Rise of a Phoenix: Rise of a Phoenix (25 page)

The two men looked at each other, and eventually Brant smiled. “He found us, man, he found us.”

The Captain turned and headed back to check on the copter operator.

FIFTY-ONE

It had taken some time for the metal construction to be put together, and now it resembled the skeletal structure of a medium sized marquee tent or the roof frame to a house. This framework would be put over the skylight and would support Steel as he went down into the room below. The detective walked out of the building and headed towards the command centre. Everyone there stared at Steel’s outfit, which was black and, as far as McCall could see, fitted snugly. The all-in-one outfit resembled a driver’s wetsuit apart from having carbon woven patches on the knees, elbows and shoulders. The gloves and boots were attached to the strange-looking suit so it was entirely one unit, with only John Steel’s head remaining uncovered.

McCall ran up to the English detective. “You don’t have to do this, you know,” she said, urgently.

He just smiled. “Are you are volunteering then?”

“Sorry, not my style, but it’s a nice outfit.”

He shrugged and smiled at her, as she stared into the strange new glasses he had on. “Look, someone has to go in, I know he has left something, it’s part of his game.”

Sam McCall knew that he was right but on the other hand he had grown on her. She turned and saw the small helicopter take off and make its way to the entrance. All doors had been locked open, thus facilitating easy access for the helicopter.

“He’s right,” said a sickly sweet voice from behind them. As soon as she heard his voice she knew that it was the creepy Doctor Davidson. McCall and Steel looked over to see a quite perturbed doctor. McCall concluded that it was most likely the dirt that was bothering him, McCall thought, as she studied the way he kept brushing his trousers. He didn’t want to be here, and frankly most of them would have preferred him to stay away.

“Any thoughts, Doc?” Steel didn’t really need any psychobabble pontifications to know that this was one big trap, but on the other hand he felt kind of sorry for the guy.

“It’s clear that the person we are looking for has a flair for the dramatic, he is meticulous and brutal,” Davidson responded in his usual heart-warming manner, but still seemed more concerned about the dirt on his suit.

“In other words! Watch your ass.” Tooms added. He didn’t like the idea of the coming operation either, but like Steel said, someone had to do it. Steel continued his way to the command centre, where the chiefs were waiting for him.

“Steel, what the hell are you wearing, Son?” The Captain’s face showed an element of surprise and laughter as he studded the tactical suit.

“You know it’s not under water, right?”

Steel shot him a patient smile. “This suit blocks any heat signatures given off normally, so if there are any sort of sensor traps it should block them.”

The Captain looked puzzled as he studded the suit more closely.

“I don’t know, I find it kind of fetching,” announced Tina as she walked up to the party, her eyes trained on John Steel.

“The doctor is here on the off chance that there could be casualties.” The Captain said it quickly, then changed the subject.

The man at the flight controls yelled for the others as his copter had moved to the middle of the room.

“Hey guys, I think we have something here,” he said. The camera showed the centre of the maze and in the middle sat a man in a chair. Steel stood up and looked puzzled. McCall turned to him, concerned at his sudden movement.

“What’s the matter?” she asked.

“Is it just me or does this guy have a really bad thing about putting people in chairs in the middle of really bad situations?”

McCall had not thought of it like that, but she had to agree.

“OK, so we have one male in the centre of a room, any theories?” The Captain asked, standing up after leaning in on the monitor. He looked searchingly at the others.

“We go with the plan,” Steel said firmly and shrugged as if to say
no other options
.

“OK, you go in from the roof and then get the hell out of there, understood?” the Captain told him. Steel had no other plan in mind. He didn’t like the thought of going in anyway but staying in there was worse.

Steel broke off from the group and headed for the warehouse, and then McCall grabbed him.

“You know this has TRAP written all over it?” she said to him urgently. “So why are you going?”

“We need this evidence—you need this evidence. Besides it’s a piece of cake: I go in, he comes out they get me out, we go home. Simple.”

