Chapter Twenty-Four
M ax kept Nolan covered above and below the wound, then cut the bandage off and revealed the damage. He used the only anesthetic he had—a local—injecting it around the injury. Blood welled up, but he ignored it. He made a careful incision and retracted the skin so he could see what was happening inside.
Blood obscured everything.
“Ali, I need a bunch of gauze pads.”
She handed him a pile and he used them to soak up the extra blood. He had to really look but finally found where the piece of shrapnel was buried near the top of Nolan’s left kidney. Blood oozed out of the wound. He removed the shrapnel, and found a tear in a small artery.
He grabbed the suture needle he’d prepared and began closing the tear. “Ali, can you use the gauze pads to get some of this blood out of the way?”
“Okay,” she said, moving closer with a handful. “Squawk if I do it wrong.”
He tied off the first stitch and waited while she cleared the area of blood. “Excellent, thank you.”
He stitched quickly. Even so, Hunt hung two more bags of blood before he finished. It wasn’t neat or pretty, but it was done.
Nolan began to shift restlessly and moan.
Special Forces soldiers sometimes claimed to be supermen. Maybe this time, this one was.
“He’s waking up,” Max warned. “Talk to him, Hunt. Hearing is usually the first sense to come back. Make sure he knows he’s safe or he could damage himself or us as he comes around.”
“Nolan, boss, it’s Hunt. Are you with me?”
“Be ready to help hold Nolan down,” Max said in an undertone to Ali. “Most people don’t react well to surgery without anesthetic.”
“Can we strap him down?”
“That might make things worse.”
Nolan continued to moan and Max worked faster, placing a non-stick abdominal pad over the incision and holding it in place with a pressure bandage he taped to Nolan’s lower back.
“Sergeant Nolan,” Hunt said loudly into the soldier’s ear. “Give me a clue, man, are you back?”
Nolan’s eyelids fluttered then rose and he blinked at Hunt, who put himself directly in Nolan’s line of sight. “Hunt?”
“Yes,” Hunt said with a relieved smile. “You made it, you crazy son of a bitch.”
“Made it?” Nolan frowned. “What happened?”
“You took one in the kidney, but Max just sewed you back together.”
“Oh?” He continued to blink, confusion all too evident on his face. He looked around, watched Max as he got everything out of the way and Stone covered him with his own clothing. “Stone? What happened?”
“You played Pied Piper with way too many bad guys,” she answered drily.
“Oh.” He relaxed, seeming to be satisfied with that explanation.
Hunt’s expression went from excited to worried. He opened his mouth, but Max spoke first.
“Where are you, Sergeant Nolan?”
“Some nameless village in a country none of us are supposed to be in.”
“How do you feel?” Max asked, looking at Hunt and pointing at the blood pressure cuff.
Hunt took the hint without further prompting.
“A little fuzzy.” His eyes sagged shut, then they popped open again. “And, fuck, my back hurts.”
“Eighty-eight over sixty-five. Heart rate a little elevated, but not too bad.”
Max took his penlight and shone it in Nolan’s eyes. They both reacted normally. “Open your mouth, please, and say ah.”
The routine question received immediate compliance.
Nolan’s tongue looked like a squeezed lemon.
Dehydration. Not a surprise.
“Get a bag of saline,” Max ordered. “He’s still extremely dehydrated.”
Ali ran over to the medical supplies and grabbed a bag of the fluid.
Max hung it and got it dripping into Nolan. “We need to move him. He can’t stay in this room.
“Is there somewhere we can put him, hide him?” Hunt asked.
“This place is a rabbit warren of rooms and hallways. There are tunnels that go into the rock, so, yeah we should be able to find somewhere to stick him.”
“But, the locals say this place isn’t stable. There have been cave-ins,” Ali said.
“It’s safer than out in the village right now,” Hunt argued. “People are dying all over the place out there.”
“We could put the bodies of our dead with him,” Ali suggested. “Even if they’re found, he’d look like all the other bodies.”
“It might scare the shit out of him when he wakes up, but sure.” Hunt shook his head. “Do you ever lose your cool or are you as cold as your name implies?” He nodded to Max. “I’ll go look for a likely body dump.” Hunt left.
She stood in place, ramrod straight.
“He’s wrong, Ali,” Max said to her, willing her to hear the conviction in his voice. “You’re a strong woman, but never cold, never inflexible.”
She sighed and turned to look at Nolan, her shoulders slumped forward, sadness etched in the corners of her mouth. “Sometimes I wonder if guys like Hunt are right.”
“Don’t,” Max ordered. “Don’t wonder, you’re exactly who you need to be.
