Chapter 2 The First Twelve Hours Are the Hardest

Annie was running, running hard. If they could just make the edge of the forest there might be a chance. She jerked aside as another bullet whizzed by her ear.

She had one arm around Frank's waist and the other clamped his arm over her shoulders. He was flagging badly. Thankful he wasn't a huge guy; she tightened her grip on him and forged ahead.

She was still trying to understand why Jai had flown off and left them. Instinct had made her swerve for the cover of the trees when she saw the rotors bite and the ship lift.

Just as she swerved a bullet had bitten through her side right above her hip bone. It burned like fire, but didn't knock her down. She was able to keep running.

Her stunned brain kept asking why? Another minute, three at the most, and they would have been at the ship. Why had they been left behind?

Hoarse voices screamed Spanish threats and orders behind her. A bullet screamed by almost at her feet.

Her side throbbed and she could feel blood soaking into her clothes, was it hers or Frank's? Was this the way it ended – shot down by drug dealing thugs over a briefcase full of cocaine? Frank still had the damned thing slung across his shoulder.

She felt abandoned, but she wasn't going to give them the pleasure of surrender. The trees were closer. She would make it.

Dodging, weaving they entered the tree line. It felt like a cloak of shadow had fallen over them, but she couldn't stop yet. She swung hard left and angled toward a small rise with a thick cover of old growth.

Frank was almost dead weight and was grunting in pain. She couldn't carry him much farther. Maybe she could hide him and then lead their pursuers away.

She panted up the rise and then stumbled as she started down into the hollow below it. Suddenly the earth opened beneath them, and they tumbled in a mass of flailing limbs into darkness and silence.

Annie landed hard, and the wind was knocked out of her. She struggled to get a breath, and her head rang. Finally, she gasped, and air filled her aching lungs. It was cool and damp and smelled of age and slowly rotting vegetation.

She felt around her and found she had landed on a great heap of leaves and branches. Some distance above her, a faint ray of sunlight reached down into the green depths through an overhanging mass of ferns.

Overhead she could hear running feet and angry calls. She turned quickly to Frank, afraid that he might groan or cry out and reveal the secret of their sudden disappearance. The faint light made it hard to distinguish objects, but she found the path where he had rolled to the bottom of the heap of vegetation. When she reached him, he whispered very faintly. "Annie."

She bent to bring her mouth close to his ear. "I'm here, Frank. We need to be very quiet until the search moves away."

"I'll try," came the faint reply. "Gag me if you have to."

She crouched there beside him as the light grew fainter and a thick white fog rolled slowly through the forest. Eventually, the sounds of the search faded.

"Frank," she said softly. "I think we're safe for the moment. They've moved on. How badly are you hurt; what can I do?"

"Not much, I'm afraid," came his faint whisper. "I seem to be gut shot. There's a lot of blood, and think I broke my back in the fall. I can't feel my legs at all. Just wish it didn't hurt so much."

Annie scarcely knew what to say beyond trying to reassure him. "It's going to be okay," she told him with more conviction than she felt. "Let me make you more comfortable, at least."

He groaned deeply when she straightened his legs.

"Sorry, sorry. Almost done."

She patted her way softly up his body. He had both hands clamped tightly over his belly. His head was twisted to one side. She made a little mound of soft, dry leaves and gently raised his head to rest on them.

"Better," he murmured.

"Now you just hold on for a while. I'm going to look around and see what we have to work with here." She squeezed his hand before standing.

"The drugs," he said distinctly.

He was referring to the briefcase packed with what looked like bags of cocaine. He had it on him when they were running she remembered. Maybe it had come down with them. She needed to find her bag as well.

It took some time searching in the faint light from above, but she found her purse after a hard scramble back up to the top of the rubbish pile. It had stayed closed and the contents seemed intact. She took a moment to look up. It was a good two story drop from the opening.

In the fall of the year, when they were kids, she used to jump from the second story balcony of their home into huge piles of leaves that Danielle had helped her to rake up. It was tremendous fun, but you couldn't jump back up. It didn't look possible here either. The cave walls were sheer. She'd need climbing gear to try it.

She could hear Frank moaning softly. She thought she spotted the briefcase against the cave wall near him. She slid back down, with her bag clamped tightly under one arm, and scurried to pick up the case as well. It was there.

She sat down close to Frank and patted his hand. "Found them both," she told him. "Now, let's just see what we have."

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Auggie had opened every line of communication he had ever used to reach Annie. Her bug brought in nothing but faint outdoor sounds. Either she had dropped it while on the run, or she was lying unconscious or dead somewhere on a mountainside. His imagination kept bringing up horror scenes. He couldn't sit. He paced and swore under his breath.

Evangeline stopped on her way back from lunch. She always smelled of lilacs and coconut shampoo. She put down a small package that crinkled.

