Chapter 26

Chapter 25  (13+) Rudolfo and the Sheriff meet. #2039553 by Hyperiongate

Chapter 26

Annie

Annie refused to leave his side. No one argued that she wasn’t a relative or that she needed to resume “other” duties now that JD11’s status had clearly evolved; at least outwardly.

Now he looked more like a patient than some sort of floating pickled exhibit one might see at a Ripley’s Believe it or not. Yes, he was covered in bandages, but that was pretty normal for other patients in the burn wing of the hospital.

After watching him float in the tank for the better part of two weeks, Annie was intimately familiar with how JD11 looked. She knew everything from the top of his blonde head to the bottom of his perfectly formed feet.

Even now, she could see tuffs of yellow hair around the top of his head where the bandages where more loosely wrapped. His hands were completely exposed and looked as normal as any hands one might see anywhere; complete with fingernails. Everything was so normal that it was hard to forget that just a couple of weeks earlier he not only had no fingernails but two of his fingers had been missing altogether.

Annie closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“Change is coming.”

Annie felt the thought past through her mind. She was not concerned that no one had spoken nor that the message clearly came from the comatose man on the bed next to her. The communication between the two of them was what it was. She felt no need to explain things to herself. She just accepted.

“Change is coming,” came thought again; this time with a bit more urgency.

Annie sat up; instantly alert. Something was “coming” and he was telling her to be ready. She looked at the guard posing as a patient in the other bed of the two-bed recovery room. The covers only did a marginal job of hiding assault rifle he kept close at hand.

Will he be enough? She wondered.

“No,” came the response from nowhere.

There would be violence; of that there could be no doubt. JD11 had told her before that this was coming and that she would be fine. Still, she couldn’t suppress a shudder. She would be fine, but what about everyone else. What about Him?

“When the time comes, you will know what to do,” he’d sent.

On impulse, Annie reached over and began to unravel the bandages around his head. She knew he didn’t need them but still, it was standard practice to keep burn patients wrapped in antiseptic gauze. The lack of skin made them especially vulnerable to infection. In JD11’s case, his skin had already grown back completely. He’d been wrapped more out of an abundance of caution rather than from any medical need. His new quick-grow skin seemed to be perfectly normal and healthy but the team had elected to go with Murphy’s law of burn recovery, “It there was only going to be one infection, anywhere, it would be in the body of whatever burn victim they were treating.”

She could feel JD11 encouraging her as she unwound the gauze. A minute later, she sat back and took a look at John Doe Eleven; the single most important thing in her life. The most important person in the world…if things went according to a plan Annie had no idea existed.

She ran her hand through the stubble of blonde hair that capped the most handsome, yet innocent face she could imagine. There was no facial hair, or wrinkle around the eyes. Everything about him looked new. His mouth neither smiled nor frowned, but gave on the feeling that its owner was dreaming of a faraway land of contentment.

When you will wake up? she asked silently.

“Soon; very soon,” came the response.

His chart put him at five foot eleven, one-hundred and sixty pounds. Neither muscular nor overly thin; he struck Annie as “just right.”

“You should go get some lunch,” she felt him say.

Although reluctant to leave him, the suggestion caused Annie to get to her feet and head towards the door without realizing she’d even made the decision to do so. She captured one final look and then headed down to the cafeteria.

Lanier

While Annie sat down for breakfast in the Hospital’s cafeteria, Dr. Szokoly watched as the last straps were placed around the Artifact. The whole thing had a surreal feeling to it. Up until yesterday, the Artifact had floated in the containment chamber as immobile as possible. It had performed the occasional tricks. There were the clips of the universe, the vibrations and even the slow motion nuclear detonation ruse. But it has always remained completely immobile and it floated right where it had been since they first dug it up. After two weeks of observation, there was no reason to suspect it would ever be different.

Then everything had changed.

Right after the bombs had failed to detonate, the Artifact had been found lying against the wall at the bottom of its pit. It was as if disarming Lanier’s bombs had taken the life out of it. After that event, it had become nothing more than a bus-sized cylinder.

