In a few long bounds he covered the expanse, lifting the girl to shoulder level. Without pausing, he pulled up just short of the waist high barrier, hurtling her out into the night, her pale form flashing as she tumbled downward.
With her mouth and eyes all spread wide in shock, she extended her hands toward him, her bound wrists keeping them pressed together, her outstretched fingers clawing at nothing but air.
Watching her for just a split second, The Muscle was reminded of the last girl he had thrown from this very spot, the differences in the situation, the lack of lights and sound making it so much more pleasant.
Just as fast the thought vanished, his momentum pressing him against the rail lining the bridge. Extending his hip out, he braced himself for impact, using the side of his foot to propel himself back in the opposite direction.
Moving as fast as his legs would allow, he dove for the front seat and slammed the door shut, dropping the gear shift into drive and stamping his foot to the floor.
For a moment there was no response from the police on either end, his adrenaline continuing to surge, his pulse racing, as the tires spun atop the frozen ground before gaining traction. Biting into the asphalt, they rocketed him forward, narrowly missing a single officer flying past him on foot, not even glancing his way as he went by.
“Come on,” he whispered, aiming for the western side of the bridge, “come on, come on.”
Nudging the front of the Caprice to the far edge, he gunned the engine hard, the first visible response of the police starting to spring up, a cluster of orange blossoms appearing.
On cue, the sound of metal pinging against the front of the car could be heard, the rounds hitting the body of the vehicle, a starburst pattern appearing in front of the passenger seat.
Forcing the accelerator down as far as it would go, he watched as he grew ever closer to the black sedan, gunfire continuing to pepper the front of the car.
Chapter Sixty-Nine
There was no aforethought, Reed doing nothing but purely reacting as he saw Slade toss the girl over the edge. Abandoning his spot behind the rear of his sedan, he sprinted hard for the side of the bridge, his elbows held at ninety-degree angles as he pumped hard, his gun still held in hand.
In his periphery he could see Slade go back for the Caprice, could hear the door slam shut and the squeal of tires as he hurtled forward, giving neither more than a passing thought as the two sides passed.
Behind him, the cars were lined up, and there were a handful of officers with guns, an entire squadron on the opposite side of the bridge ready to resume their chase should Slade get away.
The man wasn’t going anywhere, at least not for long.
Instead he aimed his focus on the side rail of the bridge, on the girl that had just been tossed in. There was no way of knowing if she was alive or dead, but that was of zero consequence, Reed just knowing that if she was breathing her life expectancy in the water would be short at best.
Reaching across his chest, Reed tugged at the thick Velcro straps holding his Kevlar vest in place, ripping them free as he ran. After the third came loose, the wrap fell away from his body, his core temperature dropping several degrees without the protective cover, the cold air attacking his body.
Stepping up onto the curb, he ran parallel to the side of the bridge, casting glances down over the edge, spotting a single plume of white bubbles along the surface, no more than a few feet away from the edge of the bridge.
Flicking his gaze downstream a few yards, he saw no sign of the girl, no indication she had come back up. Letting the Glock slide from his hand, he took three more strides before placing his hand along the frozen metal railing and foisting himself into the air, allowing his momentum to carry him up.
For the briefest of moments he could feel his body hanging weightless, his feet clearing the side of the bridge, his entire form suspended in air.
Just as fast gravity kicked in, pushing him downward, as he drew his ankles in together, bracing for impact.
The total drop from the bridge to the water was no more than twenty feet, the impact nominal as Reed plunged down. The instant he entered, icy claws of the river seized his body, sucking the air from his lungs as he traveled down, the water enveloping him from all sides, every muscle and nerve ending clenching tight, frigid fire permeating his cells.
With his legs drawn in tight, his momentum carried him straight to the bottom, his feet touching against the rocky riverbed. Opening his eyes for just a moment, he saw nothing but darkness in every direction, clamping them shut just as fast.
Pressing his heels down hard, he pushed himself up from the bottom, waiting until he broke the surface before popping his eyes and mouth open in unison, drawing in a deep lungful of frigid air, the breath doing more harm than good, seeming to make him even colder, freezing him from within.
Jamming his gun into the small of his back, he extended his arms to either side and began to tread water, jerking his head from side to side.
“Tek-Yen!” he yelled, his throat raw, the words coming out raspy. “Tek-Yen!”
Rotating in a quick circle, he looked back behind him, seeing the distance between he and the bridge grow, feeling the lazy current carrying him away.
“Tek-Yen!”
Waiting, hoping, praying for a response, he continued twirling, looking for any sign of the young girl, not knowing for sure if it was even her that had gone into the water.
To his eternal surprise, what he got worked just as well.
Sharp and loud, the sound of Billie’s bark jerked his attention to his right. Without pause, he pushed his body in that direction, the sudden realization that his partner was also trapped in an icy hell, time running short for both of them, pushing renewed waves of trepidation through him.
“Billie?! Billie?!”
Again a trio of responses erupted from the side, the sound allowing Reed to zero in on his partner, her head nothing more than a shadow atop the water.