"I brought you egg salad." she said. "Very mild, on plain wheat bread, no mayonnaise. You should eat something."

"I think you swung the tide for me this morning," he told her. "I'm in your debt already."

"Auggie, I know you don't eat right when you're worried. As for debt, consider it a small payment on what I owe you."

He had once pulled her husband out of a very bad spot, and he'd been glad he could manage it, but she had never forgotten.

"Joan won't thank you for it."

"Who cares?" she said calmly and walked on to her station.

He was eating the last of her sandwich when a line he had opened only in desperation buzzed.

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Annie's bag was commodious and had turned up more than she had expected. There was her billfold with both pesos and dollars along with her Smithsonian identity papers. Then there were the things she always carried because her father had insisted on it from the time she was a kid.

To her surprise, Auggie had agreed with him. She'd explained it one day when they were both on the floor picking up her dropped purse. There was a bottle of water and a folding cup and spoon as well as a watertight container of matches, a tiny compass in a plastic case and a handful of energy bars. Usually there was a Swiss Army knife and a compactly folded space blanket, but she'd left them at home because they flew commercial.

There was a checkbook and a notebook, pens and pencils. Her makeup bag, brush and comb, the emergency supply a woman always carried and tissues, also a little zipper purse with spare change. And, thank Heaven, way down at the bottom she found her tough, black LED flashlight.

Auggie had simply put it into her hand one day soon after she had joined D.P.D. and told her to keep it. Not sure whether it was a gift or not, she had looked up its price on-line and been surprised at the cost.

There was one last thing. She had almost been afraid to look for it. In a zip pocket, wrapped in a spare handkerchief was the tiny, experimental, satellite phone Auggie had given her when she left for Sri Lanka. Somehow, she had never returned it.

She moved under the cave opening so she'd have a straight shot up and with trembling fingers, dialed the digits he had set up for her.

It was picked up on the second ring.

"Annie?"

It was Auggie's voice. Almost instantly some of her fear eased.

"Auggie, it's me. Can you hear me?

She's alive! Take a breath. She's alive! Get a grip. She's alive! Answer her you idiot.

"I read you soft but clear. Are you hurt? Where are you?

"I'm whispering," she explained. "There may still be men looking for us. Why did Jai leave us? I don't understand it?"

"Jai was grazed by a slug and knocked out seconds after he got on the chopper. The pilot had a yellow streak wider than the road to Oz. Don't worry; I'm going to get you out of there. Now, are you hurt?"

If she didn't answer this soon, he would just pound his head on the computer casing.

"My left side was bleeding. I haven't really looked yet. It hurts some, but I don't think it's too bad. Auggie, it's Frank I'm worried about. He has an abdominal wound, and I'm pretty sure his back is broken. He's in so much pain. I don't know what to do."

Auggie spun to face Barber. "Call down to the clinic. Get a doctor up here now!"

"It's okay." Unlike his stomach, that was seizing in cold fear, his voice remained calm and soothing. "I'll have a doctor here to talk to you soon. While we wait, tell me where you are and what happened? I need as much information as you can give me."

"I'm in a cave somewhere in the mountains outside Monterrey. We were running and fell in. No chance of getting out the way we got in without rope or climbing gear."

She went on describing the action of the past few hours in the clear, clinical terms they taught on the Farm.

Auggie could hear the signal start to fade. He interrupted …

"Annie, the COMSAT covering you is passing out of range. There should be another one coming over the horizon soon. I'm going to check on them; I'll call you back as soon as it comes up. Set your phone to vibrate and take a look at your wound. I want full details when you come back on. Now, hang in there, little missy," it was his best John Wayne drawl, "the cavalry's ah comin'."

Depend on Auggie to leave you with a smile. She felt so much better as she told Frank what she'd found out. He grunted softly and gripped her hand. Presently she eased her hand away and lifted her blouse to have a look at her side.

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It wasn't long until her phone vibrated and Auggie's voice was back in her ear.

"I'm working on the satellites," he told her. Give me a couple of hours, and I should have us in constant contact. I have a surgeon here for you, now. Tell him about Frank's injuries and your own."

Auggie handed a set of headphones and a mike to the doctor, who had patiently waited for the connection to come up. He kept his own on as well.

"Dr. Gingrich at your service," the man said to Annie. "Please describe your own injury first." He had the feeling that this Tech Op would soon be grinding his teeth if she didn't.

"I don't think it's too bad," Annie said. "There's a hole straight through just above my right hipbone. I sponged off the blood with a little water on my handkerchief. Some blood is still dribbling out, but I think it will clot when I can be still for a while. There are no bowel smells."

"That doesn't sound too dangerous, young lady. Do you have anything clean you could pack it with?"

Annie thought for a minute. "Kleenex from a fresh pack?"