Lanier had been quick to act. He had no idea if the Artifact would stay dead or not. He took this opportunity to set in motion steps that would get it moved to the secure underground facility at Nellis Air Force Base. Now, Dr. Szokoly and Lanier stood together watching the top of the containment chamber being lifted away by the same powerful helicopter that would take the Artifact down to Nellis.

Szokoly watched in sullen silence as a military C-section was performed on what had been his baby. The Artifact had been the most interesting thing Lanier had ever placed in his in-box. Then, in very short order, it had gone from being a window into the “infinite” to being little more than a chunk of something akin to a big, polished rock. By all measurable means, the Artifact appeared to be completely inert. Perhaps it had died.

The physicist looked up at the sound of the helicopter coming around to pick up the Artifact after having set the roof a few hundred yards outside of the camp. The helicopter was a huge beast capable of lifting a tank off of a battlefield. It lowered a cable that was quickly attached to the straps that encircled the Artifact. Szokoly held his breath as the helicopter took up the slack. A part of him was anxious to get the Artifact to the more capable labs of Nellis. Still, another part of him wanted the Artifact to be too heavy to carry; as if it still had the power to defy movement from its chosen home here in the desert. He wanted it to still be more than it was.

After a brief moment to recheck strained connections, a “thumbs up” was given from the ground crew and the Artifact was lifted easily out of its nest. The helicopter turned south and headed towards Nellis.

Szokoly lowered his head, momentarily overwhelmed by the sudden surge of sadness. The Artifact had been trying to tell him, to tell everyone, something. They had just been too primitive to understand.

He looked over to where his own helicopter waited. With one final look at the now topless Artifact structure, he turned and headed towards his ride.

The Colonel intended to stay at Artifact base just long enough to make sure the thing was hauled away successfully. Unless something dramatic happened, and he wasn’t ruling that out, it looked as if this part of the mystery was over; unresolved. They might get lucky and find out something back at the lab but his experience with these unexplained phenomena was that they tended to either give up secrets quickly, or not at all.

The other part of his mystery lay in the Intensive Care ward of Renown Medical Center. He’d been in touch with his people there so he was up-to-date on events. JD11, his potential answer-to-everything, was currently in an induced coma and would stay that way for days, perhaps weeks.

The Colonel pointed his SUV towards Reno. His intuition told him that the drama surrounding JD11 was only just beginning.

He also wanted to follow up with Jack with regards to Sheriff Tucker. He’d called yesterday after Jack expressed some concern. His people had told him the sheriff was home safe and sound. They hadn’t called in with any problem so far today so there was probably nothing to worry about.

Lanier didn’t overlook the fact that the Artifact incident and JD11’s emergency at the hospital seemed extraordinarily coincidental. He had little doubt the two were linked. The colonel was looking forward to having some one-on-one time with the strange man plucked from where he grew out of the desert sand.

As he pulled onto Highway 50, something was happening. He didn’t know what, exactly, but his foot pressed the accelerator to the floor as he reached for his cell phone. Something bad was about to go down and he was too far away to stop it. Still, he had to try.

The phone rang before he could even dial the first number.

“Sheriff Tucker is dead.”

Rudolfo!

The colonel knew Rudolfo wouldn’t have taken the risk of taking out the sheriff unless he was ready to throw all of his cards on the table. That meant the hospital was next.

Without waiting for another word, he hung up and dialed the patrols at the hospital, hoping he wasn’t too late.

Jack

As Colonel Lanier sped toward Reno, Jack finished off the last bit of coffee and then began tidying up the kitchen. Lise had left for work over an hour ago. If he hadn’t convinced her to take some time to get some sleep. The fact that her prize patient was finally out of his “waterbed” seemed to have made her more anxious rather than less so. It took a lot of convincing by Jack just to keep her from staying the night at the hospital.

Lise didn’t say a thing to Jack, but she could feel a “doom” approaching even as her patient seemed to be farther and farther out of danger. Lise didn’t tell Jack because she knew he felt it too. Over the last few weeks, they had not only become more in touch with each other, but they seemed to have an enhanced perception of events around them. There was trouble afoot and they both knew there was nothing they could do to stop it.

