Mission in Columbia –Ch. 4
Ranger's POV
The chopper was already several feet above ground when I jumped on the skids and grabbed Tank's arm to launch myself inside. When I was inside the copter, he slapped me on the back.
" Damn! Good to see you, boss. Perfect timing, too. You saved our asses." I nodded slightly and looked over at Stephanie on the stretcher. She looked a fucking mess with bruises all over her face, bandages on her arm and purple and black bruising all over her abdomen. In all the scrapes she has gotten herself into, she has never looked this bad. This time it was my fault she was injured. I looked down at Steph. Her eyes were closed but I wanted her to know I was there. "Babe!," I said and squeezed her uninjured hand.
Bobby was busy caring for Steph; but he looked up, knowing I wanted a report." She's got a high fever from the infection of the arm wound, and some facial bruises. But I am most concerned about the internal abdominal bleeding. I am not sure how bad the bleeding is, but its been going on for at least day and a half and her blood pressure is dangerously low. If she doesn't get blood soon, she'll go into shock and then die because her heart doesn't have enough blood to pump. She needs to get to the OR for surgery and fluid replacement fast or she isn't going to make it." Shit. She was in bad shape. Bobby's eyes met mine and I could read the worry in them. I also saw determination and affection. Bobby was one of my few close friends and he loved Steph. He was also the best combat medic in the Rangers. It was only because of his skill that she was still alive now. I knew he would do everything he could to keep her alive. But he and I both knew it might not be enough. Fuck! She couldn't die. None of us would let her.
Seeing her hurt this badly and handing on so tenuously made a sudden wave of fury pass through me. My fists tightened up and I imagined all the things I was going to do to torture these drug running fuckheads who thought they could hurt me by hurting her. Well, they really pissed me off by hurting her. And I am the wrong person to piss off. Pissing me off by touching my Babe is a fucking death wish. I thought of all the ways I would torture them before giving them the most painful death possible. I am not a nice man and I know so many painful ways to kill someone. They were going to experience all of my expertise. I pushed that thought from my mind and forced myself back to calmness. Steph needed me calm and focused. I held her hand and caressed her face for a moment then and leaned close to her ear. I whispered. "Hey, Babe! I love you and I want you to hang in there for me. We're getting you help –just hang in there. Its going to be ok. Just stay with me." Then I felt a slight squeeze of my fingers and I knew she'd heard me. I watched Steph for a moment and saw Bobby check her blood pressure, pulse, and IV. My emotions welled up in me and I wanted to be the one caring for Steph, the one she needed. But my rational mind knew that Bobby was the expert and could take much better care of her until we got to the hospital.
Woody's POV
I couldn't believe the luck we had getting saved by an anonymous sniper; until I realized it was Ranger. I couldn't believe how glad I was to see him, and not just because he saved our asses with that Rambo shit. The original plan for this mission was to get Steph and haul ass straight back to the States. With Steph this seriously hurt, we had to go to the Columbian hospital in Bogata. Bobby had to worry about taking care of Steph, the rest of us had to worry about securing the hospital. We were going to need as much manpower as we could get. There was a huge difference between hospitals here and the in the US. In the US, the ambulance pulls up and everyone gets a certain standard of care, doctors try to help everyone. The American hospital is a refuge, a place of safety. Here in Columbia, the hospitals, just like everything else, were partially controlled by drug lords. They could be places of corruption and deceit. The cartel guys knew Steph was injured and there was only one decent hospital we could take her to. So Javier's goons and any drug lord with a score to settle would be trying to prevent us from getting her there. They might also bribe the doctors not to help her or even to harm her. They might even ambush is. We needed Ranger to help us get her there safely. I hope Ranger had brought a lot of cash for bribes.
Ranger seemed to be preoccupied with just watching Steph and holding her hand. Understandable. We all loved Steph and were all worried that she was hurt so badly. But Steph was Ranger's woman, that made it worse for him. Plus, he was probably blaming himself for her being kidnapped in the first place.
Tank walked up to Ranger and tried to get him to come back with us to plan the attack. Ranger said there was no fucking way he was leaving Steph. Tank said, " Bobby is caring for her right now. The way you can help her is by coming back and planning the attack so we can get her to the hospital." Ranger slowly nodded, kissed Steph's forehead, and came to the back.
Junior, and Ram joined the group and we started to plan. Once Ranger was with us, he seemed to snap back into military mode. He was really good with tactical planning. " Ok, we are about 15 minutes out from the hospital. They will have snipers outside the hospital trying to shoot us down before we get there. They have some pretty powerful weapons. The building will probably also be surrounded. Ram and I are the best snipers, so we'll sit on the skids and pick off as many as we can. We'll cover Tank and Junior to get them close to the building and they can take out the guards surrounding the outside. Then, I'll go in and secure the inside. Woody will stay here and help Bobby get Steph in when it is secure." He paused and looked back towards Steph, " We have to be fast. She doesn't have a lot of time." We asked a few questions to clarify our roles in the attack, then Ranger went back up to Stephanie.
Ranger's POV
I stroked the back of Steph's hand slowly. Feeling her warm, soft hand in mine was supposed to comfort her, but it reassured me as well. My eyes burned with fatigue. I hadn't slept in days. I had been on a covert CIA anti-terrorism mission deep in the caves of Afghanistan. I didn't do much work for the CIA anymore, but I was under contract and catching terrorists was important to my moral code. Plus, I would be paid well. What can I say? I'm a mercenary. It was such a remote area that we couldn't get cellphone or radio signals. It had taken a CIA courier a whole day to find me with the message that Steph had been kidnapped by Suarez.
