Recovery

Chapter 5

There was not enough room in the back for the girl to trade seats with their Italian medical person. Casino leaned forward with a grimace and allowed Terry to help him slip the jacket from his shoulder partway down his upper arm. She eased fingers behind the bloodstained shirt, feeling for an exit wound.

Casino shook his head and leaned back against the seat. "Trust me, the bullet's still in there."

That said, the girl unbuttoned the shirt and peeled it away from the wound. "Craig, aid kit." Sitting partially sideways, she lost her balance as Chief took a corner a tad too fast. Actor's hand steadied her, and Casino grabbed her left arm with his right hand. The aid kit came over the back of the front seat and Actor took it, opening it up and holding it within the girl's reach.

Terry took gauze and cleaned around the bleeding wound. Taking a packet of sulfa powder in her teeth, she ripped the top off and liberally sprinkled as much into the wound as she could. A wad of gauze was placed over the hole and she ripped tape with her teeth now to apply pressure to the dressing. It was hard to do anything with both hands as she needed one to steady herself with the wild ride Chief was taking them on.

"We being followed?" she asked.

"Not yet," replied Craig. "Just a matter of how soon."

The girl finished the dressing and straightened the jacket and shirt. Casino watched her fingers button the shirt. The fingers lightly tapped the other side of his chest.

"Morphine?" she asked.

"Naw," replied Casino. "I'll live."

"Okay," said Terry. "You change your mind, tell me."

Actor closed the aid kit and handed it back to Garrison. The two men exchanged looks. As usual, the Lieutenant was blaming himself for one of his men getting shot.

"No," the Italian said reading his mind.

"Yes, it is," replied Garrison.

"Here he goes again," lamented Casino. "It ain't your fault,Warden," he said firmly.

"I'm in charge," said Craig, watching the side mirror for German vehicles.

Casino leaned his head back against the top of the seat. "Have any of us ever blamed you when one of us got nailed?"

"No." Chief answered for the officer.

"Have you ever blamed us when you got nailed?"

"No," answered Chief again. "Well, maybe."

Goniff, sitting between the Indian and Garrison had to smile at that. Garrison pointedly ignored them all.

"So just give it up, Warden," ordered the safecracker.

"He won't," added Actor.

"Hang on," warned Chief as he turned hard onto a wider road. "How far?"

"Five miles, then right," answered Garrison.

It was five miles of a more well-traveled road. It was more likely they would be spotted or stopped on this one. They caught up with more cars and Chief had to adjust his speed to keep in the middle of them. After a few more minutes, Chief spotted the end of a car stopped atop a hill. The line he was in slowed.

"Roadblock?" he asked Garrison.

"Probably."

Craig had been studying the map. "There's another road to the right just ahead. Take it."

This time Chief cut a hard right onto a farm road that was lined heavily with trees. He and Garrison watched for a tail.

"Now what?" asked the Indian.

"There's a road to the left a little farther. That will take us to the road we want." Garrison watched the side mirror.

"'Ow much longer to the plane?" asked Goniff.

"Another hour, if we're lucky."

None of them entertained the thought they would be that lucky. It was a miracle they had made it this far without being stopped.

The road they were on was becoming narrower as the trees made a tunnel and the undergrowth thickened. The large car took up the entire width of the road by the time they reached the crossroad. Chief turned at a slower speed. This road wasn't any wider than the one they had come off of. Still there was no sign of a tail.

Another mile and they reached the road Garrison had been looking for. Compared to the last two, this was a boulevard. A boulevard with no traffic. The officer and Chief knew they needed to ditch the car they were in, but there was no place to find another one.

Chief pushed harder on the accelerator. They alternately sped up and slowed as they reached an area of almost blind curves through more woods. The light was dimming as evening grew near. Chief would have to slow down soon. As it was their luck ran out.

"Roadblock!" said Chief, just as Garrison spotted it. "Run it?"

"No," said Garrison. He looked over the back of the seat. "Actor?"

The confidence man nodded.

The car pulled to a stop as a soldier with a rifle stepped into the road. Actor rolled down his window and waited for the corporal to approach. Terry shifted so she was on an angle, her back hopefully shielding Casino's bloody shoulder from the soldier's sight. The man approached cautiously and peered quickly at the occupants of the car.

"We are in a hurry," said Actor sternly. "Let us pass."

"Leutnant Spiegel wishes to speak with you."

"Then tell him to come here. We are in a hurry."

"He wishes to speak with you over there," the soldier indicated where the officer was standing.

It was more dangerous if one of them left the car, but there did not seem to be a choice. Actor opened the door and got out, slamming the door closed as a sign of irritation. He stomped toward the lesser officer. The soldier remained by the car.

"What is the meaning of this?" demanded an irate General.

