Chicago Med fic: Restitution (8/10)
PART ONE
PART TWO
PART THREE
PART FOUR
PART FIVE
PART SIX
PART SEVEN
PART EIGHT
PART NINE
PART TEN
-o-
Will made a series of quick executive decisions, designed to both control the chaos and redirect safety efforts. The idea that they were going to hold the hospital was increasingly looking unlikely -- Ahmed confirmed as much to him -- which meant that evacuation was the only way to ensure that no one else got killed.
Rallying any able-bodied staff member he could find, Will started a fast and furious triage effort, sorting people into three categories to keep things simple: people who needed minor treatment, critical care and DOA. Back home, he’d have approached it with more nuance, but his numbers were down, and time was short.
Exam rooms were flooded, and Will instructed non-critical patients to be treated in the hallways and reception area, as long as everyone kept low. Critical patients were prioritized to the exam rooms, and Will authorized surgical procedures as each doctor felt comfortable. As for the dead, Will didn’t have time to fully catalog them, but he ran a quick count. There were a dozen people dead, including a few nurses and doctors. The rest were security forces -- with a few of the gang members thrown in.
Another dozen more were injured, with four of those cases being serious.
Treatment options or not, Will knew that the long term problem was a lot more pressing. Critical and non-critical patients alike all had to get out -- and fast. Ahmed was not optimistic about the situation outside, and Will had no reason to doubt him. He tried using the hospital’s phones to call to other floors, but the lines had been cut. Even his cell phone had no reception -- no doubt, a dead zone had been created in an attempt to isolate the attackers.
That left Will without a lot of options.
During his first day at Med, he’d been involved in another tense situation, but his plan then had been to hold ground as long as he could. Keeping people in one place was hard enough, but securing safe passage?
And not just for the ED?
Lockdown had kept everyone on their floors -- for now. But that was a dead end approach that was going to end badly. Will needed to get the entire place evacuated.
He tried to run a mental assessment of just how many people that involved, but the task quickly overwhelmed him.
What he knew for sure was that the ED was the flashpoint here. Either he would save everyone -- or doom them all.
Coming to him again, Ahmed looked weary. “We need a plan -- and now,” he said. “My security forces are getting restless, and there’s no sign of any backup.”
“I know,” Will said. “Our best bet is an evacuation.”
“The front is not accessible,” Ahmed told him. “Anyone who goes out will be taken hostage -- or worse.”
“So what if we don’t go out the front?” Will asked, the idea coming to him slowly.
Ahmed was confused. “The alley still leads to the main street.”
“But there are other stores that open onto the alley, right?” Will said. “Some facing the other street?”
Ahmed followed that line of thought, nodding slowly but with growing clarity. “The back street is clear. I don’t know how friendly it is, or how long it will stay that way--”
“But it’s a chance, right?” Will said.
Ahmed looked dubious again. “But we will need one of the shopkeepers to agree,” he said.
“Well, okay,” Will said. “So we ask for help.”
“But if they are not friendly--”
“It’s the only chance we have,” Will said.
“That is a risk--”
“That I’ll take,” Will said. “Look, the triage is under control. Lockdown has contained the staff. They’re just awaiting orders. Why don’t you go through, check in with security on each floor and tell them about the plan. Then, when it’s time, we’ll start a slow evacuation, one ward at a time. Any critical patients that can’t be moved can be held back for the final wave.”
“But we don’t have a secure exit,” Ahmed objected.
“Let me handle that,” Will said.
“Dr. Halstead, are you sure about this? There is nothing in the policy--”
Will drew a breath and he found the resolve that came from having no other options. “I’m sure,” he said.
And only God could help him if he wasn’t.
-o-
During the triage, Will had done his best to consolidate both patients and personnel. This was intended to provide protection and better security coverage. However, it also gave him the space he needed for this crazy plan of his.
First things first, he found the most secure exit he could. It had a security alarm on it, but he knew it had been disabled in the initial lockdown -- and really, his bigger concern was that while he knew it opened into the alley, he wasn’t actually sure the alley was secure. Ahmed had said the forces were poised on the street, but that didn’t preclude a presence here as well.
If Will walked out and got spotted, then that was the end of his brilliant plan.
It was also probably the end of him.
There was nothing quite like high stakes to take your decision making to that next level. Either Will had this under control -- or he was a dead man. There really wasn’t an in between.
Gathering a breath, he let it out, trying to build up his courage.
He came halfway around the world.
He left everything he knew and loved.
For this.
For this.
Without thinking about it further, Will opened the door. It was heavier than he expected, and he had to put some force into opening it. It was clearly rusted with disuse, and the excruciating squeak seemed to resound for miles. Still, when he peeked his head out, he was relieved to find the alley empty -- and clear.
There was no sign of anyone -- even the street seemed eerily quiet. The gang activity had been localized elsewhere, at least. It was a small break -- and hopefully not the only one he’d get. To pull this off, he would need some clever thinking and brave action -- and a hell of a lot of luck.
The good news was that Will had spent a lot of time about town. That had never been his intention, of course. If left to his own devices, Will would have known nothing but the inside of the hospital and the pathetic view from his own apartment. But Adam had taken him all throughout the neighborhood, introducing him to shopkeepers, restaurant owners and bartenders. Although Will had never navigated to these businesses from the alley, he was pretty sure he had been inside most of them.
From the back doors, it was harder to tell, of course, but Will knew more than he gave himself credit for. On the corner was the coffee shop. Next door, there was a used media store where Adam liked to buy and sell old CDs and DVDs. There was a clothing store, a tailor -- and a bar. The bar was right here, midway down.
The bar was a good choice for several reasons.
First, the hospital staff kept that place afloat. Most of its clientele came from the hospital, and that was a well known fact. Second, Adam knew the owner -- personally -- and he had made a point to introduce Will in person. Her name was Wilhelmina, and she was straight laced and terse -- and overwhelmingly generous.
And third, she lived upstairs.
There was no guarantee any of the other shopkeepers would be there -- anyone who had an eye to security would have left by now -- but Wilhemina had nowhere else to go.
Mostly, she wouldn’t want to leave. Wilhelmina was passionate about her business, and she loved her neighborhood as much as Adam did. No doubt, that was why they were fast and permanent friends. Will knew that neither one of them would leave -- not until they absolutely had to.
With an anxious glance down the alley, Will crept forward, wishing desperately that he had more cover. He knocked at first, rapping his knuckles on the door. The noise sounded conspicuous, and he could feel the adrenaline as it threatened to turn his stomach. There were armed men just out of view, and here Will was -- planning on a miracle. Jay was going to kill him -- if he didn’t end up dying anyway.
There was no answer. Will knew there was a chance he was wrong about Wilhelmina. Or, more likely, she was just not in a place to hear his knocking.
There were no other ways to knock, so Will went ahead and tested the handle. To his surprise, it actually started to open. Cautiously, he checked his path again, before opening the door and sneaking his way through. He was about to announce himself when he was greeted with the barrel of a gun right in his face.
Panicking, Will put his hands up, and he was roughly shoved back against the wall, the gun prodding him in the chest before he was able to get his eyes to focus and he recognized the figure in front of him.
At nearly the same moment, the figure recognized him as well.
“Dr. Halstead?” Wilhelmina asked, voice a low growl as she didn’t move her gun from him. “What are you doing here?”
Heart still pounding, Will took a staggering breath. “I -- was looking for you,” he said in faltering words. He swallowed, trying to will his nerves to calm with little avail. “What are you doing?”
“Guarding my home,” she snarled at him, even as she dropped the aim of her gun. She closed the door and glowered at him.
He eased away from the wall by a step, but didn’t take liberties to move any more than that. “Then why is it unlocked?”
She laughed a little bit, and Will didn’t find much comfort in the fact that she uncocked the gun so it was no longer primed to fire. He tried not to think about how close he had been to taking a bullet to the face. “I wanted to see if anyone would be dumb enough to try. This is not the first time I have handled gangs.”
Will might question her tactics, but it seemed to be a poor choice. If he was going to ask her for a favor, then he probably didn’t need to be questioning her judgment at the moment.
Her posture had eased as well now, but they were still both aware of the situation at hand. “Why are you here, then? Trying to escape that hospital deathtrap?”
“What? No,” Will said. And then, he reconsidered. “I mean, kind of.”
She arched her brows. “You never struck me as the quitting type.”
Now, there was irony for you. Will was precisely the quitting type, but not today. Not anymore. But Will had to keep his focus if he had any chance of making this work. “I’m not the only one in the hospital, and you know better than I do that this situation isn’t going to get better before it gets worse.”
She drew her mouth together tersely and nodded. “They have chosen the hospital as their target. I’m surprised they haven’t stormed it yet.”
“Luck on our side, probably,” Will said. “And a good security presence -- but it won’t hold. We have to get people out.”
Wilhelmina wasn’t stupid, and she seemed to know where Will was going with this. “And you think you can evacuate them all? Through my little bar?”
“Well, you tell me,” Will said, and he pointed to the front room. “Is the street still clear on your side.”
“Clear and deserted,” she said. “There are no targets of interest here, but if the violence spills over--”
“All the more reason we have to hurry,” Will said. “Are there still routes out of the neighborhood from here?”
“Yes,” she said. “The gang presence isn’t large enough to set up full perimeters. They’re concentrating their efforts on key locations -- like the hospital. From what I can tell, there are several other strongholds around town, but it’s not a wide reach.”
“So, we get as many people here as we can,” Will said. “We start with the most mobile, and discharge them as we go. We could put up doctors and nurses to oversee the final exit. It would have to be something of an honor system, as long as people feel safe to go.”
“With a little work, we might be able to get some drivers here,” Wilhelmina suggested.
“Would there still be drivers willing to work the area?” Will asked.
She shrugged. “We know what survival means. It is not always self serving.”
