Loyalty and Betrayal
By
Beth Kauffman
Lee Crane, captain of the
submarine Seaview, was fresh from a
badly needed two week shore leave and was eager to get back to work. With a
little spring in his steps, he ran up the stairs leading to the
“Well, let me know as soon as you hear anything. And I mean anything,” she said into the phone she held to her ear. “No! I won’t calm down! It’s been too long. Yes, I do understand but....all right, yes, yes, I.... No! I’ve been patient! Just find out something!”
Slamming the phone down angrily, she let out a loud curse word much to the astonishment of Crane.
“Angie! Where did you learn to swear like that?” he said as he pushed away from the door and stood watching her in pretend shock.
“Humph. Comes from hanging out with sailors,” she said with a slight smile. “When did you get back?”
“Late last night. Just wanted to check in with the admiral, get caught up on what I missed while I was off relaxing and get back to work. What has you all worked up?” he asked as he walked to her desk and sat on the corner.
“I’ve been getting the run around from too many people and right now I don’t know what to do,” she said, her voice tight with suppressed emotion.
“Tell me what’s wrong,” Lee said gently, knowing Angie wasn’t one to fall apart easily. Working for a world renowned scientist such as Admiral Harriman Nelson required her to be cool, calm and collected at all times. For her to be so out of sorts was unusual for the young woman.
Angie sighed heavily and put her head in her hands briefly before looking up into Lee’s concerned eyes. “It’s the admiral,” she said finally.
“What? Has something happened to him? Is he sick?” Lee asked, standing abruptly and casting a quick look to the admiral’s closed office door as concern for his friend flared through him.
“That’s just it, Lee...I just…I don’t know how he is.”
“What do you mean you don’t know? You see him every day when we’re not out on Seaview, you must know…”
“Normally, yes. When Seaview is in port I do see him almost every day, but I haven’t seen him in two weeks!”
“What? Why not? He had plans to work here at the Institute for the whole time we were going to be on leave! He said there were too many projects behind schedule and that’s why he wasn’t taking any time off!”
“I know that, Lee,” she said exasperated. “But two weeks ago he had some kind of meeting with Admiral Johnson from ONI. Johnson had been calling the admiral every day for almost a week before that. Whenever he would take a call from him, he would get angry. I could hear the admiral shouting at him a few times. He finally told me not to accept any more calls from him. Well, a day later, Admirals Johnson and Starke show up at the security gate asking to be let in. The admiral was furious. But after a half hour, he finally told security to let them up.”
“Admiral Johnson came here to see the admiral? Did he ever say what the calls or the meeting were about?”
“No, no he didn’t but it was obviously something the admiral didn’t want to discuss. Anyway, both Admirals Starke and Johnson and two men dressed in suits—government types--came in and headed to his office. The admiral was waiting at his office door when they came in. His face was red and it was obvious he was angry about them being there. They were in his office for a couple of hours, then all four of them left. A bit later, the admiral called me into his office, said he was going away for awhile and gave me instructions for the crew and for some of the scientists and researchers on various Institute projects he was working on. He left shortly after that and that’s the last I’ve seen of him. I’m worried, Lee.”
“Did you ask him where he was going?”
“Yes, I did but he said it wasn’t important and to not worry about it or him. Said he would be back in a week, ten days tops. It’s been way past that time frame. I’m afraid something’s happened,” she said with a frown. “Something bad.”
“Did he take the Flying Sub?”
“No, no he didn’t. And he didn’t have me make any plane reservations for him either but I…well, I checked the airlines and he made a reservation on United Airlines for the same day he had the meeting with Johnson and Starke.”
“Where to?”
“Washington…Dulles International,” she said quietly.
“
“Well good luck,” she said, her frustration showing in her voice. “I’ve been calling him and Starke and anyone else I can think of trying to find someone to tell me where he is. No one will say anything. They just say they don’t know where he is or where he went.”
“Well, they’ll talk to me,” Lee said angrily, a ball of dread beginning to form in the middle of his stomach. “One way or another, I’ll find out what’s going on.”
~O~
Over the next few days, Lee made call after call to everyone he could think of that would have any idea what the admiral was doing and where he was. Every call was met with the same answer: no one knew where four-star Admiral Harriman Nelson was or who he was with. Even one of his oldest friends --Admiral Jiggs Starke -- claimed to know nothing.
After receiving the same answer from another contact, Lee slammed the phone down in its cradle, swearing loudly.
“How many times have I told you it’s not the phone’s fault, Lee,” said a voice from the doorway of Crane’s office.
“Chip! When did you get back from leave?” Crane asked with a huge smile on his face as he walked over to greet his friend and fellow Seaview officer, Chip Morton.
“Just rolled in. I stopped by the admiral’s office but Angie was on the phone and not happy with whomever she was talking to. I come down here and you’re in the same mood. What’s up?”
Lee ushered Chip into his office and closed the door quickly as Chip sat in a chair by Lee’s desk. “It’s the admiral. He’s missing. At least it seems he’s missing.”
“Seems he’s missing? You don’t know?” Chip asked, concern and a touch of anger in his voice. “How can you not know?”
Crane sat down and explained what had happened and what they had found out: which was nothing.
Whistling softly, Chip sat back in his chair then looked at Lee in speculation. “You know what this sounds like, don’t you?”
“What?”
“Sounds like when you go off on an ONI mission and the admiral can’t find you. Or find anyone to tell him where you are or if you’re all right.”
Crane rubbed a thumb over his lip and stared at Chip in contemplation. “I thought of that. Johnson being involved sends all kinds of alarm bells ringing, doesn’t it? But I can’t get anyone to confirm it!” he said as he slapped a hand on his desk and stood, pacing back and forth in agitation. “And what would they want Admiral Nelson for?”
“Come on, Lee you make it sound likes he’s too inexperienced or too old to be involved in whatever ONI has their hands into. He was one of their best agents at one time and was running missions for ONI when you and I were still wondering what it was like to kiss a girl.”
“I know that, Chip. But…”
“But? But it’s not easy being the one left in the dark?”
Lee frowned and glanced over at his friend. “Yeah, I guess so. This whole thing is screaming bad op. You know? Like whatever he was doing, it went wrong and no one will admit it.”
“Have you tried all of your contacts? There must be someone, maybe someone not in the normal loop, you could ask.”
“Not in the normal loop…you may have just given me an idea,” Lee said with a touch of excitement in his voice as he reached for his phone and dialed a number quickly.
The phone rang a few times before the man on the other end of the line answered with a cross, “What?”
“Jake! I see your phone manners haven’t changed. Still grumpy?”
“Who is this?”
“It’s Lee…Lee Crane.”
“Lee? What…what do you…I mean how are you?” he asked in a slightly less aggressive tone after a brief silence.
“I’m fine. You?”
“Just peachy, Lee,” he said sourly. “My transfer to the west coast and now desk duty’s been a hoot.”
“I’m sorry about that, Jake. Really.”
“It’s not your fault, Lee. We both know who’s to blame. Look, I’m pretty sure you didn’t just call to see how I like palm trees and sandy beaches or being demoted so…what do you want? Or need.”
Lee sighed heavily. “I need information, Jake.”
“What kind of information?” he asked suspiciously.
“Information on Admiral Nelson’s whereabouts.”
Jake snorted. “Don’t tell me you lost the good admiral.”
“It’s not funny, Jake. I was on leave and got back a few days ago to find out the admiral had some visitors, visitors from ONI and the Navy as well as some from the government. Shortly after that, he takes off. He hasn’t been seen or heard from since then. At least not by anyone at the Institute.”
“Maybe, just maybe, the man has a life outside of that Institute of his. Maybe he had plans and the meeting was unrelated.”
“No. The only plans he had were to work on several research projects that were behind schedule. He wouldn’t just leave on a whim.”
“Maybe he met a woman and flew off to Vegas to get married?”
“Can it, Jake. Something’s wrong. His secretary said he had a meeting with Admiral Johnson right before he left. And she found out he bought a plane ticket to Dulles shortly after that meeting. I’ve been getting the run around from too many people from Johnson at ONI on down. I thought you might have some answers for me. Have you heard anything?”
“Lee, you know I’m not in the loop anymore. Haven’t been on an op since…well that last mission you and I went on.”
“I know,” Lee said quietly, the memory of the last mission still fresh in his mind: a mission that ended quite badly for most of those involved.
“I need help, Jake. I know something’s wrong. Can you tell me anything?”
A few minutes of silence went
by before Lee heard Jake sigh heavily before saying, “I don’t know anything for
sure, OK? But that weasel Eric Kohler
was nosing around ONI offices back in
“Kohler? What is he doing back? I thought after that last mission, he’d been kicked to the curb,” Lee said angrily, remembering the last mission had involved Jake, Kohler, himself and a few others. After what had happened, Lee had hoped Kohler was done working for or with ONI. Apparently that hope was in error.
“Yeah, me too. He’s not fit to be around and he certainly isn’t fit to be with ONI. You know that, same as me after what he pulled last time.”
“So, do you think Kohler has something to do with the admiral suddenly being impossible to find?”
“I don’t know, buddy. The timing is suspect for sure. You said Johnson started badgering Nelson about three weeks ago, right?”
“Yeah. According to his secretary it was about that time he started getting phone calls from Johnson.”
“Well, Eric was seen a few times in the halls about then.”
“But what could possibly bring Kohler and Nelson together?” Lee asked in anxiety.
“Again, I don’t know for sure but I’ve heard some scuttlebutt from a few contacts back east about the rebels down in Valbuenna. Those rumblings are saying the government of Valbuenna is developing a nasty biological or chemical weapon. And the rumors also say the rebels down there have requested help from the United Nations before the weapons development is finished and used on them. Or anywhere else the nut jobs in charge down there have a mind to.”
“Are you serious? We already support the rebel group there.”
“True. What I heard, and again it’s strictly unconfirmed
reports from a few people around here and back in
“Proof Admiral Nelson could give them,” Lee said slowly, his mind racing with implications.
“If there’s a weapon and if he’s been asked to find out, sure. But like I said, they’re just rumors, Lee. I’m not privy to high level Intel right now.”
“But Kohler is?” Lee spat.
“Don’t know. I’ll nose around if you want but you know the doors have been closed to me lately. Kohler saw to that.”
“Jake, you know I don’t agree with what they did to you. You didn’t do anything wrong. Why they believed Kohler over you and me I don’t know.”
“I do,” Jake snorted. “He’s got Admiral Scott in his back pocket and convinced him he was the one wronged!”
“Do you really think the Deputy Commander of ONI would stoop so low as to dismiss allegations of ineptitude, or worse about an agent?” Lee asked.
“I…I don’t know. I really don’t know. It just seems that ever since Scott showed up on the scene, things are different. We’ve lost too many operatives over the last few years. Don’t you find it curious?”
“I guess I never really thought about it,” Lee said with a frown as he contemplated the number of agents that had gone missing or died over the past few years. “But then, I’m not on the frontlines. Most of my life is onboard Seaview or at the Institute.”
“Maybe I’m just reaching,” Jake said dispiritedly. “Look, I’ll ask around about Nelson. It’s the least I can do.”
“If you find out anything, let me know.”
“I will. Give me a few hours to nose around, chat up some of the secretaries here and back in DC. I’ll call you in say, two hours whether I find out anything or not.”
“Thanks, Jake. I appreciate it.”
“My pleasure, Lee. Admiral Nelson’s a stand-up guy. I just hope he really did just meet a woman.”
Lee laughed briefly. “Yeah. That would definitely be better than him being involved with Kohler. Thanks, Jake,” he said as he put the phone down carefully on the cradle.
“Well? Does he know anything?” Chip asked.
Lee looked up, startled as he had forgotten Chip was in the room with him and ran a hand over his tired face. “He doesn’t know anything for sure. A few weeks ago Eric Kohler was seen walking the halls at ONI and going into Johnson’s office. And he’s heard rumors about the rebel group in Valbuenna requesting intervention. Something about their wonderful government developing some kind of biological or chemical weapon. Nothing concrete and nothing about the admiral.”
“Kohler? Wasn’t he the agent that cost you guys a couple of men on that last ONI fiasco?” Chip asked angrily.
“Same pig, yeah.”
“What would he have to do with the admiral?”
“I don’t know, Chip. The timing’s just suspicious. Three weeks ago Johnson starts badgering the admiral and about that same time, Kohler is seen going into Johnson’s office.”
“Could just be a coincidence. You and I both know the admiral would never have anything to do with Kohler. He knew what you told him about that last mission was true. He was furious that Kohler hadn’t been dismissed or court-martialed!”
“I know, Chip.”
“Unless…”
Lee looked up when he didn’t continue. “Unless what?”
“Two ways Admiral Nelson would associate with the likes of Kohler: one is if it was a matter of vital national security and two is if it would keep you out of it.”
Lee was quiet as he pondered what Chip said.
“What do we do now?” Chip asked when Lee remained silent.
“We wait. Jake’s going to try to find out something. Said to give him a few hours.”
Two hours stretched into three and Lee’s patience was at the breaking point by the time the phone rang. He jumped at the shrill tone and lunged for the phone. “Crane,” he barked.
“Lee, it’s Jake.”
“What did you find out?”
“Nothing good. Nelson was seen by a security guard coming out of Johnson’s office about two weeks ago. Kohler was right behind him. He couldn’t hear too much but he did manage to overhear them say two things: Valbuenna and biological.”
“Damn! Are you serious? Why did this guard talk to you?”
“He doesn’t have any love for Kohler either.”
“Oh? Why not?”
“Jimmy Dellaquilla
was his cousin,” Jake said softly, naming an agent that had been killed in an
ONI op a few years ago. Word was Kohler
had bolted and left Jimmy, a young, promising ONI recruit fresh out of the
Academy, behind to be killed by rebel forces in
“When he saw Kohler in the halls, he was pretty angry and then he remembered hearing how things had gone on our last trip with him so he tried to find out what was happening…why Kohler was still around. No one had an answer for him. Then he saw Nelson and him together and got a really bad feeling. He was sorry he hadn’t managed to hear more.”
“Did you get anything else?” Lee asked.
“No. It’s weird, Lee. Every time I mention Admiral Nelson’s name, whoever I’m talking to clams up. Whatever he’s involved in is big. And if the guard is right…it has to do with the rebels in Valbuenna and this biological weapon that may or may not be in development.”
“Well, thanks for finding out what you did, Jake. I owe you.”
“You don’t owe me anything. What are you going to do now?”
Lee was silent for a long time. “What am I going to do? I’m going to bluff like I have never bluffed before,” he said grimly.
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, I have bits and pieces of information that may or may not be related. If I go into Admiral Starke’s office pretending I know what’s going on, I may just get a response. Or some answers.”
“Or you may get kicked out on your can. Or worse.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
“Lee, I know you and Nelson are tight but, do you think he would want you to risk your career?”
“Probably not.”
“But you’re going to go through with it anyway, aren’t you?”
“Yep. He’s in trouble, Jake. I can feel it. I’m done sitting around waiting to be told what kind of trouble. He would do the same for me.”
“All right, my friend. Your funeral. But if you need anything, let me know. And that includes a warm body with a large arsenal of weapons at his disposal.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks Jake,” Lee chuckled.
Lee leaned back in his chair and stroked his chin thoughtfully. He had to find out what was going on. He owed the admiral more than he could ever repay and he was not going to sit by and wait any more.
“What does that look mean?”
Lee looked up to see Chip leaning on the door frame his arms crossed.
“It means, I’m done waiting. Jake gave me some information that tells me the admiral and Kohler are involved in something.”
“That’s all? Involved in something?” he said as he went into Lee’s office and closed the door.
“It’s enough for me. I suspect it does have to do with the rebels in Valbuenna.”
“And what are you going to do with this information?”
“Confront Starke.”
“Confront…confront Starke? Are you crazy? You know he has little love for you! Do you value your career at all?”
“What I value is the life of Admiral Nelson! He’s in trouble! I know it. I can feel it! And if I can help him, I will!” Crane said angrily. “Nothing else matters right now.”
“So, when do we leave?” Chip asked quietly after a few moments of silence.
“We? Who invited you along?”
“I did. Admiral Nelson means a lot to me too, Lee,” Chip said softly. “I don’t want to sit around and hope someone decides to let us in on what’s going on either, maybe after it’s too late.”
Lee sighed heavily. “Chip, one of us should stay out of Starke’s line of fire.”
When Chip stared back impassively,
he knew he wasn’t going to win. “All
right. Tomorrow morning we take FS-1 to
~O~
After a quick flight in FS-1 to San Diego, and a plea to a friend for the loan of a car, Lee and Chip found themselves early the next day waiting outside Starke’s office after having let his aide know they wanted to talk to the admiral and let it be known in no uncertain terms that they weren’t going away.
“Lee, we’ve been here for two hours. He isn’t going to let us in,” Chip said unhappily.
“He will. He cares about Admiral Nelson just as we do. He knows something and he’s going to tell us. He just doesn’t know it yet.”
“If you say so,” Morton said, sighing deeply and leaning his head back against the wall and closing his eyes.
Another three hours passed before Starke’s aide finally told them they could go in.”
“Crane! Morton! What is so important you two decided to camp outside my door all day!” Starke blustered.
“What’s so important is Admiral Nelson, sir,” Crane said firmly.
“I told you I don’t know where he is!” he said lowering his gaze quickly.
“With all due respect, sir, you’re lying! I know he’s working with ONI and that he’s with Eric Kohler in Valbuenna. I know about the weapon the admiral was sent to investigate.” Lee smiled slightly when he saw Starke’s eyes dart up quickly in surprise then drop just as fast and he knew he’d not only hit a nerve, but the information Jake had discovered was true: Nelson was with Kohler in Valbuenna.
“You calling me a liar?” he asked, rising slowly from his chair, fire in his eyes as he stared hard at Crane.
“I’m saying you know where the admiral is and what he’s doing. I’m asking you to tell me the rest as well as why he hasn’t returned yet. That’s all.”
“I could have your stripes for this! You know that don’t you? You come waltzing into my office and try to strong-arm me into telling you something that’s none of your business! How dare you!”
“How dare I? I dare because Admiral Nelson is my friend! I thought he was your friend too. Or am I wrong about that?”
Starke’s face reddened to a shade Lee had never seen before and he briefly wished he’d found another way to get the information. “You dare to question my friendship with Harriman?” he asked in a deadly quiet tone. “We’ve been friends a hell of a lot longer than you two have been. Don’t come into my office and presume to know what’s going on, Captain!”
“I presume because I care about what happens to him! Apparently I’m alone in that!” Crane blustered.
“You dare to question how I feel about Harriman. You dare question my feelings for a man that has been my friend for over thirty years? You dare to question me about the man that tutored me through physics at the Academy every night to make sure I didn’t fail? You dare to question my feelings for the man that I was honored to have as my best man at my wedding and is my children’s godfather?!” Starke said angrily, his voice rising to almost shouting levels by the time he stopped.
“Yes! Yes I do dare! You may have known him longer but that doesn’t give you the monopoly on his friendship!” Crane yelled back. “Tell me what’s happened.”
“You presume too much, Crane. You…you think you can come in here, drop Kohler’s name and…and expect that I’ll…I’ll…oh damn it. I… I can’t do this any longer,” Starke said as he slowly sat down in his chair and put his head in his hands. “I just can’t.”
Crane and Morton looked at each other quickly, confused by the sudden deflation of the arrogant admiral.
“Sir, what happened? Is the admiral all right?” Crane asked in a more conciliatory tone.
“I don’t know. Really. I…I wish I did. He’s…overdue,” he said softly after a moment. “How did you find out about Kohler and Valbuenna though? No one was supposed to know.”
Crane smiled wryly. “Let’s just say I have contacts and leave it at that.”
