Raferty came back from his memory tour to see Killian regarding him with a slight smile. He smiled at her. She responded with a widening of her smile and spoke. “It was good to see Cathy. I know you have seen her every now and then, but it has been a while for me.”
Hawkins nodded. This meeting had been a long time coming, but it had been good for all of them as they reaffirmed the family ties that had never truly been cut. He wasn’t sure the meeting had helped Cathy and her guilt over the processing plant fight. The two younger boys were closer to Cathy than to Anastasia and Beatrice. All of the survivors had taken the deaths at the processing plant hard, but Cathy had taken them the hardest. The fact she had been wounded and couldn’t assist in the O’Hare jailbreak had not helped matters. Rafe was happy Cathy was getting married and had moved to a life beyond the incidents of Bolindale. She might have guilt over the events there, but she was not a prisoner to the past. Hawkins knew the rest of their group couldn’t make that claim. The recent time spent in the clinic with Killian proved that. The two of them had wanted to check out of the war together and move to a different life but couldn’t. Zachary, Rebecca, Anastasia, and Beatrice might have different names and different jobs now but, in many ways, they were still fighting on Bolindale.
Hawkins ended his flashback. “We need to get your hand out of the sonic chamber and a cast put on it,” he said quietly. O’Hare nodded. They regarded each other with no expressions at all. He knew she wasn’t really thinking about getting a cast. He had the strange realization that she was also reflecting on recent events, and her conclusions were identical to his own.
“I’m glad she is getting married,” he ventured.
O’Hare nodded slightly in agreement. “She is moving on.” The two stared at each other and pain briefly flashed through her eyes. “I wish we could,” she said in a whisper. Rafe nodded. He wished that too. They turned to the door to begin their search for Doctor Bergeron.
Chapter 26
Commissioner Catherine Putinsky lead her contingent of police officers in the building at exactly two o’clock. They quickly spread out and began to search each space on the ground floor while two men remained at the main entrance. Putinsky and a smaller group went up the stairs to the second floor and began fanning out. Putinsky proceeded to Doctor Pierre Bergeron’s office with only one man as her other people took up the search on the second floor. Bergeron was behind his desk as she entered and looked suitably surprised at the interruption.
Putinsky was all business. She flashed her badge and official identification. “Doctor Bergeron, I’m Commissioner Catherine Putinsky, Potenkan security.” She placed a folded sheet of paper on his desk. “A warrant, sir. We are searching the entire grounds for two known fugitives, Raferty Hawkins and Killian O’Hare. They are wanted on Potenka and on many other planets for a variety of serious crimes.”
Bergeron rose from his chair and played his part. “I am sure such people are not here, Commissioner, but, please, search. I am always happy to cooperate with the police.”
Cathy nodded. “Thank you, Doctor. Please remain here. I will return shortly.”
The two police officers exited the office. Putinsky pointed to the nurses’ station and her one officer moved there to search the computer system for any records for the two pirates. Putinsky just happened to search the two rooms that had been occupied by Hawkins and O’Hare. She thought they would be clean of any evidence, but you never know. She ended up checking two recently cleaned rooms that were spotless in every detail. Even if the police had wanted to do a DNA search, that would have been iffy in those rooms. After all, this was a clinic with a highly trained staff. They knew what DNA was and how to get rid of it. They also knew how to wipe out whatever computer records might have been kept on two recent patients.
Putinsky returned to the doctor’s office as her people continued to comb through the two floors. She took a chair in front of Bergeron’s desk, and the two of them got comfortable as they let the search play out. After twenty minutes of easy small talk and catching up, Cathy rose and moved to the door. She glanced both ways down the wide hall. Most of her people were starting to gather in a group at the head of the stairs. It was clear the search was concluding on this floor with no evidence found as of yet. She returned to the front of Bergeron’s desk.
She smiled as Bergeron stood up. “Looks like the rumor we heard of those two being here was unfounded.”
“How did you even hear such a rumor?”
Putinsky looked at Doctor Bergeron with a straight face. “You know I can’t tell you that. Besides, she didn’t talk to us directly. My understanding is she told her husband who told somebody, who told somebody, who told us.” The police commissioner smiled at the doctor. It was clear her statements were not slips of the tongue.
Putinsky moved to the window and looked out. The second story gave a nice view of plowed fields interlaced with wooded sections, all under a cloudless afternoon sky. A nice pastoral scene. She stared out the window as she spoke. “Who are your nurses on this floor? Perhaps I need to talk to them.”
The doctor was not put off by the question. After all, he had known Catherine Putinsky before she was Catherine Putinsky. He had performed the treatment on her wounds on Bolindale, and they had a bond of trust. He knew that her remarks about nurses were not idle statements made just to pass the time. He started going through the roster in his mind. “There is Zinsky, Gonzales, Roachman, Crenshaw, Chin, ...” His voice trailed off as he sifted through his memory for more names.
