| Fan Fiction |
by DTLCT
“Hello?” Brad said. “Where are you?”
“I’m coming up by the stairs,” Gallen informed Brad. “I was held up in another traffic ’cause some idiots didn’t watch where they’re going.”
“Doesn’t matter, you’re here, right? I couldn’t get in ’cause there are some police officers blocking the hallway.”
“What? Aren’t they with Joey?”
“No. They’re from the next town over or so they told me.” He pauses. “Okay, hold on. They’re letting me in now. Hurry!”
Gallen shuts his phone off and begins to run up the stairs. As he reaches the 5th level, he stops to catch his breath before opening the door.
As he comes through the door, he sees three officers in uniforms escorting out three men. He steps aside for them to go through before continuing. He looks around for Brad to which he sees Brad on his way to Annie’s apartment along with six other officers. He catches up to Brad and is about to call out when he hears an ear-splitting gunshot coming from the direction of Annie’s apartment. Gallen begins to run towards it, hoping it’s not Annie. The others in front of him, of course, have increased their pace also. The others push the slightly ajar door open to see a falling Annie. Gallen comes a second later, seeing that there’s a man still holding a gun in his hand. One of the five officers in uniform is walking towards him while two is aiming their guns towards him, making sure he doesn’t move. Brad’s by Annie’s side right now. Seeing that the other officers got it under control already, Gallen walks towards Annie also.
“Miss Man, hold on!” Brad comforted her. “We’re going to take you to the hospital.”
Gallen is already on the phone, dialing the emergency number.
“I….” Annie managed.
“Don’t talk anymore,” Brad said. “You need to lay still.”
Gallen kneels on the floor after he made the call. “Annie, hold on. Don’t move.”
“Fan Gang…” Annie muttered weakly, her visions blurred.
With that, she loses consciousness.
Gallen and Brad look at each other, confused. But they have no time to ponder.
*****
About the time Joey got off the phone with Gallen and also a little before Annie comes back to Constant Comfort, Jacky finally arrives at the hospital.
Jacky takes the back entrance and doubles back to the front. He’s so sneaky that some of the nurses stop to address him. He manages to get through all of them and proceeds towards his destination. Just as he’s about to turn into the area where Vincent and Alyssa’s room is, he sees Wallace sneaking around up ahead. He edges forward slowly and grabs Wallace’s shirt from the back.
Wallace jumps – not literally, but is somewhat taken aback.
“What’s going on, man?” Jacky asked.
“You scared the heck out of me!”
Jacky smiles. “That was the idea.”
Wallace ignores Jacky and looks around ahead.
“Who are you trying to follow?”
“Kenneth. He’s sneaking around.”
“You’re sneaking around too.”
“But he looks like he’s up to something.”
“Like kill someone soon?”
Wallace turns his attention fully to Jacky. “What?!?”
Jacky smiles again. “Just kidding! He’s probably following Jo’s order. Don’t worry. Go back to your room, man.”
“What’s going to happen?”
“No wonder Kenny said you should be a cop. You’re sharp.”
“The way you made it out to sound, even a dumb blind bat could see through it.”
“That’s a nice way of putting it. But did you know that even Brad, who’s supposed to be the most smart among the group in the local station and has done a lot of undercover jobs in the past, doesn’t even have any clues half of the time?”
“Your point is?”
“My point is you’re bright. Let’s go if you don’t want to go back to sleep.” He picks up some speed. “Like you can anyway.”
Wallace follows Jacky closely, not wanting Jacky to pull any fast moves to lose him. Like that’s possible since the hallway is so deserted at this time of the night, but he doesn’t want to take any chances.
Jacky continues on his way. By what Wallace said, Kenneth should be up ahead. Jacky increases his pace, not wanting to waste anymore time. Wallace keeps up with his every move. One minute later, they catch up to Kenneth, but Jacky stops five steps behind from Kenneth. Wallace does the same since he has been watching Jacky’s every move the whole time. Jacky scans the area and ducks to the right where the path leads into another hallway. Wallace follows.
