Chapter 13
Mike got out of the taxi and walked towards the car rental place. When he got inside, a nice looking woman asked, "How may I help you sir?"
Mike looked at her and smiled, even though he felt like shit. "I need to rent a SUV for about two three days. Maybe more."
"Do you have a preferred color, sir?"
"Black, please." Mike answered. He liked his cars to be black. It must have been from all of the years of driving or being driven in black government cars.
She told him his total and he handed her a credit card. A few minutes later he was in the SUV driving towards Wilton Funeral Home. When he was almost there he called Sherry.
"Sherry."
"What's this all about?" Mike asked.
"Hold on please."
Sherry stepped out of the waiting room and walked towards the morgue. She was behind the man that was wheeling Jack away. When she saw the man get on the elevator, she walked to the stairway. On the stairs now she began to speak again, "Mike, what I say does not go past you and me. Neither David nor anybody else can know this."
"I don't know Sherry. I think David needs to know."
"He can't. There are too many government leaks. Too many people are working against David and if they knew what I'm getting ready to tell you, they will end up being successful. David cannot know because he has to act as if all is as it seems."
"Fine. Now tell me what's going on."
"Jack isn't dead. He did die, but they revived him. I had all the people in the room swear that they would say that Jack died if anyone asked. I explained to them if they did not do so, his life would be in danger, by the people who did this to him. They all agreed and I don't think they would go against it. Jack is hurt badly, but the doctors are going to work on him down by the morgue just in case anyone comes looking. What I need from you is to pick him up when the funeral director takes him to Wilton's. You'll pick him up at the back of the place. I'm going to go home and you will take him to a motel and check in under your name. Once there, I'll have some guys to help carry Jack up to the room. I'll meet you there. After I'm sure everything is ok, and we can go from there. You do understand this has to work or Jack is really dead?"
"Yes. I'll get it done. Be careful."
Mike hung up from Sherry and drove on towards the funeral home. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------
A doctor walked down to the room a nurse had prepared. He began to work on Jack with the aid of only one nurse, and Sherry sitting in the corner watching.
The doctor was worried about Jack and did not want to go through with what Mrs. Palmer had said, but she said she had the president permission and it had to be done to save not only this man's life, but hundreds of people. He kept waiting for Jack to crash again. The man was in bad shape, and he could clearly tell someone had tortured him. Sherry looked really worried about the man. The doctor got the gunshot wound fixed and the shoulder put back in place, as it had been dislocated when Jack hit the cement of the highway. The doctor worked diligently on trying to get every wound cleaned and fixed. There were a lot of them. What he assumed where nail holes, knife cuts, burns, bruises, broken bones, and lots of scratches and deep cuts. It took about an hour to sort Jack out and when he was done he stepped aside, and the nurse began to dress the different wounds. The doctor looked at Sherry and said, "Do you have a doctor looking after him? He may have more than what I could find. I really would like to do a MRI or a CAT scan to make sure there is no internal damage."
"Can you do it quietly and without a record of it?"
"No."
"Then you can't. If the people who did this find out he is still alive, they will come back to kill him. I can get a doctor. The woman who is currently with my husband is one and I'm sure she would be more than happy to help out." Sherry said to him.
"Fine. I'm going to go to the pharmacy and get some pain pills. I'll have them put under another name so that there is no record of him being alive still. He'll need them later. Most of his ribs are broken, his shoulder was dislocated, he has two broken fingers, and that's only some of the broken bones. I don't think anything is broken in his knee or elbow, but they are severely bruised. When he wakes up, he will probably be in pain. Have him take the pills, and it should help some. He should not walk on his own nor move around that much. I need to give him a tetanus shot because it looks like they used nails on him."
Sherry cringed at the thought of the nails. She subconsciously grabbed her hand and began to rub it where she had seen the hole in Jack's hand.
The doctor left the room and came back shortly after with the pills. By the time he got back, the nurse was done with Jack and had a man over to help her transfer him over to the stretcher that would take Jack to the funeral home. They loaded him into the black bag. They zipped it up so that only a little hole was left to let oxygen come in. The man and the nurse loaded him into the car and the mad drove off towards the funeral home.
