Against the Clock (24 page)

She could see the large man enter the store and scan from side to side, looking for Robyn. There was a back room, an office, but no back door. He would clear the floor first, then move to the office. At least, that's how she'd do it.

The second man entered moments later. They were a team. They covered the store quickly, casting a net between them no one could slip through.

As they made their way toward the dressing rooms, Shirin knew there was no way out. She stood in front of the mirror affixed to the outside of the door Robyn was hiding behind, and pretended to model her pants, turning and posing.

The big man opened the stall beside her first; it was empty. Then pushed past Shirin to open the door to Robyn's stall.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" Shirin shouted at him. "Call security!" she yelled at the store clerk who was watching the men walk through the store.

Stuttering into action, the clerk picked up the phone and dialed the number.

The large man looked down at Shirin with a grunt and told her to get out of his way. He pushed her back with his right hand and reached out to open the door with his left.

It was the moment Shirin was waiting for.

She gripped the large man's fingers as they pressed against her shoulder, bent them back sharply, and then down with all her body weight. The speed of the movement snapped two fingers and made the big man fall toward her as his body naturally tried to lessen the damage to his hand.

As he fell down and toward her, she pulled hard on his arm and brought her knee up in a sharp and vicious arc, connecting with a thud behind his right ear. Without releasing his fingers, she gripped his wrist with her other hand, twisted slightly in an anti-clockwise motion, pulled toward her as hard as she could, and stomped her right foot with devastating power to the base of his neck.

His shoulder popped out with a loud snapping sound, and he howled in pain as he fell to the floor. She was about to deliver another kick to his throat when she saw the second man turn the corner of the dressing room entrance and rush toward her.

He was moving fast, his hand reaching behind him. Reaching for a weapon. She leaped forward, cutting the space between them in half. With precision timing, she darted slightly to the side as he lunged forward. She kicked her heel forward, her leg straight as a battering ram, and connected with his leg just below his left knee.

With such forward momentum and with his weight squarely on his left leg, the blow was akin to being hit by a car. His leg bent backward at the knee with a sickening crunch.

The smaller man screamed in pain, clutching at his deformed leg, wanting to put it back together again but unable to touch it.

Without hesitation, Shirin leaned behind him, pulling out the weapon he was reaching for―a Browning semi-automatic pistol. She thrust the barrel into the screaming man's open mouth, chipping teeth on the way in. Her finger tightened on the trigger, and she turned her head slightly to the side to shield her eyes from the explosion that would be his brains.

Then she saw Robyn, peering out of the fitting room door. She looked shocked, dumbfounded. Scared.

Seeing her reaction, Shirin stood up, tucked the acquired gun into her belt, and reached her hand out to Robyn.

"Robyn, let's get out of here before more of these guys turn up."

Robyn didn't move. She froze. The two men in front of her were on the ground, screaming. Their bodies looked unnaturally twisted and broken, and she had seen Shirin do this to them.

"Robyn!" Shirin said forcefully. "Let's go!"

Hesitantly, Robyn moved her hand out toward Shirin's until Shirin grabbed it and pulled her close, leading her toward the front of the store. The shop was empty now, save for the store clerk hiding behind the register, clutching her phone.

"Ben, anyone else coming toward the entrance?"

"Umm…no. You're clear. Are you both okay?"

"We're good."

"I heard screaming."

"It wasn't us," Shirin said as they exited the store.

18:49:16

"Shirin, I see a lot of security officers running around," Ben said, trying to figure out where they all were coming from on the grid of video feeds in front of him.

"We're coming up to camera 12," Shirin whispered, sensing Ben was getting overwhelmed with the feeds. "Look at cameras 11, 12, and 13. Can you see any guards or anyone who looks out of place running?"

Ben took a moment to focus in on those camera feeds, to be sure of what he would tell Shirin. "Yes! Camera 12. Two guards walking very quickly!"

He saw Shirin and Robyn walk into the field of camera 13. They disappeared into one of the retail stores. A few seconds later, the guards from camera 12 came into frame and walked right past where Shirin and Robyn had been only moments before.

"That was close!" Ben exclaimed.

"Not long to go, Ben, hang in there."

18:49:47

"Robyn, how are you holding up?" Shirin asked as she focused on maneuvering them through the busy shopping mall.

"I'm okay."

Shirin looked back at her as they walked. "How's the pain?"

"It's okay… I can manage," she said, instinctively adjusting the high collar hiding her neck wounds.

"Fair enough. Around the corner is a pharmacy. We'll get some pain killers and dressing materials to clean up your injuries."

Robyn nodded in reply. She hadn't had much time to dwell on what happened to her, or what might have happened if Trent Barratt hadn't intervened when he did.