“Wilhelmina, I know what I’m asking--”
She shook her head, her lips flat. “I’m not entirely sure you do.”
“All I know is that I have a hospital full of people, and I want to save them,” he said. “Taking the chance is better than letting them die.”
WIth that, she looked him over once more, as if considering the proposal. “And the hospital has cleared this plan?”
Will immediately went red. “There’s no ability to communicate with outside management, and Dr. Salvo is dead,” he said. “And I don’t have time for clearances. Not if we have any chance of making this work.”
She looked weary at the notion, but not particularly surprised. “So this is your idea?”
He couldn’t deflect, not even if he wanted to. He’d come here to learn how to play by the rules, and here he was -- risking the lives of literally everyone around him. But he’d considered the alternatives, and he’d run out of options. He would own this one, no matter what.
He nodded at her. “It is.”
And in return, she nodded back. “Then, let’s do it,” she said. “The door will be unlocked. I’ll start clearing safe areas away from the windows and putting in calls to see who might be willing to ferry patients to safer zones. And next time you come back, I won’t even put a gun in your face.”
Despite everything going on, Will grinned. “Thanks, Wilhelmina.”
She scooted him to the door with a mirthless chuckle. “Don’t thank me,” she said. “We both have to survive this yet.”
“Both of us,” he agreed, hand on the knob as he turned. “And everyone else.”
-o-
Now that Will had secured passage out of the hospital, he realized the true extent of his plan and all that it entailed. He was now making himself solely responsible for evacuating every floor of the hospital -- every department, every room, every patient. This wasn’t the kind of thing you could half ass. He could just hope for the best.
No, he had to be calm and purposeful. He had to be intentional and strong.
Mostly, he had to do it.
He’d come to see things through.
And this was something he had no choice but to see through.
Will had the notion, but he was going to need buy-in up and down the line. He started with his own ED, finding the charge nurse and one of the attendings to fill them in on his plan. The attending seemed flabbergasted, but the charge nurse was on board quickly. Will directed them to triage the patients, grouping them by their ability to walk and who could survive without medical support. When he came back, he wanted the first group of 10, including two medical professionals to set up a base of support, to be ready to go.
He took a similar approach with every department. Though people were shocked at the initial idea, he found some comfort in how readily they came around. It was a crazy notion to evacuate the hospital, and everyone knew it. But they also knew that the alternative of sitting around and waiting was an absolute no-go.
By the time he cycled back to the ED, the first group was ready. The two staffers had also amassed a handful of critical supplies just in case, and Will told the charge nurse phase two of the plan, which was to start discharging patients who were ambulatory with AMA protocols.
She balked, of course, citing protocol.
“What about the forms? We’ll be open to liability,” she said.
“Make a list, get signatures,” he said. “Have one copy of the form on hand for everyone to read, and go from there.”
“I don’t know if that would hold up in court,” she fretted.
“And if the patients die in a shootout?” Will asked.
She nodded, though reluctant. “It is a situation with no right answer,” she said with a little sigh. “So how do you know what to do?”
Will wasn’t sure, that was the funny part. But, for once, his head and his heart were telling him the exact same thing. “Getting sued -- I can live with that,” he said. “The consequences of doing nothing -- I can’t.”
And with that, she seemed to agree. “Very well, Dr, Halstead,” she said, gathering up her things. “We will make it work.”
-o-
He oversaw the first transfer himself, making sure that every patient was settled and that his two staffers felt comfortable and equipped. He went back for the second group -- this one out of orthopedics -- and transferred them as well. By the time he brought back the third group, Wilhelmina’s bar was looking more like a clinic than a restaurant.
The process was slow and tedious, to be sure. It kept him at a high level of alert, constantly fearing the worst. He kept thinking that someone was going to object, but the more he went on, the more people seemed on board with his plan.
It was a confidence he didn’t know if he wanted -- and one he certainly didn’t think he deserved. But it was a functional thing, to get him from point A to point B. Outside the hospital, he heard occasional scuffles and intermittent gunfire, and Ahmed pulled him aside, telling him that it was time to hurry.
“Things are reaching the point of no return,” he said to Will, voice low and eyes tense. “How is your plan?”
“I’m going as fast as I can,” Will said.
Ahmed nodded, sober and plain. “Go faster.”
-o-
Within two hours, Will had nearly three quarters of the hospital evacuated. The later groups took longer to move, given the increased medical need, and he transported more medical staff to help make patients mobile enough to move. The discharge process was messy, but more or less effective. The charge nurse had signatures, names and phone numbers for follow up care. It wasn’t protocol, but it was at least a good faith effort.
And a chance.
It was, more than anything, a chance.
Moving back up to the neurology ward, Will was trying to get several patients in wheelchairs along, debating just how many monitors it was possible to move out of the hospital on the spur of the moment. He was negotiating with one of the attendings there about the nuances, when Adam came around the corner.
Their eyes met, and they both looked visibly relieved.
Will told the attending to make the best choice he could, and then he crossed over to greet Adam. Without a word, the two of them embraced, and Will could feel the relief in his best friend -- as palpable as his own.
“Oh, thank goodness,” Adam said, squeezing him a little tighter. “I have been checking the wards, but hadn’t made it to the ED yet. I heard it was the hardest hit, and I feared the worst.”
Will was the one to pull back, grinning in spite of the dire situation they were facing. “And I couldn’t find you at all,” he said. “I’ve been through this hospital a dozen times in the past two hours. Where have you been?”
He tried to ask it like a casual question, but the inflection in his voice gave him away. He hadn’t allowed himself to think it, but he’d feared that Adam had been killed in some way.
“Surgery!” Adam said. “We were repairing a small bowel! That car accident from the morning -- it was more extensive than I’d realized.”
“And where was your circulating nurse?” Will asked, incredulous.
“She disappeared -- and the nurse I sent after her disappeared as well,” Adam said. “I could not afford to lose anymore, so I stopped sending them and hoped for the best.”
“That’s a terrible approach!” Will said. “They disappeared and you did nothing?”
“I had the anesthesiologist attempt a call, but nothing went through,” Adam said.
“And you assumed, I don’t know, just proceed as normal?” Will asked.
Adam shrugged. “I had a life to save!” he said in protest. He gave Will a little glare. “I know you too well to think you would not have done the same.”
Will couldn’t argue that, not even if he wanted to. Given his actions of the last few hours, it was probably rich to even pretend like he had any high ground here.
“Anyway, that point is moot,” Adam said, quickly transitioning back to the issue at hand -- the very pressing issue. “How bad is it?”
“Bad,” Will said, drawing himself back into the moment. “Salvo is dead.”
Adam closed his eyes, the sense of regret and loss momentarily overwhelming him.
“So are Specter, Mohinder, Ginny and Ross,” Will continued. “A few more, I think, but it’s hard to get a firm count for now. Some of them are in the lobby, and I don’t have access. But I’d guess 10-12 casualties so far, not counting security.”
Adam opened his eyes again, looking weary but unsurprised. “And security?”
“Has the front doors secured, but it’s a stalemate. No one in, no one out,” Will said. “There’s no word about police backup--”
“That will be long in coming, if it comes at all,” Adam said grimly. “Forces are spread too thin. Local policemen are going to be divided. We could wait for the military--”
“As if that’s a little more secure?” Will asked, skeptical. He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Adam nodded in agreement. “It is best to assume we are on our own. We need to be responsible for the people in the hospital. If we are to save them, we must act.”
“That’s what I’ve been doing,” Will said. “We’ve been using the alley entrance.”
Adam looked vexed by that. “The alley? But it leads to the street. Everyone will be caught--”
“The front of the building is occupied, but it’s a small area,” Will said. “I arranged passage with Wilhemina. She agreed to let our people pass through his storefront and out the other side. From there, I’ve got a few doctors and nurses setting up a temporary triage station for critical cases while everyone else runs.”
This time, Adam looked surprised. “You -- what?”
“I know it wasn’t authorized and I’m sorry--”
“Sorry?” Adam asked, utterly incredulous now. “Halstead, are you telling me you figured out a safe path to protect patients and staff? By yourself?”
“Well, I had help obviously,” Will said. “Orchestrating an evacuation of this scale--”
Adam shook his head, as though the facts were still hard for him to process. “How many people have been cleared?”
Will stopped to think. “Hard to say, for sure,” he said. “The ED is clear, patients and staff. I’ve been getting other wards emptied out--”
“Halstead--”
“75 percent,” he said. “Moving people out of critical care has been really slow, and the cardio and neurology wards are slowing us down.”
The look of total shock on Adam’s face made Will stop short. He’d been going nonstop all day now, but now that he was forced to own his choices, he was struck with the fear that he’d done it wrong. It would be just like him, naturally. To compromise on the wrong things. To cut the wrong corners.
“We can shift the strategy,” Will said, starting to feel uneasy. “And if I go across to the bar, I might be able to bring some of them back, if that’s what you need.”
Now, Adam looked as if he might be crazy. “Halstead, you will do nothing of that nature,” he said. “If the passage is still clear, then we will continue to use it as long as we can.”
“But--”
“But nothing,” Adam said. “Keep working on any patient stable enough to move -- and start getting nonessential staff out as well. Have you been keeping a log?”
Will nodded. “One of the charge nurses from the ICU is maintaining a manual log so everyone who leaves is accounted for. I approved a shortened discharge process. We’re still getting signatures from stable patients to leave AMA, but it’s not all by the book.”
Adam pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Legally, it’s a gray area, to be sure,” he said. “But they are safer leaving this sector of the city by any means possible.”
“That was my thought,” Will said. “I’m told that evacuations are still happening more successfully on the back half of the block, so some people are getting out with police protection.”
“Naturally, our critical care patients are going to prove more difficult,” Adam said thoughtfully.
