Page 103 of Viral Justice

Ali sounded more tiredthan Max had ever heard a conscious human being sound. It made him want to pack her in cotton and keep her away from any and all danger.

He snorted to himself. Right, like she’d go along with that. No, she’d probably put him on the floor again and step on him for good measure.

“Do you know what happened?” he asked her.

“Nolan said he lost four to crossfire. He’d negotiated with the village elders for cooperation, then another group came in and blew it all to shit.”

Max managed to get Nolan’s body armor off his torso without displacing the bandage, then took a cautious look at the wound. As soon as he peeked under the pressure bandage, blood welled up and out.

He put the bandage back, then palpated his abdomen. It was tighter than it should have been and he didn’t like what he was feeling around Nolan’s kidney.

“He’s bleeding internally. I think the bullet or shrapnel nicked his kidney.”

“He bled a lot before we got him back here, Colonel,” Ali said.

Max took a blood pressure reading and it was so low he didn’t know how the soldier was still alive. “Eighty over fifty. Get Hunt in here,” he ordered. Then he pulled out his trauma first aid kit. Goddamn it, he didn’t have the tools, drugs or support to do surgery, let alone a repair on a lacerated kidney.

It was either that or Nolan was going to bleed to death.

Fuck.

Hunt came in, but when he saw Nolan he stopped dead. “Jesus.”

“How many units of blood have you got?” Max asked, pulling every piece of gauze and bandage, no matter how small, and arranging them on the counter near him.

“Six.” He stared at Max running around like a madman then looked at Nolan. “Sir, you can’t perform surgery here.”

“If I don’t, he’ll die.”

“Doing it without drugs will probably kill him anyway.” Hunt’s voice broke at the end.

Max stopped moving to pin the medic in place with a look. “Which wouldyouwant? Let you die or try to save you?”

Hunt’s face was agonized.

“Nolan has two kids,” Ali said, her voice as hard as her name. “We’re doing this,” she said to Hunt. “Either you’re helping or you’re out.”

Hunt’s expression solidified into determination. “I’m in.”

“I need all six units.”

“Yes, sir.” Hunt dashed out of the room and came back a couple minutes later with all six.

Max had used the time to set up an IV in Nolan’s left hand. As soon as Hunt handed him a unit, he connected it to the IV line and began the drip.

“Don’t you have to test his blood to those units?” Ali asked.

“Normally, yes, but I don’t have time and Nolan’s blood group is AB positive which means he can accept blood from almost everyone.” Max moved around the table and managed to get another IV line into Nolan’s right hand. He hung another unit of blood and started the drip.

“How do you know it’s AB+?” Ali asked.

“It’s tattooed on his arm.”

“Yeah,” Hunt said. “We all did it.” He flashed his.

Max looked over his available supplies. He had the basics and that was about it. Scalpel, scissors, a couple of small retractors that were normally used for small wound repair, a suture needle and suture thread.

He took another blood pressure reading. Eighty-two over fifty-five. He looked at Ali and Hunt. “I’m going to need both of you to help me.”

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