e before she slung
the camera on her shoulder.
Turning to the medics, she said, "Okay, he's all yours," then she produced a
man's handkerchief from her jacket pocket and used it to pick up Nassir's
weapon. She moved to stand near Cade and look him over as the medics hoisted
Nassir onto a gurney and pushed the gurney away.
"Get any blood on you?" she asked.
Turning completely around for her examination, Cade said, "Don't think so.
He went down fast and hard."
As he turned back to face her, Carter said, "You look clean enough to me.
Let's get out of their way," and thumbed at the glass doors to the street.
Two guys with janitorial gear hurried across the lobby and began cleaning up
the blood in the doorway. As soon as they'd finished, another guy covered the
bullet holes in the archway ceiling with a large cardboard poster that said,
"Keep looking up!" and pictured a spaceship with a little green man leaning out
of the cockpit to smilingly wave at the reader.
Bartow and Evans had already been helped to the ambulance and Royce and
Davies had replaced them. Carter tapped Cade's arm to get his attention, then
pointed at his now-clean doorway. He nodded and stepped over to take his
position before the doors.
Cade said, "Some people saw me grab the MAC when I opened the door."
"We know," said Carter. "John's got someone on them. Are you okay, Cade?"
With a shrug, Cade said, "I could use a coffee."
Nodding, Carter said, "Yeah, me, too. Later, Cade. Good job," and turned to
head back to her camera room.
Fifteen minutes or so later, Cade heard the announcer hand out the prizes
for first, second, and third place. The other contestants were heartily thanked
and given surprise consolation prizes in the form of twenty-dollar dealer's room
gift certificates, then the band cranked up.
Through Cade's earpiece came, "Open the doors now," and he kicked the stops
back up on his doors, opened them, and stood to one side of the alcove as people
left the ballroom.
It was a short rush of people; some headed for the restrooms or the
escalators, but most of those gathered in the ballroom remained seated because
the evening's entertainment would continue until around midnight.
Maybe ten minutes later John made his way to Cade through the swarming
people and eyed the alcove for a moment before he said, "Both backpacks were
full of plastique. It didn't really matter whic