But she knew it sounded too simple, and wished that she could see into his eyes to know what he was really feeling.

“You better get your ass back here.” She hoped that a display of anger would mask her concern.

A man ran up to Steel and tapped him on the shoulder. “Sir, we have to go,” he said. Steel nodded and ran off with the other man.

“He is too much of a pain in the ass to die,” Captain Brant said to her quietly. “Hell wouldn’t have him I bet, too much trouble and you know he ain’t ever going upstairs.”

She smiled and looked up at Captain Brant who had approached her as Steel had left. Brant had noticed the tears building up in the corners of her eyes and put a massive hand on her shoulder.

“It’s like Dad all over again.” She had lost the smile.

Brant shook his head. “This is nothing like your father’s murder, nothing. Now Steel will get in and out of there, you hear me, Detective?”

She nodded and turned back to watch as Steel was being lowered into the building. A bad feeling came over the two of them.

“We have to go.” She dried her eyes and turned, and as she looked up at her Captain she could see the worry on his face, and his concern made her feel a little better.

The roof had been made secure and a hole had been cut above the target. Steel stood open-armed as the team put the harness on, finally latching the cable onto him via the clip; the man tugged on it to check that it was securely attached.

“OK, central we are good to go here.” The team’s leader gave a thumbs up to Steel, who stepped off into the open frame of the window. As he fell into the open air the gears of the mechanical pulley locked in, leaving him hanging in mid air a few feet from the roof’s entrance.

FIFTY-TWO

Back at the command centre they watched a second monitor, which held live feed from Steel’s head cam. They saw the rocky motion as he was been lowered into the depths. Suddenly, with only a few feet to go, Steel yelled for them to stop.

“What’s up? You changed your mind?” North spoke into the head set.

“How did you check this part of the room?” Steel asked.

North look somewhat confused at the question. “What do you mean? We used every sort of sensor and view that the bot has, you’re safe to proceed.” North shook his head as though to comment how unbelievable this man was. “Did you use x-ray?”

North’s back stiffened. “And why would we use x-ray? So far he has used every gadget we know.”

“Because, this guy is smart and at the moment I’m looking down to a large area that could have anything in it. Listen, if I know this guy he will start with technology and revert back to old school just to throw us off.”

North looked at Doc Davidson who gave him a nod that signified that Steel was right.

“Listen Sergeant North, all your scans, can they pick up old fashioned trip wires?”

Then North’s face changed, and he ran over to the techs. Steel knew from the silence that that answer was no.

“OK, bring back the bot and set it up for x-ray, even though I know it will be a waste of time.” North was mad. He felt as if he had just been shown up as incompetent, and he didn’t like that.  After some readjustment and new equipment the copter was good to go. Flying through the gap in the ceiling it did a sweep and found all to be clear, and they also found the man to be alive. Using the x-ray they scanned the man for any sign of movement, which was slight but definitely discernible.

As they watched through Steel’s cam, the Captain and the rest saw Steel untie the man and bring him forwards towards the cable. Locking him off onto the winch the man then disappeared into the haze of light above Steel. Everyone cheered as the man was retrieved through the skylight.

Alarms sounded inside the complex and a loudspeaker activated. McCall and the others listened in fear as they made out a countdown being hailed from within:

“30, 29, 28, 27...” the voice continued.

North ordered his men off the roof. As he did so McCall turned to him and screamed abuse, telling him how he couldn’t leave Steel in there on his own. Then everyone fell silent as they heard: “5, 4, 3, 2, 1.”

Steel listened intently, as the next thing to come over the speakers was Sinatra singing
My Way
. “Nice touch,” he thought, looking for cover. He spied the perfect spot: a metal plate, like a manhole cover, stuck slightly out of the ground, and he dived for it.

Using all his strength he ripped up the metal cover and climbed in. A clang of metal echoed in the small crawl space as the cover crashed down behind him.

“Well, this is going to hurt,” thought Steel out loud, crouching in his hiding spot and covering his ears. McCall ran forwards from the HQ with two SWAT members chasing after her.

