TWENTY-SEVEN

To aim the shotgun, Anderson had to brace the butt against his stomach. When he fired, he had to hold his breath and keep his abs tight to try and absorb the kickback so he wouldn’t pass out from the pain. Despite these precautions, it took him a few moments to recover each time he pulled the trigger.

He managed to score a hit on Grayson with his first attempt; fortunately, with shotguns it wasn’t necessary to be particularly accurate at short range. Grayson was staggered by the first shot, but didn’t go down. Between this blast and the one Anderson had delivered when he caught him in the data archives, however, he had sustained such grievous injuries that it was all the Reapers could do to keep him on his feet.

That gave Anderson time to gather himself and fire again, finally dropping Grayson to the floor. In the time it took Anderson to recover from the kickback of the second blast, Kai Leng had scooped up a pistol from the ground and finished Grayson off with two point-blank shots to the head.

Before the assassin could turn his attention toward another target, Anderson said, “Drop the gun and don’t move!”

He didn’t shout or yell; despite his being dosed with medi-gel, his collapsed lung and broken ribs were too painful for him to take a deep breath. But he knew that Kai Leng had heard him clearly.

The assassin stood frozen, his weapon still pointed at Grayson’s corpse on the floor. Anderson knew what was running through his mind. Could he bring his pistol up and get off a shot before Anderson could squeeze the shotgun’s trigger? He was quick, but was he quick enough?

“Don’t do it,” Anderson warned. “I’ve got you dead in my sights. At this range even I can’t miss.”

To his relief, Kai Leng let the gun slip from his hands.

Anderson had seen the unconscious teenager lying on the floor bleeding from his gut when he’d arrived on the scene, and in his peripheral vision he could see Kahlee trying to shake off the cobwebs and regain her senses after being thrown by the Reapers. But he couldn’t offer help to either one. Not yet. Kai Leng was too dangerous to take any chances with; until he was neutralized Anderson had to push everything else aside and focus on this true threat.

“I want you to take it slow and easy,” Anderson told him. “Gently—very gently—use your foot to slide that pistol over to me.”

He kept his trigger finger ready as Kai Leng complied, ready to fire at any sudden movement; God help the man if Anderson sneezed. The gun skittered across the floor and stopped a few inches from Anderson’s feet.

“Now put your hands behind your head, turn around to face the wall, and get down on your knees.”

The assassin complied, and Anderson finally felt like he had the situation under control. From that position even Kai Leng wouldn’t be able to react fast enough to avoid a shotgun at point-blank range.

“What do we do now?” the assassin asked.

“All this gunfire is sure to attract someone’s attention. I figure the security patrols will be showing up in a couple of minutes. We’ll just wait for them to arrive.”

He glanced over at Kahlee and saw she was on her feet, bracing herself against the wall and trying to get her bearings. She glanced down at Grayson’s body lying just across from her, and then her eyes fell on the boy farther up the hall.

“Nick!” she shouted, racing over to him and crouching down to inspect his wounds.

Anderson kept his shotgun trained on Kai Leng, wary in case he used the distraction to try to escape. He didn’t move, but he did speak.

“I could have killed you, you know,” Kai Leng said, keeping his eyes fixed firmly on the wall. “But I didn’t. I have no reason to harm you.”

“David,” Kahlee said, looking up from the body of the unconscious boy. “He’s losing too much blood. I need a med-kit.”

“All I wanted was to stop Grayson,” Kai Leng continued on as if he hadn’t heard her. “My job is done. Just let me go.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” Anderson snapped at him. “This is all your fault. Grayson. This kid. Their blood is on your hands!”

“David!” Kahlee barked out. “I can still save him. But I need that med-kit!”

“Go,” Anderson told her, not taking his eyes off Kai Leng. “I don’t know where they are. Grab one and bring it back.”

“We need to keep pressure on the wound,” Kahlee protested. “He’ll bleed out before I get back.”

