"I can finish. Caine and Keller will help. Please, catch your breath. You've been up since dawn yesterday."
"Thank you, Pete. Connor, George, outstanding work."
Pete took a bracing breath. "Listen to me, Troy. Don't make that work go to waste." It was an impressive surgery, more so considering Elizabeth's recent illness. He irrigated Troy's insides twice before he closed the small incisions.
Tucker stepped into the OR from the observation area with a warmed blanket. He wrapped it around Elizabeth and led her out of the room.
.
The street corner's lights were dark when Janice Fitz pulled up, her Glock resting in her lap. Kip and Bruce sat on the floor behind her, each carrying their own weapons. "An unmarked Crown Victoria is approaching from the north. Two occupants. Jensen and Mathias are exiting."
Kip unlatched the left door. "Count down the approach." Bruce did the same on the right side.
"Ten feet, five, four, three, two, one."
Kip and Bruce thrust open the rear doors, surprising both Jensen and Mathias. Bruce knocked Mathias to his knees with a kick to his legs. "Freeze."
"Drop it, Jensen. I have no problem taking your head off," Kip said.
Within minutes, both men were in handcuffs and in the custody of four personnel from Tango team. Janice hit her com. "We are ten minutes out."
Clay was getting angrier every minute. "Fight me."
Martin pretended to be bored. "Nah."
"You bastard," Clay was shouting and cursing. He ripped apart a crate and swung a broken piece of a board at Martin's right side. It connected with a thud. "I'm going to tear you apart.”
Martin couldn't suppress the groan. "You can do better than that." The words came out between his clenched teeth. Clay swung once more. This time, in his mania, he failed to connect with Martin at all. Martin egged him on, "You missed."
When Clay tackled him, the blow from Clay's weight bounced him free from the hook supporting the handcuffs. Before Clay could recover his balance, Martin hit the ground, catching himself on his hands and knees, then he managed to pull himself free from the tethers tied to his ankles. Though his wrists and ankles remained shackled, he was able to move. "I'm going to kill you!” Clay screamed.
Martin made it to his feet, and before Clay could pull his gun, Martin charged him, punching him in the gut. The gun skittered along the cement floor. Clay grabbed another board from the pallet and struck Martin hard across the back.
Martin used every bit of his training and survival instinct, his strength weakened from the day's abuse. When an intruder alarm rang out inside the warehouse, Clay clambered for the door. Scrambling for another broken board, Martin flung it at the backs of Clay's knees.
Off balance, Clay slipped in a slick of Gafford's blood, tripping and landing on the body. He pulled the weapon from Gafford's hand and fired in Martin's direction.
Martin crawled for cover. A second shot rang out, and pieces of shattered wood rained over him. When Martin spotted Clay's gun fingertips away from him just as the lights in the warehouse went dark, he grabbed the weapon and fired. A third shot rang out from Clay's direction.
"CLEAR," Martin heard Ian's voice.
"CLEAR," Kieran's voice followed.
The lights came back on. Martin blinked at Julian leaning over him, night vision goggles atop his head. "Merde. Medic, I need a medic," Julian's words reverberated in his head as his eyes closed.
Elizabeth slept in the recliner beside Troy. After the surgery, Tucker forced her to eat a protein bar and drink some milk. Exhausted and satiated, she gave in to sleep. Troy's vital signs were holding. Trask and Len, no longer an undercover CO, sat like sentries inside Troy's door. Tucker and Pete moved between the door and the bed when the glass started to slide open.
Julian kept his voice to a whisper, "He's in the ER. Patrick is with him. He took a bad beating."
Trask and Len nodded in unison. "Jenner?"
"Dead," Tighe said.
"Did he?" Len asked.
"No," Tighe said in a firm voice.
"Troy?" Julian asked.