"Shirin, I'm worried about Trent."

"Me too."

"He saved my life. And what that man did to him… What he was going to do to me…" Robyn stopped walking and stood there. She needed to get the words out, needed to tell someone.

Shirin turned and stood there with her. She could see the pain in her eyes, she could feel her pain, and hated with a fiery fury the man who had done this to her. Shirin fought to control her anger.

She didn't like to think about her life and the course it had taken, but on those rare occasions, she liked to imagine a life free of the monsters and free of the deceit. A life free of the nightmares. It was a life not too dissimilar from the life Robyn had had before today.

Shirin knew intimately that after today, Robyn would never be the same. She would dream of it. Her mind would wonder and drift, only to be ripped back into the chasm where her hope and her innocence used to be.

She knew Robyn would need help.

Moving closer to her, she spoke softly. "Robyn, these thoughts you're having, these feelings, they're important to talk about. They're important to share…" She moved a step closer, held her hand, and squeezed softly. "But not now." Her eyes glanced from side to side. "Let's get you somewhere safe first."

Robyn nodded her head as she wiped away the welling tears building up from deep inside her.

Still holding her hand, Shirin led her forward.

18:53:12

"Ben, we're almost at the elevator. Can you meet Robyn at the top?"

"Sure. But why are you not coming up with her?"

"I'm going to hang back and make sure we weren't followed. Then I have to get to Nepean Hospital. If they found Robyn here, they'll find Barratt there."

Ben didn't respond, but she sensed him thinking about it, weighing his thoughts before he spoke. She liked that about him, that he thought before he spoke, but it also frustrated her. She was a creature of action.

"I want to help!" he blurted out. It was almost as if he said the words before his mind had a chance to evaluate the risk of his proposal and stop it from happening. It made her smile. Ben was a good man.

"Thanks, Ben, but Robyn needs you." Robyn was strong, there was no doubt, but the trauma she had just faced―it was crippling even for seasoned agents. Shirin couldn't begin to comprehend how terrifying all this would be for a civilian.

"I need you to look at her wounds," she continued. "We have some supplies from the pharmacy. She has a lot of cuts and scrapes and some deep bruising. I'll get you more supplies on the way back. Just tell me what you need."

"Okay," he said quietly. It was hard to argue with her.

Turning her attention back to Robyn, Shirin spoke slowly and firmly. "No matter what happens, do not leave the office! And do not let Ben leave! Understood?"

"Yes." Robyn nodded.

"If they found you once, they could again."

Robyn nodded again. "Are you going to help Trent now?"

"That's the plan."

The two of them passed through the last corridor. To her knowledge, they weren't followed. She confirmed it with Ben’s view of the monitors before accessing the security panel of the internal lift. She punched in the code and guided Robyn into the elevator.

"Robyn, I'm sorry this happened to you," Shirin said sincerely. "And I'm proud of how well you're handling yourself."

Before Robyn could respond, Shirin punched the button to close the door.

"She's on her way," she said into the earpiece.

Ben's voice came back on the line. "I'm here. Ready."

"And Ben, stay close to the phone, I'm going to need your help soon."

Shirin disconnected the call. She ran down the corridor, paused at the end, entered the main complex, and disappeared in the throng of shoppers.

If she was going to sneak into one of the biggest teaching hospitals in the district, find Barratt, and get him out of there safely before Zelig's men found him, she was going to need a change of clothes, makeup, and some supplies.

chapter 9

"saving one friend is more rewarding than killing a thousand enemies."

the book of seekay

19:31:28

Shirin parked the stolen car on the second highest level of the multi-story car park attached to Nepean Hospital. She had no intention of using it again, but if the need arose, it was unlikely authorities would locate it there any time soon.

She dialed Ben's burner phone and fitted the Bluetooth earpiece into her ear while she walked out of the well-lit car park.

The drive had taken longer than she liked, but it gave her time to think. Time to evaluate what was happening. Everything was leading back to Zelig. From the moment Zelig had sent Barratt and his team to kill her after she had stolen the data from Bill Civic, all roads led back to Zelig. But why?

Was he the one responsible for her husband's death? Or was he just covering it up? Her thoughts kept gravitating back to Gerald Maier, the accountant. He must have found something.

And yet, what occupied most of her thoughts was the heavy understanding that what had happened to him, to Ben, Robyn, and Barratt were all a direct consequence of her actions. A clear path of destruction lay behind her. Lives ruined, lives changed forever, lives lost…

She was a killer. She had been for many years, but she took pride in taking the lives only of those who were enemies to her country, and by extension, enemies to her moral code. The death of innocents was definitely in violation of that code. And yet innocents were being affected because of her vendetta.