“We’ve started queuing up everyone on a gurney who can’t be discharged, and there’s a makeshift ward over in the bar for those who are more or less stable,” he said. “Wilhemina thinks they’ll be safe there -- at least until the street is cleared.”
“That might work,” Adam said. “And the critical patients?”
Will shrugged, apologetic. “I was still working on that,” he admitted. “Wilhemina will take them if needed, but I don’t like it. Some of these patients shouldn’t be outside of the hospital for five minutes much less an indefinite period of time. I’d like to guarantee immediate transfers with full medical support to areas outside the combat zone.”
Adam scoffed. “Is that all?”
“Unless you’ve got other ideas,” Will said.
Adam’s face was grim. “I wish I did,” he said. “No, your idea is sound.”
“What idea?” Will said. “I’ve run into a dead end.”
“You want them all transferred out the front with medical support,” Adam said.
“Sure, but there are gang members patrolling the front of the hospitals,” Will pointed out. “They’re not going to just let them go.”
Adam shrugged. “There’s only one way to find out,” he said. “Now, you -- go. Finish sorting the patients, leaving only the ones who absolutely cannot survive at Wilhemina’s.”
Will was shaking his head. “No way,” he said. “You’re not going to go talk to them.”
“I will use security to help,” Adam said. “Is Ahmed still there?”
“He is,” Will said. “And he’s not going to like it any more than I do.”
“Then it is a good thing that it is not for you or Ahmed to decide,” Adam said. Adam was a lighthearted guy -- he liked to cut loose and party -- but you could never overlook just how serious the man was on the job. In trenches like these, Adam was never shiny or flashy like the big names at Med. But he was still the best damn doctor Will had ever met. “This is my ED. I am grateful for what you have done so far, Halstead, but now it is time to follow orders. Without question or delay. If you don’t think you can do that, then you can be in the next group to evacuate to Wilhemina’s.”
There it was. The ultimatum.
Will had spent the day working the rules to his own ideas.
Now, he was called on to follow them unquestioningly.
Could he do that?
Invariably, he had come all this way to do just that.
He nodded, holding his gaze steady with Adam. “Just say the word,” he said. “And you can count on me.”
-o-
In the past, Will had struggled with orders.
But today, he found them easy to follow.
Maybe because Adam was his friend. Maybe because this had all started with his plan. Maybe because he finally understood where he fit in as part of the overall team. Maybe because Will had finally, against all odds, managed to grow up.
Whatever the case was, Will didn’t have time to think about the situation existentially. Noteworthy as his personal development was, he still had some practical issues. Scratch that -- he had a lot of practical issues.
With the work done so far, all he had to do to start was go back through the floors to collect the next group of patients. Some of these patients were in wheelchairs, bringing IVs and oxygen tanks in tow. This slowed them down, and Will had one nonessential staff member accompany each one -- with an additional doctor to oversee every five patients.
Getting them down to the main floor was, of course, something of an issue. While phone access had been limited, electricity had not been cut off. Will wasn’t sure what the hostage protocol was here, but since this was a siege and not a hostage standoff, they had some leeway to work.
That was speculation, but it was about the only thing going their way at the moment. That and Wilhemina’s generosity.
It took longer than before to transport this group, and it was a transfer Will still oversaw himself, maintaining presence in the alleyway to ensure that it was indeed clear for each and every person who crossed. When they were done, he checked in with both the charge nurse and Wilhemina. The charge nurse showed him the documentation of everyone who had left, and Will instructed her to continue discharges as possible. He also told her to start a log for staff members who were able to leave -- they could manually sign out as well.
Then, he coordinated with Wilhemina. Thanks to her outside connections, she had news about the next wave of police evacuations. The block had been already cleared, but thanks to Wilhemina’s heads up, they were going to circle back around to help with anyone who was left.
“How long until that point?” Will asked.
Wilhelmina made a little face. “Thirty minutes, I would guess,” she said. “No more than 45.”
“Okay,” Will said, nodding as he tried to do the math against the number of people still left in the hospital. “I should be able to make two more transfers if I’m fast.”
Wilhelmina gave him a look of doubt. “Be aware that the increased police presence will attract attention,” she said. “Anyone left in the hospital will be under more scrutiny. You may not be safe.”
“Well, we can get everyone out--”
“But you must,” Wilhelmina said. “Things are likely to get bad very quickly.”
“Some patients can’t be taken out this way, even with police support,” he said. “No, I’ll clear as many people as I can, and then I want you to lock off this exit.”
“But you and the rest--”
“Will figure our own way out,” he said. “You’ve done an amazing thing here, Wilhelmina. Seriously, you’re a hero.”
She scoffed with a little roll of her eyes. “It was your idea,” she said. “Crazy, stupid -- and totally brilliant.”
Will grinned at her, adrenaline starting to pump once more. “Stand by,” he said. “I’ll be back with another group soon.”
-o-
Will took another group -- and then another two. By the time he was done, he had cleared as many people as he could. The remaining patients were transferred to the ED, using the bare minimum machines as possible to sustain continuity of care. The last group was entirely composed of the last of the nonessential staff until Will had just enough doctors and nurses left on hand to tend to the critical patients.
He finished his task right as Adam finished his. Coming back in through the security barricade at the front of the ED, Adam looked to be in one piece, if somewhat worse for wear. He passed by Ahmed’s security forces to the relative safety of the back. He came to Will and did not mince his words or waste time.
“Halstead, it is time to be serious,” he said. Sweat was glistening on his forehead, and his scrubs were stained with dried blood. From surgery, from triage: Will didn’t know anymore. “We are running out of time.”
“I wasn’t aware when we had time,” Will posited wryly.
“Your tactics have worked so far, but soon the stalling will be impossible to ignore,” Adam warned.
Will made a face, glancing toward the door where the men were still congregating. “And?”
“And, when they run out of patience, the building will be raided. Security will not be able to hold out against a second assault,” Adam said. He looked like he knew from experience. Will didn’t dare ask how.
Instead, he nodded. He would take the advice for what it was: a warning. “So, what happens then?”
“Then, we no longer have power to leverage,” Adam said. “Then, we are nothing but hostages to be leveraged ourselves.”
The plaintive declaration was said simply enough. That only made its meaning more daunting. “Hostages?” he asked, hoping he was wrong.
“Hostages,” Adam confirmed. “And hostages rarely do well in these situations.”
“So, we’re screwed,” Will concluded for him. He took a breath and blew it out, bobbing his head rapidly as he grappled with the conclusion.
Adam, who was usually the more understated of the two of them, felt the need to elaborate, just so they were clear what the stakes were. “We’re dead.”
Will felt his heart flutter in his chest, but panic wasn’t a useful option at the moment. He was trained for triage, life and death -- and this was much the same. You had to prioritize, and then you had to improvise. It was all by the book, even if it wasn’t a book Will happened to like at the moment. “Okay, well, we need a better option than that,” he ventured. “I mean, why do they even want the hospital anyway?”
“Soft targets,” Adam said. “And instant press.”
Soft targets. Instant press.
Valuable assets, maybe.
But not the only assets.
Maybe not even the most vulnerable.
“Okay,” Will said, mind reeling toward a conclusion he wasn’t sure he could even fully formulate. “Well, can’t we give them something better?”
The question was simple, but Adam’s face scrunched up like Will had asked something insane. “Better? We have no money for a bribe.”
“Sure, but they have other needs,” Will said. He shrugged, allowing his speculation to run wild now. “What could they use?”
Adam was taken aback by the question. He looked thoughtful for a moment. “Money, of course,” he said. “But supplies, too. For the gangs, power in the city is a constant struggle. One gang tries to weed the others out. Supplies allow for networks to stay solvent.”
“Well, we have supplies,” Will said. He gestured to the hospital outside their small room. “So we give them that.”
Adam scoffed. “But how? What would we possibly give them?”
The idea was forming faster than he could keep up with it now, and he thought through the possible caveats even as he knew it was the only option left to them. “We give them everything,” he said. “The ED alone is fully stocked with non-controlled substances and other supplies. The cafeteria has enough food on hand to be worth something.”
Adam’s face crunched up. “But the drugs--”
“Are still inaccessible -- and honestly, who cares?” he said. “I know we want to minimize risk to the hospital, but we have to put lives first. Don’t we?”
Adam still looked unconvinced. “We are not authorized--”
“Then everyone left in here is going to be dead,” Will said flatly. “You told me we look at the risks and see if there are other options. There aren’t.”
Now, Adam looked thoughtful. “We carry significant insurance--”
“Okay,” Will said. “Is there someone we can contact? Get approval?”
“Lines are cut off,” Adam said. “Standard security protocol. Cell phone coverage has been dampened, too.”
Will shook his head, feeling his frustration mount. “Then we make the call. I can’t sit here and do nothing -- I can’t sit here and let people die. Not when I have another option.”
Adam’s expression was grave. “But the protocol involved--”
“You know I am all for protocol now -- I have tried so hard to follow it,” he said. “And if it were just me, then okay. I’d say sure. We sit here and follow protocol until our deaths. But it’s not just me -- and it’s not just you. There are still innocent people here. Their lives are worth bandages, aspirin and cafeteria stocks. The real question is, do you think it will work? Will they bite if we make the offer?”
It was a critical question, and Adam did appear to consider it quite seriously. There were moments when you might wonder if Adam Goshit was a serious doctor. This wasn’t one of them. These were the moments that put Adam in context, that had made Will sure that this was where he needed to go to get back to the medicine.
Finally, he nodded. “These men have no actual chance of taking the government. It is a power play designed to enhance their image and gain ground against the other gangs,” he said. “Therefore, we do not have to give them actual substance. We need to give them the appearance of a victory. With these concessions, we may be able to do just that.”