The occupants of the car watched with concern. Even the soldier, who was now standing at Chief's open window, was darting eyes between the car and the General. They could no longer hear what was being said between the two officers. In the midst of a brief spat, Actor's posture straightened even more as the Leutnant pulled a gun and pointed it at him.

Chief made a grab out the window and twisted the rifle out of the soldier's trigger hand, at the same time shoving the switchblade between the man's ribs with his right hand. He pulled the gun in and the man slumped dead to the ground.

"They made him," said Garrison, raising his gun from its place on his lap under his hat.

The five people in the car stared in apprehension.

"Warden?" asked Goniff from the middle of the front seat.

"He's in the way," said Garrison with anxiety. "I can't get a shot." He started to get out of the car.

"No, Craig! You've got the intel!" Reacting, not thinking, Terry threw the back door open and leapt out.

Casino lunged to grab her but came up with a handful of empty air and pain in his shoulder wound. He straightened despite the pain and leaned over back of the front seat, trying to see between Goniff and Garrison.

"Shit!" swore Chief quietly.

Garrison reached for the door handle on his side, but stopped and watched in horror, sure both his second and his sister were about to be shot.

Terry screeched like a shrew in German, storming up to the two men. Actor's attention stayed on the Leutnant with the gun, watching for an opening. Terry never slowed. She stomped up beside Actor and a step beyond.

"Warden!" This time it was Casino in the backseat.

"Now she's in the way."

Terry put her left arm out and shoved the heel of her hand into the German officer's chest. The gun swung toward her. Actor leapt forward, grabbing for the man's wrist. The gun fired, not stopping the momentum of the girl. Nobody saw the knife drop to her hand, open, and bury up to the hilt into the man's chest. Actor twisted the gun out of his hand and shot the leutnant with his own weapon.

Garrison leapt out of the car and began firing the schmeisser that had been resting beside his knee at the soldiers who no came running. Chief was shooting with his pistol. Casino opened his door and pulled himself out of the car. Goniff, stuck where he was, handed the rifle over the seat to the safecracker. Casino rested the gun in his left palm on the top of the car, standing at a twisted angle and began firing; cocking and shooting with his good hand.

Before the Leutnant's body hit the ground, Actor grabbed the girl, fully aware of the growing red stain on her left side and twisted her around with his arm behind her to drag her, stumbling, toward the car. Chief stopped firing, the other two men jumped back in the car, and the car jerked forward, back door still open.

Actor shoved Teresa into the back seat and threw himself inside beside her. The car sped forward, even though there was nobody left to follow them. The Italian handed the Luger to Casino, who grabbed it, all the time trying to see the wound on the girl. Actor grabbed handfuls of her blouse and ripped it open, A bloody hand reached up for the aid kit that was slapped in his palm by Garrison.

"Hey!" objected Terry through clenched jaws, angrily and in pain. "You're just going to rip my clothes off? We aren't alone you know."

"Stai zitti!" spat Actor in his native tongue. He followed in Italian, "What the hell did you think you were doing?"

"Non lo so!" hissed Teresa in the same language. "I should have let him kill you!"

"How bad?" demanded Garrison in English.

Actor tore open the kit which was pretty much empty and grabbed a couple remaining clean gauze pads to clean the wound and pushed the girl's shoulder around toward Casino to see the exit wound. Relief almost flowed through him. He had taken care of worse injuries on her. "Doesn't look like it hit anything vital."

"What was going through your head?" demanded Garrison. "Were you out of your mind?"

"It's full of holes yet," answered Casino in disgust based on fear.

Actor wiped the skin clean around the exit wound. There was very little powder left in the sulfa packet and only one gauze pad left. He carefully rested the packet inside the kit and ripped strips of tape off, sticking one end of each to the back of the car seat in front of him.

"Perchè?" repeated Actor in Italian.

"To give you a chance," replied Terry stubbornly in Italian.

"We could have both been killed!" the con man shot back in the same language. "That was stupid."

"Certo! Stupido uomo italiano!"

Terry knew she was resting heavily on Casino's wounded shoulder. "I'm sorry, Casino," she said contritely.

"It's all right, Babe," he said beside her ear.

Terry looked up into the brown eyes below the stubborn curl of dark hair that hung down on his forehead. In that instant, she realized she was in trouble. He cared for her. And she discovered she cared for him too. Maybe it wasn't as much as she felt for Actor, but there was something there.

There was a sharp stab of pain as Actor tried to separate the edges of the wound with the fingers of one hand to tap what little sulfa powder was left in the envelope into the bloody hole. Terry's attention snapped to the con man.

"Mi dispiace," apologized Actor.

"Va bene," Terry replied quietly in reassurance.

