Now she was in the mood to start giving orders,
“Come on get him moving you’re going to lose him if you don’t get him on that gurney. Do you have the chopper in-bound?”
One medic nodded a yes to Michelle as he slipped between her and the gurney to take up the head end.
Mayor Park stopped Michelle as she followed the medics out of the office. Placing her hand on Michelle’s chest,
“Are you sure you want to do this Michelle?”
Grabbing the Mayor’s hand with a grip that made Susan wince,
“Now is not the time to come between me and Auggie. I don’t know what is going on, but he needs someone now on his side.”
Michelle ran to catch up with the medics. They were closing the doors to the ambulance when Michelle locked on to the shoulder of the paramedic and spun him away from the door. Jumping in and taking the seat next to the attending EMT,
“Let’s go, let’s go.”
Chapter 16
The lead medic kept a check on August’s pulse. Michelle held August’s other hand no longer as a doctor or a Marine but as a woman. She stroked his hand stopping at every dip in his knuckles. The calluses from years of working with his hands held many stories. She was trying to picture what those might be. His hand was almost as dark as her natural skin up to where his watch would normally be. There, a ring of white, looking like he wrapped his wrist with surgical gauze replaced the watch.
The ambulance made a hard-right turn and the force threw Michelle over the top of August. She wanted to linger but jumped back immediately. The medic noticed the embarrassed look on her face and just gave her a slight wink.
When the ambulance reached the helicopter landing pad the chopper was making its final spin around, as the pilot judged the wind and how to put it down best. The sound of chopped air vibrated the box of the ambulance.
Still unconscious the sound seemed to agitate August. He started thrashing on the gurney. There was a look of fear on his face that Michelle saw over and over in young Marines coming home missing arms, legs and dignity. Beads of sweat were forming on August’s forehead.
Chapter 17
The sounds of the helicopter, Michelle’s voice and the orders yapped by the first responders sent August deep in an unconscious terror spin. His body knew he was dying and was fighting with the soul that wouldn’t let him go unless he answered questions.
He was back in the jungle reliving the fire fight all over again.
Chapter 18
Michelle watched as August reached up from the gurney as if he was stroking something in front of him. She’d seen this before. After soldiers had gone through the most traumatic of situations they started reliving it again under anesthesia. Many of them had no recollection of the dream event when they woke. She could tell August was deep in a memory.
The medics loaded August into the helicopter. It seemed the closer they got to the helicopter the more agitated August became. Michelle held his hand even tighter and stroked his head.
Michelle tried even harder to calm him but was pushed out of the way by the medics on the helicopter.
One of the flight crew said to Michelle,
“We’re sorry Doctor, but there is not enough room for you to go with us. We are taking him to Lincoln Memorial. You can see him there.”
One of the local paramedics grabbed Michelle’s arm and gently pulled her back.
“Doctor, you know you can’t go with them.”
“Get me back to my car at the Courthouse,” Michelle ordered like she was talking to a private again.
The one paramedic, a veteran himself understood the tone and the urgency of Michelle's order. August was secured in the helicopter. The ambulance left the scene with Michelle riding shotgun and sirens and lights flashing as if they were responding to another call.
Chapter 19
August’s mind was swirling from sounds and smells. The antiseptic smell brought him back to the hospital after the attack, but the fuel smell reminded him of the fiery attack on the village. Helicopters flying overhead as the village exploded in flames. Men, women and children running like human torches. His own Marines being shot right in front of him. No warning and no way to defend.
The flight crew administered more drugs to keep August calm without putting him over the edge. He grabbed at them in a way they never saw an unconscious man behave. He kept hollering for someone named Galina and yelling about the baby.
Chapter 20
The ambulance dropped Michelle at the Courthouse. She ran to her car hoping that Mayor Park didn’t see any of the activity, but she wasn’t so lucky.
Susan beat her to the parking space and was blocking the driver door.
“So, is he going to live or die?”
“Which would you prefer Mayor? I am guessing either way doesn’t matter a whole lot to you.” Gesturing toward the gun still in the small of her back,
“Now’s not the time to piss me off.”
“Doctor, are you threatening me? Again.”
“Yes. Now step away from my car.”
Mayor Park stepped aside to let Michelle in her car. But not without issuing her own threat.
“You know Doctor, you can be fired from your position just as easily as you were hired. The commissioners that hired you, all owe me favors.”
“I am sure they do Mayor.”
Michelle backed out never looking and was almost smacked by an old rusty pickup.
Susan hollered,
“You should have hit her George, I would’ve made sure you got a new pickup out of the deal.”
Chapter 21
The July heat filled the cabin of the helicopter when the doors opened. August felt it as a blast from the fire that was engulfing the village and the surrounding jungle. August was in a different time, place and body. Villagers were running through the jungle. The attackers picking them off as target practice.
