The Chemist Part 31

She dropped her arms and jogged toward the Humvee. It was lit only by the lamps s.h.i.+ning through the front door and windows, but from this vantage it appeared to be totally unharmed by their intentional accident.

Daniel slid out of the front seat.

"The shot?" she asked, her voice quieter as she approached. The dogs around the Humvee seemed relaxed enough, but...

"The last man. He must have climbed the side of the house to get away from the dogs. He was trying to edge around to the roof of the porch."

Daniel gestured with the rifle to a dark ma.s.s crumpled on the gravel close to the east corner of the house. She pushed the gas mask back on her forehead, carefully moving the straps on the left side over her ear without touching it. She adjusted her trajectory, edging closer to the broken figure. Einstein shadowed her. A large standard German shepherd was pacing not too far off, seeming uninterested in the body.

Einstein suddenly sped up and pa.s.sed her. He sniffed the body a few times while she cautiously picked her way forward, and then he turned to her with his tail wagging.

"Is that the all clear?" she muttered.

He kept wagging.

She leaned in for a closer look. It didn't take long to see all there was to see. Impressed, she turned and walked back to the Humvee. Daniel was standing beside the open driver-side door, looking unsure what to do. He still didn't appear to be having any kind of shock reaction.

"Nice shot," she said. One bullet, literally right between the eyes. It couldn't have been more perfect.

"I wasn't very far away."

He stepped toward her, closing the distance, and his gloved hands wrapped tightly around the tops of her arms. Then he gasped and spun to the side, wheeling her around so that the light was no longer behind her.

"How much of this blood is yours?"

"Not much," she said. "I'm good."

"Your ear!"

"Yeah, that's not going to help anything, is it? You handy with a needle and thread?"

His head jerked back in surprise. "What?"

"It's not hard. I can talk you through it."

"Um..."

"One thing first." She shook out of his grasp and ran back up the porch stairs. Lola was still curled in the same spot. She raised her head and thumped her tail limply when she saw Alex.

"Hey, Lola, good girl. Let me take a look at you."

Alex sat cross-legged in front of her. She stroked Lola's side with one hand while searching for the wound with the other.

"Is she okay?" Daniel asked softly. He was on the other side of the porch banister, his elbows resting on the edge of the floorboards. He seemed unwilling to get any closer to the house. She didn't blame him. Lola whimpered as Alex felt along her legs.

"She's lost some blood. It looks like the bullet went through her back left leg. I can't tell if it hit bone, but the bullet definitely pa.s.sed through. She was lucky."

He reached through the slats to rub Lola's nose. "Poor girl."

"The stuff in the back of the Humvee must be in total chaos. I'm going to hunt up the first-aid kit. Keep her calm, will you?"

"Sure."

Einstein followed Alex back to the vehicle, just as he'd trailed her to the porch. It surprised her how the silent support buoyed her, made her feel safe despite all the evidence to the contrary.

She opened the back of the Humvee, and an impatient Khan almost knocked her down. She dodged out of his way just in time as he sprang over her. She imagined the cargo hold was tight for him, though she had plenty of s.p.a.ce as she crawled inside.

Guns and ammo were strewn haphazardly, loose bullets rolling under her knees. There wasn't time to organize. Her conversation with Hector had been cut short; she hadn't been able to ask one last vital question. What happens when the job is done? Who was expecting a call, and when? At least there was the third house still waiting. Unless Hector had made a call between the first and second stops.

Had he called his manager, told him which address had been cleared and which he was heading to next? Was the manager waiting for another call? Would he have realized that the call was overdue?

She located the duffel that held her first-aid kit. There was nothing she could do now except move fast and make the right decisions. The only problem was she still didn't know exactly what those right decisions were.

"Okay," she huffed as she and Einstein arrived back at Lola's side.

She knelt beside Lola's legs and quickly realized it was too dark for her to see what she was doing.

"I need you to bring the Humvee around and give me some light," she said.

Daniel lurched away from the porch, a ma.s.sive shadow hulking beside him: Khan still on duty. She wondered how Khan and Einstein had decided to switch a.s.signments. She pulled off her tactical gloves and replaced her b.l.o.o.d.y latex gloves with a fresh pair. She was just injecting Lola with a mild sedative when the brilliant lights of the Humvee came shooting through the banister slats. She adjusted her position so the glare was out of her face and on the wound. It looked like a clean through-and-through. She waited for Lola's eyes to droop before she started cleaning the wound. Lola's leg twitched a few times, but she didn't cry out. Antiseptic, then ointment, then gauze, then a splint and more gauze. It should heal well, if she could keep Lola off it.

She blew out a sigh. What were they going to do about all these dogs?

"What's next?" Daniel asked when she was done. He was on the ground beside the porch, rifle in hands, scanning the dark plains around them.

"Can you throw a couple of st.i.tches in my ear while I've got the stuff out?"

He balked. "I won't get it right."

"It'll be easy," she a.s.sured him. "Haven't you ever sewn on a b.u.t.ton?"

