Clarke walked along calmly, actually enjoying his short trip to the hospital. The sky actually had some blue hiding behind the clouds. It was a vast improvement over the usual depressing gray skies. The sun was shining and it was warm. Perfect conditions, as far as Clarke cared, turning the last corner to the hospital. Truly, the beautiful weather was a sign of better things to come.

And then he saw the police cars.

Half a dozen police cars with flashing lights were parked outside the hospital, forming a perimeter. Police had their guns drawn while taking cover wherever they could find it. Clarke stared in horror for a moment before snapping himself back into the moment. He rushed the police line, pushing his way through a pair of cops trying to hold him back.

“Hold on! Stop!” one officer said, who Clarke recognized as Lieutenant McLoren. “You can’t go in there!”

“Get out of my way!” Clarke said, ready to throw McLoren aside like a ragdoll.

“Sir, there’s a hostage situation going on inside the hospital. I need you to stay back”

“All the more reason for me to get inside!”

“Why? Who do you think you are? Richard Clarke?”

Clarke decided that the best way to argue now was to change form again, remaking himself in the image McLoren first met him in. His hair shortened and grew wiry, he lost his muscle mass and he looked thinner and more sickly. He didn’t have his trenchcoat with him, so he only wore a dirty suit, minus the blazer.

“Oh,” McLoren said in surprise. “So you are—”

“How many are in there?!” Clarke demanded.

McLoren hated sending someone inside too early, but if it was Clarke, they might have a chance. He gazed through the windows with his binoculars as he talked. “We think there are at least three, maybe four, shooters inside. They have at least four-dozen hostages, including staff and patients, but we don’t know how well they’re doing. We haven’t been able to establish contact with them yet. The negotiator is on his way.”

However, when McLoren looked up, he couldn’t see Clarke anymore. He turned back to the front doors of the hospital, only to see them already closing.

XXXXXXXX

Three shots rang out in the crowded hospital room.

“Thank you for joining us ladies and gentlemen,” Frederick Garcia said as he and one other thug slowly paced the huddled, fearful mass in the squared emergency room. “My name is Freddie G. I’m sorry that we had to drag the rest of you in like this, but you see, I’m looking for a traitor. You all hate traitors, don’t you?”

The crowd of doctors, nurses and patients sat with their hands on their heads, most too afraid to look up. The emergency room was so crowded that the hostages spilled into the hall, forcing the doors open and leaving an open view of the hallway. Some answered Freddie G’s questions with a nod, and one surgeon even responded with a nervous, “Yes”. Freddie G just smiled at the control he already had over them.