Since then, my mind and body had been going day and night. Fuck the CIA, this was Steph, she was WAY more important than any damn contract. I left immediately and I'd had to walk through the desert to get transport out of Afghanistan, contacted Rangeman to be sure all the jungle combat gear would be ready for me when I got there, come up with enough cash for bribes, and arranged for getting quick transport to Columbia. I had been dropped in the middle of the fucking jungle.I had tried to contact Tank and the guys to rendezvous with them, but their cell and radio signals were non-existant in the jungles. I hadn't even known Steph was hurt so badly until I saw the guys carrying her on the stretcher. I and followed their trail to the copter; where I picked off the snipers. Now I was so exhausted my eyes burned and I couldn't think straight. But I had to. Steph needed me to get her the care she needed. It was my fault she was fighting for her life; I was not going to let her down.
Bobby's POV
I put a Kevlar vest lightly over Steph, and a helmet lightly over her head so that she wouldn't be hit by any stray bullets. Shit. This little takeover had better not take too long. Steph is a fighter but she was getting weaker and she wasn't going to be able to hang on much longer. Her blood pressure was very low and her pulse was weak. I covered as much of Steph's body as I could to protect her from stray fire. I grabbed my rifle. My job was to keep Steph alive; not fight our way into the hospital, but I wanted to be ready if anyone got past Ranger and Ram. Like that would ever happen.
I hoped that Steph would get the level of care she needed. Columbian hospitals were not exactly state- of- the-art. I guess the druglords aren't using any of their ill-gotten wealth to upgrade their hospitals. I hope they had a decent OR setup and decent equipment, not to mention a surgeon on duty. The equipment needed for Steph's surgery was fairly sophisticated, standard in any American hospital, but here in this hellhole country, who knew? Then there was the bribery problem. Doctors in Columbian hospitals were often paid by the drug lords to refuse to treat certain patients or to make them worse. I knew Ranger would threaten them with death if they didn't save her, and he'd probably also bribe them. But I intended to be right there with her in the OR so I could be certain they were doing everything they should to save her.
Ram's POV
I got the heads up from Tank that we were in sight of the hospital. I sat in the doorway of the chopper on one side. Ranger was sitting on the other side. We positioned ourselves so that we would be between Stephanie and any bullets. We all had our Kevlar on and Bobby had draped a Kevlar vest loosely over Steph. Not even a minute later, the first of the drug cartel's men shot at us; trying to hit the chopper's rotor. Ranger and I were expert snipers, usually slow and methodical in the kill. But now we were just aiming and firing round after round rapid fire from our automatic rifles, creating a thick rain of bullets. Ranger was actually standing on the landing skid. It gave him a better angle of sight; but it also made him a bigger target. Bobby and Woody were bent low over Steph, shielding her from any stray fire. Ranger and I let loose with the automatics, and soon the returning sniper fire was cut by half.
After a couple of minutes, the chopper descended not quite to the ground. Ranger and I rained down a hail of bullets as cover fire while Tank and Junior jumped to the ground and ran to the hospital building. We protected the copter while Junior and Tank went around the perimeter of the hospital; quietly killing drug cartel men. One guy jumped out of a bush and tried to fire a handgun at the rotor of the copter. Idiot. That would never hit the rotor from any distance. I picked him off.
Ranger left me to cover the chopper and jumped to the ground; running full on into the hospital building, Tank and Junior at his back. I provided cover fire while the chopper landed but there were no more snipers. Woody and Bobby straightened up and. Bobby was taking her vitals again and started to gather up Steph's IV and stuff, ready to race with her into the hospital OR.
Bobby's POV
Woody and I hunched over Steph, shielding her from gunfire with our bodies. Ranger and Ram were clearing the place out pretty fast, so hopefully she'd get into the OR soon. She hadn't really stirred throughout the commotion. We landed carefully and Woody and I started to gather up Steph's IV , getting ready to run with her as soon as the hospital was secure. I took her vitals again. Shit!
Ranger's POV
I ran into the hospital fast, not caring if I might be ambushed. I quickly dispatched the three cartel guys waiting there. The hospital personnel was cringing in fear at Tank, Junior, and I , all huge and in black, heavily armed and firing, entering the hospital. I grabbed a nurse. " Do you have an OR? Where is the doctor- the surgeon? I need the surgeon, " I yelled in Spanish. Shit. this place looked like a shitty hospital. Everything was really old. I'll be the equipment was bought in the 1970s. Shit. Hope they had the equipment to save Steph.
I pointed my rifle at the ceiling and fired a few shots. "Listen. We aren't going to hurt anyone. We need the surgeon." A small man came out and gingerly said, " I am the surgeon. We knew that you would be coming in. They ( he pointed to one of the dead guys) told us. The ER is ready." Tank and Junior ran to the OR to make sure it was clear.
I grabbed the doc by the coat. and spoke menacingly in Spanish. " Listen. I am bringing in my woman. She is needs surgery for internal bleeding fast. You are to fix her up well enough to get her back to the States. She will need a lot of blood. My men and I will donate it. . You will give her the best care you can. If she dies, I will hunt you down and torture you and all of your people and you will all die very prolonged, painful deaths. Understood?" The man nodded furiously. "Si, senor." And I will pay you twice what Juarez did to save her." I stuffed a wad of cash into his coat pocket. That is a deposit. You'll get the rest after you have saved her. Are we clear?" The surgeon nodded furiously.
I threw the man towards the OR and told him to get it ready. I nodded and Tank ran out to tell them to bring Steph in. I knew that Bobby would stay in the OR to make sure the doctors were giving Steph the right care. A few seconds later and I heard a commotion as Woody and Tank ran in with Steph on the stretcher, yelling, " Hurry! we need the OR NOW! My heart sunk as I saw Bobby running alongside the stretcher, counting to himself, his big hands locked together, pressing down vigourously over and over again on Steph's chest.