Chapter 14

The shots blew through the windbreaker’s pocket in the general direction of the flashlight.

Ed Lawrence felt a sharp, hot, burning sensation in his left arm a couple of inches below the inside bend of the elbow. He dropped the flashlight immediately. He had enough presence of mind to fire two quick shots of his own but, between the intense pain in his arm and the falling flashlight changing his perception of where his targets were, he wouldn’t have bet he’d connected with either shot.

The flashlight hit the floor, bounced, spun in midair, landed pointing in Lawrence’s general direction, and started rolling at an angle.

Fish had flinched at the sound of Abdul’s gunshots. His forward vision was still spotted with yellow blobs from the flashlight shining in his eyes but he could see a man crouched low aiming a gun at him with his peripheral vision. Fish dropped to the ground and started rolling away from the man.

Abdul also saw the man. He pulled his gun out from his front pocket and tried to take a steady aim but the flashlight was still rolling, changing his view. He squeezed a couple shots off anyway.

The bullets hit the wall maybe six inches from the man’s head.

Between the light bouncing around in front of him, the sound of the loud gunshots ricocheting around the hallway, and the burning pain in his arm, Lawrence was becoming more and more disoriented. He shot three times toward where he’d seen the muzzle flash and then rolled away into the dark.

Over and over he rolled until his leg reached a doorway. He spun himself, reached up in the dark, and fumbled around with the hand on his wounded arm until he found the doorknob. He tried to turn it. It was locked.

Lawrence sat on the floor and thought over his options. He could shoot the lock off, but that would make noise and potentially give away his position. He could also charge forward shooting all the way. The truth was, the pain in his arm was so intense, it was making it difficult to think clearly.

In all of the missions he had been on, both the ones in service to his country and the ones in service to the highest bidder, he’d never been shot. He’d been stabbed several times, electrocuted twice, and flipped over in a truck by a roadside bomb, but he’d never been shot. Of course, it had been a lucky shot, but as everyone who’d ever been in a firefight knew, lucky shots could kill someone just as easily as intentionally precise shots can. And, of course, it had happened on what his boss had described as his easiest job ever.

The sound of Abdul’s gunshots had echoed around the hallway and muffled the sound of Abdul hitting the floor. He still had the gun in his hand but the bullet that had pierced a hole in the front of his left thigh was now burning the muscle tissue around it. The pain had too much of his attention for him to shoot back in the relative dark. The fallen flashlight was on the floor, pointing at the wall.

Two hands hooked under Abdul’s armpits and started pulling him backward and away from the perceived location of the shooter. “What are you doing?” Abdul whispered.

Fish didn’t answer him. He wasn’t being standoffish; his ears were still ringing from all Abdul’s shooting and he hadn’t heard the whispered question. He only knew Abdul had fallen because he had felt the floor shake next to him.

Fish knew the stairwell was somewhere in the dark behind him. Unfortunately, he also knew there was another stairwell at the other end of the hallway, too. If whoever was shooting at them was quick, he could theoretically go back to the stairwell, run under them, and sneak into their stairwell and potentially be waiting for them.

But comparing that theoretical possibility with the actuality of seeing small sparks from what must have been a gun with a sound suppressor on it meant that there was no real comparison. Fish pulled Abdul as fast as he could until Fish’s butt hit a metal door.

“What happened?” asked Abdul as they came to the sudden stop. His hands were cold. He wondered if he was going into shock; then wondered if he was coherent enough to realize he was going into shock, could he really be going into shock? Or maybe he… no, no, he was definitely going into shock.

Fish turned around and felt the door until he found the handle. He grabbed it, pushed down, and shoved it backward to throw the door open. He kept his butt in the doorway and bent over to grab Abdul. He pulled him into the dark stairwell and let the door close behind them.

Fish held the phone over Abdul’s face and said, “Tell me where you’re shot.”

“The leg.”

“Both or just one?”

“Just one? Fish, please, a little mercy.”

“You don’t need mercy, you need me to get you up to your good leg and support you on your bad leg so we can limp up the stairs to the roof.”

Abdul smiled through the pain and pushed back the shock. “No man left behind?”