“What?” Wallace whispered. “So you’re suspicious of him now?”
“No,” Jacky said. “I’m using him as bait.”
“What?” He wrinkles his face. “You’re crazy.”
“If we all go in together, they’re not going to make a move so how can we catch them? Make them think that they’re only dealing with one.”
Wallace agrees with Jacky’s logic, but still thinks that Jacky is crazy.
They stand there and wait for Kenneth to enter the room.
“What did Joey say?” Wallace whispered. “How come you guys came back?”
“Jo made that Derrick sweat,” Jacky whispered back. “I’m not surprised though since she’s very clever and patient. So he finally told of their plans.”
“I only know that there are two guys who are involved in Annie’s case too. But…”
“Three actually. We still haven’t figured out who the third one is. They’d been using the opportunity to get into Constant Comfort. Probably they did all the searching and rummaging around by sneaking around at night.”
“What about the murder?”
“Might be accidental since it seems quite immature.”
“You can kill someone by accident?”
Jacky turns around to see Wallace’s face filled with disgust. He turns back to monitor Vincent and Alyssa’s room before answering. “Of course it’s hard to imagine but if you’re discovered doing something like that and you panicked, you might as well shoot that person by accident.”
“You sound so calm talking about it. Like…”
“Like I killed someone before?”
“Uh…I didn’t say that.”
“Actually, no. But I’ve seen many of my fellow cops being killed before. You get used to those stuffs or it will sink you. This job is hard enough already. I don’t want something like that to burden me. It’s like you’re sad that your friends die, but why not turn that into strength and fight back? And put those crooks in prison.”
Wallace listens silently as Jacky’s voice rises above normal a little. Although Jacky’s saying that it’s useless to let those things get to you, but his tone is changing to the point that Wallace knows that something happened in the past that must had affected him greatly. Then Wallace remembers about Benny, Jacky’s partner. The talk that one night in the elevator comes back to him. It’s not much of a talk as some brief comments from Jacky, but Wallace realizes it might be Benny who had made such an impact on Jacky’s behavior. He understands that feeling. He’s glad that Vincent and Alyssa came back safe. But he knows that he would lose everything if anything had happened to them. They had been there for him for so long. They’re like his brother and sister.
“Wallace!” Jacky called in a loud whisper.
Jacky’s shout brings Wallace back to reality. Wallace looks towards where Jacky’s pointing at. He could see two men walking into Vincent and Alyssa’s room.
“When are you making a move?” Wallace asked.
“When Kenny yells out for help.”
Wallace looks at Jacky. “For real.”
“For real.”
Wallace decides to not add any more spins to the motion of his brain, but just watch.
*****
Inside the large room, the two men go slowly to the left – which is the opposite direction of Vincent and Alyssa’s beds. They approach an elderly man’s bed nearby, making conversations. Kenneth reacts to that as soon as he sees them. Although he’s pretending to strike up a conversation with Vincent and Alyssa, but he’d been watching carefully the last five minutes to see if there’s any movements.
Vincent and Alyssa notice his little charade since he keeps looking at the two men from across the room.
Vincent’s about to ask when his cell phone rings. Vincent is surprised since he hasn’t expected that. He had already been given his cell phone back after some look over by the cops earlier. He picks it up from the tray next to his bed and pushes “Start”.
“Hello?” Vincent answered casually.
“What in the world is Kenny doing?” A guy’s voice asked on the other side of the line. “Why hasn’t he made a move?”
“What?”
“This is Jacky but don’t tell Kenny I’m calling you.”
Vincent’s confused but obeys anyway. “Oh. Okay. I thought….”
“No time to think. What is Kenny doing?”
Vincent lowers his voice to a whisper. “Staring at the two men that just came in.”
“Man, you’re as smart as Mr. Huo here, knowing to whisper so Kenny doesn’t figure it out.”
