The Groove
Saturday May 4th, 2024 with ELORIOUS CAIN
EMILY BRISK 11: The Blackout

At 5:48 on a Tuesday morning Emily was slowly heading back to her hospital bed from the bathroom when the bedside light she was depending upon went out. Emily could barely see her way to the bed. As she started dozing off again she couldn't help not noticing that it was suddenly very quiet. Minutes later a nurse and F.B.I. Special Agent Lyndia Oskar burst into her room with flashlights peering ahead. They expressed relief that Emily was alright. The commotion startled the very drowsy patient who was very curious as to why an F.B.I. agent would be standing in her hospital room at 6am. Lyndia didn't have any time to explain Task Force objectives or anything like that. She was setting up hand lights that gave the room a minimal amount of light. The nurse was leaving the room while assuring everybody that the backup generator should kick in at any time. To reduce any awkwardness, Lyndia introduced herself and quickly told Emily, " You are a very precious witness to us, Ms. Brisk. I am one of several agents taking turns guarding you all of the time. We don't intend to let anybody else try to kill you." Emily sat up and covered herself with a blue night robe which Nancy had bought her. With a funny grin, she retorted, " You make me feel real important Agent Oskar" Lyndia stood at the open doorway peering down the darkened hallway. Apart from a couple of nurses walking around with flashlights and automatic emergency lights flashing at distant exits, there was an uncanny blackness that deeply concerned her. New York F.B.I. head Rolland John suddenly returned Lyndia's phone call. As they were discussing whether to send help or not, that nurse rushed over to announce that she was told that backup generator had been sabotaged. Rolland John could hear the nurse over the phone. He quickly said, " Hang in there Special Agent Oskar. I am sending more agents and the F.B.I. S.W.A.T. team. The N.Y.P.D. is already on the way" The blackout was localized and considered to be extremely suspicious. Roland John ordered Lyndia to activate the "Emily Brisk Maximum Defence Protocols". Lyndia took out her gun and sat in a chair right in front of Emily's bed and said, "Nobody outside of the Task Force and your sister is supposed to know where you are. We continuously check all of the doctors and nurses and related hospital staff that come close to you. I know everybody in the Task Force. I know your sister. Your door says 'Do Not Enter' in both English and Spanish. We are very serious! I have orders to shoot anybody else who dare enter your room." Emily really started freaking out while Lyndia was helping her put on a bullet proof vest under her night robe. Lyndia said, "The F.B.I. isn't taking any unnecessary risks" About 20 minutes later Rolland John very cautiously entered Emily's room and introduced himself. He said good things to Lyndia and assured Emily that there was extra security now stationed right outside her room. Lyndia stayed with Emily while Rolland went downstairs to the troubles. As Lyndia sat with Emily in the dimly lit hospital room they could both hear distant gunshots and explosions. It disturbed Emily deeply. Emily turned to Lyndia and said, " I never imagined that I was in so much danger. This is all really beginning to scare me!" Not more than 45 minutes later Rolland John returned to Emily's room right after the power came back on. Rolland said how a criminal gang had tried to steal some very expensive equipment using the blackout as a form of cover. They evidently didn't know what hit them when numerous F.B.I. agents, local police and SWAT teams showed up. Rolland had sent the extra security outside Emily's room away. He stood at the door after downgrading the seriousness of the situation with Lyndia and told Emily, "This blackout doesn't seem to have anything to do with you at all, Ms. Brisk." After Rolland left Lyndia took a deep breath and asked Emily if she could go into the bathroom and rinse her face with cold water before she would start helping to take the bullet proof vest off. She had a massive headache. It had been quite the stressful night. Emily found a morning talk show on the television and relaxed. She thought that she had seen enough excitement for one day. Suddenly a good looking and well dressed Latin gentleman walked into her room. With his heart melting smile he said, "Ola, Emily Brisk!" Before he could finish the word 'Brisk' Lyndia had shot him in the chest from the bathroom. As he fell in agony towards Emily, he pulled out a long razor sharp knife. As he started thrusting the blade towards her, Emily gave out a scream and pushed her food tray at him. He ended up crashing into the nearby chair before