"Not through human flesh," he muttered, but he slung his rifle over his shoulder and started up the stairs as he spoke.

She lit a match from the kit and sterilized the needle. It wasn't the highest standard of medical technique, but it was the best she could do under the circ.u.mstances. She waved the needle quickly back and forth to cool it, then poked the suture thread through the eye and knotted one end.

She held it out to him along with a fresh pair of gloves. He put the gloves on and then reached slowly for the needle. He didn't seem to want to touch it. She tilted her head back and poured antiseptic across the wound, waiting for the scorching sting to run the course of the cut all the way to her ear. Then she angled her jaw toward him, making sure she was in the brightest beam of light.

"Probably just needs three little ones. Start at the back and pull through."

"What about a local anesthetic?"

"I've got enough painkiller in me already," she lied. She could feel the slash across her jaw like a brand. But she was out of Survive, and anything else she could use would incapacitate her at least partially. This wasn't an emergency, it was only pain.

He knelt down beside her. He put his fingers gently under the edge of her chin.

"This was very close to your jugular!" He gasped, horrified.

"Yeah, he was good."

His face was out of her sight, so she couldn't interpret the little hitching sound in his breath.

"Do it, Daniel. We have to hurry."

He sucked in a deep breath, and then she felt the needle pierce her earlobe. She was braced for it-she kept it off her face and didn't let her hands clutch into fists; she'd learned to localize her reactions. She clenched the muscles in her abdomen, letting the pressure vent there.

"Good," she said as soon as she was sure she could keep her voice even. "You're doing great. Now just fit the pieces together, and st.i.tch them in place."

While she spoke, his fingers moved quickly through the task. She couldn't feel the needle in the severed bottom portion of her earlobe, so she only had to deal with the pain when he perforated the top half. Just three little stabs. It wasn't too bad after the first.

"Do I... tie a knot or something?" he asked.

"Yes, in the back, please."

She could feel the pull of the thread tightening as he worked.

"It's done."

She looked up at him and smiled. It tugged at her slashed jaw. "Thank you. I would have had a hard time managing that on my own."

He touched her cheek. "Here, let me bandage this for you."

She held still while he covered the wound with ointment, then taped a strip of gauze to her cheek. He wrapped her ear front and back.

"Probably should have cleaned it first," he muttered.

"It will do for now. Let's put Lola in the Humvee."

"I'll get her."

Daniel gently lifted the sleeping Lola into his arms. Her long front paws and ears dangled out from his arms and wiggled with every step he took. Alex felt a bubble of inappropriate humor rising in her chest, and swallowed against it. There was no time for hysteria. Daniel laid Lola in the s.p.a.ce behind the pa.s.senger seat. There were only the two front seats in the Humvee. Kevin had removed the rest to leave room for cargo, she guessed.

"What now?" Daniel asked as he walked back to where she was still sitting on the porch. He was probably wondering why she wasn't doing something proactive. He didn't know she was procrastinating.

She took a deep breath and steadied her shoulders. "Give me the phone. It's time to talk to your brother."

"Should we be moving?"

"There's one thing more I need to do, but I want to tell him first."

"What?"

"We really ought to burn the house down."

His eyes widened as he stared at her. Slowly, he pulled the phone from his vest pocket.

"I should make the call," he said.

"He already hates me," she countered.

"But this was my fault."

"You weren't the one who hired a team of hit men."

He shook his head and pressed the b.u.t.ton to power up the phone.

"Fine," she muttered.

As she packed up her first-aid supplies, she watched Daniel from the corner of her eye. He pulled up the only number that had ever called, but before he could touch it, the phone rang again.

Daniel sucked in a deep breath, the same way he had before making the first pa.s.s on her ear. She imagined this conversation would be the harder of the tasks.

He hit the screen. She could hear Kevin shrieking so loudly that at first she thought the phone was on speaker mode.

"YOU DON'T HANG UP ON ME, YOU-"

"Kev, it's me. Kev! It's Danny!"

"WHAT THE h.e.l.l IS HAPPENING?"

"It's my fault, Kev. I was an idiot. I ruined everything. I'm so sorry!"

"WHAT ARE YOU BABBLING ABOUT?"

"Arnie's dead, Kev. I'm so sorry. And some of the dogs, I'm not sure how many. It's all my fault. I wish I could tell you how-"

"PUT THE POISON LADY ON THE PHONE!"

"This is on me, Kev. I messed up-"

Kevin's voice was calmer when he interrupted now. "There's no time for this, Danny. Give her the phone. I need someone who can talk sense."

She stood up and reached for the phone. Daniel watched anxiously as she held it a few inches away from her ear.

"Are you secure?" Kevin asked.

Surprised by his businesslike detachment, she answered in the same tone. "For the moment, but we've got to move."

"Have you torched the house?"

"I was just about to."

"There's kerosene in the closet under the stairs."

"Thanks."

"Call me when you're on the road."

He hung up.