Only Time Ch. 02

"Come on, guys." Halsey said to his BATFE Agents. They left the tent.

Robin Isley was looking around. "Where's Commander Troy?" she asked. Silence was instantaneous, adding to the tension.

"He's inside the Hospital." said Jack Muscone.

"Why is he in there?" asked Isley. "No one but Hospital personnel and the Fire Department are allowed in there. Does he think he can just flout the rules we've put in place?"

Tanya Perlman said loudly: "Not that you care, Dr. Isley, but his wife is in surgery. Why don't you go tell him he can't be in there. Just leave your Last Will and Testament with me first." Dr. Isley's eyes widened in shock. Without a word, she tore out of the tent towards the Hospital.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

In case you're wondering why FBI Supervisory Agent Melina Allgood was not in the TCPD Tent kicking Isley's ass, it's because she had come up to find me.

"How's Laura?" asked Laura's sister Melina.

"She's in post-op." I said as I looked out the window overlooking the crowded front lawn. "Internal injuries, concussion, badly broken left arm. But she's alive."

Melina sighed with relief. "Thank God." she said quietly.

"Yeah." I said. "What's going on out there?"

Melina said "The fires are out; we were very lucky there. They're assessing the damage now, but it looks like the structure supports have held. They'll have to shore them up before that wing can be used again, though. So far, the two perps plus ten others dead, 65 injured. Most of the babies were in their mothers's hospital rooms on the higher floors for morning feedings, or it would've been much, much worse. There was an oxygen fire in neonatal, and all four babies in there died."

Melina: "I came to check on Laura, but also to tell you that they're locking down the Hospital; no one but Hospital personnel, patients and their immediate families, and Firefighters if a fire breaks out. No Police unless someone tries to get into the evacuated wing. If you leave and want to come back in, go through the South entrance; Federal Agents are blocking the front doors."

"Wow, the Feds are enforcing the lockdown, eh?" I said. "Whaddya make of that?"

"The same thing you do." my ex-wife replied. "Keep your ears wide open; you may hear something in here that we won't hear outside."

*BRING!* *BRING!* *BRING!* *BRING!*

It was Melina's cellphone. She answered, then said "I'll be right out." As she disconnected, she said "That's Muscone; he wants me outside." To my surprise, she turned and hugged me, then just as abruptly turned and walked quickly down the hall.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

*BRING!* *BRING!* *BRING!* *BRING!*

It was Tanya's cellphone. She answered: "Hi Commander... yes... that's wonderful... okay, I'll let them know..." After a long pause, she said "Here's what's going on out here, sir." She then recounted the turf war with the Feds, and Isley coming in with DNI Chapel's instructions. After another long moment of listening, she said "Yes sir. You just stay there with your wife. We've got this."

After disconnecting, she said "That was Commander Troy. Laura is out of surgery, and she's stable. They're watching for internal bleeding, but the worst damage is that her left arm is broken." There were murmurs of relief that Laura was alive and in stable condition...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

At Eastside Elementary, one of the Staff from the office came to Ms. Billings's room and called Carole into the hallway. "Your dad's on the phone." Carole eagerly grabbed the phone.

"Hi Daddy!" she said. "Is Mommy okay?"

"Hi Fussbudget." I said. "Listen. Your mom was injured, but she's going to be okay. You just stay there in school and go home with Marie and her mom or sister, whoever picks you up, okay?"

"O-kay Daddy." Carole said. "I love you too, Daddy." Carole handed the phone back to the teacher. "My mom's better now." she said, her little face losing the look of worry that had been on it all morning...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Tanya Perlman crooked her finger and Jack Muscone came over and sat beside her. Tanya said very quietly: "Don doesn't like what he's seeing about the Federal Agents locking down the Hospital. He's thinks they may withhold information from you, so get everything you can so you can tell him about any 'strangenesses' going on."

"I'll see what I can do." said Jack.

Just as he stood up, Melina Allgood came into the tent. "What's going on?" she asked. Muscone told her of the turf war that had developed, and that the ATF SAC had been put in charge by the EAD at the direction of no less than the DNI himself.

Melina said "The DNI, the head of the entire Intelligence Community, is personally directing the actions on this? I believe my ex-husband would call that a 'strangeness'."

"It's good your ex-husband didn't live 400 years ago." replied Muscone. "I was just telling Tanya, or maybe she was telling me: we've got to keep our ears and eyes open, and get all the information we can that the ATF and Homeland Security finds. It's very likely they might try to keep things from us."