Her shoulders were still hunched, making her look defeated. “We just used up the blood you needed to make your treatment.”
“It was a long shot anyway. I’ve already started culturing the virus in the eggs you brought me. Hopefully in twenty-four hours, I’ll have enough to test a vaccine.”
“I thought you said forty-eight hours?”
“I did, but I don’t know how long I’ve got, so I’m going to accelerate things as much as I can.” He gave her a small, quick smile. “If you find more eggs, I can start a second batch.”
“What about the supply drop you ordered? Isn’t that due soon?”
He closed his eyes briefly. He’d forgotten all about it. “Shit, yes it is.”
“I have an idea,” she said.
He smiled. “Give it to me.”
“Ask Ferhat if we can send out the kids to collect eggs. No one is going to think twice about seeing them doing that.”
Max considered and quickly decided she was right. “Okay, you meet the drop. I’ll talk to Ferhat about getting the eggs.”
Things were moving fast now. What a fucking clusterfuck.
“Can you keep watch for a few minutes while I brief Tom, Jessup, Warren, Holland, and Bird?”
“Yes, sir.” She glanced at Nolan again. “Should I do anything for him?”
There was a lot that needed to be done, with no time right now to do it. “When Hunt gets back, we’ll put Nolan, Samson, and Bull somewhere out of sight.”
“Yes, sir.” She moved to the door, but stopped before she left the room to turn back and look at him. “Are you...okay?”
He quirked up one side of his mouth. “Never surrender, never give up.”
She didn’t smile in return, but the concerned frown lightened and she left.
He found an old blanket and wrapped Nolan in it and removed the IV and the empty bag of saline. Just as he finished, Jessup and Warren came in.
“Hunt found a place where our dead and injured should be out of sight. It’s kind of got a hidden room, it’s hard to find if you don’t know it’s there. So we’re going to put Nolan in there with a note to stay there.”
“Good, get them moved as quickly as you can.”
“Yes, sir.”
They carried Nolan out of Max’s lab. When they came back a few minutes later, Tom, Hunt, Holland, and Bird came with them. Aside from Ali and Nolan, every American soldier he had left alive was present.
He didn’t bother to try and sugar-coat things.
“Our situation has changed. We’re down too many people to attempt any other military intervention outside this building. We have a few civilians we can shelter, but I won’t authorize any other forays outside unless it’s to obtain supplies.”
“What about your vaccine?”
“It’s cooking now. It needs twenty-four hours minimum. Forty-eight would be better.”
“What about Stone?” Jessup asked. “She said she’s going out to meet the drop.”
“Yes, she is.”
“Sir, I volunteer to go with her.” Jessup shifted his weight slightly.
Max raised a brow at him.
He nodded. “The buddy system.”
“Ah, then yes. Go with Stone.” He released a breath. “I think we’ve entered a deep game.”
“It’s Akbar, isn’t it?” Hunt said, his voice rough.
“I think so.” Max smiled now, but he knew it wasn’t a happy one. He was showing teeth. “There’s one thing that Akbar seems to have forgotten.”
“What’s that?” Warren asked.
“He’s attempting to control the uncontrollable. Most bacteria we come in contact with are harmless, some are even helpful, and only a few are dangerous. Viruses are not bacteria. Most cause disease or have the potential to cause disease. They are quick to adapt and change. Much quicker than bacteria. Much, much quicker than us.”
“He’s playing with fire,” Hunt said.
“Yes, and unfortunately, we might all get burned.”
“He’s crazy,” Warren said.
“Certifiable, but he’s also smart and he has no fear for his own life at all. He’s almost as dangerous as the virus that’s killing the people in this village.”
Warren snorted. “Then I hope the damned virus wipes his ass off the planet.”
“That would be justice in action, wouldn’t it?” Max asked rhetorically. “So, now you know. We’re facing a madman with a weapon that could wipe out millions of people if it gets out of this place.”
Hunt’s laugh was cold. “Now give us the bad news.”
“Thirty-five percent death-rate is a conservative estimate.”
“Dude,” Hunt said. “Are you always so wicked literal?”
“Ask my ex-wife. She claims I have no sense of humor at all.”
The men all relaxed.
“Say no more, man,” Hunt said. “Every ex-wife says that.”
Ali would be proud of him, bonding with the men under his command. She’d probably find it hilarious.
“I’m sending some of the kids out to collect more eggs. I want to start a second culture of the virus so if the first works, there will be more ready a day or so later.”
A couple of the men winced, but no one voiced any concerns.
Something crashed somewhere nearby inside the building. Coban came running into the room, yelling, “A plane crashed outside the village!”