POCKET CHANGE : A GAME OF CARDS
by Sharon R.

Chapter Seventeen

Luka combed his fingers through her hair, finally tipping her head back to better reach her neck with his lips, "who protected you while you were off playing in the Congo?"

"Hmm," the tiny kisses he planted alongside her pulsating jugular artery sent a shiver down her back, "I like to call him, Dirty Harry."

Not much prompted Luka Kovac to suddenly halt lovemaking, except the mention of another man. He pulled his hungry mouth away from Colleen's smooth, salty neck just far enough to quiz her. "Who's Harry and why is he dirty?" He moved his head just slightly tickling her face with his dark hair that fell to his forehead.

Colleen moved her hand to the front of Luka's neck and traced the outside of his trachea with the tip of her finger, lingering around the bony prominence. "Harry came into my life a few months ago." She kissed his Adam's apple and dragged her lips up his neck, over his chin to his mouth where she finished answering him all the while tasting his flesh ever so slightly. "He's handsome, big and strong, and quite loaded."

As Colleen leaned in for a kiss, Luka pulled back teasing her each time she would move in on his warm lips. "That's not fair," she pouted mockingly.

"Am I not handsome?"

"Mmm. Devastating."

He allowed her one small kiss.

"Am I not strong?"

"My hero," she purred.

He pressed his lips into hers for a more adequate prize, letting her nibble on his lower lip as he pulled away.

"Am I not… big?" he chuckled, his eyes sparkling.

"Mmm hmm, very."

He parted his lips letting her tongue venture in just briefly.

"And am I not loaded?"

Colleen could not stand it any longer as she threw her head back and laughed out loud. "I'm not sure about that one."

"So who is Mr. Dirty Harry?"

Colleen broke away from Luka and wandered over to the corner where her previously ditched backpack was still propped against the wall. Luka admired her bare back side with a tilt of the head as the t-shirt inched up in her efforts to bend over and reach to the bottom. The globes of her cheeks down there were smooth and supple - he smiled to himself as he sneaked over to her and cupped one in each hand stroking the divide with his thumbs. She giggled, then moaned as he leaned into her raking the back of her neck with his teeth, resting his erect cock on the aforementioned divide. When she straightened up and turned in his arms to reciprocate, Luka startled and jumped backwards.

"That's Dirty Harry?" he asked pointing to the object in her hands, his erection quickly heading south.

"Yep. It was given to me when I first made landfall."

"And you know how to use it?"

"Colt King Cobra, .357 Magnum with a four-inch barrel and high polish stainless steel finish." Colleen turned it over in her hands admiring the weapon and its capabilities. "It's a double action with a 150 foot range, has a six shot cylinder and an adjustable rear sight. Weight 2.6 pounds and can fire .38 rounds as well as .357." She popped out the cylinder and gave it a spin before slapping it back in place, handling the gun with the same concentration and skill as she did her cameras.

"And you know how to use it?" Luka repeated.

"Yes, I know how to use it. My father knew guns," she explained. But then more quietly to herself, "Boy, did he know guns."

"Have you ever had to use it?"

"Had to use it? Hell, no," she said with a smile of relief, "but I do practice when I get a chance." Colleen held the barrel of the gun next to her mouth and blew over it, raising an eyebrow at Luka.

"And you're good?"

"Dead on target." She held the unloaded weapon up and pointed it at the window, looking straight down the barrel. Cocking back the hammer with her thumb, the subtle audible click made Luka take a step back. "Once you cock it," she moved her finger over the trigger as she concentrated on the imaginary target in the distance, "you're committed to shooting." Even though it was absent bullets, Luka could almost hear the bang. "That's one touchy trigger. Doesn't take much."

Luka stood with his arms folded taking it all in. "You, ah… this is definitely not something I pictured doing with a semi-naked woman."

"Sexy, huh?"

"Only if you don't point that thing at me."