"Consider that 'taken care of'." said Melina. With a nod, she turned and left the tent.

"It's taken care of." said Muscone to Tanya, who laughed heartily at that.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"I am Special Agent in Charge Curtis Halsey of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives." announced Curtis Halsey to the Media that was being held on the far side of the ribbon line, with plenty of Police augmentation to enforce the barrier. "I am in charge of the field investigation of this terrorist attack upon this Hospital."

Halsey: "First, I wish to commend the extraordinary actions of the Hospital personnel, the doctors, the nurses, and first responders. This wasn't just an attack upon any building, but upon the place people go to receive medical treatment, and the response has been tremendous. I also want to commend the Fire Department, which not only contained the fire and limited the damage, but also went in and rescued injured patients, including newborn babies."

Halsey: "We know that the truck used in the attack was either an ambulance or a truck painted to look like an ambulance, and that two persons in that vehicle are dead. Beyond that, we are still in the very early stages of our investigation. We are still collecting and processing evidence. We will keep you informed, and you will learn what we know as soon as we know it. Are there any questions?"

"Lester Holder, KXTC News!" shouted Penis Holder. "Agent Halsey, was this an Islamist attack, or a domestic attack by White Nationalists that support Governor Val Jared?"

Halsey: "We don't know that yet. It could be either Islamists or a hard-right white fringe group."

"Tim Sioban, KSB News." said Sioban. "Agent Halsey, did the Town & County Police have any advance knowledge of a potential attack on University Hospital?"

"No!" shouted a voice. Halsey's neck about cracked as he whirled to look to his left.

"And you are?" he asked angrily.

"I am Cindy Ross, Deputy Police Chief of the Town & County Police Force." fired Cindy Ross angrily. "And the answer is no, we did not have any prior warning nor any suspicion that this was coming. I cannot speak for what the Federal Government knew ahead of time, but we had no idea."

"To my knowledge, neither did we." said Halsey, his face flushed. "Any more questions?"

"Priya Ajmani, Fox Eight News." said Priya. "Agent Halsey, can you update us on how many deaths and injuries there have been?"

Halsey looked to his left, as if expecting Cindy to jump in and answer. But she just quietly said "Go ahead." Halsey was saved by an FBI Agent coming up and whispering into his ear.

"The most recent numbers I have," said Halsey, "are twelve deaths, including the two terrorists in the vehicle, and 70 injured. I do not have any further information on who those that were killed are, nor if they were employees or patients."

After (not really) answering more questions, Halsey concluded the interview. At that time, Bettina yelled out "Deputy Chief Ross! Will Commander Donald Troy be made available to respond to our questions?"

Cindy's ice blue eyes bored through Bettina for a second, and she could sense the blood-lust in the Press. "Bring her through the line." Cindy told the Officers. They went and all but pulled Bettina in, and escorted her about 50 feet inside the lines. The Press did not notice Lt. Commander Teresa Croyle walking to the line, just in front of the Press and their cameras and microphones.

The TCPD Officers got between Bettina and the Press, so that they could not see what was about to happen. As soon as they were in place, Cindy launched herself at Bettina, grabbing the MILF reporterette's collars at her neck. Detective Julia Rodriguez held Bettina's arms behind her. Bettina began gasping for air.

"Commander Troy's wife is in surgery, you bitch!" Cindy yelled into Bettina's face. Cindy's ice blue eyes were pouring out cold fire, and the look on her ruggedly pretty face a very bad thing for her enemy to see. "He does not give a damn about you at all, right now, and he certainly doesn't have anything to say to the God damned Press! So you better shut your fucking mouth, or I'll shut it for you... permanently!"

Cindy let Bettina go with a push. "Take that piece of shit back to the line." Cindy ordered. Officers did so. One raised the ribbon, and others shoved Bettina hard. She went sprawling into the legs of other reporters.

"You fucking bitch!" Bettina yelled. "You'll pay for that!" She was saying it to Cindy's back, as Cindy and Teresa were walking back towards the Hospital, along with some of the Officers.

"Are you covering up for Val Jared's White Nationalism?" Lester Holder yelled out. Other reporters chuckled in support of Holder's vicious, thinly disguised attack upon the Governor.