“Wallace’s there with you?”
“Yea. But can’t talk long. But call me back when Kenny decides to move.”
“Why don’t you just come in?”
“Trying to test if Kenny can handle it.”
“You’re….”
“I know I’m crazy. See ya!”
With that, Jacky hangs up. Vincent looks at the phone for a second before closing it.
“Who was it?” Kenneth asked as soon as Vincent puts his phone back down.
“Just some friend asking about me,” Vincent replied.
“Oh. Then why did you have to whisper?”
“Alyssa’s sleeping.”
Kenneth looks over to Alyssa and sees that she is sleeping. When did that happen? Why didn’t he see that? She was awake a few minutes ago.
Vincent smiles secretly while Kenneth’s looking towards Alyssa and looking puzzled afterwards. When Kenneth looks back towards him, Vincent turns the smile off. Kenneth had no idea that on the other side, Alyssa has turned towards Vincent’s direction and smiles at him without opening her eyes.
Kenneth looks at his watch real quick. “You must be tired also. I’ll leave now so you can rest.”
Vincent shrugs. “That’s fine.”
Vincent watches Kenneth walks towards the door before laying down again to go to sleep. A few seconds later, he could hear Kenneth’s faint footsteps walking back to his and Alyssa’s beds though. Vincent pretends to turn around as a normal reaction but it’s better to sneak at Kenneth’s moves when he’s laying sideways.
*****
Back out in the hallway, Jacky’s looking intently at the doorway, whistling softly.
“You’re drawing attention to yourself,” Wallace said.
Jacky shrugs. “What can I say? I’m bored.”
Wallace smiles to himself, knowing Jacky could never stay still.
“Oh yeah, that Vincent is good. You guys should become cops instead of half of the people that are actual cops right now.”
“Are you trying to sell something? Sounds like you’re more suitable as a salesman than being a cop.”
Jacky turns his attention from the door to Wallace for a moment. “Nice. That was a good one.” He smiles. “Getting back at me, huh?”
Wallace shrugs. “Something to do?”
Jacky laughs. “I like your style, man.” He looks at his watch real quick. “What is Kenny trying to do? Wait for them to fall asleep before arresting them?”
“Maybe he’s just being careful.”
“He’s a lieutenant. He should be fast, not indecisive.”
“Fast isn’t always good.”
“No. I meant he has to think up of something fast and maybe just rattle them a bit so they could make a move first.” He smiles again.
“I don’t get you.”
“That’s why I always get my enemy each time. No one gets me.”
“Even Jan?”
Jacky smiles secretly.
“No comment?”
“You could say that.”
It’s Wallace’s turn to look at his watch. He couldn’t believe it either, but he’s starting to agree with Jacky that it’s taking too long. Maybe it’s not those two guys? Or did Derrick give them the wrong lead just to throw them off?
Jacky sees that Wallace’s looking at his watch. “See? I told you he’s taking a long time.”
“Are you guys sure they’re going to make a move tonight or maybe it’s not those two?”
“It must be those two. Maybe they’re waiting for more people to come before making a move?”
“It’s just two people. I mean Vincent and Alyssa. Those two men are grown men. They can take them out so easy though.”
“You want them to do that?”
“No, but I mean maybe they’re after something else?”
Jacky shrugs. “I wouldn’t know. I…”
At that time, Jacky feels his cell phone vibrating in his pocket. He fishes through his pants pocket quickly and checks. He sees that he has a new text message. He smiles since he recognizes the number. The message says: “Code Red. I’m making a move first.” Jacky’s smile fades. After he puts his phone back into his pocket, his expression looks like he’s disturbed. Actually, it looks more like he’s impatience. Wallace could detect that. He has never seen Jacky impatience before. He’s the most calm among all of them. A minute later, Jacky turns to him.
“I’m going in,” Jacky announced.
“What?” Wallace asked, confused. “I thought you said….”
