Page 87 of Target Acquired

They left the main part of Lake City and headed up the mountain road. Cowboy took the turns tight and with a skill Kenzie envied. Her medical kit was tucked under her feet and her weapons loaded and ready to go should she be called to use them. Today there was no heckling, which she found interesting, but she wasn’t about to question it. Her side still ached but had healed enough that she was confident it wouldn’t slow her down much. If at all.

By the time they arrived, officers on the scene had surrounded the place. Cowboy parked at the edge and all but Kenzie climbed out. Cole was already in touch with the chief of police, Rav Badami, who was on-site. He walked over to the man, and Kenzie could hear Cole through the comms as she grabbed her medical kit and stepped out of Dolly. “Any contact?” he asked.

“No. We’re going to let you breach at this point. We can’t find any sign of life and definitely no shots fired. At least not at us.”

An instant breakout of goose bumps pebbled her arms. “Cole, this doesn’t feel right. Feels like last time. This is an ambush. Tell everyone to take cover. Take cover!”

Her team moved, officers scrambled, and her shout ended in a spate of gunfire from the building.

“Return fire and cover us,” Cole told Badami. “Team! As soon as the gunfire from the building stops, go!”

Bullets from the officers’ weapons peppered in the direction of the shooter, who ceased firing, and Cole led the way through the main entrance of the hospital.

Kenzie had taken cover inside Dolly, ears tuned to what was happening in the building, eyes scanning the outside. The hospital was spread over a thousand acres, but the main building where the action was taking place was just ahead. It curved into a wide U-shape with the covered drive. On either side of the drive, the overgrown courtyard sprawled. In its heyday, it would have been quite a sight. Today it was falling apart and looked like it was destined to be a battle zone.

She saw a figure. “There! Movement in the window on the third floor, second room from the end.” She grabbed her weapon and exited Dolly. The figure pulled away from the window and ran to the next room. Then the next, glancing out the window each time. “Keep going, he’s headed for the east wing exit, I think. Who’s on the blueprints?”

“I’ve got them up in here.” Badami’s voice came through the comms. “Officers are moving to cover that exit.”

Kenzie darted in that direction as well since she was closer. She ran across the broken drive and toward the fire escape on the side, stopping to peer around the corner just as the door opened and the figure started down. “Freeze!” She stepped out and took aim. “Drop your weapon now!” He was almost to the bottom when he vaulted over the wrought iron railing and hit the ground with a thud and a yell, his rifle skidding from his fingers. He rolled to his feet as the other officers closed in behind Kenzie. She leapt up and rounded the bottom of the stairs to go after him. “Get the rifle!” She threw the words over her shoulder to the officers behind her, then turned and yelled, “You! Stop!”

He ran faster. Naturally. The rest of the team was coming in from different directions, but she was in the lead and she really wanted to get this guy now.

But he had a motorcycle waiting. She recognized it as the same one the shooter who’d punctured Cole’s tire had been on. “No!”

But he was already riding toward the back of the property. “He’s heading north,” she said. The brick wall that used to run the perimeter was spotty now, broken in many places, but he wasn’t going for that. What was he doing? Surely he’d have an escape route planned, but he seemed to be driving in a random pattern through the grounds that had become an overgrown jungle. A chopper roared overhead, sweeping the area.

Kenzie stopped running to watch the shooter, but when he took a sharp right turn, she sped up again. “He’s turned now. Going east again.” The chopper banked at her words.

And then the guy—and the motorcycle—disappeared.

“What in the world?” She skidded to a halt.

“What is it?” Cole asked, racing up next to her.

“He just vanished. Dropped into the ground. I don’t even hear the bike anymore.”

Together, joined by the others who’d caught up with them at this point, they followed the motorcycle tracks until they stopped amid the thick, overgrown bushes. “There.” She pointed. The ground gave way to a sloping drive that led to a tunnel. “Seriously?”

Cole shrugged. “Let’s go.” They descended into the place, Maglites leading the way in the darkness.

Kenzie grimaced. “I hate this kind of stuff. Dark places, tight places. Places with no exit.”

“When was this hospital built?” Greene asked.

“Early 1900s?”

“It’s an air raid shelter,” Cole murmured. “Probably had the ramp for the gurneys.”

“I think I remember hearing about this,” Kenzie said. “They built it after Pearl Harbor. No one knew if they were going to be next.”

Cowboy stepped around her. “It’s huge.”

“Would have to be,” she said. “They had over two thousand patients back then.”

“Well, it’s big,” Cole said, “but not that big. There’s no way they would have fit everyone in here even if the ones who cared fought to do so.”

“No,” she said, her voice soft, “but the staff would fit. Not sure why they’d build a ramp if they weren’t going to save the patients, though.”