“I can’t take my eyes off this guy,” Anderson told her with a shake of his head. “We’ll just have to wait for security to show up. Shouldn’t be long now.”

“There isn’t time,” Kahlee insisted.

“You,” Anderson said to Kai Leng, coming to a decision. “On your feet. Nice and slow. Come over and put pressure on this kid’s wound. Hold it until Kahlee gets back.”

“No,” Kai Leng replied without moving, his voice completely devoid of emotion.

“No?” Anderson repeated incredulously.

“You have a choice,” the assassin calmly told him. “You stanch the flow of blood while Kahlee retrieves the med-kit, and I disappear. Or you keep that gun pointed at me until security shows up and we all watch as the boy dies.”

“You son of a bitch!” Kahlee screamed. “He’s just a boy!”

“It’s Anderson’s choice,” Kai Leng told them. “All he has to do is let me go.”

Kai Leng was still facing the wall. Anderson took the opportunity to set the shotgun down and gingerly pick up the pistol. Moving carefully, never taking his eyes off Kai Leng, he made his way over to where Kahlee was sitting beside Nick. She had her injured hands stuffed up inside the wound in the boy’s stomach, her arms trembling from exertion as she pressed with all her might.

“I’ve only got one hand,” Anderson warned her.

“You’ve got more good fingers than I do,” Kahlee reminded him. “Reach inside and press as hard as you can.”

“I assume this means I’m free to go,” Kai Leng said confidently.

He was still facing the wall, but he became bold enough to get to his feet. Anderson took careful aim with the pistol and fired. The bullet lodged itself in the thick muscles at the back of the assassin’s right thigh, causing him to cry out and drop back down to the floor.

Writhing on the ground, he reached his hands down to awkwardly try to clutch at the wound. Anderson fired the trigger again, this time catching him in the calf of his other leg.

Kai Leng roared in pain and anger, then rolled onto his stomach and looked up at Anderson with death in his eyes.

“Security’s on its way,” Anderson noted. “If you want to get out of here you better hurry.”

Kai Leng flashed him a hateful grin, then turned and started crawling on his belly in the opposite direction in a desperate attempt to escape before reinforcements arrived.

Finally able to turn his full attention to Kahlee and her patient, Anderson let the pistol fall to the floor.

“Show me what to do,” he said.

“Reach into the wound and follow along my fingers,” Kahlee told him.

Anderson followed her instructions, carefully pressing his hand up and into the warm, sticky hole in Nick’s abdomen.

“Feel that tube my fingers are pressing against?”

“Yeah. I think so.”

“When I pull my hands out, you press down on it as hard as you can. Whatever you do, don’t let go.”

“Got it.”

“On three. Ready? One … two … three!”

Kahlee slipped her hands out of the way, and blood began to seep from the wound as Anderson fumbled to get his own hand in position to clamp down on the bleeding.

“He’s still bleeding!” Anderson said, his voice frantic.

“Press harder!” Kahlee shouted. “As hard as you can!”

Anderson leaned the entire weight of his body into it, and the oozing blood slowed to one thin trickle.

“Good,” Kahlee said, standing up and patting him on the shoulder. “Can you hold it?”

“For a bit,” he answered. “But hurry.”

She didn’t need to be told twice. He heard her footsteps disappearing down the hall, and then he was alone with Grayson’s corpse and the dying boy.

Nick’s breathing had become rapid and shallow. His skin was so pale it looked like he’d been rolled in chalk, and beads of sweat covered his forehead.

“Don’t die on her, kid,” he whispered. “She’s lost too much today already.”

Kahlee was back inside of two minutes.

“How is he?” she asked as she set the med-kit on the floor beside him.

“Still with us,” Anderson replied.

She pulled out a hypodermic, grasping it clumsily in her palm because of her injured fingers, and injected it right through Nick’s pants and into his thigh.

