Garner cut through the crowd as he headed towards Trautman.
he was smiling when he set off at first, but by the time he reached the Colonel, he had orders ready for him.
“I want the POWs in Saigon ASAP. As for the rest of the team, send them to San Lu instead. When you’re done, come back here to the hospital for debriefing with Ortega.”
“Why San Lu?”
“Because I want the team to sleep there tonight. They deserve it.”
“Okay, fine.”
“Good. Now, let's get out of here. Let’s see if we can have a word with any of them at least.”
Ortega was about to pass right by the two of them as they spoke.
Two paramedics pushed out the stretcher Ortega was laying on, and that gave Trautman the chance to take a closer look at him albeit only in passing.
Now unconscious, the Baker Team leader looked quite pale in the face with beads of sweat on his forehead and dark rings under his eyes.
Black bags under his eyes – thought Trautman.
He’s showing signs of internal bleeding already.
His face was unnaturally relaxed, probably due to the morphine, so it looked quite different from how it usually did. It didn't even look like Ortega at all actually. Trautman had seen this kind of effect many a time before, on many a soldier who generally died shortly thereafter.
It’s almost as though he’s already dead – thought the Colonel.
That wasn’t his case however. He was still alive, for now at least. He was alive, in hospital, and just minutes from receiving a blood transfusion before ending up in surgery. As he looked at Ortega’s eyes more closely, Trautman thought of the new and improved version of morphine they were now using in the military. It was a lot lighter than the older one, or less dangerous overall.
We didn’t have drugs like that in Korea – he thought to himself.
When someone was in pain, he’d just scream like a pig being slaughtered, and that was it.
*
Everyone else on the Baker Team had a check-up as well but it didn’t take them long to go through them at all. Aside from being undernourished and dehydrated, they were, for the most part, fine.
In little more than half an hour, their chopper was running and ready for lift-off. Consequently, Trautman hadn’t had the chance to talk to any of them, not even to the Baker vice, Danforth. It didn’t matter though.
His men had seen him and they knew that the Colonel had been there personally just to greet them, so that was more than enough for him.
Garner got on-board the helicopter with them before they took off to Lan Su.
Trautman stopped on the hospital rooftop for a moment, to watch them leave.
That was it.
The prisoners were safe, Ortega was in surgery and the team was airborne to Lan Su.
It was finally over. What’s more, they’d had their greatest success, ever.
For the first time in SOG history, a team, which had been missing in action, had successfully managed to come back.
They’d even brought back some POWs while they were at it.
Trautman took a deep breath then turned to look out at the city.
The sun had begun to set.