“Something like that. Come on, let’s go.” Fish bent down to help him up but Abdul shook his head.

“Fish, listen to me.”

“How about we walk and talk?”

“I’m staying.”

“You can’t stay, that guy’ll kill you.”

“Not necessarily.”

Fish bent down and picked Abdul up. He saw the bleeding wound on Abdul’s left leg and got on his left side. “Grab the railing with your hand, put your weight on your right foot, then on me, and up we go.”

“Fish, please--”

“Up!” Fish put his own hand on the railing on his side and pushed them both up the stairs. At first, Abdul didn’t want to do but Fish was too strong for him not to acquiesce unless he pulled them both to the floor. So, he went with Fish.

Ed Lawrence lay flat on the floor. He’d heard the door open at the opposite end of the hallway and thought about taking a shot but decided against it. Instead, he turned for the door to the stairwell behind him and started walking in a low crouch. Even though his ears were still ringing from the gunshots, he was almost positive he’d heard the sound of someone being dragged after he’d heard the door to the other stairwell open.

Lawrence turned sideways to make himself as small a target as he could and felt around for the door’s handle. He had to push down with the hand from his injured arm because he was aiming his gun with his healthy hand.

He snuck through the doorway and closed the door behind him. He reached out in the dark until he found the railing. He listened for a couple of seconds to see if anyone was coming in through the door he’d just come in. When he was sure no one was pursuing him, he put his gun back in the holster at the small of his back.

Lawrence held on to the railing with his good hand while his wounded hand took turns between throbbing, aching, and burning. He went down the stairs, picking up his pace as he got more confident in his footing. He almost fell when instead of going down another step the same height as all of the ones before it, his second foot landed on the floor the same height as his first foot. He had reached the second floor.

Lawrence leaned against the wall by the railing and looked out in the dark. He cursed at himself for not having thought of it sooner, then reached into his pocket and pulled out his smart phone. He turned it on and used it to light his way down the stairs to the first floor.

Fish used his hip to shove the door to the roof open, then had Abdul lean on him for a second leg as they made their way out of the stairwell. Here, they had light from the streetlights.

“We made it,” Fish said. He looked around and smiled. “The second stairwell stops at the third floor. Ours was the only one that leads to the roof.”

“Excellent,” Abdul said. “Let me sit down.”

“Abdul, you can’t sit down here. We’ve got to figure out a way to get you across to the second roof so we can get out of here.”

Fish held up the cell phone but it was dark. “Do you have a second battery?”

“No, but it doesn’t matter.”

“It does matter because we can’t call the cops. I left my phone at home.”

“Now is not the time for phones, now is the time for action.”

“What action?”

Abdul pulled away from Fish and sat down facing the stairwell. The hole in his leg had burned to begin with but all his moving caused it to flare. He gnashed his teeth through the pain, took his gun out, and aimed at the door. “We must separate.”

“What the hell must we do that for?”

Abdul gave Fish the USB stick. “Here, take this to the FBI.”

“And what are you going to do?”

“I will wait here for you.”

“Abdul, who knows how long it’ll be before I come back? You can’t wait here by yourself.”

Abdul smiled. “It will take as long as it takes. I am a patient man.”

“Listen to me. I think the blood loss is affecting your judgment.”

“No, you listen to me. If that virus gets loose, it will kill billions of people, including everyone in my family. Compared to that, my life is meaningless. And, with all due respect, Fish, so is yours. We must both do whatever is necessary for the authorities to stop that bloody virus.”

Abdul reached into his pocket and pulled out his car keys. He gave them to Fish. “Don’t be afraid of getting a speeding ticket. Reach whatever authorities you can as soon as possible.”

“I can’t just leave you here.”

“You can and you must. I’ll have you know I am in a perfect defensive position.”

“You’re gonna bleed out and die.”

They both looked down at the hole in his leg. The light from the streetlights was bright enough for them to see the wound had stopped bleeding.

Abdul looked up at Fish with a smile on his face. “I’ll be fine.”

Fish looked him in the eyes and didn’t speak.