Sherry thanked the doctor and the nurse and walked out to her car. She began to drive towards home. She noticed she still had pieces of Kate's head on her, and was still covered in Jack's blood. She hoped she didn't pass by any police officers because she looked pretty suspicious. Halfway home, her cell phone rang.
When she answered it, David asked over the phone, "Where are you?"
"Heading towards home. I wanted to see Jack one last time before I left." She said trying to mask why she was not home yet.
"The Secret Service is already at your house waiting your arrival. I will be over later on tonight."
Sherry asked, "Did you bring Ann with you?"
"Yes. I hope it's ok that she comes with you."
"Yes David. You know I have dealt with your relationship. I actually needed to see her too. I'm home now. I better let you go. I need to get out of these clothes and I need to clear my mind." Sherry said to her ex- husband.
She pulled into her driveway and noticed the two cars parked on the street in front of her house. She opened the garage door from the remote in her car and she closed it before she got out of her car. She walked into the house and answered the knock at the front door. She asked to see their badges before she opened the door. She wanted to be sure this was the Secret Service and not the men who hurt Jack. After she was satisfied, it was the Secret Service she opened the door.
One of the men looked at her and noticed all of the blood, "Mrs. Palmer, are you okay?"
"I'm fine. None of it is mine. Make yourselves at home. I need a shower and a change of clothes. After that, I need to leave. Two of you can come with me. The rest must stay here."
"I have to clear it with the President first, ma'am."
"David is no longer in charge of me. You can either come with me or I can leave now and you'll have to explain to him why I refused you."
"Fine ma'am, as you wish."
Sherry walked up the steps to her bedroom. Once in there she grabbed some clothes and went to the bathroom and took a nice long hot shower. She cried in the shower. She was amazed by how much this had affected her. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------
Mike waited patiently in the back of the funeral home. He was waiting for a car to pull up and men with guns to hope out. They could not be fooled by this little act he thought, but then he was. Jack's death had made the news because Sherry Palmer was involved, maybe the men were like the rest of America and believed what they heard on the news. Finally, the back door opened and a man had wheeled Jack out.
Mike opened the trunk to the SUV and already had the seats down so that they could just slide Jack in and than hopefully cover him with something. The man slipped Jack into the back with the aid of Mike . He then walked back inside and came out with a blanket, which he used to cover Jack. Mike looked at him and began to worry about the lack of response from Jack. He looked at the man and asked, "Is he going to be okay?"
"He should be fine, hopefully. Tell Sherry I was glad to be of service and remind her that she has a tennis game with my wife next week. My wife wanted me to remind her but I never really talked to her."
"Sure." Mike was taken back by the ability of Sherry to put all of this into action. He thought is there anyone Sherry does not know?
He got in the driver's side of the car and drove off towards the Hilton. When he got there, he was met by two of Sherry's guards who already had a suite reserved for Mike.
"We got permission to sneak Jack in through the back of the hotel. This would take us through the kitchen up the back elevator to the top floor, which is already reserved for the President, but you have one of the suites. Mrs. Palmer said he was to stay with you. No one should be able to get on the floor since Palmer was staying there. Secret Service will shut it off to the public in a half-hour so we need to get moving. They already know you are staying there, but Jack is still unknown." One of the men told Mike.
When they got Jack to the room the men gently laid him on a bed in one of the three rooms. Mike looked at the man and was worried that there had been no movements made by him. Mike walked up to him and pressed his hand on Jack's neck to feel for a pulse. When he found it, he felt a little better. He began to look at all of the bandaged wounds and he began to understand why Palmer trusted this man so much, especially during the day of the nuclear bomb and the prevention of war in the Middle East. He looked at the men with him and said, "He's going to need a doctor or something like that to make sure he is going to be okay. Do you know if Sherry has gotten him one yet?"
"Sir, we were just told to help you get him up here, and then stay here and guard him." One of the two men said.
