Immaculate Spirit c1-242

by Newbiel

  Leaving the floor, he began to dismantle the gun that he had in hand, throwing the pieces by the window. He could hear a lot of people coming up the stairway. Nathaniel needed to leave this floor and fast. He hoped that his friends and his bodyguard had survived the ordeal. He did everything to help tonight but now it was time to disappear.

  Chapter 68: :

  On the ground floor, the situation was basically resolved at this point. The cops did not take much time once Jean called them. The key word men with guns killing in one of the classiest hotels in the city had the dispatch center call every unit in a 5 miles radius to intervene. As it was in a rich district, it already had a decent police force in patrol in the area.

  Now, the six assassins were dead. They had not succeeded at taking any of them alive. They were like demons, not going down and kept shooting despite taking multiple gunshot wounds. Only death could put them down permanently.

  This was not to say that it was easy to do so. The ground floor was littered with dead or wounded people. The walls were coated with blood and bullet impacts. The once gorgeous lobby of the hotel was now in total ruin. Paramedics could be found running between victims, stabilizing the wounded with the help of NYPD uniform.

  Between the cries of anguish from people who had lost loved ones and the moaning of the injured people, the atmosphere in the hotel was grim. It was a scene that people expected to see on the news happening in the Middle East, not in the heart of New York. Outside of the hotel, a perimetre had been set up by NYPD and news reporters could be seen already arriving on the scene.

  They were already live on TV and every channel had stopped their usual broadcasts to show what was happening at the hotel. The news was circulating on social media and a hashtag had already been found and put at the top of the trending ranking. Everybody was screaming at terrorism without knowing anything conclusive yet.

  Being tended to by a paramedic in the lobby were Jean and Amal. They had survived the fight but had not come out of it unscathed. Jean had his shoulder bandaged as he had been hit by a throwing knife in the shoulder. The knife was aimed for his head but he was saved by Amal who shoved him to the side at the last moment.

  Leaving his position to save his friend, Amal had received a bullet to the chest as a result. His kevlar vest had efficiently saved his life but he had his chest bandaged by the paramedic who told him that he had one or two cracked ribs. On and on they had been lucky compared to the ones that died tonight.

  The hotel was still out of power and the lobby was lit up by emergency lights and NYPD officers flashlights. Upon entering, the six assassins had separated into two teams. The first was tasked with destroying the power room while the second assaulted the security post of the hotel. Killing the security agent in it and destroying the material, cutting off the internet and the landline phone. After that, they had gathered in the lobby and assaulted the korean bodyguards who were on lookout. That was the time Jean and Amal entered the fray.

  Once the assassin handled, the NYPD were not in the mood to be lenient and seeing Jean and Amal so heavily arm, they were almost shot down until one of the officers took notice of the knife embedded in the shoulder of Jean. After that, they had the opportunity to identify themselves. Once disarmed, they had been escorted to the paramedics. They had not been cuffed so far as they could see that the two of them had only fought the killers but they had been thoroughly warned to not leave the premises.

  Not that they would leave. The two of them had done nothing wrong and they had permit for all the weapons that they used tonight. Even their alibi was already ready as it was sent by Nathaniel before the attack even began. It was basically saying the truth with a couple of adjustments of course.

  "Do you think the kid is going to give us a bonus or something? We managed to stop them before they could even go up." Jean said with a pained smile.

  The wound that he had suffered would have put any man on the ground moaning but he was used to wounds now. The legionary training that he went through was not a joke and he had received his fair share of wounds in his number of deployments abroad. Based on that, it was actually the first time that he fought men who were that skilled in combat. He had collaborated with special forces like Delta in a number of operations before but they were allies. These guys were the exact opposite of that concept.

  "We did not, think about it, these guys were the diversion, I think the more capable ones were already in the building to kill their target. That's what I would have done."

  Thinking about it, Jean realized that his friend was right. It did make a lot of sense. He was going to ask something when Amal abruptly cut him off.

  "Hush, we will talk about it later. We are not alone at the moment." Amal said, looking at his surroundings.

  "Okay." Jean finished. It was really not a good moment to talk about it.

  While they were talking, two SWAT teams were sweeping each floor, trying to find out if there were more attackers or civilians in the top floors. Behind them were two paramedics escorted by five NYPD officers. As the building was still being jammed they could not communicate by radio so the paramedics had volunteered to come up in case there were injured who needed help immediately. So far they had still not found the jamming device which would have helped them tremendously in coordinating once turned off.

  As they were progressing through the floors, they had managed to find a few civilians hiding in their rooms which they escorted to the ground floor under the officers vigilance. On the floor they were sweeping right now, they had found a dead civilian who had been cut down with a sword. It was so messy that one of the officers who escorted the paramedics threw up.

  Opening the stairways to go up, they found another body there.

  "This one has the same attire as the attacker downstairs. It seem that someone fu**ed him up real bad." One of the SWAT guys said.

  "Shut your mouth Ballarski! If there is one there is bound to be more, keep alert!" The team leader ordered coldly. It was not time to make observations like that. Going up the next floor he could see dead people in the hallway and people moving around.