Letting the revolver slip from her grip and spin upside down resting only on her index finger in the trigger assembly, Colleen became less determined about the function of the gun and more with the task of her man. "Well then Sheriff, it looks like I'll have to surrender."

Luka took the heavy revolver from her hand and placed it carefully on top of her backpack before turning his attentions back to the sultry red head. "You know I'll have to search you," he playfully spoke as he let his hands wander up inside her shirt. "It's for your own safety as well as mine."

"How long has he been like that?" Maggie asked Sera, pointing to Carter face down on a treatment table sound asleep, his arms hanging over the sides.

"My nurses said he's been like that off and on all night." Sera and Maggie had just completed rounds and were sitting down to a fresh cup of coffee. "And he snores."

"Drools too," Maggie pointed out as she drifted to the side of the table and leaned over to check out his face.

"Poor baby," Sera lamented, "he's been through a lot. There wasn't much to do last night. Even when it was quiet they say he wandered around. When I came on two hours ago he was sitting up sound asleep with one of the newborn babies on his chest. Both snoring."

"Probably both drooling too," Maggie joked.

"Huh?"

"I said you drool like a baby."

"Thanks. What time is it?"

"Nine o'clock, Sleeping Beauty." Maggie slapped the sole of his shoe. "Rise and shine."

"Aaaaarrggh," he moaned trying to get himself vertical. He finally got as far as lifting his upper body up and resting it on his elbows.

"Hey, you're shaking."

"Bad back."

"Yeah? Take your shirt off. I'll give you a back rub."

Carter hesitated briefly before giving in, then pulled his shirt over his head. It was a relief to take the pressure off of his shoulders and fall back down onto the thin mattress. The pressure from Maggie's hands was even better.

"Sorry. Nothing fancy. Just this standard hospital lotion we get in bulk." Maggie slowly worked her hands into Carter's back muscles consciously trying to avoid the scars. "Now you smell like a beautacious flower."

"Oh, Mags," Carter lackadaisically slipped out, "this is… this is… my God you're good with your hands! Are you sure you're not at least a little bit attracted to men?"

"Carter, your spare parts are all wrong for the make and model I like to drive." She methodically pushed the heels of her palms up and down his back just hard enough to ripple the skin and deep enough to define the bones of his skeleton. Yet Maggie couldn't help avoid those scars. Not the ones from the stabbing. They had faded to a shiny minor defect, but the others - the ones Luka had eluded to when they were trying to save the one armed rebel - drew her in and taunted her as she fought the mental pictures that they imposed on her mind.

"Hey Carter," she said as she cleared her throat, "are these marks here from that guy we worked on? The guy with the one arm?"

The zone he had fallen into with his face comfortably nestled in his arms folded beneath his head, was suddenly broken as Carter's eyes flew open in the realization that he had unintentionally bared an awful lot to Maggie that he wasn't prepared to talk about. At least not at that point. She was asking him another question, maybe just making small talk, but he didn't hear it as his heavy breathing and pounding heart took precedence.

Whish-snap.

Carter drew in a startled breath as that moment came back to him, and he squeezed his eyes shut hoping to escape the memory.

Whish-snap.

He couldn't move his arms that had fallen asleep under the weight of his head and he groaned as he felt the leather strap split open his back again.

"I bet this feels good, Carter. You were just asking for it." Her words were not totally lost, but they were certainly not heard for what they were.

Whish-snap.

"Untie my arms," he mumbled.

"What?" Maggie wasn't sure that what she heard fit.

"Untie my arms. I said let me go. Stop." There was no denying that, as Carter suddenly rolled off the table and haphazardly got dressed.

Carter's shirt trembled as he wrestled it back on. Maggie couldn't help but notice the beads of sweat that had accumulated on his face and were now rolling off his chin and nose, his nervous, labored breathing accentuated by the occasional facial twitch.

"What?" Maggie begged, quick on his heels as he stormed out of the building. "John, what's wrong?"