“I wish I could but if there are leaks, I need to know where they are.”
Crane was silent as he stared back impassively at Starke who sighed heavily and leaned back in his chair. “You know if I didn’t know better I’d swear you and Harriman were related by blood. You’re both stubborn as all get out. And loyal,” he added quietly.
“I take that as a compliment, sir.”
“And well you should. Crane, if there was anything I could tell you about Harriman and what he’s doing, I would. I already said more than I should have. You know more than you should.”
“It’s not enough. Eric Kohler being involved is a red flag to me that the admiral is in danger.”
“You don’t like Kohler, do you?”
“No. He’s a spineless coward who would do anything to save his own skin. How and why he’s still working for ONI after the missions he’s blown, after the lives he cost, I don’t know.”
“Well, no one ever said you were hard to read,” Starke said as he glanced quickly at Morton whose face was a mask.
The silence in the room was broken by the shrill ring of the phone on Starke’s desk. “I said no calls! I…all right, yes, give me a minute and put him on,” he said as he looked at his two visitors. “I need to take this in private. When I’m done we can continue. I promise,” he said as Crane looked suspiciously at the admiral.
Nodding, the two Seaview officers rose and walked out into the outer office where they paced back and forth for a several long minutes until they were called back in.
When they entered they found Starke staring out his office window, his hands clasped behind his back.
When he didn’t turn, Crane called out a soft, “Admiral?”
A few seconds went by until Starke took in a deep breath and turned slowly to face the men who stood before him, concern on their faces when they saw the abject sorrow on Starke’s face. “Sit…uh…sit down, gentlemen,” he said hoarsely as he walked slowly back to his chair and seated himself heavily into it. His hands came up to his face for a brief moment before he lowered them and gazed intently at his desk top.
“Sir, what’s wrong?” Lee asked.
Starke was a long time in answering. “What’s wrong? Everything is wrong,” he finally whispered as his gaze rose to his. “That was Admiral Johnson on the phone. I… I don’t know how to say this,” he said, his voice breaking briefly.
“Say what, sir?” Lee asked as the pool of dread in his stomach began to expand.
“Harriman…he…he’s dead,” Starke whispered, his eyes mirroring the misery in his voice.
Lee heard the words, saw the desolation on Starke’s face but he refused to believe. “No, no that…that can’t be true. He…”
“I wish to God it weren’t true. Bill Johnson just…just told me.”
“How?” Chip asked quietly.
“I…I can’t tell you that.”
“Damn it! You know! You sent him off on this doomed mission! You begged him to go! You’ll tell me what happened!” Crane yelled as he leaned close to Starke, unmindful of the admiral’s grief.
Starke seemed to shrink as he heard Crane’s words and felt his guilt explode. “Kohler made it to the rendezvous point yesterday for extraction. Harriman…Harriman wasn’t with him.”
“Why not?” Crane asked as the pool of dread settled firmly in his stomach.
“Kohler said the mission went bad. Harriman was shot, was…killed and he continued on. Finished the mission.”
“He was shot and he just left him behind???”
“What would you have him do? Carry his body across miles and miles of jungle? The important thing was getting the information and the proof. He did that apparently. Harry knew the risks and he accepted them.”
“Then why did it take you, Johnson and a slew of others to convince him to do this? Why? The admiral knew Kohler was a coward and not capable of running, much less being, on an ONI mission of any import!”
Starke stared at his desk as he felt the guilt flow through him. Harry had told him the same thing: Kohler was inept, a danger, a risk. But, he hadn’t listened any more than Johnson had. And now? Now one of his best friends was dead and he’d played a large part in that.
“There’s nothing we can do, Crane. It’s…over. He’s gone and we can’t bring him back,” Starke said, his voice filled with grief for his friend.
“No! I won’t believe he’s gone until I see the proof.”
“What proof are you going to get?” Starke asked incredulously.
“I won’t believe it until I see his body.”
“Crane…”
“No, sir. Kohler has done this before on missions. A few years ago he left a young ONI recruit
fresh out of
“Why? Why would…”
“Why would they believe Kohler and not us? Good question. Too bad no one had the guts to ask that then or investigate further instead of believing his lies.”
“I…I didn’t…I never would have pressed Harriman to go if…I… I…can’t believe…this is my fault. I should have never…”
Crane stared dispassionately at Starke. “One more question Admiral Starke. What did it take for Admiral Nelson to agree to go along with Kohler?”
“I…I’m not going to tell you that, Crane. There’s…”
“What did it take?!” Crane yelled, knowing the answer but wanting to hear it from Starke.
After a few long moments Starke looked up, his eyes pools of misery. “You, Crane. It took you. Harriman was the best one to determine whether the information was valid. But you’ve been trained by Harriman, worked with him. It was decided you would be our next best available option if he didn’t go. We needed someone with ONI training but also someone that could look at the information available and make an informed decision, see if it was valid or simply a deception. You and Harriman were our best…hell our only…choices.”
“And you knew that all it would take was mentioning me and he would give in. Didn’t you?!” Crane yelled.”
A few long moments went by before Starke nodded. “Yes. Harriman was our best option. He knew what to look for and how to tell if …if the information we had was accurate. He was well trained and was one of our best agents before he left ONI. We didn’t have a lot of options and we were running out of time.”
“So you pushed him over the edge by telling him you’d ask me to go instead. Didn’t you?”
“I’ve told you what happened and why! What more do you want from me, Crane?”
Crane slowly rose and glared at Starke. “What I want is to talk to Kohler. See him.”
“No. He hasn’t been debriefed yet.”
“I want to be there and hear what he says. You can arrange that.”
Starke was silent for a long time, his grief palpable. Finally, he looked up. “Kohler is being debriefed here in San Diego. Let’s go,” he said abruptly as he rose, grabbed his coat and left, not waiting for Crane or Morton.
The three officers drove to
where the debriefing was being held and went in the building, Starke leading
the way. Stalking up to the guard on
duty, Starke said in a demanding tone, “I want to see Admiral Johnson. Now.”
“Sir, Admiral Johnson is in a meeting.”
“I know where he is and what he’s doing. Tell him I want to see him now.”
“Sir…”
“I said now, Lieutenant! Is that too hard for you to understand? Perhaps you’d like to lose a stripe. Maybe that would help you to understand!”
“Yes, sir…I…wait here,” he stammered as he disappeared into the room.
A few minutes later, Admiral Bill Johnson came through the door. “What the blazes is going on Jiggs? Who do you think you are to come bursting in here when I’m…”
“Who I am is Harriman Nelson’s friend. And what I’m doing here is looking for answers. Same as these two,” he said gesturing to Crane and Morton.
“We want to hear what Kohler has to say, Admiral Johnson,” Lee said.
“Why would I let you hear that? It has nothing to do with you. This mission was classified.”
“It has everything to do with me. Admiral Nelson went on a mission for you he didn’t want to go on because of an incompetent, spineless agent known as Eric Kohler. A man I’ve had my own bad dealings with. I want to hear what he has to say about what happened to…to Admiral Nelson,” he said, his voice breaking slightly. “If I had clearance to go on the mission, I have enough clearance to hear what went on.”
Johnson continued to shake his head. “No. Jiggs, you can come in but you two stay out,” he said brusquely before returning to the room.
Starke glanced quickly at Crane and Morton. “Stay here and out of trouble. I’ll tell you what I can of what he says,” he said quietly before disappearing into the room.
~O~
The debriefing of Eric Kohler went on for a few hours: hours that Crane and Morton endured as they thought of Admiral Nelson and what his death would mean to them, the Seaview, the Institute and the world. Hours that were spent remembering their first meetings with Admiral Nelson, their first view of his wonderful creation, Seaview that seemed to be their destiny and hours spent marveling at the easy camaraderie the three had developed over the years. But mostly the endless hours were spent picturing all kinds of unpleasant scenarios: scenarios about how the admiral may have died.
When the two men thought they would go crazy with waiting for any information, the door suddenly opened and several men that Crane recognized as being top level ONI, FBI and CIA agents exited. Whatever the admiral had been involved in was serious.
Finally, Johnson exited with Kohler walking beside him, a huge smile on his thin, smug face. The smile slipped when he saw Crane, anger etched on his face, stalk towards him.
“Crane! What are you…?”
He never finished what he was about to say as Crane grabbed him by the throat and pushed him up against a wall, unmindful of Starke and Johnson yelling at him.
“What did you do? What? Did you run out on him just like you did before? Did you get him killed, you piece of worthless…”
“Crane! You will release that man now or I will throw you in the brig!” Johnson yelled.
Crane twisted his hands tighter, cutting off oxygen to the man he held firmly in his grasp. “Talk!”
His rage at seeing the man that had quite possibly cost Admiral Nelson his life surged through him and he never felt the strong hands of the guards pulling him away or heard the shouts of Chip as he tried to get through to Crane.
“That is enough!” Jiggs Starke yelled. “You will stand down! Now!”
Lee struggled in the arms of the guards as he tried to tamp down his anger and grief.
Kohler grabbed his throat and gasped for air. “I…I tried to…help him! I swear I tried! He…he was bleeding bad! I tried to stop the bleeding! I…I was gonna carry him out but he…he died! I checked him! He was dead! There wasn’t anything I could do! He…I swear he was dead, Lee! If it was anyone’s fault, it was his! Crazy, old, washed up…He should have never been allowed on…”
Kohler never finished the sentence as Chip Morton lunged at him and punched him solidly in the face, smiling as he felt the man’s nose break.
“Oh…my nose!” he wailed as blood streamed down his face. “I’ll get you for that! I swear I’ll make you pay,” he whined as he was led away by one of the guards.
“Crane, Morton…consider yourselves under arrest,” Admiral Johnson said in a tightly controlled voice. “Take them to the brig.”
With a backward glance at Starke, who motioned to them he would do what he could; Crane and Morton were hustled down the hall.
“Bill…”
“No Jiggs. Don’t intercede for them. I know what Harry meant to them, but they attacked an agent. I can’t sit by while they…”
“You need to hear some truths my friend. Truths we all should have heard before we begged Harriman to go on this mission. Maybe…just maybe he’d be alive now if we had,” he said quietly.
Johnson stared hard at Starke but the years of their friendship with each other and Nelson demanded he hear the man out and he motioned him to the debriefing room where Starke laid out for Johnson what Crane had told them. At the end, both wondered why, if what he said was true, Kohler had been allowed to remain an agent.
~O~
Chip Morton stared miserably about the small, drab cell the two men had been ushered into. He glanced over to Crane seated beside him and watched him stare unblinking at the floor, twisting the ring on his finger: a sure sign of his agitation.
“Ease up, Lee. Starke will get us out of here.”
“Really? Why would he help us out of here? We attacked an agent. We’re guilty,” Crane said glumly.
“True. But he deserved it. Starke may be old Navy but he’s fair. And he’s been friends with the admiral for a lot of years.”
“Johnson is the one we need to worry about,” Crane said as he rose and began to pace about the small cell. “If only I hadn’t lost it. I saw Kohler with that big stupid grin on his face like he’d just done something wonderful and all I wanted to do was…”
“What I did?” Morton laughed. “Wish you had done it. My hand wouldn’t hurt like it does right now,” he said flexing his bruised hand.
“Sorry, Chip. You think it’s broken? I can get some medical help for you.”
“Nah. Just a bruise. I’ve been in enough fights to know.”
“Yeah. Guess we both have,” Crane said softly as he continued to pace and twist his ring.
After a few moments of silence between the friends, Lee sighed heavily. “I just can’t believe that Admiral Nelson is really dead, Chip. It’s like…I feel I’d know if he were dead. I just don’t know,” he said despondently as he sat back down and lowered his head into his hands.
“I know what you mean, Lee. But what are we going to do? ONI sure isn’t going to send anybody back in there to check, see if they can find his…his body.”
“I know. I know,” Lee said thoughtfully, a worrisome tone to his voice.
“And what does that mean,” Chip said as he heard the change in Crane’s voice.
“What does what mean?” he asked, turning to look at his cell mate.
“You’re thinking of doing something. What is it?”
Morton cringed a bit when he saw the devilish look on Crane’s face. “What I’m planning is to find out if what Kohler says is true. Find out if the admiral is… dead. I…I have to know for sure.”
“And how do we do that?”
“We don’t do anything. I’m going to ask Eric to go on a little trip with me. That’s all.”
“A little trip as in to Valbuenna? You’re out of your mind. And if you’re going buddy so am I.”
“Chip…”
“No, Lee. He was…is my friend too,” he said, his voice hard. “We both go if either of us goes. That’s if we can get out of here before we’re ready for retirement.”
“Oh I think you’ll be out of here before then, Commander Morton,” boomed Jiggs Starke’s voice from the cell door.
“Admiral? What…?”
“You and Morton have been freed, Crane. I had to promise Johnson that you two would take a leave of absence from the Institute for a little while though. Admiral Roy Park will supervise the next mission and the ones in the foreseeable future. That is until we know what happened in Valbuenna. And to Harriman,” he finished softly.
Turning to the guard behind him, he gestured impatiently for him to unlock the door.
“You two come back to my office with me. I have a few things I need to say to you two,” he said gruffly.
A short while later, the three men entered Starke’s office. “Sit gentlemen. We have some things to talk over.”
“Admiral, look I’m not ready to believe that Admiral Nelson is dead. From past…”
“Crane, be quiet. I’m trying to tell you that I’m not convinced of Kohler’s version of what happened either.”
“You aren’t?”
“No. I have a copy of part of the debriefing. I want you two to listen to it and see if you notice anything. What you hear goes no further than this room. The mission was supposed to be secret.”
Starke put a vhs tape into the player and pressed play. One of the top ONI members, a man Crane recognized as Admiral Thomas Scott, was questioning Kohler who sat at one side of a table across from five other men, with an air of superiority. He saw the slight smirk on his face and wanted to punch him. Crane heard Scott asking questions. “What did you do when you left the village?”
“We were told the installation was guarded but only a small group was on duty at that time. We left the village and headed towards where we were to meet up with the rebel guide…uh…Perez. He guided us to the installation without any problems. We created a little diversion to distract the guards, threw some gas grenades that knocked them out and Nelson made his way inside. He was inside for maybe thirty minutes then he made his way out to us and said he had all the information he needed. We headed out and made our way through the jungle towards where we were to rendezvous with Simpson in Santiago,” he said, naming an ONI agent Crane was familiar with. If only Simpson had been in charge instead of Kohler, the admiral may have made it out alive.
“What happened then?”
“We started to take fire from a ridge to our left. Perez returned fire and motioned us on. Said he’d hold them off.”
“And?”
“Well, I didn’t want to leave the guy but Nelson said we had no choice. Who was I to argue, so we ran. Not long after that, Nelson fell. I turned back and he was clutching his chest. I…I saw blood pouring down his chest. I went back to help but he waved me off. He stood up and began to run again but…but…”
“But what? What happened then?”
Kohler closed his eyes tightly as if he were thinking hard. “I…he…”
“Yes? What happened?” Scott asked impatiently.
“There was more gunfire and he went down again. We were on a…a ridgeline. To our right was a steep cliff. Nelson…when he fell, he went over the cliff. I ran back but he was...he was lying at the bottom and there were soldiers surrounding him. I saw one of them shoot Nelson again. They…they looked up and began to run towards me, up the cliff. And I…I…ran.”
“You left him behind? Was he dead?”
“Yes, I mean he had to have been. He was shot and he fell down that cliff. He…yes, he was dead,” he finished when he looked up and saw the looks on their faces. “He was dead.”
Starke reached over and shut the machine off. “Notice anything?”
“He told me outside the room that he checked the admiral. He said he tried to stop the bleeding.”
“That’s what he said. But that’s not what the record says. Another funny thing is, how did he get the information? Harriman went inside the installation. Harriman’s the one that would have been carrying it. If he went over this cliff, how did Kohler get the information? All the notes were in Harriman’s handwriting.”
“And no one picked up on that?” Morton asked angrily.
“Well, Johnson did once I had a talk with him. Something is not right. Someone wants Kohler to continue as an agent. Someone who perhaps doesn’t have the best interests of the United States at heart.”
“That narrows the field down,” Morton muttered darkly.
“You think Kohler is a double agent?” Crane asked.
“Me? No. Why would I think that?” Starke asked with a smirk. “I’m quite sure he’s just misunderstood.”
“So what do we do now?” Crane asked. “We don’t know for sure the admiral’s alive or dead. Kohler just…just left him there.”
“Well, you two have been relieved of your duties at NIMR for the foreseeable future. So perhaps you could…I don’t know…go on a vacation.”
“A vacation? Admiral, I don’t think that’s what I need right now,” Crane said incredulous that Starke would suggest getting away on a vacation.
Sighing, Starke leaned forward. “Not even a vacation to Valbuenna, Crane? Maybe do some sightseeing, say somewhere in the jungle? Maybe look for people you know?”
A sly smile stole over the faces of Crane and Morton. “You know, maybe a vacation isn’t such a bad idea,” Crane said. “And I know just the person to go with me.”
“Other than me, who did you have in mind?” Chip asked.
“How about Kohler?”
“You know what kind of agent he is, Crane! Why take him along?” Starke asked in surprise.
“I do know what he is, Admiral. But he was with Admiral Nelson the last time he saw him. If he can get his story straight, he may be able to lead us to where he left him.”
“And you think he’s just going to agree to go along with us?” Chip asked frowning.
“No. I think he’s going to need persuading,” Crane smirked. “And I’m going to love being the one to persuade him.”
“Now you’re talking. What’s the plan?” Chip asked leaning forward anxiously.
“Well, asking him to go is out of the question. First, he isn’t going to want to go back there and second, it gives him time to contact his handlers if he is a double agent,” Lee said pacing about the office.
“And that is something we don’t want,” Starke said. “We need to establish his duplicity. If he is out of the country for a bit, we may have some luck on that.”
“You know, we’re assuming Kohler was just inept but what if it’s more than that,” Chip said quietly. “What if he got Admiral Nelson there so that he could be abducted?”
“I’ve actually been thinking of that, Commander,” Starke said. “Harriman would make a nice trophy for someone. His knowledge would be invaluable to a third world country.”
“Or the People’s Republic or China,” Chip added.
“Or maybe the plan was to weed out our best agents. How many agents have been lost over the past few years? And how many of those missions did Kohler have a part in?” Lee asked.
“Right now it’s all supposition,” Starke said rising from his chair and stalking about his office. “Right now all I want to know is if Harriman…is alive. And we can’t do that here. So let’s hear any plan you two may have.”
The three officers discussed plans for getting Kohler to “cooperate” and options for getting into the country of Valbuenna and through customs without raising any suspicions.
“I can’t give you two any support or even acknowledge what you two are up to,” Starke said after they had made all the plans they could. “This has to look as though no one from our government is involved. If you’re caught, you’re on your own. Decide now if you want to back out.”
“If there’s a chance-any chance- that Admiral Nelson is still alive, I’ll take the chance,” Lee said resolutely.
“Me too, sir,” Chip added.
“We’re going to need some time to tie up some things at NIMR before we’re ready,” Lee said.
“And talk to Angie,” Chip added.
“No news stories or releases will go out until we hear from you. If we don’t hear from you in a reasonable time…we’ll have to announce his…his death. I’ll give you as long as I can but eventually his absence will be noticed. Saying he’s on vacation or locked in one of his labs will only work for so long. I did my best to stop any calls about Harriman’s death going out to the Institute but I don’t know how successful I was. There’s a chance a call has already gone out or will soon.”
“If Angie hears the admiral’s dead…” Lee said unhappily, leaving the thought unfinished as he contemplated what her reaction would be to that news.
“You two should be there as soon as you can in case she’s heard. I know how much Miss Wood cares for that old sea dog.”
“Yeah, she does,” Lee said quietly. “How much can we tell her?”
