by Dale Mayer
“She has,” he said quietly. “I’m not so sure that she’ll make it.”
Diesel looked at Jerricho in surprise. “As in, you don’t think she’ll live?”
“I think she’s got a terminal disease. I don’t think, or I don’t want to think, that the Chinese had anything to do with it. I just don’t feel like she’s here long for the earth.”
“That would be very depressing for Eva. Not to mention for Marge herself, who hasn’t had much chance to do anything yet with her newfound freedom, after spending the last however many months in captivity.”
“I know,” he said, “and unfortunately it doesn’t look like, you know, given the size of those lumps … I doubt she has more than six months to live.”
Diesel sighed and sank back into his chair. “Well, I hope you’re wrong,” he said. “Everybody deserves to have a better ending to their life than this.”
“Yes, but at least we got them out, and she has whatever time she has. Be better than dying alone in that lab.”
Diesel winced at that. “Intel pick up anything yet?”
“No, the city is silent as usual. The cover story on the fire says an electrical fire started in the basement.”
“Well, that’s not exactly true,” Diesel said.
“Communist news is meant to always keep the public in the dark. It’s how they keep voter confidence,” Jerricho replied.
“Except there’s no voting,” he said, with a smirk.
“Very true. But they rule by controlling the flow of information as they want it. Remember?”
“I remember,” he said.
Just then the door opened, and Eva stepped back out. She walked toward the two men with a bright smile. “I’m done,” she announced. “So where’s that coffee?”
Diesel smiled, hopped to his feet, and said, “Come on. Let’s go get you a cup.” He looked at Jerricho. “Are you coming?”
“Absolutely,” Jerricho said. “We also have to figure out if we’re done here or what our plans are afterward.”
“We’ll be here for a little bit,” Diesel said, “but you’re right. We have to figure out the next leg of this.”
“Next leg of what?” Eva asked suspiciously, as they walked to the mess area.
“Well, you’re still not back in the US yet,” he said.
“Can’t we go on this ship?”
“It’s not going there,” he said.
She frowned. “And I guess they won’t turn it around and take us there just because I need to go in that direction, will they?” she asked softly.
“Not only that,” Jerricho piped up and said, “they could need to offload us pretty quickly. It depends on some of the commands being forwarded here.” He added, “There’s a general air of excitement around the place, as if something’s up.”
“Is it related to us?” she asked in a hoarse whisper.
“No, but, when they get a change of orders, they’ll move quickly on that order. We will have an option either to get off or to go to the next port and then get off.”
“Fine,” she said, shaking her head. “Apparently I don’t get any of the finer details in this mess anyway, so you guys decide what’s the best way to handle it.”
Diesel smiled, looked down at her, and said, “Just remember. You’re not in the lab. You’re not locked up. You’re safe here. So, even if it takes us a few more days, it’s really not an issue.”
She nodded and said, “True enough. So what am I supposed to do? Just sit back and enjoy?”
“Absolutely,” he said, chuckling. “Sounds like a plan to me.”
Chapter 8
The first day wasn’t an issue at all because Eva slept off and on for the next twenty-four hours. By the time she woke up on day two and headed for breakfast, Diesel at her side, she noted she was still being escorted. “So are you protecting me or the rest of the crew?”
He burst out laughing. “Basically nobody is allowed here without being escorted. You can’t be allowed to wander at will.”
“Ah,” she said, “and I noticed that nobody’s really saying anything to me.”
“But they’re not unfriendly, are they?”
“No, that’s true,” she said. “Just … it feels weird.”
“Think of yourself as an invited guest.”
“Well, that is how it feels,” she admitted. “I guess I was hoping for a less formal atmosphere.”
“The military does formal very well,” he said.
She burst out grinning. “Do we have any news on Marge?”
“Nope, but, after breakfast, if you want, we can stop in and see how she’s doing.”
“I’d like that,” she said. “I did stop in yesterday with Jerricho for five minutes, and she was happy to see me, but I think she was also happy to see me leave.”
“She’s tired, exhausted. Her system’s on overload,” he reminded her.
“I know,” she said. “I just want to make sure that she’ll be okay.”
“She’ll be as okay as the US Navy doctor can assure us that she’ll be okay.”
“She might have to go on a different flight home again anyway, I suppose. She was taken from Australia. So it depends where we end up.”
“You mean, where she wants to go, yes,” he corrected.
“Exactly that. We’re not limited to going back to the US.” As they walked into the cafeteria, she smiled and said, “And, of course, we’re just at the end of the mealtime, aren’t we?”
“Again it’s easier on everybody.”
She nodded, quickly walked up to the food, and served herself, with a little help from the chef on the other side. With a bright smile, she walked over, picked up a coffee, and sat down at a table away from everyone.
Diesel and Jerricho joined her immediately.
“So tell me why again Marge’ll go one way, and we’ll go another?”
“It isn’t for sure yet,” Diesel said. He hesitated.
Jerricho looked at him and said, “She might as well know.”
“Know what?”