Unlike the small amounts of medi-gel Anderson had been receiving from his suit, a concentrated dose could have immediate, almost miraculous, effects. The clotting agents would stop the bleeding and the biologocial nanides would begin to repair damaged tissue and cells. At the same time, the powerful sedative properties would send the patient into a state of virtual hibernation, the medically induced coma maintaining vital systems and preserving internal organs. Surgery would still be required for serious wounds, but except in the most extreme cases medi-gel could stabilize patients long enough to get them proper medical attention.

Within seconds Nick’s color returned and his breathing became slow and regular.

Kahlee leaned in and scanned his vitals with the omni-tool from the med-kit, clasping it awkwardly with both hands.

“It’s working,” she said. “You can let go.”

Anderson carefully slid his hand from the wound and rolled gingerly out of the way, giving Kahlee room to work.

From the med-kit she retrieved bandages and a thick tube of ointment. Unlike the liquid medi-gel she’d injected into Nick, this batch had been processed into a thick, gooey salve. She struggled to open the cap, her splinted fingers unable to find any purchase.

“Hold the tube,” Anderson said, reaching over with his one good hand to grasp the cap.

He twisted and the cap came loose. Kahlee spread the salve directly on and into the wound, then covered everything with a bandage. Using the omni-tool, she scanned him one final time, just to make sure nothing had been missed.

“I think he’s going to be okay,” she announced, wiping the back of her hand across her sweat-drenched brow.

“We make a good team,” Anderson remarked. “Maybe we should open a med-clinic.”

“You are looking for a job,” she reminded him. “It’s either that or—”

Anderson held up his hand, cutting her off mid-sentence. “Hear that?”

She tilted her head to the side. “Footsteps!”

Kahlee scrambled to her feet and began to yell at the top of her voice. “Over here! By the admin offices!”

Soon four security guards—two men and two women—came around the corner.

“We heard gunfire, so I figured we better send some reinforcements,” the woman in charge said. “I left the others to keep an eye on the children.”

She glanced down at the bloody carnage and Grayson’s mutated corpse, and her face became grim. When she saw Nick, her expression changed to one of shock.

“I’m sorry,” she blurted out to Kahlee. “I don’t know how he got out of the cafeteria. I didn’t even notice he was gone!”

Kahlee shook her head. “It’s not your fault, Captain. And he’s going to be okay … though we should still get him to the hospital.”

The security chief nodded at one of the men in her detail, and he carefully picked Nick up off the floor.

“Hate to be the one to interrupt,” Anderson chimed in from where he was still sitting on the floor. “But maybe the rest of you should go after Kai Leng.”

“Right,” Kahlee agreed. “Asian male. Tattoo on the back of his neck. Not armed, but still dangerous.”

“Wounded in both legs,” Anderson added, pointing at the trail of blood drops leading off down the hall. “Shouldn’t be hard to find.”

While the guard carrying Nick set off at an easy pace so he wouldn’t unnecessarily jar the young man, the other guards sprinted off at a full run, leaving Kahlee and Anderson alone.

Kahlee crouched down beside him. “You look like you’re in pretty rough shape,” she said, holding up the omni-tool. “Better let me check you out, too.”

“In a minute,” Anderson told her. “After you say your goodbye.”

She glanced over at Grayson, then let her eyes fall to the floor. She got up, went slowly over to the body, and knelt down beside it.

Anderson turned away, giving her some privacy. He could hear her whispering, but he made no effort to listen in on what she was saying. When he heard the faint sound of Kahlee’s sobs, he couldn’t help but glance back to see if she was okay.

She was clasping Grayson’s hand in her lap, a few tears trickling down her cheeks. She brought his hand up to her lips and gave it a single soft kiss before letting it slide gently back to the floor. Then she wiped her eyes, took a deep breath, and got back on her feet.

Anderson didn’t comment as she sat down beside him. He wondered what she had whispered, but he had no right to ask. The moment hadn’t been his; it was between her and Grayson.

“Let’s see if we can get you patched up,” Kahlee said, holding up the omni-tool and giving him a tired smile.