Paulo squirmed uncomfortably at the heat of the flames burning against his face. His arms thrummed from the fire and his ears heard nothing. His eyelids felt like steel shutters slammed over his vision refusing to allow him sight.
In a raspy whisper he blindly called out to his mentor, trying to rouse the man from his still position on the concrete. With no reply he tried again, a different lament one with less hope to it; "Sarah," the unlucky girl who had inadvertently triggered the explosion.
The silence bore down on him more hurtful then the burns and bruises.
Am I deaf? Paulo considered in horror remembering the calamitous explosion.
The memory alone was enough to trigger another ripple of pain through his body. He raised his scorched arms in defence of his burning face and he felt them catch painfully in the sheets.
Sheets?
Paulo pushed open his swollen eyes and sat bolt upright. The accompanying wave of dizziness almost lay him straight back down again, but he endured. Disorientated he realised he was definitely no longer in the ambulance bay amid burning vehicles and growing death.
Looking down he noticed he was in just his boxers and was sitting in a pale bed.
Paulo's first thought was home, then the hospital, before he finally recognised the room as belonging to neither. The bland colouring and decoration indicated a hotel room and not an expensive one either
Paulo fought his way out of the sweat stained sheets, suddenly remembering the white Rodeo that arrived as he was passing out.
The same white Holden Rodeo that had been following his ambulance.
A shiver shot down Paulo's battered spine at the possibility of danger.
He stood as carefully as could, determined to face danger on his feet. The aches and pains this action caused were nothing in comparison to the headrush it triggered.
In the surge of light-headedness, images and memories flashed in his eyes.
The explosion. Amy. Grant. Sarah. Dead.
Overwhelmed by the catastrophic day, Paulo staggered back, missing the bed and slumping to sit on the floor in front of it. His face sunk into his hands, hoping that if he held onto his head maybe it would clear. A splitting headache seemed to accompany the images and cloud his thoughts.
He sat like that for a length of time he had no way of measuring.
Seconds? Minutes? Hours? Days? His reeling mind considered
When his consciousness finally collected, he felt as weak as a kitten, fragile and delicate like his skin was make of tissue paper.
A newfound outrage over his dead friends gave him the strength to slowly stand.
His headache bit back harder then ever but he pushed through it.
With slow eyes he scanned the room carefully, trying to identify anything he could use as a weapon, but nothing jumped out at him.
In bitter resignation he focused on the door and made it his goal to get there.
Paulo buried a grimace with each painful step as he made his way towards the door to his room. His tender hands quietly tested the doorknob and to his unnerving surprise, he found it was unlocked.
With infinite caution he warily pushed open the door and was rendered speechless by what he saw.
The bedroom opened out onto a small living area, a couch, dining table and a TV. The usual.
What held Paulo's amazement was the occupants of the room.
Directly opposite him and seated at the small table was an exhausted looking Hex. The irrepressible palmtop was out on the surface in front of him and the young man worked away without looking up.
The dark skinned girl who had been watching TV on the couch was far more aware.
"Paulo," She cried, turning off 'Gossip Girl' and bounding from the worn brown squabs.
"Amber? Hex?" Paulo questioned in disbelief, as she quickly approached him.
Hex looked up and Paulo was able to confirm that it indeed was his old friend, albeit a strained, older looking version then he remembered. The black arm brace that supported his arm drew Paulo's gaze. Hex pushed out his chair from the table to follow Amber's lead.
Amber closed in on Paulo, her arms open wide to collect him; the joy at seeing her injured friend awake and about was evident.
To everyone's surprise, Paulo roughly fended her arms to a side, spurning the embrace.
"What the hell you guys?" Paulo croaked through a raw throat breathing hard with emotion. They were the last people on earth he expected to see and the impulse to welcome them had been overridden by the nature of their reunion.
"Paulo you were in danger, we had to come to the rescue." Amber explained, looking hurt from her stumbled position against the back of the couch.