“The doctors suspect that she’s got a terminal illness and that she doesn’t have very long to live. There was talk about sending her, with her permission, to a center in Switzerland, where she might get some treatment,” Diesel said.
“Wow,” she said, sitting back in shock. “When did you find that out?”
“This morning,” Diesel said.
She nodded and stared down at her food. “That seems so unfair,” she cried out softly.
“Remember? Life isn’t fair.”
“I know,” she said, “but sometimes it’s really a bitch.”
“It is. Eat up, and we’ll go see her.”
“Is this likely to be the last time I do see her?”
The two men looked at her and said, “Why don’t you just not focus on that?”
She didn’t even know what to say. She managed to get some food down but only half of what she had taken. She stared at it and said, “I can’t get any more down. I’m too upset over Marge.”
“I understand,” he said. “Let’s go talk to her, and see how you feel afterward.”
And, with that, they got up and left the table.
As she walked out, she turned to look up at him. “So am I going to Switzerland too?”
“Do you want to go to Switzerland?” Diesel asked.
“No,” she said, “I want to go home.”
“Then we’re going home.”
She shook her head. “And when is that?”
“I’ll let you know,” Diesel said. “After you visit with Marge, I’ve got a meeting with the captain.”
And, with that, Jerricho turned and walked away.
She looked at Diesel and asked, “Now what?”
“I’m taking you to Marge,” he said gently.
“Okay,” she said, “let’s go.”
Diesel escorted Eva through the ship back to the medical clinic center. As they walked in, the nurse looked up, frowned, and said, “I h
ope you’re not here for Marge.”
“Actually I am.” Eva stepped forward, looking at the nurse in surprise. “Why? Is that a problem?”
“She was just flown out about forty-five minutes ago,” she said, checking her watch.
“Oh no,” Eva said, “I wanted to say goodbye.”
“She took a turn for the worst,” she said.
“Worse how?” Diesel asked.
“She’s got stage four cancer. She seemed to think that she would never get away from her captives, so she hadn’t worried too much about what the end result would be. But, once we managed to take a good look at her, she said that she’d known for quite a while.”
“Oh no,” Eva said. “I was really hoping for good news. And I was hoping to see her down the road in the future.”
“I suspect that won’t happen. She did want to make it back to Australia and die there. But the best medical help for her is in Switzerland. I don’t know that she’ll make the journey all that well. Only through her insistence and the officers in charge, who made some connections happen, is she even on her way. Otherwise I don’t think she’d have survived very many more days.”
When a faint cry came from Eva, Diesel immediately reached out for her. He tucked her up close and said, “I’m so sorry.” He gently stroked her shoulder, and she stared up at him wordless. “I know you didn’t know anything about it, and now it’s such a shock.”
“Why didn’t she tell me?” she asked.
“Maybe she didn’t want to face it herself.”
Eva thought about that for a moment and then looked at him and nodded. “That’s quite possible,” she said, her voice careful and quiet. “She was never one to talk about herself.”
“Exactly. For all you know, it’s something that she’s had for a long time, and, once she was kidnapped, she knew that, if she didn’t get rescued right away, there wouldn’t be any hope for a cure. Now that she was rescued, she probably already assumed it was too late.”
Eva looked over at the nurse. “Do you have any contact information so I can contact Marge in Switzerland?”
“I’ll ask for permission to share that with you,” the nurse said. “Of course I can’t do it without permission.”
Diesel saw the distress in Eva’s facial features. “Come on. Let’s go back to your room.” He turned around, met up with Jerricho, and nodded her in the right direction and, thanking the nurse, the three of them walked back to their rooms. When they got in, she sat down on the bottom bunk and stared up at him.
“It’ll be okay,” he murmured.
“Nothing’ll be okay,” she said. “Just think about that. I mean, she didn’t even have a chance to enjoy her freedom.”
“Nope, she didn’t, and she wouldn’t want you to be sitting here moaning about her either,” he said.
She gave a bitter laugh at that. “Marge was very hard to get to know at all,” she said, “but I know, in this last week or so, she just seemed to give up. I think she was getting sicker and sicker. I noticed the lump myself, when we were with her in the apartment. When she saw the look on my face, she changed her shirt, put on one of those heavier hoodie tops. She had lumps in several spots where there shouldn’t have been any. Maybe I guess it’s just the suddenness of it. I mean, I hope that there’s still some treatment for her, and, if not, then I hope her passing is fast and painless,” she said. She leaned her head against the back wall, her body now almost flat out on the bed. “When do we leave?”
“At ten.”
She looked at him in surprise. “You already have something arranged?”
“Yes,” he said, “I do.”
“Great, and how long will we be at this next stop?”
“I can’t really say much about that,” he said. “It depends. I know this ship is getting underway and heading off on orders, so we can’t stay here anyway.”
“Right, and you’re trying to keep me undercover as long as possible.”
“Exactly,” he said, with a smile. He looked at her with concern. “I know that Marge’s leaving has hit you hard,” he murmured, “but we need you to stay positive.”
