Ten hospital beds were spaced around the room, separated by curtains that were pushed back against the walls. The beds were sleek, one piece units with every manner of equipment built into their surrounds. The headboard was a wall of monitors and it curved seamlessly down sides that were packed with instruments and hidden attachments. The sides curved back up into a footboard that held rows of small screens and touch controls.
Meg shoved hard to get the heavy gurney to change directions and they brought it alongside the first hospital bed.
Marty and a limping Harley banged through the doorway with another gurney that held a teenage girl. There was a medium-sized black dog draped over her legs, and neither was moving.
Harley stopped pushing it as soon as they entered the room.
“She’s not staying in here,” Harley said, “We’re putting her somewhere else.”
“There’s only one treatment room,” Johann said, huffing as he helped move the muscular Tian onto the bed. Meg wrapped a soft band around Tian’s wrist and several of the monitors above him lit up. Colored lines appeared on the screens as the equipment chimed and then settled to a steady beeping.
“I don’t care, she doesn’t stay in here with him,” Harley said.
“Cut the shit,” Katia said as she shoved past him and stormed into the room, “There’s only one treatment room, and these beds weren’t meant for us.” She dropped her rifle and vest next to one of the beds, and slowly stripped off her top and turned to look at her angry red shoulder. As she sat down on the edge of the bed she said, “Doc, come take a look at this.”
Johann walked behind her, pushed his glasses up onto his nose, and turned the light on over Katia’s bed. She flinched as he prodded around the torn flesh on her shoulder.
Marty nodded for Meg and she took one end of Kelcy’s gurney. They rolled it next to a bed on the opposite side of the aisle and transferred the teen. She connected the girl to the bed’s monitors with one of the wrist straps.
As the screens lit up and beeped Harley limped over to the girl’s bed and pulled a handful of long black zip-ties from his duty belt. He roughly strapped her hands and feet to the curved rails that ran along the sides of the bed.
“Not too tight,” Katia said, “We need her comfortable, at least until Semion arrives. Let Marty get a look at that ankle and the scratch on your shoulder.”
Harley stared down at the girl for a moment before hopping back a few steps to sit on the next empty hospital bed. He carefully removed his bloody shoe as Marty turned on the light above him and peeled back his wet pants leg.
“Looks like the little bugger got you pretty good,” Marty said as he rotated the foot and Harley drew in a sharp breath, “A little flesh removed above the extensor, but no significant tendon or ligament damage.” He looked up at Meg and said, “Clean this and use a reverse figure eight and lace up brace, he needs to be able to walk on it. Clean up his shoulder, too.”
Meg nodded and went to rummage through a cabinet on the back wall of the treatment room.
Katia leaned to the side, looked over her shoulder at Johann and nodded towards the petite young nurse.
“Oh, she’s alright,” Johann said quietly with a nod. He leaned closer and whispered in Katia’s ear, “She’s the best nurse I’ve ever had under me. Don’t worry, she’ll do whatever I tell her.” He smiled broadly, and to the back of the room said, “Meg, we also need to clean this wound.”
The nurse nodded and said, “Yes, doctor,” without turning around.
Katia checked the time on her phone and said, “My father will be here soon with our associates and he’ll want to talk to the girl. I want you two to start sequencing her immediately and finish the rest of the sewer samples. Based on the family’s stronger than anticipated defenses I would submit we have unconfirmed but probable indications one or more of them are indeed accelerated, would you concur?”
“I concur you fucked up,” Harley said before either doctor could speak, “Am I the only one who’d like to know how you dropped the ball on the intelligence, again?” He didn’t wait for Marty or Johann to answer, they had turned away and pretended to get back to tending their patients’ wounds. “Well I can guarantee my grandfather will be interested in an answer,” he said, “Katia, the targets were far better prepared than you let on. There seems to be a pattern here that my family has again paid dearly for.”