Jack finished cleaning up from breakfast after Lise left for the hospital. He planned on stopping by the Sheriff’s home to see how his friend was doing. Normally, he would just meet him down at his office but Jack knew that Sam tried to take Saturdays completely off from work. It was an old tradition insisted upon by his wife, and maintained by Sam since her death.

As his visit with Sam entered his thought process, Jack could feel his body beginning to rev up as if something threatening was in the room. He paused and let the feeling take shape…nothing. He was alone.

His thoughts again went to Sam. The feelings of apprehension returned.

“Sam’s in trouble,” Jack said out loud to no one. He tossed down the dishtowel he’d been using and rushed to get his keys.

Minutes later, Jack was speeding down the road into town.

Lise

Something was wrong. Lise didn’t know what it was but she could feel it.

Her mind went to her patient as she looked down at his chart. She’d ready it twice since she’d come to work about an hour earlier. Lise studied the sheet of data carefully, certain that she was missing something. There had to be something that was causing this feeling of anxiety and what could it be besides JD11?

Of course she’d noticed that the bandages had been removed from his head. When asked, Annie simply said, “He told me to take them off.”

Lise only nodded at the brief explanation. She was long past questioning Annie’s relationship with her patient.

No, it wasn’t the bandages. His chart showed nothing other than a patient well on his way to being the healthiest person in the hospital. She wasn’t even sure his induced coma was necessary. She’d made a mental note to discuss that with her staff later that morning.

Satisfied that her patient was in no danger, Lise let her mind drift to the other “man” in her life. Almost immediately, the feelings returned.

“It’s Jack!” she thought, “He was the one in trouble.” She picked up the phone and dialed his number. She needed to hear his voice. She needed to hear him to tell her everything was all right.

“Hi, Lise. Listen, can I call you back?”

She could hear it in his voice. “Jack, what is it? Something’s happened. I can feel it. Are you alright?”

Jack said nothing for a moment. He was standing in Sam Tucker’s front room with the two agents that had been assigned to keep Sam safe. They had begun cleaning up the site. They wouldn’t try to hide the fact that the Sheriff had been murdered; but there must be nothing left in the house that connected anyone in Lanier’s operation to this event. That included Jack.


He didn’t want to scare Lise, but she needed to know. She needed to be on alert.

“Lise, I’m at Sam’s house,” said Jack as he was being escorted out. “He’s been killed. The colonel’s men are here now. I’ll be on my way to the hospital in just a few minutes. I think you’d better make sure the guards know about this.”



Rudolfo

Rudolfo stepped out of the McDonalds and casually looked to the right and left. Nothing caught his trained eye. He walked three cars to his left and climbed into a white Corolla. No one noticed that it wasn’t the same care he’d arrived in fifteen minutes earlier. In fact, this was his third vehicle so far today.

His first had been a banged up truck that he’d left in the Emergency Room parking lot, right next to the van he knew held at least three of Colonel Lanier’s men. He’d limped into the emergency room, clearly in pain. After a quick visit to the bathroom, he’s walked back out the same door, completely unrecognizable as the truck’s owner.

Rudolfo’s second vehicle of the day was waiting from him near the front of the hospital. He’d taken that to the McDonald’s where his Corolla waited; its trunk filled with everything he would need to bring the hospital to its knees.

He checked his watch. He didn’t want to get there too early. The guards had a tendency to overlap shifts slightly. Ten minutes ahead of schedule and he’d be facing twice as many men as he’d planned for.

He parked across the street from the hospital and waited. Rudolfo closed his eyes and gave thanks for the opportunity before him. Yes, innocent people would die, but that was not his fault. The beast had chosen this time and place. He was the one who had chosen to try and hide amongst the innocent. People would die, but if they were without sin, they had nothing but glory to look forward to.

Rudolfo would kill without hesitation or regret. The beast would not give him a second chance.

His reverie was broken by his cell phone ringing.

“They found him.”