His muscles cramping, the cold threatening to overtake his body, Reed pushed one hand out in front of the other, using a basic freestyle stroke, his mind telling his feet to kick, no response coming back from the frozen extremities to tell him if it was actually occurring.
“Billie!” he called again as he went, using the sound of her response to guide him as he swam forward.
On the bridge, he had been so consumed with Slade, so focused on the girl after she went over, he had failed to realize Billie was by his side.
Now, the thought of her in the debilitating water, of the notion of losing another partner, was almost too much to bear, his teeth clenching tight, adrenaline the only thing allowing him to keep a tenuous grasp on consciousness.
Rolling his torso from side to side, he pushed his way forward, muttering as he went, his voice barely audible. “Stay right there Billie...stay with me...I’m coming...”
As if sensing his presence, knowing what he was trying to tell her, Billie again responded, her voice growing ever closer, her head held above the water as she paddled his way.
Assuming the same position, Reed locked his gaze on her, seeing as she passed into a pool of light, her black features illuminated in harsh orange for an instant, just long enough for him to notice the thin white strap clamped between her teeth.
Feeling one final surge of purpose roil through him, unable to utter a sound, Reed fought to close the gap, his hands sliding around the neck of his partner, the hairs on her head already beginning to crystallize. Pressing her against his chest with his left hand, he slid his right along the strap clutched in her mouth, prying it from her teeth.
“Good girl,” he whispered, darkness starting to creep into the edges of his vision, the words pained. “Good girl.”
His fingers unable to perform basic motor functions, he wound the strap through his palm, feeling the weight on the other end, watching as a white shape came up from beneath the surface. Her hand leading the way, bound together by the cord he was now using to tow her i
n with, her body rose from the depths, water streaming from her silken black hair as finally her head broke the surface.
Hanging like a damp curtain over her features, the girl was unresponsive as Reed jerked her up the last few inches, her body dead weight, her movements loose as her body flopped against him.
“Good girl,” Reed sputtered again, each word coming out quick and low between pants. “We got her, Billie.”
Lifting the girl’s bound hands over his head, feeling the cord pull tight against his collarbones, Reed did a simple front crawl toward the shore, the frail body fighting against his movement, Billie keeping pace beside them.
One foot at a time they moved forward, Reed glancing up every so often, seeing as flashing lights came into view. Moving from right to left before him, they pulled even with his position, doors swinging open, silhouettes running toward the shore.
Every system Reed had continued to fight against him, the cold sapping everything he had as he fought on, the gap to shore closing bit by bit.
Waiting until he was no more than ten feet from the bank, he chanced putting his feet down, feeling solid ground beneath him. Unable to fully rise out of the river, his legs numb, the weight of the tiny girl almost oppressive in his condition, he continued to swim until the water was shallow enough that his knees could touch before beginning to crawl forward.
Water sluiced from his body as he emerged into the cold, darkness continuing to crowd in, Reed willing himself forward, his body consumed with cold flames, blood rushing to his core to protect his major organs, everything else left to fend for itself.
Fighting to cover the last bit of ground, Reed made it to within three feet of the bank, his hands and feet all four fighting onward, when the elements overtook him.
The last thing he registered was the sound of Billie barking, her body pressed tight against his shoulder, attempting to prod him forward, before the world cut to black.
Chapter Seventy
The first thing to penetrate the fog was the beeping, low and persistent, it rang out one time after another. Barely scraping through into Reed’s psyche, it began just on the cusp of being audible, growing steadily louder.
With each sound it had a little more intensity, as if a speaker was being moved closer and closer to his ear, before growing unbearable.
At once his entire body seemed to escape from the darkness, his eyes popping open, his upper half shuddering, rising several inches off the surface he was laying on. Unable to control the response, he sucked in a deep breath of air, his heart pounding, every system fighting to pull him back to the status quo.
On cue, a second sound could be heard, a single bark, sharp and loud, seeming to reverberate within the small space. Jerking his attention toward it, Reed looked down to see Billie beside him, her muzzle pressed into the white blankets enveloping his body, her eyes open wide, peering up at him.
Saying nothing, his mouth moving slightly, unable to form the words, Reed stared at her a moment, bits of things before he lost consciousness returning to him, spliced together in a quick loop.
The standoff with Slade on the bridge. Going over the rail after the girl. Billie finding her before he did.
All three of them heading for the riverbank.
“The girl,” Reed said, the beeping sound beside him growing a bit quicker, his anxiety ratcheting slightly.
The last time he had seen her, the girl’s eyes were closed, her body frigid, completely unresponsive. Whether or not she was even breathing, he had no idea, his focus solely on getting her out of the water.
“She’s alive,” a familiar voice said, drawing Reed’s attention in the opposite direction, a silhouette standing in the doorway.
Taking a few steps forward, Grimes stopped along the side of the bed, thrusting his hands down deep into his pockets.
“How the hell are you?”
Not sure how to respond, not even sure how he had ended up where he was, Reed allowed his mouth to part slightly before dropping his head back on the pillows beneath him.
