Page 18 of Secret Weapon

I left that for Hallie to explain and touched Ana on the shoulder.

“You okay here?”

A nod as she sliced clothing off the woman’s body.How bad was the damage?

“Da.Go.”

Ana had been off earlier, seriously off, and I didn’t trust Nine, but without those supplies, the woman’s chances of survival would drop even further.She needed urgent trauma care, and we had the necessary equipment in the jump bag.I jogged through the trees, keeping my wits about me, but I suspected Nine was right—if the woman’s attacker had still been lurking when we had our coming together, we’d scared him off with the commotion.The fight hadn’t exactly been loud, but it hadn’t been quiet either.

And the dog… The knife wounds suggested it had gotten close to the mystery assailant, too close.Had it interrupted the attack?Quite possibly, and then our presence had stopped the guy from coming back for another try.

Hallie’s eyes saucered when she saw me.“What the heck happened to your face?”

Guess it looked worse than I thought.“There was a small misunderstanding.”

“Small?Your freaking nose is broken.”

“Perhaps you could find me some ice?”

“Is there a cougar?”

“The only monster in those woods is human.”

Bradley scrambled out of the car.“OMG, OMG!Your face is smashed!”

“Shit happens.”I grabbed the jump bag from the trunk.“Hallie, find him a cookie or something.”Hmm… A cookie.Breadcrumbs.“What do we have that I can use to leave a trail through the forest?There’s an ambulance on the way, cops too, and I need you to direct them.”

“I have spray paint in my craft kit?”Bradley offered.

“Perfect.”

“Red?Yellow?Green?”

“Whichever’s brightest.”

“That would be the wild lime.”A quick rummage, and he held out a can.“Here you go.”

“Hallie, make sure the EMTs bring a spinal board.”

Ten seconds later, I was running back to Ana and Nine, playing graffiti artist on the way.What kind of sick fucker beat a girl and left her for dead?This was only a small town.Did Nine know him?Had she recognised the girl?We’d need to get our story straight, too.Ana and me, that was simple—we’d go with the truth and leave out the fight part.I took a moment on the way to smooth out some of the evidence.My blood was on the ground if anyone looked hard enough, but I’d think up an explanation for that if necessary.Maybe I could say I tripped over a tree root?

“Is she still with us?”I asked when I reached the crime scene.

Nine looked up.“Holding on.”

Ana had applied a tourniquet around the girl’s left thigh, and she was pressing a pad against a wound just below it.

“This is the only deep wound.Pass the haemostatic gauze?”

“Here you go.What else do you need?”

“Do you have a supraglottic airway device?”Nine asked.“Her throat is swelling.”

“A laryngeal mask airway?”

“Yes, and a cervical collar.”

I found both in the right sizes, and I didn’t bother to ask Nine whether she was familiar with how to fit them.That would have been an insult.Instead, I busied myself giving fluids.Sanitised my hands, put on gloves, applied another tourniquet, this time to the girl’s arm, identified a vein, cleaned the site, inserted the cannula, hooked up the IV.We had a bunch of medical trash, including needles that would need to be disposed of.

---