“I’ll see what I find out. I’ll send you a message around four tomorrow morning. We can meet then,” said Damien.
“I don’t start work until eight. We could do it at seven,” said Jack.
Damien shook his head and said, “That doesn’t work for me. If you want to know what Ray said, answer back at four.”
“I would like to ask him a few questions myself,” said Jack quietly.
“Such as?”
“Whose idea it was to try and kill me and Danny’s baby. Was it Carlos or Ray? Also, I want to know how Carlos found out I was involved with the first ship.”
Damien nodded and said, “I’ll ask, then let you know.”
“One more thing. Ask him who the four guys were who kidnapped your family and where they can be found.”
“That,” said Damien, pointing his finger at Jack’s chest, “is my business.” He turned to walk away but paused and said, “We’re just like you guys on this one.”
“How so?” asked Jack.
Damien sneered and said, “We’re making sure that Ray doesn’t say anything without his legal counsel present.”
His legal counsel? Jack realized what Damien meant and watched him walk away. He thought about the early morning hour when Damien said he would call. Certain tasks are better accomplished in the dark ... like body disposal.
Jack checked his watch. That was six hours from now. He left the hospital and got in the car with Laura and told her about the conversation.
“You think they’ve got Leitch and the Brit?” she asked.
“Positive. The way things are going, I bet they’ll both be dead in less than six hours.”
“We better reach out to our friend and see if he knows where they are!”
“Whiskey Jake is with Damien. I’m sure our friend is involved and unable to call. He could be with Rellik right now.”
“So what should we do? Set up on Damien? You can bet he is going to take a personal interest in this.”
“Personal! Oh, it’s personal all right. Just ask Holly or Charlie or Danny and Susan! This is personal! It’s also personal for Damien!”
“Jack, relax,” said Laura quietly. “You don’t have to convince me it’s personal. Danny’s baby convinced me of that. If the both of them are found with a bullet in their head, I won’t exactly lose sleep over it, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“Good. Then let’s not lose sleep. Go home and rest. I’ll call you as soon as Damien contacts me.”
Laura stared intently at Jack and then nodded in agreement.
They were just pulling out of the lot when Jack received a text message from Lance.
“It’s our friend,” he said, reading the message. “Says we need to talk. Urgent. He is on his way to meet Number One.”
“He’s on his way here,” said Laura. “We could meet him a block away before he arrives.”
Jack shook his head. “We don’t need him telling us tonight what is going to happen. I’d rather he tell us tomorrow.”
“Good point,” replied Laura.
Lance wasn’t too surprised when he received a message back asking, On your way to VGH?
Lance quickly typed, Yes.
Lance was shocked when his next message asked, The two interviews over?
Lance paused, not sure how to respond. Then simply typed, Yes, but not finished.
You safe?
Yes.
We’ll meet tomorrow.
Jack put his BlackBerry away as Laura said, “Yes, but not finished?”
“They’re still alive.”
“That’s what I figured,” said Laura.
A few minutes later, they stopped at a traffic light and Jack noticed that Laura was starting to tremble.
“You okay? Your body is shaking.”
She turned the heater on high and said, “I’m cold.”
“I know how you feel,” said Jack. “I get ... cold too, when I’ve been shot at. It’s funny. You think it would happen at the time, but with me, it seems to come later when I’m actually safe.”
“I guess that’s when we finally have time to think about it. How do you handle it?”
Jack let out a sigh, then said, “Natasha says it’s something you need to be aware of and control. Emotional shock, acute stress disorder, PTSD — whatever the label, it basically boils down to someone being exposed to a life-threatening event. A reaction to something that causes intense fear, helplessness, and horror.”
“Like back at the river.”
“For Vicki and Katie ... yes.”
“You trying to tell me you weren’t afraid? Horrified at what almost happened?”
“Definitely, but not helpless. Neither were you. When we were running toward them, I slipped and fell. It didn’t slow you down any. You continued right on.”
“I was too afraid to turn around. Thought I would get a bullet in the back.”
“Or too angry. Either way, you’re not what I would call helpless. Remember that. You made decisions. You were in control. As long as your brain has control of something, anything, you are not entirely helpless.”
Laura gave him a grim smile, then continued to drive. After a moment she turned the heater off and said, “Thanks.”
“You may not know it yet, but there might be times when this job could become stressful. We have to watch out for each other.”
“It could get stressful!” yelled Laura, while punching Jack on the shoulder. “Well, please let me know if you think that might happen!”
They both laughed, harder than they would normally have, as their bodies and minds leapt at the chance to relieve some tension.
“Does Natasha prescribe something for it? The stress, I mean?” asked Laura, while glancing in the rear-view mirror at her mascara.
“A three-olive martini works for me. Care to join me?”
Laura shook her head. “Thanks, no. Elvis will be wondering what happened. We’ve