In the moments between her anger and her distractions, the consequence of her life and the loss of loved ones threatened her psyche with a melancholy she found unpalatable and embarrassing.

Sex was her distraction. Rage her best friend. In those moments, she was focused, effective, empty.

Ben's voice through her earpiece brought her thoughts back to the present. She needed to find a way into the operating theater. That was where Barratt was most vulnerable. That was where she would take him out, if she had been sent after him.

"I just arrived," she said, approaching the east block entrance of the large hospital.

"You need to get to the north entrance."

Shirin could feel the shortness of his voice. He was still upset. On the drive, he had called her, shocked at his sister's injuries and the abuse she had been victim to. He was furious, and she didn't blame him. He hadn't openly blamed her, but she could sense he believed some blame should be hers to bear.

"I still don't understand how you're going to be able to help him once you get in there."

Shirin wasn't sure either, but she knew she'd figure it out. Years of training and success in an unforgiving business brought with it an undeniable confidence. She knew she would find a way.

"I'm at the north block entrance." She could see the swipe pad to the side of the main double sliding entrance doors and a single, locked, hinged door to the left of it. She assumed the swipe pad was for the single door. "The single door leads to the operating suite change rooms?"

"Yes. But without a swipe card, you could be waiting a while before anyone opens it."

Shirin was thinking more of smashing the unit off the wall, hard wiring it open, then sticking the panel back on the wall.

"There's another way," Ben said as she approached the panel while digging through her backpack, looking for something hard to hit it with. "Go in through the public access double doors."

Ben led her through a labyrinth of corridors, mostly accessed by domestic services, but which also functioned as the unofficial "back way" for nursing staff who didn't want to walk through the east block to the main entrance of the operating suite.

She reached the female change rooms and noticed the similar magnetic swipe card panel beside the locked door. Ben told her to ignore the female change room, but to continue along the corridor until she got to the male change room.

As he had said, the lock on the male door was broken, and someone had laid a rolled towel on the floor to prevent the door from closing completely.

Shirin smiled. It didn't matter which organization or facility she infiltrated, if she took the trouble to look, she could usually find signs of laziness, shortcuts, and ineptitude. The operating suite was technically the most secure of all hospital units, and yet a simple towel had let her walk straight in.

According to Ben, it was not uncommon for females to visit the men's change room in search of scrubs. The female change rooms were notoriously under-stocked. She kept this excuse on the tip of her tongue in case she needed it.

Once inside, she disconnected the call to Ben, took her bag off her shoulder, and quickly searched for unlocked lockers. There were several, but they were all empty, or held only shoes and clothes. Next she chose the lockers locked only by the generic prefab locking mechanism, leaving the padlocked units until last.

By her calculations, she had been in the change room for fewer than four minutes, but each minute seemed like an hour. Two more to check before she had to start picking padlocks, and that would take a lot longer than jimmying the default locking mechanism with a credit card.

Bingo!
She found what she was looking for. It was a senior consultant surgeon's locker. As Ben had suggested, some of them tended to keep student ID cards in their locker in case they wanted to get a star pupil or sales rep into one of their operations without going through proper channels.

Shirin left the male change room quickly and entered the female room using her newly acquired student pass. Once inside, she changed, hid her cell phone in her pants pocket, donned a green disposable hair cap, shoe covers, and facemask.

She dialed Ben's number again, tucked the Bluetooth earpiece under the green hair cap and tested to make sure Ben still heard her talking.

She followed the internal corridor to the body of the operating suite. With the student pass swinging from her hip, no one paid her much attention. She was inside.

Ben guided her to the front reception of the unit, where the ward clerk sat, and coached her through the conversation. Operating suite staff had a language all their own, one that made it clear very quickly when an outsider was asking questions they shouldn't.

Barratt had been admitted under his alias, John Smith. He was under the care of a general surgeon and allocated to OR8. She thanked the clerk for helping and left.

With Ben in her ear, she was able to navigate the halls as though she belonged there. Did Barratt somehow know she would come after him? Is that why he chose this hospital, because he knew Ben worked there?

Outside OR8, Shirin adjusted the facemask and peered through the window overlooking the operating arena. The room was full. She hadn't seen the inside of a real operating suite before.

She was standing in the scrub bay now, where the surgeons and nurses scrubbed and gowned in their sterile attire. She angled for a better view of the patient being operated on, but couldn't see much beneath the blue and green drapes.

"Tell me what you see," Ben said.

Shirin looked around her to be sure no one could hear her before replying. "Not much. There are a lot of people in there. Is that normal?"