“Forget what I said. I need to speed up the process a bit. Kenneth’s too slow.”
This is the first time that Jacky calls Kenneth by the official name and not the usual “nickname” he usually calls, which troubles Wallace.
Jacky steps out of their hiding place and moves towards the door. Wallace knows something’s wrong so he grabs a hold of Jacky’s left shoulder to stop him.
Jacky turns around. “What?”
“You’ll blow it.”
“I’m not going to.”
“Who called? You’re rushing this. That call must be urgent.”
Jacky’s even more surprised than ever. This Wallace guy is really good, he thought. But he has no time to admire Wallace’s intelligence. He has to speed things up and get back.
“You’re clever,” Jacky said finally. “Can’t tell you yet. I have to do this.”
Wallace grabs Jacky’s shoulder again. But before he could say something, they hear gunshots coming out from the room – Vincent and Alyssa’s room.
Jacky runs quickly to the door. Wallace, of course, had released his grip from Jacky’s shoulder and is running towards the door also. They both stop right in front of the door and lean in to see what’s going on. The two men from earlier are shooting at the wall where Vincent and Alyssa’s bed are. They couldn’t see where Kenneth, Vincent, and Alyssa are but could only see the two gunmen.
Jacky turns to Wallace real quick. “Stay here.”
With that, Jacky slips into the room. Wallace couldn’t say anything but stands there to watch before deciding to listen to Jacky or not.
As soon as Jacky’s in, he grabs a chair near the door and hurls at the two gunmen. With that little distraction, he whirls around in time to see that Kenneth is against the other wall. Vincent and Alyssa are behind one of the beds at the end of the row. He turns back towards the gunmen again and dodges out of the way in time. He uses another chair as a shield, making his way towards Kenneth.
“What the world is going on here?!” Jacky shouted above the shooting.
“They were waiting to see if I had back-ups before making a move!” Kenneth shouted back.
Jacky throws the pretty beat chair towards the gunmen again before dodging behind a bed nearby. Kenneth is shooting back at the gunmen by now. Jacky takes this time to look at the gunmen and trying to formulate a plan to get Vincent and Alyssa out before something serious happens to them. Of course the main entrance is pretty much block. They can’t take the window although they’re on the first floor. He can’t be sure if someone’s waiting for them outside or not. He looks towards where an old men is supposed to lay earlier when he came in to visit, but doesn’t see that old men anymore. He curses at himself for being so careless. Jacky reaches for his gun. He waits for the exact moment when Kenneth dodges out of the way and the gunmen stops shooting for a second. He rolls sideways out into the middle and shoots towards the gunmen’s feet before doing another roll to the other side.
By this time Kenneth is back into action, shooting again.
“Jack, that old men is a fluke,” Kenneth yelled out. “He’s….”
Kenneth doesn’t have time to finish since he has to dodge again and tries to defend himself.
“I know,” Jacky said, taking another swing and shoots again at the gunmen’s feet.
“Stop wasting your bullets!” Kenneth yelled out, alarmed.
Jacky smiles to himself, knowing Kenneth’s too impatience right now to know his intention.
“Five seconds to give up, gentlemen,” Jacky said to the gunmen. “Before I…”
“It looks like we’re in control of the situation right now,” One of the gunmen said, cutting Jacky off, snickering. “You got to stop bluffing. Even if you’re here to help him, it’s useless. We got back-ups.”
“Oh yea?” He does the spin again and shoots yet again at the gunmen’s feet.
“Stop shooting like that, man!” Kenneth yelled out. “You only have 3 more bullets.”
“Last time I checked, Kenny, I can count.”
Kenneth takes a shot at gunmen before speaking up. “So stop wasting it!”
“What’s with you? Why are you so impatient? It doesn’t help the situation, you know.”
“Would you guys stop arguing?” Vincent asked from the corner.
“I’m not!” Jacky said. “He started it!”
“Would you guys grow up already?” Alyssa demanded.