Rudolfo sighed. So Sheriff Tucker’s demise was no longer a secret. The assassin could have used a few more minutes of prayer, but now the trigger had been pulled. If he knew, then Lanier knew. That meant it would only be a few minutes before those guarding the hospital knew as well.

Rudolfo pulled onto the street and sped the last hundred yards to the hospital. He swung sharply right, and sped towards the front door. Screeching brakes announced his arrival to everyone. He was out of the car and digging into the trunk before the first nurse came running out to see what was going on.

He shot her without hesitation. Rudolfo pulled a small electronic device from his pocket. He dialed in a quick code and then pressed the red button on top. The truck parked next to the security van around back exploded in a giant fireball, taking out several surrounding cars with it.

So much for at least one of Lanier’s teams, he thought as he pulled an RPG out of the trunk. He swung quickly to his left and sited in the van where the second of Lanier’s teams was headed out. The back door swung open as Rudolfo fired the RPG. The van lifted several feet of the ground and landed, a burning hulk.
Scratch team number two, Rudolfo whispered to himself and he reached back into the trunk and pulled out a large satchel of weapons and ammunition.

The front doors to the hospital flung open as people ran out to see what the hell was going on. Rudolfo pointed his AK-47 at the crowd and they parted like the Red Sea. The assassin strode into the hospital. Even with two teams taken out in the first few seconds, he knew the battle had only just begun. There was confusion everywhere, but not enough to hide amongst.

Rudolfo saw an orderly point his way. It wasn’t hard to understand how he stood out; armed as he was. He pulled a couple of smoke grenades off his vest and tossed one down each of the two corridors leading out of the lobby. Soon, no one would stand out.

Next, he pulled a gas mask on and then headed down the corridor to the left. He didn’t need to be able to see to know where he was going. There was a stairwell just past the Emergency room. That was the most direct route to his target.

Jack heard the blast before he saw the smoke. Although he was still a block away, he knew what it was. This was what Lanier had been warning him about. Sam’s death was just the beginning. He was pulling into the hospital parking lot when the second explosion signaled the end of Lanier’s outside guard.

Jack pulled into the parking lot knowing he needed to get to the assassin. Lise would run to JD11’s room at the first sign of an attack. She knew as well as Jack did that her patient would be the target. The internal guards would also head there. And, Jack thought, so will the assassin.

Jack needed to keep that from happening. He knew he was getting ready to go after a trained assassin, but Jack wasn’t without skills of his own. Even though all of the action seemed to be taking place at the front of the hotel, Jack knew the quickest way to JD11’s room, and thus to Lise, was up the stairwell near the emergency room.

As he pulled around the back of the hospital, Jack was momentarily stunned by the carnage Rudolfo’s car bomb had inflicted. There was a huge hole in the pavement and several nearby cars were on fire. While he’d definitely had seen worse during his time in Iraq, it was something else to see the back lot of a modern hospital turned into a war zone.

Jack pulled up to the Emergency room entrance and was out of his car before it came to a complete stop. He cut through the emergency room admissions office and burst into the hallway where the entrance to the stairwell was.

That was when he came face to face with the assassin, Rudolfo.

Jack knew he had a slight advantage. He knew that assassin was dangerous. Rudolfo, on the other hand, didn’t know anything about the man he’d just come upon in the hallway.

Rudolfo was heavily armed, with an AK47 at the ready. Jack feigned fear, throwing his hands up in the air and backing up against the wall.

Rudolfo, satisfied Jack was no threat, prepared to hurry past him on the way to his target. Then something stopped him. He was right in front of Jack, who stood against the wall to his left. Rudolfo’s instinct made him stop. Something was not quite right about this man. He wasn’t who he seemed to be.

Rudolfo turned slowly to face Jack. Thoughts raced through his head. Who was this guy? He knew the face from somewhere. Jack Barton! Trained ex-Navy Seal!

The assassin moved to bring his gun up to bear on this new threat when Jack struck first. He grabbed the barrel of the assault rifle as it came up. The gun fired into the ceiling as Jack pushed it over his head. At the same time, he brought his knee up hard into Rudolfo’s lower rib cage.

