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Breaking the silence, Logan sighs beside me. “Jack, I—”
But he’s cut short.
Out of nowhere, a loud beeping echoes hard into the room, and I look at Logan, who reflects my confusion.
We turn our attention into the room. It seems to be coming from the computer Jessa was working on, and almost instantly, a cabinet to the side of Jessa jerks to life.
The doors on the cabinet bang once, then burst open from the inside.
First a duffel bag is thrown into the room, quickly followed by someone in a gas mask. They’re crawling out of the cabinet and across the room to Jessa’s lifeless body.
They unzip the bag, and the emergency kit that should have been on our wall is removed. Then the person pulls out an air tester, holding it in front of their mask as both Logan and I watch, dumbfounded.
They must have gotten a clear read, because they waste no time dropping it and tearing off their mask. It’s Waldo, and he digs into the emergency kit.
I brace my palms against the glass. “Waldo? What the fu—?”
“Sorry, boss. Can’t talk,” he stammers as his focus turns to Jessa and he slides in beside her still body.
“Jack, let him work. He still has time. Not much, but hopefully it’s enough.” Logan watches patiently beside me as we witness our teammate go to work on the only thing I want in this life.
As I watch, confusion sets in.
What was Waldo doing in the room to begin with?
Placing an oxygen mask over her face, Waldo turns back to the kit and quickly removes syringes and vials. Then he starts to fill one and injects the contents into a vein in her arm.
As I watch him work, moving around her body, hope returns. Hope is all I have left until I have her back, and I take a deep breath to clear my head.
“I have a pulse. It’s faint. She’s breathing. I’m starting the amyl nitrate.” Waldo updates us without looking up.
In all truth, I have no idea what he’s talking about. I never thought in my lifetime we would use the cyanide. And even if we did, it never occurred to me that we’d need to bring someone back from it.
“We’re coming back online in one minute.” Link’s voice is confident, and my attention shifts between Jessa and the door as I watch Waldo’s final attempt.
With ten seconds to go, everything slows around me, and as the time reaches zero, there’s a deep gasp for breath from inside the comms room.
Click.
I’m through the doors and at her other side as she struggles for air, and her eyes shoot open and land on mine. Before I can say anything, her body jerks in shock, and I reach across her from my side as Waldo holds her steady.
“You have an oxygen mask on. Stay still. We’re going to—Jessa?” Dread creeps into my relief as her eyes slowly close on me.
“She’s okay, Jack. Her vitals are better now, but her body is tired. I need to keep her out of shock. Let her rest.” Waldo continues to work around her.
Grizz joins us in the room. When he moves to take my place at her side, I hesitate. I don’t want to let her go. Life is coming back into her fragile body, and I don’t want her to be without me. I don’t want to be without her.
“Jack, let Grizz take over. Link’s called back all teams. We need to debrief. Jessa needs you to keep working right now.” Logan grounds me with her name.
He’s right. Our team is the best there is. I can’t do any more for her than Grizz and Waldo can, but I can get to work on damage control.
A nod to Logan, and I’m up and ready to work with renewed fervor.
“Link, status,” I bark into my headset while the men work away on securing Jessa to a stretcher to move her to our sick bay.
“She did it. We have everything, and our servers are intact for the time being. Our team is running diagnostics and closing any gaps, but we are secure.”
“Define ‘everything.’” I need this to be over. For Jessa’s sake, she can’t continue like this. This was the final hand she could have played, and I need it to be a game ender.
