2007-11-24: One Man's Trash Is Another Man's Treasure

Starring:

Cass_icon.gif Lee_icon.gif Niki_icon.gif Cam_icon.gif Samantha_icon.gif Namir_icon.gif

Guest Starring: ???

Summary: As more sick trail toward Cass's labs, wanting to get rid of the virus, someone out there wants it — and as certain people in Seville Medical find out, will go to violent lengths to get it.

Date It Happened: November 24th, 2007

One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure


Seville Medical

Brooklyn, New York

It's a little while after Niki called and Cass has started to get things together for Cam's arrival. A mass of ice packs are ready in the refrigerator, there are also a cot with sheets and pillows ready. She also is ready to take his blood as well as all the other medical things that normally come with checking into a hospital. Except for now it's a lab. The work she's been doing before that has been carefully labeled and put away for the time being.

Somewhere above the lab Cass is preparing in, Niki walks slowly down one of the corridors of the Seville Medical center. Her hand in Cam's, she wants to make sure he can keep up. A figure in mostly black - winter coat (faux fur trim around the hood in a warmer shade, brown) — and trim-fitting pants that disappear into black boots, the sky blue scarf around her neck is the only punch of colour. She insisted on draping a light winter coat over Cam's shoulders, lest anyone wonder why she's letting the kid wander outside without protection against the cold. "I think it's this way…"

Lee hangs around Bat Country every so often despite his loud (obnoxious?) disdain for powers, because his father was last seen here doing dastardly deeds, and who knows what might come of that? Lee's particular expertise being in French literature of the 19th century, he's more or less useless, except for the very thinnest sliver of productivity - like most of what Lee does, it's something nobody except him would ever consider, care about, or think about.

It comes from Lee being a civics teacher who is interested in his job and thinks this place would do a lot better with less horrendously massive ethical breaches caused by essentially unsupervised human experimentation. Thus, when at Bat County, Lee does what he can to reduce its improvised experimental protocols to writing, read, review, redline, and document. When it's as accurate as feasible, he then compares the result to "real" experimental protocols run at real laboratories by real doctors instead of "med school dropouts and psychic jerkoffs" as he is wont to characterize them. That way when something inevitably goes hideously wrong and everyone ends up sued into oblivion, at least there'll be the slightest shred of a defense, enough that everyone will be bankrupted and not imprisoned - living in boxcars and not in jail. He could care less about the patients, does not speak to them and does his best to ignore that they are here, just fussing away on his laptop with his three-ring binders and occasionally making nasty remarks about one turn of events or another. He's the only one that treats this place like a regular hospital - you know, the sort of place where insurance paperwork is a life-and-death priority. He has no idea what's coming down the pipe tonight.

Of course, seeing as Cam feels like it's the middle of summer outside, even with the coat being just draped around his shoulders he's really sweating, especially as they get inside. Still, tired and pale, he follows Niki along without complaint, except taking the coat off the instant they're inside and just carrying it.

It's been one hell of a month, with Cass holed up in the lab and Lachlan doing his best to juggle work and dealing while trying to also pop in now and again to visit his fiance (just so he doesn't forget what she looks like). Both businesses have been growing lately in spite of his attempts to leave one. A little sleep-deprived and working on a bit of illness himself (thankfully not the Shanti virus), the Scot has just stepped into the lab bearing a bag of takeout. He's dressed warmly and looks worn. "Anyone home?"

Niki and Cam are, indeed heading the right way. As Cass goes about getting things ready for Cam, she keeps giving Lee looks as he works away at his laptop. It's not that she minds him being here, it's that when she's this tired and has this little patience for anything, especially snarky comments. It's kind of like she's just waiting for him to say something to set her off. But, she's trying to keep herself in check. As Lachlan comes in, she studies him, because he's been looking down and tired lately. "Have you taken her temperature?" she asks him in lieu of a hello. She's worried and doesn't want him to be someone else who has caught the virus. "What is that?" she asks, indicating the bag, not exactly accusing, but cautious.

