Lady in Red Pt. 02 Ch. 21

Apparently the woman was in charge, which surprised Steve since traditionally, women did not lead men in the part of the world these people called home. He almost chuckled as he considered how 'enlightened' they were.

The woman was taking the three high profile girls with her to a public destination. She would be taking one man with her and leaving the other three behind. Their job was simple. They were told to shoot everyone in the room and then video the blood covered bodies that would litter the floor. It would be broadcast over the internet later that evening.

Steve listened carefully but only picked up bits and pieces of conversation after that. For some reason, the killers were just sitting around waiting. After what Steve judged to be several hours, the woman spoke sharply to the others. That's when it occurred to Steve that they had been simply catching some sleep. Murder and mayhem was a tiring activity, apparently.

He heard the woman open the outside door. Then he was able to hear the man curse and urge the three girls to go outside. The remaining men discussed what weapons they preferred as they prepared to slaughter everyone in the next room.

Steve had played the situation over in his mind. The kids and the chaperones would not be any help, and would more likely get in his way if they tried. He needed to find a means to take out all three men before they could start shooting their victims. The bus driver was a nervous little mousy guy that Steve quickly determined would be no help. Whatever had to be done, he would have to do himself. He decided to not tell the kids or chaperones anything, because there was nothing they could do, other than cry and panic.

He formulated plans and discarded them as quickly. Finally he decided on the one he felt gave him and the girls their best chance and made preparations to carry it out. He curled up on the floor a short distance in front of the door and pretended to be asleep.

A few minutes later, the door pushed open. The first man through stopped short when he saw Steve balled up on the floor. The men behind the first one grumbled and pushed the first man forward so they could gain entrance. The first man was forced to step over Steve as the other two crowded behind him.

Suddenly Steve's foot shot up. He kicked the man stepping over him extremely hard in the groin. That man immediately crumpled to the floor in tremendous pain. Steve then swept his leg around and took the second man's feet out from under him. That man lost his grip on his handgun as he slammed to the floor on his back.

The gun skidded a couple of feet across the floor and Steve lunged for it. He felt something slam into his back as he wrapped his fingers around the weapon. He quickly rolled onto his back and raised the gun. As he did so, splinters flew from the floor area near his head. He fired twice into the man standing over him with a handgun. The man went over backwards.

Steve had barely finished pulling the trigger when the man that had slammed to the floor from the leg sweep struck him in the mouth with his fist. Steve tried to bring the gun to bear but the man grabbed his wrist with one hand as he continued to pummel Steve with his other. From the corner of his eye, Steve noticed that the first man he had knocked down was slowly bringing his weapon around to point at Steve. Steve grabbed the shirt of the man hitting him and rolled toward the third man with the gun. He felt the man in his arms jolt twice as the concussion filled the room. Steve pushed the now limp man on top of the man with the gun. As the man worked to free himself from the body, Steve jumped to his feet. Once the man managed to get his fallen comrade off his torso, he brought his gun around. Steve fired twice and the man went still.

By now the girls were screaming and crying. Steve ignored them as he quickly checked for pulses on his three adversaries. He found none. He turned and approached the chaperones.

"You ladies really need to get these kids out of here as fast as you can. It'll be light before long. Just take the kids into the woods and sit still until daylight. There'll be police looking for you. Be sure to avoid that woman that shot the two guards. She could come back. You'll be fine if you stay hidden until the police find you, or you see them."

"Who are you?" demanded the youngest chaperone. Steve had learned earlier that she was an English teacher at the school. "You look awfully familiar with that stupid beard about to fall off."

"He's Steve Hammer!" gasped a blonde girl standing off to Steve's left. "Now that the beard's off, you can tell. It's Steve Hammer!"

"So it would appear," acknowledged another chaperone. "It also looks like he's bleeding pretty badly! That horrible man shot you in the back! Let me take a look at it. I'm a nurse. Get that shirt off!"

Steve quickly considered the situation. He needed to get after the two murderers that took the three girls, but he knew if he bled too much, he wouldn't be able to help when he caught them. Reluctantly, he unbuttoned his shirt. Once it was open, an ace bandage was seen holding something against his stomach.

