Chapter Three
Amin loaded their rented SUV with the tools for the kidnapping. They had specially modified nine millimeter automatic machine pistols with extended thirty round magazines. Stun guns for any overzealous security personnel. Also, they had a medical bag with enough sedative to knock out a whale and a few items to keep their prey under control for the trip to Bahrain and a large payday.

“All right, Hamid. I’ve got everything loaded. Do you have the credentials we need to get in?”

“Everything’s ready. The Prince has assured us that no one will be expecting us. The girl is on the ninth floor in the ICU. I have the exact coordinates of the bed. Our contact inside is a nurse in the ICU”

Across town, Janine was speeding to the hospital. She cursed herself for not anticipating an attempt to recapture the girl. There was no way she was going to let that happen, not after all the kid had been through. She got back on the phone, dialing the security chief, a retired cop by the name of Gonzalez. She had already briefed him quickly on the target back at the jail.
“I’m ten minutes from the hospital. Do you have someone in place to deny access to the ICU?”

“I can’t do that! The staff has to be able to come and go! There are still critically ill people up there”

“Gonzalez, there are people who will stop at nothing, I repeat NOTHING, to get that child back. I want three armed guards up in that unit ASAP, or you’ll be answering a lot of questions from the director on why you couldn’t follow my instructions! Is that clear?”

Gonzalez wanted to tell the bitch to fuck off, but he didn’t want to bring a lot of attention to the hospital in case she wasn’t completely crazy. “All right, all right. What do you need me to do?”

“Quietly post your men at every possible entrance to the floor. There is no guarantee that anyone will be there today. My guess is that they will be disguised as staff, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they have forged credentials. They will need to be as discreet as possible, so look for anyone you don’t recognize, no matter what their credentials say. And be careful! Whoever is coming will likely be trained and very dangerous”

Gonzalez was beginning to grasp the seriousness of the situation. “Okay, you’ve convinced me. I’ll supervise this personally”

“Thank you!” she said with a note of exasperation. “I’ll be there in exactly seven minutes. That girl’s life depends on your ability to deny access to the kidnappers!”

“Got it. I’ll keep you on the line”

Janine cursed the traffic. She had already broken every traffic law known to man, including driving on the sidewalk to avoid blockages. She was pretty sure the siren didn’t cover that particular maneuver.

Hamid and Amin pulled into the employees’ parking lot. The way had been cleared for them to get their bag and weapons past security. Hamid had thought of everything. Except that his burn phone had lost service.

“Dammit!” whispered Nurse Gaby Abdullah. She had been trying to get Hamid on the phone since she noticed the guards by the stairwell doors and elevator. Their plan had been discovered, but how? She needed to get out of there, now.

Walking to one of the guards, Gaby casually tried to open the door to leave the floor.

“Excuse me, ma’am” the guard barred the path out with his arm. “Nobody leaves the floor until the FBI and LAPD get here. Sorry”

“But I need to get some medicine for the patient in 922”

“Sorry. I know it’s a pain, but it won’t be long”

She was starting to get panicky “But I really need to get that medicine! I have to get it!”

“Yeah, that’s not gonna happen, so go on back to your station and give us about ten minutes to straighten this out”

Gaby walked reluctantly back to her station. Now she couldn’t call Hamid, who was probably already at the hospital.

Hamid and Amin made their way to the elevator, and punched the ninth floor button. They both pulled out their weapons and hid them in their lab coats. Hamid cursed the slow hospital elevator. He and Amin pulled the slides back on their weapons.

Janine screeched to a stop in front of the emergency entrance. She had maintained contact with Gonzalez all the way to the hospital and still had her Bluetooth headset on. “Anything yet?”

“No. We had a little trouble with one of the nurses, but other than that, nothing”

“Don’t let that nurse go. I want to talk to her when I get up there”

“Copy that”

Janine ran past the elevators to the stairs. She was a marathon runner, so nine flights of stairs were nothing to her. Her instincts told her that the nurse was involved and her nervousness meant that something was going down today.

Hamid and Amin didn’t talk on the way up to the ninth floor. They had rehearsed what they needed to do. Hopefully, no one would have to get hurt. That would be messy, and both of them were professionals who hated it when things got messy.

