Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (Book 3)
Savage Dawn (this book - Book 4)
VIOLENCE WARNING: The two stories in the Savage Gang saga, and especially the second story, involve a gang practicing extreme violence toward everyone — women, the elderly, the protagonist, etc. The stories contain mature sexual content and violence as well. I am placing this warning on all chapters, including those without such violence, so you can choose whether to continue.
CHAPTER 39
With a groan, Olivia Lockheed put a hand to her head and tried to get her bearings. There had been an explosion. That much she realized. She had been a few feet inside the vault when a massive force hit her, coming from outside the steel enclosure. It had thrown her to the floor as a deafening sound reverberated around her.
The explosion could have occurred seconds or even hours ago — she had no way to determine how long she had been unconscious, or if she had been unconscious at all. Lockheed sat on the concrete floor and took a quick inventory of herself. Her ears were ringing, but she seemed to be otherwise unscathed. She said a silent prayer of thanks.
She looked behind her, toward the entrance to the vault, and stiffened in shock. A tangled pile of debris blocked the doorway, with the glow of flames peaking through it. The flicker of the flames provided the only illumination in the darkened vault.
Then she remembered Harper and Grim. They had not been as fortunate as she had. Grim had been in the main room, from where the force of the explosion had come. He was still out there, past the debris, and probably dead.
Harper had been behind her, in the doorway. Was she buried in the debris? Lockheed remembered a form catapulting past her, further into the vault. Could that have been Harper? The FBI woman raised her eyes to search for the other woman, but dust and smoke choked the air, making it difficult to breathe and to see. She coughed and put her arm over her mouth, calling out.
“Harper!” she yelled. There was no answer. She fished around in her jacket pocket and found her iPhone, activated the flashlight, and scanned the area ahead of her.
Lockheed scrabbled deeper into the vault on one hand and on her knees, holding her iPhone in front of her as she searched. She grew more desperate, with the vault feeling liking a crypt with each passing second. Finally, the light revealed a human-shaped form crumpled a few feet away. Beth Harper lay askew, with an arm and leg draped over the broken remains of the computer stand, and her back and head resting against the far wall of the vault. Scattered debris from the outer room was strewn around her, with some of it impaling the computer. Harper's eyes were closed, and she wasn’t moving. She looked dead.
Lockheed scrambled to the smaller woman’s side.
“Harper!” she yelled again as she searched for signs of life. Feeling at Harper’s neck, she found a slight pulse and breathed a sigh of relief.
Lockheed’s relief was short-lived, as the air become harder to breathe and her coughing started anew. She turned and saw smoke pouring into the vault through even the smallest gaps in the debris. She needed to get out of here.
Lockheed looked at the screen of her phone. The device had service, so with shaking hands she dialed 9-1-1.
When the operator answered, Lockheed interrupted the man. “I am at the T.L. Grim Gun Shop in York,” Lockheed shouted, unable to gauge the volume of her own voice with her damaged hearing. “There’s been an explosion, and two of us are trapped in a vault in the back of the building. You’re going to need to holler so I can hear you!”
“We dispatched responders a few minutes ago, miss. Give me a moment while I tell them your location.”
A few minutes ago. The news gave Lockheed at least some indication of how long she had been in the vault. She squatted above Harper as she waited for the dispatcher to come back on the line.
“Okay, miss, they are aware of your location and will be with you in no time at all.”
Lockheed frowned at his attempts at reassurance. Perhaps the rescue efforts would prove him right, but the man was probably trained to calm panicked callers, even if he needed to lie.
“What is your condition, and the condition of the other person?” he asked in a loud voice.
“Aside from my hearing, I think I'm fine. But she is unconscious. She needs help.”
“And was there anyone else in the building?” As he spoke, Lockheed realized his voice seemed to grow louder. Her hearing was coming back.
“Just the owner. But I don’t know what happened to him. I don’t see him in the vault.” Lockheed normally exuded confidence, almost to the point of arrogance, but her voice was shaking. “They need to hurry. It’s getting hard to breathe in here.”
“They will be there soon. You should tear something off of your shirt, and put it over your mouth, and stay low to the ground. Stay calm. Help is on the way.”
“I need to check on her,” Lockheed said. “I’m putting the phone down.” She slipped the phone into her rear pants pocket and moved her hands over Harper’s arms and legs with a clinical detachment. This wasn’t how she had once imagined touching the smaller woman. Lockheed wasn’t a doctor, but had received first aid training as part of her job, and as best she could tell, there were no broken bones.
Lockheed sank down next to Harper, with her back against the wall, and returned the phone to her ear. It was getting harder to breathe.
“I don’t know how much longer we can make it,” she told the man. “Where are they?”
“They’re at the scene, working their way toward you.”
