Without remorse - Tom Clancy [203]
'Yeah. But you can only do it so long.' Irvin handed over another beer.
'I thought three was the limit.'
'I'm a Methodist, not supposed to drink at all.' Irvin chuckled. 'People like us, Mr Clark.'
'Dumb sunzabitches, aren't we? There's Russians in the camp, probably interrogating our people. They're all high-rank, and we think they're all officially dead. They're probably being grilled real hard for what they know, because of who they are. We know they're there, and if we don't do anything ... what's that make us?' Kelly stopped himself, suddenly needing to go further, to tell what else he was doing, because he had found someone who might truly understand, and for all his obsession with avenging Pam his soul was becoming heavy with its burden.
'Thank you, Mr Clark. That's a fuckin' mission,' Master Gunnery Sergeant Paul Irvin told the pine trees and the bats. 'So you're first in and last out?'
'I've worked alone before.'
CHAPTER 23
Altruism
'Where am I?' Doris Brown asked in a barely understandable voice.
'Well, you're in my house,' Sandy answered. She sat in the corner of the guest bedroom, switching off the reading light and setting down the paperback she'd been reading for the past few hours.
'How did I get here?'
'A friend brought you here. I'm a nurse. The doctor is downstairs fixing breakfast. How are you feeling?'
'Terrible.' Her eyes closed. 'My head ...'
"That's normal, but I know it's bad.' Sandy stood and came over, touching the girl's forehead. No fever, which was good news. Next she felt for a pulse. Strong, regular, though still a touch fast. From the way her eyes were screwed shut, Sandy guessed that the extended barbiturate hangover must have been awful, but that too was normal. The girl smelled from sweating and vomiting. They'd tried to keep her clean, but that had been a losing battle, if a not terribly important one compared to the rest. Until now, perhaps. Doris's skin was sallow and slack, as though the person inside had shrunk. She must have lost ten or fifteen pounds since arriving, and while that wasn't an entirely bad thing, she was so weak that she'd not yet noticed the restraints holding her hands, feet, and waist in place.
'How long?'
'Almost a week.' Sandy took a sponge and wiped her face. 'You gave us quite a scare.' Which was an understatement. No less than seven convulsions, the second of which had almost panicked both nurse and physician, but number seven - a mild one - was eighteen hours behind them now, and the patient's vital signs were stabilized. With luck that phase of her recovery was behind them. Sandy let Doris have some water.
'Thank you,' Doris said in a very small voice. 'Where's Billy and Rick?'
'I don't know who they are,' Sandy replied. It was technically correct. She'd read the articles in the local papers, always stopping short of reading any names. Nurse O'Toole was telling herself that she didn't really know anything. It was a useful internal defense against feelings so mixed that even had she taken the time to figure things out, she knew she would have only confused herself all the more. It was not a time for bare facts. Sarah had convinced her of that. It was a time for riding with the shape of events, not the substance. 'Are they the ones who hurt you?'
Doris was nude except for the restraints and the oversized diapers used on patients unable to manage their bodily functions. It was easier to treat her that way. The horrid marks on her breasts and torso were fading now. What had been ugly, discrete marks of blue and black and purple and red were fading to poorly defined areas of yellow-brown as her body struggled to heal itself. She was young, Sandy told herself, and while not yet healthy, she could become so. Enough to heal, perhaps, inside and outside. Already her systemic infections were responding to the massive doses of antibiotics. The fever was gone, and her body could now turn to the more mundane repair tasks.
Doris turned her head and opened her eyes. 'Why are you doing this for me?'
That answer was an easy one: 'I'm a nurse,