Lee worksworksworks. He looks aghast at one piece of paper, then compares it to another piece of paper, letting out a low groan of pain that typically only comes when students begin a sentence with: 'The three branches of governments…' A big red Sharpie crosses out a huge swath of text, and he writes 'NO' in the margin. He nods to Lachlan as he comes in, but seems satisfied just to write.

As Niki and Cam walk their slow way towards Bat Country, through the halls of the medical center, the pretty little evolved lady might just notice something very interesting. Or…rather disturbing. There are doors down the hallways she walks down, and all are closed. All but one. That one is hanging just slightly open, it looks like its being stopped by something from closing all the way.

…something that looks like a hand.

…that’s not moving hardly at all.

"Almost there! Cass'll get you taken care of," Niki reassures the boy as they turn the corner and … wait … a second, something's not right here. On seeing the one open door, with its unconventional doorstop, she instinctively blocks Cam from going any further with her forearm in the same moment that her steps slow and she stares. She looks down the hallway and back and, not seeing anyone right away, takes Cam's hand again and starts to sneak along the far wall — past the body. "Stay close to me," she tells him quietly as they make their way to Bat Country — where she gives the door an urgent pounding.

Cam, of course, is pretty perceptive even as sick as he is. One doesn't make a good thief if one can't pick out details. As soon as Niki stops him, he's looking to see what's caught her attention. When he does, his eyes widen, but he keeps following after Niki, though glancing back as he does. "What if that person needs help?"

"'M fine, s'just a bloody cough," Lachlan grunts dismissively as he holds out the bag. "S'Indian." As in the food, not a person. He gives a nod to Lee as well. "Wha're ye werkin' on?" But then comes the banging on the door and he turns to eye it warily. Should've brought a dog.

Oh, yes. It is a body. The body of a security guard, he's still alive at the moment, sighless eyes glancing up with surprise on his face as he sucks in quick breaths. A pool of blood spreads out from under him, and obvious gunshot wound visible low in his chest as the source of the blood. He doesn't see Niki should she push the door open either, not noticing her there yet.

Though Lachlan may dismiss it, Cass has seen far too many people dismiss this virus only to go on and die from lack of care. Though trying not to fuss, she comes to take the bag from him and set it down absently by Lee. "Do you feel tired, though? Are you having problems with, you know?" Hearing dogs, that is. She'll ask him and pester him until he answers, too. "Indian," she sighs. Not sandwiches. Or anything else involving local meats, hopefully. At the noise at the door, she quickly goes to answer the door. "Niki! Good! Cam! Come on in!"

"I'm getting help," Niki answers, casting a look down the hall she left even in the short wait between knocking and the door opening. "Take Cam," are her first words on seeing Cass, her demeanor altogether insistent and full of underlying alarm. "Something's wrong." And not just with Cam, it would seem, because without another word, and just a reassuring squeeze to the sick twelve-year-old's hand, she's jogging off down the hall to where the man lies in the doorway.

Lee looks up puzzledly. "Wh…Cam? Ms. Sanders? What the…?" he says, a shock of recognition coming to his face. "What's going on?"

Cam steps in with Cass. He gives her the friendliest smile he can manage and says, "Hi." Then he adds as Niki races off, "There's a guy lying with his hand out the door down the hall." Then Lee's greeting, and he blinks, just as surprised to see Lee as he is to be seen, "Mr. Jones?"

"Cassie, I'm fine, a'ri— ?" And then there comes a shrill ringing of bells. No, wait, that's just a cell phone. Lachlan's cell phone, to be precise. He jumps a little, quickly snatches it from his pocket, and answers. "'Lo?" A pause and he glances shiftily at the others before turning and lowering his voice to a mutter. "Who the hell's this?" Another pause before Lachlan glances up again, then heads for the door. "'Ve gotta go," he informs the others over his shoulder. "'ll be back." And with that, he's gone, pushing past Niki and the security guard without even a look. He's got other important things to worry about.