Will shrugged, as if they weren’t talking about negotiating with the hospital’s assets with a bunch of gang overlords. “Perfect,” he said. “Then what do we have to lose at this point?”
Adam laughed, dark and cynical, even as his grin widened. “Only our lives, my friend.”
“Eh,” Will said. “Besides that.”
At that, Adam could only grin wider than before. “This is the Halstead I remember,” he said, and he braced Will by the shoulder. “Let us go, my friend. To whatever fate we can make.”
-o-
This time, Will didn’t have to do it alone.
That was good and bad.
It was nice to have someone behind him, someone he trusted more than himself to make the right call. It solidified his choice, gave him a certainty that he might not have had otherwise.
Then again, the idea of putting Adam on the line -- for his reckless plan -- was a hard pill to swallow. He cared about Adam -- Adam was his best friend. Adam had stuck his neck out for Will time and again -- and Will wanted to be able to pay him back.
He just wasn’t sure that taking a risky line with a gang was really the best way to go.
It was, however, the only real way to go.
Every other option was clear suicide.
Ahmed and the security team held the line at the entrance, but Adam indicated that they would proceed on their own. This felt incredibly vulnerable to Will, but he reminded himself that Adam was the one who was in charge right now -- it was Adam’s call.
And with reason. Not only was the buck going to stop with Adam, but Adam had been on the frontlines of negotiation while Will had been evacuating as many people as he could. Adam had been putting himself on the line this whole time, buying Will the time he needed to get as many people to safety as possible.
That was the bottom line, after all. Will was a doctor to save lives.
Even if that meant risking his own.
He took Adam’s lead, walking slowly and confidently, hands up. They were greeted by two armed men, who promptly patted them down. Then, a third man sauntered up. He was also well armed, but he was not holding his guns at the ready. This man wasn’t as much a soldier, then, but a leader.
From the look Adam exchanged with the man, this was clearly not their first meeting.
Will didn’t know if that was going to be a good thing or a bad thing.
At this point, it probably didn’t matter.
In for a penny, in for a pound. Will was always either all-in or all-out. Halsteads weren’t good with half measures.
“Look!” the man said, face twisting into a smile that almost looked real. That just made it all the more unsettling as he nodded at Will. “You brought a friend this time!”
“Because we both know this thing is coming to a head -- and soon,” Adam said. “We have been wasting time before, bickering about what we think we want. It is time to get down to business and talk about what we need.”
Adam was being direct, but the man looked less than impressed. “I have what I need -- and what you need,” he said. “So tell me again, what do we have to discuss?”
“You don’t have everything you need,” Will said, speaking up for the first time. The strength of his own voice surprised him. He felt Adam watching him, but he didn’t flinch and he didn’t stop. This was Adam’s lead, but Will was going to follow him with all he had. “Despite all your firepower, you don’t have this hospital.”
The man gave Will a long look. “It will fall soon enough.”
“Will it?” Will asked, letting the edge stay in his voice as a matter of principle. “This whole thing is a fine line for you. You need to get what you want, score a few critical victories, and pull out before someone really comes to put a stop to what you’re doing.”
The man narrowed his eyes, and he seemed to hold his gun a little tighter at his side.
Adam joined in, building on Will’s point. “These plays for power always have limited viability,” he said. “You have seen many of your competitors try this and fail. You have not made enough progress. It is too slow. You are out of time just as much as we are.”
This point was well made, perhaps, but not well received. The man’s good humor faded, and he rocked back on his heels, sparing a glance toward another group of men. Will couldn’t begin to guess their leadership structure, but he was fairly sure that group of men was pretty important for whatever came next.
With his lips pursed, the man gave a little shrug. “Then do tell me what your plan might be to resolve this for both our interests.”
Will glanced at Adam, and Adam nodded his approval. Will drew a breath and followed the implicit order. “We want safe passage for the remainder of our patients and staff,” he said. “We’re down to just a few dozen people, including security and our most critical patients. We need to take them via ambulance and with necessary medical support, so going out the front door with your permission is our best bet.”
It was a litany of bold requests, especially since Will was unarmed and this guy was holding a gun.
The man didn’t make any sudden moves, but he still didn’t look like this was particularly a conversation he wanted to have. “That is a lot to ask,” he said. “And you have said nothing of what we will get in return for such kindness and generosity.”
The tone had shifted, and Will noted the strong undercurrent that cut sharp. The line they were walking had just gotten even thinner. Adam stood steady by his side, and Will did what was required of him. “Free run of the hospital,” he said. “It’s stock with supplies -- which you can use, sell, whatever. There’s medication, equipment, electronics, food -- all yours.”
“And if we storm the building now and take it?” the man asked, not unreasonably so.
“If you could do it so easily, you would have by now,” Will said. “It wouldn’t be clean or easy -- you’d take on as many losses as you would gains.”
At this, the man snorted. “And somehow you think this pathetic hospital is a worthwhile trade?”
It was a sign that they had hit a nerve -- now, the man was trying to downplay the very asset his group had committed to taking. It was a sure indication that Will had targeted their fleeting leverage in this situation.
“You know what we say is true,” Adam said. “And you know that the worth of the items inside are worth more on the black market than many other trinkets you peddle. This is a good trade, my friend.”
The man sneered, and he shook his head. “Even so. I cannot trust you.”
“Whatever you’re after, we’re not about to stand in your way,” Will said. “We just want to get people out of here safely, and then you can do whatever you want. We’ll leave the damn thing unlocked for you, drug closet and all.”
Will was sweetening the pot, but the man showed skepticism. “I do not know. You could be valuable hostages, more valuable than some leftover supplies.”
“We’d be distractions,” Will reasoned. “How are you going to take the city when you’re managing doctors and nurses? Not to mention patients.”
“We will not give you up for nothing.”
“Not nothing,” Will said. “We will leave the facility intact. All the supplies will be there. You will be able to ransack it for whatever you want. Just let us evacuate. We’ll take the ambulances, empty supply trucks -- clear out the front and give you full access. Ransack it, get your photo ops -- whatever you want.”
The pitch was bold in its recklessness, but boldness wasn’t always enough. Recklessness sometimes back fired.
Will’s heart was pounding. His palms were sweating. He was utterly aware of his total vulnerability right now, but he couldn’t afford to flinch.
Next to him, Adam stood strong as well. “It is victory with less casualties as well,” he said. “You kill too many civilians -- or, God help you, Westerners -- and you start attracting the wrong kind of attention instead of the right kind. You are fighting for your territory, but the UN will wipe you out if you are not careful here.”
“Is that a threat?” the man asked, fingers tightening on his gun.
Will swallowed hard, and he held his hands out. “Just some simple logic,” he said. “What we’re offering you is maximum reward with minimal drawback.”
He stepped forward, glaring at Will hard. “You are begging for your lives.”
Will took a stuttering breath. “Of course we are,” he said. “That’s how you can be sure that this is a good deal. The best one you’re going to have today.”
With a huff, the man stepped back and regarded Will and Adam coolly. He nodded to one of his colleagues, speaking in one of the local dialects. The man came over, gun up, clearly standing guard over Will and Adam. “Stay here,” he said. His lips twisted into a gross approximation of a smile. “And I will take your offer to the others.”
They weren’t dead yet, which was the good news. Will spared a glance at Adam. Adam looked back with a little shrug, but neither of them dared speak. The new guard stood in front of the menacingly, and Will suspected this man didn’t know English particularly well. He would be more likely to shoot them than listen to them.
Feeling anxious, Will directed his attention back to the man they had first approached. He had hoped he was the man in charge, but he admittedly knew very little of the gang structure they were dealing with. He didn’t know if they made decisions collectively, or if he was simply a lieutenant who needed further approval.
From this vantage point, it was impossible to tell for sure. The man converged with a group of other men, all equally armed and dressed. They appeared to be talking quite seriously, sparing glances their way from time to time. One of them was smirking. Another laughed. Will was starting to worry that this was a bad sign when the man turned from the group and came back to them.
They hadn’t been executed yet, so that was the good news. But it was impossible to tell from the grimacing smirk on the man’s face and the stance of his gun if there was more good news to come.
“We have discussed this matter,” he said, sauntering to a stop near them. Will felt his chest tighten, but Adam was a steady presence next to him. “And it is not a deal we need to take. We have all the power. We hold all the cards. What you offer us, we already have.”
There was some room to debate that point in theory, but practically speaking, Will suspected that arguing with a gunman was not the best route. Jay would highly disapprove.
Jay would disapprove of all this.
His brother would be apoplectic if he knew. If Will survived this, Jay was likely to kill him himself.
“That said, we see some reason to your offer,” he continued. “We are not in this fight without reasons. We have objectives, and we believe that this deal supports those objectives. Therefore, it is an acceptable offer.”
“Acceptable as in we have a deal?” Will asked, breath baited as he dared to hope.
The man laughed at him. “Do not get so confident,” he said. “We will allow this as long as it benefits us, but our time is short, so do not try our patience. We do not pleasure in murder--”
“--but you mostly do not need the press,” Adam said. “You will allow this as long as it doesn’t put you at risk,” Adam concluded, reading between the lines at a level Will had not quite achieved.
The man’s smile grew flat, and he looked Adam carefully over. “Either way,” he said. “You have one hour to load up and clear out as many people as you can. Security forces are to lay their weapons down when they come out, or everyone dies. Anything suspicious, and we will not hesitate to murder you all.”
Those weren’t exactly pleasant terms, but Will was losing perspective here on what was a good deal and what was a bad deal.
The man concluded with an indifferent bob of his head. “If anyone is left after the hour is up, we will claim them as part of the spoils along with everything else. For those people, we make no guarantees.”
That was unpleasantly vague, but also startling clear.
“Now, go,” the man said, prodding Will with the end of his rifle. “Before we change our minds.”
Will fell into step, Adam right beside him, because success really was a strange variable for him these days.
