Drew Karpyshyn - Retribution

Kai Leng was still facing the wall. Anderson took the opportunity to set the shotgun down and gingerly pick up the pistol. Moving carefully, never taking his eyes off Kai Leng, he made his way over to where Kahlee was sitting beside Nick. She had her injured hands stuffed up inside the wound in the boy’s stomach, her arms trembling from exertion as she pressed with all her might.

“I’ve only got one hand,” Anderson warned her.

“You’ve got more good fingers than I do,” Kahlee reminded him. “Reach inside and press as hard as you can.”

“I assume this means I’m free to go,” Kai Leng said confidently.

He was still facing the wall, but he became bold enough to get to his feet. Anderson took careful aim with the pistol and fired. The bullet lodged itself in the thick muscles at the back of the assassin’s right thigh, causing him to cry out and drop back down to the floor.

Writhing on the ground, he reached his hands down to awkwardly try to clutch at the wound.

Anderson fired the trigger again, this time catching him in the calf of his other leg.

Kai Leng roared in pain and anger, then rolled onto his stomach and looked up at Anderson with death in his eyes.

“Security’s on its way,” Anderson noted. “If you want to get out of here you better hurry.”

Kai Leng flashed him a hateful grin, then turned and started crawling on his belly in the opposite direction in a desperate attempt to escape before reinforcements arrived.

Finally able to turn his full attention to Kahlee and her patient, Anderson let the pistol fall to the floor.

“Show me what to do,” he said.

“Reach into the wound and follow along my fingers,” Kahlee told him.

Anderson followed her instructions, carefully pressing his hand up and into the warm, sticky hole in Nick’s abdomen.

“Feel that tube my fingers are pressing against?”

“Yeah. I think so.”

“When I pull my hands out, you press down on it as hard as you can. Whatever you do, don’t let go.”

“Got it.”

“On three. Ready? One … two … three!”

Kahlee slipped her hands out of the way, and blood began to seep from the wound as Anderson fumbled to get his own hand in position to clamp down on the bleeding.

“He’s still bleeding!” Anderson said, his voice frantic.

“Press harder!” Kahlee shouted. “As hard as you can!”

Anderson leaned the entire weight of his body into it, and the oozing blood slowed to one thin trickle.

“Good,” Kahlee said, standing up and patting him on the shoulder. “Can you hold it?”

“For a bit,” he answered. “But hurry.”

She didn’t need to be told twice. He heard her footsteps disappearing down the hall, and then he was alone with Grayson’s corpse and the dying boy.

Nick’s breathing had become rapid and shallow. His skin was so pale it looked like he’d been rolled in chalk, and beads of sweat covered his forehead.

“Don’t die on her, kid,” he whispered. “She’s lost too much today already.”

Kahlee was back inside of two minutes.

“How is he?” she asked as she set the med-kit on the floor beside him.

“Still with us,” Anderson replied.

She pulled out a hypodermic, grasping it clumsily in her palm because of her injured fingers, and injected it right through Nick’s pants and into his thigh.

Unlike the small amounts of medi-gel Anderson had been receiving from his suit, a concentrated dose could have immediate, almost miraculous, effects. The clotting agents would stop the bleeding and the biologocial nanides would begin to repair damaged tissue and cells. At the same time, the powerful sedative properties would send the patient into a state of virtual hibernation, the medically induced coma maintaining vital systems and preserving internal organs. Surgery would still be required for serious wounds, but except in the most extreme cases medi-gel could stabilize patients long enough to get them proper medical attention.

Within seconds Nick’s color returned and his breathing became slow and regular.

Kahlee leaned in and scanned his vitals with the omni-tool from the med-kit, clasping it awkwardly with both hands.

“It’s working,” she said. “You can let go.”

Anderson carefully slid his hand from the wound and rolled gingerly out of the way, giving Kahlee room to work.

From the med-kit she retrieved bandages and a thick tube of ointment. Unlike the liquid medi-gel she’d injected into Nick, this batch had been processed into a thick, gooey salve. She struggled to open the cap, her splinted fingers unable to find any purchase.

“Hold the tube,” Anderson said, reaching over with his one good hand to grasp the cap.

He twisted and the cap came loose. Kahlee spread the salve directly on and into the wound, then covered everything with a bandage. Using the omni-tool, she scanned him one final time, just to make sure nothing had been missed.

“I think he’s going to be okay,” she announced, wiping the back of her hand across her sweat-drenched brow.

“We make a good team,” Anderson remarked. “Maybe we should open a med-clinic.”

“You are looking for a job,” she reminded him. “It’s either that or—”

Anderson held up his hand, cutting her off mid-sentence. “Hear that?”

She tilted her head to the side. “Footsteps!”

Kahlee scrambled to her feet and began to yell at the top of her voice. “Over here! By the admin offices!”

Soon four security guards — two men and two women — came around the corner.

“We heard gunfire, so I figured we better send some reinforcements,” the woman in charge said. “I left the others to keep an eye on the children.”

She glanced down at the bloody carnage and Grayson’s mutated corpse, and her face became grim.

When she saw Nick, her expression changed to one of shock.

“I’m sorry,” she blurted out to Kahlee. “I don’t know how he got out of the cafeteria. I didn’t even notice he was gone!”

Kahlee shook her head. “It’s not your fault, Captain. And he’s going to be okay … though we should still get him to the hospital.”

The security chief nodded at one of the men in her detail, and he carefully picked Nick up off the floor.

“Hate to be the one to interrupt,” Anderson chimed in from where he was still sitting on the floor. “But maybe the rest of you should go after Kai Leng.”

“Right,” Kahlee agreed. “Asian male. Tattoo on the back of his neck. Not armed, but still dangerous.”

“Wounded in both legs,” Anderson added, pointing at the trail of blood drops leading off down the hall. “Shouldn’t be hard to find.”

While the guard carrying Nick set off at an easy pace so he wouldn’t unnecessarily jar the young man, the other guards sprinted off at a full run, leaving Kahlee and Anderson alone.

Kahlee crouched down beside him. “You look like you’re in pretty rough shape,” she said, holding up the omni-tool. “Better let me check you out, too.”

“In a minute,” Anderson told her. “After you say your goodbye.”

She glanced over at Grayson, then let her eyes fall to the floor. She got up, went slowly over to the body, and knelt down beside it.

Anderson turned away, giving her some privacy. He could hear her whispering, but he made no effort to listen in on what she was saying. When he heard the faint sound of Kahlee’s sobs, he couldn’t help but glance back to see if she was okay.

She was clasping Grayson’s hand in her lap, a few tears trickling down her cheeks. She brought his hand up to her lips and gave it a single soft kiss before letting it slide gently back to the floor. Then she wiped her eyes, took a deep breath, and got back on her feet.