That got my attention, and my agreement.
"Okay, Ian. Just hurry."
I hung up and slid my phone into my pocket again then gestured to Judge. "We need to head back to Abe's room so I can access my computer."
"We're not going after Abe?"
"Not until the others get here." It was nearly impossible for me to say that. My first instinct was to go running to his rescue. I just knew I couldn't. My skills were not in the physical rescue, but in the technological one.
I started up the stairs, unsure if Judge would follow me or not. I would understand if he didn't. He was a fighter like Abe, a warrior. His world revolved around the physical one. It was what men like him understood. I was actually kind of surprised when he followed me.
It made me feel good that he did.
It took a little longer to get back up the stairs because I wasn't running and I was going up instead of down. By the time we reached our floor then got down the hallway to where Abe's room was located, Cooper was standing outside Abe's door.
"McDermott?" I asked as soon as I reached him. I glanced toward the closed door behind Cooper. "Did you find him?"
"Oh yeah." The man's chuckle seemed out of place under the circumstances. Cooper nodded his head toward the room. "He's in there and he is pissed. They shot him with a dart and tranqed his ass. I decided to wait out here for you guys after Ian called us. It's safer."
"Well, my computer is in there, so McDermott is just going to have to deal." I brushed past Cooper and pushed the door open, stepping inside the room. Andrew seemed to be the only one in the room.
He waved from his chair by the window.
I waved back then started looking around. "Where's McDermott?"
Andrew pointed to the bathroom. "He's throwing some water on his face. I think he's still a little groggy from the tranquilizer they shot him with."
Well, at least now I knew how they'd gotten their hands on Abe.
"Have you seen my laptop?"
"Oh, yeah." Andrew's cheeks turned a little red when he reached down and grabbed the laptop off the floor next to his chair. "I'm sorry. I was using it to check my email. Cooper and I are waiting to hear about a house."
"Wait, I thought you two already had a house." Hadn't they moved into one just down the street from Hank and Ian?
"We did, but the house next to ours came up for sale and we decided to buy it so no one else does. We kind of like the idea of knowing who is living on our street."
I would have believed that if Andrew hadn't avoided my eyes the entire time he was talking.
The man did not do subtle well.
"Who are you buying the house for?" My mind instantly went to Judge and McDermott. "Are the other guys getting out of the service like Hank and Cooper did?"
"They're thinking about it, especially now that Hank and Cooper have gotten out."
Andrew handed over my computer. "Sorry about using it without your permission."
"Don't worry about it." I waved my hand at him, more interested in hacking into the hospital’s security system. "Watch the door."
As soon as I got my laptop up and running, I started hacking. I was not impressed with the hospital's security considering it took me less than five minutes to get in. It should have taken a lot longer, especially for a place that handled hundreds and hundreds of private patient files on a daily basis. This was the exact reason the university had given me a grant to build them a secure file system for their admission's office.
Still, it worked for me in this situation.
"Okay, let's see who was here," I mused out loud as I brought up the video from outside of Abe's room. It was actually from a camera in the ceiling down the hallway, but it would still give me the footage of the area in front of Abe's room.
I watched for a minute before I saw a three men walk off the elevator and head toward Abe's room. They could have been going to any of the rooms in the corridor, but the furtive way the man in the orderly outfit was looking around clued me in that he didn't work for the hospital.
It wasn't until two of them walked into Abe's room and the other one turned and planted himself in front of Abe's door that I had concrete proof of who I was dealing with. I doubted I would ever forget the man who'd attacked me in my bedroom.