  "Police! Put your hands in the air!" He yelled.

  Immediately, two of the three people who were moving did as was ordered while the last one was still kneeling in front of a pale man. He could see that the couple were middle aged asians and were not dressed like the attackers.

  "I need help! If I put my hands in the air, he will bleed out!" The girl yelled.

  Approaching the girl who was kneeling with his team in tow, he could now see much better. Looking at the guy and the wound on his abdomen, he turned around.

  "Medic!" He yelled behind him.

  His two teams of SWAT members quickly passed the girl and began inspecting each room while the two paramedics replaced the girl and started giving first aid emergencies. They did not take much time to clear each suite on the floor and gathered back in the middle of the hallway while the two medics were working frantically to keep the injured man alive. While they were doing that, the team leader was frowning looking at the two dead assassins on the floor. They had taken a bullet in the same exact spot on the side of their head, which was not normal at all.

  "Sir, we need to move him right now! If he is not in the hospital in the next fifteen minutes, he is dead!" The medic exclaimed grimly.

  "Put him on the stretcher. You, you and you escort the injured and the three civilians here to the ground floor. One of the two medics went with them, the other stayed with us!" He ordered quickly.

  He was going to move out when the girl with bloodied hands stopped him with her arm.

  "Please! My friend and I got separated and now he is missing, can you find him?"

  "What is his name and where did you see him the last time?"

  "His name is Nathaniel and the last time I saw him he was on the twelfth floor, room 241! Please help him, he is innocent." She pleaded.

  "Don't worry we will, now move out we don't have time."

&
nbsp; Once they left, he quickly turned to his men.

  'Okay, Ballarski, take your team, the medic and the NYPD officer and sweep the next floor. I will take mine and go to the next floor."

  "Yes sir!"

  "Good, stay sharp and do not delay. Move out people!" He ordered.

  Once the two teams separated in the stairway, the team leader and his three men started running in the stairs as they were short on time. Once they arrived on the twelfth floor they could see that something had happened here. Three people wearing the same attire as the attacker were dead on the floor. Coming closer, the team leaders frown kept getting wider. The first two had died from headshots and the last had his head turned at an unnatural angle. Finding suite 241 nearby, he left one of his men to keep watch in the corridor and entered with the rest of his team.

  "This is the police! If someone is here please yell out!" He yelled starting to check every piece here until he heard a feeble voice answer. Startled, he approached the place where he thought the voice came from.

  "This is the police! Please yell out!" He asked again.

  "I'm here! Under the bed!" The voice answered faintly.

  Pointing his flashlight mounted on his machine gun to the bed in the room, he could see a hand making a signal. Hurrying to the bed, he seized the hand and pulled the kid out of it.

  "I hide! I hide here and they didn't see me! Is it over? Please say it is over." The kid rambled quickly, clearly scared.

  "Don"t worry kid, it is over, you are with us now, we are going to protect you. Are you Nathaniel?" The team leader said soothingly, putting his hand on the shoulder of Nathaniel.

  "Yes I am, you saved me! Thanks!" He answered, beaming at the team leader who reciprocated with a kind smile of his own.

  Chapter 69: :

  Forty five minutes later, the lobby was now lit again. They had not managed to repair the extensive damage that the power room had sustained but they successfully connected an appointed generator into the electrical network of the building. It would not suffice to power the whole building but it was enough to lighten the place. The SWAT team, after combing the whole hotel, had finally found the jamming device which was on the roof and disconnected it.

  Now, the CSI team was busy taking pictures and collecting evidence in the lobby while the coroner office was wrapping up the dead bodies. In this grim atmosphere, seeing the practiced moves of these people made the other people feel at ease. America being what it was, it was not the first time and sadly not the last time that something like this would happen and the law enforcement was intensely trained for this kind of situation.

  Not far from here, the almost hundreds of clients from the hotel were being questioned by NYPD uniforms, gathering their testimonies before letting them go. As the hotel was high end, the people here were all rich with a good amount of influence so the NYPD were especially considerate in their questioning.

  It was at that moment that a dozen FBI agents entered the hotel, gathering the attention of everyone. A NYPD captain immediately approached them with a not so pleased expression on his face.

  "What the fu** are you here Sarland? This is a NYPD case, the FBI do not belong here."

  "That's where you are mistaken, this is my case. I'm tracking the one who attacked here for weeks now. Judge Armstrong seems to agree with me because he put us in charge." Tom Sarland answered, fishing out a piece of paper from his vest and giving it to the captain.

  After reading to the court order, the expression of the captain turned very unsightly. As much as he wanted to say something the ruling of the judge was crystal clear. It was now an FBI case and the NYPD had to assist them in everything they wanted. Seeing the expression on the captain's face, agent in charge Sarland had to hide a smile.

  "Ok, give me a situation report. How many injuries and casualties?"

  "So far twenty three dead, ten persons lightly injured and six in critical condition."