He sat up on the gurney and hollered their names.
Two flight crew members gently eased him back down.
“Sheriff it’s okay, you’re at a hospital.”
August just looked at them. His stare filled with terror showing them clearly he was not with them.
Chapter 22
Michelle pushed the curtain back surrounding August bed in the ER. It took her longer to get to the hospital than she wanted. She held back a shocked look as best she could when she saw August hooked to wires and oxygen.
He had a scared look on his face and didn’t even acknowledge Michelle when she stepped through the curtain.
“August, can you hear me?”
He never turned to her.
An ER nurse stepped through the curtain,
“Are you family?”
“No, just a good friend. Can you tell me what’s being done? I am a doctor.”
The nurse gave Michelle a once over glance as if she didn’t believe her.
“Dr. Vance is evaluating him, but the tests have not come back yet. That look on his face has been there ever since they brought him in. The flight crew said he was going on about a woman and her baby. Maybe that’s you. They had to give him some extra meds just to get him out of the helicopter. He won’t be talking much the rest of today.”
The nurse stepped out but not without giving Michelle another judgmental look.
Michelle was tempted to step out and lecture the nurse but let it go.
She reached under the covers and found August rough hand. She moved her hand up his arm pushing the gown back to reveal the snake tattoo. An urge was building inside of her. She knew what she wanted to do, but like a little girl she was so nervous.
She looked back through the opening of the curtain. No one was watching. She pulled her hair back with her free hand bent down low to August and kissed him on the forehead.
The curtain flung open scaring Michelle. Standing there was a person Michelle never would have guessed could be connected to August.
Chapter 23
A beautiful Latin wo
man stood in the opening of the curtain. Michelle judged her maybe twenty-one or two. Taller than Michelle and almost the same skin tone although it was obvious the woman came by hers from the sun. Even as a woman looking at another, Michelle had to admit how beautiful and powerful she seemed, especially for someone so young.
Michelle felt the need to break the moment of awkward silence.
“I’m sorry, can I help you? I’m afraid you might have the wrong bed.”
The woman spoke with a heavy Latin accent,
“This is Francis Stratton. I know him.”
“You are mistaken Miss his name is not Francis. This man is very sick if you would please excuse us.”
“This man is Francis Stratton, roll up his gown on his right arm. You will find a snake and cross tattoo. This is Father Francis Stratton. He raped my mother, sent my father to prison, sent my brother into hiding in the jungle and then gave me this.”
She turned away from Michelle and pulled her hair back revealing an ear that was barely hanging on. Pulling up her own sleeves revealing an arm that looked more like fried bacon than an arm.
August opened his eyes just enough to see a woman from his past standing at the foot of his bed. He closed his eyes again and fell back to his unconscious state. Michelle, still holding his hand felt his body tense. She looked down away from the woman hoping to catch August awake. When she turned back, the woman was gone.
Chapter 24
Susan Park couldn’t wait to get back to her office following her confrontation with Michelle. The Doctor definetly knew how to get under her skin.
She had to let that go for now. Her first order of business was trying to figure out who August really was. The two of them rarely saw eye to eye but she was one of the people that worked hard to get him elected. She figured she was owed some answers and now
She wasn’t so sure her efforts were well placed. There were no other candidates for the job that she felt she could manipulate. Surely a man as handsome and mysterious as August would be an easy target for her false charms and good looks. Those qualities had always worked on other men starting with her father and then all the men who gave her more of the precious information she craved.
She was a little disappointed in herself that she didn’t get more out of August this morning but maybe it was just bad timing.
She hoped she wasn’t losing her touch.
Susan questioned why one of the firemen at the scene reported to her he witnessed Fr. Steve addressing August like a priest? This was gnawing even deeper at her. Who was August if he wasn’t who he presented to the voters and the people of the county?
Susan prided herself on knowing the information in the community and knowing it first. She viewed herself not so much as a politician, but more as a broker of information who found the best source and selling floor for her commodity in the political arena.
In high school, she quickly caught on that information, whether it was about someone or something was a valuable commodity. In no time she established herself as the go to girl. Even with her parents she knew how to manipulate details and stories to her advantage.
As an only child and the product of a struggling marriage, she quickly learned the game of blackmailing. She knew how to wage one parent against the other to get what she wanted. Blackmail was not too harsh of a term. She had pictures of her father and his mistress which she threatened to use if things didn’t go her way.
Her mother’s afternoon escapes from reality on prescription drugs was supported by the countless pill bottles that Susan dug out of the trash. When her parents eventually split, it was Susan more than the attorneys that mediated the divorce. Of course she directed that she benefited more than either parent.
In Susan’s world information could be traded for additional information when needed. She became mayor not for the title or prestige, but rather for the access to evidence she could stash in her bank before anyone else. This new revelation about August made her mad. It was eating at her that she missed this buying opportunity about his background. She was determined to get in on the ground floor before it grew any larger.
