Page 5 of Dan

“Hey, can you hear me?” he said. She mumbled something unintelligible, and Dan simply lifted her body and pulled it into the boat beside him. “Base, if you can hear, I have a female, maybe a hundred pounds, light brown hair, semi-conscious. I’m bringing her in, and I need medical support.”

“Roger that, Dan. We’ve got the team meeting you at the docks.”

“Hold on, sunshine. We’re gonna get you some help. Do you have a name?” She moaned, trying to say something, but he couldn’t understand her. By the time they reached the docks, Cruz, Doc, and Gabi were waiting for him.

Rushing her into the clinic, the men waited outside while Cruz and the others did their thing with her. Pigsty went in several times, taking photos of her face and obtaining her fingerprints, hoping to get something back in their databases. Except she had a few surprises.

“No ID, no fingerprints, nothing. I can’t find anything through facial recognition and no missing person’s reports that match her description,” said Pigsty. “Someone burned her prints off her finger pads.”

Dan was leaning against the door of the hospital room, staring at the woman in the bed.

“Well, she didn’t fall out of the sky,” he frowned. “She looks to be, what? Twenty-five? Thirty?”

“Maybe. If that,” said Cruz. “We’re doing some checking with the dental impressions to see if that fits anyone. It’s a mystery. She’s dehydrated, malnourished, but otherwise relatively healthy. A few bites on her legs, possibly fleas, mosquitoes, or some other insect. I’m not sure.”

“Do you think she was homeless?” asked Dan.

“No,” said Doc. “Her hair is in excellent health. There’s no matting of the hair, no knots. It’s dirty right now, but it’s long, well cared for, and recently cut. She wasn’t homeless. Or if she was, it was only lately.”

“This is a mystery,” said Dan, shaking his head.

“Good, then you can help solve it,” said Luke. “Stick with her and find out where she came from.”

A soft moan brought everyone’s attention back to the bed. The bright green eyes opened, staring directly at Dan as if she knew him. Opening her mouth to speak, no sound came out.

“Take a drink, honey,” said Cruz, holding the straw to her lips. She sipped as if her life depended on it, then nodded at him.

“Take your time. We want to help you,” said Dan. “Can you tell us your name?”

“Five, seven, seven, eight, nine, five, one, three, four, zero, four, two, six, five, six, six, eight, nine, seven.”

The men all stared at one another, then back at her. They had no idea what those numbers meant. It was too many to be a combination or an address. They weren’t right for latitude or longitude. Too many to be a phone number.

“I don’t understand,” said Dan. She stared up at him, then toward the others.

“Stop him.”

“Stop who, honey? Who do we need to stop?” asked Dan.

“Him. Stop him,” she repeated. Her eyes fluttered closed, and she was out once again. Gabi came in, seeing their defeated expressions.

“She was awake for just a moment,” said Cruz. “She spouted off some numbers and then said, ‘stop him.’”

“Well, I don’t know what all of that means,” said Gabi, “but the swabs we did on the inside of her mouth reveal that she’s been eating particular types of plankton and fruit common in the land and waters off the coast of Lavaderos, Mexico.”

“Mexico? Are you telling me this girl floated from Mexico to here?” asked Dan.

“I’m telling you what was inside her mouth and throat. You have to figure out the rest, handsome. She’s small, maybe from the malnourishment, but otherwise, relatively healthy.”

“Well, she has something that she wants us to know, and it has to do with numbers,” said Cam. “Dan, stick with her and see if she wakes again. Try to get as much information as you can from her.”

“Will do,” he nodded.

CHAPTER FOUR

Dan stepped outside the room for just a moment, stretching his body until he heard it crack and pop. Tilting his head left, then right, it cracked again, and he released an audible sigh.

“I know those sounds,” grinned his grandfather, Wilson, walking down the long, sterile corridor towards him. “I hear those sounds almost every day of my life.”

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