Riding on Whispers (the Wolfegang series Book 3) (24 page)

The rest of the soldiers, who’d been sitting around, recovered from their shock. Chase and John fought back the remaining five. They would’ve been goners if not for the simple fact that no one seemed to have brought their guns while relaxing at the bar. They only had to worry about the standard, military-issued hunting knives.

Chase knocked out one, and turned to take care of the others that were left. John had his hands full with the other two. Chase broke one’s neck with quick precision, but the other grabbed Chase, choking off his air from behind him. He elbowed the soldier in the gut, and then flipped him over his shoulder. The soldier landed flat on his back. Chase stepped on his throat and crushed it.

There was a gunshot directly behind his head and he flinched. He felt nothing. Chase turned around and saw Kat holding his rifle.

“Watch your back!” she yelled.

He turned back and kicked the man on the floor so hard his head did a one-eighty and the neck snapped with a sick sound. John shot the last soldier twice in the chest, and once in the skull, standard military procedure. Chase wondered who this man could possibly be.

Smith ran over to Kat and scooped her up. “It’s so lovely to see you again, Katerina. Who knew you’d know what to do with such a large gun.” He snickered as she whacked him on the shoulder.

“Let’s move out,” Chase said. “Reinforcements are already on their way.”

They ran out of the bar, turned left down the hall, and paused at the entrance to the hangar.

“Cover me?” John asked Kat.

She cocked the rifle. “On it.”

Chase gave her back a cursory check. The blood was already clotting, and even her coloring looked better. That was impossible. She was practically dead just a few minutes ago. Chase shook it off and concentrated on the matter at hand. He could worry about her peculiar healing later. Ricky would know what was going on.

“All right, I’ll go first. I’m going to make a run for it. Stick close.” Chase made sure Kat was ready to move. He moved carefully out into the hall, ignoring the pain he felt everywhere. He knew he’d heal soon enough.

“Uh, how do you plan on blowing through security?” John asked.

He had a point.

“I got it. Reach into my left pocket,” John told him.

Smith had managed to fit a grenade into his pants pocket. Chase pulled the pin and threw the grenade out into the hallway to clear it. They’d already set off all of the security alarms, might as well go out with a bang.

They took cover and braced against the shock. As soon as the dust cleared and the heat dispersed, he took off, checking corners and blind spots. They carefully made their way through the debris. Chase took out a few guards that were still alive and then headed towards the shuttle. There were rifle shots from Kat, and he watched another two men go down. She had uncanny aim.

Chase made it to the transport’s stairs, and took them two at a time. He ran to the console and powered up the shuttle. There were more shots from the rifle. He wondered what was taking them so long, they’d been right behind him.

Another blast, but it didn’t sound like it was from Kat’s gun. Then he heard her yell in pain. Wolfe ran back to the ladder. John was on the ground with blood blossoming from his shoulder. He shot at a squadron of soldiers, with more closely following.

“Take her!” John yelled. “Her wound reopened when we fell, I’m going to create a distraction. Just get out of here!”

Chase grabbed Kat, and she whimpered as he shouldered her weight. He wished he could be gentler, but they just didn’t have the time. He tossed her into the shuttle, and closed the hatch. They took a few hits as he got it off the ground.

“Wolfe, this is John Smith, do you copy?”

“I copy,” Chase replied.

“I’m going to blow through the hangar door. That’s your chance to get out of here. This was part of my job; protecting the sweet, little sister, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Cheers!”

There was an explosion that rocked the transport. Chase braced against the console. He got the shuttle flying, and steered through what remained of the hangar doors. He didn’t have the time to worry about what happened to John, but he did hope he’d make it through alive.

The minute Chase broke through the atmosphere; Ricky and Celeste were on top of the fighters still following him once he was out of the atmo. The
Wolfegang
blew them into tiny pieces.

“This is Wolfe– pull us in, we need to get out of here, yesterday.”

“Copy, sir,” Ricky replied. “Damn, it’s good to hear your voice.”

Chase glanced at Kat. She looked unconscious, and her skin was a pasty white he didn’t like. “I’m going to need immediate triage. Is everything ready?” he asked.

“Yes, sir. Just get onboard in one piece.”

Chase steered the shuttle into the hangar of his ship, and the docking beacon helped pull them in. The
Wolfegang
shuddered and pitched sideways from the attacks. Chase held on and landed the transport as best he could.

Ricky was opening the hatch as soon as Chase powered down the engine. Without a word, Ricky picked up Katerina as if she weighed nothing and ran out. He held her away from his body so as not to jostle her. Chase felt relieved. Ricky was strong enough to carefully get her to the infirmary at the necessary speed.

He followed Ricky into the infirmary and watched as he placed her on one of the exam tables. Ricky scurried around, gathering needles, drugs, and bags of blood.

“Sir, I’ll be fine. Celeste needs you at the helm. She can’t hold off the fighters and steer at the same time.” Ricky gently pushed Chase out of the ward. “The shield will only hold for so long.”

Chase glanced over his shoulder and saw Ricky ripping off Kat’s undershirt. The exposed, bloody, torn flesh underneath the shirt made him hesitate. He couldn’t think about it, or it’d drive him crazy. Chase turned back to the bridge, but stopped when he heard Kat’s heart flat line. He turned as everything slowed. Everything moved impossibly slow - practically still.