Pushing both swinging doors open at once, Carter choked on the fresh, but humid morning air, gulping as much of it down in one breath as he could. Maggie found him bent at the waist, resting his shaking arms on his knees.

"Carter."

Trying in vain to hide his private little hell, he straightened up and arched his back. "I'm fine."

"No, you're not."

Off to the side of the Midway, under the trees, Carter saw Bob and Colleen in deep, heated conversation. Arms waving, fingers pointing and voices raised.

"Shit. I forgot about Bob's interrogation." Carter wiped the sweat from his face and turned on his heels walking back into the clinic. "I can't deal with that right now."

No sooner was he in the doors than Norman was on top of him with an arm load of papers.

"Dr. Carter, you have invoices to approve, correspondences with the Foundation you haven't answered yet and we absolutely have to talk about the problem with the clinic supplies."

"I can't do it right now, Mr. Tyson." Carter tried as best he could to put the man off but he was persistent and followed along as Carter made his way towards the back of the hanger and his bedroom.

"We need to sit down and get through this today, Dr. Carter."

"Not now, Norman."

The two stood face to face outside the office neither one willing to back down.

"Look, John," Norman gave back although in a much lowered voice, "until we find additional support from other sources, your actions - or rather inactions - here have forced the Board to halt some of the financing, namely in the area of the clinic."

"So you're just going to take away all this? Leave these people with the only medical care they can get?"

"Good, glad to see you two here," Sean announced as he opened the office door and unknowingly interrupted the two. "Come on in. We have some things to discuss. You too, Colleen." He waved his hand over his head as she burst through the front doors herself. "Where's Othiamba?"

"All you people going to take off my doors if you don't stop bustin' through like that," Sera called after Colleen hoping that Sean heard her. "Othiamba took the children to town for ice cream."

"In the morning?" Maggie asked aloud.

"Ever try to eat ice cream in Africa in the middle of the day, missy?" Sera had a viable point.

So there in the office, all together, was Luka, Carter, Norman, Colleen, Maggie and Sean. It seemed Sean was the only one who had anything to say.

"Okay. Who wants to start?"

Norman fidgeted with the pencils all lined up on his desk, Carter unwrapped a stick of gum and turned his back on Luka who purposely looked away from Carter. Colleen was miffed herself after Bob's verbal spanking and sought refuge in a chair next to Luka, her feet propped up on the side of the desk in Norman's face. Maggie stood off to the side watching Carter, lost in thought herself. After Carter tossed his piece of paper in the garbage, the only sound heard was the ticking of the air conditioner as it automatically changed settings. Just the ticking and the hum.

Click, tick.

Hum.

"Colleen?" Sean attempted to initiate discussion.

"Baghdad Bob out there already reamed my ass. Next?" That was it for her.

Click.

"Mr. Tyson."

"My business is with Dr. Carter and it seems he can't find time in his busy schedule for me or the Foundation."

Carter smirked and shook his head in disgust.

Hum.

"Okay. John."

"Nope. I've got nothing to say."

"Me too," Luka threw in without even being prompted.

"Well, aren't we a powerful lot of feckin' eejits?" Sean threw his arms up in the air and turned a chair backwards slamming it into the floor before straddling the seat. "Alright, I'll start. Somewhere along the lines we've forgotten our purpose here and turned it into a personal drama. Well, let me put a stop to that now."

Sean turned to Carter and Luka. "You two bollocks haven't been taking care of yourselves and look absolutely knackered. That's no example to set for the workers here and no fair to those of us who have to put up with ye arses. Now work together and deal with Mr. Tyson. Do it or they be shuttin' down the joint."

"Oh for God's sake, speak English, Griffin," Colleen whined.

"Speak English? You, slapper, need to shut your gob and be grateful that you're still welcome here after what you and Carter put us through." The insinuation of her lack of morals was loud and clear as she glared back at Sean.

"Is it really necessary to go through this again?" Carter finally spoke up.

"Come up with a better way to keep track of your supplies," Norman interjected, "and we wouldn't be doing this."