She could see his face and the frown. Somewhere along the line of becoming close to the Garrisons and the men, a gentleness and concern had made its way past the self-centered façade. She knew there was more to come out. Just as she now knew him; remembered him.

"Warden, there isn't enough sulfa or bandages," said Actor in frustration.

"You shouldn't have used it all on me, Babe," said Casino.

She looked up at him. "Well, at the time, I wasn't planning on this."

Garrison presented his still clean handkerchief over the back of the seat. Goniff wiggled around and produced his. Actor used the two as bandages on the back wound and taped them tightly in place. He eased the girl to her back, so he could reach the front wound. There was nothing left to treat that wound with. Shaking his head, he folded up his handkerchief and pressed it over the bloody hole, securing it with tape.

"You should not have done what you did, Teresa," admonished the Italian, still in his native language.

"Basta," said Terry. She switched to English, "You would have done it for me. You've done it more than once for Craig. We've all done it for each other. It goes with covering each other's backs." She made a sour face. "That move worked before. It sure didn't this time." She watched the fastidious con man's bloody hands pull the tattered remains of her shirt over her. "When you get done there, would you get me off Casino? I'm leaning on his shoulder."

The safecracker wasn't going to say anything, but her head on his wound hurt probably as bad as her side did.

"Give her some morphine," said Garrison.

"Too soon," said Actor. "I will give her some before we board the plane. It might last until we get back to Archbury. If she is lucky."

"She isn't dead," said Goniff from the front seat. "I'd say that's pretty bleedin' lucky."

Actor said nothing in response. Carefully, he got an arm around the girl and straightened her up against the seat back and off Casino.

"You can lean against me if you would be more comfortable," said Actor in low Italian.

"Thank you," replied Terry in the same language. "But we aren't to the plane yet. You may have to move fast. I'll be all right."

In the front seat, it finally struck Garrison his sister was speaking in Italian and had screamed at the Leutnant in German. Eyes still watching the empty road behind them for signs of a tail, Craig decided to try something.

"So why did you pull that stupid stunt?" he asked in German, earning a sharp look from Actor.

Terry's eyes were closed and her head back against the seat. She didn't open them but answered in English. "I didn't feel like breaking in another con man. Two of them is enough."

"Due?" Actor looked at her in confusion.

"Due mio caro idioto!"

"What two?" Craig asked calmly still in German, waiting to see what her answer would be.

"Him and Carter," Terry shot back, biting back the pain at a bump in the road. "Who else?"

Actor stared at her. "Carter? You remember Carter? Have you been with Carter since your head?"

"No, I have not been with Carter, since my – head." She glared at him. "I haven't seen or spoken to him."

"But you remember Carter?" asked Craig.

Even Casino was staring at the girl.

"Yes," her voice was still tight. "You know Carter. Blond, taller than Goniff, shorter than this one." She backhanded Actor lightly in the stomach. "Works with Randy now. Kisses good too."

"I am so happy for you," snarled Actor in disgusted Italian.

Casino laughed. He did understand some Italian. More than he let on.

"Holes gone now?" asked Craig.

"Mostly," said Terry.

The rest of the ride was in silence. About fifteen minutes later, Chief turned up a track that would take them to the resistance and the field that would be used as a landing strip. It was dark by the time they reached it.

Garrison met with Antoine, the resistance leader, and quickly informed him of what had taken place at the roadblock. Unlikely as it sounded to Craig, it looked like the Germans at the roadblock had not had time to get a radio call to their headquarters before being eliminated by Garrison and the men.

They did not have to wait long until the sound of the plane engines could be heard in the distance. Chief leaned over the seat back and lit a match, shielding the flame with his hand so Actor could see the vein in Terry's elbow. He hit it and shot the entire thing into the vein.

The girl's eyes widened and her head lolled. "Actor!" she got out angrily before she slumped into unconsciousness.

The Italian felt her pulse. Satisfied it was steady, he dropped the styrette back into the aid kit.

"Man, she's gonna be mad at you when she wakes up,"

"Probably," agreed the confidence man. "Let us hope we are in England when that happens."

Chief and Actor pulled the limp woman out of the car and carried her between them to the plane that touched down and turned around for a quick take off. Garrison and Goniff retrieved the duffels and stowed them in the open area behind the last seat. Chief and Actor lifted the girl into the plane and arranged her on the back seat, propped against the window. They helped Casino in next and got him situated in the next seat forward. With a quick thanks and good bye, Garrison followed his men and went forward to act as co-pilot. He could see there wasn't one.

The pilot turned to him as he started the plane forward. "Hi Garrison. Want to ride shotgun?"

"Sure, Bradley" replied Garrison.

"Fine. But you're Army. Why not Army Air?"

"Long story. I have flown Dakotas before."

"Good." The pilot called back to the others, "Hang on, this is rough."

He wasn't joking.

8