The door that the body lies at is the one leading to a research wing, stored samples from patients an the like. The man moans softly as Niki gets closer and an eye fixes on her. "…h…help…"

Looking between Lee and Cam and Niki, she pauses. "You know Niki?" Then to Cam, as Niki seems to have gone off to investigate something else. "You know Lee?" This is weird. People are leaving in a hurry left and right and she's left with only Cam in her care. "Lach?" But before she can even question his strange departure, he's out the door. That makes her frown with both worry and curiosity, but she tries to brush it off. "Here come in." guiding Cam to a chair, she tries to get him settled easily and comfortably. "Watch him for a moment, please?" she asks Lee and then goes for an ice pack.

Lee says, "Cam, what's wrong? Are you hurt, are you sick, why…" The realization hits him, he looks out where Niki is going. He sits down opposite Cam. Flops, really, though to his credit it's the only expression of his annoyance. "It's okay." he tells Cam. A pause. "The ice in the showers, right. When you were using the gym showers, living at the shelter. That's why it stopped when you went into a family placement." he says, trying to keep Cam focused on him rather than the buzzing confusion around them.

Dropping into a crouch, Niki splays a hand on the man's chest — above the seeping blood. "It's coming." A vague reassurance, but it has to be true. They're in a hospital. But, casting wary glances up and down the hall and inside the room, she's hesitant to actually shout for help. That might draw the attention of … whoever did this. Lachlan flew by. Cass is with Cam. Was that Mr. Jones back there? … looks like she's alone in this. Since this is a guard, she grabs onto his belt looking for a weapon — but the holster's empty. Niki stands up and inches into the room.

Samantha is walking in with Namir in tow, completely oblivious to the fact that there's some kind of emergency going on. "Cass?" she calls out from the front as they arrive. "I brought Namir. He's being completely irrational. So I thought I'd share the irritation and spread it around, kind of like love."

Cam sits down where Cass guides him, then looks up to Lee. He bites his lip, and nods a little, "Uh-huh. But I am sick too. I guess. I just feel a little dizzy and tired, but everything's so hot." He glances up as there's even more new arrivals.
GAME: Save complete.

There is no response from Namir, who has fallen into moody and totally not irrational Sam is just being mean silence. He's dressed in a heavy overcoat and several layers of warmer clothing, and unlike Sam, he seems to pick up on the fact that all is not well within the walls of Seville Medical. As they make their way toward Bat Country, he spies a hand and Niki, and the blood. It's a hospital and all, but that's not really supposed to be there, now is it? He takes a grip on Sam's arm and comes to an abrupt halt. Something's wrong. Irrationality be damned, why didn't he bring his piece?

Its a series of connecting rooms really, and from the next one Niki can see a flashlight beam sweeping back and forth as if searching for something. The light is coming from under a closed door on the other side of the room. The guard though coughs up blood and bubbles before he shakes his head weakly. "…so..someone shot me…they…" He coughs again, his voice weak. "Heard them talking…they want…blood samples…from…" He pauses and wheezes a moment. "…from the infected. C…careful…they…have guns…."

My, it's like quarantine all over again. All these sick people coming to her for help when she's trying to just work out enough of a cure to fix everyone. At least now she knows more than she did before. Cass comes back with a small armful of icepacks and hands them all to Cam. Glancing at Lee and then at Cam again, she raises an eyebrow. She knows his feelings on people with powers and if he does so much as say anything remotely biting to someone sick, she'll deck him. Lachlan isn't a bad influence, not at all. As Samantha enters, she smiles, having been expecting her as well. "Samantha, you're just in time for other sick patients. And, well, friends." Lee still qualifies as that. "I do like spreading around of all sots of goods. Not exactly socialist, but getting there. There was someone else here just a moment ago. She….seems to have disappeared? Lee, do you think you could find Niki for me?" Now that she has all this lab stuff to go over. What with hands and irrational people and the like, she smiles and nods at Namir. "It's nice to meet you, irrational and all. Let's get you some place to rest…"

"Hello, Lee." Sam says to Mr. Treated Bekah Like Poopoo. With that, she inquires, "Do you have anyone you want me to look at?" Apparently if there's stuff going on beyond the norm, she doesn't notice. She looks over her shoulder. "C'mon, Namir - what's wrong?"