For the first time, the Argentinean looked down at himself and noticed the thick coating of gauze that covered his bare chest and abdomen. Blood had soaked through the bandages in places and concealed the multitude of stinging wounds. He touched a hand to his head and felt the coarse texture of the crepe bandage, securing his forehead.
Paulo's mind still fought to accept his two close friends as his abductors, turned rescuers. The headache didn't help.
He struggled to comprehend how they could abduct him from a scene like that when it was obvious that there were people hurt that may have needed his help.
People like Sarah or Grant.
In Paulo's pause, Hex had found his feet and was almost upon him. The confusion and conflict over whether or not to engage his best friend stunted him from moving any closer.
"Paulo," He growled in warning, reaching a compromise in behaviour and settling into a defensive stand point, protectively in front of Amber.
"So you just left my mentor and partner to die?" Paulo demanded angrily, his fists balling with emotion.
Hex raised his palms to the upset man, trying to deescalate the situation.
"Paulo it was too dangerous," he reasoned with his friend, "We couldn't wait around, the place was in chaos and the bomber was free to try finish the job."
"Bomber?" Paulo asked in confusion, latching onto the new word.
"You know the guy who planted the car-bomb in your ambulance, the guy who tried to kill you?" Amber explained crassly, with her trademarked impatience. Being pushed had not done much for her sympathy.
"Someone was trying to kill me? Why?" An incredulous Paulo cried in complete amazement. His brief flash of anger was quickly overwhelmed by a surge of guilt as he realised the collateral damage involved in the attempt on his life. The explosion was deliberate, an indiscrimate weapon utilised to kill without caring.
All because of me, he reflected, thinking back to the massive detonation and the resulting destruction. How many lives were ruined?
"If you actually answered your damn phone we could have warned you that you were in danger." Amber reprimanded him with an accusing finger.
Paulo's guilt doubled as his thoughts were directed to his phone, which he had left off sitting at the bottom of his bag in the ambulance. He had started leaving it off on shifts after some stern words from his mentor regarding the number of calls and texts he received in the average day. It was always a bad look having your phone start ringing in your pocket while you were looking after a patient.
Still with much to think about, Paulo decided to table his guilty thoughts in favour of dealing with the immediate future.
With an apologetic grin he offered on large hand to Amber.
She understandingly accepted and allowed him to help her up, into a hug.
"Thank you and I'm sorry." He whispered through misting eyes as he pulled Hex in too.
"We're really sorry about your friends." Amber replied softly in return, rubbing Paulo's back and pretending not to see his eyes for the sake of his pride.
With the greetings and apologies out of the way, Hex and Amber proceeded in telling Paulo their story.
"So then Amber withdrew as much cash as she could and we hopped the first flight here." Hex explained simply.
"We tried calling and emailing but you never answered, so me and Hex rented the truck and followed ambulances until we found you." Amber described to Paulo as she dabbed fresh disinfectant on his now exposed wounds.
Luckily for Paulo his injuries were limited to burns, a concussion and a decent peppering of debris. The personal displacement he experienced from the initial shockwave of overpressure had actually been his saving grace, since it had propelled him further from the explosion before the shrapnel followed.
Hex winced at the sight of them, knowing how much the ministrations hurt, having received the almost exact same injury to his back in Egypt.
"Lucky you found me when you did." Paulo replied through gritted teeth. His head was still buzzing with the death of Grant and Sarah. A pain that far outweighed the sting of Iodine.
Hex as usual, was tapping away on his palmtop.
"No luck on your bomber." He declared, having finished browsing through all the video footage of the time leading up to the incident.
"Whoever he was, he was smart enough to avoid the cameras around the ambulance bay."
Paulo scowled uncharacteristically, knowing that his would-be assassin eluded them for the time being.
"So what do we do now? What's the plan?" He asked the couple seriously.
"Isn't it obvious?" Amber replied contemptuously, "We meet up with Li and find Alex, they may well be in danger too."
Paulo nodded his approval of the plan, glad that they were going to regroup before they started looking for the aggravators. In his head it sat as the best course of action, while fallible as indivuals, as a group they were almost unstoppable.
