our package with the four you supplied me. Do you trust them?”

  “Yes, but I’ll send two more to help. Get down there and find out if that machine is functional and what they’re up to. If he lied to me and that equipment’s fine, I don’t want him doing anything else and damaging it.”

  “How should I handle it sir, if they won’t listen to reason?”

  “Use whatever it takes, but do not harm Townsend. He’s too valuable at the moment. No one else knows that system like he does. I’m sure you can think of other ways to be persuasive.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  54

  January 19, 2010 4:15 p.m.

  Orange Park, Florida

  Jake watched Eve Lucas as she walked into the lab.

  She looked anxious and a little angry, but as her eyes fell upon her husband in the chair, relief spread across her features and she hurried over to him, making sure he was all right. Jake took a deep breath and walked over to the couple.

  Eve looked up, a scowl forming on her face as she saw him, and said, “You had no right to do this to him.”

  Jake wasn’t sure if she was talking about the fact they had kidnapped him from the hospital, or the catatonic state they had put him in when Andee had gone berserk. He realized it didn’t really matter which.

  In the gentlest voice he could summon, he said, “You’re right, Mrs. Lucas, I had no right whatsoever, but I needed him here now so we can fix him.”

  “Fix him? You’ve almost killed him. How do you expect to fix him?”

  “I need to show you something.”