Infringement Page 14

  “We’ll keep you posted on the situation as things develop, but now let’s go to Armen Jansen in Memphis, Tennessee, to get an update on the ongoing protests in response to the newly enacted and controversial Firearms Protection Act.”

  “Thank you, Carolyn. As you can see, police in riot gear are moving into the area. The local police are working in concert with officers from Homeland Security to quell the protests and unrest taking place here in downtown Memphis. The protesters converged on downtown early this morning, shortly after news of the passage of the Firearms Protection Act hit the internet and the airwaves. Many here have dubbed it the ‘Infringement Act’ and have pledged a fight with the federal authorities before parting with their firearms. Earlier, I was able to speak with many of the protesters, and here’s some of what they had to say.”

  The picture on the television switched from an image of the riot police slowly getting into position to the image of a man who appeared to be in his early-forties talking into the reporter’s microphone. The audio picked up with him saying, “The Infringement Act is downright illegal and a clear violation of our constitutional rights. I’m never turning in my guns to the government, ever. They can try to come and take them if they think they can, but they’re in for one hell of a fight. Mark my words, one hell of a fight and I’m not the only one.”

  The camera switched to another protester saying, “The whole congress and the president should be impeached and arrested. If they want a war, a revolution, that’s exactly what they’re going to get.”

  Then again to a third protester saying, “I’m a veteran. I served my country in Iraq and Afghanistan. I fought to protect our constitutional freedoms over there and I’ll fight to protect them here in Memphis against any traitorous government bureaucrat who comes and tries to enforce this illegal act by taking my guns.”

  The reporter appeared on camera for the first time, apparently standing on a rooftop or balcony somewhere over the street where the protesters and riot police were inching closer together in the background. “Obviously, the protesters here in Memphis, of which there are quite a few, as you can see behind me, have no intention of handing over any guns in compliance with what they view to be a constitutionally questionable new law. They are not alone, as similar protests and demonstrations are taking place in cities and towns across the country, with very few exceptions. With riot police, military, and Homeland officers mobilizing here in Memphis and elsewhere, we’ll see how much longer the protests last or whether the protestors’ anger escalates into violence. The situation is eerily reminiscent of what we saw in Missouri when protestors and police clashed in 2014.”

  Declan flipped the channel to another news outlet, where the Director of Homeland Security was giving sound bites to a horde of reporters, “The Firearms Protection Act in no way violates our Constitution or the Second Amendment contained therein, which addresses the right of a militia to keep and bear arms. The Second Amendment says nothing about individual private citizens possessing firearms or having a right to do so. This was carefully crafted legislation, with a specific and, quite frankly, crucial public policy and safety goal, which is to eliminate, once and for all, the random mass shootings which have plagued our nation for far too long. We understood going into this that we’d get some pushback from the more radical-right fringe groups, the survivalists, the religious-right, and other dangerous domestic extremists out there and, as I believe you’ll see very soon, we’re prepared to effectively and efficiently deal with that pushback. Honestly, I find it sad and ridiculous that so many are protesting and threatening violence and civil insurrection over a constitutionally consistent and valid law that was put into place to protect all Americans from future senseless shootings like we suffered through on Christmas Eve and like those we’ve suffered through as a nation all too often in our recent history. As the president said earlier today, ‘Enough is enough. It’s time to get to the root of the problem, and the root of the problem is the proliferation of firearms in our society.’ The proliferation of firearms amongst individual citizens in this country is a relic of a bygone era, and there’s no place for such a barbaric and dangerous relic in the new world order, of which we are all a part.”

  Declan turned the TV off and closed his eyes, searching for something that made sense. “God, at this point I honestly have no idea if you’re there, but there’s a part of me that wants to believe in you again. I want not to hate you for taking my dad. I want to believe that what I’m seeing is all because you have some perfect plan, like Evan and mom keep saying, and that my dad’s death somehow fit into that plan. I really want to believe all this has a purpose, that life has a purpose. If you’re really there, if this is really all part of some prophecy or something, if your Son really is the only way to be saved and is coming back here someday, please, open my eyes and help me to see it. Help me to believe.”

