The Colonel Vs. the Angel of Death Chapter 6 "The Total Eclipse of the Heart"
Col. Casey's heart attack has a mysterious cause, but the Marine is certain the man that plunged a hypodermic needle in his leg at the Costa Graves Embassy may be somehow mixed up in this mess.
He was back in the basement of the Costa Graves embassy, this time tethered to a steel chair bolted to the floor. A soldier had gun butted his head several times, blood pouring from the various cuts on his face, and a huge migraine was pounding behind his eyeballs. His left eye was swollen shut, and he tried to make his one good eye watch the Ring agent with the filled hypodermic need moving closer with each of Casey's gasps for breath.
The Ring agent grabbed ahold of Casey's hair and yanked his head violently back. The familiar stench of the man's breath filled the Marine's nostrils, as the man leaned closely into Casey's face.
"Do you remember me, John Casey?" The Australian accent rolled of the Ring agent's lips, and Casey grunted in recognition. "You got away from me last time, John Casey, but this time, I will make sure you will never live to see your precious Annie again."
Casey jerked his head away from the man's fist, and spat a huge wad of phlegm and blood at the Ring agent. As Casey watched the glob ooze down the man's face, the livid agent raised the needle and plunged it into Casey's chest, injecting the green fluid rapidly.
"Arggh," Casey screamed and his entire body bolted backwards. But instead of a steel chair, he felt a sheet covered bed, and instead on the rank odor of the embassy's basement, he smelt the antiseptic smell of the hospital. Instead of the torturer's voice, he heard Devon, ordering the nursing staff and as his eyes flew open, he flinched and stared at the huge needle of epinephrine as it plunged into his chest cavity. Casey groaned again in pain, and tried to move away.
"Come on, John. Don't flat line on me again." Devon continued to glance between Casey and the heart monitor. His patient began to settle down, and slowly the blip on the screen began to display a regular heart rhythm.
"All right, team, excellent." Devon pried open Casey's eyelids once more and flashed the pen light. "Both pupils responsive and reactive." Devon leaned closer into Casey's line of vision and spoke loudly, "John, I see you are back with us."
The Colonel merely grunted and tried to bat the offensive light away. Devon laughed as he listen once more to the N.S.A. Agent's heart. Devon nodded enthusiastically and looked directly at Casey.
"John, you have stabilized. The heart is strong, the valve is work well, but we have got to get that toxin out of your heart muscle, and out of your blood stream. We are flushing the poison out slowly, so just hang in there with me, all right?"
The Colonel raised his eyebrows in a question and tried to speak behind the oxygen mask.
"John, don't talk. You were shot with a dart that penetrated your chest and lodged itself into your mitre valve. We removed the dart..." Devon reached into his pocked and pulled an evidence bag out to show Casey. "This little bugger released some type of poison into your heart and that is why you are having these cardiac episodes."
Casey stared at the dart, and then gasped quietly behind the mask. "Ring...show Chuck", as he pointed to the bag. Devon nodded and then wiped the sweat off of Casey's brow. John jerked back at first from the intimate gesture, but Devon stared at him seriously.
"John, you need to understand your mission now is not outside this C.C.U. Your mission is to rely on me and get strong. Let Sarah and my bro take care of this." Devon held up the bag once more.
"I'll take care of you, but you have got to cooperate. Understand, Colonel?" The surfer dude was long gone and the cardial-vascular surgeon was at the forefront. Casey nodded once, and as he began to slip back into the morphine fueled sleep, Devon whispered in his ear.
"Pastor Annie needs you, bro." Casey jolted awake and spoke slowly, his speech slurred by the medication.
"Annie...my Annie" he then slipped deeply into the welcomed darkness.
Devon smiled at the Colonel, watching the soldier's face soften into something Devon had never seen on the N.S.A. face: a man deeply in love.
Devon patted Casey's shoulder as he turned to leave. "You have got it bad, dude!" He turned on his heels and walked briskly out to show Chuck the dart.