“Tell her as little as possible. Just that he was on a mission and is presumed dead.”
“We have to give her a little hope, don’t we?” Chip asked.
After a moment’s thought, Starke nodded briefly. “Your discretion, gentlemen. After a little checking we’ve discovered our Mr. Kohler has an apartment up in Los Angeles. One of Admiral Johnson’s aides followed Kohler to this address,” he said handing them a piece of paper. “He’s there now and is under surveillance. When you two are ready, you can carry out your plan of “persuading” him to go back to where he left Harriman.”
“It will be a pleasure,” Lee said. “Sir, if it’s all right, I’d like to take one more person along.”
“Oh? Who did you have in mind?”
“An ONI agent I’ve worked with in the past, Jake Locker.”
“Locker? The one from that mission a few months ago? He doesn’t have any love for Kohler either I take it?”
“No sir. Because of Kohler, Jake’s been reassigned to San Diego and demoted to desk duty since that mission. No one wants to be associated with him because of the lies Kohler spouted when we got back. He blamed the loss of the other agents on him.”
“Your choice. If he says yes, he’s in. Tell him as much as you need to.”
“What are the chances of him being reinstated, sir?” Crane asked.
Starke sighed heavily. “I’ll look into what happened. I’ll talk to Johnson. From what you’ve said, he wasn’t the one that messed up. All I can promise is to look into it. And Kohler.”
“Thank you. Jake’s a trained medic as well as a good agent. If we find the admiral alive, we may need his medical skills. I can’t help but feel if he had run the mission the admiral was on and not Kohler, Admiral Nelson would be here today,” Crane said softly.
Yes, well…he didn’t. But I’m not going to rest until I know what is going on and find out what happened to Harriman. You two are on your own. Good luck. And bring Harriman back if you can. And yourselves.”
“We will sir.” Lee said quietly as they left the office quickly.
~O~
The two left Starke’s office hastily, anxious to get started on their plans. After a call to Jake’s office went unanswered, the two head off to his apartment before returning to NIMR.
Several knocks on Jake’s apartment door later, the door was flung open and a disheveled, angry, unshaved Jake Locker stood swaying before them, a bottle of beer clutched in his hand and his wavy, black hair wild and uncombed. “What? Can’t you tell I don’t want to be disturbed?”
“Jake? It’s Crane. What is wrong with you?”
Jake blinked a few times and leaned closer. “Lee? What the hell are you doing here? And who’s this?” he asked pointing to Chip.
“Could we come in? We have a proposition for you.”
Jake hesitated a moment before opening the door and standing aside. “Pardon the apartment,” he said with a mirthless laugh. “The cleaning lady hasn’t been here lately.”
“Looks all right to me,” Lee said, glancing at the pizza boxes and beer bottles that littered his apartment floor. “Jake, this is Chip Morton, Executive Officer of the Seaview. Chip, Jake Locker.”
Both men nodded cordially to each other.
“Uh, here sit down,” Jake said as he brushed a pile of papers and take out cartons from the couch to the floor.
When they were seated, Lee leaned forward and stared at Jake. “What’s gong on, Jake? This isn’t like you. You look like you’ve been drinking and haven’t seen the inside of a shower in awhile.”
“What’s going on old buddy is that as of 1600 hours yesterday – right after I got done talking to you as a matter of fact - I was put on leave. Thanks to one, Eric Kohler. ”
“What? What happened?”
“No idea. One minute I’m on desk duty and the next I’m being told I’m under investigation.”
“For?”
Jake was silent for a long time then he said quietly, “For espionage and treason.”
“What?” Crane exploded from his chair and paced about the small apartment before turning to Jake. “Do you think it had anything to do with your asking questions about Admiral Nelson?”
“That’s my guess. Looks like I hit a nerve with someone.”
“I can’t believe this,” Lee said in anguish. “Not only did Kohler get Admiral Nelson killed but he’s doing his best to take you out.”
“Wait…Nelson is dead? How? What happened?”
“What happened is he went on a mission with Eric Kohler and the only one that came back was Kohler. Kohler claims the admiral is dead.”
“But you don’t believe that, do you?”
Lee was silent for a few minutes as he struggled to stay under control. Images of Nelson’s bullet ridden, bloody body flitted through his mind and he did his best to shrug them away. “No. I don’t believe him. His story changed from the time he was in debriefing until I confronted him outside. Once he said he checked the admiral and said he was dead and another time he said the admiral went over a cliff after being shot.”
“Sounds like Eric. Never could keep a story together. So what are you doing here? I’m kind of persona non grata right now.”
“You said if I needed a warm body and access to a large arsenal of weapons to contact you. Well, I need both, as well as a guide through Valbuenna.”
“Valbuenna? You’re going to try to retrace Nelson’s steps?” Jake asked in disbelief
“Yep.”
“What are you hoping to accomplish?”
“I have to know for sure if the admiral is…is dead. If there’s a chance, no matter how small, that he’s alive…I have to try. I have to look for him.”
“Who all is in on this little adventure?” Jake asked, intrigued after a few minutes of silence went by as he thought over what Lee had said.
“Me, Chip, you I hope and…Eric Kohler.”
Jake sat up straight in his chair and leaned forward. “Say that again.”
Crane laughed. “I said Eric Kohler.”
“Are you out of your freaking mind? You know what he is! And why would he willingly go back to the place he cost an agent his life? Especially one as prestigious as Admiral Harriman Nelson!”
“I didn’t say it was willingly. He’s going to be…persuaded to go,” Lee said with a slight smile.
Jake leaned back in his chair and smiled evilly. “Really. Now that makes me want in badly. Can I help in the persuading part?”
“As much as you want within reason. We do need him to show us where he left the admiral.”
Jake threw his hands in the air. “Easy. When do we leave?”
“Well, we need to tie up a few things at NIMR. Can you meet us at the Institute tomorrow afternoon? We’ll make some plans then.”
“I have nothing keeping me here. A vacation is in order I think. I’ll even provide the transportation south. But, how can you two just go off right now? NIMR must be in turmoil over Nelson’s death.”
“For right now, no one outside of a few people knows about the admiral’s…supposed death and Chip and I have been uh…put on leave.”
“Leave? Why? What did you do?”
“Chip and I both went after Kohler. Chip actually had the pleasure of hitting him. Johnson didn’t take kindly to that and we ended up in the brig. Starke got us out but we were informed that we’ve been relieved of all duties at NIMR. Starke suggested a little vacation.”
“Starke did? And he suggested oh…Valbuenna?”
“Something like that. He doesn’t believe Kohler’s story either and picked up on the discrepancy in his versions of what happened.”
“It’s good to know someone believes us.”
“Yeah but we can’t expect any help. We are officially unofficial.”
“Works for me,” Jake said rising from his seat.
“So tomorrow afternoon? Bring some of those weapons you said you had. We may have need of them,” Crane said as he headed to the door.
“Lee,” Jake said before he opened the door. “Thanks.”
“For?”
“For believing me. And trusting me to go along on this.”
“Jake, I’ve known you a long time. If anyone is a traitor, it’s Kohler. I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said as he clasped him on the shoulder and left.
“Well, that went well,” Chip said
“I knew he’d be in. He’s a good man. And I’m going to make sure others know that.”
~O~
The two men drove quickly back to the dock where FS-1 was berthed and parked the borrowed car in the lot by the dock, hiding the keys under the mat where Lee’s friend would find it easily,
“We better get back to the Institute in case word about the admiral came down already,” Chip said anxiously as they seated themselves in the cockpit and readied for a quick flight back to the Institute.
“I just hope Angie hasn’t heard,” Lee said quietly.
But they knew as soon as they entered Admiral Nelson’s office and saw Angie Wood in tears that she had heard.
“Oh, Lee! Chip! I just…I just got word about Admiral Nelson! They said…they said he’s dead! Tell me they’re wrong! Please! It can’t be true,” she said, standing and walking to them, tears glistening in her eyes and running down her cheeks.
“We…we don’t really know for sure, Angie,” Lee said as he gathered the weeping woman in his arms. He knew the feelings she had for Nelson ran deep and she thought of him as more than just a boss. “Let’s go into the admiral’s office and we’ll tell you what we can.”
Angie nodded, hiccupped and followed them through the door to the admiral’s office. All three stopped just inside and stared at the large, neat desk with folders, papers and stacks of books arranged neatly in piles on it. Would they ever see him sitting behind it again, a halo of cigarette smoke coiling about his head, a smile lighting his weathered features or a scowl marring it?
“Sit…sit down here,” Chip said as he guided the distraught woman to the couch by the door.
“Well? What do you know? What happened?” she asked after a few minutes had passed and neither man said anything as they stared in earnest at the floor.
Finally, Lee looked up, took Angie’s hands in his and began an abbreviated version of the events that may or may not have caused Admiral Nelson his life.
“So, you’re telling me this agent just left him behind? What kind of coward would do that?” she asked as she rose and angrily stalked about the ornate office. Stopping by the windows that looked out on the ocean below, she tried hard to control the sob that threatened to rip from her soul.
“I can’t tell you much more but I can tell you I’m not convinced the admiral is dead. And I won’t be until I’ve checked every possible place and questioned every person I can,” Lee said firmly.
Angie turned from the window. “What? How are you going to do that? From what you said it’s been almost a week since he…since he’s been…gone.”
“Yes, but if he’s alive, there will be traces. People may know where he is. If he was captured, we’ll trace his movements and rescue him,” Lee said firmly as he rose and walked to her side. “I’m not going to just let him be written off as dead unless…unless I have to.”
“We’re not going to let him be written off,” Chip said with a hard edge to his voice.
Lee glanced at Chip and acknowledged his statement with a brief nod. “Admiral Park is going to be taking over here for awhile. Chip and I have been put on leave of absence so work with him and we’ll try to get word to you when we can about what’s going on.”
“I will. You know I’d do anything I could for the admiral or the Institute. Wait! What about Edith?” Angie asked when they turned to go. “Do we call her and let her know?”
“No. Not yet. Starke put a hold on any press releases about the admiral. For now. He’ll contact you if…if we find out he’s really gone in time for you to call Edith. She doesn’t need to know anything right now.
It’s not what…it’s not he’d want,” Lee said softly, knowing the admiral wouldn’t want to worry his sister.
“No, it isn’t,” she murmured.
“We should go. We have a lot of plans to make if we’re going to leave tomorrow,” Lee said as he gave her a hug. “Stay strong, Angie. Don’t give up on him.”
“I’ll try. Just…be careful you two. If I lost all three of you, I don’t know what I would do. Or what would happen to the Institute.”
“We’ll be back, Angie. And hopefully with an angry, healthy Admiral Nelson,” Lee said as he hugged her tightly.
“Oh, I hope so, Lee. I miss him already. He can’t be dead. He just can’t,” she whispered into his shirt. “I can’t bear the thought of never seeing him again.”
“I know, Angie. Believe me, I know,” Lee said despondently.
~O~
The two Seaview officers headed to Lee’s office to plan what they could for their mission. They knew the probable route Kohler and the admiral had taken and studied maps of the region to familiarize themselves with the area they would be entering, including towns, villages, suspected rebel strongholds and any areas that would make good hiding spots.
By the next afternoon they were as ready as they felt they could be and, after a brief conference with Admiral Park, were ready to meet up with Locker and begin persuading Kohler on the merits of going along on their mission.
“Lee, there’s a Jake Locker at the guard gate. He says he has a meeting with you. Should I let him through?” Angie asked when Crane and Morton came out of Admiral Nelson’s office after their meeting with Park.
“Yes, Angie, let him up,” Crane said. “Send him down to my office when he gets here.”
A short time later, Jake Locker, beard still in place but looking decidedly more human and sober than the day before, strode through the door to Crane’s office, a large duffel bag slung over his shoulder and a smaller bag in his hands.
“Well, we ready to get to this?” he asked with a grin.
“In a minute, Jake,” Lee laughed. “You sure are a different person than the man we saw yesterday.”
“I have a purpose now. No, three purposes. One is to find out what happened to Admiral Nelson, two is to clear my name and three is to expose Kohler for whatever it is that he is. And I can’t wait to get started on all three,” he said as he dropped his bags to the floor and sat in a chair by Crane’s desk.
“Well, we thought we should have some kind of plan for doing all that,” Lee said. “We made some with Admiral Starke but wanted to see if you had any ideas.”
“Any idea how we get into the country and move about without drawing suspicion?” Chip asked.
“Yep. Already taken care of. I have a friend in San Castana at the San Castana Airport, north of Santiago. It’s a little further away from where we’re headed going through there than through Santiago but it’s not as busy…easier to get in and out of without being noticed. My friend will be waiting for us and will guide us through to where we need to be.”
“Reliable?” Lee asked.
“He’s run more than a few missions with me throughout Latin America - Valbuenna, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and a few other spots. Saved my butt a few times so yes, he’s reliable. Unofficial CIA operative.”
“How do we get there? The Flying Sub is out of the question.”
“I have a twin engine plane waiting at Santa Barbara Municipal Airport. Fueled and checked out,” Jake said with a grin.
“Well, you sure don’t waste time do you?” Lee said laughing.
“Nope. If Admiral Nelson is still alive, we have to assume he’s at the least hurt. No matter which story we believe of Kohler’s, both versions had him injured. The sooner we find him, the sooner we can help him.”
“We have medical supplies from the Med Bay here, courtesy of Seaview’s doctor. You name it and it’s probably in there. Bandages, antiseptic, antibiotics, IVs, even a stretcher to…to…carry…his…him home,” Lee said, his voice breaking slightly as he gestured to a rather large bag by the door.
“And I have the arsenal,” Jake said opening the duffel bag at his feet and pulling out three automatic M-16 rifles, three Beretta handguns complete with holsters, assorted knives, rounds of ammunition and a handful of grenades.
Chip whistled at the array of weapons. “You don’t travel lightly do you?”
“Nope. I believe in being as well armed as possible. Hopefully, we won’t need all this but it’s best to be prepared. My friend in San Castana will see we get through customs with no problems and have a truck waiting.”
“How do we get through customs unnoticed?” Lee asked with a raised eyebrow at Jake.
“Customs has been…taken care of,” he said with a smirk.
“How?”
“My friend has many brothers,” Jake said with a smirk. “Most of them work in the government in some capacity. They…look the other way for a fee.”
“A fee we provide?” Lee asked.
“Actually, I’ve already taken care of it. A deposit has been made in my friend’s bank account. I owe you for asking me along. And giving me a chance to prove I’m not what Kohler’s told people I am.”
“Well, you seem to have thought of everything. And you took care of all this in less than twenty-four hours?” Chip asked.
“What can I say? I was highly motivated. Now, when do we get to the persuading of one Eric Kohler?”
“I guess now is as good a time as any. According to an aide to Admiral Johnson who’s been keeping tabs on Kohler, as of ten minutes ago, he was in his apartment in Los Angeles. We make a stop there and head back to Santa Barbara Municipal. Are we ready?” Lee asked.
“As ready as I think we can be,” Chip said, rising from his seat and grabbing his backpack. “Let’s do this.”
“Right. Let’s stop at the admiral’s office and let Angie know we’re leaving,” Lee said as he grabbed the medical supplies and a backpack and headed down the hall to Admiral Nelson’s office, hesitating slightly as doubt began to fill him. What if Admiral Nelson was dead? What if they found his body just as Eric said, bullet ridden and broken? What if…he shook himself when he felt a hand on his shoulder and saw Chip’s concerned look.
“You all right, Lee?” he asked quietly.
“Yeah, yeah I just…started thinking.”
“About?”
“About the admiral. What if he is dead, Chip? What if Kohler was telling the truth? He just…he can’t be dead.”
“I know. But the sooner we get moving the sooner we know for sure,” Chip said quietly.
Lee nodded, pushed open the door and entered, finding Angie at her desk staring off into space, her eyes red.
“Oh! Lee! Chip! Are you heading out now?” she asked as she rose from her chair.
“Yep. Just wanted to let you know. We’ll be in touch if we can but don’t expect any communications until we get back to civilization,” Lee said as he walked to her side and placed a hand on her shoulder. “You doing all right?”
Angie nodded briefly. “I just hope he’s all right. I can’t bear to think about him really being dead. It’s too…too hard,” she whispered.
“If he’s alive, we’ll find him,” Jake said firmly.
“Oh, Angie this is Jake Locker. He’s going to be going with us. Jake, this is the admiral’s secretary and right hand, Angie Wood.”
“It’s a pleasure. I’ve heard glowing reports of you from Lee here. Admiral Nelson is a lucky man to have you on his side.”
“I’m the lucky one. Admiral Nelson means a lot to me and if I could go with you all to find him, I would do so in a heartbeat,” she said with fire in her eyes.
“I believe you would at that,” Jake said with approval in his voice and eyes.
“Well, we should probably get moving. Angie, stay strong. Believe he’s still alive. OK?” Lee said softly.
“I’ll try, Lee. You all be safe.”
Nodding the three headed out of the office and down to Chip’s truck where they loaded their bags into the back and headed off to persuade Eric Kohler to go along.
~O~
The drive to Kohler’s apartment in Los Angeles was accomplished quickly and the three men soon found themselves outside, staring at the building before them in surprise.
“He likes to live high on the hog, doesn’t he?” Jake said as he stared at the expensive apartment building before him.
“Looks that way. Wonder where he got the money for the rent on his salary?” Lee asked in disgust.
“Dunno. Let’s get to the persuading part of this mission, shall we?” Jake said eagerly as they climbed out of Chip’s truck and headed up the stairs to Kohler’s apartment.
“Let me talk to him and get him to open up. Then you two can come in,” Lee said when they were outside his door.
Lee knocked loudly on the apartment door and waited impatiently. After the fourth knock, he heard the bolt slide back and the door, safety chain still on, opened to reveal a sleepy looking Kohler who sported a stark white bandage on his nose.
“Lee? What are you doing here? If this is about Admiral Nelson…I told you what happened. He…”
“Look Eric just let me in. I…I have something I need to say. All right?” he said in a contrite tone.
“Well…ok,” he said, taking off the safety chain and opening the door wide.
Lee went through quickly followed by Jake and Chip who slammed the door behind him and locked it.
“What the…? What are you doing here? And wh…what is he doing here?” he asked pointing to Jake.
“We’ve come to ask you along on a little vacation,” Lee said with a smile.
“Vacation? To where?” he asked suspiciously.
“Why to Valbuenna, old friend,” Jake said menacingly.
“Uh, no way. I just got back from there and I’m not going back, so you three can just get out,” he said as he went to his door and cursed when he found it locked.
“Lee actually misspoke,” Jake said as he advanced on Kohler who shrank back against the door. “We didn’t come to ask you to go back. We came to tell you, you are going back and you’re going to show us where you left Admiral Nelson.”
“I…I…don’t…don’t remember. Exactly. I…”
“Well, old buddy, you better start remembering because one way or another, you’re going with us to find Admiral Nelson. Now we can just all walk out of here as friends or you can be carried out, preferably bleeding,” Jake said in anger.
“All right! All right! Just…just let me get some things,” he said as he made a move towards the back of his spacious apartment then lunged for the front door, knocking Chip aside. Jake pounced on the smaller man, turned him around and laid an uppercut on his jaw. He smiled in satisfaction as Kohler’s body slid to the floor.
“You didn’t leave anything for the rest of us,” Lee said sadly as he stood over Kohler’s still body.
“Not my fault he has a glass jaw,” Jake said as he shook his hand. “But that felt so good.”
While Kohler remained unconscious, Lee and Chip gathered some clothes and threw them into a backpack they found while Jake hurriedly searched the apartment for Kohler’s passport and any other information they might find useful. Passport and backpack in hand, Lee and Chip pulled Kohler to his feet, slung his arms over theirs and carried him to Chip’s truck, happy they ran into no one.