Lee looks up from keeping tabs on Cam, sees Samantha and Namir approaching, and scrunches down a little. He hasn't seen them since the giant breakup with Bekah and pretty much expects Bekah not to have told them about how heartfelt his apology was, so in other words it won't go well. "Okay, well. Cass is a good friend of mine, she's really cool. Hopefully it'll be something a regular doctor can handle." he says encouragingly. "Sure." he replies to Cass. To Cam: "This is Cass, she'll take good care of you. Cam is one of my students, so, grade A treatment for him, all right?" he explains to Cass. Lee gets to his feet - "Hi, Sam…" he says, uncomfortably, and picks up one of his three-ring binders and heads down the corridor like he completely belongs here. "Ms. Sanders?" he calls out as he comes. "Is everything all right, I wOH my GOD! Sam! Come quick, this guy needs a doctor!" His avoidance of Sam, and search for Niki, is forgotten when his shoes touch blood.

Well, there's the answer to Sam's question. Namir isn't paying attention to Cass or Cam or Lee, just the door, and as soon as Lee shouts, he's on his way to see what's up. Unless he's stopped. Forcibly. Which wouldn't be hard, since he's not exactly at his strongest.

Cam nods a little to Lee and smiles a bit again. "Ok." He watches Lee go as he accepts the ice packs from Cass, saying gratefully, "Thanks!" Quickly he packs the ice packs around him, even tucking one under his shirt. At Lee's shout he blinks, looking towards the door again.

How does everyone know each other? Maybe Cass shouldn't be so surprised about everyone knowing everyone else. Everyone seems to be connected, but it still takes her aback sometimes. Seeing that Cam has enough ice packs and is comfortable in his chair, she fidgets a bit and then, of course, goes to try and stop Namir. "Hey, hey, where do you think you're going? You're the sick one, aren't you?" Sick people don't go investigating blood spatters. That's for doctors like Samantha. "I give everyone who comes in here grad A treatment," she tells Lee just for arguments sake, though she's pleased that he still finds her pretty cool despite all their fights and what they've been through. "You—" she says as she attempts to intercept Namir, "Need to sit down. You--" she points at Cam. "Keep yourself cool. Those ice packs melt, you let me know. You get too cold, you let me know…okay?"

Niki, now just out of sight from the hallway as she sidesteps next to the guard, her hands trailing the wall beside the door, watches the flashlight beams anxiously. "Infected…" Realization hits like a ton of bricks. Her expression goes stony. "The virus?" Daring to tear her gaze away from the adjacent room, she turns a sympathetic look on the guard. "It's gonna be okay. You need to stop talking, someone will— " …Come for you. At the sudden bombardment of Lee, followed by someone she recognizes even less, the blonde (sneaking around in the dark) stares. "Mr. Jones?" She brings a finger to her lips. "There has to be hospital security somewhere. Someone's breaking in." And she, apparently, has to stop them — she doesn't say as much, but she holds up a stay there hand and starts to sneak further in, almost ducking as she takes quiet steps to the next room, at least far enough to glimpse inside.

"Namir, you're infected and you're in no state to deal with whatever it is. Sit down." Sam moves past him and gives him a gentle push backward. "I will handle it. Do as Cass says." With that, she also steps in to join Lee and just misses Niki. "What's going on? Where's all this blood coming from?"

Inside the room are a group of men. They are dressed all in black, all have small compact submachine guns with silencers, flashlights attached to them. They are sweeping the room with the lights in a very organized pattern, finally coming to rest on the vault with the more dangerous blood samples in them. One of the four men points at the vault, and a different one moves forwards to begin opening it.

That is, until Lee screams bloody murder in the hallway. The men stop for a moment and then swiftly fly into action, two of them turning quickly to cover the door. A third moves to the back wall, while the forth looks to swifly open the vault.

