Several hours passed with no word from Burdelac. The atmosphere was getting strained again: Mara paced the perimeter of the interrogation room like a caged tiger, the sound of her footsteps broken only by Inna humming to himself and Thanh drumming along with him on her thighs.

Rede had been curled up in her chair for a while now; her legs were starting to cramp. She stretched them out in front of her and stared at her muddy sneakers through eyes blurred by exhaustion. She contemplated taking a nap.

A series of shouts and thuds startled her out of her reverie.

“The hell…?” Shay slid off the table and cracked the door. The volume of the shouts rose, setting Rede’s heart pounding. She and the rest of the crew got to their feet and clustered around Shay.

“…sterile room,” someone was saying. “There’s a field kit in the back somewhere…”

“We’ve got to stop the bleeding first,” someone else butted in. The voices were getting louder, along with the stutter-stop pounding of feet burdened by excessive weight.

“Field kit has a tourniquet,” insisted the first voice.

Through the crack in the door, the crew watched as a pair of officers shuffled past, a limp body suspended between their shoulders. One of them opened the door to the next room over. With panicked breaths and grunts of effort, the trio disappeared inside.

“I’m first aid trained.” Shay swung the door wide open. “I can go help.”

Rede grabbed her arm. “They’ve got it under control.”

Shay squirmed out of Rede’s grasp. “I can help,” she insisted. Before any of the others could protest, she had bolted into the neighboring room.

Another officer jogged past, a half-zipped bulletproof vest bouncing with each step. He clutched a portable surgical kit in one hand and a crackling walkie-talkie in the other.

Thanh nudged Rede out of the way, half-jogging down the hallway toward the front of the station. Though she had no idea what Thanh planned to do, Rede found herself right behind her friend. The rest of the crew didn’t hesitate to follow.

Hollingsworth and Burdelac were the only occupants of the office space. Currently, they stood near the locked door and talked in hushed tones, arms crossed and posture defensive. When they heard the paddlers enter, their conversation ground to a half, heads swiveling to face the newcomers.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“What happened?” Thanh asked. She sounded more questioning than aggressive, a fact for which Rede gave silent thanks.

“Ronan got violent.” Hollingsworth tried to sound matter-of-fact, but they couldn’t keep the tense undercurrent out of their voice.

“Ronan?” Thanh repeated incredulously. “I thought you went to find Ducky?”

“We did,” Hollingsworth snapped. “Squad boat tracked him down at Ronan’s hideout, found him and Ronan’s crew in a shootout, tried to talk, got caught in the crossfire.”

A moment of shock silenced the crew.

“Ronan wouldn’t ignore you guys, though,” Mara insisted. “He’s smarter than that.”

“That’s what we thought, too,” said Burdelac. He fiddled with the buttons of his uniform. “Apparently, things got too heated for anyone to think clearly.”

“Why?” Inna shifted his weight from foot to foot.

“Unclear.” Hollingsworth’s lips thinned. “It seems out of character, but then again, he is a criminal. We can’t always predict what they’re going to do.”

Mara bristled, but Rede’s hand on her arm kept her from snapping. Instead, she gathered herself to ask, “Is there any sign of Mimi?”

“Our top priority right now is taking care of our wounded officer,” Burdelac explained, with all the exaggerated patience of a teacher explaining shapes to a toddler. “Your friend is very important to us, but we need to make sure the people who can find her are safe.”

Rede technically couldn’t argue with that logic, though her every instinct screamed that it was wrong.

“If we can help at all, just tell us,” Inna said.

“Absolutely.” Burdelac gave a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

The paddlers slunk back to the interrogation room, silent except for the clack of their footsteps in the empty office space.

When they arrived in the interrogation room, they pretended not to hear the faint moans and grunts of pain that penetrated the supposedly soundproof walls. They stared at one another in mute shock.

“He wouldn’t do that,” Mara said finally.

“We didn’t know him,” Inna pointed out.

“How well do you have to know somebody to know that they wouldn’t shoot a damn cop?” Mara threw her hands in the air. “He seemed reasonable enough not to do that.”

Rede nodded. She hadn’t known the man very long, but he didn’t seem like the type to open fire on a boatful of officers. Besides, the scenario made no sense. Any two jackers involved in a shootout should turn tail as soon as the cops showed up, not keep going — let alone turn on the cops themselves. That would be all but a death sentence.

“What if he had a good reason?” said Thanh.

The others looked at her blankly.

“Look, I’m just saying.” Thanh shoved her hands in her pockets and chewed her bottom lip. “If I knew some douchebag had kidnapped a friend of a friend, who just so happens to be a tiny little sweetheart who can’t fight for shit, and the cops are trying to stop me from shooting the kidnappers? I might be mad enough not to care who I hit.”

A cold, sludgy feeling settled into Rede’s stomach.

“Hypothetically.” Thanh glanced at the camera in the corner.

“But he’s…” Inna trailed off. He didn’t need to say it out loud; they all knew Ronan was their one real ally. The prospect of not only Ducky, but also the cops being angry enough to attack him turned Rede’s blood to ice. Judging by the looks on her friends’ faces, she wasn’t alone.

Mara put her face in her hands.

Rede pinched the bridge of her nose. “We need to talk to Shay.”