PART TWO
PART THREE
PART FOUR
PART FIVE
PART SIX
PART SEVEN
PART EIGHT
PART NINE
PART TEN
-o-
Will made a series of quick executive decisions, designed to both control the chaos and redirect safety efforts. The idea that they were going to hold the hospital was increasingly looking unlikely -- Ahmed confirmed as much to him -- which meant that evacuation was the only way to ensure that no one else got killed.
Rallying any able-bodied staff member he could find, Will started a fast and furious triage effort, sorting people into three categories to keep things simple: people who needed minor treatment, critical care and DOA. Back home, he’d have approached it with more nuance, but his numbers were down, and time was short.
Exam rooms were flooded, and Will instructed non-critical patients to be treated in the hallways and reception area, as long as everyone kept low. Critical patients were prioritized to the exam rooms, and Will authorized surgical procedures as each doctor felt comfortable. As for the dead, Will didn’t have time to fully catalog them, but he ran a quick count. There were a dozen people dead, including a few nurses and doctors. The rest were security forces -- with a few of the gang members thrown in.
Another dozen more were injured, with four of those cases being serious.
Treatment options or not, Will knew that the long term problem was a lot more pressing. Critical and non-critical patients alike all had to get out -- and fast. Ahmed was not optimistic about the situation outside, and Will had no reason to doubt him. He tried using the hospital’s phones to call to other floors, but the lines had been cut. Even his cell phone had no reception -- no doubt, a dead zone had been created in an attempt to isolate the attackers.
That left Will without a lot of options.
During his first day at Med, he’d been involved in another tense situation, but his plan then had been to hold ground as long as he could. Keeping people in one place was hard enough, but securing safe passage?
And not just for the ED?
Lockdown had kept everyone on their floors -- for now. But that was a dead end approach that was going to end badly. Will needed to get the entire place evacuated.
He tried to run a mental assessment of just how many people that involved, but the task quickly overwhelmed him.
What he knew for sure was that the ED was the flashpoint here. Either he would save everyone -- or doom them all.
Coming to him again, Ahmed looked weary. “We need a plan -- and now,” he said. “My security forces are getting restless, and there’s no sign of any backup.”
“I know,” Will said. “Our best bet is an evacuation.”
“The front is not accessible,” Ahmed told him. “Anyone who goes out will be taken hostage -- or worse.”
“So what if we don’t go out the front?” Will asked, the idea coming to him slowly.
Ahmed was confused. “The alley still leads to the main street.”
“But there are other stores that open onto the alley, right?” Will said. “Some facing the other street?”
Ahmed followed that line of thought, nodding slowly but with growing clarity. “The back street is clear. I don’t know how friendly it is, or how long it will stay that way--”
“But it’s a chance, right?” Will said.
Ahmed looked dubious again. “But we will need one of the shopkeepers to agree,” he said.
“Well, okay,” Will said. “So we ask for help.”
“But if they are not friendly--”
“It’s the only chance we have,” Will said.
“That is a risk--”
“That I’ll take,” Will said. “Look, the triage is under control. Lockdown has contained the staff. They’re just awaiting orders. Why don’t you go through, check in with security on each floor and tell them about the plan. Then, when it’s time, we’ll start a slow evacuation, one ward at a time. Any critical patients that can’t be moved can be held back for the final wave.”
“But we don’t have a secure exit,” Ahmed objected.
“Let me handle that,” Will said.
“Dr. Halstead, are you sure about this? There is nothing in the policy--”
Will drew a breath and he found the resolve that came from having no other options. “I’m sure,” he said.
And only God could help him if he wasn’t.
-o-
During the triage, Will had done his best to consolidate both patients and personnel. This was intended to provide protection and better security coverage. However, it also gave him the space he needed for this crazy plan of his.
First things first, he found the most secure exit he could. It had a security alarm on it, but he knew it had been disabled in the initial lockdown -- and really, his bigger concern was that while he knew it opened into the alley, he wasn’t actually sure the alley was secure. Ahmed had said the forces were poised on the street, but that didn’t preclude a presence here as well.
If Will walked out and got spotted, then that was the end of his brilliant plan.
It was also probably the end of him.
There was nothing quite like high stakes to take your decision making to that next level. Either Will had this under control -- or he was a dead man. There really wasn’t an in between.
Gathering a breath, he let it out, trying to build up his courage.
He came halfway around the world.
He left everything he knew and loved.
For this.
For this.
Without thinking about it further, Will opened the door. It was heavier than he expected, and he had to put some force into opening it. It was clearly rusted with disuse, and the excruciating squeak seemed to resound for miles. Still, when he peeked his head out, he was relieved to find the alley empty -- and clear.
There was no sign of anyone -- even the street seemed eerily quiet. The gang activity had been localized elsewhere, at least. It was a small break -- and hopefully not the only one he’d get. To pull this off, he would need some clever thinking and brave action -- and a hell of a lot of luck.
The good news was that Will had spent a lot of time about town. That had never been his intention, of course. If left to his own devices, Will would have known nothing but the inside of the hospital and the pathetic view from his own apartment. But Adam had taken him all throughout the neighborhood, introducing him to shopkeepers, restaurant owners and bartenders. Although Will had never navigated to these businesses from the alley, he was pretty sure he had been inside most of them.
From the back doors, it was harder to tell, of course, but Will knew more than he gave himself credit for. On the corner was the coffee shop. Next door, there was a used media store where Adam liked to buy and sell old CDs and DVDs. There was a clothing store, a tailor -- and a bar. The bar was right here, midway down.
The bar was a good choice for several reasons.
First, the hospital staff kept that place afloat. Most of its clientele came from the hospital, and that was a well known fact. Second, Adam knew the owner -- personally -- and he had made a point to introduce Will in person. Her name was Wilhelmina, and she was straight laced and terse -- and overwhelmingly generous.
And third, she lived upstairs.
There was no guarantee any of the other shopkeepers would be there -- anyone who had an eye to security would have left by now -- but Wilhemina had nowhere else to go.
Mostly, she wouldn’t want to leave. Wilhelmina was passionate about her business, and she loved her neighborhood as much as Adam did. No doubt, that was why they were fast and permanent friends. Will knew that neither one of them would leave -- not until they absolutely had to.
With an anxious glance down the alley, Will crept forward, wishing desperately that he had more cover. He knocked at first, rapping his knuckles on the door. The noise sounded conspicuous, and he could feel the adrenaline as it threatened to turn his stomach. There were armed men just out of view, and here Will was -- planning on a miracle. Jay was going to kill him -- if he didn’t end up dying anyway.
There was no answer. Will knew there was a chance he was wrong about Wilhelmina. Or, more likely, she was just not in a place to hear his knocking.
There were no other ways to knock, so Will went ahead and tested the handle. To his surprise, it actually started to open. Cautiously, he checked his path again, before opening the door and sneaking his way through. He was about to announce himself when he was greeted with the barrel of a gun right in his face.
Panicking, Will put his hands up, and he was roughly shoved back against the wall, the gun prodding him in the chest before he was able to get his eyes to focus and he recognized the figure in front of him.
At nearly the same moment, the figure recognized him as well.
“Dr. Halstead?” Wilhelmina asked, voice a low growl as she didn’t move her gun from him. “What are you doing here?”
Heart still pounding, Will took a staggering breath. “I -- was looking for you,” he said in faltering words. He swallowed, trying to will his nerves to calm with little avail. “What are you doing?”
“Guarding my home,” she snarled at him, even as she dropped the aim of her gun. She closed the door and glowered at him.
He eased away from the wall by a step, but didn’t take liberties to move any more than that. “Then why is it unlocked?”
She laughed a little bit, and Will didn’t find much comfort in the fact that she uncocked the gun so it was no longer primed to fire. He tried not to think about how close he had been to taking a bullet to the face. “I wanted to see if anyone would be dumb enough to try. This is not the first time I have handled gangs.”
Will might question her tactics, but it seemed to be a poor choice. If he was going to ask her for a favor, then he probably didn’t need to be questioning her judgment at the moment.
Her posture had eased as well now, but they were still both aware of the situation at hand. “Why are you here, then? Trying to escape that hospital deathtrap?”
“What? No,” Will said. And then, he reconsidered. “I mean, kind of.”
She arched her brows. “You never struck me as the quitting type.”
Now, there was irony for you. Will was precisely the quitting type, but not today. Not anymore. But Will had to keep his focus if he had any chance of making this work. “I’m not the only one in the hospital, and you know better than I do that this situation isn’t going to get better before it gets worse.”
She drew her mouth together tersely and nodded. “They have chosen the hospital as their target. I’m surprised they haven’t stormed it yet.”
“Luck on our side, probably,” Will said. “And a good security presence -- but it won’t hold. We have to get people out.”
Wilhelmina wasn’t stupid, and she seemed to know where Will was going with this. “And you think you can evacuate them all? Through my little bar?”
“Well, you tell me,” Will said, and he pointed to the front room. “Is the street still clear on your side.”
“Clear and deserted,” she said. “There are no targets of interest here, but if the violence spills over--”
“All the more reason we have to hurry,” Will said. “Are there still routes out of the neighborhood from here?”
“Yes,” she said. “The gang presence isn’t large enough to set up full perimeters. They’re concentrating their efforts on key locations -- like the hospital. From what I can tell, there are several other strongholds around town, but it’s not a wide reach.”
“So, we get as many people here as we can,” Will said. “We start with the most mobile, and discharge them as we go. We could put up doctors and nurses to oversee the final exit. It would have to be something of an honor system, as long as people feel safe to go.”
“With a little work, we might be able to get some drivers here,” Wilhelmina suggested.
“Would there still be drivers willing to work the area?” Will asked.
She shrugged. “We know what survival means. It is not always self serving.”