“Let’s get moving,” Jake yelled. “The sooner we get to Valbuenna, the sooner we find Admiral Nelson. Let’s make tracks.”
The drive to Santa Barbara Municipal Airport was accomplished quickly, Kohler regaining consciousness shortly after leaving the apartment, much to Lee’s disgust. He remained belligerent, tossing angry words at the three men who grew angrier with each word out of Kohler’s mouth.
“Look, I told you! Nelson is dead! There’s no reason to go back in there! We’re gonna get caught. Just like he did! We can’t…”
Chip slammed the brakes on his truck just as they had reached the hangar Jake had indicated was where his plane was housed.
Turning to look at Kohler, Lee and Chip glared at him angrily. “What did you just say?” Lee asked in a deathly quiet tone.
“I…I said…we’re gonna get caught,” Kohler whimpered.
“No, that isn’t all you said. You said we were going to get caught just like he did. He, as in Admiral Nelson? Is that what you meant?” Lee asked reaching in the backseat to grab a hold of Kohler’s shirt.
“No! I meant…I meant like the…the rebel - Perez. He got caught!”
“How do you know that?” Chip asked. “You said you left him.”
“I…I…did but…he must have been caught. That’s all I meant! I swear it! Nelson is dead!”
Lee flung Kohler away from him. “I swear I’m going to kill you. If Admiral Nelson is dead, I will kill you. And there will be no one around that is going to see.”
“Well, all this chitchat is fun and all but let’s get moving,” Jake said as Chip moved his truck inside the hangar door and parked it. The men jumped from the truck and stared at the plane that sat before them. Lee whistled softly. “That is some plane, Jake.”
“That is some old plane,” Chip said dismayed.
“Old? She’s not old. She’s a beauty though,” Jake said proudly as he walked to the plane and ran a hand over the nose affectionately.
“What kind is she?’ Lee asked as he came up beside her.
“Beechcraft C-45H. Flew a lot of missions and she’ll keep flying them,” he said proudly.
“So she does fly, right?” Chip asked in concern as he dragged Kohler along with him to the old plane.
“Of course she flies! What kind of a question is that? She flies like a dream! Don’t listen to him,” Jake whispered as he turned back to the plane, patting it softly. “He doesn’t know you like I do.”
“When was the last time you had her out?” Lee asked.
“Last weekend. Do you want to do this or not? I’m telling you she flies. She’s been checked out as last night.”
“OK, Jake. Just checking,” Lee said with a grin. “I’m used to different methods of flying. That’s all.”
“Yeah, well the Flying Sub would be nicer and faster but also quite conspicuous. What do you say we get ready to fly? We have a schedule to keep. My friend in San Castana won’t wait all day for us,” Jake said.
“San Castana? Why are we going to San Castana? Santiago would be closer,” Kohler said, seemingly resigned to his fate.
“Because, Eric, we don’t want to alert the government or the rebels we’re in country. Further away from any of your friends, too,” Jake said, glaring at him.
“Friends? I…I don’t have any friends there,” Kohler stammered. “No one there I want to meet again. I did the mission, just like they said. Got the information and got out.”
“Yeah, except you forgot to bring one of your team home,” Chip said crossly as he yanked his bag from the back of his truck.
“You just don’t get it, do you? He’s dead! This is just a big waste of time. And I’m not sticking around for what’s about to happen,” Kohler said as he grabbed his bag and made for the hangar door.
Before he had gone two feet, Lee grabbed him, spun him around and cuffed him across the face, smiling grimly when he howled in pain.
“You will do what we say and when we say it, Eric,” Lee said as he towered over him, his fists clenched in anger. “Got it? You’re coming with us, you’re going to show us where you left Admiral Nelson and you’re going to keep quiet unless we ask you a question. Got it?”
“Yeah, I got it. But all you’re going to find is a dead body, if that,” he said angrily, as he wiped his bleeding nose with a handkerchief.
“Then we bring his body home,” Lee said quietly, turning to gather his bags from the truck and stalking to the plane, his jaw clenched tight.
Chip waited until Eric had gotten up and moved slowly to the plane, not attempting to hide his disdain for the mode of transportation they were utilizing.
The men clambered aboard and stowed their bags in the back. Chip pushed Eric into a seat just behind the cockpit and seated himself by his side while Lee headed forward with Jake and sat down in the co-pilot’s seat.
“You ever flown a C-45, Lee?” Jake asked as he started his preflight checks.
“Nope, but I’m looking forward to it. I’ve had training in a lot of different planes but this will be a first,” he said with an eager grin.
“Well, she ain’t the Flying Sub but then what is? You’ll be fine.”
Jake finished his checks, alerted the tower they were ready for takeoff and moved swiftly to their spot in the queue of aircraft awaiting takeoff. When their turn came, the old plane rose gracefully into the air, the engines humming.
Jake turned to look behind him to his two passengers. “Told you she flew like a dream,” he said, laughing at Chip’s expression of relief that they had made it off the ground and were rising steadily.
The plane flew easily through the night, the men within taking turns sleeping. When dawn was painting the southern sky dusky shades of pink and purple, Jake radioed the San Castana airport for landing instructions and safely landed the plane on the tarmac.
Taxiing to a ramshackle hangar on the far side of the small airport, he shut down his engines and patted the plane gently. “There. Another good job,” he said, laughing at the look on Lee’s face. “What? You don’t thank the Flying Sub for getting you places safely?
“Uh, not usually,” Lee said with a laugh. “But don’t let me hold you back.”
Jake laughed. “Well, let’s get moving. My contact should be here somewhere,” he said as he grabbed the bags from the back, grabbed Eric by the arm and helped him none too gently down the steps. He was just handing out the side arms and rifles to Lee and Chip when they heard someone call out.
“Senor Jake! Over here!”
Jake turned in the direction of the voice and smiled broadly as he watched a short, thin, dark-skinned man with a big smile walk towards them. “Miguel! How the hell are you? It’s been how long?”
“Ah, too long. Too long. Are these all the men you brought?” he asked in disbelief.
“Yep. Just a quick get in and get out kind of thing we hope.”
“Whatever you say, senor. I am here to guide you as always.”
“Always? How many times have you been here, Jake?” Chip asked as he pulled the struggling Kohler with him.
“A few. Miguel here is quite good at guiding and he doesn’t like to leave people behind, unlike someone I could name,” he said glaring at Eric who kept his eyes downcast and his face turned away.
“You…I know you,” Miguel said, moving to stand in front of Kohler who turned his head away. “Yes, you have been here before. More than once.”
“I…I was in Santiago a little while ago,” Kohler mumbled.
“Yes, I saw you. You were with another man, a short, stocky man with red hair. I did not see his face though. When I saw you a few days ago, you came out of the jungle and he was not with you.”
“He left him behind,” Lee said, his face twisted in grief.
“Ah. And this is the reason you are here? To find this man?”
“Yes,” Lee answered succinctly.
“He must be important to you for you to come back expecting to find him.”
“He is very important to us, yes. And we will find him,” Lee said, glaring at Kohler.
“Alive?” Miguel asked.
“Hopefully. Yes.”
“I hope this is true, however if he was caught by our wonderful government, this may not be so.”
“Be that as it may, we’re going to do our best to find him - alive or dead,” Lee said, his jaw clenched tightly.
“So, let’s plan where we’re going,” Jake said as he walked to a rickety table off to the side of the hangar. He unrolled a large map of the area they were going to be entering. “Eric? Show us your route.”
Eric stalked to the table and stared down at the map before him, his eyes darting from the map to the door.
“Don’t try it. Just show us where you and Nelson went.”
“Nelson? Not Admiral Nelson,” Miguel said
“Yes, Admiral Nelson,” Lee said, curiously. “Why? Do you know him?”
“Many around here know him or know of him, senor. He has been here many times over the years.”
“Doing what?”
“I assume missions for your government,” he said shrugging. “Not so much the last few years but in the early 1960s when our rebellion first began, quite frequently. Less often after that.”
“I never knew that,” Lee said quietly, pondering the man that had become so important to him. His heart ached to know there was still so much to learn about and from the man.
“Nelson…he was the red-haired man then? He was the one I saw briefly with your friend here?” Miguel asked.
“He’s no friend but, yes…Admiral Nelson was in Santiago with…him,” Lee said pointing to Kohler.
“Well, as interesting as this is, we need to find him soon,” Jake said gesturing for Eric to point out the route.
“We took this route to the government installation. We met our contact here,” he said as he pointed to a spot on the map. “We took longer than anticipated getting to this point. Ran into more than a few torrential rainstorms that slowed us up on the way. Anyway, we finally got to the installation, here. We tossed some gas grenades inside and Nelson went in. Perez and I ran back down the trail and waited for him as he did his little look see. When he caught up to us, he said he’d seen enough to know the rebels were right. He had photographs, diagrams or equations or…I don’t know what all he had. We left. The next day the government troops caught up to us about here. Our guide, Perez, was hit and went down. Nelson ran back to help him and the two tried to keep up. Then Nelson was hit and went down. He got back up and the two of them kept running. I saw blood on Nelson’s chest and he was struggling to keep up. I went back but he told me to go on. He handed me his backpack with the film and some notes he had made in it. Next thing I knew he went down again and when he fell he went over a cliff about here. I ran back. He was at the bottom of the cliff and troops were coming out of the jungle. They surrounded him, kicked him and I thought shot him again. There was nothing I could do. That’s the truth.”
“Why did you say you checked him and he was dead?”
“I…I don’t know. I just thought it would be easier to say I knew for sure he was dead. I’ve gotten this reputation of leaving agents behind,” he said, glaring at Jake and then Lee.
“A reputation that is well deserved,” Jake said angrily. “You forget, we’ve been with you on missions. And if you say Nelson was dead, then I can’t help but feel he’s alive. Or was,” he finished softly, trying to ignore the pained look that flashed over Lee’s face.
“Either way, we’re going to do our best to find him,” Lee said.
“Well, let’s be off then. I have procured a lovely old truck to carry us part way through the jungle, at least where there are roads. After they disappear into the brush, we walk,” Miguel said as he grabbed a well-worn knapsack from the ground and slung a rifle over his shoulder. “Come. The truck is over here.”
The group grabbed their bags and followed Miguel to the oldest, sorriest looking truck the men had ever seen. The bed of the small truck was covered with flimsy scraps of canvas that had at one time covered the back but now simply flapped feebly in the furnace like air that wafted through.
“Man this is just great. Old plane and old truck. I’m not even going to ask if it runs,” Chip grumbled as he pulled himself up into the back with Kohler between himself and Lee as Jake and Miguel sat in front
“Of course it runs, senor!” Miguel said happily through what used to be a window connecting the back to the front but now was simply a rust covered hole. “She may be old but she runs like…”
“Let me guess,” Chip said sourly. “Like a dream?”
“Si, how did you know?”
“Lucky guess,” Chip said as he stared about him at the small airport that seemed reluctant to awake to the new day.
Miguel started the truck and smiled happily as she roared to life. “See? Like a dream!”
“A very loud dream!” Chip yelled. “I hope we aren’t sneaking up on anyone.”
“No senor! We will need stealth once we leave the truck.”
The truck left the small airport and quickly entered dense, dark jungle. Miguel traversed the jungle path as quickly as he could without tearing the truck apart or causing his passengers undo pain as he did his best to miss the majority of the ruts that lined the path. After several hours, the “road” began to peter out and Miguel pulled the ancient truck off the road.
“This is it! From here we walk,” he said as he got out, grabbed brush and laid it over the truck to hide it. “We must walk this way for several more hours until we reach the area your friend said was where Admiral Nelson was left.”
“He’s no friend of ours,” Lee grumbled as he looked to Kohler who was looking about him furtively. “Don’t try it, Eric. We’ll just hunt you down again.”
“Come on. Lead us to where you left him, Eric,” Jake said as he grabbed his arm and thrust him in front of him.
The group walked through the thick jungle for the rest of the day, stopping periodically to rest or to pull food from the packs they carried. The sun had already begun to set, casting the jungle in deepening shadows, when Miguel called a halt.
“We must rest for the night. Tomorrow we will continue on.”
The men walked off the trail a ways and arranged themselves on the damp jungle floor. Jake grabbed Eric, pulling him to the ground where he tied him swiftly to a tree.
“There. Just in case you have any ideas of escaping,” he said ignoring the glare Eric aimed in his direction.
The others, exhausted by the long trek and the heat and humidity that seemed to suck the energy from them, curled up on the ground after eating a meager dinner and did their best to sleep as insects seemingly intent on sucking their blood from them, drone relentlessly.
Some hours later, Chip awoke in alarm, feeling something was wrong. Noticing Lee wasn’t by his side as he had been, he looked about the deep shadows of the jungle in concern for a moment until he spotted his friend a few feet away sitting on a rock by a small seep of water, seemingly lost in his thoughts.
Rising he walked to him, hesitant to intrude on the man’s thoughts.
“You ok, Lee?” Chip asked quietly as he sat by his side.
Looking up in surprise, Lee smiled slightly at the concern in Chip’s voice. “Yeah, Chip. I’m…just thinking…remembering.”
“Remembering what?” he asked.
Crane was silent for a bit as if gathering his thoughts. “I was remembering the time the admiral and I were on that island with the drugged food. There was a point after I’d eaten the fruit that I…I said that I had no use for the admiral. I said…”
“Lee, that’s in the past. He knows you didn’t mean it,” Chip said, knowing where Lee was going with his thoughts. “He knew it was the drug talking. Let it go.”
“But why did I say it?” he questioned in distress. “What is inside me that would make me say something like that? No use for him? I owe him so much and to just…”
“Look, Lee, after that whole mess with the gas he breathed in, he told me he didn’t trust me. I know he didn’t really mean it. I know it was the gas speaking not him. It’s the same as with the drugged food. You can’t be held accountable for something you said when you were under the influence of those drugs. I don’t hold him accountable for what he said after he breathed that gas. He’s shown me in more ways than I can count that he does trust me. Always has.”
“But, does he even know how important he is to me? Does he even know what his friendship over the years has meant to me?” he asked in anguish.
“Yeah. He knows, Lee. It’s not something either one of you would talk about, but yeah, he knows. Trust me. He knows,” he said clasping him on the shoulder and shaking him slightly. “He feels the same.”
Lee was silent for a time as he tried to believe what Chip said. He prayed Nelson knew his feelings. If it turned out he was dead…there wouldn’t be another chance to tell him.
“We should get some sleep. Tomorrow’s going to be a long day,” Chip said.
“Yeah. You go on. I’ll settle down in a few minutes,” he said with a slight smile.
Nodding, Chip headed back to the group, knowing sleep was going to be hard for Lee to find tonight. Struggling to find a comfortable spot on the hard ground, Chip watched for a long time as Lee sat by the spring, unmoving. Finally, exhaustion caught up to Chip and he slipped into a restless sleep.
~O~
The sun was barely up the next morning, the temperature already sweltering and the air thick with moisture, by the time the men began to stir from their restless sleep. After a hasty breakfast, the group shouldered their packs and headed off down the trail.
A few hours of climbing through the thick jungle brush brought them to a spot at the top of a cliff, ragged rocks littering the slope.
“Here’s where Nelson fell and down there is where he landed when he fell over the cliff,” Eric said stiffly when he indicated they had arrived at the place that may have seen Nelson’s last moments alive. “The troops came out of the jungle there to the right. They surrounded him. There wasn’t anything I could do.”
Lee stared down at the jungle floor for a long time, knowing in his heart that it would have been a miracle if the admiral had survived. His injuries coupled with the fall and the government troops on him seemed a foregone conclusion. He felt his heart constrict as he imagined what had happened to his friend, as he pondered his last moments alive.
“We’ll climb down. See if we…see if we can find him,” Lee said softly, his heart threatening to break into a thousand pieces.
The group traversed the cliff face carefully, reaching the bottom after a brief but exciting climb.
“Here…here’s where he landed,” Kohler said pointing to a spot at the base of the cliff.
Lee knelt in the dirt and scanned the area quickly, searching for any signs while Chip broke off from the group and headed off into the jungle.
“Lee, it’s been a week. You know the jungle is very unforgiving,” Jake said quietly as he knelt by Lee, attempting to warn him of what they may find.
Lee’s insides twisted at Jake’s words as he fully understood what Jake meant. “I know. I just need to know for sure. If he was here…wait…what’s that?” he asked as he brushed plant debris from an area on the floor.
Jake leaned closer and fingered a red spot on the jungle floor. “Could be dried blood. Could be human. Could be animal. There’s more,” he said pointing.
“A lot more,” Lee whispered.
“I told you. This is where he died. Get it now? We’re wasting our time,” Kohler said as he glanced cautiously about him.
“We wouldn’t be here wasting our time if you had been a better agent!” Lee yelled. “You should have never been given this assignment!”
“Well, I was. And so was Nelson. And he failed…not me! You want to blame someone, you blame whoever thought it was a good idea to send some old…”
Before he could finish his sentence, Lee was off the ground, his hands around Kohler’s throat. “Don’t you even say it you worthless…Admiral Nelson was twice the agent…twice the man you are or ever will be!”
“Lee! Stop!” Chip yelled as he tried to get his hands from Kohler’s neck. “Stop! You need to see this.”
“What is it?” he asked as Chip dragged him further into the jungle.
“Here and here,” he said pointing. “They look like drag marks.”
“Maybe they dragged him off the trail,” Jake said kneeling by the marks.
“Why?” Lee asked.
“To hide his body?” Jake said. “I don’t know but we should follow them if you want to bring his…him back.”
The men followed for a time, vines and roots threatening to trip them as made their way down the path, until Miguel stopped them with a raised hand. “Do you smell it?” he asked.
The others after a few seconds began to smell what Miguel had and what little hope they’d had that Nelson was still alive began to fade away.
“Death,” Miguel said quietly.
Lee closed his eyes to what he was afraid was just ahead. Images of Nelson’s bloody body flitted unbidden through his mind and he struggled to push them away as he struggled for control.
“Stay here. I will scout ahead,” Miguel said when he saw the revulsion on their faces.
Lee nodded briefly, feeling ashamed that he couldn’t seem to find the courage to face what was probably ahead but the thought of seeing his friend that way was more than he could attempt.
Several minutes went by before Miguel returned, a quizzical look on his face.
“Miguel? What is it?” Jake asked as he went to his side.
“There are many bodies. I looked but I did not see your admiral. He may be there but they all appear to be government troops.”
“How would you be able to tell if he was there or not?” Kohler asked derisively. “You know what he must look like by now?”
“Shut up, Eric or I swear I’ll put my fist down your throat!” Jake yelled.
“I’m only stating facts.”
“You state any more and you’ll be wondering how you can see out the back of your head,” Lee said angrily.
The group walked hurriedly to where an obvious battle had taken place. Scattered about a clearing lay ten bodies, all as Miguel said in government uniforms.
“See? The bodies are all wearing government issue uniforms. I found no other bodies. Your admiral may have been here and he may have been dead but his body isn’t here.”
“But what happened here?” Lee asked in confusion.
“I do not know. A patrol must have been attacked by rebels.”
“Well, if the admiral isn’t here then where could he be?” Chip asked exasperated.
“And could he be alive?” Lee asked softly as he stared about at the carnage.
“Alive! What kind of water are you drinking, Crane? There’s no way he’s alive! I told you that! We need to get out of here before whoever did this comes back!”
“No! Not until we find him!”
“Well, where do you suggest we look?” Kohler said angrily? “Huh? What’s your bright idea now?”
“I suggest we head the way we were. Continue on,” Miguel said.
“Miguel’s right. We should keep going,” Lee said.
The group continued on, unmindful of Kohler’s insistence that they were on a fool’s mission and they were all going to be killed.