"Miss, I don't mean to embarrass you," Dr. Gingrich said, "but most young women I know carry a spare tampon or two. That would work so much better."

There was a hesitation. A blush spread slowly up into Auggie's hairline, and Barber took a sudden, intense interest in a tech manual he'd been leafing through.

"Yes, I have some," Annie answer was quite clear and firm.

"Excellent, clean your wound the best you can, and pack it with the fibers from your tampon. It should clot nicely and do until we can get you to a doctor. Now, tell me about your companion?"

It took longer to describe Frank's injuries and to perform the tests and checks the physician wanted done. Frank even managed to describe his own sensations in broken gasps. By the time they were finished the medic was shaking his head at Auggie.

He gave Annie some general instructions and reassurances, and suggested she rest so her side could clot. They were losing the connection by then, so Auggie told her he would be back soon and gestured for the doctor to stay.

"What's your opinion, doc?" Auggie asked.

"You've seen combat?

Auggie waved a hand before his eyes. "Last thing I did see, as a matter of fact." He shrugged it off in his usual detached way.

"Sorry, guess me shaking my head didn't mean much then."

"Nope, but no matter. How is she, and what about the man with her?"

"Unless an infection develops, my guess is she will be fine. Her side will probably heal on its own in a week or two. Could leave an ugly pucker scar though, unless she gets stitches and proper treatment."

Auggie felt a weight lift off his heart. He didn't give a damn about scars; he had his own. What mattered was that Annie was going to be all right.

"Her companion is another matter," the doctor continued. "How soon can you get them out of there?

"It's complicated, doc."

"It always is. How long?"

"Way too many strings to pull first, and then those mountains are covered in 'no fly' fog – 24, 48 hours; there's no way to know for sure."

"Then he's going to die. But you're probably aware of that. Be best if he bled out and went quickly. Belly wounds are hell."

"Yeah, pretty much what I thought. Thanks for coming up, sir."

"Anytime, call if you need me again. And Anderson…"

"Um…?"

"Is your girl up for this? It could be tough seeing him out?

"Annie's tough, doc. Tough and caring. It will be very hard, but I'll be here to help, and she'll make it."

The doctor sighed. "Keep the faith, son, keep the faith."

Auggie could hear the limp in his step as he left.

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When the COMSAT next hove into range, Annie was waiting for him.

"What did the doctor say?" she demanded.

He said you're going to be fine, Annie."

"Damn it, Auggie! You know that's not what I mean. Don't put me off."

"I'm not; I won't." He drew a deep breath. "I think you are strong enough to hear the truth. Frank is going to die. In all probability that will happen before I can get you out. You'll have to see him through it."

There was a long silence. He could hear only her harsh breathing.

"Annie, after this satellite passes there will be about an hour break, and then we should be in constant contact. I'll be with you. I would change places with you this minute if there were any way in hell to do it, but there isn't. You need to do this and get beyond it; you can't be paralyzed by it. I'm doing everything I can, Annie, but essentially you are going to have to save yourself. Do you understand me?"

"I do. It helps to know you'll be there for me. I can hear that this is hard for you, too Auggie. I can do it; we can do it."

"That's my Annie; that's my brave, strong lady." His voice was a warm caress.

Annie was struck by a sudden, frightening thought. "Auggie?"

"Right here, Annie."

"This phone, what about the battery? How long can we talk?

"It's an experimental model – something brand new. The manufacturer is claiming 100 hours. We should play it safe and try to keep it around 50 or 60, but we've only been on about a hour total so far. We'll set up a schedule if we have to."

"Oh, thank God!"

"Yeah, how 'bout that. Little did we know when you set off for tropical beaches that my little goin' away gift would come in so handy."

She knew he was teasing her, trying to get her mind off what was to come, and she was grateful, but there was something else she needed to know before their connection went.

"Auggie, Frank is in terrible pain, agony. He does his best to hide it, but … Is there anything I can do? We have that filthy briefcase full of what I'm pretty sure is cocaine. Would that work?"

He'd stayed away from the hard stuff in Iraq, but he'd known plenty of men who used. Maybe it was worth a try.

"You could give it a shot, Annie. Open only one package of drugs; wet one finger and dip it into the coke; reach inside his mouth and rub it into his gums. Can you do that?"

"I can," she said with firm conviction.

"Okay. Start with a very small amount. If it helps, you can increase the dose by small steps until his pain is controlled. Do not get any of it into your own mouth, nose or eyes. Wash your hand, if you can, or wipe it good. Are you clear on this?"

"Clear, boss."

"Good. Our connection is fading, tough lady. When we get back, I'll want to know everything you have with you: clothes, purse, the works. And start looking around the cave. We need to explore it."

A last word or two and she was lost to him for an endless hour to come. He hoped that giving her something to do would help make the wait easier for her. Meanwhile, he had a lot to do himself.