The two that are now covering the door notice that its open, and one moves towards it while the other covers him with a raised weapon.
Lee says, out loud, as Niki withdraws, so everyone can hear, "What? Someone's breaking IN? What for, are they complete idiots, were they born stupid or dropped on their head at birth, or…Sam! This guy here, this security guard, he looks like he's been shot. Right in here." He hovers but stays out of the way - he knows the limits of his CPR certificate.

Cam nods a little to Cass and says, "Don't think I can get too cold. Not right now." With all the chaos going on, Cam quiets, but he's watching everything (at least everything in the lab itself) curiously. Not being able to see what's happening down the hall, though, is a bit frustrating for the boy. If it wasn't for the ice packs, and the dizziness that would hit if he stands up, he'd probably be moving to see as well.

And thus were the heroics of one sick Israeli thwarted. Damn it, damn it, damn it. It's with no small amount of hesitation that Namir seats himself in a chair, but his eyes remain on the door, through which he might burn a hole or two with a glower. He strains his ears to listen to what's going on, and after a moment, he casts a frown at Cass. "Listen, I work with the ESU. Whatever is going on out there, I can help."

There's a lot going on. And while Cass is anxious about what is going on in the hallway, she also has people she needs to watch over in the lab. Maybe with someone from ESU with her, things will be alright if there's a genuine problem happening outside. "Nice try, Samantha's fiancee, but you're sick. The most I'm going to let you do is cough on them. And then they could just spread the sickness even further and I'm not about to want that to happen. Sit down, I can get you some water or orange juice or maybe a blanket?" She smiles at Cam and nods. "Well, stay comfortable. Hopefully you won't be here too long. And Niki'll be able to explain to me a bit more about what's been going on." Anxiously, she casts a glance at the door.

Oh God, that's a lot of guns. Very much out of her league all of a sudden, Niki hurries aside as soon as she sees the men fly into action. All she sees is weapons — where they are, how many, it's all a blur. As she twirls away from her spying with a whirl of blonde hair and blue scarf, flattening against the wall beside the very door the armed men are, she stares in alarm at Lee. Her expression reads shut up before you get us KILLED, but she stays quiet. Trying not to move too much, to lessen the noise, she reaches out to her right and, slinking down the wall just a bit, wraps her hand around the leg of a metal tray meant for medical equipment.

Samantha moves over to the downed security guard, her hand coming down to apply pressure to his gunshot wound. She looks up, expression angry as she realizes the attackers are still in the building. "Shit. Namir is too sick to do anything." she whispers.

Namir lets out a low growl of frustration and turns his attention back to the door once again, not making any response to the question about juice or water or a blanket. There's something going on out there, and his fiancee is in the middle of it. She can take care of herself, sure, but he'd sure like to be there with her. Especially since he's been chained to a bed for the past three days. Nevermind that he's weak and shivering. And after a couple moments, he once again rises from his seat and starts to make for the door. Cass be damned, he's not sitting around here uselessly. One hand goes to search for his phone somewhere in his pockets, the other reaches to grab anything he might be able to use as a weapon that's close by.

The lights all click off as Niki abandons the door. No flashlight beams anymore. The door though slowly creaks open the barrel of a weapon poking though as the first man pushes the door open while in a low crouch. As he starts to swing the door open he leans slightly through the opening and slides a small circular object across the floor towards the only two people he can see.

That would be Sam and Lee.

Of course he doesn't notice Niki, as she's hiding at the moment. Giving the woman a chance to bring whatever weapon she has to bear against him.

Namir may try to go for the door, but Cass is perceptive and knows a problem patient when she sees one. As soon as Namir tries to make for the door again, Cass will be in his way and trying to stop him as much as possible. "Look. You are only going to get someone else hurt unless you sit down. If I know Samantha, I know she likes her suggestions obeyed, so I'd take a chair. Because if you don't answer to me you certainly will have to answer to her. Don't make me sedate you."