After an hour more of walking, Miguel suddenly stopped, listening hard.
“What is it?” Jake asked as he came up beside the guide.
“I do not know. The jungle noises have stopped. There are…”
But before he could finish his sentence, several men moved silently from the jungle towards them, guns pointed at their heads and yelling at them.
“They want us to drop our weapons and put our hands up,” Miguel whispered.
“But aren’t they rebels?” Lee asked.
“Yes, but they do not know us. We must do what they ask. Now.”
The men dropped their weapons and their bags carefully and stood with their hands over their heads as Miguel tried to talk to them.
The apparent leader of the rebel group pushed Miguel aside and advanced on Kohler who began to shrink away.
“You,” the leader said in English and in a menacing, angry tone. “You I know. You I will kill,” he said as he backhanded him across the face, smiling in satisfaction as Kohler fell to the jungle floor, blood pouring from a cut on his lip.
“Wait,” Lee said. “Why? What has he done?”
“You ask me this? You who walk with him? You who are his friends?” he said angrily, gesturing to Kohler.
“We’re not his friends,” Jake said. “As a matter of fact, I have no problem with you killing him.”
“Jake, we may still need him,” Lee whispered.
“For what? He’s shown us what we came for. There’s no body and we still don’t know where Nelson is.”
At that, the rebel leader’s head snapped up to Jake then to Lee. “Nelson? What do you know of a Nelson?” he asked quietly as he stared hard at the two men.
“He’s our friend,” Lee said carefully, puzzled at the question. “We came here to find him.”
“And him?” he asked gesturing angrily to Kohler.
“He was with Ad…Nelson. He told us our friend was killed by government soldiers. We came to find out if it was true. And bring his… him home if we can.”
“You have a picture of this Nelson?” the man asked suspiciously.
“Yes, of course,” Lee said as he began to reach into his back pocket, stopping when guns rose quickly to cover him. “Easy. It’s just my wallet.”
“Slowly take it out.”
Lee carefully removed his wallet from his pocket and flipped it open to show a picture of Nelson in civvies standing on his sailboat, arms crossed and a big smile gracing his face. His heart ached when he saw the picture, remembering it had been the admiral’s birthday that day and he, Chip and Nelson had just come back from a sail.
“Here. Here’s a picture of our friend,” he said holding it out to him, confused as to why he would want a picture.
The leader took it in his hand, stared at it a moment and then showed it to the man behind him. “You say he is your friend?”
“Yes. A very good friend.”
“Perhaps. But this picture is not proof of what you say.”
“I don’t know what we can do to prove it! How are we supposed to prove something like that?” Lee asked, his voice rising in frustration.
“Lee, calm down,” Jake said as he placed a calming hand on his shoulder.
The rebel leader looked up sharply. “You are Lee?” he asked, his eyebrows raised.
“Yes. My name is Lee. I’m Lee Crane. Why?”
“You…what is your name?” he asked, pointing to Chip.
“Chip…Chip Morton.”
The leader smiled slightly. “Your friend…he calls for you both.”
“What?” Lee and Chip yelled in unison.
“We found your friend, this man,” he said pointing to Nelson’s picture. “He was captured by government soldiers. He was being dragged through the jungle. We rescued him and took him to our village.”
“He’s alive?” Lee asked, hope beginning to fill the hole in his heart.
“Si. But he is badly hurt. It has been a few days since he was awake. We do not have the proper medical facilities to care for him. He is delirious. His wounds infected but he calls in his delirium for you and others.”
“How far away is your village?” Lee asked anxiously.
“Not far. A few hours and we will be there. Come. You three may take your weapons. You,” he said pointing to Eric, “Will not. Diego, Manuel, take him.”
Two men stepped forward and took Eric by the arms, pulling them back and tying him tightly.
“Uh, not that I care whole lot but why are you doing that?” Jake asked.
“He is scum. We will talk of it when we reach our village.”
“Who are you?” Lee asked as he buckled his holster and sidearm back on. Grabbing his rifle, backpack and the medical supplies he took off down the trail after the rebels.
“Just a small group of men that hate what our government is. My name is Vicente. Those are Diego, Manuel, Hector and Joaquin. Come. We must be quiet. Many government troops patrol through here.”
The group moved off down the slight track through the jungle, Lee, Chip and Jake surrounded by the rebels with Eric, who he saw had been gagged, being hustled none too gently along. Lee moved to walk beside the leader. “I want to thank you for saving our friend. We were told he was dead,” he whispered.
“He would have been, or worse, if we had not arrived when we did. You can thank your friend’s guide, Perez, for that.”
“Perez? We thought he was dead also.”
“And was this told to you by him,” he asked jerking his head in Kohler’s direction.
“Yes.”
“Your country must do a better job at finding agents. That one is no good. Your friend, Nelson however is…how do you say? Ah…another story. But we will talk of all this later. For now we walk.”
~O~
Dusk was just beginning to fall over the sultry jungle, bringing a cooler, fresher breeze with it when the group finally arrived at Vicente’s village. The men had made a rapid trek and were tired and sweating when they arrived but Lee and Chip entered the small sparsely populated village with an air of hope and expectancy. Eric, much to Jake’s delight, was shoved away from them and disappeared into a hut nearby.
“Vicente, where is…”
“Patience. I know of your desire to see your friend. He is this way,” he said with a smile.
They walked to a small, wooden hut that had obviously been hastily erected and set away from the others that were similarly constructed. Entering, they paused in what was obviously the kitchen, a dim fire burning in an open pit. Soft, feminine murmurings and someone else talking in an agitated, pain filled voice could be heard coming from inside a room off to the right. Lee realized the voice was Nelson’s and his heart soared. He was alive! Although Vicente had assured him he lived, Lee had felt a small part of him hold on to the knowledge that he quite possibly was wrong.
“There,” Vicente said as he pulled a ragged curtain aside. “Your friend is inside.”
Lee, Chip and Jake walked through the narrow, low door to a small room that was bathed in flickering light from a nearby lantern. On the floor before them they saw Nelson, a large bandage covering his upper body and bindings around his chest, resting on a straw mat. His right pant leg was torn up the side to reveal a rather bloody looking bandage wrapped about his calf and long scrapes covered both arms. A young woman with long black hair and soft, gentle eyes knelt by his side, wetting a rag and placing it on his forehead, which sported a deep purple bruise, as he continued to mumble incoherently. She looked up as they came through and started in fear but calmed when Vicente told her who they were.
“Daniela, this is Lee and Chip. They are his friends,” he said nodding to Nelson who continued to mumble unintelligibly. “They have come far to find him. This is my daughter, Daniela. She has taken it upon herself to nurse your friend.”
“Thank you, Daniela,” Lee said as he knelt by Nelson’s side. “He’s very important to us.”
“I have done what I can but the fever does not go away. He grows weaker. When he first came to us, he was conscious…weak and in much pain but alert. He talked some, told us his name, but much time has passed since he has spoken clearly. I fear for him.”
“We have medicine that may help,” Chip said as he opened the pack of medicine and bandages they had brought.
“We removed the bullet from his chest without much difficulty. It had passed almost completely through, passing through the ribs and lodging near the shoulder blade on his back. The bullet in his leg passed straight through but I’m afraid there was much damage done to it. It is not healing well at all. He has a few broken ribs and we fear a concussion from when he fell down the cliff. There isn’t much we can do for that I’m afraid,” Vicente said sadly as he stared down at Nelson who moaned softly.
“Thank you for what you’ve already done,” Lee said, looking up. “We owe you.”
“No debt is owed. Only the one I owe to him,” he said so softly, the others did not hear.
“I will leave you alone with your friend and I will continue to pray he lives,” Daniela said as she rose gracefully from the floor and left, her father following her out and leaving the three men alone with Nelson.
“Damn, he looks awful,” Jake said as he knelt on the other side of the mat. He grabbed Nelson’s wrist and took his pulse, shaking his head sadly at what he felt then placed a hand to Nelson’s forehead and grimaced. “He’s burning up. I need to start an IV,” he said as he rummaged about in the sack. “Your doctor was quite thorough in what he sent along.”
“Jamie knew what we would need,” Lee said quietly as he placed a soothing hand to Nelson’s forehead and leaned close. “Admiral? It’s Lee. I’m here. So is Chip. We found you and you’re going to be fine. Just rest easy. Let Jake help you.”
The only response from Nelson was a string of unintelligible words.
“He’s in bad shape, Lee,” Jake said as he thoroughly cleansed Nelson’s arm with antiseptic and proceeded to start an IV. “Fever’s sky high. I need to check these wounds, see if I can do anything for them that hasn’t already been done.”
“He’s alive, Jake. That’s more than we had before,” Lee said softly, his eyes never leaving Nelson.
“There. At least we have some antibiotics getting into him. Grab me that bag of saline and I’ll piggyback it onto the antibiotics,” he said as Chip handed him the solution. “He’s seriously dehydrated.”
“Now, let’s see about these wounds,” Jake said as he peeled the dressing from the wound on Nelson’s chest, staring down at the injury that was covered in a dark brown substance.
“What is that?” Chip asked, pointing to the material.
“My guess is some sort of medicinal plant. The jungle is a wealth of indigenous plants that have healing properties. Not sure what this is, or was, but I doubt it’s harmful,” he said as he pulled it off.
“Well, it’s not bleeding but there’s not much more I can do for that except clean it out a little more. Hand me some gauze and the alcohol,” he said as he efficiently cleansed the chest wound and re-bandaged it.
“Now let’s see what we have going on here,” he said quietly as he gently unwrapped the dressing from the leg wound, finding the same brown material.
Ignoring the soft moans from the injured man, Jake probed the leg wound as gently as he could, not liking what he found. “That is not good. Not good at all,” he said shaking his head in concern when he saw the hole in Nelson’s leg.
For the next several minutes, Jake worked at cleaning out the leg wound, applying antibiotic soaked dressings and wrapping it in clean bandages.
“There’s no sign of gangrene so that’s good but there’s a lot of infection. I’ve done what I can for now. Let me see about those ribs and check for a head injury,” he said as he examined Nelson’s other wounds.
“Well, that’s about all we can do right now. He has four ribs that feel broken but they’re set well. Pupils are unequal but he responds to pain and there’s no obvious blood in his ears so I’m not worried about a fracture or serious head injury. The numerous cuts and scrapes on his arms, body and face from being dragged through the jungle or from the fall down the cliff are minor. Painful, but minor,” Jake said as he sat back on his heels, staring at his patient. “We have to hope that infection will be knocked out by the antibiotics. And quickly. He’s pretty weak.”
“What else can we do?” Lee asked as he sat by Nelson’s side, staring at him in concern.
“Not much we can do that hasn’t been done. We can’t move him yet. A jaunt through the jungle back to the truck would kill him before we were too far from here. For right now we have to stay put and hope the antibiotics take effect soon.”
“I just feel so helpless,” Lee said in anguish. “Like there’s something I should be able to do for him.”
“You’ve already done it, senor. You came after him and did not believe that scum.”
Lee turned to see Vicente and Daniela standing just inside the room with food and drinks on a tray.
“We thought after your long walk you might like something to eat,” Daniela said softly as she placed the tray at their feet.
“Thank you, Daniela,” Jake said softly with a slight smile at the young woman who simply nodded and left.
“Vicente, you seem to know Eric. How?” Lee asked as he helped himself to some of the food before him.
“You truly do not know what he is, do you?”
Lee looked to Jake then Chip and shrugged. “No, other than an agent for our country.”
“He is no agent, senores. What he is, is a drug runner.”
“A what?” Chip asked in surprise, nearly dropping the food he had taken.
“He runs drugs. He brings money from your country, buys drugs here and takes them back to your country to be resold for many times what he pays.”
“How do you know this?” Jake asked.
“I know because he has been here before. Many times. I’ve seen our young men flock to him for the money he brings them. They buy the drugs from growers for a pittance of what he pays them for it. He takes the drugs back to your country and sells them for, I suspect, much more than he pays for it here.”
Lee, Chip and Jake stared at Vicente for a long time.
“That explains the exorbitant lifestyle he has,” Lee said quietly.
“And the reason he always seemed to volunteer to come to South America for missions,” Jake added.
“So he isn’t a mole?” Chip asked. “That doesn’t really explain the men that he left behind though. Was he just incompetent?”
“I suspect the men you say he left behind found out what he was doing and he killed them,” Vicente said. “He has been here many times over the past five, six years, not always under the cover of a mission. Many times he has been here or nearby on a mission, the other agents were killed or simply left behind to die, sometimes at the hands of our illustrious government.”
“So when we were with him on that mission a few months back in Colombia, he was running drugs? Why weren’t we killed?” Jake asked, as his anger rose.
“I suspect you did not find out his true mission,” Vicente said. “Did he ever leave for a long period of time?”
“Yes, yes he did. Ran from a firefight and caught up with us several hours later. We just assumed he ran,” Jake said.
“He ran all right,” Lee said angrily. “Right to his contacts.”
“One more thing for you to think about…when we took the bullet from your friend’s chest, we noticed it was a caliber not used by our government’s soldiers. The one from his chest came from a handgun.”
“Really,” Jake said deep in thought. “What kind of handgun, do you know?”
“Not for sure. The bullet was badly damaged when it hit the bone but it may have been a Glock or a Beretta.”
“What are you thinking, Jake?” Lee asked.
“I saw a Glock in Eric’s apartment. Thought about bringing it along but I didn’t want him armed. I’m thinking Nelson found out about Kohler’s operation and he shot him.” Turning to Vicente he said, “The bullet in his chest entered in the front and ended up lodged in his back, correct?”
“Si.”
“Was it a straight into the chest shot? Or did it enter from the side?”
“It appeared to be from straight in front. Why?” Vicente asked, puzzled.
“From what Eric said, they were running from the troops, so they were behind them, not in front. How did Nelson get shot in the chest?”
“That bastard,” Lee said in anger as he rose slowly to his feet and headed for the door. “I’ll kill him.”
“No!” Jake said as he grabbed Crane. “At least not yet.”
“Why not?”
“Because we don’t have proof what Vicente says is true. Killing him is too easy. He needs to pay for what he’s done. And we need to know who is involved back home.”
“Back home?” Chip asked.
“Yeah. Kohler isn’t smart enough to run this by himself. Someone has to be involved in a higher station than a mere agent. Someone that would look innocent.”
“You mean someone that keeps ignoring the evidence that Kohler is incompetent and gets agents killed?” Lee asked, his voice deadly quiet.
“Yeah. Someone like that.”
“But who?” Chip asked. “There are a lot of options for that.”
“Yeah but the two that make the most sense are Admirals Johnson and Scott,” Jake said.
“I won’t believe that of Admiral Johnson, Jake. I’ve known him for a lot of years,” Lee said.
“Me too,” Jake said.
“So, what about Scott?” Chip asked. “I personally don’t know him but his record is pretty impressive.”
“Yes it is,” Lee said pensively. “I know he and Admiral Nelson are friends. They served together in Korea for a time I think.”
“You know the funny thing is, if I remember correctly, Scott took over as Deputy Commander for ONI about the same time Kohler came on the scene. Coincidence?” Jake asked.
“The problem we have is we have to get Kohler to spill who his contacts are. And soon. We need to have proof before we get back home,” Lee said.
“Well, that doesn’t look like it will be any time soon, Lee,” Jake said. “It’s going to be awhile until Nelson is able to be moved. In his condition right now, he’d be dead before we got halfway back to San Castana.”
“Do you have any idea who might be involved, Vicente?” Lee asked.
“No. I know he involved our young people. He cost two of our young men their lives when he and Nelson were here.”
“How?”
“They were to meet Kohler, Nelson and Perez down the trail about five miles from where we found Nelson. Kohler’s plan was to find a way to get away from the others but if there was any suspicion Nelson or Perez knew what he was involved in, both would be shot, left for dead and he would claim they were killed by government troops.”
“How do you know all this?” Chip asked with a frown.
Vicente was silent a long time and his voice broke as he answered. “One of the men killed was my son,” he whispered. “I did not know of his involvement. I only found out when it was too late. We found him, bleeding and dying on the jungle floor. He lived long enough to tell me what Kohler had done. He told me about the drugs and then about how Kohler told him he had shot Nelson and left him and Perez for dead. We carried him back along the trail and on the way, discovered Perez was still alive. He told us what had happened. Said he watched as that pig shot your friend and threw him over the cliff. We followed the trail down and…rescued him.”
“The troops…the bodies we found…they were the ones that had Nelson?” Lee asked.
“Si. We surprised them. They resisted but we were victorious. My life was saved by him,” Vicente said quietly, gesturing to Nelson.
“How?” Chip asked quietly.
“He was being dragged through the jungle. We thought he was unconscious or dead. So did the soldiers. There was so much blood. They paid him no attention. We fired on them. I do not know what happened but the firing had stopped when I heard a single shot behind me. I turned and saw your friend on the ground with a pistol in his hand and a soldier falling to the ground beside him. Your friend passed out after that but one of my men said he saw Nelson grab a gun lying near him and shot the soldier who had his gun aimed at me. I owe him my life.”
“I’d say you have that in common with many people,” Jake said as he glanced to Nelson who still tossed restlessly in his delirium. “The question is, how do we prove to the powers that be back home what Eric is? And how do we figure out who he’s working with?”
“If your friend lives, will they not believe him?” Vicente asked.
“But who is he working for? We need to know who he reports to,” Lee said, knowing in his heart that the man restless and fevered stretched out before him might not live long enough to tell anyone what he knew.
“Maybe it’s as simple as pretending we know. Pretend the admiral told us what was going on and that he and his associates were under suspicion,” Chip said. “Maybe Eric would believe that.”
“Maybe,” Lee said thoughtfully. “Maybe. Where is he now, Vicente?”
“He is being watched by my men. Your friend, Miguel is with him. He does not trust him at all I think.”
“Do you think Miguel has any idea what’s going on?” Lee asked. Jake.
“I don’t know. He may. Remember when we first met up? He said he had seen Eric before,” Jake said.
“You’re right. I thought that was odd when he said it. Come on. Let’s go see what our friend has to say,” Lee said as he started to rise from the ground, stopping when he heard a low, wavering moan from Nelson. He inched closer to him and laid a soft hand on his arm.
“Admiral?” he called softly, staring into Nelson’s face intently, hoping with all he had he heard him and would open his eyes. But Nelson simply mumbled quietly.
“You go on, Lee,” Chip said as he settled himself by Nelson’s side, taking a rag and wiping his forehead with it. “I’ll stay here with him while you two find out what Eric knows.”
Lee hesitated a moment, his eyes locked on Nelson’s flushed, pain filled face. “All right,” he said as he gave Nelson’s arm a squeeze. “I’ll be right back, Admiral. You keep fighting. Don’t give up.”
Jake and Lee left the room quickly and walked through the hut into the early evening light outside, Vicente close on their heels.
“Where is he, Vicente?”
“Come. This way,” he said as he walked authoritatively through the village stopping outside a hut that was guarded by two men. Off to the side, they saw Miguel walking slowly towards them.
“Senores! How is your friend?” he asked as he came to their sides.
“He’s alive, Miguel. That’s about all,” Lee said sadly. “Miguel when we first met, you said you had seen Kohler before. When was this?”
“I have seen him a few times over the past two, three years. Sometimes he comes with others. Sometimes he comes alone.”
“When was the last time you saw him before the time he was with Nelson,” Jake asked.
Miguel thought for a few minutes. “About two, three weeks before then. He met a man in Santiago. Big man. American. Military I think.”
“Why do you say that?” Lee asked.
“It was the way he carried himself. Stood tall, stared others in the eye, hands clasped behind his back. He moved like…a military man,” he shrugged.
“Can you describe him?”