"I've got a lock for the door now. Any supplies that leave have to be signed out by two people," Luka said.

"But that doesn't tell us who has been stealing them." Norman wasn't satisfied with a solution. He wanted answers.

"Who did you have in mind, Norman?" Carter asked sick of the whole thing. "Hmm?"

"Without making vituperative attacks, I'd have to say it's obviously someone who works here."

"Who, huh? Who is at the top of your anal retentive list?" Carter stood and paced around the room. "Sean bought that Land Rover. Thought we were strapped for cash."

Sean rolled his eyes and sighed. "John…"

"And Othiamba?" Carter was rare form, not listening to anyone but himself. "He bought the bus supposedly with money he saved up for America, yet he always manages to take the kids out of camp for lavish trips like for ice cream." His pointing finger made its way around the room. "Maggie has a secret supply of meds she keeps around just for shits. And Bob - the Beer Meister. He's a mystery all unto his own. Luka? Well gee, he holds the keys. And let's not forget Toomay and her sneaky band of kids. Can't trust them, oh no."

"I did see that older girl of hers walking around today with a fancy new gold stethoscope around her neck," Colleen let out.

Carter threw his arms up in exasperation. "And she would have traded all those drugs at what modern medical supply store in Pakwach? Jesus, Colleen, you're scraping the bottom of the barrel, aren't you? I mean, who's left?"

Click, tick, hum.

Colleen lifted her eyes to Carter quite intentionally. He looked at the others in the room at first to laugh at her insinuation but soon found that they too were looking at him. "Oh no, don't even go there. Don't. Luka?" He tilted his head to look at Luka who quickly averted his own eyes. "Well there is one more person who has escaped suspicion. How about it -Colleen?"

"What?" she sharply blurted out while getting to her feet and taking Carter on face to face. "You know being a woman in a man's job I've been accused of a lot. But that's low." Luka reached up and held her hand, coaxing her back into her seat.

"Now, this is ridiculous," Sean finally intervened. "It's not productive and just causes more trouble. Hmm? Okay look, tomorrow morning we are getting a visit from some dignitaries at the request of President Museveni." A round of sighs circulated among the attendees. "Now, please listen. These people are from very prominent corporations in Europe and the Middle East looking to spend some of their charitable money. If we work this right we can take some of the pressure off of the Carter Foundation. This is right up your alley, Colleen. I wouldn't mind some publicity this time. They're coming in by military choppers. They have a tight schedule - it's posted on the Midway board. At the same time I've also convinced our Ugandan army friends to fly the supplies in we've been waiting on for the satellite clinic. John, after they leave you can drive them over. I assume you'll be going into Gulu again."

Carter nodded his head. "I need to get there today too, soon."

"Again?" Luka asked.

"Yes, again. I'm taking clinic call at night. Didn't think you'd object, seeing as you have…" Carter kept the rest of the thought to himself as he traded stares with Colleen.

Luka didn't even honor that quip with a retort and just shook his head.

Again, silence befell the room, each person nearly biting their tongue to keep from striking out at another.

"Are we done here?" Carter stood and grabbed the keys to the Rover stopping only at the doorway for the nod of Sean's head before throwing open the door and rushing through the clinic making sure to punctuate his exit by hitting the double swinging doors with both arms outstretched. Sera glowered the length of the hangar at Sean still in the office.

For once, Norman took the hint from the remaining staff and found a reason to take leave himself.

"Should we be worried about him, Luka?" Sean finally asked.

He found himself without words, shrugging and looking around for help. "I want to say no."

"But…?"

"But…," Luka stood and walked over to the window, leaning on the sill watching Carter drive through the gate. It reminded him of a similar day several months earlier, only it was Bob looking out that window waiting for the transport to Kampala. He was worried about Carter then too. "… it's hard not to come to the conclusion that he's…" Again, a loss for words.

"Look, I wasn't in Chicago when he went through the addiction," Maggie added, "but I know him well enough not to automatically think that that's where he's at. I mean what do we really have to go on?"