"That's padding to alter my appearance," he explained as the nurse arched her eyebrow in question. "I have to hurry, so let's get this done as fast as we can. There are three girls that still need help."

The nurse quickly unrolled the bandage and used the old shirts that Steve had worn for padding as cloths to wipe the blood from his wounds. She made two bandages from them, placed them over the entry and exit wounds, and had the English teacher hold them in place as she rewrapped the ace bandages around Steve's torso to hold everything in place.

The girls had all remained silent while the nurse worked on him. Once she was finished, Steve pulled his shirt back on and began to button it. As he did so he glanced at the teen girls and realized that they were gawking at him. He blushed as he finished buttoning his shirt. He was already beginning to stiffen up from the bullet wound.

"My guess is that bullet missed anything too vital, but loss of blood and/or infection can be very serious," worried the nurse. "My other guess is that these girls never thought they'd be that close to Steve Hammer with his shirt off. You can close your mouths now, ladies."

"I'm headed after the other three. You make sure you get away from this building and wait for daylight. Police will be all over the roads and maybe in the woods before noon. They know we're in the area. Flag them down and you'll be fine. I'm taking the motorcycle that bomb maker rode to get here and going after the others," stated Steve as he stepped into the outer room.

On the floor in the corner was the body of the man tasked to make the bombs that failed to detonate. Steve grimly considered how failure was not an option in terrorist endeavors. Steve noticed a pamphlet for Valley Forge National Historical Park sitting on the counter. Artillery Park was circled in ink. Steve had understood enough of the conversation to know the woman terrorist was going to take the three girls there, probably to execute them in a public venue! He studied the map on the brochure briefly, shoved it into his pocket, then tucked two guns into his waistband and headed for the dead terrorist's bike.

The sun was just starting to show over the hillside as Steve swung his leg over the motorcycle and turned the ignition key which was still in the machine. The teen girls yelled encouragement to him as he accelerated the bike down the dirt road.

Gwen and her group had arrived at King of Prussia in the small hours of the morning. They stopped at the local police station to see if there were any developments in the situation. After a brief conversation and a promise to inform them immediately of any breaking news, Gwen told the group that she was going to ask her driver to take her around the area.

"I can't sit still and wait. This situation is coming to a head. Those killers must know the bombs on those girls didn't detonate. If they've been listening to the radio in the past hour, they know that Steve is one of the chaperones. They also know that law enforcement is searching the area with a fine toothed comb. It's all going to hit the fan soon, and probably this morning. I'll feel better riding around the area than sitting in a hotel room."

The rest of her group agreed with her assessment and joined her as she directed her driver to explore the roads in the vicinity of Valley Forge.

Senator Chatham's phone rang shortly after sunrise. She listened for less than a minute before ending the call.

"Four dead men were found in a cabin in the woods not too far from here. They're foreign nationals and the FBI strongly suspects that they were involved in the abductions. They found indications that the girls had been there recently," related Chatham as she returned her phone to her pocket. "It sounds to me like Steve's been busy."

Half an hour later, Gwen noticed that the traffic ahead had begun to back up. Their limo gradually came to a complete stop. Everyone in the car began complaining about the lack of progress and how they didn't have time to be caught up in some sort of traffic jam.

The crabby attitude stopped suddenly when Senator Chatham's phone rang again. She answered it and listened for about a minute without speaking.

"Keep looking. If you find Steve, those girls will be close by. I'm sure of that. Was she certain he wasn't wounded too badly? Okay, keep me informed," concluded Chatham's phone conversation.

"Has Steve been wounded?" demanded Gwen as soon as the senator disconnected. "How badly is he hurt?"

"They found fifteen girls, the chaperones, and the bus driver in the nearby woods! Steve had been in that cabin and apparently he's responsible for the dead men. He managed to prevent them from harming anyone else. One of the chaperones is a nurse and she bandaged Steve up. She said that he'd been shot in the back, but she didn't think any vital organs had been hit. He left the cabin like a bat out of hell because the two remaining killers took my daughter, Daniels' daughter, and the vice president's granddaughter with them. He's on a motorcycle and hunting the bastards down right now."