Katia fixed him with a chilling look and she straightened her shoulders. It looked for a moment like she was going to get off the hospital bed but she just stared at the snakehead and said, “What happened tonight was tragic and I am truly sorry for your loss, Harley,” Katia said, “Obviously the Walkers and Hogans have developed skills our genius doctors here had not predicted. It’s also obvious they’re working in close association with the FBI, despite assurances we’d received to the contrary.”
Meg returned with the bandages and lace-up ankle boot. As Harley’s wound was getting cleaned and wrapped he read Katia’s face carefully and didn’t like what he saw. She still had her sidearm on her hip and his pistol was in the corner with the rest of their gear.
He said, “Fair enough. A discussion for another time.”
Harley looked away from Katia to his unconscious cousin lying on the hospital bed by the door. Marty was holding open one of Tian’s eyes and moving a small flashlight back and forth. Harley asked, “How is he, doc?”
“I don’t think the fall through the glass or the fight with the dog did him any real harm,” Marty said, inspecting fresh cuts and bruises layered over a long history of older fight scars, “He’s in amazing shape and looks to be no stranger to altercations. I’m assuming he just got a big doze of tranq.” He took a long look at one of the monitors on the headboard and then typed into a swing-out keyboard below it as he said, “Meg, let’s start with naltrexone and atipamezole, check him every fifteen, I’ve loaded the percentages.”
“Yes, doctor,” Meg said as she quickly finished with Harley’s ankle and moved on to Katia’s back.
“What about her?” Katia said, nodding at the teen.
“We’ll probably give her the same drip,” Marty said, “She took a few less darts but she’s half his size. It’s not an exact science. They’ll both be out for a while longer.”
“As long as she’s awake when Semion gets here,” Katia said, wincing as Meg carefully pressed a bandage over her wound.
“And what about that fucker?” Harley said, getting up and testing his bandaged foot before he put weight on it. He walked gingerly over to the gurney and looked down at the limp black dog.
“If the Hogan canines hung around with wild coyotes who knows what kind of crap they picked up,” Johann said as he walked over to stand next to Harley, “Given both of your wounds we should test it, but just restrain it for now.” He yanked one of the small tranquilizer darts out of the dog’s fur and looked at the hair stuck to it, and the blood dripping out of its barbed tip. There were seven more darts sticking out of the dog’s back.
“How long does the rabies blood test take?” Harley said, yanking out another dart and inspecting it, “The way this thing acted I wouldn’t be surprised if it was rabid.” Harley handed the dart to Johann and then used his strong plastic zip ties to make a collar, slipped it around the dog’s neck, and zipped it tight to the frame of the gurney.
“Oh, there isn’t a blood test for rabies,” Johann said, looking around for a trash bucket. He didn’t see one so he just dropped the darts into his jacket pocket. “We cut off the animal’s head and inspect its brain matter,” he said.
Smudge fought the urge to leap up and kill both of the men as one of them yanked another dart out of her back.
Chapter 53
“You’re an ass,” Andi said.
“Agreed,” Aila said, joining the cop at the railing of her apartment’s back deck. They both cradled cups of coffee, and were giving Dan equally dirty looks.
“I have no excuse,” Dan said with his back to the glass sliding
door, “But I can try to explain.”
It had been almost eight hours since they arrived at Andi’s. The horrible waiting and lack of any useful information about Kelcy and Smudge was slowly grinding everyone to tatters. No one had slept. The sun would be up soon, and Dan could tell his family was running on their last gasps of adrenaline. Andi had been amazing, and was obviously no stranger to helping people manage terrible, stressful situations. She subtly kept a steady stream of food and drinks in front of them and kept them engaged in idle conversation whenever the dreadful quiet or their blank stares settled in. Her innocuous questions backfired when they got around to Dan’s training. He immediately realized that withholding it from Aila, as well as lying to Andi, was adding an unnecessary element of friction. He was cursing himself for having been so supremely stupid as they took turns taking him to task.
Hamish was sitting next to Ben at Andi’s kitchen peninsula. He nudged a plate towards the boy and said, “Eat lad, what did I tell you when we were up north?”