The elevator doors opened and Gonzalez was there to meet it. “Sorry, no one on this floor until further notice” as he was about to dismiss the men, he realized he didn’t know who they were. He only delayed a second, but it was enough for the stun gun to hit his chest. He went down immediately.

The two kidnappers didn’t realize that Gonzalez had a bad heart. The shock caught him at exactly the right instant, stopping his heart. The security chief was dead before he hit the floor.

The other two guards on the floor were not in a position to see what happened. Amin pulled Gonzalez into the elevator and hit the button to the basement.

They quickly made their way past the nurse’s station. Three rooms to the right was their victim. They made their way to the room.

“Great. She’s asleep. Pull those IV’s and let’s get the hell out of here” whispered Hamid.

“Hold on. I gotta take care of this tag or the whole damn place will know she’s being moved” He placed an electronic device over the smart bracelet that Amber was wearing. A small whistle then a click and a small EMP disabled the tag that would alert security if she was moved. “All right, let’s move. Hamid put the girl over his shoulder and undid the pistol. From here on out, they were playing for keeps.

Gaby saw the two in the girl’s room. She quietly made her way there. “They know about you coming!” she hissed.

The two men looked at each other.

“Shit!” they said simultaneously. They knew their chances of getting out now were next to zero.

Amin motioned to Gaby. “Get out there and distract those guards. Whatever you have to do. We’re going out the north stairway. Get them on the other end of the hall”

“What do I do?” she asked.

“I don’t care. Get naked if you have to, but get those guards to the other end of the hall!”

Gaby left the room and headed to the other end of the hall as she was instructed. She looked into a room and screamed. The two remaining guards rushed to her as they had hoped, completely ignoring the room they were supposed to be watching.

“Go! Hamid whispered. Amin took the lead, and ducked into the hall. Gaby was doing a great job of keeping everyone occupied. Hamid, carrying Amber like a sack of flower, smiled to himself smugly, thinking they just might pull this off, when the stairwell door they thought was unguarded popped open and a woman wearing blue jeans and a pink hoodie walked through it, her weapon drawn.

“S’up?” she asked calmly with a small nod of her head, the sheen of perspiration from her little sprint visible on her forehead. “Going somewhere?”

Amin started to pull his weapon up to fire but Janine was faster. The back of his head exploded in gore an instant after he twitched.
Hamid put his gun to the head of the unconscious girl as Amin dropped to the floor. The gunshot drew the guards back to the scene. A nurse screamed.

Hamid had been in worse situations, but as the saying goes, he couldn’t think of any at the moment “Okay, woman. Drop the gun and the kid might live”

The guards were rushing up behind them. Janine never blinked. “Stand down! Back away! He’s got a gun on her!” They were on their radios calling for backup as they retreated down the hall.

“I’ll use it too, woman. Make no mistake about that. This one means nothing to me, but to you, obviously more. Drop the gun”

“So you can kill me too? I don’t think so. You have no chance to get out of here, mister. None at all. Drop her now and we’re looking at attempted kidnapping. A few years in jail at most. Don’t complicate this by doing something stupid that you’ll end up regretting. You can even take me for a hostage” She let her gun tremble for a second.

Hamid smiled. He had her. “I’m counting to three. If at three your gun isn’t on the floor then, I kill the child. I may die, but the girl is dead. I’m guessing you would do anything to prevent that. Your eyes and gun betray you woman”

Janine knew he meant every word he was saying. She would have hated to play poker against this guy if he was bluffing.

“One”

“Don’t do it” Janine warned.

“Two”

Janine’s .45 fired, the round catching Hamid in the forehead, right between the eyes, crossing the T zone. Hamid dropped like a stone, eyes glassy in death. “Three, asshole”. Janine was a good poker player too.

Janine rushed to Amber, holstering her weapon as she did. Without the drugs keeping her under, she was beginning to come out of the coma. Her eyes fluttered open. Janine had never seen such blue eyes in her life, they looked haunted.

“M-mom?” she spoke quietly.

Amber had some of the kidnapper’s blood on her forehead, Janine gently wiped it off as she cradled her. “No sweetie, get some rest. You just had a bad dream”

“Okay, mom, I’m sleepyyyy” She passed out again into the dreamless slumber she had been in since her rescue.