A blinding white flash came from within the building, then the area where the extraction team had stood moments before was blown apart as the roof structure was swallowed up by a blinding flash. Four simultaneous explosions could be heard, followed by the building being consumed by a fireball. Then a loud explosion ripped the construction apart, throwing Detective McCall and the two SWAT team members across the ground, where smoldering bricks and timber rained down on them.

North and Carter stumbled forward, their faces registering the shock of what they had just witnessed, while McCall crawled to her knees and screamed Steel’s name in the hope that this phantom of a man would rise up, desperate that this annoying partner of hers would be perched on a building somewhere, laughing at them for being so foolish as to think he was gone. But there was only fire, smoke and death in front of them.

McCall tried to throw off the two swat guys who had to restrain her from running into the inferno.

“Ma’am, there’s nothing you can do, sorry about your guy but he’s gone,” one of them said.

Her eyes were blazing, as if she was snarling at the two men, who let her go, raised their arms and backed off.

“They are right, McCall, as much as I hate to agree,” the Captain told her. “Steel gave his life for this sorry son-of-a-bitch. I just hope it was worth it.” Brant could see how upset everyone was, and he ordered them all off the scene, even if ‘off scene’ was just around the corner.

Brant knew that CSU would be there soon too set up a canvass, and because the area was large they would have to move quickly providing the weather held. The press had wasted no time in setting up their crews, and cameras and vultures with microphones circled the scene, hoping for something to broadcast. The response crew stared at the press and shook their heads.

“Look at them, building burns down, couple of press guys arrive, said Tooms. “Put a cop in it, whole fucking precision.” There was nothing that the homicide department could do, not here. They had two people to question; unfortunately one of them had to go to hospital, but the other was all theirs.

FIFTY-THREE

The next morning the press was giving maximum coverage to the story about a cop in a booby-trapped building. It was reported that he had gone in to get a homeless guy out of danger. McCall smiled softly to herself, grateful that at least the press made a hero out of him. She had gotten in early, not wanting to waste any time. They had someone to talk to and she thought that he had better have the answers, for all their sakes.

As she sat at her desk McCall sipped her coffee and her gaze was transfixed on the empty chair next to her desk. She felt the presence of someone standing behind her and she turned quickly, hoping to find Detective Steel there wearing his black suit. Her face fell when she saw that it was the Captain.

“Thought it was him?” Brant smiled, reading her mind. “Yeh, the bastard really knew how to get into your head.” He sat on the edge of her desk as she looked up at him.

“Why, Captain?”

“What do you mean why? Why did he pick here? Why did he choose you as a partner? Or why did he go into that building?” He shrugged. “Thing is, Sam, I really don’t know. But I do know he cared about this team, and he cared about you.”

She looked puzzled.

“What, you think he needed to sit here?” he said, pointing to the empty chair beside her. “The man had an office of his own.” He stood up and laid a caring hand on her shoulder. “All we can do is to catch the bastard who did all this.”

She looked up at him, and then her smile turned to a scowl. At that moment Brant pitied whoever was responsible for his murder.

Tony was on the phone to the CSU department. He was speaking to Cindy Childs, a one-time girlfriend from his college days, now a professional colleague. They talked for a while about this and that but mostly she was sympathizing with his loss of a fellow officer. She had spent some time down at the scene and her heart went out to the people in the department.

“Hey, are you guys OK?” Cindy went on. “I mean I saw the scene and everything and well, all I can say is I’m sorry.”

Tony was touched at her words.”Yeh, well to lose someone like that is just—well you understand how I feel.” She quickly changed the subject to the reason she called in the first place. “Mike from ballistics came up trumps for you.”

He looked puzzled for a moment.

“You know that sniper rifle you sent down from the shooting at the bridge?”

He sipped his well-needed coffee. “Yeh, don’t tell me it was used at the hotel shooting as well.” He dismissed the idea as ludicrous.