Page 3 of Rookie Days

“Hey, guys?” Ellie wished her voice didn’t sound so damn brittle and desperate when she found it... She cleared her throat, managed a bit better. “Look at this.”

Incongruously, in the middle of all the other stuff, a teddy bear lay on the floor next to the bed.

“Sick,” Mike muttered.

Quinn did not flinch but Ellie noticed her eyes darken.

“Let’s find the kids and get them out of this hellhole,” she snapped.

The hallway ended at a single, locked, reinforced steel door. Quinn banged her fist over it a couple of times.

“Police! Anybody in there?” she shouted, then stuck her ear to the door.

Ellie did the same, holding her breath in anticipation.

“Crying,” she exclaimed. “I can hear crying in there.”

“Yeah. We— Whoa, Mike!” Quinn stopped him stepping forward to shoot at the door. “Get us the battering ram down here, I don’t want to risk injuring anyone.”

“Yeah, okay.” He took off like a shot.

“Kids?” Ellie shouted. “It’s the police, okay? We’re going to get you out!”

From the other side of the door came some dim yet no less urgent pounding.

“They’re screaming.” Ellie’s head spun a little at the mix of hope and terror that she could detect in the young voices, even through a thick layer of steel. Once again, she struggled to catch her breath. She looked at Quinn. “Lieutenant—”

“They’re alive,” Quinn muttered. “They’re alive, okay.” She shouted again. “My name is Quinn, I’m a police officer. I want you to tell me your names, one by one.”

There was a short pause, and then:

“Anna!”

“Belle!”

“I’m Carter!”

“HELP US!”

“We’re coming for you,” Ellie yelled back, not caring that her voice cracked a little. “Step away so we can break down this door!”

Quinn glanced at her, eyes flashing in dark satisfaction.

“Castro’s going down forever for this.”

“I hope so,” Ellie murmured.

“Don’t hope. I’m telling you.”

chapter 2

Ellie blinked in the strobing lights of emergency vehicles parked in front of the building as they came out with the kids. Back-up police cruisers, three ambulances, and at least two News vans that she could see, lined the street. Didn’t take long for the media to show up... Camera flashes went off, a reporter shouted something that she did not catch from behind a line of regulatory police tape, and the young boy in her arms hid his face against the side of her shoulder. He was shaking.

“It’s okay, Carter,” she promised in reassurance.

“Don’t let them come near! Please, don’t leave me!”

He clung to her as they reached the first ambulance.