Prototype

Someone at NexGen, a Dr. Granat somehow got Special Agent Springer’s cell phone number and notified him that two suspects were heading to the mental hospital in another county. When he tried to inquire how this doctor would know of their destination, he provided the building’s address and hung up.

So Agent Springer headed straight there, notifying the police captain in the county that he would need their assistance to go after the fugitives. After five hours on the road, when Springer arrived just a block away from the mental hospital, a SWAT team was waiting for him to lead them to apprehend the two fugitives. When they heard one of them was a cop, they were up in arms, ready to go after a traitor.

Coming up on the abandoned building, Springer could see the flashlights on the third floor.

“We’re going to surround the perimeter and one team will advance in the front while the other takes the back,” Springer instructed, leading the way toward the front entrance.

Before they could start their way inside the building, the front door flung open and out ran an off-duty police officer in his Kevlar vest and street clothes.

“Bomb!” he was yelling.

“Bomb, bomb!” Springer yelled over his speaker, getting everyone to clear out to a safe distance.

The facility became consumed by sudden booming flames. Chunks of the building flew through the air, pelting trees and the ground as they collided with the planet. The air surrounding the building sucked inward, like the flames were searching for nourishment.

Springer’s ears were ringing from the explosion near him, but he was thankful no one was injured by the explosion.

“Get on the ground!” he ordered when he saw the fugitive trying to get to his feet. Thankfully, he wasn’t injured either. He cuffed Nathan quickly, “You’re under arrest for aiding a fugitive from justice.”

He wondered why Nathan didn’t just escape and let the police die in the explosion. Maybe he was having second thoughts about running from all he stood for? Maybe Reggie let him go and he really was just a hostage? He was going to find out, but he wasn’t going to take any chances. He glanced up at the large, once grand building that was now crumbling from a detonation.

The police headed back toward their vehicles and called a fire truck to come out and try to extinguish the flames. It was too late for that crappy old building, the local police knew, but their fugitive could have still been in there. They would have to confirm that for sure.

* * *

Reggie watched from the bushes as the police left the scene. She exited the building from a second story window in a fire-resistant blanket just as the bomb detonated. No one was the wiser as she took cover behind a bush and checked to make sure the memory card Nathan gave her was all right.

She looked at the building and her “family” that was still inside, incinerated instantly hopefully and the fate they could have suffered. How did they know where Reggie was going to be? She never voiced anything even remotely like that to Granat, she removed her microchip – Granat was unable to track her movements.

He was obviously planning to destroy that building for a while; he must have planned to have a paper trail that she was going to be there and kill the police officers and destroy all evidence at the same time. Reggie wondered if she would have shielded the blame for that.

“Shelby,” Reggie said quietly after the police were gone.

“Are you all right Reggie?”

“Bruises,” Reggie assured. “I’m fine. Can you get me a list of local vendors where I can purchase the tools required to make special ammunition?”