“That women from New Brunswick were easy.” Ben said into his hands, not looking up.
Hamish smiled down at him. “Well, they are,” he said, “but I also told you not to go into battle on an empty stomach. I’m going to need you sparky when the time comes to get your sis and that damn hound, so munch up.”
Ben picked up half of the sandwich from the plate they were sharing. He ripped off a corner and fed it to Spot, who had his paws in his lap. All of them chewed, and watched the parents and the woman cop gesturing in the blowing snow on the back deck. It had stopped snowing around midnight, but Andi’s narrow courtyard created a wind tunnel between the neighboring buildings that swirled the snow around Aila’s pointing finger.
Hamish said, “Marriage is a wonderful, sacred, rewarding institution. Don’t ever forget that, lad.”
Ben looked up at him and said flatly, “You’ve never been hitched, Unc.”
“Yep,” his great uncle said with a nod, “tragedy that.”
The glass slider Dan had his back against was closed so they couldn’t hear what was being said, but they saw him spread his hands and shrug his shoulders as both women alternated shaking their heads.
“She doesn’t look too mad,” Hamish said, taking another bite of sandwich.
“She never gets mad,” Ben said, “she gets you with logic…cold, cruel, mom logic.”
Spot nodded.
“I noticed your dah had gotten a might bit more sporty lately but I figured it was just muscles he was after,” Hamish said, “I wouldn’t have guessed he’d be learning how to fight as well. I must say I’m impressed.” He took a slurp of tea and finished his sandwich. He said, “That fit wee cop is cute and all but I can’t see him taking a run at a ginger, and a lumpy Irish ginger at that. I wonder what your mum’s all up in arms about?”
On the back deck Aila put a hand on her hip, said something, and pointed at Dan with her coffee cup.
Spot watched her closely and slowly nodded. He raised a paw and began to sign.
Ben straightened up, smiled, and translated for Spot, “…understand Hun, really I do, and we appreciate you wanting to be able to protect the family but you should have just told us both the truth. It wasn’t fair to Andi, and it wasn’t fair to me. That’s all I’m saying, dear. So you hesitated? Could have happened to anyone. Get over it.”
As they watched Andi nod, and Dan gesture a reply, Hamish turned to Spot and said, “You read lips, too?”
Spot signed, and Ben said, “I read communication, and it’s more about the face and the body than the lips. I have an interpretive advantage with our mom as I’ve watched her lecture the family more than a few times, and like all Scots she’s easy cause she speaks with her whole face.”
Hamish laughed and grabbed a big handful of Spot’s muzzle. He kissed the dog on the head as he got off the stool and went to the sink to refill the kettle.
Andi came through the glass slider from the deck, closing it behind her before walking around the dining room table to join them in the kitchen.
“You get him all straightened out?” Ben asked.
Andi smiled and looked at the boy and his odd dog. She said, “Your dad’s a wonderful guy Ben, but he should have been straight with your mom about our training.”
“So what exactly did you show him?” Hamish said, with more than a hint of sarcasm. He was a full head and shoulders taller than the red headed cop, but Ben thought she carried herself in a way that evened them out. He’d seen most people give Hamish a wide berth when first meeting him. He was a big man, and with his buzz cut, grey beard, and loud gruff tone he was generally intimidating until they found out he was an affable bloke. Andi didn’t give him any ground and leaned right past him to set her coffee mug in the sink without hesitation. Ben and Spot liked her from the first moment she picked up the family on Morgan Road. She barked orders while smiling, and the slight Irish song in her voice reminded him of Hamish and Mimi’s brogues. Andi also looked like she could kick some serious ass.
She looked up at Hamish and smiled broadly. “I taught him how to take down big lunks,” she said, “Quickly and without much effort, and have ‘em wailing like a Galway ewe.”
“Aye?” Hamish said, straightening to his full height and returning her smile, “And did you give him a big stick to do it with?”
The cop scratched the back of her head, and in doing so her t-shirt sleeve crept up over the large curve of her flexed bicep. She eyed Hamish from head to toe slowly and said, “I don’t have a big stick, and you’d be surprised how easily most big idiots drop like a pair of knickers on prom night.”