"He's not eating well, not sleeping," Sean put in.

"He's had the shakes a few times," Colleen interjected, "and the other day when we were, well, there, his sleep was real agitated and he woke up in sweats."

"Oh, come on," Maggie was not about to let Colleen define Carter, "there are any number of things to explain those symptoms, yet you automatically think he's using? Hell, a newborn baby sleeps better than you, Luka."

"Nausea and vomiting, excessive watery discharge from the mouth, tremors, inability to concentrate… mood swings." Luka spoke into the window away from the people as he rested his arm atop his drawn up knee. "And I think he's been drinking."

Sean thought aloud as well. "He leaves here for Gulu agitated and depressed and always returns upbeat or at least content."

"That doesn't explain the missing supplies that aren't narcotics. He's not getting high on suture material and xylocaine." Maggie was grasping at straws.

"Ever been to Gulu, Maggie?" Sean asked getting a negative response. "There's a bad drug problem there. All over Uganda actually. It's not a cash for product trade in this country. The addicts trade or barter. You guys found that out back in Ikela. Carter knows how it works."

"The guy is working at the hospital there. If he wants the stuff it's right in front of him. Hell, it's right here."

"It would have been too obvious too soon. Maggie, addicts are very good at what they do," Sean explained.

Again, the room was dense with silence, nobody wanting to admit their thoughts and verify their fears.

"Let's think on this tonight. Tomorrow, when he returns from Gulu, we need to talk to him," Sean finally committed.

"Is this really what you want?" Maggie looked around. "Sean? Luka?" Maggie was the next to storm out. Sean followed, hands in his pocket, quietly exiting through the back door.

"You're a worrier." Colleen walked over to Luka and joined him at the window resting her own chin on his knee and pushing his dark hair from his eyes.

"Mmm. I suppose. Never knew what it was like to truly worry about someone until I became a father."

Colleen pulled back as this bit of fresh information sunk in. "Didn't know you had kids."

"You didn't ask," he playfully retorted not offering anything more.

"I miss Amanda most when I think about my own childhood." Colleen sat at the other end of the windowsill leaning her head against the glass. "Well, the few good times we had. God, I loved the snow. There was this big black man, Lewis, who lived all alone in the apartment across from ours. The other kids made fun of him 'cause he spoke with a lisp and wore old mismatched clothes. I don't think he was all too bright. Lewis was the only person who ever played with me. My father was either always drunk or working. My mother … well she had her own 'work'. I would sit at the window and press my face against the glass waiting for Lewis to come home from work. And he'd take me out and make snow angels with me," she smiled as she reached back and grabbed the memory, "and snow forts." Luka watched her as she stared out the window sure she was seeing a snowed in street corner. "He even took me down to the Salvation Army once and bought me a pair of pink snow pants. Bright pink, with a little daisy sewn into the corner. Sometimes Lewis was the only grown up I would see for days." She smiled as she put her hand on the glass, but her fingers felt only heat, not the ice crystals of a snowy day in Boston.

"That's sad," Luka said as he reached out and put his hand on top of hers.

"No, actually, that's a great memory. How often do you get to see your kids?"

"I don't." Luka took her hand off the pane and held it, caressing her fingers with his thumb. He waited for the inevitable question, but instead she waited for him to do the talking. "My family was killed in the war in Croatia."

Her soft look, the touch of her warm hand on his face was all he needed. She didn't press him to talk, but instead let him keep his thoughts his own.

Man seeks to escape himself in myth, and does so by any means at his disposal. Drugs, alcohol, or lies. Unable to withdraw into himself, he disguises himself. Lies and inaccuracy give him a few moments of comfort. -Jean Cocteau 1889-1963, French Author, Filmmaker

-Jean Cocteau 1889-1963, French Author, Filmmaker

Maggie sat on the steps of the Midway waiting for Carter. She wanted to see for herself the drug addict, as the rest of the group had painted him, drive through the gate. She just didn't see it. Her gut told her to look deeper.

