CHAPTER 23

The glowing was starting to fade and that had to be the first good news that Cindy had had all day! This body, allegedly the very man that killed Henna’s father, had been doing all sorts of unnatural things since those two thugs dropped it in the room. At first, Cindy wondered if it really would explode like they said. Then it kept getting bigger, glowing brighter, and excreting even more smoke from nearly every hole. That included the extra eye on the man’s forehead. It had been all bloody and gross to start with. Then, suddenly, it popped with an ear shattering bang, It flashed bright enough to leave spots in Cindy’s eyes. Then something shot out of it and smashed the glass of the picture frame on the wall.

When that had happened, it was the last straw for Cindy. She lost any restraint she had and joined Henna in fighting the ropes, plastic, and tape that had them secured to the chairs. She screamed against the cloth in her mouth and the tape that held it there. She strained her neck from twisting it so much. She pulled one muscle after the other as she jerked and rocked in the chair. The plastic on her wrists only cut worse as she thrashed. The rope burned nearly every piece of exposed skin that it touched. Her eyes watered from both the smoke and her own desire to cry. The world began to get blurry, and then, as the body seemed to be cooling down the fumes and smoke only started getting worse.

Cindy ran out of steam not long after Henna seemed too. At first she only figured it was natural. Every twist she made only seemed to make the grip on her body that much stronger. Then she realized, as her feet started going numb, that this was something else. Her coughing was the next clue and she almost choked on the gag as a result. Every time she tried to breath in thru her nose, the smell and thickness of the smoke only got worse. As Cindy’s head started getting lighter she began to realize why. There was just less oxygen in the air now. Even if the body didn’t explode, it might kill her anyway!

That’s when Cindy realized what was wrong with Henna. She hadn’t run out of steam! She’d passed out from the fumes that were rapidly filling the room. Cindy started rocking back in the chair, trying to wake the girl but, her strength was nearly gone. She started to realize that when the world went black, it was probably going to be permanent. Tears streamed out of her eyes and she coughed even more. She tried to yell again, “NO!” The effort was too much. Cindy passed out.

Was that Calvin looking at her? Cindy coughed violently and her body jerked in a convulsion. She knew it! She went to hell! She was being punished and god was going to make sure that HE got to do it! Cindy hacked again only this time she got out, “it’s not fair!”

Calvin was still worried to the point of being panicked but, that was the first good thing he had heard so far. It sounded like something Cindy would say so it meant that the chances of brain damage were minimal. He still angrily yelled towards the street where Chuck had just come out of the far side glades. The boy had the two emergency kits from the SBD, one in each hand. He slugged his way out of the little inlet but, it wasn’t fast enough for Calvin who screamed again, “would you get your ass in gear!”

Leslie snapped at Calvin, “he’s coming as fast as he can!” She then noted the pulse on Henna which had been growing even weaker. Leslie quickly leaned over and listened at the girls mouth, “shit, she stopped breathing!” Calvin tried to push Leslie out of the way but she stopped him and said, “I got this! Watch your wife!” Leslie wasted not a second more before starting CPR.

Calvin snapped, “ex wife!”

That was all it took. Cindy suddenly sat up coughing. Her eyes were open even if they were red and watering. Calvin tried to steady her but she kept waving her hands at him to him stop. Then after a gulp and some sounds that Calvin did not wish to speculate about, she cried out, “I’m alive!” As her breathing started to normalize she said, “soon as you said ex, I knew I made it! Oh god! What happened?”

There was no time to answer as Chuck reached them with them with the emergency kits. Calvin did not wait for them to even get opened all the way when he grabbled a bottle of Oxygen from the first one and handed it to Cindy. He turned the little knob and them pushed the plastic cup against her mouth as he said, “breath!”

The coughing did not go away but Cindy felt better with every breath. She sucked on the cold, crisp, bottled air like it was a drug and it had much the same effect. While she did she watched Calvin work on Henna. He and this girl with the short blond hair acted like they actually knew what they were doing. Calvin even pulled out a super big needle and shoved it in Henna’s chest! Cindy had no idea he could do that? She could barley even watch it! She felt the urge to stand up but, her eyes never left the little scene around Henna.

That’s how she missed the man standing behind her. She shrieked when he asked, “you all right? You must be Cindy.”

Cindy was huffing away at the bottled air as she meekly nodded in the affirmative. Then she quickly pulled the mask away and asked, “who are you?”

Jake told her, “oh just your friendly neighborhood ex husband’s boss.” He then looked at the woman’s wrists and told her, “come on over here let’s get these tended too.” He sat the woman down on the other side of the medical kits from where Henna was being furiously worked on. Jake noted that they had already pulled out the defibrillator and he knew that was not good. He pulled a blanket around Cindy’s shoulders and told her, “she’ll be all right. They know what they’re doing.” Then he added, “just look at me Cindy.”

He kept his eyes on her till she was looking right back at him. Then Jake got to work on cleaning and bandaging the cuts. As he did he talked to keep her mind off Henna, “you two got damn lucky.”

“I wouldn’t call this lucky,” Cindy said with a very weak and raspy voice.