“Wilhelmina, I know what I’m asking--”
She shook her head, her lips flat. “I’m not entirely sure you do.”
“All I know is that I have a hospital full of people, and I want to save them,” he said. “Taking the chance is better than letting them die.”
WIth that, she looked him over once more, as if considering the proposal. “And the hospital has cleared this plan?”
Will immediately went red. “There’s no ability to communicate with outside management, and Dr. Salvo is dead,” he said. “And I don’t have time for clearances. Not if we have any chance of making this work.”
She looked weary at the notion, but not particularly surprised. “So this is your idea?”
He couldn’t deflect, not even if he wanted to. He’d come here to learn how to play by the rules, and here he was -- risking the lives of literally everyone around him. But he’d considered the alternatives, and he’d run out of options. He would own this one, no matter what.
He nodded at her. “It is.”
And in return, she nodded back. “Then, let’s do it,” she said. “The door will be unlocked. I’ll start clearing safe areas away from the windows and putting in calls to see who might be willing to ferry patients to safer zones. And next time you come back, I won’t even put a gun in your face.”
Despite everything going on, Will grinned. “Thanks, Wilhelmina.”
She scooted him to the door with a mirthless chuckle. “Don’t thank me,” she said. “We both have to survive this yet.”
“Both of us,” he agreed, hand on the knob as he turned. “And everyone else.”
-o-
Now that Will had secured passage out of the hospital, he realized the true extent of his plan and all that it entailed. He was now making himself solely responsible for evacuating every floor of the hospital -- every department, every room, every patient. This wasn’t the kind of thing you could half ass. He could just hope for the best.
No, he had to be calm and purposeful. He had to be intentional and strong.
Mostly, he had to do it.
He’d come to see things through.
And this was something he had no choice but to see through.
Will had the notion, but he was going to need buy-in up and down the line. He started with his own ED, finding the charge nurse and one of the attendings to fill them in on his plan. The attending seemed flabbergasted, but the charge nurse was on board quickly. Will directed them to triage the patients, grouping them by their ability to walk and who could survive without medical support. When he came back, he wanted the first group of 10, including two medical professionals to set up a base of support, to be ready to go.
He took a similar approach with every department. Though people were shocked at the initial idea, he found some comfort in how readily they came around. It was a crazy notion to evacuate the hospital, and everyone knew it. But they also knew that the alternative of sitting around and waiting was an absolute no-go.
By the time he cycled back to the ED, the first group was ready. The two staffers had also amassed a handful of critical supplies just in case, and Will told the charge nurse phase two of the plan, which was to start discharging patients who were ambulatory with AMA protocols.
She balked, of course, citing protocol.
“What about the forms? We’ll be open to liability,” she said.
“Make a list, get signatures,” he said. “Have one copy of the form on hand for everyone to read, and go from there.”
“I don’t know if that would hold up in court,” she fretted.
“And if the patients die in a shootout?” Will asked.
She nodded, though reluctant. “It is a situation with no right answer,” she said with a little sigh. “So how do you know what to do?”
Will wasn’t sure, that was the funny part. But, for once, his head and his heart were telling him the exact same thing. “Getting sued -- I can live with that,” he said. “The consequences of doing nothing -- I can’t.”
And with that, she seemed to agree. “Very well, Dr, Halstead,” she said, gathering up her things. “We will make it work.”
-o-
He oversaw the first transfer himself, making sure that every patient was settled and that his two staffers felt comfortable and equipped. He went back for the second group -- this one out of orthopedics -- and transferred them as well. By the time he brought back the third group, Wilhelmina’s bar was looking more like a clinic than a restaurant.
The process was slow and tedious, to be sure. It kept him at a high level of alert, constantly fearing the worst. He kept thinking that someone was going to object, but the more he went on, the more people seemed on board with his plan.
It was a confidence he didn’t know if he wanted -- and one he certainly didn’t think he deserved. But it was a functional thing, to get him from point A to point B. Outside the hospital, he heard occasional scuffles and intermittent gunfire, and Ahmed pulled him aside, telling him that it was time to hurry.
“Things are reaching the point of no return,” he said to Will, voice low and eyes tense. “How is your plan?”
“I’m going as fast as I can,” Will said.
Ahmed nodded, sober and plain. “Go faster.”
-o-
Within two hours, Will had nearly three quarters of the hospital evacuated. The later groups took longer to move, given the increased medical need, and he transported more medical staff to help make patients mobile enough to move. The discharge process was messy, but more or less effective. The charge nurse had signatures, names and phone numbers for follow up care. It wasn’t protocol, but it was at least a good faith effort.
And a chance.
It was, more than anything, a chance.
Moving back up to the neurology ward, Will was trying to get several patients in wheelchairs along, debating just how many monitors it was possible to move out of the hospital on the spur of the moment. He was negotiating with one of the attendings there about the nuances, when Adam came around the corner.
Their eyes met, and they both looked visibly relieved.
Will told the attending to make the best choice he could, and then he crossed over to greet Adam. Without a word, the two of them embraced, and Will could feel the relief in his best friend -- as palpable as his own.
“Oh, thank goodness,” Adam said, squeezing him a little tighter. “I have been checking the wards, but hadn’t made it to the ED yet. I heard it was the hardest hit, and I feared the worst.”
Will was the one to pull back, grinning in spite of the dire situation they were facing. “And I couldn’t find you at all,” he said. “I’ve been through this hospital a dozen times in the past two hours. Where have you been?”
He tried to ask it like a casual question, but the inflection in his voice gave him away. He hadn’t allowed himself to think it, but he’d feared that Adam had been killed in some way.
“Surgery!” Adam said. “We were repairing a small bowel! That car accident from the morning -- it was more extensive than I’d realized.”
“And where was your circulating nurse?” Will asked, incredulous.
“She disappeared -- and the nurse I sent after her disappeared as well,” Adam said. “I could not afford to lose anymore, so I stopped sending them and hoped for the best.”
“That’s a terrible approach!” Will said. “They disappeared and you did nothing?”
“I had the anesthesiologist attempt a call, but nothing went through,” Adam said.
“And you assumed, I don’t know, just proceed as normal?” Will asked.
Adam shrugged. “I had a life to save!” he said in protest. He gave Will a little glare. “I know you too well to think you would not have done the same.”
Will couldn’t argue that, not even if he wanted to. Given his actions of the last few hours, it was probably rich to even pretend like he had any high ground here.
“Anyway, that point is moot,” Adam said, quickly transitioning back to the issue at hand -- the very pressing issue. “How bad is it?”
“Bad,” Will said, drawing himself back into the moment. “Salvo is dead.”
Adam closed his eyes, the sense of regret and loss momentarily overwhelming him.
“So are Specter, Mohinder, Ginny and Ross,” Will continued. “A few more, I think, but it’s hard to get a firm count for now. Some of them are in the lobby, and I don’t have access. But I’d guess 10-12 casualties so far, not counting security.”
Adam opened his eyes again, looking weary but unsurprised. “And security?”
“Has the front doors secured, but it’s a stalemate. No one in, no one out,” Will said. “There’s no word about police backup--”
“That will be long in coming, if it comes at all,” Adam said grimly. “Forces are spread too thin. Local policemen are going to be divided. We could wait for the military--”
“As if that’s a little more secure?” Will asked, skeptical. He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Adam nodded in agreement. “It is best to assume we are on our own. We need to be responsible for the people in the hospital. If we are to save them, we must act.”
“That’s what I’ve been doing,” Will said. “We’ve been using the alley entrance.”
Adam looked vexed by that. “The alley? But it leads to the street. Everyone will be caught--”
“The front of the building is occupied, but it’s a small area,” Will said. “I arranged passage with Wilhemina. She agreed to let our people pass through his storefront and out the other side. From there, I’ve got a few doctors and nurses setting up a temporary triage station for critical cases while everyone else runs.”
This time, Adam looked surprised. “You -- what?”
“I know it wasn’t authorized and I’m sorry--”
“Sorry?” Adam asked, utterly incredulous now. “Halstead, are you telling me you figured out a safe path to protect patients and staff? By yourself?”
“Well, I had help obviously,” Will said. “Orchestrating an evacuation of this scale--”
Adam shook his head, as though the facts were still hard for him to process. “How many people have been cleared?”
Will stopped to think. “Hard to say, for sure,” he said. “The ED is clear, patients and staff. I’ve been getting other wards emptied out--”
“Halstead--”
“75 percent,” he said. “Moving people out of critical care has been really slow, and the cardio and neurology wards are slowing us down.”
The look of total shock on Adam’s face made Will stop short. He’d been going nonstop all day now, but now that he was forced to own his choices, he was struck with the fear that he’d done it wrong. It would be just like him, naturally. To compromise on the wrong things. To cut the wrong corners.
“We can shift the strategy,” Will said, starting to feel uneasy. “And if I go across to the bar, I might be able to bring some of them back, if that’s what you need.”
Now, Adam looked as if he might be crazy. “Halstead, you will do nothing of that nature,” he said. “If the passage is still clear, then we will continue to use it as long as we can.”
“But--”
“But nothing,” Adam said. “Keep working on any patient stable enough to move -- and start getting nonessential staff out as well. Have you been keeping a log?”
Will nodded. “One of the charge nurses from the ICU is maintaining a manual log so everyone who leaves is accounted for. I approved a shortened discharge process. We’re still getting signatures from stable patients to leave AMA, but it’s not all by the book.”
Adam pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Legally, it’s a gray area, to be sure,” he said. “But they are safer leaving this sector of the city by any means possible.”
“That was my thought,” Will said. “I’m told that evacuations are still happening more successfully on the back half of the block, so some people are getting out with police protection.”
“Naturally, our critical care patients are going to prove more difficult,” Adam said thoughtfully.
