Behove

3. Jensen

I watch as the wall crumbles away leaving the metal rebar showing, the sound of the alarm louder now over the sound of the power tools breaking away at the wall.
The hiss of air as the inner wall was fully breached brought the stale smell of chemicals and cold.

"Is there anyone in there?" I shout, keeping back from the dust and letting the emergency crew move forward.
"We have a body" I hear the shout come back and move forward as I hear the next words "She's breathing, get a medic in here"

"No, lets get her out, by the time we get someone down here it could be too late, it's faster if we can get her upstairs and see what we are dealing with" I order and watch as the team work to extract her carefully. My gaze narrowing on the shapeless brown lump that is carried free of the ruined wall, before following them back to the elevator shaft, where a backboard is coming down to help get her up.

She doesn't move, and my gaze searches for that brief movement that tells me she is still alive, the team checking her pulse regularly but moving quickly to get her upstairs and to help, the severity of her situation not fully understood so no chances being missed as they move her towards safety.

"Stay with Nate" I instructed half the team, "Do a sweep of any rooms down there and see what you can find, keep me updated, I'm going with her" my gut telling me, there is something very wrong with this employee, before following the rest of the team back up.

The paramedic's were moving her onto a gurney and as I approached I got my first look at her face, my step faltering and my heart jumping at the unconscious beauty.

"Do we have a name? Any details? I understand she was without air, any idea how long?" the medic asked.

"Emily Pierson, sorry but we have nothing else, she was trapped in a locked lab and the air alarm was going... where are you taking her, I'll follow and that way I can update you as we get hold of her personnel records"

"St Thomas's" he told me over his shoulder as his colleague started moving away with her, my gaze locked on her till they had disappeared from my sight.

"Sir?"

"Yes" I bark out, grimacing as I hear my tone of voice.

"Nate is ready to turn everything back on, he is trying to get hold of you" he rushes out and I nod, holding out my hand for his comms unit.

"Nate" I radio and wait.

"Sir, I've bypassed the programme, we have control but its a bit of a mess" he radios back and I sigh.

"It's all yours... the building can stay in lockdown until you tell us it's good to go, check everything twice.  I'm going to the hospital to find out what happened to our mystery employee. I want her file as soon as you have access, that's the priority"

"Yes sir" he replies quickly.

I hand the comms unit back and look around at the staff in the foyer, raising my voice slightly "Nate is in charge, any issues call me, but the building is closed until Nate or I give the okay to allow access, and I want a full sweep of the building done before any staff come back in, those of you with camera units use them and be prepared, we treat this as a deliberate attack until further notice"

"Yes sir" I hear repeated around me as I leave.

The traffic is its usual chaos as I hurry across town to the hospital, I had sent Rupert a brief update and promised I would let him know more later, once I had spoken to the hospital and if she was conscious the girl.  My mind turning over why she was down there and why no one knew anything about her beyond her name.  What had the Brooke-Bennett's been up to and how was she involved?

I lucked out, getting a parking space almost at the door on arrival as someone pulled out, checking with the reception desk, I identified myself and how I was involved before they directed me to wait while they found out where she was.

I sat and opened up my phone, hoping to have had word from Nate but nothing yet on the girl, there was an update on the building status, they had complete control and access to everything again and Nate was running some protocols as the other team did a room by room search. I sighed and leaned back in the hard plastic seat and messaged him. 'Anything on the girl?'

I watched the dots dance as he started to type, stop and start again...
'Have sent you what was in her file but it doesn't fit, there's basic personal details but nothing about what she does, it would suggest if you were just looking at the file she was low level staff, janitorial or something like that, nothing that would suggest why she has a secret lab!'

I open the file he has sent and scan the information, he's right it's basic, name, address, salary and bank account details, start date of employment and nothing else.
I message him back "keep checking and free up someone to go to back to her home address, see if that tells us anything"
"Yes sir"

I approach the desk again smiling at the receptionist "Hello again, I have some more details for the patient" I tell her and give her the basics we have so far, glancing around again before making a judgment call.
"I would like to arrange for a private room for Ms Pierson, can you direct me as to how to do that, she is covered under our company's healthcare policy"

"Oh, I'm not sure if..." she starts but I cut her off.
"The reason she is in here is due to an accident at work, we must make sure she is protected and her care documented until we can get to the bottom of what happened, there is quite obviously a duty of care we must follow, perhaps..."
I grin as she cuts me off, "I will get the administrator for you, they will be able to assist you" she peers at me over her glasses and I can see she thinks I'm being difficult but my guts is telling me we need to manage both access to and her safety "Take a seat, Mr Snaughbridge is on his way down" and I feel her stare follow me back to the uncomfortable seats.

It's only 10 minutes later a harried looking man in a brown suit appears and she points at me, I get up to meet him, shaking his hand as I give some basic information and name drop the company we work for and suddenly he can't do enough to help and I am guided through to a much cleaner, calmer part of the hospital with promises that Ms Pierson will be moved to the room as soon as she has been assessed and as he shows me the suite of rooms she will be moved into I nod, there's an area I can work while we wait for updates, this is a much better solution.