Jake told her, “there were four other people in this motel. I just finished sweeping it.” The woman said nothing so he told her point blank, “they’re all dead. I’d say that qualifies you as lucky. No offense Miss Brandt, but I have to wonder why. I need to figure that out and you can help.”

Cindy was almost in tears again, “they tried to kill us.”

“If they wanted you dead then you’d have a couple of extra holes in your head right now,” Jake told her as politely as that kind of news could be conveyed. “Let’s start with who they are. That’ll be a big help. Did you know them?”

“No,” Cindy replied. Her tone made it clear that she still could not believe this had happened to her, “god no. They had on masks. There were two of them. One of them, this big guy, he was a smart ass. They had big guns and…”

“So far Cindy,” Jake said as he started rapping the woman’s wrists with bandages, “that could be eighty percent of the people on this island.”

Cindy just groaned in both pain and frustration, “there’s nothing! Half the time I thought it was all a bad dre…” Cindy’s lawyer mind suddenly turned back on. She looked at Jake and said, “the big guy. He called the other one… Falconi? I think.”

Jake suddenly withdrew from the conversation. He went into deep thought until Leslie distracted them when she exclaimed in triumphant joy, “I wouldn’t dance to it but, that is a heart beat ladies and gentlemen!” She followed it up with an absurd little dance.

Jake asked, “Calvin?”

Cal never took his eyes of his patient, “she’s not out of the woods yet but, I think she’s going to make it.” He finally looked at Jake, “We’re going to have to get her to poison control at Kaiser though,” Cal just admitted, “Jake this is way beyond me, man. I can get her stable but that’s about it.”

Cindy winced in total disbelief, “Calvin Brandt, where did you learn how to do all of this? I… I…”

“Jake,” Calvin ignored his ex, “we need a medivac. We need Tony and fast.”

Jake grunted in frustration, “and just how are we going to do that Cal? Not only is Tony busy but, any choppers up in the air today, that ain’t sporting an iron cross, are going to get blown out of the sky.”

Chuck had only been helplessly watching. Now he looked to Jake, almost, as if he were crying, “dude, we got to do something man. Can’t the boat take her?”

“Kaiser is not exactly on the water, Chuck,” Calvin snapped. He then looked to his ex, “Cindy, is that your car over there?”

Cindy took a quick look and only then did she realize where she actually was. Her car was still parked right where she had left it, in front of the motel room she had rented. The only difference now was that the door was open and smoke was still rolling out of the room. She looked back to Calvin and said, “of course it is. Is that how you found us?”

Chuck really did have tears rolling down his face now. Even so, he still managed to sound like Chuck when he told Cindy, “we got your text.”

Cindy thought about it and then asked, “what text? I never had a chance to send a text.”

Jake shot up to his feet and then flipped the safety off of his shotgun. His eyes began scanning the area around them and, as calm as he could, he said, “we got to go kids. Pack it up.”

Calvin did not argue. As he began tossing stuff back in the emergency kits he just rambled, “isn’t that what I’ve been saying!”

Leslie got to her feet and readied her weapon. She started looking around with Jake. She asked, “what’s up boss? Ambush?”

The last thing that Jake expected, came next. His phone rang and the caller ID was blocked. Jake answered it anyway. He just cut to the chase, “I take it you’re the guy I have to thank for the heads up.”

The voice was electronically distorted and it also seemed to have a filter that removed the background noise. Jake was familiar with the hardware and it did not really surprise him. The guy told him, “you have to leave by boat, Major Barton.”

“I’ll take that under advisement,” Jake told the guy. Then he made a suggestion of his own, “why don’t you step out here so I can thank you in person.”

The guy was not taking the bait. His modulated voice replied with, “the Germans are on the way. They’ll be here in under five minutes, two squads of Naval Commando’s with air support.”

Jake kept right on, “why are you doing this? What’s in it for you?”

The guy was definitely a pro. He was completely ignoring the distracters when he replied, “I’ll be in touch.” The line went dead.

As Jake slipped the phone back in his pocket, he noticed the strange look he was getting form Leslie. He just told the girl, “don’t ask. I have no idea.” When Jake noticed that everyone was looking at him, strangely, he told them, “the German’s are on the way. That means we don’t have any choice but the boat.”

Calvin jumped to his feet and was uncharacteristically angry, “Jake! I already told you! If we go by boat then Henna dies!”

Jake snapped right back, “and if we go by car then we all do! I don’t know if you get it Cal. Those gunships can blow you to hell and gone and you’ll never even know they were there. They won’t even break a sweat doing it.”

Chuck was back in full tear mode and he was pleading, “I’ll stay man. I out run ‘em before. Please, Henna can’t die man.”

Jake growled, “god damn it Chuck! Stop crying!

Leslie rubbed it in, “oh come on Jake. Look at that puppy dog face he’s got. How can you resist that?”

Jake snorted, “all right! This is what’ll we do.” His new plan hinged on some very big assumptions but, on reflection, Jake figured they were as good of odds as he was going to get today. “No arguments, you all do what I say.”