"Don't sweat that one." Teresa said quietly to Cindy. "Unfortunately, they failed to record or transmit anything." Indeed, it was possible that a very powerful anti-bugging device was in the bag Teresa was carrying, and it was on. The Press began getting word to check their signals, which had gone out...

ATF SAC Halsey came up to the two TCPD women. "What the hell were you doing, answering that question? That was my Press conference, not yours!"

"The nice answer," Cindy replied as she continued walking, "is that you don't know these Press assholes and their 'gotcha' trap questions like I do, and I was defending my Police Force from the accusations they want to make. The not-so-nice answer is that I saved your ass from future humiliation------"

"STAY OUT OF OUR INVESTIGATION!" yelled Halsey. "Or I'll have your ass and every TCPD Officer removed from this scene."

Cindy stepped in front of Halsey and confronted him. "You are welcome to try, asshole. Why don't you try to remove me... you, personally."

"That's a Federal Agent you're talking to." said one of Halsey's automatons, as a warning. Her hand was hovering over her hip, as if she was about to draw a weapon.

"And that's the Green Crowbar you're talking to." Teresa replied, her hand actually on her holstered service weapon. "You are in the wrong County to be playing Federal alpha-male games. We are not afraid of you."

"Leave 'em be." said Halsey, seeing that it was only escalating. "We've got work to do. And you..." he said as he pointed his finger at Cindy. "You stay the hell out of my way."

"Just do me one favor." Cindy said as Halsey was about to stalk off. "Leave the name and number of your next of kin with me."

"Is that a threat?" snarled the other Agent.

"No." Cindy said. "But I'll need it so I can call his next of kin... when my next of kin, the Iron Crowbar, hears about this." Halsey's eyes widened in shock, but he said nothing. He made his wisest move of the day, and got himself out of Cindy's sight.

Part 10 - Impersonation Investigation

11:30am, Wednesday, October 16th. Laura had been put in a private room. I had called and asked for two TCPD Officers to come in and be guard duty. It is possible the County Sheriff harangued the Federal Marshals at the door until Dr. Robin Isley got there. To everyone's surprise, she said it would be okay for them to go in and act as Dr. Fredricson's guards, but they had to stay within 10 feet of the door.

Isley came up with them and handed me a card, and said it was a pass that would allow me into the Hospital if I left. I think she was going to follow me into Laura's room, but I said simply "Wait here." and went in alone.

Laura was lying there, her head bandaged, on oxygen from a tank but not a breathing tube (thank Goodness). Her entire left arm and shoulder were in a cast. It took all of my effort to not break down crying at the sight of the love of my life lying helpless and hurt like this. I channeled my pain into a desire for revenge, to find and put away whoever had done this.

Some minutes later, a text came through, and I went downstairs. Cindy had come to the south side door, which was at the 'T' of the south side wing and main corridor. She handed me a box and some sacks of lunch. The two Federal Marshal there wanted to look in the box, but I said "My wife's upstairs. She was injured. It's for her." Then I ducked back inside before they could say or do anything more.

Laura would be asleep for a while longer, so I gave Hicks and Gunddottar the sacks of lunch told then to use the restroom in the room if they needed to, and that I would be back shortly.

Going into the restroom down the hallway, I quickly opened the box and changed clothes to the black slacks, white button-down collared shirt... and a windbreaker with 'FBI' on the back, and a baseball cap with 'FBI' on the front. I put my uniform clothes into the box, and hid the box in the janitor closet.

Going down to the first floor, I went towards the E.R. wings. FBI, BATFE, and other Agents were going up and down the hallways. At the door to the damaged corridor, I exhibited my FBI Consultant badge to the Deputy Sheriff guarding it, with a wink of my eye. He knew me, and waved me on through.

The hallway was dark and full of smoke and debris. Going down towards the other end, where a tarp had been put up, preventing light from outside from coming in, I saw other Agents milling about with flashlights. I looked up, and realized I was pretty much looking into the second and even third floors.

One of the Agents saw me and said "Who are you?" I noticed his windbreakers had 'ATF' on the back.

"Troy. FBI." I said, truthfully. Sort of.

The men went back to what they were doing, then the same guy that had challenged me before said "What are you in here for?"

"I'm an explosives expert." I said. "I'm trying to find out what they used."

