Payback

21

“Don’t get involved, Lia! Get out of there!” yelled Rockman, pounding on the console of his workstation as the scene on his monitor blurred. The images whirled. They were fed from a video cam hidden in a button on Lia’s jacket, and Rockman knew from experience that she had attacked one of the gunmen from the side, taking him with a karate-style kick.

“Run away!” Rockman repeated. The image blanked, and for a moment he thought he’d lost the feed. Then he realized that she had fallen to the ground, face-first.

“Lia!”

Telach leaned over the front of his station, staring at him but saying nothing.

“Did you see them?” asked Lia.

“Are you talking to me?” asked Rockman.

“No, the Invisible Man. Did you see them?”

Rockman put his finger on a button under the screen, isolating her voice from the background sounds erupting around her.

“I didn’t see them, but we can review the images later. Are you OK?”

“Where did the others go?”

“Are you OK?”

She replied with an expletive so fierce he knew she had to be fine. He looked up and nodded at Telach.

“Tell her to get out of there,” said Telach. “Now.”

“Lia, get out of there.”

Another expletive.

The street was chaos around her. Police ran left and right. Some people were lying on the ground; others were crouched on their haunches and pointing, apparently in the direction the gunmen had fled.

“Lia,” said Telach, keying her microphone into the circuit. “Remember your job. Leave the area.”

The op still didn’t respond. Once Lia DeFrancesca decided she was going to do something, not even a nuclear bomb could stop her.

Literally, as she had proven beneath the English Channel.