"911, what is your emergency?"
"I need an ambulance at the Silver Lake Reservoir, eastern shore near the pump station," David said.His voice came out rough and breathless."A woman just fell from the sky into the water.I pulled her out and she is alive but unconscious.She is badly injured."
"Did you say she fell from the sky?"The dispatcher's tone shifted from routine to urgent.
"Yes.I saw her fall and hit the water.She is wearing some kind of harness."David looked at the woman more carefully now, trying to assess her injuries.Her lips were split and bleeding, and dark bruises were already forming on her arms and torso.
"Paramedics are on the way.Can you tell me if she is breathing?"
"Yes, but not well.Her breathing is shallow."
The dispatcher asked him several more questions about the woman's condition, and David answered as best he could.While he talked, he looked up at the night sky above the reservoir.He couldn’t see anything up there now, no sign of whatever had carried the woman into the air before she fell.
David kept the phone to his ear and knelt beside the woman, watching her chest rise and fall.She was alive, but barely.Whatever had happened to her tonight, she was lucky to have survived it.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The call had come in at 11:47 p.m., just as Agent Kim was brewing a fresh pot of coffee to carry them through the post-midnight hours.Miles had been reviewing crime scene photos for what felt like the hundredth time, a bit unsettled that he seemed to now be getting used to the absolutely wrecked condition of the bodies, when his phone rang.The call from local PD was brief, and the moment he heard "survivor" on the other end, he was already grabbing his jacket.
Kim had stayed behind at the field office to coordinate with the local units responding to the scene at the reservoir.Vic drove while Miles made calls to the hospital, trying to get information about the victim's condition and whether she would be able to speak with them.The answers had been frustratingly vague, but the keyword kept repeating: alive.And as far as Miles was concerned, that was the most important part.
Now, at 12:45 in the morning, Miles and Vic pushed through the sliding doors of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center into a world that existed in its own strange temporal bubble.The emergency department waiting room held maybe a dozen people scattered across rows of plastic chairs.A woman in scrubs sat behind the intake desk, typing on a computer with the practiced rhythm of someone deep into a night shift.The television mounted on the wall played a late-night talk show with the volume turned low enough to be unintelligible.An actress was laughing far too hard at Jimmy Fallon.
The smell hit Miles immediately.Antiseptic and floor cleaner, with underlying notes of coffee and something vaguely medicinal that he couldn't identify.The overhead lights were bright but somehow managed to make everything look washed out and pale.A janitor pushed a mop bucket past them, moving with the slow deliberation of someone who had hours of work ahead and no reason to rush.
Miles and Vic approached the intake desk and showed their credentials to the woman behind the computer.
"We're here about Lisa Anderson," Miles said."She was brought in about an hour ago from the Silver Lake Reservoir."
The woman checked her screen."She's in the ICU on the fourth floor.I'll call up and let them know you're coming."
They took the elevator, which smelled like stale coffee and carried a handwritten sign taped to the wall requesting that visitors keep voices down.The doors opened on the fourth floor to reveal a nurses' station bathed in the blue glow of multiple computer monitors.Two nurses sat behind the desk, one reviewing charts while the other spoke quietly into a phone.
A doctor intercepted them before they reached the station.She looked to be in her early forties with dark hair pulled back in a clip, and her scrubs showed the wear of a long shift.An ID badge identified her as Dr.Rachel Okonkwo.
"You're the FBI agents?"she asked.
"Yes," Vic said."Agents Stone and Sterling.How's Ms.Anderson?"
"Alive, which is remarkable given what she went through.She hit the water, yes, but from what I can tell, she free-fell for at least five hundred feet."Dr.Okonkwo gestured for them to follow her down a hallway lined with patient rooms.Most had their doors closed, but a few stood open to reveal the glow of monitors and the sleeping forms of patients."She has three fractured ribs, a hairline fracture in her left femur, and severe lacerations around her mouth.”
"Is she conscious?"Miles asked.
"She is, and she's insisting on speaking with law enforcement despite my very strong recommendation that she rest."Dr.Okonkwo stopped outside a room near the end of the hall."I'm allowing you ten minutes maximum.She's on pain medication and she needs to conserve her strength for a surgery she’ll be heading into in about two hours."
"We understand," Vic said.
Dr.Okonkwo pushed open the door and led them into the room.Lisa Anderson lay in the hospital bed with her upper body elevated at a slight angle.An IV line ran into her left arm, and monitors beeped softly beside the bed.Her face was pale and drawn, with dark circles under her eyes.The lacerations around her mouth had been cleaned and treated, but Miles could see the raw, angry wounds where something had cut deep into her lips.
Despite everything, Anderson's eyes were alert and focused when they entered the room.Dr.Okonkwo made a quick round of introductions and as she turned for the door to leave, she eyed Miles and Vic one more time and repeated: “Ten minutes.”
When the door was closed, they approached Lisa’s bedside.
"Ms.Anderson, I'm Special Agent Miles Sterling and this is Special Agent Victoria Stone," Miles said.“We're investigating the attacks involving weather balloons…as odd as that may sound.”
“Not…not the only one?”Lisa managed to ask.
“Believe it or not, no,” Vic said.“Are you able to answer some questions?"