All Susan really knew about August was that he came from around Philadelphia. He claimed in his bio that he went to St. Joseph College and then joined the Marines. He worked as a military policeman for years then went back to school for additional studies. All of this had to be true, how else could he pass the FBI background checks needed to take the job?
There was more than one thing that was odd in Susan’s eyes. August never carried a cell phone in an era when every kindergarten kid has a cell phone. He has no computer skills and no email address. He does everything by paper, mail or fax from his office. His only transportation is that old beat up jeep he drives around. The man doesn’t even wear a uniform. Even stranger to Susan, when she cozied up to August’s mailman a while back, the only thing she found out was all deliveries were marked occupant.
Susan made her first prying call to the local diocesan office in Lincoln. She said she was an old friend trying to find Fr. August Hawk. No one in the office had ever heard of him. They suggested trying one of the other two dioceses in the state. No luck with either of those.
A phone call to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia revealed the same answer. With that call, she did receive the web address of a directory of all priests in the country.
She thought,
“Now I have him.”
Searching the list revealed no Fr. August Hawk ever being ordained in the last thirty years.
Susan decided it was time to expand the search. She picked up the phone and called a contact who worked for the FBI.
The phone rang once and was immediately answered. Susan’s voice bubbled in the best genuine interest she could muster,
“Mary, Susan Park from Watercreek, how are you?”
“Fine Susan, how are things out in the country? Surviving the heat?”
“You are aware Mary that air-conditioning has come to this part of the world…right? We even have stoplights and the roads are paved. We are doing just fine here.”
It didn’t take much for Susan to turn on the defensive when she suspected even the slightest put down of her state or town. If she was anything, she was loyal to her home place. She knew everyone outside of Watercreek looked at them as sodbusters and hillbillies, an image she was trying hard to eliminate.
Mary couldn’t resist poking at Susan. In her estimation, Susan was wasting her talents as the mayor of a small farming town. She should be running a corporation in the city.
When their usual sparring finished, Mary asked,
“What can I do for you Susan?”
“Could you research the background of our local sheriff?”
Mary quickly typed August’s name on her screen and without notifying Susan, started recording their conversation.
“Auggie? What for? What could that sweetheart have done to piss you off?”
“I never said he upset me, I just need to know more about him to make me feel comfortable with his handling of some cases.”
“Since when did you become a cop Susan?"
“I can tell you without looking him up you are not going to find much to surprise you. I met with him when we did his initial background check. He’s a great guy.
You should be nicer to him. I can’t believe some woman out there in your county hasn’t picked him up yet. He would be a good match for you Susan.”
The thought knotted Susan’s stomach even more. Thinking of her and August as friends was not a direction she wanted to go. She was pretty sure August knew her ultimate agenda and that made him a threat to her assets.
“I will send you the background report Susan, but that is all I can do without an official investigation and this needs to stay between us.”
“No, that’s okay, don’t bother, I probably know everything it’s going to say. Thanks for your offer Mary.”
Mary hung up the phone, logged the call from Susan and sent a notice up to her super
ior based on the instructions from the flag on her computer screen.
Susan stepped out of her office into the wall of heat and humidity. It smacked her with the same force as her regret for making the call. Susan never suspected that Mary and August might be friendly or that she even knew him. She knew a bridge was burned.
She could be so stupid sometimes.
Chapter 25
Omaha, Nebraska
Dan Faraday, federal marshal in charge of witness protection for the area, sat down in his sparse office. He spent as little time there as necessary. These days it was a place to get free coffee and cool down since the air-conditioner wasn’t working at home. The sooner he was transferred out of the Midwest and back to his home in Oregon the happier he would be.
The current assignment wasn’t a bad way to finish off his career. This was a laid-back position keeping tabs on his people in mostly rural settings compared to some of the higher traffic areas. He only had a few more years till retirement so he could deal with this for a while longer.
Besides, he had a few other irons in the fire that would make retirement a little more comfortable.
With coffee in his favorite mug and the morning paper in hand he settled in to catch up on last night’s baseball scores. The plan was disturbed by the phone.
“God damn thing, every time I get comfortable, some idiot decides to break my stride.”
On the other end of the line,
“Dan, Bob Sission, FBI how are you doing this morning?”
As Dan flipped a page in the sports section only half paying attention to Sission,
“Not bad Bob, what can I do for the FBI?” he continued to scan the page looking for the Royal’s score.
“Dan, we received a flagged inquiry this morning about one of your people.”
This is not what Dan wanted to hear this early, but these events come up now and then. He flipped to the next page of the paper. Really not giving Sission any more attention than necessary. One of the new secretaries walk past the office glass. He followed her until he almost spilled his coffee. She was more important than the agent on the line.
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