"Hey, Dr. Doyle. We got a new patient for you."

A group of student volunteers rushed from between the buildings, Danny's hand on a bloody Buzby's head.

"Oh, Buzby," Maggie sighed as she gave up her seat on the steps to attend to the young man, "what have you gone and done?" She escorted the crowd into the clinic and set Buzby at the nearest treatment table.

"I walked into a door."

"You're going to have to think of some other excuse," Maggie light heartedly scolded him. "Walking into a door does not make for an exciting scar story."

"No. He really walked into a door," Danny explained laughing. "We're framing the new storage building today and Buzby was joking around. POW! Right into the door frame."

"Gosh, Buzby," Luka joined the tittering crowd, "you weren't even drinking? Dr. Doyle is right. You have to find something more noble to blame it on."

"Okay, everybody else out. Danny's hand and Buzby's head stays," Maggie scolded.

As Maggie examined Buzby, Luka got Danny cleaned up.

"Any open cuts on your hand, Danny?"

"No. Why?"

"Well in case you didn't notice, your hand has been intimate with Buzby's blood." Luka explained.

"Hey, Buzby… Doofus… have I got anything to worry about? Like you and unprotected sex? Or…"

"Or what? Shit, no. OW!"

"Sorry," Maggie was injecting the Xylocaine around the wound on his head. "More bee stings. How about it, Buzby, when was your last HIV test?"

"How about never."

"Then we should test both of you. Feel that?" Maggie poked around the numbed area as Buzby shook his head."

"Don't need to."

"Why's that?" Maggie asked.

"Are you….?" Danny couldn't contain himself. "Are you a virgin?"

"Shut up, Danny."

"You're a virgin. Shit, even Todd is gettin' some with his little African girlfriend."

Maggie and Luka shared a look of concern.

"Fuck you." Buzby pulled away from Maggie

"Hope not!"

"All right," Luka got between them. "That's enough. Danny, you can leave."

"Danny," Maggie called out as she started suturing Buzby, "I expect that you will honor Buzby's confidence just as everyone else does here at the clinic. And Danny?" She tied and cut the first interrupted suture as Danny turned around at the door. "I'd hate to have to come get you out of the dining hall for a whole battery of STD tests seeing as your behavior here could be a sign of syphilis." His mouth tightly closed, Danny left the clinic.

"Mind?" Colleen asked as she aimed the camera at Buzby and Maggie.

"Heck, this picture could get you all kinds of sympathy, if you know what I mean," Maggie joked getting a smile from her patient. "Almost done. Only about eight stitches, but we can fudge and say a dozen."

"One more stick." Luka swabbed Buzby's arm. "Tetanus booster. Did you loose consciousness?"

"No."

"Okay. Hang around here for about an hour so we can watch you." Luka pushed the used needle and syringe into the red sharps container a little too hard tumbling it into a box on the floor next to the table. As he bent down to pick it up, the bloodied backpack in the box caught his attention. He remained squatting on the floor, biting at his lower lip, contemplating whether or not he should look through the dead man's belongings.

"Luka, what's wrong?" Colleen asked.

He finally put the sharps container back on the table, then picked up the backpack with his gloved hand.

"Is that…?" Maggie asked as she cleaned Buzby's sutured wound and dressed it.

Opening the pack, he looked inside, catching site of the gun and knife. He left those there not wanting to alarm the kid. He did pull out a bright yellow object about the size of a cell phone. "What's this?"

Colleen shrugged her shoulders. "I've never seen anything like that."

"Me either," Maggie added.

"I know what it is," Buzby spoke up. "It's a Garmin Geko 101 GPS." The three adults looked at each other and instantly included Buzby in their quest to find out more. "A GPS - Global Positioning System. You know - longitude and latitude. You can get something like that for about a hundred bucks these days."

"What for?" Luka asked.

