Page 51 of Lethal Pursuit

“Appreciate it.”

Jackson gathered what he needed, allowing the meds a few minutes to kick in. When he was ready, he gave Maya the signal and she bent to grasp the edges of torn flesh with her good hand, pulling them together without the benefit of gloves. She leaned back to stay out of his light, applying pressure to the exit wound on the back of the calf with her forearm without being told.

It took seven stitches to close the entry wound and it wasn’t his prettiest patch job, but it would do for now. The back was trickier. They had to roll Doug on to his side while he stifled his cries of pain so Jackson could get at the larger exit wound. That took eleven sutures to close, and he tied off a small superficial vein to slow the bleeding more.

When that was done, he packed the suture kit up and gathered the bandages.

“Those are pretty neat stitches. You know, if the med school thing doesn’t work out, you could always make your living as a tailor,” Maya remarked.

His lips quirked. “Yeah? Maybe I’ll keep that as my backup plan.”

“You’re not gonna need a backup plan, because I know you’re gonna ace the MCAT. They’d be crazy not to give you a spot.”

Her faith in him made him feel unworthy. She was the amazing one. All that strength and determination packed into her petite body. “I’ll tell them you said so.”

“You should.” She smiled a little as she shifted around to hold Doug’s leg steady for him. Padding and bandaging the wounds didn’t take long, and he rose to stretch his back.

“Feelin’ sleepy yet?” Jackson asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Doug mumbled, eyes closed. “Just wake me up when we get back to a U.S. base, will ya?”

“Sure thing.” He turned to Maya. “I have to find some wood to put a splint together.”

“I’ll take watch.” She stepped past him and walked out to the group of boulders they’d used for concealment during the night, stifling another cough, her face pinched with pain. “Hurry though. Sun’s coming up fast.”

“I know.” He’d done what he could to disguise their trail last night, but the blood spatters were a dead giveaway. And if the men coming after them had tracking dogs—he doubted it, but couldn’t rule it out for sure—they might show up at any time.

Careful to keep his silhouette to a minimum, Jackson searched around and found some sturdy branches to fashion a splint with. When he came back, he could hear Maya coughing, even though she had her face buried in the crook of her elbow to muffle the sound. And from the way she winced and squeezed her eyes shut, it hurt her like hell every time she coughed. From the deep sound of it, he’d bet money it was bronchitis and well on its way to becoming something worse if left untreated.

“Be as quick as I can,” he said to her on the way by. Using the dull jackknife from the kit, he cut the branches down to size and lashed them together in groups of three. The splint wasn’t the greatest, but it would give Doug’s leg some stability and hopefully guard the newly set leg. His patient didn’t even twitch as he bound his limb into it. Jackson shook his shoulder. “Time to go.”

Haversham opened groggy eyes and flinched as he turned on to his back. “Thanks,” he said, looping one arm around Jackson’s shoulders and setting his other hand against the rock wall to get up on his right foot. He sucked in a breath at the increase of pain then gave a sharp nod. “I’m ready.”

With Maya supporting his left side and Jackson his right, Haversham used them as human crutches. Both he and Maya werearmed this time, and Jackson carried the medical bag on his back. A line of light blue lit the eastern horizon, heralding the imminent arrival of the sun.

“Gotta stick to the shadows and use whatever cover we can,” Jackson reminded them. Wasn’t much they could do about their tracks, except to step on rocks wherever possible. At least the blood spatters would be minimal this time.

They hugged the trail, staying a dozen or so yards away from it, picking their way through shallow depressions and deeper wadis. It made the going slower, but it disguised them and their tracks from anyone else who might come along the path. When Haversham got too tired to carry on, Jackson passed the med bag to Maya and hauled him over his shoulders. The man’s fingers bit into his upper arms with bruising force, but he made no more than a groan. Jackson hoped the voting public would find out just how brave their Secretary of Defense was in the face of all this.

Maya followed a few yards behind him, watching their backs. From her tense posture and vigilant gaze, Jackson knew she was as worried as him that they were being followed. She kept trying to muffle her coughs every few minutes, but even so, the sound carried through the still air. Every time she did it, the tension inside him wound tighter. If she developed full-blown pneumonia, there was nothing he could do for her out here. And if she didn’t get treatment in time... He shoved that thought from his mind.

They managed to keep moving most of the day, taking short breaks to rest and have a sip or two of water from the half-empty canteen. By the time the sun sat low on the horizon, he was smoked and Maya was worse. Her cough kept deteriorating and when he stopped to gauge her temperature with a hand on her forehead, he wasn’t surprised to find her feverish. He pursed his lips, knowing the decision he was about to make held their fate in the balance. He couldn’t keep them moving like this, and there was no way Maya could keep this pace. Haversham couldn’t walk on his own, and Jackson couldn’t carry them both. They were almost out of water and food. That left only one option.

“I’m gonna find us some shelter and then I’m gonna have to leave you to get water,” he told them when they stopped for anotherbreak.

Maya swiped the back of her right arm across her forehead, her cheeks flushed from exertion and fever. Her eyes were clear. “No. We’re not splitting up.”

“We have to. Our water’s almost gone, and both you and Doug need more or we’re gonna be in trouble.”

Though she clearly didn’t like it, she didn’t argue anymore. “How will you find us without a compass?”

“I’m a born tracker, been huntin’ since I was a little kid. I’ll find you, don’t worry.”

That seemed to reassure her a little. She scanned the area ahead of them where the trail broke away from the rock, straying across the brush-dotted soil and disappearing into what was probably another shallow valley. “Only place with solid shelter is right beside the trail, and even I know that’s too risky a place to stop.”

“We’ll have to find a wadi or a dried-up riverbed for tonight,” he answered, stooping to bring one of Doug’s arms across his shoulder.

“You two go ahead,” the Sec Def managed, his face damp with a glaze of sweat and his face lined with the constant agony wearing him down. “Leave me somewhere and come back for me when you can.”

---