Chapter Forty-Five. Otter felt a flash of heat in his thigh and looked down in horror to see a hole in his pants, blood already forming a dark stain around it

Otter felt a flash of heat in his thigh and looked down in horror to see a hole in his pants, blood already forming a dark stain around it. He looked up at Scout. His mouth worked but no words came out.

Scout brushed a trickle of blood from her eye before aiming the gun at Otter again.

She fired into his other leg.

He screamed.

Scout turned to Frank. "Don’t move." She took off in the direction of the clearing. The sound of the helicopter was very close.

Frank stepped over to Otter.

Otter lay as he’d fallen, one leg skewed awkwardly beneath him. He was still conscious. He groaned. "Help me."

Despite his initial disdain for the other man, Frank felt a certain kinship with Otter now because of all they had suffered together. He didn’t think he could just leave him to bleed to death.

Frank glanced around the room. Scout had left the steel door to the tunnel open. Now might be his only chance to get to the hidden room and warn Hunter. But if Scout came back and caught him, he would surely get the same treatment as Otter. Or worse.

His mind made up, Frank fished his flashlight from his pocket and went into the tunnel. He came back with a couple of long scarves and wrapped them tightly around Otter’s wounds. The two bullets had passed through, and the wounds were bleeding heavily. The scarves would not be enough for long. But Scout apparently had missed the major arteries. There was no copious spurting of blood that Frank knew from experience meant certain death. Perhaps Otter had a chance.

Frank snatched up his flashlight and ran to the living room. Stumbling over the piles of books on the floor, he went to the bookshelves. "Hunter, it’s Frank," he shouted. "I know you’re in there, but I won’t give you away. Scout’s outside, meeting a helicopter. She’ll be back soon. I have to get back, but I’ll help you if I can. Oh--and she shot Otter, he might not make it." He waited just a moment, hoping for a response.

When none came, he went into the bathroom and grabbed gauze, tape, and antibiotic ointment, stuffing them into his pockets. Then he detoured into the bedroom to pull the sheet from the bed. He returned to the generator room and crouched beside Otter.

Scout was nowhere in sight.

Blood had already soaked through the makeshift bandages, and Otter’s face was pale. He seemed to be in shock.

Frank took off the scarves and made thick compresses of gauze to put over the wounds, coating them liberally with ointment and binding them tightly with long strips he ripped from the sheet. He lifted Otter and placed him on the sleeping bag. He covered him with the heavy coats they’d huddled under together and shoved his hat under Otter’s head. It was all that he knew to do. He noticed after a few minutes that his first-aid efforts seemed to have slowed the blood loss.

"Don’t move around. You’ll bleed more if you do." Frank wasn’t sure if the wounded man could hear him.

Otter’s eyes were closed. He wasn’t moving.

Kat had her ear pinned against the panel when Frank’s voice broke the silence. She heard him nearly as clearly as if he were standing in the room with her. She could read the tone of his voice, and she believed he meant every word he said.

So a helicopter is coming, Kat thought. Scout’s way out of here? Reinforcements from Garner? Another option was even more disturbing. Kenny? Did she get into the computer and summon Kenny? Oh Jesus. No.

Scout was oblivious to any pain from the cut on her forehead but aware enough of the wound to take the right precautions before she met the helicopter. She didn’t want to alarm its occupants prematurely. She washed her face with wet snow and pulled her black balaclava over her head. Only her eyes were visible.

She saw the chopper through the trees, coming down in the clearing. She put her right hand in her pocket and curled her fingers around the grip of her 9mm. There are getting to be entirely too many witnesses.

For a while in her pursuit of Katarzyna, it hadn’t mattered to Scout what happened to her--she would even have died if she’d had to, as long as Katarzyna paid dearly for killing her brother and her friends. But now with the money she’d be getting, she decided she might want to stick around after all.

With a little swing in her step, Scout walked toward the helicopter as it touched down and the engine was cut. The massive blades began to slow. She waved as she approached the pilot’s side.

The pilot opened his door and smiled at her.

But instead of speaking to him, she addressed the man in the other seat. She had to talk loudly to be heard over the sound of the dying rotors. "Are you Kenny?"

"Yes," he confirmed. "Where’s Hunter?"

Scout turned toward the pilot. Her right hand came out of her pocket, too fast for him to react. "I won’t be needing you."

She put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-30