"Fine. I'll call Sherry myself." Mike said walking out of the room. He got to the hotel phone and dialed her number. She did not answer so he put the phone back down and decided to try back later. He went to the room he would be staying at and began to unpack the bags the bell boy brought up for him. Mike tried to figure out whether or not he was willing to lie to the President again. He hoped Sherry would tell David, otherwise Mike saw his chances of getting back in with the president fading. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------
Kim sat crying in her hospital bed. Chase grabbed her head and held it against his chest. Every now and then flinching in pain when she pushed in on his wound, he did not stop holding her though. He did not know what to say to her. He was still in shock himself and he wanted to cry with her, but he knew better.
Michelle sat on the other side staring at Kim. Finally Chase could not stand sitting there and doing nothing so he started to speak to Kim, "Kim I have to go. I cannot sit here and do nothing. Michelle is here to help you. Please understand I have to go."
Kim knew what he meant and she said through her tears, "Please don't. I don't want them to kill you too. You are already hurt. I can't lose you too."
"Kim, I won't get hurt, don't worry. I'm just going to go next door and talk to Tony and the woman to see if I can't help with figuring out who is behind all of this." Chase said reassuringly.
He slipped out from Kim and kissed her. His heart broke to see her in so much pain. Michelle on cue walked up and sat on the edge of Kim's bed crying with her. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------- Mandy and the others sat walked into the safe house. Once inside Mandy called the boss. When he answered, all she said was, "It's me."
"Nice to hear from you. I heard about the Warner's. Good job. I also heard about Jack. That is one less person we have to worry about."
"What do you want us to do now?"
"Where are you at?"
"The safe house."
"Sherry Palmer. She might know something. Can you get to her? I don't want her dead, but I would like her watched."
"We already have someone watching her."
"Good. Palmer is coming into town. We'll have to watch him. Otherwise everything is fine. Continue on as planned."
"Fine. Is the meeting time and place still the same?"
"Yes."
"Will we have a sample there for them?"
"Yes. One of the guys will have it on him for them to look at, and a live sample to show its effectiveness. Of course he will be in a quarantine tent."
"Are the guys you sending with me more competent than the last bunch?"
"Yes. They are some of my best."
Mike got out of the taxi and walked towards the car rental place. When he got inside, a nice looking woman asked, "How may I help you sir?"
Mike looked at her and smiled, even though he felt like shit. "I need to rent a SUV for about two three days. Maybe more."
"Do you have a preferred color, sir?"
"Black, please." Mike answered. He liked his cars to be black. It must have been from all of the years of driving or being driven in black government cars.
She told him his total and he handed her a credit card. A few minutes later he was in the SUV driving towards Wilton Funeral Home. When he was almost there he called Sherry.
"Sherry."
"What's this all about?" Mike asked.
"Hold on please."
Sherry stepped out of the waiting room and walked towards the morgue. She was behind the man that was wheeling Jack away. When she saw the man get on the elevator, she walked to the stairway. On the stairs now she began to speak again, "Mike, what I say does not go past you and me. Neither David nor anybody else can know this."
"I don't know Sherry. I think David needs to know."
"He can't. There are too many government leaks. Too many people are working against David and if they knew what I'm getting ready to tell you, they will end up being successful. David cannot know because he has to act as if all is as it seems."
"Fine. Now tell me what's going on."
"Jack isn't dead. He did die, but they revived him. I had all the people in the room swear that they would say that Jack died if anyone asked. I explained to them if they did not do so, his life would be in danger, by the people who did this to him. They all agreed and I don't think they would go against it. Jack is hurt badly, but the doctors are going to work on him down by the morgue just in case anyone comes looking. What I need from you is to pick him up when the funeral director takes him to Wilton's. You'll pick him up at the back of the place. I'm going to go home and you will take him to a motel and check in under your name. Once there, I'll have some guys to help carry Jack up to the room. I'll meet you there. After I'm sure everything is ok, and we can go from there. You do understand this has to work or Jack is really dead?"
"Yes. I'll get it done. Be careful."
Mike hung up from Sherry and drove on towards the funeral home. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------
A doctor walked down to the room a nurse had prepared. He began to work on Jack with the aid of only one nurse, and Sherry sitting in the corner watching.