“I am positive,” she said. “I would also be fully prepared to fly a commercial airline. Can you see if we can get on one? Once we’re on and in the air, then we’re pretty well home free.”
“That might work,” he said, “but, according to our intel, the Chinese government has locked down security even tighter.”
“Do you think they’re looking for us, or they’re looking for the Russians?”
“If they know that you’re missing,” he said, “the Chinese will be looking for both us and the Russians. For sure, for the Russians.”
“How are the Russians likely to get out of China?”
“A lot of different avenues,” he said, “but, like you said, the fastest is by air. I don’t know if they would try that right now, when there’s so much security on the go.”
“Fine,” she said. “I’ll just nap here for a while. You tell me whenever it’s time to go, and I’ll go.”
He worried about the tone of her voice. He looked over at Jerricho, who nodded toward the door. “Fine,” he said, as he crouched and gently patted her knee. “If you want to talk, let me know.”
She gave a startled laugh. “I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do anymore,” she said. “Everything’s just flipped.”
“Well, what we’ll do,” he said, “is get you to your father.”
“And, for that,” she murmured, “I would be forever grateful.”
As the guys walked out the door, a seaman approached them.
“The captain wants to speak with you,” he said in a low voice.
Diesel nodded, closed the door firmly behind him, and followed the seaman to the captain.
As they entered the small room, the captain motioned at them to sit down. “You’re involved with the two women who were rescued, I presume?”
“Yes, sir.”
“We had a helicopter remove the one woman just over one hour ago. She was being taken to the mainland and transferred to a medevac, where she would take a commercial air flight out. During the transfer, the medevac was shot down and crashed. All are presumed dead.”
The words were so shocking that it took a moment for it to sink in. “Pilots? Doctors?”
“Yes, two of each.”
“Crap, and there’s no hope of any survivors?”
“No.”
“And do you have any idea what happened?”
“The official version,” he said, looking down at his papers, “will be a freak accident.”
“Unofficial?”
“A rocket launched somewhere close by,” he said. “We’re still working on satellite imagery to see if we can find out more.”
“Damn.” He looked over at Jerricho. “We’re not going back onto the mainland then.”
“No, but you do need to find alternate arrangements. We can carry you for another one hundred nautical miles, as we head toward the mainland, but you need to come up with another pathway to get your other passenger moved.”
“We can do that,” he said, thinking hard and fast. “The farther away from China obviously, the better.”
“It was against our better judgment but, given her dire medical condition, we hoped that Marge would make it.”
“I’m glad her death was quick, but obviously this is a terrible loss.” Diesel stood and said, “If you’ll excuse us, we’ll go make travel arrangements. Are you rendezvousing with anybody we can hook up with?”
“Potentially, if you give me a travel plan.”
“Will do.”
They turned and walked out. Back in their room, Diesel sat down with a laptop and typed in the news to Shane.
A series of question marks came up. I don’t know if it’s related or not.
Of course it is.
I know. I’m trying to work on the whole denial bit. We need to get you out of there.
Obviously they know where M
arge came from, so yes. I can’t be seen. Eva can’t be seen.
Suggestions?
Not yet.
Submarine? We can transfer you to another ship.
Still not one of the better answers.
One ship and you just hop along the way.
Or? He looked over at Jerricho. “We have to get off of here. If we go anywhere, we’ll be dealing with an assumption that we came from the same ship as Marge. Anything close to us will be suspect.”
“South Korea,” he said instantly.
Diesel contemplated that. “Maybe as a jumping-off point. Otherwise Thailand? International airports, tons of tourists, travelers, less of a connection to China.”
“Either is possible,” he said. “Hong Kong’s a mess right now, and we want to stay away from there. Vietnam?”
“Possibly.” Diesel thought about it for a moment, and then he sent a message to Shane. Either Vietnam, Thailand, or South Korea.
Thailand.
That’s what I was thinking, but we do still have to get there.
I know, he wrote. If we can get you onto the Vietnam coast, then you can go through Thailand.
Actually forget that Diesel typed. Let’s just do the Philippines.
You don’t think President Duterte will care?
He might care, but he won’t do anything about it. We should get in and mingle.
You don’t look the part.
I don’t plan on staying. The Manila airport doesn’t have very much security, so it’s a good option too.
Fine, we’ll arrange that.
Least amount of ships would be best.
It’ll take what it takes. Be ready to leave immediately. I’ll be back in touch with details.
With that, Diesel signed off. He looked over at Jerricho. “How well do you know Manila?”
“Fairly well,” he said. “You can buy anything you want, so that’s a plus.”
“Or a negative, depending on if anybody else is around, looking for us.”
“Every airport in China will be watched, as are trains, yachts, ferries. All would be under heavy surveillance, and I would suspect that they’ll have some intelligence going out to all their allies as well.”
“It would make sense.” So Diesel sat and wondered if the Philippines was even the right answer. “We have to make a choice. We can’t get all the way home from here. Do you want to try commercial?”