Rudolfo went down hard. Even though he was wearing protective armor under his top, the blow had come very close to the knife wound Sheriff Tucker had inflicted only hours ago. He shoved the pain away and went on the offensive. There was no way he was going to let this amateur stop him from completing his mission.

Jack, unaware of the knife wound, was momentarily caught off guard by how quickly the assassin dropped. He hesitated a moment, now feeling like he had the advantage. After all, he now has the gun and his opponent was lying at his feet.

A knife appeared in Rudolfo’s hand. With a quick sweep of his right leg, he took out Jack’s feet. Jack landed on his back stunned by the swiftness of the assassin’s move. It took him another moment to notice he now had a knife sticking out of his shoulder.

Ignoring the knife for the moment, Jack struck out at Rudolfo’s throat. A killing blow that nearly hit its mark.

Rudolfo deflected the attack at the last moment and rolled away. He stumbled slightly as he got to his feet. That misstep turned out to be a bit of luck as the knife that was in Jack’s shoulder a moment earlier flashed by his face and stuck in the wall next to him.

Jack was on his feet and swinging. Rudolfo took an elbow to his ear and instinctively spun with the blow; his back leg striking out in a powerful spinning-back-hook kick that caught Jack on the chin.

Jack went down a second time. This time, as he started to get up, he found himself facing the barrel of a gun.

Rudolfo shot him twice in the chest at point-blank range; taking Jack out of the game.

Jack fell backward; his last thought was for Lise. He’d let her down. Then darkness took him.

Rudolfo was on his way up the stairs before Jack hit the ground. He’d lost precious minutes, time that wouldn’t be wasted by the three marines he knew were on the next floor.

He paused in the stairwell next to the door on the second floor and reached into a vest pocket. He pulled out a second remote detonator. He knew that protocol would send a marine to each of the two stairwells, one at each end of the long second-floor corridor. The third marine would no doubt stay in near the Dark Angle.

Rudolfo slowly lowered himself to the floor. From out of his satchel, he pulled a small scope which he slide under the bottom of the door. He needed to know exactly where the guards were before he began his final assault.

At first, he was surprised to find no one there. Then, on a second sweep, he spied the dim shadow projected onto the shiny floor from the first room on the right. There was his man. That meant the other marine was probably in a similar place at the far end of the corridor.

Rudolfo flipped the switch on the detonator and a huge explosion rocked the building. The explosive he’d set the night before was easily big enough to take out whomever was within twenty feet of that far stairwell.

That left just two between Rudolfo and his target.

The marine in the nearby room emerged with the explosion, wrongly assuming the attack was coming from the far side of the hospital. Rudolfo shouldered the door open and cut the marine down from behind.

One more to go, he thought. A moment later, something took out his left leg.

Rudolfo knew he’d been hit – hard. Instinctively, he laid down a barrage of gunfire and followed with percussion and smoke grenades. In a flash, visibility dropped to zero and the corridor became eerily quiet.

Rudolfo felt his leg. This was bad. A large chunk was missing from his left thigh. The bone didn’t appear to be broken but that was really unimportant. The damage had been done. Rudolfo was not going to be able to use that leg again. He injected a dose of morphine and tightened a tourniquet about the gaping wound. Satisfied that he’d done all he could do, the assassin grabbed his gun and started pulling himself along the floor.

There was only fifty yards to go. Fifty yards and one more marine.

+++++

At the sound of the first explosion, Lise was up and moving. All day she’d had the feeling that something was about to happen. When it did, she didn’t hesitate. She reached JD11’s bedside just as Rudolfo shot Jack. The sergeant Jackson already had things well in hand. JD11’s bed was pushed behind some cabinets. The bed the marine had been a “patient” in was now on its side, blocking the door.
He let Lise in and motioned for her to get on the floor in the corner of the room near JD11. A convex mirror directly across the hall from the room allowed the marine a clear view both directions down the corridor.

The explosion to his left almost caused him to move in that direction. However, the unmistakable sound of an AK47 from the right told him where the real attack was coming from. He saw his fellow marine drop to the ground, leaving the assassin standing exposed.