“Mom…” Janine thought. Maybe she did remember.

The ninth floor was a whirlwind of activity after the attempt. Patients that couldn’t handle the noise were coding and the ones that were able to complain were, and most vociferously.

Janine called Dubois to tell him about the failed plot. He was on his way, along with Dr. Davis and Amber’s parents.

Those men should have gotten away cleanly. Gonzalez was dead, and she had just barely managed to stop the two men. It turns out that Steele wasn’t joking, but why did he give up the plot? What was in it for him? He was living up to his reputation, and was no one to trifle with. He was in jail for now, but did he have a plan to escape?

Dubois made it to the hospital first and demanded a briefing from Janine. She gave him the rundown on what had happened to that point.

“Outstanding work, Agent Rodgers I’m not big on commendations, but if I were, you’d be up for one”
Janine shook her head. “It was FUBAR from the get go. A good man is dead, as are two kidnappers who could have put the finger on their employer. On top of that, Gabriela Abdullah, who I suspect was their inside contact, is missing. You don’t get props for that, Marcus”

“True, but the fact that you realize that makes you invaluable to me. And the important thing is that you stopped that girl from getting killed. After all she’s been through, that would have been an unthinkable tragedy. I’m not letting the bad guys win this one, Janine”

Dr. Davis, Greg and Gail were at the hospital twenty minutes after the excitement. They met in the same conference room as before, as the cleanup was still on in the ICU. Greg was furious.

“How in the hell could you let something like this happen?”

Dubois gave an icy stare at Greg. He was beginning to take a serious dislike to Amber’s father. He was too emotional. This wasn’t going to productive or conducive to the girl’s recovery.

“Nothing happened, Mr. Phillips. Your daughter wasn’t aware of what was happening, as she was unconscious for the ordeal” Dubois’ tone never varied from dead calm.

“Greg! Stop it! You’re making an ass of yourself” Gail chastised. “If you can’t stay calm, then leave”

Greg wasn’t used to Gail standing up to him like that. His ears reddened. “You handle it then! I need some air!” He stormed off to the lobby.

“I’m sorry, Greg isn’t normally like this. It’s just this whole thing has really changed him, from the first moment Cody was kidnapped”

Dr. Davis nodded. “I understand, and we can work with that, but he needs to understand that blowing up at people who are helping is going to wear out his welcome”

Janine put her hand on Gail’s shoulder. “She did wake up for a moment, after it was all over. She called me mom” Gail started to say something, but Janine held her hand up to silence her. “I know what you are going to say and no, she didn’t think I was her mother, she was too addled to know anything. But she did say ‘mom’. That’s a good sign, right Dr. Davis?”

Francine rubbed her chin. “Yes. It is. I agree with your assessment, Janine. Very astute for a lay person. She has everything buried deep, but we can pry it out. Eventually, and with a lot of work”

“Thank God!” cried Gail.

“Thank God indeed, Mrs. Phillips” continued Francine. “Also, you need to consider a name for the child. You cannot continue calling this child Cody”

“But that’s his name!” protested Gail. “Greg won’t like this one bit”

Francine rolled her eyes. “I really don’t care what Mr. Phillips thinks at this point. In my professional opinion, this GIRL won’t think she’s worthy to be called Cody. I’m guessing, and it’s all guesswork at this point, but based on a lot of experience dealing with cases of abuse, she’ll blame herself for what has happened. We can’t allow that to continue”

Gail knew that Francine was right. “What do I do?”

“Did you have a name picked out if Cody had been born female?”

“No, we knew pretty much from the start that he was a boy” She paused, and had an idea. “Wait! I miscarried a year before Cody was conceived. I was planning either way, and the girl would have been named Bethany”

Francine smiled. “That’s a beautiful name for a beautiful girl”

Gail burst into tears at that. “Oh my God. My little girl. My Bethany. I can do this”

Francine hugged Gail. “This is the first little step to getting your child back, Gail. I’ll handle the paperwork to get her name updated”

Dubois and Rodgers had quietly left the room.

“Agent Rodgers, This isn’t over. I just got a text from a friend at the CIA. There has been a bounty placed on the head of the Phillips girl”

To Be Continued