Lee nods slightly to Sam, lets her crouch a little, moves slightly aside…then spots Niki diving into hiding. He points at the door across the room. "What, they're in there?" he says, then calls out: "Yo, attention, hello idiots, this is a working goddamn hospital with tons of witnesses and cameras all over the place, and - news flash, Scoots - you didn't even pick the right goddamn floor. The vicodin is upstairs in the pharmacy, numbnuts. There's already a cop here, and you have about two minutes before all the cops get here, so why don't you morons just clear out with your sweet haul of illegible HIPPAA release forms and sterile cotton swabs…"

The rant pauses as the disk comes sliding out - Lee recognizes the danger, his eyes widen - and suddenly forward is backwards. Left stays left, right stays right, up stays up and down stays down, but the disk slides right back across the floor - the same speed, the same inertia, the same disk, just a different direction. It comes to a halt /exactly/ beneath the hand of the person who slid it - because that is the law of inertia and friction. Lee yells, "DAMMIT!" This exclamation, loud as it is, may not actually be audible, for reasons that may shortly become clear.

Cam looks between Namir and Cass, and says to Namir, "Ya better stay sitting down. She knocks you out, you'll never find out what's going on." 'Never' not being literal of course.

"What was that?" Sam asks in a low hiss. There's a guy bleeding from a gunshot wound, and she can't go anywhere. It's ticking her off.

Which is precisely what is ticking off Namir in the lab, but his inability to move is more because there is a woman in his way. "I just want to see what is going on so I can call in backup," he informs Cass rather snappishly. The weapon thing and the fact that he refers to it as 'backup' would probably suggest otherwise, but if Namir goes to hell for any reason, lying will be the very least of them.

"There's security. Trust them to be able to handle it!" Even Cam seems to agree with Cass and she nods, gesturing that even the kid gets it. "You are sick and you shouldn't be dealing with anything. You're more likely to get yourself killed than anything and I can't cure a dead man." However, her fierce reptition of those trails off after a moment when she realizes she's not hearing much from the room her friends disappeared into. They should hear something, they should be letting them know what's going on, shouldn't they. Stepping back slightly, she cracks the door open again to call out, "Is everything okay? Do you need some help?"

That weapon would be the little supply table Niki has in the clutches of one hand. It's stainless steel, on wheels, and the tray on top happens to be empty. Blue eyes sneak to the very edge of her vision, watching the barrel of that gun so close to her face in a moment of cinematic suspense she could live without. She doesn't dare flinch. She barely breathes. After all, the civics teacher's ranting could cause a spray of gunfire any second. Niki takes the small window of opportunity, as the disk finds its way back to its owner, to grab the small metal table with both hands and swing it low at the man in the doorway.

Niki is close enough to hear the sound of a radio crackling to life in the man's ear. To see him take aim on Sam and Lee across the room with the weapon, waiting for the sudden flash of the grenade that he tossed…that…just…suddenly came back to…see…him. Now she can hear his muffled oath of surprise this causes. Then with a sudden flash of light the grenade explodes sending him staggering.

…staggering just enough for Niki's tray to catch him right in the chest.

There is a terrible din of crunching metal, shattering wall and door and a grunt of pain from the man as he goes flying backwards. Bones broken and cursing in a choked and soft voice. He lands with a crash and tangle of limbs, lying still on the opposite side of the room. There is hardly a pause though as the other three swing into action. The one that was covering the door tightens his finger on the trigger, and the choking sound of silenced gunfire echoes out in the hallway. However walls aren’t that much of a deterrent to bullets, and shots go slicing though the thin protection offered by the wall and into the room where Niki, Sam, and Lee are in. They aren't well aimed, but there /is/ a lot of fire. Mostly concentrated on that wall that Niki is hiding behind.

Samantha hunches down even further as shots are fired. Fortunately, they don't get anywhere near her, or presumably her patient, but all this would-be carnage is reminding her way too much of the Sudan. Ironically, Sam has no desire to cower. She wants to give those guys a good talking to - in her special way. She can't see them though, and she's not dumb enough to actually head for the doorway to yell at them.