"Lots of things. Back home we go GeoCaching." It was clear that he would have to explain that. "It's a game, played all over the world actually. Teams go to a website where they can find coordinates of caches - small containers with little trinkets inside, a log book and other stuff. You use the GPS to guide you to the cache. Sometimes it's easy to find, other times it's a real hike and complicated." Maggie moved away from Buzby and looked through the backpack herself. "You log your find in the book, take a trinket and leave one of your own, then log it on the website. Sometimes you find what's called a travel bug that you don't keep, but instead put back into another cache further away so it can get as many miles as possible."

"I think I found this guy's cache," Maggie mumbled keeping her find inside the pack. "Buzby, you can go lie down over next to the nurse's desk.

Once Buzby was out of the area, Maggie took out what she found: A large Zip Loc baggie with vials of narcotics and local anesthetics, and a box of disposable syringes. She turned them over in her hands, then passed them to Luka. "Why would he have this stuff?" she wondered aloud.

"It's ours." Luka announced.

"What?"

"Ours. See?" He pointed to the label on a few of the vials. "I started marking the narcotics last week." On the vial he held up there were three tiny hand written letters: J K L

"How could he possibly get in here without anybody noticing," Colleen asked. "It's not like he would blend in."

"I don't think he did." Luka checked the syringes as well.

"So you can't blame Carter for this one. He wasn't even here the day this creep was found," Maggie hoped aloud.

"I mark them every morning. Each day of the month is a different letter, A through Z, then AA through EE. All of these things are coded last with the letter -K-." Luka took the supplies out and zipped shut the backpack throwing it back in the box. "The day we found this guy was an -M- day. However he got them, they left the clinic the day Carter left."

"So did Colleen," Maggie gave him, "I don't see you pinning blame on her."

Colleen's eyes rolled.

"She was with me."

Maggie sat up on the table. "What could that guy possibly have that Carter would want?"

"Cocaine, Heroine, Morphine, Crystal Meth…" Colleen stopped listing them after Maggie drilled a hole through her with her eyes.

"No. No. You saw what it did to Carter to see the guy."

"Maggie, maybe he put this out there not knowing who would pick it up."

Maggie continued to shake her head. "Way too many movies, Kovac. You are so far out there." She slapped off her gloves and tossed them in the medical waste bin before leaving the building .

The tour of the camp was a success. Sean was in his glory showing the group of about fifteen men and women around, talking non-stop. Luka noticed that Carter was also in money raising mode, glad-handing the potential donors and talking about business colleagues and friends they had in common. Even Bob made an appearance as a "volunteer" helping to translate for the two Arabic speaking men. The children sang songs in the Midway during lunch and then showed off their soccer skills on the air field before the guests left via the choppers that had delivered them.

Luka took Danny aside at the soccer exhibition. "Danny, tell me, do you really think that Todd and Paulette have a relationship?"

"Nah. Well yeah, but not like… ya know." Danny looked at his shuffling feet, obviously not comfortable discussing the subject. "I mean at his party the other night he held her hand - and the missionary kids kind of took notice of that - but I don't think they're ever really alone. None of us are."

"What party?" Luka asked as he watched Todd and Paulette smile, laugh and talk together on the sidelines.

"For Todd. Dr. Carter told us it was his birthday so we kind of had an impromptu birthday party for him. Hey, any reason for a party, man."

"Have a good time?"

"Well, as much as the doc let us. He took our wine away and gave it to Toomay to hold. Came back later with enough beer for one a piece. He kept checking on us like a mother hen."

Luka had to laugh. "Put a crap in your plans, Danny?"

"It's crimp Dr. Kovac. A crimp in your plans."

After the visitors ascended, one of the four choppers stayed behind as the crew talked with Carter and Luka about the supplies.

"We'll be back tomorrow morning," one of the pilots told them. "We can take a passenger if either of you is interested."

"Thanks, I'd love to," Carter told him, "but I've got some work to do at our satellite clinic."