Jacky doesn’t reply to that but does another spin and shoots at the gunmen’s feet again. He’s back to the right side again by now. Vincent and Alyssa are like two beds behind him.
“I have to re-load soon,” Kenneth said. “Would you stop shooting and save those last few bullets to cover me?”
“No! Can’t!” Jacky jumps towards the middle again and shoots at the gunmen. This time he aims towards mid-air a bit. Then he dodges towards the left side to hide again.
“You…”
Before Kenneth could yell at Jacky, something crashes down from one of the tray stands from behind the gunmen. Then the tray itself crashes into the gunmen also. The gunmen have been so intent on aiming at Jacky and Kenneth that they haven’t paid attention to anything behind them. They had it coming. While they’re being hit with that and trying to recover, Jacky switches his gun to his left hand and grabs some of the star-shaped metallic pieces that’s attached to his belt with his right hand. He flings them real quick at the gunmen. They’d been busy trying to get the tray out of their way and now this so they had no choice but to dodge out of the way. Jacky takes this opportunity to advance forward.
“Kenny! Quick!”
Kenneth finally knows why Jacky keeps missing the target. He knows that Jacky’s trying to distract them and buy some time to get Vincent and Alyssa out of here. He escorts Vincent and Alyssa out real quick while Jacky’s attacking the two gunmen with his air stars.
Wallace has seen all bullets being shot back and forth the whole time. When he hears Jacky’s shout at last, he makes his way into the room also. When Kenneth’s leading Vincent and Alyssa out, he meets them at the door.
“Huh?” Kenneth uttered out, confused.
“Come on! No time!” Wallace exclaimed.
Wallace grabs both Vincent and Alyssa’s hand and runs outside with them. Kenneth looks confused for a bit but regains himself, turning around to help Jacky.
“Nice of you to join us again!” Jacky yelled out.
Kenneth doesn’t reply because what he sees in front of him is somewhat unpredictable. He knows Jacky got the situation under control a minute or two earlier when he had the table turned – both literally and figuratively – earlier. But didn’t know that Jacky’s that good. Jacky’s holding his gun with his left hand and is aiming at the gunman at his left while using one of his air stars to aim at the gunman at his right. Both of the gunmen are edged against the wall.
“If you make a move, I’ll shoot. And you…” He points the star in front of the gunman to the right. “…will have a hole in your eye.”
“Looks like you got it….” Kenneth began.
Before he could say anything, he hears gunshots behind him. He turns around to look and sees that there are some more gunmen coming from down the hallway. No wonder it’s so quiet in this area although they’d been shooting for a while now. These people must have already taken control of this area of the hospital. Kenneth runs outside to help Wallace, knowing Jacky got the situation here under control already.
While Jacky turns to look at the doorway, the two gunmen tried to move. Jacky moves his hands real fast towards them and turns around to address them again.
“I can’t see you when I turn around to take a look. But…” He pauses. “…I’m not deaf.”
His gun is just inches from the guy on the left’s cheek and the star in his right hand is just a few inches from the guy on the right’s left eye.
Jacky, seeing that they had stop wiggling, he pulls his weapons back a few inches. He raises his left foot and put some pressure on the guy on the left’s chest while sliding his gun and star onto his belt temporarily while reaching for his handcuff to cuff the guy on the right. He knocks the guy unconscious so he can switch to do the same for the guy on the left. This only took place under one minute. After he finishes, he runs outside to help Kenneth.
*****
On the outside, after Wallace pulls Vincent and Alyssa with him, he tries to look and see which way he should go when he sees some shadows down the hallway. The hallway that he and Jacky has came from earlier.
“Run!” Wallace yelled out. “Right!”
They all run towards the right but a bit down the path, someone comes down from the right of that path and blocks their way again. Wallace turns around to see if there’s any other alternative but couldn’t since the shadows he’d seen earlier are coming closer to them. They’re being surrounded by now.
“What do you guys want?” Wallace asked.
