Kyle closed his eyes and frowned. “Okay.”
Chapter 23
Josh ran his finger over the edge of the exit sign. “No trip wires.” Using the flat head of his pocketknife’s screwdriver, he removed the covering. What he’d seen in shadows was now clear: a pipe bomb, secured with five turns of det cord, tied into a generic Fitbit. “He’s got Bluetooth control. Do you want me to disarm this one?”
Kip looked down for a moment and thought. “No, he may get feedback that one is down.”
A scraping sound came from one of the rooms. Holding his weapon, Kip stood on the side of the door, and as it opened, he pressed the barrel to the head of the person entering the hall.
“Acrobat, stand down,” Mike’s voice cracked, reminiscent of a gun firing. Across his shoulders were two bags containing sniper rifles.
“You could have texted. Our phones are encrypted,” Kip said.
“Not necessarily. Our shooter owns a demolition company. Every text coming out of this place may be readable.” Kyle stepped out of the shadows with Harper.
“Have you lost your mind? Harper, you can’t be here,” Kip huffed in a whisper.
“Kip, we’d need a perfect shot to take the phone out of his hand. You know there’s no high ground. Harper may have an in. She said she was taking care of his wife when she died,” Kyle explained.
“And he can blame her and shoot her.” Kip sighed.
“The hostage negotiator from NOPD is good, but this guy has no reason to live. He’s hoping to connect with his last bit of humanity to not kill more staff,” Mike explained.
“He shot every staff member between the main lobby and here, including two of our guys. I don’t think that will work,” Josh countered.
Kip looked at Harper. He could feel his operator side and his emotional side battling. “You’re sure?”
“Yes.” She palmed his cheek. “You’ve risked so much already.”
“I’m going with you.” He pulled her against him, feeling the rough edges of the bulletproof vest she was wearing.
It dawned on Kip that Kyle made her put the vest on. “I’m not totally out of my mind?”
“Put this in your ear. I’ll be able to hear you, and you can hear me. If I tell you to run, you do it. Clear?” Kip showed her the earwig.
“Yes.” Every second, she looked more determined.
Kyle ran a hand through his hair. “There’s a crew of reporters broadcasting. Someone is going to start texting soon, despite the police warning against it and our people going room to room."
“Andy Coates is diverting patients to University. Security has sealed the entrances,” Mike said.
Kip forced his shoulders back. He needed to be clear. “Good. We won’t have flashing lights and sirens interrupting. Or, at least, I hope. Harper, I want you to walk to the corner where that yellow cart is. Not one step closer. If Mr. Fontenot doesn’t want to hear you, I want you to slowly back up until you get back here. Then I want you to get down the stairs as fast as possible.
“Hoist, you are the best sniper out of all of us. Coop, you call the shot. Raptor, you and I need to make it to the roof. Our bad guy is in the southwest corner stair landing. We head up the northeast corner. When Hoist is ready, I’ll swing into the landing window as Coop calls the trigger pull. Hoist, you and I, same breath, same heart rate.” Kip went over the operation plan.
Kip and Josh were both experienced snipers. They all trained similarly, and when Josh became his XO, they shared their numbers. Josh’s resting heart rate was fifty-four beats per minute. Kip’s was fifty. “Fifty-two is our magic number,” Josh said.
Kip pressed his head to Harper’s forehead. “Sweetheart, please be careful.”
She teared up. “Channy told me to follow my heart.” She pressed her lips to his. “We both deserve that dinner.”
“I promise.” His heart sped up as he tried to squelch his desire to throw her over his shoulder and take her down the stairs. Mike’s hand on his shoulder broke the spell.
Mike and Kip moved to the far stairwell with the ropes bag, where Kip stripped off his jacket, tie, shoes, and slacks and put on a tactical uniform and harness. Mike used suction cups and a glass cutter to remove the windowpane. All the sashes were alarmed on the upper floors to prevent patient suicide or escape. He lay a blanket on the open glass circle so Kip wouldn’t cut himself.
Kip balanced in the cut glass hole and looked up. The leg of the air-conditioning unit was visible; water from the rain poured over its edges. When he tossed the rope with the attached grappling hook, a whoosh of air exited between pursed lips as it caught on the first try.
As Harper walked toward the yellow cart, she heard rocks pelt the glass near where she just stood, followed by a BOOM.
