Chuck Logan - After the Rain

“You got a light?”

The three men in the corridor outside Intensive Care in the Mankato hospital weren’t wearing uniforms. Broker thought he might have seen the black one before, that night on the highway outside Langdon. They could have been three Extreme Iron Man competitors who just happened to be in the vicinity. To Broker, they reeked of well-thought-through death.

“Where’d you come from?” Broker wanted to know.

The oldest one came forward, extended his hand. “Dr. Warren Burton. I’m a friend of Nina’s.”

“I didn’t know they had healers in Delta,” Broker said.

Burton was affable and rolled with it. “Well, there’s always torture.” He watched Broker for several seconds with his highly trained eyes. Then he said, “It’ll go easier, for you and for her, if you work with us.”

Broker nodded. “No problem. Answer the question. How’d you get here so fast?”

“A Minnesota Highway patrolman found her. Shuster and Khari had her in an RV, parked off in the trees at a rest stop. Some people heard her screaming and called nine-one-one. She was tied down and pinned under Khari’s body. She’d worked a hand free and fought him. It got pretty intense. He bled out and his body lay on top of her for several hours. She tore out his throat.”

“With her hand?”

“No.”

After a moment, Broker said, “You still haven’t answered my question.”

“The cop got her out of there, but she didn’t have any ID. She was in deep shock. Still is. All she’d say was her name, rank, and serial number. That’s how they got to us,” Burton said.

“I want to see her,” Broker said.

Burton nodded. “The docs here are good. They’re letting me sit in. To prepare you, her face is pretty beat up but it’s superficial, just bruising. Her right arm has suffered some major soft tissue and tendon injury and is immobile. We’ve got her pretty heavily sedated, as you can understand. She’s just in here.”

Broker started toward the door to the ward. Burton accompanied him. At the door he stopped and said, “I served with Colonel Holland Wood. You were with him at the plant…”

Broker didn’t trust his voice. So he just stared at Burton, waited until he stepped aside and then went into the ward.

They had her in a corner by a window, screened off. One cheek was bruised and swollen. Purple blood bruises splotched her neck. Her wrists and ankles were bandaged. Her right arm was immobilized in a plastic cuff, an IV drip in her left.

Her instincts were switched on. After this, they probably would be for some time. She jumped alert at the movement when he came around the screen. She tensed and her green eyes acquired him, evaluated him for threat. Then the shrill vigilance sunk back into a quieter narcotic flux.

Did she recognize him? Was that important to her now?

He went to the bed and took her left hand in his.

“Nina.”

Her smile faltered. “Don’t say anything, about Kit or anything, okay?”

“Okay.”

“There’s something important I have to tell you about Ace Shuster. But I can’t remember it just yet.” Abruptly, she pulled her hand away and started plucking at the hospital gown over her chest. A scrubbing motion.

“They cleaned me up,” she said, “but it was all over me and I think they missed some here.” Her hand went to her throat. “And here.”

He decided to wait on telling her that his folks were bringing Kit…

Mom’s job is making it so people can believe what they want.

Broker shifted from foot to foot, fresh out of tricks. Well, so much for keeping things in compartments. After Vietnam he’d vowed he’d never allow his heart to be broken again.

So much for vows.

“I love you,” he said. He held her hand and said it over and over.

He sat with her all night. She had never seen him cry before and he wondered if, later, she would remember it.