David Golemon - Ripper

“You don’t know why?” he asked as he looked her in her bruised and swollen eyes.

“Colonel, I don’t know why. And I am going to leave it at just thank you for doing what you did.” She turned away toward the door.

“Have you forgotten, dear Sarah, I asked you here? Not to profess my inner soul to you, but to pass on something that I remember from Mexico.”

Sarah turned and then purposefully walked back. She made a large pretense of snatching her sunglasses from Henri’s right hand. She placed them gingerly on her nose and then looked down at him.

“That man who came to our rescue, the rather large one who seemed to be in charge of his group. I suspect that Colonel Collins and his sidekick, Captain Everett, found out that no one sent this man and his team in to rescue us … am I correct?”

Sarah stood still as she took in the question, one that she had no idea was coming. She felt she had shorted Henri for what she had been thinking. But then she corrected herself when she saw the way he looked at her. It was the same way Jack looked in their quiet moments together. She could see in his blue eyes, the same color as Jack’s she noted, that there was far more to Henri’s request for her to be here than just answering his one question, so her original fear of his feelings for her quickly returned.

“No, the director said the president had a team of DELTA operatives in the air, but at the time our large friend and his commandoes showed up, they were still an hour out of Laredo.”

Henri turned his head in thought. He then turned his burning gaze on Sarah once more.

“I’ll tell you what little Sarah, if you can manage to bring me a bottle of wine and a menu from that American slop house you call a cafeteria, I’ll tell you a secret that would be of very much interest to your Director Compton.”

For the first time since McIntire entered the room, she had to smile. Henri was starting to heal and that made her happy. His French sense of humor was returning.

“Colonel, I will bring you that menu, or I can have our chefs cook you up anything special you may want, but unless I get orders to allow you access to the Ark Lounge and the spirits sold there, you can forget about the wine.”

“The Ark?”

“We’re not barbarians here, Colonel — we actually have a lounge for off-duty personnel.”

“Then that is where we will sit and have many drinks.”

“I doubt that very much.”

“Then I will divulge my suspicions for the offered menu and your obviously fine military chefs.”

Sarah shook her head and sat back down in the chair. “I’m waiting.”

“So you are. That man at the river; I have seen him before, a very long time ago. When I was contracting out to various corporations, I met him once. He is not a very nice man. If it were not for my face being covered entirely in blood, I am sure he would have identified me in seconds, at which point he would have not only ended my life, but everyone that he rescued from Guzman.”

“Who is he?” she asked, becoming concerned simply because a man she knew as fearless was obviously frightened of this person.

“When I met him he went by the name of Smith, obviously not his real name. Tell your Captain Everett to start a search for him by designating him as possibly former CIA. He is ruthless and he was at Perdition’s Gate for a particular reason, and it was not to the benefit of your Group.”

“Thank you, Colonel. I’ll pass this on to Captain Everett and the director. But regardless of what they say, I will get you that menu.”

“Lovely Sarah, there is but one more thing I must say.” Henri tried to sit further up in his bed and when he saw out of the corner of his eye that the nearest security man took a step toward his bed, Farbeaux ignored him. The marine saw that his move wasn’t threatening and relaxed.

“Can you come a little closer? I promise not to bite.”

Sarah took a deep breath, not wanting to get any closer to Henri than she already was. There was no telling what was running through this man’s head. He was adept at getting out of tight spaces, and she also knew he would use any means to get out of this one. She leaned forward and before she knew what was happening Farbeaux kissed her. She was so shocked that she froze. If anyone could see her eyes under the dark-shaded glasses they would have seen them wide as saucers. Finally she broke away and stood so suddenly that she knocked over the chair, bringing both security men to her side.

“Are you okay, Lieutenant?” the marine asked as he steadied her.

Sarah couldn’t say anything; she just stared at Henri. As she did, the other security man walked up to the bed and then slapped the handcuff on the Frenchman once more.

“Captain Everett said your comfort was a privilege … one that you just lost, Colonel.”

Henri smiled as the click of the cuff sounded louder in the room than it should have. He kept his eyes on Sarah as if the two security men didn’t exist.

Sarah went through the open door and passed Dr. Gilliam as she was coming in to check on her patient. The doctor smiled, but Sarah rushed right past her without saying a word.

Sarah had her arms crossed over her chest as she strode through the hallway heading toward her classroom where she was now officially ten minutes late to instruct on the hidden rock formations inside of natural caves that give off mineralized light. She stood outside of the classroom, adjusted the glasses on her face, and was about to open the door when she looked up and saw Charles Hindershot Ellenshaw III walking past reading a report and eating an apple. The crazed white hair of the cryptozoologist was in its accustomed state of disrepair. His glasses were propped up on his forehead holding his hair in place, necessitating his need to read the report closely held to his face.

“Doc,” Sarah said as she sniffed and swiped a tear away before it ran out from under the large glasses.

Ellenshaw, or Crazy Charlie as he was known to the other science departments, looked up startled. He stopped abruptly as Sarah reached out and removed his glasses from his forehead and then slid the wire frames onto his nose.

“Oh, that’s better,” he said as he smiled and then looked more closely at Sarah. “Thank you … my dear you are looking terrible.”

“Thanks Doc. Listen, do you have an hour and a half of free time?”

Ellenshaw looked at the report in his hand and the half-eaten apple and smiled crookedly. “It seems the head of cryptozoology always has an abundance of time on his hands.”

“Would you take my class for this evening?”

“Your geology class?” he asked as several of the papers he was studying fell free of his folder. Sarah reached down and retrieved them for him.

“What instruction do you want me to give?”

Sarah stood and removed the crumpled folder from Charlie’s hand and then replaced the papers. “Nothing as mundane as I had planned, Doc. Just regale them with your exploits in the Amazon, or in Canada.”

“Well, I suppose—”

Ellenshaw didn’t have time to finish as Sarah abruptly turned and headed for the elevators. He watched as she vanished around the curving hallway. Charlie shook his head, quickly piecing together what he thought was happening. Knowing that Jack Collins had left the complex, he thought for sure that was the main reason Sarah needed a break. So, with the apple clutched in his teeth and the file folder in one hand, Ellenshaw opened the door to Sarah’s classroom and entered. As the door closed there was a group exhale of excitement as they realized that they would not be quizzed this evening on the factors determining the mineralized phosphorescent nature of geological formations. Instead they had Crazy Charlie and his crypto exploits. What better time to hear about monsters and aliens?