Chapter 9 - THE BLACKOUT IN TRAUMA BAY ONE
The faint red emergency bulbs cast long, blood-red shadows across the shattered glass of Ward 3.
The sound of boots moving in tight tactical formation echoed from the northern stairwell fifty yards away.
The footsteps were distinct: heavy, synchronized, and moving with the fluid pace of trained close-quarters breachers.
They were not the casual, uncoordinated steps of hospital security guards.
Jenna released Daniel’s wrist and turned toward Captain Miller.
“Captain, how many armed master-at-arms personnel do you have on this floor right now?” Jenna asked, her voice cold and commanding.
“Four men including the two at the door,” Miller replied, his military training taking over instantly despite the darkness.
“They only carry standard nine-millimeter service pistols with fifteen-round magazines.”
“The men in that stairwell are carrying suppressed submachine guns and ceramic plate armor,” Jenna said without blinking.
“If your men step into that hallway, they will be cut down before they can identify a target.”
She turned toward Bethany Cole.
“Bethany, get Daniel’s bed unhooked from the wall oxygen and switch him to the portable E-cylinder under the frame.”
“Lock the casters on the heavy metal linen carts and stack them across the main double doors of this bay.”
Bethany didn't ask questions; she grabbed the steel supply carts and began dragging them toward the shattered entryway.
Jenna turned her attention back to Marcus Hayes, who was still groaning on the floor, clutching his torn arm.
She grabbed Hayes by the collar of his expensive suit and hauled him to his feet with one arm.
“Where is their primary breach point, Marcus?” Jenna demanded, shoving him against the concrete pillar.
Hayes shook his head in blind terror, his teeth chattering.
“I don't know! I swear to God, Vance, I was just supposed to handle the hospital room!”
“The Admiral has an off-books contractor unit from Blackwood Global stationed at the private airstrip in Miramar!”
“If they’re here, they have orders to leave zero witnesses!”
Dr. Grant Halverson crawled into the corner beneath the medication desk, curling into a fetal ball and whimpering into his knees.
“We’re going to die,” Halverson sobbed.
“My father is going to kill all of us.”
Jenna ignored the doctor’s pathetic display and turned to Daniel.
Daniel had already reached down and unstrapped the heavy surgical splint around his right knee.
His face was drenched in sweat from the agonizing pain, but his eyes were blazing with iron determination.
“Jenna, the supply closet across the hall,” Daniel whispered, pointing toward the heavy steel fire door twelve feet away.
“It holds the industrial hyperbaric oxygen cylinders.”
“If they come down that corridor with tactical lights, they’ll hug the right wall to clear the blind corner.”
Jenna understood the plan instantly.
She had run this exact ambush pattern with Daniel outside Fallujah seven years ago.
“Miller, take the laptop and guard Kesler’s bed,” Jenna ordered, handing Hayes’s Glock to the Captain.
“Do not fire unless an armed man steps through that inner doorway.”
“What are you going to do?” Miller asked, taking the heavy firearm with a steady grip.
“I’m going to balance the battlefield,” Jenna said.
She knelt down in front of Koda, placing her hands on both sides of the dog’s broad head.
The German Shepherd looked directly into her eyes, his breathing silent, his muscles taut as bowstrings.
“Koda. Stilte. Jacht,” she whispered in that low, ancient tactical tongue.
Silence. Hunt.
Koda lowered his body until his belly nearly grazed the red-lit tile floor.
Not a single growl escaped his throat.
He moved like a phantom through the broken glass door, slipping into the shadow behind the steel linen carts.
Jenna followed right behind him, holding a heavy stainless steel oxygen regulator valve in her right hand.
The corridor outside was pitch black except for the pulsating red strobe of the emergency beacon at the far end.
Through the gloom, three beams of high-intensity weapon lights swept across the ceiling tiles.
Three operators in sterile black uniforms, devoid of military patches or name tags, moved in a wedge formation.
Their suppressed carbines were raised, scanning every doorway with cold, mechanical efficiency.
The lead shooter reached the intersection outside Trauma Bay 1.
His tactical light beam caught the overturned linen carts and the trail of blood on the floor.
He raised his left hand, signaling for his two teammates to stack along the wall for a dynamic breach.
Right behind the lead shooter, the shadow behind the linen cart exploded into motion.
Koda launched himself through the air with zero warning, zero bark, and lethal momentum.
The dog’s sixty-pound frame struck the lead shooter directly in the neck and shoulder harness.
The impact drove the operator backward into the concrete wall with a sickening metallic crash.
Before the second shooter could swing his weapon barrel around, Jenna lunged from the darkness of the doorway.
She drove the heavy steel oxygen valve directly into the wrist of the second operator’s trigger hand.
The bone snapped with a wet, sharp crack.
The suppressed carbine dropped onto the rubber floor with a muted clatter.
Jenna caught the falling weapon before it hit the ground, pivoted on her left heel, and drove the buttstock into the man’s solar plexus.
The operator folded in half, gasping for air that would not come.
The third shooter in the rear immediately raised his weapon toward Jenna’s chest, his laser sight painting a crimson dot between her collarbones.
“Freeze, traitor!” the man hissed, his finger tightening on the trigger.
A deafening roar erupted from inside Trauma Bay 1.
A single nine-millimeter bullet tore through the drywall three inches from the third shooter’s head.
Daniel Kesler sat upright on the edge of the gurney, holding a second service pistol he had pulled from the fallen MP’s holster.
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Even with a reconstructed femoral artery and a body trembling from shock, the Master Chief’s aim was terrifyingly precise.
“Back off my wife,” Daniel growled through the darkness.