Luka was having second thoughts about the planned group discussion with Carter later that day, especially after finding out that his suspicions of drinking were unfounded. Taking Carter aside, he decided to give him a reason not to be there.

"I'll take the supplies over to the clinic. Why don't you go into Kampala. It'll do you good."

Carter nodded his head as he thought about the offer. "Is there a reason you want to get me away from here?"

"I guess you could say that. But because I think you need to get away, not because we're trying to railroad you."

"They're really expecting me in Gulu," Carter mumbled.

"They can do without you for one day."

"I guess I could use the time to call the Foundation. That might ease Norman's mind."

Luka smiled and felt like the old Carter was back. "You know, you might want to have a talk with Todd."

"About what?"

"Well, the kind of talk his father would have with him." Luka raised his eyebrows and grinned. "It seems that there may be something going on between him and Paulette."

"Ah, not to worry. Toomay and I have talked about that already. It's an innocent thing." He lowered his voice as Paulette and Todd walked towards them. "That stethoscope was a birthday present from his father and he gave it to her. Paulette is an eighteen year old girl away from home, missing her father and scared that she'll never amount to anything better than a refugee. She's kind of taken with him, but I wouldn't worry abut it. He'll be going home soon."

"Some of the children want to make the trip to the clinic too," Paulette told the doctors. "They haven't seen it yet."

"Where's Othiamba?" Luka asked.

Todd shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. Haven't seen him all day. But Sera volunteered to drive the bus, and I'll go too."

"I guess it would be okay," Carter smiled. "The Rover's already loaded with the supplies, but Sera can follow Dr. Luka in the bus." The rotor on the chopper revved up prompting Luka to step back.

"You need anything?" Luka asked.

"Nope. Got my wallet." He paused before stepping up into the Chopper. "Luka? Thanks."

By the time the crew finished with their flight checks, made notations in their log books and got in the air, Luka and the bus had long ago left camp. Carter was buckled into one of the seats of the not-so-plush military chopper. The open doors to the side gave him a bird's eye view of the country he had last flown over a few months and an eternity ago. He was struck by how different the camp looked compared to their first impression when they initially got there. More buildings, the canvas shelters and even the crude landing zone marks the children had painted on the field just for the day's visitors. And life. It was brimming with life. His grandmother always told him that birds were the only creatures who could appreciate the beauty of their lives on earth because once they were airborne it was clear to them that their lives were truly small in the grand scheme of things. As they veered away from the camp and started following the Karuma/Pakwach Road he smiled at his grandmother - looked back at the camp and smiled.

Suddenly the chopper slowed as the aircraft navigated through a cloud of smoke rising from a vehicle engulfed in flames. On the other side of the gray and black curtain, Carter looked down and to his right doing a double-take as he recognized the camp bus stopped behind the burning vehicle. The chopper crew circled around the action and descended to get a better look.

"Oh, shit," Carter shouted. "That's our bus. The camp bus." He jabbed his finger in the air. "Down - we have to land."

"Dr. Carter, those are LRA rebels."

As he became deaf to the noise of the engine and rotors, Carter recognized what he had only seen in pictures: several rebel vehicles surrounding the car and bus. The heavily armed rebels, too many to count, with a gun to someone's head.

An ambush.

They had gotten close to the ground when the crew finally realized they were outnumbered and changed their minds. With Carter unbuckled and half way out the door the two soldiers had to grab him by his leg and belt to keep him from falling out. A bird's-eye-view. His arms were still outstretched, his body from the waist up hanging out of the side door as the chopper jolted and he was roughly pulled back into the chopper.

If hanging out of a chopper wasn't enough, the rebels started shooting at them forcing the crew to take evasive maneuvers. With Carter finally pinned down on the floor of the chopper quite forcefully by one of the soldiers, his face pressed so hard into the metal flooring he could barely breath, the other one grabbed a gun and prepared to shoot back.

"No," Carter pleaded, "they're children. Children."

But before any shots could be fired, a round hit the chopper in just the right place, sending it into a spin.