Ricky frantically flipped her over, and tried to get Katerina’s heart to start beating again. That last hit must’ve really messed things up. Ricky grabbed the portable defibrillator and charged it. “Clear!” Her body convulsed, but her heart didn’t start.

Chase was at her side before he realized he’d moved.

Ricky was begging. “Come on, damn it! I know you can do this. Just start it, I’ll do the rest.” If she heard him, there was no response.

“Clear.”

Still no change.

“Again,” Chase demanded.

“I don’t know if her body can take it,” Ricky said.

He refused to give up. “Do it!”

Ricky shocked her heart one more time. Still, the monitor flat lined. Chase went to a drawer, grabbed a syringe, and filled it full of pure, undiluted adrenaline. He gave it to Ricky not trusting himself with the accuracy required at the moment. Ricky stabbed her directly in the heart with it, and injected the entire dose straight into her system.

There was a brief moment of silence, and then the monitor beeped. Her blood pressure climbed, too quickly, but it didn’t matter. She was alive, it worked. Chase let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding.

“Go,” Ricky said softly. “I can take it from here.”

Chase looked up at him, nodded, and ran towards Command.

***

Ricky was left alone with his patient.

He hooked Katerina up to a few IVs, one was pain killers, and one was blood he’d cloned to replenish what she’d lost. He examined her wound closely. He could see pieces of her spine through all the skin and muscle. The blood looked like it was clotting again. Her spine seemed to be intact; no fractures or breaks. He injected broad spectrum antibiotics just in case. All he had to do was clean it up, and sew the wound closed. When he was finished sewing her up, Ricky made sure she was stable. For the moment it looked like they were out of the woods.

He took a blood sample, prepared a slide, and put it under the microscope lens. It was the first time he used his old microscope instead of letting the machines run the tests.

Wolfe’s voice came over the intercom. “Entering hyperspace.”

The ship shuddered and Ricky held on as his stomachs felt like they were being pulled through his navel. He stumbled over to Katerina as the ship took the beating. Ricky checked her vitals - her heart rate was climbing. All he could do was hold on and pray. Ricky felt when they left hyperspace, and watched as her heart slowly went down to a more normal pace and stabilized. He waited a few seconds, but she didn’t regress.

Ricky went back to his microscope. He watched through the lens as her red blood cells morphed, changed, and increased the hemoglobin, making the new blood stronger. Kat’s blood had a white blood cell count that went through the roof. The cells just ate through all of the bacteria that could’ve caused infection. She had a stem cell count through the roof. There shouldn’t be that many at her age as a human. Then he watched as the stem cells morphed into more red blood cells. A process he was sure they were doing in her body now. Morphing into more muscle cells, and replacing the lost skin tissue.

They’re what repaired her system so quickly, and they were vicious. The stem cells healed at a rate he’d never seen before. Ricky looked over at Katerina, and saw her staring at him.

“How bad is it?” she asked.
What’s happening to me?

He swallowed. “Not bad,” he tried to reassure her.

Ricky destroyed the evidence with bleach, and permanently deleted the automatic downloads in the computer.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“Like crap,” she replied. She winced in pain as she shifted.
Oh god, it hurts.

Ricky tried to ignore the pain in her thoughts, but it was difficult. There wasn’t anything else he could do for her. He’d injected painkillers, and it would take time for them to work.

“I’m going to need those clothes,” he told her. Ricky grabbed all of the blood soaked articles and tossed them in the toxic waste bin. Somehow he needed to get the ones Wolfe was wearing as well. He soaked everything with bleach. There was nothing he could do about the blood she’d left on the base.

Kat nodded as she watched him.
I’m in deep shit if he’s destroying evidence.
Her thoughts were quiet as they tangled around the room like smoke.

“Nothing to worry about, doll,” Ricky told her. “I’ll get Wolfe – let him see with his own eyes that you’re all right.”

Ricky left, knowing he had to find a better solution. No one could know; no one could be trusted with this secret. He wasn’t even sure about the captain; even though Chase had secrets, it might not be safe to tell him.

I watched Ricky leave, knowing he was just trying to make me feel better. The look on his face said it all. You don’t just destroy everything my blood touched for no reason. He was taking precautions, and ruining any evidence that I might not be an average human.

A blanket covered everything from my waist down, and nothing was allowed to touch my back for a long while. I lay on my stomach, feeling light-headed and groggy from the drugs in my system. Somehow, Ricky managed to take off everything but my underwear without waking me up. I really hoped he hadn’t thrown my boots out. The last thing I remembered before I passed out was John carrying me up the stairs when a blast knocked us down. I rested my head on my folded arms. I wondered how long it would take me to heal this time.

“Katerina?”

I looked up to see Wolfe peering around the corner.

“Hey,” I croaked. My throat felt dry and itchy.

“How are you?” He asked, stepping into the room.

“Better, now that I can’t feel much.”

He looked at me in horror. “You’re paralyzed?”

I gave him a weird look. “What? No, I’m talking about the pain killers.”

“Oh, thank God,” he muttered, falling into the chair next to my berth. His head fell into his hands. “I was so worried,” he said. “You have no idea what Donnelly’s capable of. I should’ve known better and kept you away from him. Now he won’t stop looking for you to get his revenge. This is all my fault.”

I didn’t quite know what to do. “It’s not your fault,” I tried to reassure him. “You couldn’t have known he’d be there. You warned me this would be dangerous. There was no way to know Donnelly would be the one you’d run into.”