gasping his last breath. Emily froze in silent horror at the sight of a dead body in her hospital room. It was as if time stopped for a few minutes as she recalled being zapped to and trapped on that island, meeting Charmaine, being interrogated and locked up for nothing, getting shot, now all of this. As she was looking at the lifeless form she kept asking herself "Why Me? Why Me? What did I do to deserve all of this?" Lyndia joined her at the end of the bed and called Rolland back. She was so extremely apologetic for being in the bathroom at the time. Emily kept comforting her with the words, "You saved my life!" 45 minutes later Rolland returned with three grim faced F.B.I. personell. Emily couldn't help but notice that these gentlemen and Rolland were making Lyndia very nervous. They seemed to seize the whole room like it was a crime scene which really irritated Emily. It was her hospital room! They searched the body, photographing absolutely everything. The picture taking incensed Emily. One of the men was making an audio recording describing every detail and observation like, "The body has absolutely no identification The body only has one photograph The photograph is of Emily Brisk standing in a white dress. Emily Brisk confirmed that it was a mug shot taken by the other F.B.I. The body had no gun The body had two long sharp knives. One of which was in his hand while the other was still in one of two leather holders strapped to his abdomen The body had a small metal mallet that was wrapped in a cloth bag together with a silver spike. It was discussed that maybe he wanted to drive the spike into a victim..." Emily was livid and emotionally exhausted. She wanted to talk to her sister Nancy, maybe the lovely Dora lady also. Rolland got on the phone and had both of those persons flown by helicopter from Boston. A couple of hours later Nancy and Dora arrived much to Emily's complete delight. After the investigators and Lyndia left and the body was taken away, Emily sat with Nancy and Dora looking at a reproduction of that mug shot. Roland came by one last time to say that a meeting has been called to discuss Emily's predicament for 7pm in the hospital conference room, This would give Emily plenty of time to recuperate and tell Nancy and Dora about all of the activities of the morning, At 6:56 pm Emily arrived at the hospital's conference room in a wheelchair along with her sister Nancy who was pushing the chair. The room was very large with half of it with the lights out and filled with room dividers pilled up against the walls and tons of equipment on the tables. The section where the meeting was had lights. After all of the power debacles of the day, Emily would have preferred the whole room to be lighted. As Nancy glanced at the crowd she had a nervous laugh. Emily just stared at them all wondering what all of these people had to do with her predicament. At one table there was Dora Fuentes, New York F.B.I. head Rolland John, Special Agent Denver Phitts and Special Agent Gene Tollis from the Boston office, and F.B.I. Assistant Director Edward Godfrey. John Polk from Homeland Security sat on the next table with a group of people he identified as his "Specialists". They evidently have helped the Miami-Dade Police Department and the Coast Guard with the same problem. He introduced them as the lead investigator Dona Smith, tech specialist Ajinder Gill, and also Genevive Dino, Cindi Gander, Jerry Spic and Isaac Smith. Emily just sat perplexed as she surveyed these "specialists". Dona was a tall blonde trans woman with striking facial features. Ajinder was a short Sikh gentleman buried behind three computer screens. Genevive and Cindi looked like rich soccer moms snatched out of mid west suburbs. Jerry was a muscular furry with very white skin and jet black hair, complete with an exotic outfit. Isaac looked as if he just came from an all-star football game. He was a commanding African American that looked like he could stop a truck with his bare hands. All of the "specialists" looked no older than 30! Assistant Director Edward Godfrey stood up and formally started the meeting after thanking everybody for coming, he started saying, "He have commenced this meeting to discuss the well being of the witness and victim Emily Brisk. After seven months of recuperation here at the Lennox Hill Hospital I recommend that she be transferred to..." Dona suddenly interrupted his speech to say, " Sorry! We have urgent business to attend to right now please bare with us as we ladies dance a jig." There was a stunned look on Emily and the F.B.I. people as all of the female "specialists" popped up and started laughing hysterically and happily skipping towards the edge of the dark part of the conference room. They