The men don’t reply but reach into their pockets. Wallace knows they’re in for good. He knows he has to take his chance while they’re not prepared yet. He pushes one of the guys out of the way, creating a space for Vincent and Alyssa to run past. They’re only like five steps further from those men until Wallace hears some gunshots behind him. Wallace sees another path ahead and signals for Vincent and Alyssa to hide in there while he ducks into the one on the opposite side. When he turns around to check how far the gunmen are, he sees Kenneth coming out from the door and shoots at the gunmen to get their attention back on him so the other three can run. However, only one of the six gunmen turns back to shoot at Kenneth. The rest continues to focus on Vincent, Alyssa, and Wallace.
Wallace looks around for other alternatives since he knows that Kenneth couldn’t save them all. He signals to Vincent to run down the hallway they’re standing at right now. Vincent nods and grabs Alyssa’s hand to run. Wallace sees some metallic stick at the door behind him, so he grabs that. He stands back, listening intently for the gunmen to come by. One minute passes. What’s taking them so long? Then he hears some “whoosy” sounds coming from somewhere down the hallway. He’s confused for a moment at what that sound is, but then remembers that Jacky has those air stars on his belt. Jacky is probably helping Kenneth right now. Wallace stays back anyway since he doesn’t want to distract Jacky and Kenneth.
While Wallace’s waiting for his opportunity to strike, he could hear Jacky and Kenneth arguing over which gunmen each should handle. Wallace laughs to himself, not believing that they could do this in such time. Jacky, he would understand why. But Kenneth? He’s not a guy to argue in such times. What’s going on here? Wallace doesn’t have time to ponder since his chance finally arrives. He sees that three gunmen are coming towards his direction since he could see the shadows reflecting from the little bit of light that’s shining down the hallway. When they’re close enough, he swings the metallic stick forward, tripping two of the gunmen. They land on their feet, dropping their guns in the process. The guns slide down the hallway and out of sight. A third gunman, who’s a little behind from the other two had seen Wallace’s stick and didn’t fall for his trick. The gunman slows down and aims the gun straight at Wallace as Wallace steps out from his hiding place.
“Looks like your luck ran out, kid,” The man said.
“No,” Wallace said calmly. “Yours did.”
The gunman smirks at Wallace. But before he could say anything to mock Wallace, Wallace flicks his right hand real quick with the metallic stick, knocking the gun out of the man’s hand. Wallace strikes forward, using the stick as a sword to attack the man. By now the other two gunmen has a chance to get up. Wallace could hear them so he ducks down and hurls the metallic stick in one circular motion, forcing the three men to back off from him. Having enough space, Wallace strikes again at the man he’s after before. He hits that man on the shoulder blade and knocks him out in the process. He turns his attention back to the other two men, who are standing by the wall, shocked. By now, they’re looking around in the limited light path, trying to find their guns that had dropped before.
“Don’t bother,” Wallace said. “Either give up or I’ll just have to…”
Before Wallace could finish, he hears gunshots coming closer. He ducks into the hallway to hide again. It’s the one that Vincent and Alyssa had run down minutes before. The two frightened men recover somewhat by now and are going after Wallace again. Wallace continues to use the metallic stick as a sword to attack them. It’s easier to take them out since he’s out of bullets line for now. Two more whacks and he knocks them both out. He leans again the wall, listening intently after that. Jacky and Kenneth aren’t arguing anymore. There are only sounds of gunshots and bullets hitting the wall. Wallace risks one look from his hiding place. He discovers the gunmen have increased again. How many are there really? Why is this hospital so quiet? It’s impossible that local police shouldn’t be alarmed by now. After so many gunshots fired. Then he remembers. This area of the hospital is sound proof. Its pure intention is so patients could rest without disturbance. So much for it, Wallace thought. At least Vincent and Alyssa are out of here now.
