Boston Blues - BLACKBIRD book 2

10. landing

Tanya stormed into the meeting room, eyes wide open full of tears, lips moving without a sound. Russell snatched the radio from her hand.

"Al? Fred?" he called.

"There's been another... another..." mumbled Tanya.

"Russ!" answered Aldana on the radio, gasping and coughing.

By her side, Fred and Taylor stared blankly at the building, trying to believe their eyes: wrapped in a thickening cloud of dust, the north wing was almost gone, collapsed inwards.

"You okay? What happened?" asked Russell.

He strode out of the meeting room, and Tanya was about to follow when Connor stopped her.

"T, find out if my mom's alive," the boy said, struggling to keep his voice from trembling. Then he turned to Banks and Hank, who were still gawking in shock.

Banks snapped out of it at the tears in Connor's eyes. "C'mon, Hank, let's do this."

"But we gotta know...," mumbled Hank.

Connor cut him off sharply. "That's what my mom would've wanted, Hank."

"Kiddo, we still don't know—"

"Bob, please."

Banks breathed deep and nodded, forcing himself to focus again on the board. "Okay, so the next chronicle is from 2010, a bomb threat at an elementary school."

Tanya found Russell by Gillian's desk, radio to his face. "Talk to me, Al!"

But she could only look at the ruins of the building, trying to find the words.

"Half the building's gone, Russ... Too much dust and debris to see anything..."

"Reg...?"

"We don't know!"

Russell closed his eyes, swallowing hard, while Tanya cried quietly.

"Okay, keep me up," he said, and put his arm around the girl's shoulders, trying to sooth her. Kurt saw them and his eyes widened in horror, but Russell shook his head before he could ask any question.

At the site, Taylor noticed the responders started to yell and point at the center of the building. Jules' voice thundered the place. "Lights! We need lights!"

Taylor patted Fred's shoulder. "They found'er!"

The three of them ran together to what was left of the north wing.

Inside, the stairs up and down from the landing were gone. Brock and Gillian lay on what was left of it, attached to the corner of two half-collapsed walls. Debris sloped down beneath the frail platform. The second-floor hall to the north wall was gone as well, along with all the apartments opening to it, and there was a huge segment missing of the outside wall.

A beam of light on Brock's face made him frown. He'd tried to cover Gillian out of pure instinct, and now he lay on his belly by her side, his arm still across her chest. He hoisted himself a little up and shielded his eyes with his hand, but he had to take it right away to his ear, grimacing in deep pain.

Aldana and Fred halted by the hand ladder placed against the lower part left of the north wall. They looked up at the man from the Rescue Team looking into the big hole with a flashlight.

"It's them?" asked Fred.

"Yes, sir! Both of them! Agent Brockner is alive!"

"Come down! Hurry!"

Jules stopped Fred. "Wait! You cannot go up there!"

"Like hell I can't!"

Brock was paralyzed by the sharp throbbing pain piercing through his skull from his bleeding ear, blurring everything around him.

Gillian opened her eyes and pulled herself up on her elbows. She shook off the small debris that had fell on her and looked around, stunned. Then she spotted Brock.

"Agent Brockner...?"

He didn't even register her words, too focused on not passing out from the pain.

Gillian's head cleared in a split second at the blood dripping down his neck and staining his shirt's collar. She sat up, never caring about the fierce complaints of her broken leg, and rested a hand on his shoulder.

"Agent Brockner," she repeated, softening her voice.

Brock was startled at the gentle but firm touch of Gillian's hand, removing his own fingers from his ear. She had ripped off her shirt's sleeve and patted the dust off it the best she could. Then she covered his bleeding ear with it, guiding his hand back to keep the cloth in place.

But allergy to gentleness and caring was not her unchallenged realm, and Brock raised his other hand between them.

"I'm fine," he managed to mutter.

"Reg! Brockner!"

Gillian saw Brock shrink in pain at Fred's voice, calling out from the ruins of the north wall. She guided him softly to slide back and rest against the wall, and bit her tongue to hold back a groan as she pushed herself forward to the edge of the landing, to keep him out of the way of her voice. She took a moment to control the pain, then she shouted out, "Fred! Here!"

Behind her, Brock sank his head between his shoulders, completely overwhelmed, the pain and the loss of balance making him sick.

From the top of the ladder, looking into the building, Fred sighed out of relief as he pointed a huge flashlight at them. "You okay?"

She nodded and took a finger across her lips, then signaled Fred to wait. He looked down at Aldana and Taylor and smiled.

At the office, Russell stormed back into the meeting room, happy to announce: "They're alive!"

Hank and Connor sighed, as Banks smiled to say, "And I think we've narrowed it down to five possible locations."