"Li," he reminisced wistfully, trying to remember when he had seen her last. The whole group had been so busy lately with their new lives.
"Last month when she visited Li said she was off to New Zealand for something." Paulo revealed after a moment. He couldn't remember exactly what she was there for though.
Amber confirmed the story looking thoughtful. "That's right but I can't remember what it was she was going to do either." She admitted guiltily.
To both their surprise, Hex butted into the conversation.
"It wasn't anti-whaling work was it?" He suggested eyes still fixed to the small screen in front of him.
"Yeah." Amber and Paulo said together in excitement. As usual, Amber relied on her boyfriends superior memory when it came to things like events, numbers and passwords among other things.
"Well you'd better see this then," Hex recommended ominously and turned his palmtop so they could all see.
Onscreen a video began to play it was streamed directly from one of the international media websites. The opening shot was a high pan over a whaling vessel as it dragged in a Humpback whale.
A clipped female voice started to give a commentary.
"Whaling; an issue that divides the Pacific, a focal point of ecological crusaders campaigns. But how far will organisations like Greenpeace go to prevent the killing of these endangered mammals?"
The screen cut to footage of protest boats, pulled up beside a whaling boat, being sprayed with water hoses from the vessel.
"Japanese whalers off the North Atlantic say they have finally gone too far this time. On the morning of the 7th, the crew of the Kanni Basami whaling vessel apprehended a known Greenpeace activist who had boarded their ship. Her purpose onboard is still unclear at this stage but the crew of the ship insist it was part of a sabotage attempt."
The picture switched to film of the older vessel leaving port in Japan.
"Greenpeace spokesman have confirmed that the captured British citizen is an active part of their organization but have refused to release her name to the media."
The trio exchanged a look.
The commentary finished with;
"Irregardless of this stance, the saboteurs identity will be revealed on Friday when the ship docks and she is brought to trial in Japan."
A stunned silence followed the report and was finally broken by Hex.
"Sound like anyone we know?" He asked his friends with a triumphant grin.
"If anybodies breaking onto a boat and causing a ruckus, it's our Li." Amber agreed with a touch of concern.
"And she is standing trial Friday? Well that means we have six days to get there." Paulo declared, confidently.
Amber and Hex shared an odd look before facing him again.
"Uh today's Monday Paulo, you were out for a whole day and a bit." Amber gently informed her friend, breaking the news to him as carefully as possible.
Paulo was a bit taken back by the revelation that he had lost almost two days and reflexively checked his watch. Sadly, although waterproof to 50m, his G-shock apparently wasn't made to withstand explosions.
"Oh, in that case we had better get moving." He announced with a renewed vigour, spurned on by the sudden loss of time.
Hex grinned wryly at his friend's indomitable positive attitude and went to pack their bags.
Borrowing some loose track pants and a too tight shirt from Hex, Paulo went to have a shower.
He sighed with relief upon spotting his reflection in the mirror and finding the burns to his face were superficial. It did mean that he looked like he had been really badly sunburnt though.
Paulo couldn't help but chuckle at the irony of this because he had never been properly sunburnt a day in his life due to his darker complexion.
He chuffed in approval at the dressings his friends had applied to his various wounds before painfully ripping them off for his shower. He discarded the used adhesive medical supplies (with a good deal of hair attached) into the bin. He would reapply fresh once he was clean. After examining various other bumps and bruises, the Argentinean was satisfied that he wasn't badly hurt and turned on the shower.
What started as a hot shower quickly became stone cold to relieve the pain in his face and arms. He stood in front of the frigid torrent for over half an hour, the cold water soothing his burns and caressing his aching body. A knock on the door abruptly ended his silence, soothing and contemplation.
"Come on Paulo, I don't want to know what's taking you so long in there. But hurry it up we're leaving soon." Amber tauntingly called through the door.
Paulo cracked a grin at her inference before snapping back at her.