“He was tall, slightly overweight, gray close-cropped hair. He walked with a slight limp.”
Jake looked to Lee with a slight smile. “Who does that sound like?”
“Scott. But why? He’s career navy! All his life has been service. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Maybe not to us. But to him? Maybe he feels he’s owed something. Not everyone is as straight an arrow as Nelson.”
“Maybe. Maybe there’s something else going on.”
“Well, let’s confront our friend. See what he admits to,” Jake said as he and the others followed him into the hut waiting silently inside until their eyes adjusted to the dim interior.
“Well? Have you come to get me out of here?” a voice from the corner asked in a petulant tone.
Glancing to each other then to Kohler, who sat by the far wall, hands tied tightly together in front of him, the men walked slowly to him.
“Get you out of here? You’ve got to be kidding. Not after what Admiral Nelson just told us,” Lee snarled as he grabbed Kohler by the shirt and pulled him to his feet, delighted when he felt Kohler shake.
“What…what are you talking about? Nelson couldn’t have…I mean…there’s nothing Nelson could tell you.”
“Why’s that?” Jake asked, putting his face close to Kohler’s.
“Because…because there’s nothing to tell.”
“That’s not the way we hear it. We hear that you run drugs and have been running drugs for awhile now. You and your accomplice back home.”
“Accomplice? How…I mean…I don’t have an accomplice.”
“Oh? You run the drugs yourself?”
“Yes…I mean no! NO! There are no drugs!”
“You lie!” Vicente yelled as he advanced on Kohler, tears flowing down his face. “You killed my son because of the drugs you bought from him. Why? What did he do except what you wanted?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about old man and I don’t have to answer anything,” he said in a braver tone. “Get your answers from Nelson if you can before he dies.”
Before Jake could stop him, Lee launched himself at Kohler and grabbed him by the throat, squeezing. “Don’t you say his name, you filthy pig! You shot him! You threw him over the cliff! For that I’ll see you die. Slowly,” he said as he fought off Jake’s attempts to make him let go.
“Lee! Let him go! This isn’t the way! It’s not what Nelson would want!”
Finally, Jake’s words got through to Lee and he slowly released him but not before landing a quick punch to Kohler’s stomach, smiling in satisfaction as he heard Kohler’s grunt of pain.
Ignoring Kohler’s cries, Lee knelt in front of him as he sank to the floor. “Do you think your friend back home will help you? Hmm?”
“What…what friend? I don’t…don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Really? Who I’m talking about is Admiral Scott. You and he are partners. It’s not really a secret.”
Kohler’s face went white when he heard Lee’s words. “What…how…you’re lying.”
“Am I? Did you think your little scheme would remain quiet? Did you? People knew. People know.”
“No…you’re lying. He said…”
“He said what? That everything was all right? That no one would find out?”
“Yes…I mean no! He…”
“He what?”
“It…”
“Speak, Eric! What is it Scott told you?”
“I can’t…he’ll kill me! I swear…”
“Talk and we’ll see what we can do to get you out of here and back home.”
“To prison? I’ll take my chances here.”
“Here you will die. Slowly,” Vicente said in a low voice as he fingered a large knife at his side.
“All right,” he said after a moment spent staring at the promised death he saw in Vicente’s face. “He said no one would find out because no one would think to look for the answers here. It was just innocent missions.”
“Innocent? Innocent! Men died, Eric! Good men!” Jake yelled.
“I couldn’t help it! They found out! Nelson found out! I had to kill them!”
“Scott told you to kill Nelson?” Lee asked in deadly calm voice.
“Yes. He tried to keep Nelson from going on this mission. He was afraid he would figure it out. And he did. He told me I would have to kill him if he found out but only if I was sure he knew.”
“And he did.”
“Yes. After we got the information from the site we came to a spot close to this village. I was on guard duty. I left to meet…” he stopped and glanced quickly to Vicente.
“To meet my son?” he asked sadly.
Eric nodded briefly. “Yes. We made plans to meet later at a prearranged spot where I would give him the money and he would give me the drugs. I was just turning to go back when I saw Nelson was standing by a tree staring at me. I knew he’d seen and heard. I tried to talk to him. I told him I’d split the money, the drugs…whatever he wanted.”
“And how did that go for you?” Jake asked.
“He said no. Said he’d see me in prison if not worse. He had it all figured out…the missions, the men that died, everything. I could see it on his face. I went for my gun but he beat me to it.”
“Is that when you shot him?”
“No. We fought briefly but then Perez came running up. He didn’t know what was going on. He said there was movement in the brush. That troops were nearby and we had to go. We went back and gathered our packs quietly and took off down the trail.”
“And then?”
Eric sighed heavily, knowing his words were damning him. “We ran through the morning. Around noon, they started firing on us. Perez went down in the first volley. Nelson went back for him but Perez said he’d cover them and to go. Nelson grabbed him anyway and tried to carry him. That went fine until a bullet caught Nelson in the leg and they both went down.”
“Continue, Eric,” Jake said staring at him in hate. “You’re just getting to the good part I think.”
“When they fell, we knew we needed to make a stand. We took cover and started firing our rifles. Enough troops were hit that the others thought twice about continuing. They moved back. I thought they were leaving. I…I…”
“What Eric? Is that when you saw your opportunity to kill Nelson?” Lee asked.
Eric was quiet for a bit as he stared at the floor of the dingy hut. Then he nodded briefly.
“What did you do?”
“I knew we weren’t going to all make it back. With Nelson dragging a bum leg, it was a sure bet he’d be hit again and we’d all be caught. I…I had to take Nelson out and I had to get the information back.”
“And the drugs. Don’t forget the drugs,” Jake said.
“And the drugs. We were talking; trying to figure out if we should stay put or continue. There was a cliff beside us. I…I shot Nelson when he looked away to where the troops were. I took off his backpack with the information in it and…and rolled him over the edge of the cliff.”
“What about Perez?”
“I thought he’d lost consciousness. I didn’t think he’d seen anything so he was no threat. I dragged him into some brush, grabbed Nelson’s pack and his gun and took off running. I got to the rendezvous site with…your son shortly after that. He and his friend wanted to make a better deal. They wanted more money. I didn’t have it. He went for the drugs to take them back and I…I shot him and his friend before he could. I didn’t mean to, but…”
“What are a few more bodies on your conscience? Right Eric?” Lee said.
“I…ran and…the rest you know,” he finished quietly.
“Yeah, we do. And when we get back, others are going to know, too. I’ll see to it,” Lee said angrily. “Come on. Let’s get back to the admiral. See if he’s regained consciousness yet.”
“Wait! You said Nelson told you all this!”
“Yeah, I did, didn’t I? Looks like you’re not the only one that can lie. Let me tell you this, if the admiral dies, you may not make it back to the states. You may just find out what it’s like to be left for dead,” Lee said, his voice shaking in emotion, as he turned and walked from the hut.
~O~
Lee and Jake walked slowly back to the hut Nelson lay in, anger and sadness lining their faces.
“I can’t believe what he said is true,” Lee said softly. “An American admiral running drugs and willing to kill anyone that gets in his way, even a friend? If you had told me that I wouldn’t have believed it.”
“I know. But right now we only have Kohler’s word that what he said was true. We need Nelson to verify it.”
“Yeah. If he lives,” Lee said sadly.
“He’ll live. He’s too tough and too ornery to give up.”
“I hope you’re right, Jake. I really do,” he said pausing outside the hut. “He just can’t die. If he dies…I…I don’t know what…”
“I know,” Jake said clasping Crane on the shoulder as he saw the worry for Nelson flood his face. He knew what Nelson meant to Crane and he knew Nelson’s death would leave a huge void in the man’s life. “Come on, let’s see if there’s any change.”
They walked through the door and stood outside the room that held Nelson and only heard Chip’s soft voice.
“Admiral? You can’t give up. You have to fight. Get better. A whole lot of people are relying on you. A whole lot of people care about what happens to you.”
Lee gazed into the room and
stared at Nelson who lay pale and lifeless on the mat on the floor. Chip wrung a cloth out in a bowl of water and
patted it lightly on Nelson’s brow and face, then to his chest.
“Stay with us, sir. Please. Fight to come back.”
“Any change, Chip?” Lee asked as he came in the room and knelt by Nelson’s side.
“Yeah. But not for the better. He’s weaker. Delirious. Fever seems to be just as high as it was. We need another IV, Jake. This one’s done,” he said as he looked up into Jake’s face.
“We only have enough for a few more days. Once that’s done…”
“He’s done,” Lee finished.
“Since when do we count the admiral out?” Chip asked with a frown on his face.
“Sorry, Chip I just…he’s so weak and it’s so hard to watch him lying there so still.”
“I know,” Chip said looking down into Nelson’s pale, haggard face. “But giving up on him isn’t something we’ve done before and I’m sure not about to start.”
“You’re right,” Lee said, a determined look on his face.
“Did you find out anything from Kohler?”
“Yeah. What Vicente said is true. He’s been running drugs,” Lee said quietly as he stared in anxiety at Nelson as he moaned in pain and mumbled in his delirium.
“Did he tell you who he was working with?”
“Yeah he did. Admiral Scott. Admiral Thomas Scott is behind this…all of this,” Lee said in anguish. “He told Kohler to kill the admiral if he thought he knew what was going on. The admiral overheard Kohler setting up his purchase with Vicente’s son and…he shot him, threw him over that cliff and watched him be taken by the troops. Then he ran.”
The hut was filled with silence as the three men thought over what had occurred, the sheer enormity of the events hitting them like a freight train.
“Look, I need to walk around a bit. You too can take over nursing duties for a bit,” Chip said after several minutes had passed. He rose stiffly from the floor, walked slowly to the doorway and disappeared.
Crane seated himself by Nelson’s side and continued to dab his face with a cool rag, praying Chip and Jake were right and that Nelson had enough fight in him to recover.
The cover by the door opened and Daniela entered, carrying a bowl, some rags and a pitcher.
“I know you have your own medicines, senores, but we have ours. If you would permit me, I would like to continue with the treatments I was using before you got here,” she said as she sat the tray on a low table.
Lee glanced to Jake who shrugged. “It can’t hurt, Lee and right now he needs all the help he can get to get through this.”
“Thank you, Daniela,” Lee said as she placed the bowl on the floor by Nelson’s side and unwrapped the dressing on his leg. She took some of the brown substance and laid it on the wound in the front of his calf, pushing some of it further into the hole in Nelson’s leg, ignoring the moans Nelson made. Then she had Lee and Jake help her turn him over where she did the same with the wound on the back of his calf, before binding it again with some of Jake’s bandages that he handed her. She repeated the actions with the chest wound.
When she was done, she took a cup and gently lifted Nelson’s head, encouraging him softly to drink, smiling when he managed a few sips. “It is a tea made from herbs,” she said when she saw them watching her in question. “It helps to ease his pain and fight the infection.”
“And the brown stuff?” Lee asked.
“It is the boiled bark of a tree that grows near here. Also to fight infection,” she said softly as she got Nelson to swallow more of the tea.
Sitting back on her heels, she stared down at Nelson’s face in sadness for a moment, then placed a hand on his head and bent close, whispering to him, then gazed at the men about her. “I hope and pray your medicine and mine and our prayers will heal him. He must be a special man for you to come here and risk so much for him.”
“He is,” Lee assured her. “And we thank you for what you’ve done for him.”
“I hope it is enough,” she said as she rose.
“Before you go, what was it you said to him?” Lee asked.
“I simply said he was with friends that have come far to help him and that he must fight the fever and the dreams it brings and come back to you. That is all.”
“Thank you, Daniela,” Lee whispered as she nodded and left the men alone to their thoughts.
~O~
A few more days passed and most of the medicine they had brought was gone. Nelson still hadn’t fully regained consciousness but he breathed easier and seemed to rest more comfortably as the fever dropped slowly.
Daniela sat by Nelson’s side, sponging his face with a cool rag early one morning when she felt him stir and moan softly. His eyes flickered open and he smiled when he saw her leaning over him.
“Daniela?” he whispered in a harsh voice.
“Si. I am here. How do you feel?”
“Not…sure I can say how I feel in your company,” he said weakly with a small smile.
“You have been asleep for many days. Could you drink some water?” she asked as she grabbed a cup from a table nearby and filled it. Lifting his head, he drank what he could before tiring.
“I had the strangest dreams,” he said in a weak voice as his eyes threatened to close.
“What did you dream?”
“I dreamt my friends were here…that they’d come for me. I heard their voices,” he whispered.
“It wasn’t a dream, Admiral,” Lee said as he stepped into the room.
Nelson’s eyes, almost closed, opened fully in surprise. “Lee? What…what are you doing here?”
“Looking for you, sir,” Chip said as he came up behind Lee and stared down at their commanding officer with huge smiles.
“Chip? How…how…” But sleep grabbed Nelson and pulled him back into the darkness, this time with a small smile on his face.
Daniela looked up at them with tears in her eyes. “He heard you, senores. He heard and he came back. For you,” she said.
Unable to answer the young woman, they could only nod.
~O~
Over the next few days Nelson
regained his strength, staying awake for longer periods of time. Lee, Jake and Chip became part of the
village, helping with chores and standing guard against the soldiers that
patrolled the jungle. The three took
turns staying with the admiral as he slept, someone always there when he would
awaken to reassure him of where he was or to try to get him to eat or to drink
the tea made of herbs that Daniela believed helped to lower his fever and ease his
pain.
After a long morning spent patrolling with a few of the men from the village, Lee sat by Nelson’s side, watching as the man slept, his fevered dreams and mutterings becoming fewer and fewer as the fever that had raged out of control dropped slowly. Soon they would be able to make the long trek home and his heart soared at the prospect. Soon all would be as it should. Smiling at the prospect of being able to take the admiral home where he belonged, Lee relaxed, allowing the exhaustion that suddenly flowed over him to take over and he dropped into a light sleep.
Awakening slowly from a deep sleep, Nelson lay still, struggling to deal with the pain that flowed through him. Glancing to his side, he smiled as he saw Lee sitting cross-legged beside him, half asleep. Shifting slightly to ease the pain in his back from being in one position for too long, he couldn’t keep a slight moan come from his mouth. Hearing the groan and sensing the admiral was awake; Lee leaned over him and stared at him in concern.
“Admiral? Are you all right?”
“Yes…yes, Lee. I just shouldn’t have tried moving. Just a little pain. That’s all,” he reassured the worried man that hovered over him, concern on his face.
“How are you feeling?”
“Better I guess,” he said weakly. “My head’s clearer. How long have I been here?”
“Oh, over three weeks I guess,” Lee said lightly as he took a rag from a bowl beside him and bathed Nelson’s face gently. “Most of that here and unconscious.”
“That long?” Nelson said in alarm.
“Yep. That long.”
“How long have you been here?” he asked, turning his eyes to Lee’s.
“A week, ten days,” he said, shrugging.
“What? Who’s running NIMR? You and Chip need to get back home. Now,” Nelson said, his voice rising in distress.
“And leave you here? No way. As soon as you’re stronger, we’ll head home.”
“Lee…”
“No Admiral. We’ll go when you’re strong enough and not before. I’m not going to take the chance with your health,” Lee said firmly, something indefinable in his eyes. “Besides, we have orders.”
“From?”
“Admiral Starke. When he thought you were dead…well, I’ve never seen him that way. He was devastated. We all were,” he said softly as his gaze dropped to the floor. “When he found out what Eric was…he was consumed with guilt that he had begged you to go on a mission that had…that had killed one of his best friends. Then when we found out there was a slight chance you weren’t…weren’t dead…he ordered us to find out.”
Nelson was silent for a time while he pondered what Crane had said. And what he hadn’t. “Jiggs ordered you to find me?”
At Lee’s brief nod, he laid his head back and stared at him for a moment. “I suspect there’s more that you’re not saying,” he said with a questioning look. When Lee simply smiled, Nelson sighed deeply. “Do you know what happened to me?”
“Mostly. Do you?”
“I remember bits and pieces. I remember the mission. I found the information was accurate. We ran from the facility and the troops followed us, firing, then…then Eric…” Nelson stopped and turned his eyes to Crane’s. “He shot me! He…he was running drugs. That’s why the other agents died. Isn’t it?” he asked, his voice rising in anger. “All because of drugs?”
Lee placed a hand on Nelson’s chest. “Easy. Calm down, Admiral. We know about Eric. He isn’t going to be running any more missions. You can be sure of that. You need to calm down and…”
“If you say rest, I’ll scream. That’s all I’ve been doing.”
“No what you’ve been doing is healing. You need rest.”
Sighing loudly, Nelson lay back against the thin pillow at his head.
“What else do you remember?”
“I…I’m not sure. I remembered being hit…the pain exploding in my chest,” he said as he brought a hand up to the thick bandage on his chest. “Then…not sure. I was falling, tumbling…hitting rocks, then I must have blacked out.” Nelson was quiet for a minute as he tried to remember then looked up at Lee in astonishment. “He threw me over the cliff! Didn’t he?”
Lee nodded briefly. “Then what?”
“I…I guess I came to. I was being hit, kicked by soldiers. Then I remember being grabbed and dragged through the jungle. I guess I passed out at some point. I’m not sure for how long. I just remember the pain was excruciating. I’m not sure what happened or how long they dragged me. I came to lying on the ground and there was gunfire. Bullets were ripping into the trees and bushes. Then…then there was silence and I…”
“You what?” Lee asked gently.
“There was a man…one of the rebels…he was turned away from me. One of the soldiers came from behind a rock and aimed a rifle at him. There was a gun beside me. Must have fallen from one of the soldiers’ hands. I grabbed it and…and fired at him. I hit him. Saw him fall. I saw the rebel turn. It was Vicente, wasn’t it?” Nelson asked as he turned his eyes to Lee in question.
“Yes. He said you saved his life.”
“I don’t remember much after that. I woke up here. Daniela was taking care of me, talking to me. Then…you’re here,” he said turning his eyes to Lee who stared at him in sadness at what he had gone through. “Tell me how you found me. How did you know I was alive?”
“We didn’t know. We…we were told you were dead. Eric said you were dead. Knowing how untrustworthy Eric is we…we hoped you were alive but…”
“But?”
“But, he caused quite a scene until he got someone to listen to him…someone that would believe you might just be alive, sir,” said a voice from the doorway.
Lee turned to see Jake lounging against the door with a small smile on his face.
“Admiral, I don’t think you’ve met Jake Locker. You haven’t been conscious whenever he was here but Jake is the agent I was with a few months ago in Colombia.”
“The one with Eric. I remember,” Nelson said weakly.
“He’s the medic on this trip. He’s been taking care of you, setting up the IVs and such. Between him and Daniela and her herbs, it looks like we’ll be going home soon. All of us,” Lee said, the last said in a quiet tone that caused Nelson to look up at Lee in speculation for a minute.
“Speaking of all of us, where’s Chip?” Nelson asked.
“Some of Vicente’s men were headed into Santiago for supplies. Chip went along to see if he could scrounge up some more medicine and to get in touch with the Institute to let Angie and the others back home know you’re alive. Only a few people knew you’d been declared dead by Eric. Starke managed to put a hold on any news releases but Angie found out. She…she was pretty upset by the news. There were a few other people pretty upset at the news of your death too,” Lee said softly, his eyes not meeting Nelson’s.
“Hopefully, they’ll be happy to see Eric was a liar, although I strongly suspect some of them will be disappointed,” he said with a small smile. “I can’t believe he told everyone I was dead.”
“Yeah, he’s a piece of work,” Jake said in anger. “But at least the one good thing that came out of this is the higher ups at ONI are going to know what Eric is now.”
I still don’t know how you found me though,” Nelson said weakly, struggling to keep his eyes open.
“We convinced Eric to come back here and show us where he left you. One thing led to another and we found Vicente and then you.”