“We’ve started queuing up everyone on a gurney who can’t be discharged, and there’s a makeshift ward over in the bar for those who are more or less stable,” he said. “Wilhemina thinks they’ll be safe there -- at least until the street is cleared.”
“That might work,” Adam said. “And the critical patients?”
Will shrugged, apologetic. “I was still working on that,” he admitted. “Wilhemina will take them if needed, but I don’t like it. Some of these patients shouldn’t be outside of the hospital for five minutes much less an indefinite period of time. I’d like to guarantee immediate transfers with full medical support to areas outside the combat zone.”
Adam scoffed. “Is that all?”
“Unless you’ve got other ideas,” Will said.
Adam’s face was grim. “I wish I did,” he said. “No, your idea is sound.”
“What idea?” Will said. “I’ve run into a dead end.”
“You want them all transferred out the front with medical support,” Adam said.
“Sure, but there are gang members patrolling the front of the hospitals,” Will pointed out. “They’re not going to just let them go.”
Adam shrugged. “There’s only one way to find out,” he said. “Now, you -- go. Finish sorting the patients, leaving only the ones who absolutely cannot survive at Wilhemina’s.”
Will was shaking his head. “No way,” he said. “You’re not going to go talk to them.”
“I will use security to help,” Adam said. “Is Ahmed still there?”
“He is,” Will said. “And he’s not going to like it any more than I do.”
“Then it is a good thing that it is not for you or Ahmed to decide,” Adam said. Adam was a lighthearted guy -- he liked to cut loose and party -- but you could never overlook just how serious the man was on the job. In trenches like these, Adam was never shiny or flashy like the big names at Med. But he was still the best damn doctor Will had ever met. “This is my ED. I am grateful for what you have done so far, Halstead, but now it is time to follow orders. Without question or delay. If you don’t think you can do that, then you can be in the next group to evacuate to Wilhemina’s.”
There it was. The ultimatum.
Will had spent the day working the rules to his own ideas.
Now, he was called on to follow them unquestioningly.
Could he do that?
Invariably, he had come all this way to do just that.
He nodded, holding his gaze steady with Adam. “Just say the word,” he said. “And you can count on me.”
-o-
In the past, Will had struggled with orders.
But today, he found them easy to follow.
Maybe because Adam was his friend. Maybe because this had all started with his plan. Maybe because he finally understood where he fit in as part of the overall team. Maybe because Will had finally, against all odds, managed to grow up.
Whatever the case was, Will didn’t have time to think about the situation existentially. Noteworthy as his personal development was, he still had some practical issues. Scratch that -- he had a lot of practical issues.
With the work done so far, all he had to do to start was go back through the floors to collect the next group of patients. Some of these patients were in wheelchairs, bringing IVs and oxygen tanks in tow. This slowed them down, and Will had one nonessential staff member accompany each one -- with an additional doctor to oversee every five patients.
Getting them down to the main floor was, of course, something of an issue. While phone access had been limited, electricity had not been cut off. Will wasn’t sure what the hostage protocol was here, but since this was a siege and not a hostage standoff, they had some leeway to work.
That was speculation, but it was about the only thing going their way at the moment. That and Wilhemina’s generosity.
It took longer than before to transport this group, and it was a transfer Will still oversaw himself, maintaining presence in the alleyway to ensure that it was indeed clear for each and every person who crossed. When they were done, he checked in with both the charge nurse and Wilhemina. The charge nurse showed him the documentation of everyone who had left, and Will instructed her to continue discharges as possible. He also told her to start a log for staff members who were able to leave -- they could manually sign out as well.
Then, he coordinated with Wilhemina. Thanks to her outside connections, she had news about the next wave of police evacuations. The block had been already cleared, but thanks to Wilhemina’s heads up, they were going to circle back around to help with anyone who was left.
“How long until that point?” Will asked.
Wilhelmina made a little face. “Thirty minutes, I would guess,” she said. “No more than 45.”
“Okay,” Will said, nodding as he tried to do the math against the number of people still left in the hospital. “I should be able to make two more transfers if I’m fast.”
Wilhelmina gave him a look of doubt. “Be aware that the increased police presence will attract attention,” she said. “Anyone left in the hospital will be under more scrutiny. You may not be safe.”
“Well, we can get everyone out--”
“But you must,” Wilhelmina said. “Things are likely to get bad very quickly.”
“Some patients can’t be taken out this way, even with police support,” he said. “No, I’ll clear as many people as I can, and then I want you to lock off this exit.”
“But you and the rest--”
“Will figure our own way out,” he said. “You’ve done an amazing thing here, Wilhelmina. Seriously, you’re a hero.”
She scoffed with a little roll of her eyes. “It was your idea,” she said. “Crazy, stupid -- and totally brilliant.”
Will grinned at her, adrenaline starting to pump once more. “Stand by,” he said. “I’ll be back with another group soon.”
-o-
Will took another group -- and then another two. By the time he was done, he had cleared as many people as he could. The remaining patients were transferred to the ED, using the bare minimum machines as possible to sustain continuity of care. The last group was entirely composed of the last of the nonessential staff until Will had just enough doctors and nurses left on hand to tend to the critical patients.
He finished his task right as Adam finished his. Coming back in through the security barricade at the front of the ED, Adam looked to be in one piece, if somewhat worse for wear. He passed by Ahmed’s security forces to the relative safety of the back. He came to Will and did not mince his words or waste time.
“Halstead, it is time to be serious,” he said. Sweat was glistening on his forehead, and his scrubs were stained with dried blood. From surgery, from triage: Will didn’t know anymore. “We are running out of time.”
“I wasn’t aware when we had time,” Will posited wryly.
“Your tactics have worked so far, but soon the stalling will be impossible to ignore,” Adam warned.
Will made a face, glancing toward the door where the men were still congregating. “And?”
“And, when they run out of patience, the building will be raided. Security will not be able to hold out against a second assault,” Adam said. He looked like he knew from experience. Will didn’t dare ask how.
Instead, he nodded. He would take the advice for what it was: a warning. “So, what happens then?”
“Then, we no longer have power to leverage,” Adam said. “Then, we are nothing but hostages to be leveraged ourselves.”
The plaintive declaration was said simply enough. That only made its meaning more daunting. “Hostages?” he asked, hoping he was wrong.
“Hostages,” Adam confirmed. “And hostages rarely do well in these situations.”
“So, we’re screwed,” Will concluded for him. He took a breath and blew it out, bobbing his head rapidly as he grappled with the conclusion.
Adam, who was usually the more understated of the two of them, felt the need to elaborate, just so they were clear what the stakes were. “We’re dead.”
Will felt his heart flutter in his chest, but panic wasn’t a useful option at the moment. He was trained for triage, life and death -- and this was much the same. You had to prioritize, and then you had to improvise. It was all by the book, even if it wasn’t a book Will happened to like at the moment. “Okay, well, we need a better option than that,” he ventured. “I mean, why do they even want the hospital anyway?”
“Soft targets,” Adam said. “And instant press.”
Soft targets. Instant press.
Valuable assets, maybe.
But not the only assets.
Maybe not even the most vulnerable.
“Okay,” Will said, mind reeling toward a conclusion he wasn’t sure he could even fully formulate. “Well, can’t we give them something better?”
The question was simple, but Adam’s face scrunched up like Will had asked something insane. “Better? We have no money for a bribe.”
“Sure, but they have other needs,” Will said. He shrugged, allowing his speculation to run wild now. “What could they use?”
Adam was taken aback by the question. He looked thoughtful for a moment. “Money, of course,” he said. “But supplies, too. For the gangs, power in the city is a constant struggle. One gang tries to weed the others out. Supplies allow for networks to stay solvent.”
“Well, we have supplies,” Will said. He gestured to the hospital outside their small room. “So we give them that.”
Adam scoffed. “But how? What would we possibly give them?”
The idea was forming faster than he could keep up with it now, and he thought through the possible caveats even as he knew it was the only option left to them. “We give them everything,” he said. “The ED alone is fully stocked with non-controlled substances and other supplies. The cafeteria has enough food on hand to be worth something.”
Adam’s face crunched up. “But the drugs--”
“Are still inaccessible -- and honestly, who cares?” he said. “I know we want to minimize risk to the hospital, but we have to put lives first. Don’t we?”
Adam still looked unconvinced. “We are not authorized--”
“Then everyone left in here is going to be dead,” Will said flatly. “You told me we look at the risks and see if there are other options. There aren’t.”
Now, Adam looked thoughtful. “We carry significant insurance--”
“Okay,” Will said. “Is there someone we can contact? Get approval?”
“Lines are cut off,” Adam said. “Standard security protocol. Cell phone coverage has been dampened, too.”
Will shook his head, feeling his frustration mount. “Then we make the call. I can’t sit here and do nothing -- I can’t sit here and let people die. Not when I have another option.”
Adam’s expression was grave. “But the protocol involved--”
“You know I am all for protocol now -- I have tried so hard to follow it,” he said. “And if it were just me, then okay. I’d say sure. We sit here and follow protocol until our deaths. But it’s not just me -- and it’s not just you. There are still innocent people here. Their lives are worth bandages, aspirin and cafeteria stocks. The real question is, do you think it will work? Will they bite if we make the offer?”
It was a critical question, and Adam did appear to consider it quite seriously. There were moments when you might wonder if Adam Goshit was a serious doctor. This wasn’t one of them. These were the moments that put Adam in context, that had made Will sure that this was where he needed to go to get back to the medicine.
Finally, he nodded. “These men have no actual chance of taking the government. It is a power play designed to enhance their image and gain ground against the other gangs,” he said. “Therefore, we do not have to give them actual substance. We need to give them the appearance of a victory. With these concessions, we may be able to do just that.”
Will shrugged, as if they weren’t talking about negotiating with the hospital’s assets with a bunch of gang overlords. “Perfect,” he said. “Then what do we have to lose at this point?”
