Adele and Johnmoved further into the room. The two Serbians turned, scowling when theyrealized it was only two agents approaching. One of them began to move towardhis gun again, but John barked, “Don’t.” The gunman’s eyes met John’s and hewent stiff, as if staring into the reaper’s own gaze.
Pale-faced, heretracted his hand from the weapon and put it back in the air.
“Interlock yourfingers behind your head!” Adele continued to shout. Again, the men seemedreluctant to comply, especially now they realized they weren’t outnumbered, butagain, John’s weapon and Adele’s presence forced compliance. They interlockedtheir fingers, and after another series of instructions dropped to their knees,still glaring daggers.
Once they wereboth on the ground, John moved with three rapid strides, far faster than Adelethought anyone his size should be able to move, and he reached the men. Hekicked out twice, sending both of them sprawling onto their bellies, theirhands still behind their heads. The tall agent dropped on the first man,shoving a knee deep into his spine and then pulling out his cuffs.
“Keep them there,”John said, looking up at Adele. His eyes were still vacant, swimming withadrenaline and rage.
Adele steadiedher weapon on the second man. Her gaze flicked over to the heart-rate monitor.The doctor still stood by the operating table, his scalpel having beendiscarded moments ago. Two shallow cuts slashed the bare-chested man on thetable, but beyond that, he seemed unharmed. Adele pointed to the victim. “Is hehurt?” she demanded.
She spoke inGerman, and the doctor’s eyebrows rose. He replied in German, shaking his head.“This is all a big mistake; no, he’s fine. This is voluntary. He volunteered,”the doctor kept repeating, pointed to the man on the table.
“Shut up,” Adelesnapped.
The Germandoctor began to protest even more, but then her gun swiveled from the secondman on the ground toward him, and he fell silent. Adele reached back andunhitched her own cuffs from her belt, lifting them from behind her jacket andtossing them to John.
The tall agenthad already moved over and was jamming his knee into the back of the secondSerbian. The men in cuffs were looking at their fallen comrades, mutteringbeneath their breaths in a foreign language.
John’s aim hadbeen true; he’d caught two corpses with bullets straight to their heads.
Adele shifted, turningaway from her partner and glancing to the table with the victim. He had dirtbeneath his fingernails, and his hair was matted. His clothing looked old,where it lay discarded beneath the table, next to an open cooler.
Adele stared atthe clothes and her eyes darted back to the man. “I think he’s homeless,” shesaid to John.
But at just thatmoment, John let out a shout. Adele whirled around to face him, but realized hewas lunging toward her. She took a startled step back, then felt a sudden flashof pain across her cheek, and rounded again to find the German doctor breathingheavily, scalpel in hand.
He was cursingat her in German, shaking his head wildly, declaring, “A mistake! Just amistake.”
John was cursingand clutched at his hand. Adele glanced down and noticed he had caught thebrunt of the scalpel against his palm. Blood seeped through his fingers fromwhere he had inserted himself between the blade and Adele. She leveled herweapon on the doctor and began to shout, but at the same time, the gunman whoJohn had been trying to secure only had one wrist cuffed.
Seizing thisopportunity, the gunman lurched for his weapon. Adele spotted this the sametime as John, and both their eyes widened. The Serbian, screaming at the top ofhis lungs, raised his weapon, aiming at John, and he fired.
Adele didn’thave time to think. She didn’t have time to plan. Like a coin flip, at the sametime as the Serbian’s weapon rose, Adele’s own hand brought hers up. There weresimultaneous blasts of gunfire.
A bullet foundits mark.
The Serbiandropped dead to the ground.
John stood,frozen, staring at the heartbeat monitor directly to his left—a bullet holeburied into the vibrant screen. Unlike the movies, there were no sparks orsmoke. It had simply died.
Like the threeSerbians on the ground.
The finalmobster was trembling now, cursing and shaking his head. He was staring at thethird man who had fallen, a look of pain in his eyes.
A brother? Acousin? A friend? Adele wasn’t sure. A part of her cared, but another, angrierpart of her wished she could’ve put him down as well.
Adele scowled,keeping her gun trained on the man on the ground as John secured the doctor. Heused a discarded IV bag to tie the German doctor’s hands behind his back,securing the bonds tightly until the doctor grunted in pain.
“Don’t try thatagain,” John snarled beneath his breath.
The doctorreplied in French, but John ignored him, shoving him to the ground and sendingthe man stumbling next to the corpse of his fallen friend. Four bodies. Threeof them their doing. Adele felt sick. She resisted the urge to turn and stareat the corpses. She wasn’t sure she could keep her lunch if she did.
In the distancenow, she heard sirens approaching.
“Does that makeus even?” she said, in a trembling voice. John looked over from where he stoodby the operating table and murmured quietly to the man strapped to the coldmetal. The homeless man looked out of it.
“What was that?”John asked, glancing up at her.
Adele shook herhead. “Never mind.”
John regardedthe Serbian who had fired at him, then back at Adele. He seemed stuck for amoment, but then his head bobbed. “Yes, I guess it does. I appreciate it.”
Adele wanted tosay something clever. But all she managed was a shuddering sigh, her ownemotions rising like a wave in her chest.
Three dead. Twosuspects. Hopefully they would be enough to find the killer.
Still, somethingabout the scene just felt too real. Adele was used to investigating people afterthey had died. But this time, she had arrived to save someone’s life. That wasrare. Somehow, it left her with an uneasy feeling in her gut.
She tried not tothink of the scalpel or how close it had been to the homeless man’s chest. Shetried not