"Over here." said one of the other men, whose windbreaker said 'FBI'. When I came up, he shined his flashlight on what was left of the ambulance. He said "We came in thinking it was ANFO (ammonium nitrate - fuel oil), like they used at Oklahoma City in 1995. But there's no drums, no containers of any kind. I don't get it, but it's not my area of expertise. I'm getting the vehicle information. Axle numbers, serial numbers in the engine block, that sort of stuff."

"Curious." I said as I looked at it. "If this was a real ambulance, it was a Type I... full truck chassis. Heavy duty truck, too; it should be in a lot more pieces now. I'm betting the explosives were plastique."

"Why do you think it's plastic explosives?" asked the FBI man.

"A truck full of ANFO should've wiped out this entire wing of the building, at least." I said. "Plus, the way it looks like this truck was built. Heavy base, which propelled the explosion in a specific direction. This thing was basically built to be a shape charge. And for that, plastique would work much better than ANFO." The others looked where I'd been pointing my light, now very curious themselves.

I shined my light around and noticed something strange. "The doors of the vehicle... they weren't blown off?"

"Not only that," said the FBI man, " they weren't blown open. You can see here, and here..." he shined his flashlight at the places he wanted me to see, "... that some kind of latches were in the door, kind of like the bolts in the door of a safe."

"So the drivers could not have opened the doors and jumped out, even if they wanted to." I said. "Good way to ensure commitment to what they were doing."

The FBI man nodded as I found some residue, and took some samples by scraping with q-tips into little plastic bottles with screw-on caps. (Where did I get those? We're at a hospital, remember?) I sniffed the residues.

"Hmmm, definitely plastique." I said. "Maybe HMX or HNIW."

"HNIW is not on the market." said the first man, the BATFE man. "And even just a few bricks of HMX should've brought the building down."

"Yeah, exactly." I said. "I look forward to reading the forensic reports on this truck. I'm going to go back down the hallway, see if I can get an idea of the direction of the blast."

And with that, I trotted down the hall, shining my light all around. I spotted what looked like a residue of something and took a sample, then made my way down the hall, feeling eyes on my back. As I took it, I saw the charred remains of electronics equipment, probably from the OR above.

I briefly wondered where Laura had been found, but I knew I had to get on out of there. When I reached the door and went back into the main part of the Hospital, I felt a sense of relief.

I made my way back to the other side of the Hospital and changed clothes again. I texted Tanya: "Come inside for rehab."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

*Whirrrrrrrrrrr*

Captain Tanya Perlman drove up to the front doors of University Hospital.

"Sorry, ma'am." said once of the four Federal Marshals at the door. "Only Hospital Staff and patients allowed in."

"I am a patient." said Tanya. "I'm here for my weekly rehab. They called and said it wasn't canceled." The Marshals looked at each other. Tanya said "Look, call the Rehab Center, they'll tell you."

"All right, go on in." the Marshal said. Tanya drove inside, and she really did go to rehab, though for a shortened session. Then she drove over to Laura's room. Corporal Gunddottar opened the door for her and she drove in, seeing Laura lying in the bed, and Laura's husband sitting in the chair next to the bed, looking as profoundly sad as Tanya had ever seen him.

"Hey." I said quietly upon seeing Tanya come in. She came up to me and looked at Laura.

"She's going to be okay." Tanya said to me, as a statement, trying to make me feel better.

"Yes. She will be." I said. "Any news from out there?"

"Just that the Iron Wolf has everything under control like nobody's business." Tanya said, then with a grin added "Chief Moynahan says he's used to just twiddling his thumbs when you're running everything, but now he's twiddling his thumbs with Teresa running everything." I smiled wanly.

"Yeah, she's doing a great job." I said.

Tanya said "The Feds are working very hard to keep us out of the loop, and I personally suspect Isley named Halsey as the field lead to keep Jack out of the loop. One thing that happened is that our CSIs as well as State Crime Lab techs came up, and the Feds tried to shut them out. It got heated, and the Feds were threatening to arrest our guys and the SBI State Lab techs for, quote, 'threatening Federal Agents' and 'obstructing a Federal investigation'. They tried that with Cindy, too, but you know she don't play; she must be related to someone I know." I nodded.

Tanya continued: "Our CSI's and the Crime Lab techs just walked off, but not before they gave interviews to the Press that the Feds were treating them like crap and willfully excluding them from analyzing the scene. Then they left the property en masse, and now there's a lot more bad blood. I don't know what the Feds are trying to hide, but it's obvious they want to hide something."