Hamish boomed a laugh and clapped Andi on her strong shoulder. He said, “Well good on you, love. I think Danny boy brought us to the right place.”
Andi shook her head, and lost her battle to not smile at the big idiot. “Shush,” she said, “we have neighbors.”
A buzzer rang and Ben hopped down from the peninsula barstool. He weaved around the living room furniture and ran to the apartment’s front windows with Spot on his heels.
He knelt on the bench seat and Spot jumped up next to him. They looked out over the city street below, and watched one of Boston’s Green Line trains stop at the small covered platform in the center of Huntington Ave. The doors opened and the train car lights came on. Spot heard the conductor announcing the stop. Ben recognized it, they were only a few stops from the Hogan’s old Back Bay brownstone. The sidewalk below was sprinkled with early grocery shoppers from the large, open-all-night organic chain store on the corner.
Ben looked down at the apartment’s street level front door and said, “It’s them.”
Andi hit a button next to the door, and as it buzzed she thumbed open the top deadbolt. She held the door open as Mimi and Comina entered the apartment carrying bags of groceries.
Ben ran to give Mimi a hug, and then took the bags from her. He brought them to the kitchen counter, and as he and Comina started to unload the food Dan and Aila came in from the back deck.
“What did you find out?” Aila asked.
“I’m sorry, Aila,” Comina said, “I’ve been black listed. My access has been pulled and the two colleagues I even remotely trust politely dodged my questions. I can hack in, but it would take time and I’d be hunting blind. I’m not exactly sure where to start looking…and Barton’s boss left me a message to suspend my current case work and report to Washington immediately.”
“I still think I should try,” Andi said as she pulled bread, peanut butter, and a big box of tea out of one of the shopping bags.
Comina looked around the kitchen before she answered. Dan shrugged, Hamish and Mimi shook their heads, but Aila nodded.
“It’s a real gamble,” Comina said, “and I don’t think it’s wise to risk exposing you. The FBI and Boston PD have strong ties and they haven’t always been the most moral of alliances, I’m afraid.”
Hamish didn’t need Spot to read the look on Andi’s face. It was obvious she knew exactly
what Comina was talking about. “As much as I’d like to explore any possible paths to finding Kels and Smudge,” Hamish said, “You’ve risked enough neck flesh just having us here. We don’t want our troubles leading to your doorstep.”
Andi put her hand on his arm and said, “Thanks Hamish, but if there’s a teenage girl out there missing I have to help. I can make a few calls.”
“No,” Aila said, her nod had changed to a head shake. “Hamish is right. Andi you’ve done enough, and Agent Comina has a valid point. If her sources have been compromised we need to assume yours have been, too. I appreciate your help more than you know, but it’s too risky.”
“So what do we do?” Dan asked. His voice hitched and he cleared it before he said, “We need to find them.”
“We wait,” Aila said, “We continue to get ready, and we wait.” She pulled Ben to her and wrapped her arms around his shoulders from behind. “Our girls are a pair of smart, tough chicklets. They’ll watch out for each other, and we’ll get them back. These fuckers don’t want us dead, at least not yet.”
Mimi covered Aila’s hand with her own and gave it a rub. Her daughter looked down and noticed fresh red marks on her mother’s knuckles. Hamish noticed them too, and they looked at Comina. The tall agent was sporting a new raw scrape on her jaw.
“So,” Hamish said, turning to help Andi pull out the rest of the groceries, and hiding his smile, “You two lasses had a chat I see.”
“Yeah,” Comina said, touching her cheek, “Jean expressed her feelings about my double role as Lindsay.”
Chapter 54
As soon as the treatment room door clicked shut Smudge opened one eye and scanned the room. She had been listening to the slow breathing of Kelcy and the Tzeng assassin, and the quiet beeping coming from their headboards. They were both still out cold.
Let Slip the Pups of War: Spot and Smudge - Book Three Page 23