“Honestly,” Abdul said. “I’ll wager I didn’t lose more blood than if I’d donated a pint or two.”

“You’re not supposed to make the donation out of your leg.”

“Be that as it may, you must still go.”

“I can’t leave you here.”

“Xavier, I know you’re not a coward. I also know you’re a man of integrity. Please, if the situation were reversed, I would give you my gun and leave you behind with a clear conscience. Sometimes, doing what must be done is very difficult, but nevertheless, it still must be done. The stakes in this situation are simply too great.”

Fish thought it over for a few seconds. “Okay, I’ll go. Can I do anything for you before I leave?”

Abdul smiled. “Yes, keep telling yourself you’re doing the right thing until you believe it. It happens to be true. And be careful jumping roofs. If something were to happen to you… just be careful.”

“All right,” Fish said. He put the USB stick in his front pocket and gripped the car keys tight in his hand. He looked at Abdul. “I’m going.”

“Go with God.”

It wasn’t that Fish didn’t believe in God. It was just that he would have preferred God pick someone else for this particular fight in the battle between good and evil. Someone more competent that him.

He turned and headed for the part of the roof that he’d jumped on. He found the edge and looked over to the roof he’d previously jumped from. It didn’t seem as far as it had the first time.

Fish looked down, not to see how far it was, but to make sure no one was there to shoot him mid-jump or waiting for him when he got to the bottom of the second building. He didn’t see anyone.

Fish took a few steps back, stopped, looked at the distance between the roofs, and took a few more. He turned and looked at Abdul.

Abdul nodded his head.

Fish turned back around and started running as fast as he could. He was about a foot away from the edge when he pushed off on his strong foot and leaped the distance between the roofs. He landed on the second roof with a thud.

He turned back to Abdul one more time and gave him a wave.

Abdul waved back.

Fish turned around and ran to the stairwell that led to the roof.

Abdul turned back around and concentrated his aim on the closed door to the roof. He’d had a hard time dealing with what he’d discovered but, over the last few hours, he’d come to be at peace with what he needed to do to stop it. And the truth was, knowing Fish wasn’t in on the crime and now felt honor-bound to do everything he could to stop made him feel much better about the situation.

Dr. Michael Radford got out of his car and headed for the building he’d been working at. Light from the first floor spilled onto the parking lot. He still didn’t exactly know what was happening but whatever it was, the potential consequences were catastrophic.

Dr. Cynthia Jones got out of the car and went after him. She couldn’t believe after everything she had done to push the human race forward, that it could have all unraveled while she’d been blowing off a little sexual steam.

Radford reached the front door and pounded on it.

Lawrence had been keeping an eye on the door to the other stairwell when the sound of a pounding door made him jump. He spun and aimed his gun at the front door. He saw the doctor and between the angry expression on the doctor’s face and the pain in his arm, Lawrence thought about shooting.

Instead, he lowered his weapon and went to the front door. He unlocked it and stepped back as Radford came in.

“What happened?” Radford said. He looked down and saw the bloody hole in Lawrence’s arm. “Why are you bleeding?”

“The Arab shot me,” Lawrence said.

“Abdul?”

“And the other one dragged him away. I think they’re in the stairwell but I’m not sure.”

“Did they call the police?”

“No idea.”

“What did they do at the computer?”

“Copying files, maybe?”

Radford looked at Jones. She was horrified.

“What are we going to do?” she said.

Radford held up a USB stick. “I have copies of the data here and copies of the… project at the second lab. There’s nothing in this building that doesn’t exist somewhere else or can’t be duplicated in less than two days.”

“What are you saying?” Lawrence asked. His arm was really killing him.

“I’m saying, if they called the police, we don’t have nearly enough time to safely tear down the laboratory on the second floor. Practically speaking, we only have one option left.”

“Which is what?” Jones asked.

Radford looked at her, then at Lawrence. “We have to burn the building to the ground.”

Fish jogged toward the Mercedes. He looked around to see if anyone was watching him and didn’t see anyone. He pushed the button on the keypad and unlocked the door from about fifteen feet away. He ran to the door handle, pulled it open, and jumped in the car.