  Chapter 37

  December 26th

  Before going back to Declan’s room, Megan found an unoccupied hospital room and quickly called her father at home. “Dad, it’s me.”

  “Hi, Pumpkin. Is everything okay down there? Your mom and I saw what happened on the news. That wasn’t Declan’s church, was it?”

  “It was, but I’m fine, Daddy. Declan was injured though, and I need your help.”

  “What do you need?”

  “I need the plane, and I need it right away.”

  “Why? Are you in trouble?”

  “No, not exactly, but Declan is and I need to get him out of here as quickly as I can.”

  “I’ll call Tom right now and have him out as soon as possible. It will probably take about three hours from takeoff to landing from Boston.”

  “That’s fine.”

  “What’s the itinerary?”

  “First to D.C. for a quick stop, then to Uncle Ignacio.”

  “All the way down there?”

  “Yep.”

  “No problem, Pumpkin. I’ll make the arrangements and tell Tom to give you whatever you need. Is there anything else you need?”

  “We could use a car in D.C. and some cash too.”

  “A car will be waiting at the airfield and there’ll be plenty of cash for you on the plane.”

  “Thank you. I love you, Daddy.”

  “I love you too. Be careful, whatever’s going on. Things are starting to get crazy out there.”

  “Will do. I’ve got to go, but I’ll call again from the plane.”

  She immediately picked up the phone again and dialed the number for a cell phone in Chicago.

  “This is Louis.”

  “Louis, it’s Megan.”

  “Hey there. What’s happening, Neary?”

  “I have a scoop for you on the David Stanton story.”

  “No kidding? What kind of scoop?”

  “The big and unbelievable kind, but don’t worry, I’ll have evidence to corroborate it. Things are not what they seem.”

  “They rarely are nowadays.”

  “I’ll meet you at Potomac Airfield tonight at eight. If I’m not right on time, just wait and I’ll be there. We’ll have plenty of time to talk on the plane.”

  “I’ll be there.”

  “Don’t be late or I’ll leave without you. I’m on a tight timetable.”

  “I’ll be there at eight sharp, Neary.”

  Megan hung up the phone and thought for minute, trying to formulate a plan. She needed two things. First, she had to get clean alias passports for the two of them. That could be accomplished easily enough from her office at Homeland, which necessitated the stopover in D.C. The second, and more pressing issue, was how to get Declan out of the hospital without being seen. She recalled seeing an elevator down the hall from Declan’s room, in the opposite direction from the nurses’ station and thought maybe she could use that elevator.

  Megan rushed out of the empty room and took the main elevator back up to Declan’s floor. She walked past the nurses’ station, saying hello to Nurse Sanchez and Nurse McDon
ald, both of whom she’d spoken to before, and headed down the hall past Declan’s room toward what appeared to be a service elevator. She pressed the down button, but the elevator required a security badge to operate it, so nothing happened.

  “Damn,” she said to herself. “I’ll have to think of something else.” Trying to come up with an alternative plan, she walked down the hall again and past the nurses’ station to the main elevators, intending to check out the floor just beneath Declan’s. The elevator dinged, the door slowly opened, and Megan saw Evan inside the elevator about to make his way out.

  Instinctively, she hurried in and stopped Evan from exiting. The door closed behind them.

  “Megan, what are you doing?”

  “You have patients here, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “So you have a security badge that will access the service elevators?”

  “You mean the elevators we use for transporting patients and stuff?”

  “Yes.”

  “Of course. Why? What’s going on?”

  “Does anyone know Declan is your brother?”

  “I don’t think so. I haven’t spoken to anyone about him.”

  “Good.”

  “What’s going on? Is he in some kind of trouble?”