The doctor was worried about Jack and did not want to go through with what Mrs. Palmer had said, but she said she had the president permission and it had to be done to save not only this man's life, but hundreds of people. He kept waiting for Jack to crash again. The man was in bad shape, and he could clearly tell someone had tortured him. Sherry looked really worried about the man. The doctor got the gunshot wound fixed and the shoulder put back in place, as it had been dislocated when Jack hit the cement of the highway. The doctor worked diligently on trying to get every wound cleaned and fixed. There were a lot of them. What he assumed where nail holes, knife cuts, burns, bruises, broken bones, and lots of scratches and deep cuts. It took about an hour to sort Jack out and when he was done he stepped aside, and the nurse began to dress the different wounds. The doctor looked at Sherry and said, "Do you have a doctor looking after him? He may have more than what I could find. I really would like to do a MRI or a CAT scan to make sure there is no internal damage."
"Can you do it quietly and without a record of it?"
"No."
"Then you can't. If the people who did this find out he is still alive, they will come back to kill him. I can get a doctor. The woman who is currently with my husband is one and I'm sure she would be more than happy to help out." Sherry said to him.
"Fine. I'm going to go to the pharmacy and get some pain pills. I'll have them put under another name so that there is no record of him being alive still. He'll need them later. Most of his ribs are broken, his shoulder was dislocated, he has two broken fingers, and that's only some of the broken bones. I don't think anything is broken in his knee or elbow, but they are severely bruised. When he wakes up, he will probably be in pain. Have him take the pills, and it should help some. He should not walk on his own nor move around that much. I need to give him a tetanus shot because it looks like they used nails on him."
Sherry cringed at the thought of the nails. She subconsciously grabbed her hand and began to rub it where she had seen the hole in Jack's hand.
The doctor left the room and came back shortly after with the pills. By the time he got back, the nurse was done with Jack and had a man over to help her transfer him over to the stretcher that would take Jack to the funeral home. They loaded him into the black bag. They zipped it up so that only a little hole was left to let oxygen come in. The man and the nurse loaded him into the car and the mad drove off towards the funeral home.
Sherry thanked the doctor and the nurse and walked out to her car. She began to drive towards home. She noticed she still had pieces of Kate's head on her, and was still covered in Jack's blood. She hoped she didn't pass by any police officers because she looked pretty suspicious. Halfway home, her cell phone rang.
When she answered it, David asked over the phone, "Where are you?"
"Heading towards home. I wanted to see Jack one last time before I left." She said trying to mask why she was not home yet.
"The Secret Service is already at your house waiting your arrival. I will be over later on tonight."
Sherry asked, "Did you bring Ann with you?"
"Yes. I hope it's ok that she comes with you."
"Yes David. You know I have dealt with your relationship. I actually needed to see her too. I'm home now. I better let you go. I need to get out of these clothes and I need to clear my mind." Sherry said to her ex- husband.
She pulled into her driveway and noticed the two cars parked on the street in front of her house. She opened the garage door from the remote in her car and she closed it before she got out of her car. She walked into the house and answered the knock at the front door. She asked to see their badges before she opened the door. She wanted to be sure this was the Secret Service and not the men who hurt Jack. After she was satisfied, it was the Secret Service she opened the door.
One of the men looked at her and noticed all of the blood, "Mrs. Palmer, are you okay?"
"I'm fine. None of it is mine. Make yourselves at home. I need a shower and a change of clothes. After that, I need to leave. Two of you can come with me. The rest must stay here."
"I have to clear it with the President first, ma'am."
"David is no longer in charge of me. You can either come with me or I can leave now and you'll have to explain to him why I refused you."
"Fine ma'am, as you wish."
Sherry walked up the steps to her bedroom. Once in there she grabbed some clothes and went to the bathroom and took a nice long hot shower. She cried in the shower. She was amazed by how much this had affected her. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------
Mike waited patiently in the back of the funeral home. He was waiting for a car to pull up and men with guns to hope out. They could not be fooled by this little act he thought, but then he was. Jack's death had made the news because Sherry Palmer was involved, maybe the men were like the rest of America and believed what they heard on the news. Finally, the back door opened and a man had wheeled Jack out.