Jackson fired and saw Rudolfo drop to the ground. He was surprised to find how quickly after that the hallway became filled with smoke. He was certain he’d hit his target. How in the world had the assassin been able to respond with the smoke and percussion grenades so quickly?

“Is it over?” Lise whispered from the corner.

Jackson kept his eyes on the smoke filled hallway while holding up a hand to signal silence. Lise understood said nothing more.

The quiet was terrifying. Lise stood up and moved to put herself between the door and JD11. While she had confidence in Jackson, she didn’t know how well the marine would stand up against an assassin capable of destroying half of the hospital in a matter of a few minutes.

Her intent was to make the assassin go through her to get to her patient. She knew it wouldn’t work. Somehow, she knew the best she could hope for was to buy a little extra time.

After about a minute, the smoke started to clear out. Soon, Jackson was able to make out the mirror across the hall, although he could quite make out what was down the corridor just yet. It was very quiet. Perhaps the smoke grenade had been the last act of a dying man.

Jackson stood up slowly and leaned slightly out into the hallway. Rudolfo, shot him through the bottom of his chin from his position on the floor just outside the door.

Lise jumped at the sound. Fear reached for her as she watched the marine suddenly stand up straight, and then teeter back into the room, the top of his head gone.

A moment later, the table was shoved aside and a man dragged himself into the room. Lise ran over to kick him only to find her ankle in an iron grip. The next thing she knew, she was on the ground next to Rudolfo.

They lay there for a moment before Rudolfo smiled and said, “Dr. Marshall, I presume. I’d love to chat, but first things first.” He reached out and pulled her close, Lise struggled against his grip but to no avail. His hand slide up between their bodies, bringing the gun up to and placing the barrel right over her heart

Lise, realizing this was the end, stopped struggling. Her mind automatically rollodexed through her life and found only one regret. Jack had come along too late in the game. He was the one she’d been waiting for all her life. Now, the time that they’d spend together had been capped. There was no more future – only history

Rudolfo saw the tear grow in the corner of her eye, now only inches from his own. He wanted to tell her he was sorry but there were bigger things at stake. He wanted to tell her that this was not personal even though he knew there was no such thing as complete detachment.

In the end, all he could do was make it quick and painless.

Rudolfo pulled the trigger and let Dr. Lise Marshall slide from his arms into a lifeless form at his feet.

That was it. There was no one between him and the Beast.

He pulled himself to his feet; keeping the pressure off of his left leg. Rudolfo knew there would be no escaping this hit. The wound in his stomach had reopened as a result of his encounter with Jack. His leg was bleeding profusely in spite of the tourniquet.

Still, as he lurched to the foot of JD11’s bed, he smiled. This would be his best moment.

Rudolfo took a moment to look at the Beast/man as it lay there in apparent contented slumber. It was easy to see how one could be fooled into thinking this was nothing but an ordinary man. But he knew better. The Brotherhood knew better.

Rudolfo raised his assault rifle and began to apply pressure slowly, savoring the moment; knowing it would be his last. Knowing the beast would proceed him into the great beyond; where both would undoubtedly be judged quite differently.

JD11 opened his eyes and Rudolfo froze.

There was something about those eyes that made Rudolfo reel. In a moment he knew that he was wrong; that he’d always been wrong. He saw himself for what he was – a manipulated soul filled with fear.

Rudolfo saw himself exposed for the entire world to see. He understood that there were no secrets – anywhere. He felt childlike and ashamed.

And then he felt mad.


This was the Beast as work. This was the Beast getting inside his head and making him doubt himself.

“I forgive you, Rudolfo,” JD11 said.

Rudolfo started to pull on the trigger. A moment later, brains mixed with blood splattered the wall behind JD11.

Rudolfo stood a moment longer before toppling over.

“It’s okay, Annie. You did what needed to be done,” said JD11, smiling at the young woman that had just blown off the better part of Rudolfo’s head.

Annie lowered the too-big gun and said, “I know.”

Interlude  (13+) Post attack...JD11 is taken away..Jack and Annie stay behind #2040129 by Hyperiongate