"It would be quicker if you were in here to help me." He hollered cheekily, before shutting off the water with a deep laugh to himself.
The audacious Latino emerged 2 minutes later, fully dressed to an unimpressed Hex.
"Sorry what was that you said Paulo?" He encouraged his friend with an I-dare-you expression.
Caught on the spot, Paulo flicked over to his default setting and turned on his giant grin.
"I said about time Hex, lets go." He amended, with a pseudo-innocent look before shooting Amber a wink.
"It might work on Li or the nurses." She scorned him sardonically as she followed the two young men from the room.
Over the last week of her journey, Li was not so lucky in her company or keeping. Locked inside the ship, she was given only meagre food and water. A shower was well out of the question. The thin blanket someone had scrounged served as her only protection for the night, when the temperatures dropped into the single digits.
At least they let me use the toilet, she thought to herself gratefully, as she caught a whiff of herself.
Boy, I smell, she decided, not surprised considering the amount of sweating she did during the day in the hot ship.
Moodily she pushed over the sloppy stew they called her lunch. As a cruel joke, the crew made sure the only meal she received contained portions of her beloved whales. The oily, blubbery meals would have been disgusting even if her principles hadn't prevented her from eating it. By picking out the occasional sodden vegetable and allowing it to drain before eating, she was able to get some nutrition from the horrid broth.
The ship began to slow as they finally pulled into port and Li sighed to herself. It had been a hard few days but at least she could expect to be treated a bit better by the police as she waited for her hearing.
Keys jingled against the wall and metal rasped announcing the door to her room being opened. Two sailors entered to retrieve her. She noticed with a small cringe that one of the men was the one she had elbowed during her failed infiltration. He was in a pretty sorry state, sporting two swollen, black eyes and a badly broken nose.
Probably not my biggest fan right now, Li thought to herself as the pair roughly dragged her up to her feet. With her arms still bound behind her and a short rope linking her ankles she was unable to get up without their help.
The grudging man with racoon eyes spoke a few words of Japanese to his partner, who in turn looked irritated but nodded. The sentence had been to quick for Li to catch but not as quick as the slap that followed it. She stumbled in their arms as the harsh backhand stung across her cheek. Outraged but not overly surprised, she defiantly found her balance and braced herself for the next blow.
Her earlier opponent wore a lopsided grin to accompany his chance for a little payback, he chambered the hand that had just struck her.
Li tensed her abdominal muscles in anticipation of the next blow and she blew her lungs empty as the punch came. Catching her square in the stomach, Li jolted up with the force of the hit. Her abdomen pulsed in pain but she avoided being winded by her deliberate exhalation before impact.
Not the biggest advocate for prisoners rights either it would seem, Li added bitterly and spat out a gob full of blood that had backed into her mouth from her now bleeding nose.
Noting with some satisfaction that she had landed her blood on her assailant's boots, Li straightened up and lifting her glare to find his.
"You got off lightly," She warned him in a low snarl.
Her attacker drew back for another hit but was halted by a word from the second guard. Instead they started moving her out of the room, her 'friend' made up for missing out on another free hit by wrenching on her arm painfully all the way to the exterior door.
With a rusty groan Li was suddenly brought forward into the noise and light of the outside world.
It was overwhelming for her, the bright sunlight and the chaos of noise that assaulted her upon her exit of the ship. The noise was readily supplied by the gaggle of preying news journalists gathered outside on the deck of the vessel.
Her still adjusting eyes were further blinded as the flash bulbs of multiple cameras erupted. They all tried, hungrily to capture a piece of the latest story to call their own.
Li brought her hands to cover her face, partly out of protection, mainly out of shame. The breeze was her only friend, collecting her silent tears as they fell and cooling her hot skin with its refreshing waves.
Her eyes brimming with sorrow were well hidden behind her hands as she was handed over to the Tokyo Police under the full scrutiny of the world.
Completely overwhelmed in both sense and emotion, Li compliantly ducked her head and climbed into the back of the police car.
Her interrogation and trial awaited.