  Hearing the numbers, the twelve FBI agents could not help but take a deep breath. They had expected a lot of people injured but that many dead was surprising. In general in cases like this, there would be between two and three more injured people compared to dead ones. This situation was not normal at all.

  "How many attackers?"

  "Twelve, all dead." He said with a snarl.

  "How many casualties on our side?" One of the female FBI agents asked in a gentle voice.

  As much as the FBI and NYPD were rivals, they very much considered themselves on the same side of the fence which was why she called it 'our side.'

  "Two dead. Two in critical condition and one lightly injured."

  "Sorry to hear that James." Sarland said with an empathic voice. Even if the two of them had bad blood between them, losing men under your care was something that was not unknown to him either. "Who were the targets of the assassination?"

  "The Kim family, a couple and their daughter. They managed to survive without so much as a scratch. Their security team was not so lucky."

  "Really? That's surprising." Sarland answered, knitting his brow.

  "Yeah, you don't know half of it. Something weird happened on the top floor. You will see for yourself later."

  "Okay, where is the Kim family right now?"

  "In a meeting room on the first floor, I have one SWAT team protecting them. There is more. The Kim family was not alone when they got attacked. There was a young man with them, working on a college project with the daughter. Based on what I heard so far, he is the young grandson of some big shot in the music industry. He had two bodyguards protecting him, if not for these two guys, the body count would be much higher."

  "What do you mean?"

  "They were the ones who called us and after that they entered the building with guns blazing. They managed to down three of them before we even got there. They got injured in the fight."

  "In what hospital have they been transferred?"

  "They refused to go, they are in the meeting room with the kid and the kids family. They are some bad ass guys. The kid on the other hand got lucky, he managed to hide while everybody was dying. We took all of their testimonies, we will transfer the files to you when you need it."

  "I need it now. Have one of your guys escort one and two of my team. The rest will help gather and secure the evidence."

  "Alright."

  *****

  In the meeting room Nathaniel was sitting at the table, flanked by Jean and Amal on each side. He was happy that they had survived even if they got hurt in the process. To be honest, he was feeling guilty about it but it was not the place or the time to talk about it. It had been nearly an hour since they were waiting here and he was starting to feel bored.

  After giving their testimony, they had been asked to stay here until detectives interviewed them. Since then, nobody had come and the SWAT members by the door were saying clearly that they do not have the choice to simply leave. He was glad to see that Na-Yung and her family were alright. It was good to see that the effort he put in tonight had bore fruit even if a lot of people had died.

  Everyone would have felt guilty about it but Nathaniel knew that without his implication, more people would have died. Marc had learned long ago that you could not save everyone and when he had fused with his memories, he had adopted a lot of his mindset. What saddened him the most was that he had to kill to save his friend and her family. At that time, he had acted in the moment, the experience and training taking over but now he would have to deal with the aftermath.

  Finally the door opened and three FBI agents entered the room along with a NYPD officer.

  "Hello here, I'm Special Agent Tom Sarland and with me is agent Williams and Aldrin." The forty year old said, introducing the two agents beside him. "I'm going to ask you to come with me in the FBI building, where we will conduct an interrogation on each of you."

  Getting up, Na-Yung and her parents obediently moved to the door. Nathaniel with an almost imperceptible shake of his head urged his bodyguards to stay seated.
Seeing that the other three people were not moving, the FBI agent started to frown.

  "Ok I don't have time people, so start moving now." He ordered.

  "No, I'm not going anywhere with you." Nathaniel said simply.

  "What? Listen kid I know that you saw some rough things tonight but you have to come. You don't have a say in this."

  "I'm sixteen, I'm a minor."

  "What does that have to do with anything?" Sarland asked puzzled, looking to his two subordinates for help. William was as dumbfounded as he was while Aldring seemed interested.

  "That means that you can take me into interrogation only in two cases. If I'm arrested committing a crime or with my parents or guardians consent. Since you have neither of those, the simple fact that you brought it up is in fact unlawful."

  "Ok kid, I was being nice but it is over now. Follow me right now or I'm going to arrest you for obstruction of justice."

  "Which will never hold as I already gave my statement to the cops. My lawyer will wipe you in court." Nathaniel said smiling.

  "And where is that lawyer now?" Sarland asked, clearly angered now.

  "Right behind you." A beautiful voice coming from the doorway answered.

  Jumping a little, surprised, he turned around to look where the voice was coming from. In the doorway was a beautiful blonde woman. She was wearing blue jeans and a black jacket, looking at him with piercing eyes. Although she had a professional smile on her face, people could clearly see that she was not happy.

  "Who are you and who let you enter the building? This is an active crime scene!"

  "Oh, let me introduce myself. Prosecutor Lyndon, I'm this young man's mother and lawyer." She said, shaking the hands of his two subordinates but making a point of not shaking his.

  Hearing that she was a prosecutor, he could not help but sigh. In every other city, he could have disregarded her and continued what he was doing but in New York he could not. After 9/11, a number of laws had been passed, giving more power to the NYPD and the DA. It was in New York that the FBI had less power over their jurisdiction making it a bit tricky when they had conflicted cases.