~*~
“Mrs. Bender.” A plainclothes officer stood outside the front entrance waving at Ellen as she walked out through the front doors of the main building. He stood in front of a patrol car with flashing lights, parting the stream of evacuees that flooded out of the main entrance. He glanced down at a leather packet that was strapped to his left forearm, then back to Ellen’s face. “I’ve been assigned to locate you and move you to safety, ma’am,” he said politely but firmly as he escorted her to the back seat of the cruiser.
“My husband is still in there,” Ellen protested as she climbed in.
The officer looked in at her with a frown. “Is he on his way out?”
“I’m not sure,” she responded in a quiet voice. The way he said ‘I love you’ seemed a bit too final, she thought.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but I’ve only been told to pick you up.” A loud booming noise sounded from somewhere near the river, followed by the sound of heavy machine gun fire. The officer looked over his shoulder as if expecting Frank to appear. “We need to move now.” He shut the door and ran around to the front of the vehicle.
Hitting the siren, he began to move aggressively through the crowd in the roundabout, leaning on the horn and alarm chirper to clear the way. Once on 1st Avenue, he turned right and accelerated hard, braking before the turn onto East 44th and nailing the gas again. I might just get killed by my rescuer, thought Ellen as she slid against the right side door. She scrambled to get her seatbelt on as they swerved around the late lunchtime traffic. The congestion grew heavier, slowing their progress as they approached a massive office tower looming above 44th.
He weaved his way past a stopped cab and raced across Lexington, driving straight into an underground parking structure. He turned right and pulled into a spot against the heavy concrete wall. Hopping out, he opened the back door.
Ellen was just unbuckling her seatbelt when a hand clamped over her face, holding a cold wet cloth over her nose and mouth. Kidnapping? she managed to wonder before everything went black.