Putinsky took advantage of the pause and cut in. “What is Crenshaw like?” She turned from the window and stared at Bergeron as she awaited his answer. Her face gave away nothing.
He stared back. “Good nurse. Reliable worker.” He paused for two seconds before continuing. “I’ve been told on one occasion a while back that she spoke to family members about some important clients who came here for various treatments. She was talked to by one of the supervisors about my insistence on secrecy for all the patients here, and there was never a repeat of such an incident.”
Putinsky maintained the same steady gaze on him. “It happens,” she said simply.
Bergeron kept eye contact. He nodded. “Yes, it does. Sometimes too much so.”
Putinsky now nodded. “Sometimes,” she agreed in a neutral tone while holding the eye contact.
She suddenly turned and walked to the door. She was all business. “I think I will forego the talk with the nurses. Probably would not be productive. Thanks for the cooperation, Doctor. It seems we wasted your time and our time, but it’s part of the job. I hope you weren’t too inconvenienced.”
Bergeron followed her and joined in the official tone for this official conversation. “Not at all, Commissioner. You got a tough job to do. I don’t envy you. I am always willing to cooperate any way I can.”
Putinsky stopped at the open office door and glanced down the hallway. Her officers were now lounging about the waiting room. It was clear the search was over on this floor and they were waiting for her. There was nobody within earshot. She turned back to Bergeron. She spoke softly. “You do good work, Pierre. Thank you for taking care of them.” She smiled.
He smiled in return and answered in the same soft tone. “The least I could do. I owe Zachary my life and all this.” He gestured around with his arm.
“He got you here, but you did all this yourself. Even he would say that.” She now moved toward her people but turned around after a few steps. “You will be at my wedding?” It was more of a command than a question.
Bergeron’s smile grew larger. “I wouldn’t miss it, Cathy. And I want one dance.”
Putinsky nodded and gave a return smile. “Of course. Definitely a dance together.”
She turned, moved down the hallway and past her search party. She looked at them and gave a slight hand flick that meant “follow me,” and they did. As Putinsky walked, she made a mental note to ensure she never told her fiancé/husband the least little th
ing about her job. She was naturally closed-mouthed about her duties, but events like this helped ensure she didn’t get slack about it. She knew he was smart enough to keep his mouth shut, but why tempt fate? Putinsky and her people departed the clinic.
Bergeron returned to his office and went to his desk. He checked the schedule to see who was working now, then he called security. “Please have an officer come to my office. Ensure he is big as he will be escorting somebody out of the building.” He now called the nurse’s station. “Have Nurse Crenshaw come to my office, please.”
Bergeron cut the connection and leaned back in his chair. He didn’t like doing what he was about to do, but it couldn’t be helped. His was a small clinic, and it had two things going for it: good work and secrecy. If patients thought their medical issues would become common knowledge and media fodder, he would soon have no patients. He loved his work and believed his clinic did good things. To protect it, he could get really ruthless, really fast. He had heard Raferty Hawkins shoved people out of airlocks when they warranted it. An excellent way to let everyone know you were serious about maintaining the standards. At times like this, he wished he had an airlock and the legal authority to use it as he saw fit.
He briefly considered the idea of Crenshaw running to the media or to the authorities with details of the pirates’ stay to prove they really had been patients in the clinic. He made a mental note of mentioning to her that if she did that, Hawkins and O’Hare would be bound to hear about it very fast. She could then count on a reintroduction to them or their representatives soon after that, probably under less than desirable circumstances and ending with less than desirable results from her point of view. She might want to think about that near-certain possibility as she weighed her future actions.
Chapter 27
The Potenkan shuttle port was like every other shuttle port on every other developed planet in the universe. There were several long terminals, and all were busy with people on the move while consumed with their own challenges. O’Hare and Hawkins stood against the wall of one of the interplanetary terminals. Shuttles from this terminal moved passengers to ships in orbit departing for dozens of destinations. They were waiting to board a shuttle to their passenger ship for the planet Ruvid. They had received word just prior to their departure from the clinic that Nemesis and Predator would arrive at Ruvid just after they were scheduled to get there. The two pirate captains would be returning to their ships in two days, but first, they had to get off Potenka.
They were dressed in understated casual clothing and comfortable athletic shoes. They had no weapons. Their hair was unkempt and their clothes looked slept in. He hadn’t shaved in four days. They looked like a thousand other pairs of travelers on a budget. Hawkins secretly thanked Cathy Putinsky for omitting the facial hallie from the security police lookout report. If that had been part of the description, he would have insisted that Killian hide the hallie and there would have been a long argument before it would have happened. Without that item in the police description, O’Hare was just one of thousands of people with a facial hallie.