  “Yes, and I need you to help me get him out of this hospital and to the airport right away.”

  Chapter 38

  December 26th

  Evan handed his security card and car keys to Megan. “Remember, you can’t remove his IV, or you’ll set off an alarm and prompt one of the nurses to come in to replace it. Just hang it on the back of the wheelchair.”

  “Got it,” Megan responded.

  “Also, remember his hospital bracelet has a GPS chip in it, which will alarm if he gets beyond the secured areas of the building. Here is the key to remove it, but once you take it off you’ve got to reconnect it within a few seconds or it will trip the system. Take it off once you get out to the east patio, reconnect it and toss it into the trash can near the doors. Don’t take it with you or you’ll set it off.”

  “Okay.”

  “I’ll wait a few minutes after you go in and then I’ll do my best to distract whoever’s at the nurses’ station. You’ll want to get him in the chair and have him ready, then go out and hit the elevator button because it could take a few minutes. Here, put these scrubs on when you get into the room and just hang this badge backwards on your waist, so that the picture isn’t showing. It’s one of my old ones. That should be enough not to attract anyone’s attention when you get down to the main floor.”

  “Alright, thanks.”

  “Wheel him casually out the east entrance; that’s the one to your left when you come off the elevator. If anyone asks, which they likely won’t, just say you’re taking him out to the east patio for some fresh air. Make sure not to rush or appear hurried, just take your time. When you get outside, wheel him down the sidewalk past the east patio and into the doctor’s parking garage. My car is parked in the second space across from the walkway, No. 183. I’ll meet you at the car, but if I’m not there for some reason, don’t wait. Get Declan into the car and go. There are security cameras all over the parking garage, and the entire building for that matter, so you’ll be picked up on at least one of them somewhere.”

  “That means they’ll likely know which car we’re in.”

  “Most likely. That’s why I want to drive you, so you don’t have to leave my car at the airport. But, again, if I’m late, don’t wait for me.”

  Megan took a long deep breath and said, “Okay, I can do this.”

  “Don’t worry. The difficult part will be getting him out of the room and onto the patient elevator without one of his nurses noticing. After that, it should be relatively smooth sailing. Like I said, I’ll try and keep whoever is there distracted.”

  “This is going to work, right?”

  “It’ll work, but let’s both keep praying just to be sure.”

  “I’ve never been really good at praying, Evan.”

  “Well, now would be a good time to get some practice in,” Evan replied with a reassuring smile.

  Megan stuffed the light-blue hospital scrub into a small cafeteria take-out bag and said, “We’ll see you at the car.”

  “Yes you will.”

  _______________________

  A few minutes later, Megan quietly rolled an empty wheelchair from the hall into Declan’s room. She looked over to the bed and saw Declan sleeping and, wanting to take no chances, rolled the wheelchair into the bathroom, then closed the bathroom door so she could put the scrubs on over her clothes.

  Once dressed, Megan came out of the bathroom and brought the wheelchair next to Declan’s bed. Noticing Declan’s hospital chart on his bed, she took it and slid it into the back of her jeans, under the loose fitting scrubs. She leaned over and gently kissed him on the forehead. “Declan, babe, wake up,” she whispered.

  Declan slowly opened his eyes and smiled softly. “What time is it?”

  “It’s a little after four.”

  “Where’ve you been?”

  “Just taking care of a few things so I could give you a chance to rest.”

  “You know Bleeker came to see me?”

  “I know,” she replied, while at the same time motioning for him to be quiet and not say anything further.

  Still holding her index finger to her lips, Megan drew Declan’s attention to the wheelchair. He looked back at her with a puzzled expression, still silent.

  She asked, “How are you feeling?”

  “Okay, I suppose.”

  Megan handed Declan a piece of paper with the words “We have to leave NOW” written on it. He read the words and looked up at her, still unsure as to what was happening.

