An Arrogant Black Belt Threatens a Rookie Nurse in a Rural ER — Unaware She Was a Navy SEAL Officer
Chapter 8
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"Vera.""Yes.""Pull a second peripheral, 18-gauge, left antecubital. We're going to need it when Phelps gets here.""On it.""Hannigan."Hannigan straightened. "Ma'am.""Walk me through the training accident—the whole thing.""Ma'am, the after-action brief is—""I'm not asking for the brief. I'm asking what you saw."Hannigan glanced at Vega on the table. Hannigan glanced at the closed door. Hannigan stepped closer and lowered his voice. "Ma'am... the round didn't come from our line."Reese's hands kept moving. Her face did not move. "Say that again.""Round didn't come from our line. Came from the tree line on the east side of the range. Angle's wrong for a ricochet; the hole through Vega's leg is back to front. He was hit from behind, from outside the firing line. We told command; command told us to fly him to the nearest trauma center and shut up about it. Then halfway here, Vega woke up and said..." Hannigan stopped."Said what?""Said, 'Find Dusty.' That's the only thing he said. Ma'am, I served under Captain Reeves at Dam Neck. I know what Dusty meant. So I told the pilot to set us down at the closest pad on the route. We were supposed to go to Roanoke."Reese's hand paused over Vega's wrist.Dusty. She had not heard that name in three years. The pulse under her fingers was 110, thready but present. She kept her face still."Where's the chase bird, Hannigan?""Holding pattern 15 miles south, ma'am. They didn't want to land here if they didn't have to. Footprint, ma'am. We didn't want the footprint.""Smart. Who's on the chase bird?""Lieutenant Marsh and a four-man security element.""Tell Marsh to set down on the helipad in 20 minutes and to bring his element inside. Quiet entry. Civilian clothes if they've got them, weapons concealed. I do not want a uniformed Navy security team walking into a county hospital tonight. We have at least one shooter who knows where Vega is, and we have a doctor in the building who is about to call somebody."Hannigan's mouth pulled into something that was almost a smile. "Yes, ma'am." He turned, stepped to the doorway, and spoke into the throat mic clipped to his collar.Reese went back to her patient.The radio at the charge desk crackled to life. Pam answered it. "Yes, Doctor. He's... yes, she's still in Trauma Two. No, sir. I—" Pam went quiet. Pam set the phone down, walked to the doorway of Trauma 2, and made eye contact with Reese. Pam was a hard woman to spook; Pam was spooked."Donovan, Dr. Kessler is on the phone with the state nursing board," Pam said. "And the county sheriff, and the chief of staff. He's saying you assaulted him."Reese kept her hand on Vega's wrist. "Did I assault him?""No, honey.""Then I didn't assault him.""I told them you saved a Navy SEAL's life.""Vega's not a SEAL, Pam. He's a corpsman attached to a SEAL team. There's a difference, but the difference doesn't matter to the news. So don't say 'SEAL' out loud anywhere in this building tonight. Understand?""Understood." Pam nodded once and walked back to her desk.