hovered above, blocking the sun’s intense heat. Otherwise everything looked weirdly normal—apart from the troops stationed on the perimeter, facing outwards with machine guns at the ready.
Forget normal. A body lay against the wall of the hospital block. Sophie shouted, ‘Kelly,’ and veered left around the destruction, aiming for the nurse.
Cooper pulled at her, tried to prevent her going in that direction. ‘Wait. It’s more exposed that way. Snipers will see you.’
Sophie got it. And wasn’t having a bar of it. She paused to lock her gaze on him, her heart rate steady, her lungs finally doing their job. ‘We need to get to Sergeant Brooks ASAP. Move her to safety.’ She had no idea where the calmness now taking over came from, but she was in control, able to do something for someone, and not be a victim being protected by this man.
His eyes widened and he shook his head as though to get rid of something. ‘You’re right. Let’s go.’
‘Kelly was standing beside me when that bomb went off,’ she muttered as they reached the nurse sprawled with blood pouring from a head wound and her legs at odd angles to her body. Dropping to her knees, Sophie reached to find a pulse, holding her breath as she tried to find any sign of life. Dread rose, and she quickly swallowed on it. Now was the time to step up and be professional; not let emotions override everything else. ‘Come on, Kelly. Don’t do this to me.’
A faint throb under her fingertip. ‘Yes.’ She slumped with relief. Her friend didn’t deserve to die. Sophie kept her finger in place for a few more beats, to be absolutely sure, and looked at Cooper, who was crouched beside her, gently probing Kelly’s head. ‘She’s alive. Get a stretcher out here. We’re going into surgery.’ Those legs looked in need of some serious work, as did the head injury. Blood also seeped into the ground from under Kelly’s right shoulder. They’d have to do a thorough assessment but she wasn’t hanging around out here for some sniper to pick them off.
‘Yes, Captain.’ Cooper was on his feet and racing towards the hospital unit, now all business, the challenging male no longer visible. Neither was the captain, aka general surgeon. He was just one of the battalion, doing the job of an orderly because she’d told him to. Impressive.
The man who’d thrown himself over her to protect her from those bullets. Very impressive. Sophie bit down on the flare of yearning and astonishment suddenly touching her again in that place she’d thought so well hidden. What was it about him that exposed her weak side far too easily?
‘Captain Ingram, we’ve got two casualties from the other side of the perimeter,’ a soldier called above the noise of troops clearing the area and checking on one another. ‘They’ve been taken into the medical unit for assessment. That unit’s now clear of danger.’
Nothing, nobody was ever completely out of danger, but she’d keep that gem to herself. Glancing up, she acknowledged the young man who was on his first stint overseas with the NZ Army and sometimes dropped into the hospital to talk or read to patients.
‘Thank you, Corporal.’ His face was chalk white. ‘Did you sustain any injuries, George?’
‘No, Captain.’
‘Right. Captain Daniels is bringing a stretcher so we can shift Sergeant Nurse Brooks. I’d like you to help with moving her.’ Shifting Kelly without doing more damage to her broken body was going to be a nightmare. Even if the unconscious woman couldn’t feel a thing, Sophie knew she’d wince at every single movement. She hated inflicting any pain whatsoever on someone. Her fellow surgeons often gave her grief about that, pointing out that any surgery was followed by some degree of pain.
‘Yes, Ma’am.’
Cooper skidded to a halt by their patient and lowered the stretcher carefully, as close as possible to her body. ‘It’s chaos inside. Injuries all over the place.’
Sophie swore quietly. Why? Who? How could anyone do this to another human being?
Get real, her inner voice snarled. You’re in a war zone. This is what you’re here for.
She knew all that, but reality sucked, brought everything into focus in full colour. On a ragged indrawn breath, she began organising the removal of Kelly from the hot, dusty outdoors and into the relative safety of the medical unit.
‘I’ll be operating with you,’ Cooper informed her as they carried the laden stretcher towards the theatre section.
Sophie glanced at him. ‘Surely you’re needed elsewhere.’
‘Orders. Kelly’s the worst off by far.’ Then he added, sotto voce, ‘If you don’t count the two deceased.’
Sophie’s stomach dropped. She’d been refusing to consider some of the soldiers might’ve been killed. ‘Do we know who they are?’
‘Not yet.’ Cooper locked his eyes on her. ‘If you want to go find out I can take over here.’
She shook her head. ‘No. Getting Kelly stable so we can evacuate her is more important.’
‘I agree.’ He gave her a smile that blew her heart rate into disarray again.
Suddenly Sophie felt light-headed, swaying on her feet as she stared at the floor. Reaching out for balance, her hand found Cooper’s shirt sleeve and gripped tight.
‘You okay?’ he asked, concern flooding his voice.
Dropping her hand as though it had been scalded, she growled, ‘Guess it’s the shock catching up.’
‘It does that.’
She was showing her inexperience in conflict situations. The past two months had been relatively quiet on the war front—near this base anyway. She’d been kept busy with small surgeries but nothing like this. Reaching Kelly, she started appraising the injuries more thoroughly.
‘Multiple fractures of both legs and the pelvis. As well as that dislocated shoulder and fractured skull.’ Sophie straightened up from the bed Kelly lay on, and looked at Cooper. ‘She needs an orthopaedic surgeon,’ which they didn’t have. ‘How much experience have you got in that field?’
‘Enough to do the basics, but the sooner we can get her back to Darwin the better.’ Cooper looked glum. ‘It’s going to be touch and go for her.’
‘Right. Let’s scrub up and do what we can.’ Sophie looked around the ordered chaos, saw the commanding medical officer on the far side of the room and made a beeline for him to explain the situation.
‘We’ve got two others needing evacuation back to Australia too,’ she was told. ‘A flight’s being arranged for two hundred hours. Do what you can in the meantime.’
At the sink Sophie scrubbed and scrubbed her fingers, her palms, the backs of her hands. Sand and dirt and blood stained her skin and had got beneath her nails. Anger at what had happened had her compressing her mouth to hold back a torrent of expletives that’d do no good for anybody. But how could people attack others like that? Used to fixing people, making them better, it was impossible to comprehend the opposite. Her muscles quivered, whether in rage or shock she wasn’t sure, but she needed to get them under control if she was going to be any use to her friend.
‘Easy.’ Cooper’s word of the day, apparently. A firm hand gripped