  _______________________

  Evan exited the main elevator and approached the nurses’ station, where he saw two nurses sitting. One was on the phone and the other appeared to be doing something on the computer. “Good afternoon,” he said as he reached the desk.

  “Hello, Doctor. What can we do for you?”

  “Well, I’m hoping you can give me the status on the patient in 422.”

  “Oh, do you mean Mr. Peterson or Ms. Kiser?”

  “Sorry, I didn’t realize it was a double,” Evan replied as he looked past the nurses’ station to see Megan quickly pop out of Declan’s room and go toward the patient elevator. “Um, Mr. Peterson. He’s the one in recovery from CABG this morning, right?”

  “That’s right, Doctor.”

  “Good. And, can you tell me how he’s doing?”

  “Of course, Doctor. Let me just pull him up here real quick.”

  Evan saw Megan hurry back into Declan’s room, while the nurse looked intently at the computer screen. The other nurse hung up the phone and said to the nurse on the computer, “I’m heading down to 440. It’s time for Ms. Costa’s pain meds.”

  “Okay,” the other nurse replied.

  Just then, Evan saw Declan’s room door open and Megan quickly wheel him out into the hall. Trying to think of some way to keep the other nurse from turning around, he quickly said, “I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Evan.”

  “Um, I’m Alisa Foster.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Nurse Foster. How long have you been here at the hospital?”

  Megan had Declan sitting in the chair at the elevator, waiting for it to open. Evan had to keep Nurse Foster distracted until they were on the elevator.

  “Not long,” she replied. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, Carol.”

  “Okay. Here, Doctor. I have Mr. Peterson’s records up. Do you want to take a look?”

  _______________________

  “C’mon, c’mon,” Megan whispered nervously, looking at the elevator door and then over to Evan, whom she could see talking to the nurses. “C’mon dammit… open.”

  Declan sat motionless in the wheelchair, feeling the soreness from his bullet wound and the throbbing in his head. Megan kept her e
yes on the nurses’ station, praying silently that neither of the nurses looked down the hall toward them. “C’mon.”

  _______________________

  Evan could see Megan and Declan were still sitting in front of the elevator and quickly stammered, “Where were you before?”

  “I’m sorry,” Nurse Foster replied, turning toward Evan again.

  “Where did you work before coming here?”

  “Nowhere. I mean, this is my first hospital job. I graduated from nursing school a few months ago.”

  “Which school?”

  “State,” she replied impatiently.

  The patient elevator finally dinged and the door began to open slowly, too slowly.

  “That’s a good program, don’t you think?”

  “It was fine.”

  The elevator doors opened completely and Evan watched Megan quickly wheel Declan inside, and heard the doors begin to close.

  The nurse on the computer asked, “Was that the patient elevator I just heard?”

  “Yes,” Evan replied right away. “It looks like they had the wrong floor. I just saw a head pop out, and back in, then the doors closed again.”

  “I hate that. I really don’t see how it’s that difficult to pick the right floor.”

  “It was nice meeting you, Doctor,” Nurse Foster said. “I’ve got to get down to Room 440 now.”

  “Of course. Nice meeting you too.”

  “Doctor, do you want to see Mr. Peterson’s records?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Evan leaned over, pretending to review the patient records on the computer, but really watching Nurse Foster walk down the hall toward Room 440, only she didn’t make it to Room 440. Instead, she stopped in front of Declan’s room, and began to open the door.

  “Thank you, it looks like his recovery is going well,” Evan said and walked briskly down the hall after her. The phone rang and the other nurse picked it up, no longer paying attention to Evan, who hurried into Declan’s room after Nurse Foster.

  When Evan entered the room, he saw Nurse Foster picking up the telephone on the table next to Declan’s bed. Without thinking, Evan rushed toward her, shoving her with all of his force. Nurse Foster’s body jerked violently backward. The phone fell from her hand, and her body crashed into a heap onto the hard white floor. Her head snapped back against the unforgiving floor then bounced up slightly and fell against it again.