Mike opened the trunk to the SUV and already had the seats down so that they could just slide Jack in and than hopefully cover him with something. The man slipped Jack into the back with the aid of Mike . He then walked back inside and came out with a blanket, which he used to cover Jack. Mike looked at him and began to worry about the lack of response from Jack. He looked at the man and asked, "Is he going to be okay?"
"He should be fine, hopefully. Tell Sherry I was glad to be of service and remind her that she has a tennis game with my wife next week. My wife wanted me to remind her but I never really talked to her."
"Sure." Mike was taken back by the ability of Sherry to put all of this into action. He thought is there anyone Sherry does not know?
He got in the driver's side of the car and drove off towards the Hilton. When he got there, he was met by two of Sherry's guards who already had a suite reserved for Mike.
"We got permission to sneak Jack in through the back of the hotel. This would take us through the kitchen up the back elevator to the top floor, which is already reserved for the President, but you have one of the suites. Mrs. Palmer said he was to stay with you. No one should be able to get on the floor since Palmer was staying there. Secret Service will shut it off to the public in a half-hour so we need to get moving. They already know you are staying there, but Jack is still unknown." One of the men told Mike.
When they got Jack to the room the men gently laid him on a bed in one of the three rooms. Mike looked at the man and was worried that there had been no movements made by him. Mike walked up to him and pressed his hand on Jack's neck to feel for a pulse. When he found it, he felt a little better. He began to look at all of the bandaged wounds and he began to understand why Palmer trusted this man so much, especially during the day of the nuclear bomb and the prevention of war in the Middle East. He looked at the men with him and said, "He's going to need a doctor or something like that to make sure he is going to be okay. Do you know if Sherry has gotten him one yet?"
"Sir, we were just told to help you get him up here, and then stay here and guard him." One of the two men said.
"Fine. I'll call Sherry myself." Mike said walking out of the room. He got to the hotel phone and dialed her number. She did not answer so he put the phone back down and decided to try back later. He went to the room he would be staying at and began to unpack the bags the bell boy brought up for him. Mike tried to figure out whether or not he was willing to lie to the President again. He hoped Sherry would tell David, otherwise Mike saw his chances of getting back in with the president fading. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------
Kim sat crying in her hospital bed. Chase grabbed her head and held it against his chest. Every now and then flinching in pain when she pushed in on his wound, he did not stop holding her though. He did not know what to say to her. He was still in shock himself and he wanted to cry with her, but he knew better.
Michelle sat on the other side staring at Kim. Finally Chase could not stand sitting there and doing nothing so he started to speak to Kim, "Kim I have to go. I cannot sit here and do nothing. Michelle is here to help you. Please understand I have to go."
Kim knew what he meant and she said through her tears, "Please don't. I don't want them to kill you too. You are already hurt. I can't lose you too."
"Kim, I won't get hurt, don't worry. I'm just going to go next door and talk to Tony and the woman to see if I can't help with figuring out who is behind all of this." Chase said reassuringly.
He slipped out from Kim and kissed her. His heart broke to see her in so much pain. Michelle on cue walked up and sat on the edge of Kim's bed crying with her. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------- Mandy and the others sat walked into the safe house. Once inside Mandy called the boss. When he answered, all she said was, "It's me."
"Nice to hear from you. I heard about the Warner's. Good job. I also heard about Jack. That is one less person we have to worry about."
"What do you want us to do now?"
"Where are you at?"
"The safe house."
"Sherry Palmer. She might know something. Can you get to her? I don't want her dead, but I would like her watched."
"We already have someone watching her."
"Good. Palmer is coming into town. We'll have to watch him. Otherwise everything is fine. Continue on as planned."
"Fine. Is the meeting time and place still the same?"
"Yes."
"Will we have a sample there for them?"
"Yes. One of the guys will have it on him for them to look at, and a live sample to show its effectiveness. Of course he will be in a quarantine tent."
"Are the guys you sending with me more competent than the last bunch?"
"Yes. They are some of my best."