Senator Chatham had just finished speaking when a motorcycle roared past them. The driver was racing down the grassy berm on the side of the road shoulder.

"Jesus!" exclaimed Sybil Burke as she pulled her weapon and opened the door. "That's a goddamn moving van about a hundred yards ahead. That's gotta be Steve on the bike. This is coming to a head right here, and right now!"

She left the car and began running down the highway between the stopped cars. Janice pulled her handgun, jumped out the other door, and immediately took off down the side of the road in Steve's wake. Gwen had just managed to step onto the macadam when she saw a figure open the back door of the van and climb inside. As she hurried down the highway, Gwen saw the figure return with a gun in one hand while she dragged a sobbing girl by the hair. Then Gwen saw Steve! He stood a couple car lengths behind the van in the center of the highway. People in the parked cars immediately behind the van began fleeing toward the sides of the road. Even as she watched the scene unfold, Gwen noted that a helicopter was sitting a short ways to her left in a small field.

The woman with the gun had the teen's hair twisted in her hand as she cruelly forced the girl to stand in front of her, shielding all but the woman's head from sight. She held the barrel to the girl's temple as she yelled demands at Steve. She insisted that he drop his gun or she would kill the girl.

From her vantage point, Gwen saw Steve's left hand reach behind his back and slowly pull a gun from his waistband. As he dropped the gun in his right hand to the pavement, the woman quickly swung the weapon in her hand toward Steve and fired!

Steve knew that he'd become the killer's target as soon as he dropped his gun. He had also seen her partner creeping along a line of cars to his left and ahead of him. He forced himself to ignore the man since the woman was the immediate threat to the teen girl. As he dropped the gun in his right hand, Steve took one step to his right as he rapidly brought the second weapon to bear and fired twice.

All that was showing of his adversary was her upper face. The rest of her was concealed by Senator Chatham's daughter. Steve was extremely concerned about his accuracy. The chance of striking the girl was very real, but he knew that if he died, the woman would immediately turn the gun on the girl and kill her next.

Sybil had not been able to catch up to Steve, but she was only a couple of car lengths behind him and to the left side of the road when she saw him drop a gun to the ground and immediately exchange fire with the woman holding the girl as a shield. Suddenly, a man rose up between two cars not thirty feet from her and fired a round into Steve! Cursing her lack of attention, Sybil placed a bullet into the man's head before he could manage a second shot.

She rushed to the man's body and quickly determined that he was dead, with a large section of his skull missing. Then she moved to the van to find the female terrorist still clutching a gun in her lifeless hand. Sybil noted that neither eye was visible, and there was very little left of the shooter's skull.

She carefully untangled the crying teen's hair from the woman's left hand and helped her climb from the back of the truck. That was when Sybil realized that two more girls were huddled in a corner in the back of the vehicle. She quickly climbed into the truck and sliced the plastic ties that bound the girls together. She led the trembling girls to the back of the van as bystanders began returning to their vehicles.

As Sybil helped the distraught girls from the van, she glanced up the road. Her heart sank as she saw Gwen kneeling next to Steve as he lay supine on the pavement! She was obviously attending to his midsection. Janice was kneeling on the other side of Steve, helping Gwen any way she could.

As she numbly looked over the scene, Sybil saw a woman reporter with a camera man standing on the back of a pickup truck to better film the carnage. Behind them Sybil saw a helicopter. It had 'News Channel 3' written on both sides.

Senator Chatham had managed to wrap her daughter in a loving embrace as tears poured down her cheeks. They were standing just a few feet from where Steve lay on the highway. Sybil rushed up to Gwen and knelt beside her.

"Gwen, there's a helicopter over there. It'll take too long for an ambulance to get here through this traffic jam and then get back to the hospital. I think that we should get Steve on that chopper and to a hospital as fast as possible."

Gwen considered Sybil's suggestion as she applied a makeshift bandage to Steve's lower torso. She knew well just how dangerous the situation was. Steve could simply bleed out, and even if he didn't, septicemia was a very real possibility. Looking at the traffic backed up for as far as she could see, Gwen made her decision.