joined hands together in what looked like a ceremonial circle and started rotating in dance and singing, "Ring-a-ring-a-rosies A pocket full of posies" They all suddenly lunged into the space between the piles of room dividers so fast they looked like cartoon characters. Everybody could hear screaming and yelling before the ladies dragged a tall man out into the lighted area who was already tied up. The "specialist" Isaac ran over with a heavy black bag. They searched the man and found F.B.I. identification for 'agent John Migel'. The F.B.I. people took no time to establish that this man was not part of their F.B.I. The "specialists" had, right in front of them, caught one of these invaders. They were very impressed but Roland asked about how did they know he was there. Dona replied, "These visitors always come in pairs. It is something we have seen all of the time. After hearing about the killing of the first visitor today, we started searching for his pair. Ajinder has been searching security camera feeds and social media. His last picture of him found was taken right in front of this room at 6.45. Ajinder put a microphone program on to search him out." Ajinder suddenly got up to further the explanation, " With my program I can separate sounds. I erased all of the sounds we were making along with the sounds of the building. I could then hear faint breathing. My program then located the general source of the remaining sound. Establishing where he was hiding we could then apprehend him as quickly as possible. He was hiding just over there listening, with a gun. Our actions were urgent!" The "specialists" held the prisoner down on his knees on the floor. They blindfolded him. Put headphones on him so that he could not hear anything. Much to the objections of the F.B.I. people, they also put a big black hood over his head and shoulders. Jerry Spic defended their actions, "We are at war! Information is extremely important to them. They must be cut off from this world so that he is limited to what he reports to his people. We will rush him to a special container box created by Ajinder that he has had considerable success in at least delaying his transference back to his world." John Polk turned to Assistant Director Edward Godfrey and said, "I would really recommend that you do exactly what Dona suggests" With her long blonde hair all messed up, Dona Smith stood up and started addressing the room, "I again deeply apologize to F.B.I. Assistant Director Edward Godfrey for interrupting his speech. My group has been fighting these people now for five years and we have learned the hard way that timing is everything. On the way here from New Orleans, I reviewed your case thoroughly on the jet. These people have come here and impersonated F.B.I. agents, stole cars, violently opposed arrest, done minor money laundering and shot Emily Brisk. Now Ajinder has established that these two assassins came into the hospital together right at the beginning of the blackout. They knew exactly when it was going to occur. That connects the blackout directly to them and all of the criminals caught this morning need to be delivered to Homeland Security. This was an attack on an American hospital. This was terrorism! I'm obligated to keep the State Department abreast of our activities and I'm pretty certain they're not going to like hearing about this. If we are going to be effective in helping the F.B.I. we need certain things right away. We want to secure Emily Brisk in one of our facilities tonight. She will be fully protected in a high security location with access to some of the best doctors and physiotherapists. We need to interview Special Agent Nancy Brisk. She has had extensive experience with these people. She may not even know that she has valuable information. We want to work with Dora Fuentes in Boston. It would be our honor to collaborate with one of America's top criminal profilers! I have gone over her notes and interviews. I shared that cryptic interview she recorded with our Genevive Dino. Genevive has a P.H.D. in Linguistics specializing in Spanish and she wants to interview Dora Fuentes about that. Dora Fuentes has started a very valuable investigation that we can assist. All of the criminals involved with creating the blackout today along with the thieves need to be fully investigated as terrorists. We need help from the F.B.I. interviewing them. Our Cindi Gander can give F.B.I. interviewers certain questions that will potentially help connect them to the bigger war." An hour later a Homeland Security helicopter took off from the helideck at Lennox Hill with the "specialists", Emily in a bed and Nancy flying away to an extremely secret Homeland Security compound deep in the mountains of western New Hampshire.