Lee dives backwards into the hallway with the balletic grace of a well-trained dancer who is being shot at and doesn't want to be murdered. He tries the 'send it back' trick again, face scrunching in concentration (that is what you are supposed to do, right?) but it doesn't work if you can't see the bullets, idiot. Lee yells one more time, this time from farther away, and behind the cover of the corridor wall, so, of course, he has to yell louder. No problem. "Quit shooting, you fucking simpletons! Are you not even listening? Are you deaf jackasses? Shooting. Is. Not. Helping. The. Situation. Repeat after me until you get it!"

It almost looks like Namir might be losing this little battle to get out the door. Almost. Because as soon as the flash bomb goes off and bullets start to fly, Cass goes from "Authority Figure" to "Get The Hell Out Of My Way, My Fiancee Is Being Shot At". The door that is partially open gets shouldered open further — kinda. It's not a very valiant attempt. If he manages to get out, he'll start moving down the corridor toward the commotion. His phone comes out to start dialing 9-1-1 — and regardless of whether or not he gets out of the lab, the sounds of gunfire are starting to get deafeningly loud, silencers or not. As is every other sound coming from that area — Lee's shouting, any movement, and so forth.

The minute that the flash bomb goes off, Cass is startled enough that she doesn't stop Namir from leaving the room. She makes a halfhearted attempt after the fact, but she's now more worried about Cam. This is a sick kid and now there's gunshots and flash bombs going off. While she doesn't want to just shut the door on everyone, closing off a means of escape for them, she quickly runs back to the boy and goes about turning the chair around so that it's not visible to the door. "Stay down and keep cold, Cam, okay? Everything's going to be fine. Security'll be on their way." And, speaking of security, she grabs her cellphone out of her pocket and quickly dials for the building's security.

Cam's eyes widen at the sound of the flash bomb, not that he recognizes what it is. He starts to get up too, though ends up plopping back into his chair as dizziness hits. "Niki!" He bites his lip at Cass' instructions, though, nodding just a little bit, but now worried.

A lot is happening at once, but after that initial slam of the metal table crunching into the guard's face, Niki doesn't register most of it. There's a blast, and she's so close that the flash strikes her, too, along with tiny slivers of shrapnel. Her eyes flying shut, she whirls hard onto her knees as gunfire rings out. The medical equipment table goes reeling from her hands, skittering along the floor to the middle of the room, its metallic clamor only adding to the noise. She doesn't try to avoid the bullets so much as she falls to the floor onto her stomach, her hands clutched to her head over the spill of blonde hair.

Now this is bad for the thieves. Backed into a room with no escape, the only door held by people who can apparently toss them around like bloody stuffed animals and throw back grenades like it was nothing. The one at the vault seems to have gotten it open by now, and pulls out a dozen of the samples to set in a special case.

The man on the back wall steps back before glancing towards his downed companion. "Clear," He says though he winces from the sound of the gunfire. Is that damn silencer a failure? What the hell is going on here?

"Plan B!" Calls the second man as he winces himself, delivering a second burst of overly loud fire though the door and wall towards the occupied room. Then he ducks behind a table. "Clear!"

The thieves duck down behind cover before the shaped charge on the back wall of the room goes off with a dull THUMP of an explosion that rocks the nearby rooms.

…when in doubt of a door. Make one yourself.

They are already up and running before the dust clears. Now they know every damn security group in the city will be after them soon enough. They have to get out soon.

Lee is shocked and appalled when his must-yell-louder gets out of control, so he shuts his mouth, almost offended by all the violations of nature's fine and immutable laws that are occurring around here. He peeks in once the gunfire stops. Sam seems to be all right. Niki is under cover, and he doesn't see blood, so that's good.

Niki starts to push herself up off the floor, then lets herself fall again when there's more unsilenced gunfire and a rollicking of drywall and destruction. In the dust that's slow to clear, she gets up as far as her knees, squinting with reddened eyes. "The virus," she says, shoving to her boot-clad feet. "They were after the blood. The virus."

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