"Help me get him to the chopper!" agreed Gwen. "We don't have any time to waste."

Janice had noticed a couple of men in uniform watching everything as they stood alongside an older truck. "Marines! Could you help us get this man to that chopper? He's too heavy for us to carry!"

"Ma'am, we'd be honored," replied one of the men as they hurried over and lifted Steve. As carefully as they could, they carried Steve to the helicopter. As they reached it, the news woman approached them.

"You need the helicopter? Please use it! The pilot can come back and pick us up later. Good luck."

"Marines, could you get him strapped into the seat as gently as you can?" asked Janice as Gwen climbed in first and turned around to direct the two rugged Marines.

As Gwen watched, the two men lifted Steve into a seat and passed the belt around to her to buckle him in. "Ma'am, it was an honor to be able to help you and Lieutenant Hammer. We thank you both for all you've done for those of us in the service. Godspeed and good luck!"

Sybil clamored into a seat next to the pilot as she spoke to Janice. "Stay with Senator Chatham. The police will have a million questions. Here they are now," pointed Sybil as she spoke to her friend. "Take care of things here."

With that she pulled the door closed and buckled her seat belt as the craft lifted quickly and set a course for the nearest trauma center. Sybil was told the name of the hospital by the pilot. She called and briefed them to expect a gunshot victim in the next few minutes and to be prepared. When they landed, Sybil was glad to see hospital staff waiting for them. Steve was rushed into surgery with Gwen following closely.

Sybil glanced at her watch and saw it was just after eight AM. She knew Gwen would be far too busy to make any calls, so she punched in her mother's number and explained the situation.

"Mom, it's been a hell of a day already. I shot one of the terrorists that kidnapped those girls, but I was a little slow. The guy put a bullet into Steve's abdomen. He's in Jefferson Hospital in Philly right now. I imagine they're preparing him for surgery. Gwen is with him. We need to inform the rest of their group. He saved all of those kids, along with their chaperones and the bus driver. I've never seen a man like him. Okay, you take care of the calls. I'll go back in and wait with Gwen. Thanks, Mom."

Mallory Burke soon learned that she had no need to call any of Steve's friends and family. Her first call was her last.

"Paula, this is Mallory Burke. I'm calling about Steve."

"We watched it on the news, unless you have an update on his condition. We're all packing a bag and getting ready to fly to Philly," revealed Paula. "Thanks for the call, and thank Sybil for her help. She may have saved Steve's life. We'll see that she knows how much we appreciate her efforts. I'm sorry to be abrupt, but we're really frantic here. I'll speak with you from Philly later today."

"They're at Jefferson Hospital. Would it be okay if I flew with your group?" asked Mallory. "Sybil just killed a man and she sounded a little depressed. I'd like to make sure that she's doing okay."

"Certainly," replied Paula. "We'll be taking off within the hour. Meet us at the Red Lady at the airport. She'll be back and waiting for us by then."

Although their rules specified hospital personnel only could attend surgery, Lady in Red's generosity to hospitals was very well known. When Gwen explained that she was in her fourth year of med school and she would be most appreciative if she were allowed to observe Steve's surgery, she was quickly shown where to prep.

She watched the doctors and nurses closely as they worked to stop Steve's bleeding and to repair internal damage from the bullet. Gwen was extremely pleased at the skill and dedication of the hospital staff. Even with that skill level, it was over five hours from when Steve had been shot to when Gwen stepped into the waiting room after the surgery.

Sybil had been alone in the waiting room when two police detectives asked her to step into a private room for an interview. Because there were fatalities and it was such a high profile case, she was questioned for almost two hours. Finally she was told to not discuss the situation with the press until further notice and the interview was ended.

When she returned to the waiting room, Janice, Senator Chatham, her daughter, along with the Daniels and their daughter were quietly talking among themselves. Janice saw the question in her eyes and shook her head. Sybil took a seat and tried to relax. She must have fallen asleep because when she opened her eyes, the entire Lady in Red family was in the room.