Lockheed coughed and wheezed as she struggled to get oxygen into her lungs. She could hear what sounded like rushing water outside the door. The noise continued for several minutes, until the flicker of flames beyond the debris subsided, and darkness settled on the interior of the vault.
She sank lower to the ground and tried to take shallower breaths. She reached for her shirt to tear off a strip, but didn't have the energy to finish the job. The fire was out, but smoke continued to stream into the vault. Her mind grew foggy, and her chin nodded to her chest. She struggled to keep her eyes open as new sounds — crashing and booming — sounded on the other side of the debris. The room grew brighter, but not before Lockheed faded away into unconsciousness.
Rocco Lynch strode into the Savage Gang’s underground layer, plotting the gang’s next move in his mind. Lockheed was out of the way, and there was no way for the authorities to trace the act back to the gang, just as Savage wanted. Michaels was the only one left. The young FBI agent would be dead soon, too, once Lynch concocted a way to eliminate the man without calling attention to the gang — if that was even possible. Two FBI deaths within a few hours would be hard to explain away. Lynch found it odd that Savage cared so much about anonymity on these hits, but Lynch wouldn't dare cross the gang leader now. Once Michaels was dead, Lynch would report back to Savage.
“Have you found him yet?” he asked the muscular thug next to him.
The man nodded. “Yes, but you’ll want to see this.” He pointed to the television set mounted in the corner of the dark room. It depicted footage from a local news station at the scene of the explosion. The remains of the building smoldered in the background, behind a pretty brunette who stood in front of the camera, microphone in hand.
“We don’t want to speculate,” the reporter said, “but two ambulances have just sped from the scene. We believe they are headed to the nearest hospital.”
Lynch’s jaw dropped, and his fists clenched. “Mother fucker!” he exclaimed. Impossible.
“I guess they’re not all corpses after all,” the man next to him remarked.
Lynch spun, rage in his eyes, and lashed out with a punch, smashing his fist into the man’s nose. The man, who was almost as massive as Lynch, sank to his knees as blood gushed everywhere.
“Get him out of here!” Lynch snarled at the other men in the room. As they complied with his order, he turned back to the television set. Lockheed and Harper could still be dead. The ambulances could have carried patrons or employees of the shop. Deep inside, though, he knew better. He had staked out the shop before Lockheed and Harper had arrived, and he was fairly certain Tip Grim was the only other person in the building. In a best-case scenario, Grim was in one ambulance, which meant either Lockheed or Harper had perished. With luck, it was Lockheed. Harper, as far as he could tell, was inconsequential.
The reporter continued speaking. “We have received confirmation of at least one fatality in this horrific accident. Authorities have not released the name of the victim, but we know it was an adult male.”
Lynch had to restrain himself from putting a fist through the television. Instead, he closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and took a deep breath. He wondered if he would survive this failure.
Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (Book 3)
Savage Dawn (this book - Book 4)
.....I’m having a hard time believing that you were actually planning on killing off Beth. This entire series revolves around her, and unless we’ve taken the time to build up another character who could potentially fill in (which we likely haven’t), then I’m almost certain she survives this. Maybe Lockheed saves her, but she dies in the process? Because there was Grim, Lockheed, and Beth there, and two ambulances were speeding away, implying at least one survivor. Huh.....two ambulances, three known people inside the shop.....let’s see......
1) Everyone died except Beth. Grim is the “adult male” mentioned by the reporter, the two ambulances could probably be holding Beth and.....Grim’s wife.....? My memory’s a little spotty; the story definitely suggested that Grim was the only other person at the shop besides a Beth and Lockheed. Or Beth and Lockheed are in each ambulance; workers try to revive Lockheed but fail, but are successful in getting Beth back up.
2) Maybe the “adult male” could be someone else entirely? Conner was on his way to his trip, and Ethan was out on a run. Maybe one of them could’ve infiltrated the shop prior to the attack and attempted to stop it? The two ambulances are holding Beth and Lockheed, and both of them get revived, but Grim, Grim’s wife, and the other person die?
3) Rather comically, Beth could die and Lockheed could become the new Sapphire Angel. .....I would NOT want to see her in that costume, though. I might just need to bleach my eyes to the point of blindness if that happened. At least she (Beth) would be together with John again!
4) Or EVERYONE dies, the gun shop attack is a brutal victory on the Savage Gang’s part, Lynch continues to be Savage’s second, and the Gang successfully takes over Harrisburg. Boom, novel over, on to Book 5.
I know I could go to that different site if I wanted to binge-read the rest of the story without waiting in between chapters, but I’d need to dedicate a big block of time to that, and as much as the suspense keeps me on edge.....I’m too lazy to do anything about it. xD