They stood with their backs against the wall while continuously scanning the surroundings without being obvious about it. People moved past in both directions. Some were walking slowly, some walking quickly, and some running. All had luggage and anxious looks. All were encased in their own reality and not paying the slightest attention to anything around them. It was a typical scene in any shuttle port, but there were a few anomalies.
O’Hare turned her head slightly to look at Raferty. “Pope is across from us.”
She had spotted the young, nondescript hit team leader sitting in a row of chairs not quite directly across the terminal corridor from where they were standing. He was reading a tablet while appearing not to take the slightest interest in his surroundings. He was a man that blended in anywhere so was readily ignored by all nearby people. It was a credit to Killian that she had even picked him out.
O’Hare spoke quietly. “We don’t really need an escort. I guess I should be offended, but I have no desire to pick an argument with Destiny about this. It’s not worth it, and I would lose anyway.”
Rafe smiled. He didn’t bother pointing out the very nice wolf hallie on her face and her arm and hand in a cast were not assets in avoiding attention. Also, neither of them had weapons nor were at their best physically, so they would be at a severe disadvantage in a fight. Nothing to be gained from having that conversation. Instead, he addressed the current situation. “I see two more of his team. One man slightly to our right on the far side of the corridor at the large windows looking out on the landing pads. He is watching reflections in the glass. There is a woman way down on our right on our side of the corridor drinking a beverage at the café there. I assume there is one more, probably a woman, but haven’t seen her.”
Killian gave no indication of hearing him and did not look around to confirm the sightings. She replied softly, “I’m not positive, but I think she passed two minutes ago while you were in the head and is now well down the corridor on our left. Can’t see her now, but I would bet she is the fourth member.”
Rafe couldn’t recall any passing woman standing out to him. Since he hadn’t picked her out of the crowd, it was highly probable he had been in the head when she passed by. He assumed Killian was right. They, and every other veteran in their business developed a sense about all the people around them and who they were, who they were pretending to be, and what their likely courses of action would be at any given moment. He couldn’t even put it into words as to what the tipoffs were. You just learned to do it or you died with a surprised look on your face.
A team member well down the corridor on the left made sense as the pair of pirates would be moving in that direction when it became time to board a shuttle. Pope’s team had a security ring around them now and would keep that security ring intact as they moved to board their shuttle. The team would also board the same shuttle to the same passenger ship.
O’Hare was on Rafe’s left side. She casually turned to him. He sensed the movement and turned toward her. She kissed him. It was a passionate kiss that was made even better since it was a surprise. He responded by sliding his arms around her. She pressed her cast in tight on his chest so it was lost in his shirt and open jacket while her right hand went to the back of his neck. The wolf hallie on the right side of her face was now facing the wall close on her right. Hawkins knew this maneuver wasn’t due to O’Hare suddenly being overcome by a fit of passion. He didn’t look but sensed two shuttle port cops strolling by. He knew they would glance at the pair of apparent lovers but would do nothing more. He decided to enjoy the moment. The moment lasted several more seconds.
She broke the lip lock but did not move away. Both kept their hold on each other as their faces stayed close together. She smiled slightly. “Nice response despite being taken by surprise. An excellent kiss.”
He looked down at the slightly shorter woman. “You bring out the best in me.” He now smiled at her. “You’re no slouch yourself. If you had kissed me like that in the hospital bed, we would still be in that hospital bed.”
She openly grinned at him. “Think you could last that long?”
“I’d give it a helluva try. Like I said, you bring out the best in me… in many ways,” he said wistfully as he tightened his hold on her.
“You know the cops have gone past already?” Killian asked.
“So?”
O’Hare nodded. “You’re right. So.”
They stood pressed against each other, sharing a smile and the nice sensation of the physical contact. They could do this for a long time and not get bored. Then their shuttle was announced.
O’Hare leaned slightly forward and gently laid her forehead against his chin. She spoke slowly and with resignation. “Yep. Our timing still sucks. It absolutely does.”
They broke their hold, picked up a small bag each, and went left down the corridor. The woman who had been drinking in the café clos
ed up behind them. As the two pirates approached the gate, Hawkins noticed two women traveling together who happened to have facial hallies. Rafe timed it so he and O’Hare slid into the forming line of passengers behind the pair of women. Even if Putinsky’s lookout report omitted O’Hare’s hallie, it was possible a shuttle port official might have known about O’Hare from her reputation so would be looking at women with hallies. If any official at the gate really studied the women ahead of the pirates, it would be a cause for concern.
Duty and Obligation Page 21