Wallace finally comes out of his hiding place and uses his metallic stick to slash aside the bullets. He takes every step with grace and dodging back and forth, making the move very skillful. He knows that he doesn’t want any of them to advance towards the hallway that Vincent and Alyssa had taken about five minutes ago. He must stall for time or stop them. The metallic stick last for about two more minutes before one of the gunmen gets too close and knocks it out of Wallace’s hand with a kick. Wallace doesn’t give up though. He retreats back and uses his hand to grab hold of another gunman nearby, chopping down on his wrist so that the man would release the gun he’s holding. He kicks the man down before advancing forward again. He’s slithering around right now with his back against the wall, making the attacks. He’s edging his way back towards Vincent and Alyssa’s room. Jacky and Kenneth are no where to be seen but Wallace knows that they must be nearby since he could still hear Jacky’s air stars zooming around.
In the next five minutes, Wallace takes two more gunmen down until he sees Jacky and Kenneth again. They’re back into Vincent and Alyssa’s room.
Kenneth sees him first, shocked that he’s back. “What the world are you doing back here?”
That caused Kenneth a bullet almost since he had stopped to look at Wallace.
“What’s going on here?” Wallace asked back. “Why are there so many of them?”
“Maybe they’re having a party and want to see who takes the most cops win,” Jacky joked from the other side of the room, laughing.
Jacky has run out of bullets already – of course – so he’d been depending on his martial arts and his air stars to survive. But somehow he still manages to joke in a time like this.
“Get out of here, man!” Kenneth shouted at Wallace. “We can’t look after you!” Kenneth ducks behind a bed again, trying to re-load.
While Kenneth’s re-loading, Wallace advances forward and knocks down one gunman. Another gunman, shocked, turns to fire at him. Since he’s still by the door, he grabs the door as a shield by closing it outward. After the bullet goes through, Wallace takes his chance real quick, sliding forward in a fast motion. He surprises the gunman with his pace and kicks him down towards the ground. Another gunman attacks him, which he brushes off with his right shoulder swinging backwards. That backward swing causes the man a bleeding nose. Wallace spins around and kicks the man in the stomach with his right feet, causing him to land onto the bed, unable to move. His gun, of course, has been dropped in the process.
Kenneth, who had already re-loaded after Wallace takes out the first gunman, is still kneeling behind one of the beds, shocked. Jacky, after finishing one of the gunmen, turns to see Kenneth’s mouth wide-open. He looks towards Wallace’s direction in time to see Wallace kicking the last gunmen down onto the bed.
“Wow!” Jacky exclaimed. “That was awesome!” He walks to Wallace, clapping him on the shoulder. Then he remembers something. He turns around to look for Kenneth. Seeing Kenneth on the floor still, he walks towards him. “What is this? Are you trying to see when a fly’s going to land on your tongue?”
Kenneth finally snaps out of his daze. He stands up straight, looking at Wallace still.
“You’ve never seen him before?” Jacky continued. “What’s with the staring?”
“He…I…uh…” Kenneth stuttered out in a jumble.
“Calm down, man.” He pats Kenneth on the shoulder. “Just because he knows martial arts doesn’t mean he has to show it, right?”
Kenneth turns to Jacky suddenly. “You knew?”
“You mean you didn’t read his file?”
“You pulled my file?” Wallace asked, walking towards the guys.
“Come on. I have to know about everyone to eliminate suspects, don’t I?”
“Okay. Fair enough. But…”
“Don’t tell anyone, right?”
Wallace nods. “Yea.”
“Okay then. We got a deal.” He looks around. “Where are Vincent and Alyssa?”
“They ran down one of the hallways. I’ll go look.”
“I’ll go with you.” Then he turns around. “Kenny, you can handle this, right?”
“Yea,” Kenneth said.
“Call fast before these guys wake up,” Jacky reminded him.
“I know what I’m doing,” Kenneth said, annoyed.
“All right then.” He turns to Wallace again. “Let’s go.”