He was in a hospital room, that much was clear. Small and contained, it didn’t appear to be critical or even intensive, the room having just a few monitors on either side of the headboard, a machine hooked to the inflated blanket covering him, a low hiss pushing warm air through it.
Outside, bright light filled the hallway, though blinds pulled low and the overhead bulbs turned off kept the room rather dim.
“Start at the beginning.”
To that Grimes said nothing for a moment, bypassing the fact that his question had been ignored, his hands still thrust into his pockets as he stared down at Reed.
“Where did you cut out?”
Keeping his head on the pillow, his head aimed at the ceiling, Reed said, “Slade?”
“Dead,” Grimes replied. “One of us got him about five seconds after you took a swan dive off the bridge.”
Flicking his gaze to the side, Reed remained silent, knowing Grimes would fill in any extraneous details that were needed.
“Man was making a run on our barricade, but he didn’t make it that far before one of our rounds penetrated the windshield, catching him in the cheek. When it happened he was driving at us at an angle, ended up jumping the curb and slamming into the guard rail, crumpling the whole front end.
“Crime scene crew is going to have a hell of a time getting his body out of there. Was a wonder the girl survived.”
At that, Reed shifted so he was facing Grimes, his eyes growing a bit wider. “There were two girls?”
Nodding slightly, folds of skin unfurling beneath his chin, Grimes said, “Actually, the girl in the car was Tek-Yen. That’s basically all we’ve been able to get out of her, as she was half-frozen, scared to death, and doesn’t speak English all that well.”
With the exception of her being half-frozen, the description fit pretty well with the girl Reed had met a few nights before.
Though, to be fair, it also fit with a fair number he had seen inside Jade as well.
“Where is she?” Reed asked.
“Just down the hall,” Grimes said. “I was pacing between your rooms when I heard Billie bark, figured that was a signal you were awake.”
Without glancing over, Reed lifted his left hand, stabbing at the air for a moment before Billie met him halfway, the wet pad of her nose pressing into his palm, his fingers sliding back over her ears.
“I didn’t even know she went in the water with me,” Reed said.
Raising his gaze over to Billie, Grimes’s eyes clouded over for a moment, a slight shake of his head twisting his features.
“Damnedest thing I ever saw, the two of you flying over the rail. Between that and Slade barreling at us, thought I was going to have a heart attack.”
To that Reed fixed his gaze on the far wall, thinking back to being suspended in the air, trying to imagine what it must have looked like from atop the bridge.
“Thanks for pulling us out.”
“That was Greene and Gilchrist,” Grimes said. “Given the position of our cars and where you guys were, they were the first to arrive. Didn’t even think twice about tromping into the water after you.”
“They okay?”
“Yeah,” Grimes said. “They were here for a while, but I sent them home a couple hours ago, told them to get warm and to rest.”
“And the other girl?” Reed asked. “The one Billie fished out?”
One side of Grimes’s mouth jerked backward, a spastic reaction not resembling a smile, a tendon bulging from the side his neck.
“That one’s going to take a little longer. She had full-on hypothermia, the paramedics had to resuscitate her on the way over.
“She’s stable, but she’ll likely be spending Christmas here at the hospital.”
Reed could feel a wince pull at his features, the skin around his eyes tightening, a sharp inhalation of air passing through his teeth.
In the coming days, they would do everything they could to figure out who the
girl was, where her family might be, how she had gotten uprooted and sent halfway around the world to be in such a situation. That still would do nothing to erase what she had endured, the trauma that she and dozens others like her had gone through.
Nor would it change the fate of Bethanee Ing, someone that was only concerned, trying to help.
The time since her identification had been such a whirlwind, Reed had not yet had the chance to check for a next of kin, no opportunity to find out if she had family, help them make arrangements for her funeral.
Of everything that came with being a detective, that alone was the very worst task he ever had to perform – far worse than dealing with the media, with competing bureaucracies, even more than a growing distrust from an agitated public – but he would do so.
It was the last aspect of the case he had to finish up, a final act that he owed to the girl, relieving her of the indignity of staying in a drawer at the coroner’s office a moment longer than necessary.
There were certainly other things that remained to be done, things such as making sure Frank Wu went to prison for a long time, tracking down who he worked for, finding every last girl that they had brought over, but those were tasks that now lay outside his purview.
For now, he could only hope that the other organizations involved took this as seriously as he did.
“Tucker and Gott?” Reed asked.
A small snort sounded out from the captain, the response derisive, Grimes’s entirely posture seeming to morph instantly. “Never made it out of Jade, especially not once the media showed up.”
Feeling a similar sound threaten to escape him, Reed said simply, “Yeah, well, you’ll get that.”
“Famous but ignorant,” Grimes intone, reciting the mantra that nearly every law enforcement officer, relaying how they would best fill in the initials of their more well-publicized colleagues. “Though they were of some help on the opposite side of the operation this evening.”
Knowing what he was referring to, not needing to hear the remainder of what had transpired on the evening just yet, Reed pushed past the statement, not particularly wanting to belabor the topic in his current condition.
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