“Sounds easy,” he said with a snort which he immediately regretted as pain flared through him. “How…how did you get Eric to come back here?”
“Um…well, a Beretta up the nose is quite convincing,” Lee said with a slight smile.
“That and knocking him out and putting him on a plane helped,” Jake said.
The two men smiled as they heard Nelson chuckle, then watched him give in to the sleep that pulled him away again.
“He’s getting stronger every day,” Lee said in relief. “I don’t know how to thank you for what you did for him, Jake.”
“I didn’t do a lot, Lee. Daniela’s care and her herbs and that bark stuff helped as much as whatever I did. That and your doctor’s medicine. I just started the IVs. You know I need to take some of Daniela’s bark back with me. Research it.”
“Well, I still thank you. Have you heard from Chip?”
“He just got back from Santiago. He’s…”
“He is right here,” Chip said as he pushed his way into the room, a plate of food in his hand. “How is he?” he asked staring down at Nelson.
“He’s better. Fever’s down, he’s more alert and he knows what happened. Did you find any medicine?”
“Some. Enough I hope,” he sighed unhappily. “Found some penicillin and some analgesics. It’s not like back home for sure.”
“Did you get the message to the Institute and to Starke?” Lee asked.
“Yep. Told a tearful, happy Angie her boss was alive and working on the well part. She said she would inform Starke what was happening. At least I think that’s what she said. With all the crying it was hard to understand,” Chip said with a laugh.
“Did you tell her about Eric?”
“I did. I think if he was in the same room with her, she’d scratch his eyes out. Or worse.”
“Do you think we could do that?” Jake asked eagerly. “I think that would be fun to watch.”
A soft chuckle came from the no longer sleeping Nelson and he opened his eyes slightly. “Kohler wouldn’t stand a chance against our Miss Wood,” he said softly with a slight smile.
“That’s the point, sir. Men like Kohler and…well men like him shouldn’t be allowed to live,” Jake said, stopping when he was about to add Scott’s name to the list as Nelson hadn’t been informed of his involvement yet. “They should just…”
A loud commotion from outside interrupted what Jake was about to say. Before the men could go see what was going on, Vicente entered the room quickly with Miguel on his heels. “Senores! Patrols have spotted a large group of soldiers headed our way. Too many for us to fight. They will be here by tonight. We must move. Now!”
Lee rose to his feet. “Leave? We can’t. The admiral’s not strong enough!”
“He must move. You must go now. Our village…our people are packing our things to leave. You must do the same. You can not be found here. I am sorry,” Vicente said as he left, already shouting more orders as he fled.
“Lee…you have to leave now,” Nelson said weakly. “I’ll only slow you down.”
“And leave you for them? No way! I didn’t come all this way to let you die. No. We need a plan,” he said as he turned to Jake, Miguel and Chip. “Come on. We need to talk.”
“What are we going to do? He can’t walk out of here that’s for sure,” Chip said quietly after they had left the small room.
“No. But we have that stretcher,” Lee said, knowing they’d thought they would be using it to bring his body back on, not him. “How long a walk is it back to the truck, Miguel?”
“A day if we move quickly. Maybe as long as two days carrying him.”
“You will not carry me,” said a weak voice from the other room. “You all will get out of here. Now.”
“And you? You think we’re going to let you stay here or go with Vicente? Do you think we came all this way so we could just leave you behind or be caught by the government?” Crane asked irritably as he stalked back into Nelson’s room, pushing the arguing man back down on the pallet he laid on when he tried to rise. “You know what they will do to you.”
“It’s either that or we all die and I’m not interested in being the reason for your deaths. You all go now.”
“I’d heard you were a stubborn man,” Jake said with a slight smile as he stared down at Nelson. “They seriously underestimated your stubbornness though. I think they need to invent a new word to describe it.”
A slight smile flitted across Nelson’s face at Jake’s words. “Be that as it may, I don’t want to discuss this. You leave…that’s an order, Mister!”
“Look, Admiral Nelson, I know you don’t know me but I know these men,” Jake said gesturing to Lee and Chip who had determined looks on their faces. “And I know they aren’t going to cut and run. If you stay, we all stay. And if we all stay, we all die. So the choice is yours, sir.”
Nelson laid his head back against the pillow and stared at the determined faces staring at him, daring him to order them away. After a moment’s thought, he seemed to deflate and finally nodded. “I’m too tired to argue. Since I seem to have no say, we do it your way. And pray your carrying me doesn’t cost you all your lives.”
“The only question we have now is Kohler. He’s got to come with us and stand trial. Him and Scott,” Jake said.
“Scott? Tom Scott?” Nelson said, trying to rise up from the pallet he lay on. “What does he have to do with this?”
Lee turned to Nelson who was rapidly beginning to weaken and pushed him back down. “It’s not the time to talk of it. We need to get you ready to go.”
“But…”
“No. Chip, you, Miguel and Jake go get our friend from his guards. Make sure he’s tied tightly, then come back here. We’ll be ready to go by then,” Lee said as he began to pack up their belongings quickly, watching Nelson out of the corner of his eye, knowing the man had already figured out Eric’s connection to Scott, a man he considered a friend, by the dark look on his face.
Jake, Miguel and Chip sprinted out the door where they met Vicente coming towards them. Trailing behind was a very uncooperative Eric Kohler, hands bound tightly in front of him and escorted by two guards.
“I brought you a prisoner,” Vicente said as he gestured for the guards to hand him over
“Vicente, we can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done for us…for him,” Chip said gesturing to the hut behind them and Nelson. “If you hadn’t found him and cared for him…is there anything we can do?”
“Yes. Make him pay for what he has done,” he said simply, nodding to Eric. “I will be by in a few minutes to say good-bye. I will send a few of my men along to help you reach your truck.”
Jake and Chip grabbed Kohler and dragged him to the hut where Lee was readying things for their departure.
“Vicente is sending a few of his men along to help us,” Chip said softly.
“Great. Let’s get the admiral ready, Chip and we can get out of here as soon as possible. Jake, Miguel stay with our friend. Make sure he knows what will happen if he tries to escape.”
“With pleasure,” Jake said with a sadistic look on his face as he saw Eric grow pale.
The two Seaview officers entered the room with the stretcher expecting a fight from the obstinate admiral but found him instead fast asleep.
Lee knelt by him, a hand to his forehead and grimaced. “His fever’s up. We don’t have time to do anything for that. Let’s get him on the stretcher and get moving. The sooner we’re away from here the better,” Lee said as he and Chip carefully picked Nelson up and placed him gently on the stretcher, the movement causing Nelson to moan softly and open his eyes, looking about the room in confusion for a moment.
“Easy, Admiral. We need to get moving.”
Nelson nodded slightly. “If you insist. But feel free to follow my orders at any time though,” he said softly before closing his eyes.
Lee looked up at Chip in concern. “Let’s get moving.”
The two picked the stretcher up and moved through the doorway into the room with Jake and Eric, the movement causing a slight moan to escape Nelson’s clenched lips. “Let’s move,” Lee said as Jake took a firm hold on Kohler and pushed him out the door. Across the way from the hut, Vicente could be seen giving orders. When he saw the men outside the hut he walked to them quickly, gesturing to two men nearby and waving them to join him as they approached the group. They laid Nelson gently on the ground.
“Juan and Hector will walk with you to help you and guard you.”
“We can’t thank you enough, Vicente,” Lee said.
“No thanks are necessary. I owe him my life,” he said as he moved to kneel by Nelson who opened his eyes when he felt Vicente’s hand on his shoulder.
“I thank you for saving my life. Be well, mi amigo.”
“Thank you, Vicente for my life.” Nelson said weakly as he grasped Vicente’s outstretched hand, then let his eyes slide closed once more.
“I am grateful also for my father’s life,” said a voice from behind them. They turned to see Daniela with two bags in her hands which she handed to them. “There is food for you in the larger bag. The smaller contains some of the bark I use for his wounds and some herbs. I hope and pray he heals quickly.”
“Thank you, Daniela,” Lee said warmly. “For all you’ve done for him.
“I only did the little I was capable of doing. I will pray for you and for him,” she said as she dropped to her knees beside Nelson and placed a soft hand on his forehead, smiling as he opened his eyes at her touch.
“You will be home soon. And well. For this I will pray.”
“Thank you Daniela. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t…”
“Please…you saved my father. It was the least I could do. I am only happy you are better,” she said as she leaned down and kissed him briefly on the cheek, smiling as she watched him slip back to sleep, a slight smile on his face. “Good-bye senor.”
“Let’s get moving,” Lee said as he reached down for the stretcher handle. “I want to be back to the truck and back to San Castana as soon as possible. Vicente, thank you again.”
“Go with God, my friends.”
The group moved through the village and off down the trail, moving as quickly as they could without jarring Nelson too much.
A few hours later, the group stopped to rest and Jake moved to Nelson’s side, his hand on his forehead. “Fever’s up. I need to use some of the bark Daniela gave us on his wounds. Lee, try to get him to take some of those penicillin pills Chip brought back. Together they might be enough to keep his fever low enough until we get home.”
Jake prepared the bark as he had seen Daniela do and put it on the wounds, then rebound them. Nelson stirred and looked about him. “Where are we?” he asked weakly.
“We’re about three hours from Vicente’s village. Here, take this,” Lee said as he knelt by Nelson’s side and put the pill in his mouth and helped him drink some water, watching in satisfaction as he swallowed. “Do you think you can eat something?”
Nelson merely shook his head and slipped back to sleep, causing concern to flare in Crane.
After a brief rest, the men rose, took up the stretcher and headed off down the trail, walking for several more hours until the sun began to set. The jungle was now cast in deepening shadows, making it harder to see the trail and any dangers that hid in the increasing darkness.
Miguel held up a hand when the light that filtered down through the tropical foliage had almost disappeared completely and gestured for them to stop.
“We must stop for the night. It is too dangerous to continue.”
“I think we should keep on,” Lee said in anguish, desperate to get Nelson to safety.
“Miguel’s right, Lee.” We could walk up on a patrol and never know it. Or we could trip over one of these roots here and send Nelson flying,” Jake said nodding to the roots that crisscrossed the trail, visible in the evening light but soon, invisible. “That would not be good.”
Lee looked to Chip who nodded slightly, knowing Lee was anxious to get back but knowing it was safer to stay.
“All right. We stay.”
“Come,” Miguel said gesturing them off the trail and into the forest for a ways until they came to a rock wall that had a spring of water flowing down the side. Scattered about the small clearing were several large rocks. “Here we have protection as well as flowing water.”
Jake and Chip gently lowered the stretcher to the ground, stretching their aching muscles quickly as Juan shoved Eric none too gently to the ground, earning him a glare from the sometimes defiant man. Gathering the canteens from the others, Hector went to the spring flowing down the side of the wall and filled them with sweet, cool water.
Lee dropped to his knees beside Nelson when he heard a soft moan come from him. “Admiral?” he whispered. “Are you all right?”
“What…where…where are we?” Nelson asked weakly.
“We’re stopping for the night,” Lee said softly as he leaned over the stretcher, furtively placing a hand on Nelson’s forehead for a second, satisfied the fever seemed no higher than it had been. “It’s too dangerous to go on.”
Nelson nodded briefly then said, “Lee, if there’s an extra gun, I’d feel better if I had one. I may be of some use if we get into a gunfight.”
“Good idea,” Jake said behind them as he pulled a Beretta from his backpack, loaded it and made sure the safety was on. Kneeling by Nelson’s side, he handed it to the man who with a slight smile checked the load and the safety himself before placing it under the waistband of his pants.
“Better now?” Lee asked with a smile.
“Better,” he whispered before he slipped back to sleep. Rising, Crane stared down at the sleeping man in silence for a bit and startled when a hand on his arm caused him to look up into Chip’s worried eyes.
“How is he?”
“The same. The fever doesn’t seem to be getting worse at least.”
“We should try to get him to take more of the penicillin,” Chip said, concern in his voice.
“And eat,” Miguel said as he handed them some of the food Daniela had given them. “He has gone too long without food.”
“I’ll try,” Lee said as he took some of the food Miguel had handed him and shook Nelson gently until he opened his eyes. “You need to eat something.”
“I…I don’t think I can.”
“Try,” Lee said. “For me.”
Frowning, Nelson stared at his young friend for a moment before sighing and taking the offered tidbit, chewing it and swallowing, the simple act nearly exhausting him. “Happy?”
“Not until you eat another bite then take this,” Lee said, holding up the penicillin pill in his hand, smiling at the disgusted look on Nelson’s face.
Knowing the man wasn’t going to let him go until he did as he requested, Nelson acquiesced, eating another bite and using his last bit of strength to take the pill and swallow it.
Smiling at his victory, Lee watched as Nelson slid back to sleep. The others had finished eating when Jake stood and walked to him. “We need to set guards for the night.”
“Want me to take the first watch?” Eric asked smugly on the far side of the clearing where he had been tied to a tree.
“Not likely. But I do think a gag is in order now that you’ve reminded me you’re still here,” Jake said as he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and tied it none too gently about his mouth. “That’s better. We’ll set two hour watches. Lee, you take the first watch, Chip and Juan the second, then Hector and me then Miguel.
“Sounds good,” Chip said as he and the others began to settle into the soft underbrush, promptly falling asleep.
Listening to the sounds of rustling from small animals moving about in the brush and the incessant whine of insects filling the jungle night, Lee relaxed back against a tree, his gaze sweeping the clearing quickly before his thoughts turned to the past few days…weeks.
To say the past weeks hadn’t been a rollercoaster of emotions would be lying. Turning his gaze to the man that slept fitfully at his feet, he smiled as he felt relief fill him that they had found him alive. He hadn’t been at all sure that would be the case. His gaze darkened as he thought of the betrayal Nelson had experienced at the hands of a man he knew the admiral considered a friend. What caused a man that had made his whole life about service, duty and honor callously order a friend killed? Money? It just didn’t make sense and he shook his head as he knew he had no answer.
Leaning his head back against the tree, he pulled his thoughts away from Scott and Eric and all they had done. There was nothing to be done except make sure they paid for all the lives they had cost. With a quick glance to Nelson he said a prayer his friend would not be put into that category. He’d experienced what it felt like to think the admiral dead and it wasn’t a place he wanted to go to again. Ever.
~O~
The night passed slowly as the men took their turns on watch or slept restlessly on the hard ground, the jungle air sultry and uncomfortable. An hour before dawn, Miguel woke the others, beckoning to them with hand motions to be silent then mouthed the words ‘soldiers’. In the brush nearby, the now awake men heard the distinct sound of footsteps and breaking branches as a group of men moved down the same trail they has been on. A soft moan from Nelson had Lee leaning over him, a hand over his mouth, startling Nelson. Looking up into the face that hovered over his, he saw Lee put a finger to his lips then leaned down and whispered in his ear.
“Men moving in the brush. Government soldiers.”
Nelson nodded briefly, pulling the gun from his waistband and flicking off the safety. They listened as the men moved down the trail towards the village they had left yesterday.
When several minutes went by
with no sound from the trail and feeling the danger had passed, Hector stood,
motioning that he would follow for a time to make sure they didn’t turn back.
Before he could take a step, a
shot rang out from the jungle behind them, hitting Hector high on the shoulder
and flinging him back into the brush by Nelson’s feet. Almost simultaneously the jungle erupted into
gunfire as both sides began firing at each other, bullets ripping through the
tropical vegetation and ricocheting off the rocks the men hid behind. Seeing a soldier aiming again at Hector who
was trying to rise, Nelson raised the pistol Jake had given him and fired,
hitting the soldier squarely in the chest, smiling grimly as he disappeared
from view.
Seeing a chance to try to flank the soldiers, Miguel made a motion to Chip and Juan and the three worked their way stealthily through the dense jungle to where they had a good view of the soldiers. Catching the small patrol unaware, they fired. Surprised by the flanking movement, the troops returned fire but their resistance was short lived as they were cut down quickly, silence once again filling the jungle.
Miguel, Chip and Juan searched the area and found the patrol of twelve men dead. They quickly gathered up the rifles and took them back to the camp where they found Jake assisting Hector, already bandaging the wound in his shoulder.
“How bad?” Lee asked as he knelt by Hector’s side.
“Not bad, senor. Just painful,” Hector murmured as Jake finished binding the wound and fashioned a sling for the man who stared at it in disdain. Lee smiled at the familiar reaction and glanced to Nelson who frowned at him, knowing the path Lee’s thoughts had taken.
“Something funny?” Jake asked when he finally convinced his new patient he needed to keep the arm immobile.
“No. I just know someone else that has the same feelings towards slings,” he said with a smile, looking to Nelson again who continued to glare at him as he lay back against the stretcher.
“We should get moving,” Miguel said. “If more soldiers are nearby, they will have heard the gunfire. Come.”
The men gathered their packs while Lee and Chip picked up the stretcher and began to head quietly down the trail.
By late that evening, the group had reached the hidden truck with no more excitement. They got Nelson into the bed of the ancient truck, settling him as comfortably as they could and turned to Vicente’s men.
“Thanks for your help,” Lee said.
“It was nothing, senor,” Hector said nodding before moving to Nelson’s side and leaning down to the man who was finding it harder and harder to stay awake and alert.
“Thank you, senor.”
“I…didn’t do anything,” Nelson said weakly and with a little smile.
“The first shot you did not see coming. But the second you did,” he answered with a smile and a brief clasp on the shoulder. “For that I thank you.”
Nelson merely nodded.
“What will you do now? Where will you go?” Chip asked quietly.
“We will meet our people not far from where the village you were in was. And start again,” Juan said sadly, knowing the village that had been their home, temporary or not, was gone.
“I’m sorry for what you’ve been through. Hopefully with the information the admiral brought back, the world will see what your President is and take steps to protect you all and end this war,” Lee said, a touch of anger in his voice that injustice seemed to know no boundaries.
“For this we pray every day,” Hector said as he left the admiral’s side.
“Good luck,” Lee said as Hector and Juan gathered up the rifles they had taken from the soldiers, shouldering them easily.
“Thank you,” Juan said nodding to the others as they took off down the trail back towards where the village had been at a quick pace.
“Well, let’s get moving. We can be in Santa Barbara by tomorrow afternoon if we hurry,” Jake said.
“Ready, Admiral?” Lee asked with a slight smile as he climbed into the back of the truck seating himself by Nelson’s side.
“I…I’m very ready, Lee. Very ready,” he whispered.
The trip back through the dense jungle to the airport and Jake’s plane was slow going on the bumpy road. Lee and Chip did their best to cushion Nelson from the jarring motion of the truck as it hit the many ruts that marred the road but more than a few moans escaped Nelson’s tightly clenched lips, moans that tore at the hearts of the two Seaview officers as they knew the pain he was in. After a few miles, they were almost relieved to see their commanding officer sink into unconsciousness.
Dawn was still an hour off when the group arrived at the small, sleepy airport. Darkness cloaked their movements as they carried Nelson carefully into the plane, laying him gently on the floor. His periods of consciousness throughout the last few hours of the trip had been few but the sudden cessation of movement seemed to rouse the older man and he opened his eyes and looked about. “Where…where are we?”
“We’re on Jake’s plane,” Lee said softly as he knelt by his friend’s side, placing a gentle hand on his chest. “We’ll be back home in a few hours.”
“Home. I can’t wait. I have a lot of things to do when I get back,” he said softly, smiling at the irritation that flitted over Lee’s face.
“You won’t be doing anything until Jamie says you can leave the Med Bay, which is where you’re headed. So just go back to sleep,” Lee said softly.
Nelson thought briefly about arguing but sleep sounded like a good idea and he drifted off again as Chip and Jake made sure Eric was tied securely to his seat.
“Miguel, we can’t thank you enough for helping us to find him,” Lee said sincerely as the three men walked down the steps to Miguel who waited outside.