The two guys go out of the door again and turn right down the hallway and then left to look for Vincent and Alyssa. They find Vincent and Alyssa hiding inside an empty patient room at the other end.
“You guys better stay here for now,” Jacky said. “Just so that it’s safe. I’ll come get you when the team moves in.”
Wallace nods.
“I need to go call Tim also.”
“What’s with you and Tim?”
Jacky knows that he couldn’t hide it from Wallace since Wallace won’t give up. He also knows that he can trust Wallace. Jacky grabs Wallace’s left shoulder and leads him a bit down the hallway before telling Wallace the truth.
“Wow!” Wallace exclaimed after the explanation. “No wonder Mr. Cho isn’t worried that Ray and Mandy are staying at Constant Comfort.”
Jacky nods.
“I guess everyone in that building has a secret.”
“Pretty much.”
“I should keep this to myself, right?”
“Actually, all of us cops know about Gallen. Kevin also knows since he’d been helping Gallen look after Ray also.”
“All right then.”
“That’s pretty much it. I should get back to Kenny too.”
“Okay. I’ll wait for your signal.”
Jacky parts way with Wallace, making his way back to Kenneth to find that Kenneth’s still on the phone.
“Is that Jo?” Jacky asked.
Kenneth nods and signals for Jacky to be quiet. Jacky leaves Kenneth alone and goes around, making sure that all the gunmen are still unconscious. He takes a handful of clear string-like yawns out from his pocket and starts to bind their hands together behind their backs to restrain them until Joey’s team comes. Kenneth gets off the phone when Jacky comes back from his “binding mission” outside.
“Well?” Jacky asked.
“Everything’s good,” Kenneth replied. “They’re coming in. But Joey’s still waiting for Gallen’s reply though.”
“Reply?”
“Joey found out that those guys are going to finish Annie tonight. She sent Gallen back to Constant Comfort to help Brad and George.”
Jacky suddenly remembers the text message he received before. After all the chaotic shooting was going on, he has to focus 100% on the situation. He shoves his right hand into his pocket to retrieve his cell phone. He presses on messages to see if he received any while he was busy before. He couldn’t see anything. He looks at the time and knows that it had been half an hour or more now. How can they not be done? Has something unexpected come up? He looks outside the window, dazed. Like he could find the answer outside, but he doesn’t know where else to look.
Kenneth notices Jacky’s uneasiness. “What’s wrong?”
Jacky turns back to Kenneth. “Nothing.” He walks towards the door. “I better check the rest of the hospital. It’s weird no one notices anything around here.”
“The inpatient area is sound proof.”
Jacky realizes it. “Oh…right. I forgot.”
Jacky walks outside anyway, turning left to go back to the main area of the hospital. He pushes past the double doors and goes to one of the nurse station to tell them that there are going to be cops coming soon, but doesn’t tell them that there are gunmen in the inpatient area to avoid any panic. He just tells them to cooperate and not to come into that area for a while. After that, he goes outside for fresh air. He knows that he will come back later to inform Wallace when the cops actually arrive. Right now, he needs fresh air.
As soon as Jacky pushes the door out, he hears some sirens coming closer to the hospital parking lot. He sees that there’s an emergency vehicle heading his way. When it’s closer, it heads straight for the ER zone. He looks after it, pondering what’s going on. He doesn’t give much thought though since he’s supposed to wait for Joey and her team, not an ER vehicle. For some reason he couldn’t help but think that it might be related to him. He shakes his head, trying to get rid of the paranoid thought. He takes out his cell phone and decides to call Gallen while waiting for Joey, but then he sees Gallen’s car coming into the parking lot just as he's about to dial Gallen's number, which confirms his fear that the person in the ER vehicle might be related to him. Gallen sees him but doesn’t wave. Gallen’s just following the ER vehicle. Jacky wants to run after Gallen’s car to investigate, but he sees Joey’s car pulling up a minute later.
© Monday, June 18th, 2007
Re-posted: Sunday, October 11th, 2009