The Solomon Scroll

CHAPTER 22

The hospital emergency room at night was like every other city ER Nick had ever seen, and he'd seen plenty of them. The floors were covered with a kind of scuffed, neutral colored composition tile that made it easy for the orderlies to mop up blood and vomit without leaving stains. It looked like there was going to be plenty of mopping to do. Wide glass doors went out to a covered entrance where the ambulances could pull up and unload.

The ER was having a busy night. Nick watched a parade of injuries and cops come through the doors. All of them looked like they needed emergency treatment, including some of the cops.

Elizabeth came through the big doors. She dodged around a parked gurney and headed over to the uncomfortable chairs where Nick and the others sat.

"How bad?"

"They're both in surgery. Lucas took a hard hit in his shoulder," Nick said. "He veered away when the shooting started. It changed the trajectory of the bullets or they'd both be dead."

"Stephanie?"

Nick looked down at the floor and sighed. He looked up again. "There are a lot of superficial cuts on her face and scalp from flying glass. None of that is serious. A round went through her right lung and she lost a lot of blood. They won't tell us anything more than that."

Elizabeth was whiter than usual. "What about the baby?"

"Like I said, they won't tell us anything. I wouldn't hold out a lot of hope."

"There's always hope," Elizabeth said.

"The police gave us a lot of trouble. You're going to be hearing from them and probably the president too. Some civilians were hit by those assholes who shot at us and the cops are wondering if it was us. We only got out of there because of the presidential ID."

"Don't worry about it, I'll take care of the cops. And the president."

Elizabeth sat down.

"What do we know?"

"Not much. The shooters knew where we were coming from and what vehicles we were driving. They must've had someone watching the compound. They had radios. When Lucas came up to where they were waiting, they opened up."

"That's it?"

"I went through their pockets before the cops got there," Diego said. He pulled out a wallet he'd taken from one of the dead men. "This is all there was. The others didn't have anything on them."

"Pros," Nick said. "Except for one."

He opened the wallet and showed it to her. It held twenty new one hundred dollar bills and a New York driver's license under a plastic window. The picture was of a man with a narrow face, receding black hair and close set blue eyes. His ears stuck out from the side of his head like handles.

"Patrick O'Malley. It gives an address in Brooklyn."

"Irish?" Elizabeth said.

"I don't think he's Russian with a name like that."

"I'll get…" She stopped and took a deep breath.

"What were you going to say?" Selena asked.

"I started to say that I'd get Steph to run the ID through Interpol. I'll do it when we get back to the compound. We can trace the bills. That might give us a lead."

"We'll get these bastards," Nick said. "They have no idea what they've started."

They waited. It was three hours later before Ronnie said, "There's a doctor coming."

They stood up as the doctor approached. The man looked tired, as if he been up for days.

"Who's in charge?" he asked. His name tag ID'd him as Miller.

"I am," Elizabeth said. "You can talk in front of all of us."

Doctor Miller looked at the group and at the holstered guns.

"Are you police?"

"Something like that," Elizabeth said. "Stephanie works for me and she's our friend. I need to know how she is."

"Are you a relative?"

"Doctor Miller, I work for the president. I suggest you tell me immediately how she is."

Harker's tone left no room for argument

Miller looked at his clipboard.

"The bullet entered the right thoracic cavity slightly posterior and lateral to the middle lung, causing internal bleeding and collapse before exiting through the front of the chest wall under the breast. The internal damage was extensive. We've managed to repair it. You got her here in time. Another half an hour and she wouldn't have made it. She's in intensive care."

"She'll be all right?"

"Barring complications, yes. She's a healthy young woman. She won't be running a marathon anytime soon, but in a couple of months she should be fine."

"What about the baby?" Selena asked.

He shook his head. "I'm sorry. The hydrostatic shock was too much for the fetus. She had a miscarriage. If there's any good news in this, she can have another. Assuming there are no further complications. Best not to worry about it."

"What about Lucas?"

"That was close. The bullet that hit him nicked the subclavian artery. He almost bled to death. It missed everything else that was vital and shattered the shoulder joint and clavicle as it exited out the front. There are bone fragments and a lot of tissue damage. He won't be using that arm for quite a while. He's sedated and in recovery."

An announcement paged Miller.

"I'm sorry, I have to go. If there's nothing else…"

"Thank you, Doctor," Elizabeth said.

After Miller was gone they sat down again.

"Best not to worry about it," Selena said. "Easy for him to say."

"Stephanie will be all right," Nick said. "That's the most important thing."

"It might not be to Stephanie."

"One of us should stay with her," Elizabeth said.

Nick looked at her. There were deep shadows under her eyes and lines of strain etched into her pale face.

"We'll set up shifts," he said. "Everybody needs sleep. It's not going to do any good if we're all too tired to find out who came after us."

"I called Langley. Hood is going to post guards," Elizabeth said. "We can't do it by ourselves and whoever is behind this might try again. One of us should still be here for them."

"I'll take the first shift," Ronnie said. "Let's do a four hour rotation."

"Okay." Nick looked at his watch. "It's pushing midnight now. I'll relieve you at four. Selena, you take eight to noon and Diego noon to four in the afternoon. Then we'll do it all over again."

"You left me out of the rotation," Elizabeth said.

"You need sleep, Director. It would be better for you to come and go as you please. You've got damage control. You can get Interpol on our Irish shooter. "

"What about Lucas?" Ronnie said.

"They'll move him to a room once he's out of recovery."

"I'll see if I can arrange for them to be in the same room once Steph is out of the ICU," Elizabeth said.

"Whoever is on shift can look in on him once in a while. Tell him what's going on when he wakes up. I know Lucas. He's going to be pissed. The main problem will be keeping him in bed."

"I wonder if this has anything to do with what happened in Lebanon?" Selena said. "But that doesn't make sense. Why would someone come after us for taking out a lowlife like Abidi?"

"I don't think they would," Elizabeth said, "unless it's about the scroll. Then they might."

"Whoever they are, they're going to regret it," Nick said.