Adam laughed, dark and cynical, even as his grin widened. “Only our lives, my friend.”
“Eh,” Will said. “Besides that.”
At that, Adam could only grin wider than before. “This is the Halstead I remember,” he said, and he braced Will by the shoulder. “Let us go, my friend. To whatever fate we can make.”
-o-
This time, Will didn’t have to do it alone.
That was good and bad.
It was nice to have someone behind him, someone he trusted more than himself to make the right call. It solidified his choice, gave him a certainty that he might not have had otherwise.
Then again, the idea of putting Adam on the line -- for his reckless plan -- was a hard pill to swallow. He cared about Adam -- Adam was his best friend. Adam had stuck his neck out for Will time and again -- and Will wanted to be able to pay him back.
He just wasn’t sure that taking a risky line with a gang was really the best way to go.
It was, however, the only real way to go.
Every other option was clear suicide.
Ahmed and the security team held the line at the entrance, but Adam indicated that they would proceed on their own. This felt incredibly vulnerable to Will, but he reminded himself that Adam was the one who was in charge right now -- it was Adam’s call.
And with reason. Not only was the buck going to stop with Adam, but Adam had been on the frontlines of negotiation while Will had been evacuating as many people as he could. Adam had been putting himself on the line this whole time, buying Will the time he needed to get as many people to safety as possible.
That was the bottom line, after all. Will was a doctor to save lives.
Even if that meant risking his own.
He took Adam’s lead, walking slowly and confidently, hands up. They were greeted by two armed men, who promptly patted them down. Then, a third man sauntered up. He was also well armed, but he was not holding his guns at the ready. This man wasn’t as much a soldier, then, but a leader.
From the look Adam exchanged with the man, this was clearly not their first meeting.
Will didn’t know if that was going to be a good thing or a bad thing.
At this point, it probably didn’t matter.
In for a penny, in for a pound. Will was always either all-in or all-out. Halsteads weren’t good with half measures.
“Look!” the man said, face twisting into a smile that almost looked real. That just made it all the more unsettling as he nodded at Will. “You brought a friend this time!”
“Because we both know this thing is coming to a head -- and soon,” Adam said. “We have been wasting time before, bickering about what we think we want. It is time to get down to business and talk about what we need.”
Adam was being direct, but the man looked less than impressed. “I have what I need -- and what you need,” he said. “So tell me again, what do we have to discuss?”
“You don’t have everything you need,” Will said, speaking up for the first time. The strength of his own voice surprised him. He felt Adam watching him, but he didn’t flinch and he didn’t stop. This was Adam’s lead, but Will was going to follow him with all he had. “Despite all your firepower, you don’t have this hospital.”
The man gave Will a long look. “It will fall soon enough.”
“Will it?” Will asked, letting the edge stay in his voice as a matter of principle. “This whole thing is a fine line for you. You need to get what you want, score a few critical victories, and pull out before someone really comes to put a stop to what you’re doing.”
The man narrowed his eyes, and he seemed to hold his gun a little tighter at his side.
Adam joined in, building on Will’s point. “These plays for power always have limited viability,” he said. “You have seen many of your competitors try this and fail. You have not made enough progress. It is too slow. You are out of time just as much as we are.”
This point was well made, perhaps, but not well received. The man’s good humor faded, and he rocked back on his heels, sparing a glance toward another group of men. Will couldn’t begin to guess their leadership structure, but he was fairly sure that group of men was pretty important for whatever came next.
With his lips pursed, the man gave a little shrug. “Then do tell me what your plan might be to resolve this for both our interests.”
Will glanced at Adam, and Adam nodded his approval. Will drew a breath and followed the implicit order. “We want safe passage for the remainder of our patients and staff,” he said. “We’re down to just a few dozen people, including security and our most critical patients. We need to take them via ambulance and with necessary medical support, so going out the front door with your permission is our best bet.”
It was a litany of bold requests, especially since Will was unarmed and this guy was holding a gun.
The man didn’t make any sudden moves, but he still didn’t look like this was particularly a conversation he wanted to have. “That is a lot to ask,” he said. “And you have said nothing of what we will get in return for such kindness and generosity.”
The tone had shifted, and Will noted the strong undercurrent that cut sharp. The line they were walking had just gotten even thinner. Adam stood steady by his side, and Will did what was required of him. “Free run of the hospital,” he said. “It’s stock with supplies -- which you can use, sell, whatever. There’s medication, equipment, electronics, food -- all yours.”
“And if we storm the building now and take it?” the man asked, not unreasonably so.
“If you could do it so easily, you would have by now,” Will said. “It wouldn’t be clean or easy -- you’d take on as many losses as you would gains.”
At this, the man snorted. “And somehow you think this pathetic hospital is a worthwhile trade?”
It was a sign that they had hit a nerve -- now, the man was trying to downplay the very asset his group had committed to taking. It was a sure indication that Will had targeted their fleeting leverage in this situation.
“You know what we say is true,” Adam said. “And you know that the worth of the items inside are worth more on the black market than many other trinkets you peddle. This is a good trade, my friend.”
The man sneered, and he shook his head. “Even so. I cannot trust you.”
“Whatever you’re after, we’re not about to stand in your way,” Will said. “We just want to get people out of here safely, and then you can do whatever you want. We’ll leave the damn thing unlocked for you, drug closet and all.”
Will was sweetening the pot, but the man showed skepticism. “I do not know. You could be valuable hostages, more valuable than some leftover supplies.”
“We’d be distractions,” Will reasoned. “How are you going to take the city when you’re managing doctors and nurses? Not to mention patients.”
“We will not give you up for nothing.”
“Not nothing,” Will said. “We will leave the facility intact. All the supplies will be there. You will be able to ransack it for whatever you want. Just let us evacuate. We’ll take the ambulances, empty supply trucks -- clear out the front and give you full access. Ransack it, get your photo ops -- whatever you want.”
The pitch was bold in its recklessness, but boldness wasn’t always enough. Recklessness sometimes back fired.
Will’s heart was pounding. His palms were sweating. He was utterly aware of his total vulnerability right now, but he couldn’t afford to flinch.
Next to him, Adam stood strong as well. “It is victory with less casualties as well,” he said. “You kill too many civilians -- or, God help you, Westerners -- and you start attracting the wrong kind of attention instead of the right kind. You are fighting for your territory, but the UN will wipe you out if you are not careful here.”
“Is that a threat?” the man asked, fingers tightening on his gun.
Will swallowed hard, and he held his hands out. “Just some simple logic,” he said. “What we’re offering you is maximum reward with minimal drawback.”
He stepped forward, glaring at Will hard. “You are begging for your lives.”
Will took a stuttering breath. “Of course we are,” he said. “That’s how you can be sure that this is a good deal. The best one you’re going to have today.”
With a huff, the man stepped back and regarded Will and Adam coolly. He nodded to one of his colleagues, speaking in one of the local dialects. The man came over, gun up, clearly standing guard over Will and Adam. “Stay here,” he said. His lips twisted into a gross approximation of a smile. “And I will take your offer to the others.”
They weren’t dead yet, which was the good news. Will spared a glance at Adam. Adam looked back with a little shrug, but neither of them dared speak. The new guard stood in front of the menacingly, and Will suspected this man didn’t know English particularly well. He would be more likely to shoot them than listen to them.
Feeling anxious, Will directed his attention back to the man they had first approached. He had hoped he was the man in charge, but he admittedly knew very little of the gang structure they were dealing with. He didn’t know if they made decisions collectively, or if he was simply a lieutenant who needed further approval.
From this vantage point, it was impossible to tell for sure. The man converged with a group of other men, all equally armed and dressed. They appeared to be talking quite seriously, sparing glances their way from time to time. One of them was smirking. Another laughed. Will was starting to worry that this was a bad sign when the man turned from the group and came back to them.
They hadn’t been executed yet, so that was the good news. But it was impossible to tell from the grimacing smirk on the man’s face and the stance of his gun if there was more good news to come.
“We have discussed this matter,” he said, sauntering to a stop near them. Will felt his chest tighten, but Adam was a steady presence next to him. “And it is not a deal we need to take. We have all the power. We hold all the cards. What you offer us, we already have.”
There was some room to debate that point in theory, but practically speaking, Will suspected that arguing with a gunman was not the best route. Jay would highly disapprove.
Jay would disapprove of all this.
His brother would be apoplectic if he knew. If Will survived this, Jay was likely to kill him himself.
“That said, we see some reason to your offer,” he continued. “We are not in this fight without reasons. We have objectives, and we believe that this deal supports those objectives. Therefore, it is an acceptable offer.”
“Acceptable as in we have a deal?” Will asked, breath baited as he dared to hope.
The man laughed at him. “Do not get so confident,” he said. “We will allow this as long as it benefits us, but our time is short, so do not try our patience. We do not pleasure in murder--”
“--but you mostly do not need the press,” Adam said. “You will allow this as long as it doesn’t put you at risk,” Adam concluded, reading between the lines at a level Will had not quite achieved.
The man’s smile grew flat, and he looked Adam carefully over. “Either way,” he said. “You have one hour to load up and clear out as many people as you can. Security forces are to lay their weapons down when they come out, or everyone dies. Anything suspicious, and we will not hesitate to murder you all.”
Those weren’t exactly pleasant terms, but Will was losing perspective here on what was a good deal and what was a bad deal.
The man concluded with an indifferent bob of his head. “If anyone is left after the hour is up, we will claim them as part of the spoils along with everything else. For those people, we make no guarantees.”
That was unpleasantly vague, but also startling clear.
“Now, go,” the man said, prodding Will with the end of his rifle. “Before we change our minds.”
Will fell into step, Adam right beside him, because success really was a strange variable for him these days.