“It was nothing, senores,” Miguel said, waving a dismissing hand in the air. “I would do it all again. I hope he will recover.”
“Us too. What will you do now?” Lee asked.
“I will go back to being a tour guide. Until I hear from you or someone else that needs my special services,” he said with a big smile.
“Good luck, Miguel and thanks again,” Jake said clasping the little man’s hand tightly before turning back to the others. “We should get moving. We don’t want to attract too much attention.”
“Ready gentlemen?” Jake asked from the cockpit as they climbed back aboard after a final wave to Miguel. Lee checked Nelson once more then went forward and slid into the co-pilot’s seat.
“Very ready,” Chip said as he glanced down to Nelson who didn’t move.
The old plane rose gracefully into the humid jungle air and headed northward and home. A quick call to the Institute to alert them of their pending arrival was met with joy and more tears from Angie. She assured them she would notify Jamie of what had happened and that the admiral was coming home. She assured them that Jamie would meet them at the hangar at Santa Barbara Municipal.
Several hours later, the old plane received permission to land and given a runway assignment.
“Jamie and the ambulance from the Institute should be here by now,” Lee said as he looked out the plane’s window to the tarmac near the hangar where they had taxied after landing. “There they are. Let’s get moving and get him home,”
The group grabbed the stretcher and carried it down to the hangar, Eric being pushed along by Jake.
“Captain! Over here!” Jamie called from the ambulance at the edge of the hangar as he hurried forward, eager to check his patient.
“Let’s get him onboard and home,” Jamie said as he did a cursory examination of his patient, not liking what he found.
“We’ll meet you in Med Bay, Jamie,” Lee said as he watched them put Nelson into the Institute ambulance.
“What do we do with him?’ Chip asked, nodding towards Eric after the ambulance had taken off.
“We take him with us for now. Once we get to the Med Bay I’ll contact Starke and let him know what we found out.”
“I don’t think he’s going to be too happy with you. Trying to kill one of his best friends is not going to make him pleased you’re still alive,” Jake said with a big smile as they grabbed their bags from the plane and walked to where Chip’s truck was parked, Eric being pulled along.
~O~
The drive to the Institute was short and after a quick call to Starke, the men entered the Med Bay eager to see how Nelson was doing. A familiar figure paced back and forth in front of the doors leading to the examination rooms, causing Lee to smile briefly.
“Angie?” Lee called as he moved quickly down the hall.
At his voice, she turned and headed towards him. “Oh, Lee! I saw him for only a second when they brought him in but he looked awful! How bad is it?”
“It’s bad Angie but he’s better than he was a few days ago,” Lee said as he drew her quickly into a hug.
“Oh, wow,” she said pushing him away after a few seconds. “I’m sorry but you do not smell all that great. Maybe you all should go…I don’t know…shower?”
“Well, I can’t say I’m not hurt by that,” Lee said with a fake frown. “I just want to see how he is before we take care of our prisoner, then we’ll get cleaned up.”
Angie turned dark eyes to Eric who stood by Jake, his head down, then strode to him quickly. “You’re the one that did this?” she asked in a low voice.
Eric looked up briefly and blanched at the hate he saw in her eyes.
“You’re the one that shot him and left him for dead?” Before anyone could stop her, as if they wanted to, she smacked him sharply across the face. “That’s only part of what I want to do to you,” she said angrily as Lee grabbed her arm before she could deliver another blow.
“Now Miss Wood, leave some for the rest of us,” a deep voice behind her said.
“Admiral Starke! That was fast,” Lee said.
“I was in the vicinity. Once I got word from Miss Wood you had left Valbuenna airspace, I headed here,” he said as he stalked to Kohler. “Do you have any idea what I want to do to you right now, Mr. Kohler? Any idea at all?”
“I have a pretty good idea,” he whispered.
“Oh I don’t think you do,” he said as he turned away. “Gentlemen, I’m pretty sure I only know part of what happened. Once we hear how Harriman is doing we need to talk.”
“What about Edith, Angie?” Lee asked as they moved towards the waiting room they were all too familiar with.
“I called her as soon as you told me you were on your way back home. I sent Sharkey and Kowalski in the Flying Sub to pick her up. They should be here soon.”
“That’s good,” Lee said sighing heavily as fatigue washed over him. “How did she take the news?”
“She’s a Nelson. She took it pretty much in stride. After an initial rant about ‘when is my brother going to stop getting himself in these situations that nearly cost him his life’ and on and on, of course,” she said with a slight grin. “She’ll be fine. Sharkey and Kowalski however were miffed you two hadn’t invited them along on your little expedition to find the admiral or even let them know what was happening.”
“We’ll have to try explain why we didn’t I guess,” Chip said with a frown, knowing Sharkey – all the men actually - felt protective of the admiral and would have willingly tramped through the Valbuenna jungle to search for him.
“Good luck with that,” Angie said.
“How badly is Harriman hurt?” Starke asked in concern.
“Pretty bad, sir. Eric did a job on him, didn’t you?” Jake said in anger, smiling at the stark fear that flashed over the man’s face.
“The wounds are healing but they’re infected. The jungle’s not the best place for open wounds. The thing that’s draining him the most is the fever. Now that we’re back in the US…I hope the fever will be controlled by the antibiotics,” Jake said.
“And he can get his strength back,” Lee added softly.
The group was silent as they walked down the hall and settled themselves in the waiting room as they waited as patiently as they could for word on their friend and boss. The time ticked away as if in slow motion until finally the door to the room opened and a harried Doctor Jamieson came out, his eyes lighting on the men and woman nearby. Taking a deep breath, he walked to them.
“Well, he’s alive. Why I don’t know. His wounds are healing but the infection is weakening him greatly. We have him on broad spectrum antibiotics right now as well as intravenous fluids. Hopefully, he’ll respond quickly to them. He’s lost a lot of weight, too. And by the way…what was that brown goo in his wounds anyway?”
Lee, Chip and Jake laughed briefly. “It’s some kind of native medicine, Jamie. Some kind of bark. It kept the infection from raging out of control. Once we ran out of the IVs we didn’t have any other option. And it seemed to work. We brought some of it back with us,” Lee said.
“Well, I know many plants have medicinal value. And he’s alive,” Jamie said with a slight frown.
“Is he going to be all right?” Angie asked in a small voice, the angry woman from before replaced by a scared one.
“I think he will be, Angie. Whether it was modern medicine or the plants used or his stubborn nature I don’t know. We’ve cleaned the wounds up, checked him for any sign of a head injury from the fall and taped his ribs up. The leg wound is going to need surgery once he’s stronger and then therapy but I think he’s got a good chance of pulling through. We’re settling him in a room now.”
“I’m so glad. Can we see him?” she asked quickly.
“He’s not going to know you’re here, any of you. He’s sleeping which is what he needs right now.”
“Please? Just for a minute?” she asked, her brown eyes big and pleading.
“Oh, fine. One at a time and only for a minute.”
“Go ahead, Angie,” Lee said with a grin.
Smiling, she walked down the hall to the room Nelson lay in, the lights dimmed, the monitors beeping telling her, her boss lived. She walked to his side and stared down at the man she had thought was dead…the man she had grieved for. Bandages were wrapped about his chest, his leg was propped up on pillows cushioning his wounded leg and a fading bruise graced his forehead. A little smile touched her lips at the bristly three-week growth of beard that covered the lower part of his face, giving him a rakish look. A stray tear made its way down her cheek and she wiped it away quickly. There was no need for tears now as she was sure he would survive and soon be back to work driving her nuts with his moods and indecipherable scribbles. The worry, fear and grief of the past weeks seemed to fade away as she watched him sleep.
Reaching down, she grabbed his hand tightly in hers. “Welcome home, Admiral Nelson,” she whispered as she leaned down to place a soft kiss on his forehead, smiling as she saw a slight grin cross his face and felt a slight squeeze on her hand.
~O~
The next days passed quickly for Admiral Harriman Nelson as he spent much of his time asleep. For the others, they passed in a jumble of meetings with various heads of ONI, FBI, CIA and other agencies as they tried to sort out who all had been involved in Kohler’s and Scott’s drug running scheme. The final count had been ten. Five other agents and three security guards beside Kohler had run drugs for Scott on various missions.
No real explanation had been forthcoming from Scott as to why he had decided to throw away his career and cost the lives of so many men. Nor did he offer any explanation for why even friendship hadn’t stopped his schemes. All those involved were going to spend the rest of their days behind bars which didn’t sit well with Jake Locker who had been restored to full duty once again and offered profuse apologies.
“I still say we should have put your Angie in a room with Kohler and let her claw his eyes out,” Jake said as he, Lee and Chip sat by Nelson’s bedside a few days later. Once back at the Institute that bore his name, Harriman Nelson had begun to recover at a faster pace than any had thought possible when they remembered how close to death he had been. His fever began to drop fairly quickly once in Med Bay, although his strength was returning slower, much to the chagrin of the patient who longed to be up and about.
“That might be considered cruel and unusual punishment, Jake,” Nelson laughed weakly, grabbing his protesting ribs quickly.
“So? It’s what he and the others deserve.”
“Yes well, it’s in the past now,” Lee said, looking to Nelson. “You’re looking better every day and soon you’ll be out of here and running us all ragged.”
“Speaking of looking better, your loss of facial hair has some of the nurses in mourning,” Jake said with an impish smile causing the others to laugh at Nelson’s glare. “They liked your new look…a lot. They thought it made you look…distinguished.”
“That’s true, sir,” Chip said with a grin. “Edith thought it looked good, too. Said you reminded her of some ancestor of yours she saw pictures of when she was growing up.”
“Humph…ancestor indeed. What it made me look like was a pirate! All I needed was an eye patch and a parrot,” he said with a little smile. “I’m just glad it’s gone. The horrible thing itched! Although, I would have preferred being allowed to do the actual shaving myself instead of having one of the nurses do it. She didn’t seem too happy with the chore. I really don’t think it would have taxed my strength as Jamie said.”
“You know, I heard the nurses drew tongue depressors to see who shaved your beard off,” Chip said, trying hard not to laugh.
“Drew tongue…I don’t think I’m that intimidating that they needed to see who drew the short stick so to speak,” Nelson said with a frown. “Am I?”
Lee, Chip and Jake all laughed at Nelson’s expression. “Sir, they weren’t drawing sticks to see who had to shave you because they were…intimidated. As we said…they liked the beard. They drew depressors to see who had to shave it off,” Lee said in delight, laughing harder at Nelson as he ran a hand over his naked chin, suddenly looking intrigued.
“Changing the subject here but have you heard from Admiral Park about the cruise we all seemed to miss?” Nelson asked after the laughter had died down.
“Yes sir. It went smoothly although the men were a little concerned none of us were onboard. And when they found out why…well, we spent a lot of time trying to explain why we didn’t just take Seaview down there and have the whole crew comb Valbuenna to find you,” Lee said with a big smile.
“That would have been a little excessive I think. Especially considering the whole mission was supposed to be secret,” Nelson said with a frown.
“Secret and quite costly,” Lee said softly as he thought of how close they had come to losing Nelson.
“Well, it’s in the past now,” Nelson said watching Lee closely as he knew where his friend’s thoughts had gone. Shifting his position a bit to ease the pain in various parts of his body, Nelson involuntarily let out a slight moan. “Why are these beds so darn uncomfortable? I can’t wait to get out of here and back home to my own bed.”
“Soon Admiral. You’ve only been here a few days!” Lee chastised.
“Can’t happen soon enough,” Nelson said with a grimace. “If I have to stay here one more day, I’ll go crazy.”
“You know with the way you always want out of here or Sick Bay, if I wasn’t as strong as I am, I might have my feelings hurt,” Jamie said as he entered Nelson’s room.
“It’s not you, Jamie and you know it. Just asking, but when can I get out of here?”
“Not any time soon I’m afraid. We need to do surgery on that leg first off. I’m thinking tomorrow might be a good time to do that. You’re strong enough now to handle it. Then a few more days here to heal you up a bit more. Then…”
“So, two days?” Nelson asked in a hopeful tone.
“Your idea of a few and mine aren’t the same, Admiral. Let’s just see how the surgery goes. OK?” he laughed.
“If you insist,” he sighed dramatically.
“What all is involved in this surgery, Jamie?” Lee asked in concern.
“That bullet did a lot of damage to the soft tissue of the lower leg. We’ll repair the damage as best we can, clean out any dead tissue and suture the wound properly. Therapy will start as soon as the wound heals enough to allow movement.”
“Sounds like exciting times are ahead,” Nelson said sourly and with more than a touch of sleep in his voice.
“Now gentlemen, if we’re going to do this surgery tomorrow, the admiral here needs rest, so pack up your papers and your coffee cups and head home. All of you,” Jamie said as he gestured to the door, ushering them out to a chorus of goodnights from Lee, Chip and Jake.
Jamie turned back to see Nelson’s eyes were just barely open yet he knew the man was awake. “Want to talk?” he asked as he seated himself by Nelson’s bed.
“Only if it’s about getting out of here sooner than your estimate,” he said with a pointed look.
“You need the time, Harry. You need the rest. You’re…”
“…lucky to be alive. I know, Will. I know.”
“Something’s troubling you. What is it, my friend?”
Nelson was quiet for a long time and the doctor began to think he wouldn’t get an answer from the man. “Why, Jamie? Why did they come down there for me? Why did they risk what they did, especially considering they thought I was dead? Why didn’t they believe Kohler when he said I was dead and just…leave me there?”
“Why? Because that’s not the kind of men Lee and Chip are, Harry. Lee knew there was a chance - a slim chance - that you might still be alive. He wasn’t going to rest until he found out for himself. Wouldn’t you have done the same if it were Lee or Chip?”
“Of course I would but…”
“But?”
Nelson shook his head. “Where does such loyalty come from? And what did I ever do to deserve it?”
“That’s easy,” Jamie said as he sat back in his chair and folded his arms over his chest. “You three are cut from the same mold. Loyalty to your country, your men and each other is programmed into your DNA I think.”
“Programmed? You make it sound like some kind of indoctrination,” Nelson laughed.
“No. Not indoctrination. Harry, you three work well together. You genuinely like, admire and trust each other. Don’t question the whys and what fors. For whatever reason, you all have formed an allegiance whether it was intentional or not. You’re not getting rid of them any time soon.”
“And what causes a man to…to turn his back on everything good and right and honorable? To take a road that no one should go down? What causes a man to betray his…country or…or…”
“Or a friend?” Jamie asked softly.
Nelson could only nod. Scott’s betrayal of his friendship still caused Nelson pain and he had yet to come to terms with the fact the man had ordered him killed. Years of friendship - of trust - hadn’t meant anything to the man. He’d willingly turned his back on his oath as a naval officer as well as a man he called friend.
“Ah, that I don’t have an answer for, my friend. I’ve never understood how people can betray trust or spit on honor or shirk duty. I guess I hang around with the kinds of people that find that repugnant,” he said with a smile at Nelson who smiled back. “Don’t think about it too much, Harry. You won’t find any answer to your question. Maybe there isn’t one.”
“That’s hardly helpful, Jamie.”
“Sorry. I’m a medical doctor not a psychiatrist or a philosopher. Now, you really do need rest. I’ll be back early tomorrow to help prep you for the surgery. Shouldn’t take too long, I hope,” he said when he saw Nelson was just about to ask. “I’ll have to see what we find once we’re in there. All right?”
“All right, Will,” Nelson said as he gave up fighting the sleep that called to him.
Jamieson stared at his patient and friend with a slight smile on his face as he watched Nelson slip into a deep sleep, then dimmed the lights and left the man to his dreams.
~O~
The operation the next day went well and the leg wound was repaired, sutured and re-bandaged in a fairly short time.
Jamieson, not surprisingly, was besieged by Lee and Chip shortly after leaving the admiral’s room.
“How is he, Jamie?” they asked almost in unison when they saw him leaving Nelson’s room.
“He came through it well. There was more damage done to the calf muscles than I had expected but it’s repaired. Luckily for him the vein and artery were untouched. It’s amazing the bullet passed through without even nicking them or hitting bone,” he said shaking his head.
“Can we see him?” Lee asked.
“He just came out of the recovery room, and isn’t quite all back yet from the anesthesia. He’s going to be in and out for the rest of the day in all likelihood so he’s not going to know you’re even there.”
“So can we go in?” Chip asked, ignoring Jamieson’s raised eyebrows.
“I just said he…oh fine,” he said throwing his hands in the air. “You two may go in. But don’t wake him. He needs rest.”
“We’ll be quiet, Jamie,” Lee said with a big grin as he pushed by Jamie and headed into Nelson’s room.
The two men walked quietly to Nelson’s side and stared down at him with slight smiles on their faces as they took in his peaceful face and even breathing. The flushed, fevered features had been replaced by a more normal color and the monitors that beeped nearby told their own story of their friend’s, in their words, miraculous recovery.
“We came so close to losing him, Chip,” Lee said quietly.
“Yeah. We did,” Chip agreed. “But he’s going to be fine. He made it.”
“You have to wonder why though, you know? We’ve come so close so many times to losing him. It’s like…like he has…I don’t know,” Lee said shaking his head.
“Like he has a guardian angel?”
Lee and Chip turned to see Jamie, with a small smile on his face, come in and walk to them.
“Well, if he does, she works overtime,” Chip said with a smile.
“Gentlemen, I think you all have guardian angels. All of you have more lives than…than a herd of cats.”
“Herd of cats?” Chip echoed.
Jamieson waved a hand in the air. “Whatever a bunch of nine-lived cats is called.”
“That may be, Jamie,” Lee said with a soft laugh. “That may be.”
“OK. I let you come in and see he was alive so I want you to go away now. Go help Edith and Angie with running the Institute. Find some work to do. Just come back later. Go,” the doctor said as he all but pushed the men from the room. With a last look back, Jamieson also left, knowing their friend was healing and on the road to recovery.
~O~
Later that day found Lee Crane ensconced in a chair by Nelson’s bedside, papers and folders arranged carefully on his lap but his gaze was turned outward to where the California sun was just turning the sky brilliant shades of orange, yellow and purple. His thoughts ran to the last few weeks and all that had transpired from the news of Nelson’s supposed death to the confrontation with Starke to the joy at finding his friend alive.
“Penny for those thoughts, Lee,” a soft, weak voice said.
Looking to Nelson, he smiled as he saw he was awake, barely. “Not important, Admiral. What’s important is how you’re feeling.”
Nelson took a moment to consider the question. “Sore, stiff, bored.”
“Bored? You just woke up!”
“Still…bored,” he said concisely.
“Well, now that that operation is out of the way, you can focus on getting better and out of here.”
“Ummm…sounds good.”
Lee smiled at the sleep he heard in Nelson’s voice and sat back, expecting him to drift away again.
“Lee?”
“Yes Admiral?”
“Thank you.”
“For?” he asked confused.
“For coming after me.”
Lee laughed briefly. “You’re welcome, sir.”
“Lee?”
“Yes?”
“Jiggs was here a few days ago. He told me what you did, what you said to him.”
“He did?”
“Mhhm. Would have loved to have been a fly on that wall,” he said with a slight smile, his eyes barely open but twinkling nonetheless.
“I…I couldn’t just…let it…you…go. It’s like I knew you were still alive. I can’t explain it.”
Nelson forced his eyes to open further as he stared at his friend. “You don’t need to explain,” he whispered.
Lee glanced down into Nelson’s face and saw understanding on it. Smiling, he watched Nelson’s eyes slide closed as he slipped away again, a slight smile touching his lips. “Rest well, Admiral. Rest well,” he said as he sat back, satisfied Nelson knew his feelings, satisfied his best friend was well on the road to recovery and getting on with his life.
The End