Chapter 8
I found us a non-descript Taurus parked in the street beneath the overhead parking garage. It happened to have the window cracked enough for me to stick my hand inside and pop the lock. It took me about 15 seconds to hot wire it and shut off the alarm. Dad told me to push over and he took the wheel. We were halfway down the stree t when I popped the glove box and rummaged through the papers inside.
"Uh oh," I swallowed and he glanced over at me before he searched for the Interstate signs.
"Uh oh what?"
"We just stole a senior FBI agent‘s car. His personal car."
"Great. It‘ll be reported stolen as soon as he goes home."
"Well, they do work 9-5 unlike you guys. That means it probably has a lojack on it. We‘ll have to ditch it as soon as we can."
"Any ideas?"
These streets were narrow and full of potholes, he kept turning left and I co uld see the Federal building complex to our right with huge parking lots of vehicle after vehicle.
"We could always steal one of those," I pointed.
"Yeah, sure. With our luck, we‘d take the VP‘s."
"Is he here?" I perked up. "I always wanted to meet the President or the VP. Be a great term paper. How I was a teenage felon and wanted by the FBI."
He smacked me on the back of the head. "Jade, you‘re an ass. Look for the I80 signs. We need to get out of the city."
"Tell me where you want to go and I‘ll do my thing."
"Your mom‘s aunt had a cabin down in Tennessee, in the Cumberland Gap. We can hide there," he decided. "No one‘s been there in twenty years."
"Is it still standing?" I was skeptical.
"It was two years ago when the guys went hunting on it, still usable then."
I heard the blare of horns and something hit us from the rear. My neck snapped and I flew forward into the passenger door as a big black SUV rammed us again.
Dad tried to steer out of it but he wasn‘t wearing his seat belt and the force knocked him into me, squashing me against the door. I felt my ribs protest, felt a crushing, snapping sensation and all the air rushed out of me. Black spots filled my vision, my head smacked into the glass and abruptly, we were rolling around and around inside the car.
I heard finally, the drip, drip, drip of some kind of liquid and it was hitting me in the forehead and sliding down my eyes and nose. I found it difficult to breathe. I tried to move and nothing worked except for my right hand. I pushed against something soft and mushy, felt warm sticky stuff, and smelled that unique coppery odor that told me I was in blood and tasting it in my mouth. I swallowed and more came, making me gag and that scared me.
"Dad?" I wheezed. Everything took on an unreal quality as if I was experiencing everything through a sheet of plastic and slowed down to 33 rpm when it should have been 78.
Faces shoved their way into the windows. I thought they were upside down until I realized I was upside down.
"Unit 1, we have the package. Need medical on the way. Victims were not restrained.
Looks like one fatality and one head trauma, possible chest. Main package is cyanotic, whistling, laceration on the scalp, blood in the mouth. Pulse is 125, respiration 11 and labored."
"Unit 11 responding with paramedics. Do you need a life flight unit?" Someone‘s hand pulled up my eyelids. "Yes." That was the last thing I heard until I felt the low, heavy thump of rotor blades and that stomach dropping sensation as a plane took off.
********
My hands were shaking. Shaking so hard I couldn‘t use them. I opened my eyes; still saw through slits. My whole face felt swollen, hot, and hurt. It hurt to breathe and something was in my throat breathing for me. It hissed and thumped, pulled my chest up and down. I tried to claw at it, pull it out but my hands wouldn‘t move.
I kicked my feet and only the toes moved, slowly curling back and forth. I tried rolling and couldn‘t do that. By now, my heart was racing as terror took hold of me and somewhere, an alarm began beeping. People rushed into the room and poked at me, talked to me but it sounded like gibberish. I stopped fighting, it was too hard and easier to let the waves of blackness pull me down into a place where I didn‘t have to face the epic loss I knew was wa iting for me.
********
"We‘re going to take out the breathing tube today, he‘s fighting it too much and his lungs have stayed inflated, his pulse ox is normal. Both pneumothorax have been reduced, the broken ribs are stable. I‘m more worried about the skull fracture and the C-4 break. I haven‘t seen much movement in his lower extremities."
"How bad is his skull fracture?"
"Hairline but he has subdural hematomas that bled for three days. We put a drain in; he‘s been unconscious for five days. Ah, his eyes are flickering. Jade, can you open your eyes? Squeeze my hand."
I felt fingers slip into mine, warm, long and with hair on the knuckles, not calloused or hard like my Dad‘s.
"Poppy?" I asked my lips fat and swollen. The inside of my cheeks were sore as if I‘d bitten them. I was thirsty and my throat hurt. I swallowed. "Want a drink."
"Well, hello, Jade. Ice chips. Look at me, Jade." I stared. My eyes were blurry but I could make out a man‘s face, gray hair, and brown eyes, wrinkled in a white coat over scrubs. He was with another man in a uniform. He wore Colonel‘s pips on the shoulder.
"What happened?"
"You were in a car accident. It rolled. You went through the windshield. Broke your ribs, collapsed both lungs, and fractured your skull and your neck."
"Ahh." I took it all in. "Where am I?"
"Maryland. Crowley trauma. I‘m Dr. Alastair."
"How did I get here? I live in Uxbridge, Mass."
"You drove down with your dad."
"Dad? Where is he? Is he okay?" I tried to sit up as alarm filled me.
"Jade, he didn‘t make it. The car crushed him when it flipped. You weren‘t wearing seat belts," the other man said.
"Who are you?"
"Colonel Mateo Brightarm. NSA."
"Where am I? What happened?" I asked and the doctor answered patiently.
"Crowley Trauma. You were in a car accident. You‘re in the ICU."
"Oh." I paused, confused. "Where‘s my Dad?"
"He‘s not here, Jade. We‘ll be in every 15 minutes to check on you, okay? We don‘t want you to go to sleep."
"Why? What happened?"
"Head injuries," he said. "He can‘t remember anything for longer than a few minutes.
We‘ll keep him awake for 24 hours, do an MRI and CAT scan, see if the bleed has reduced or gotten worse, and go on from there."
"My head hurts," I said. "Everything hurts. Why are my eyes all blurry?"
"You hit your head, Jade. You have two black eyes, broken eye orbit, cheek and nose.
The swelling will go down in a few more days. The nurse will give you some ice for it if you want."
"I‘m thirsty. I feel pukey, too." I threw up all over the sheets and it made me feel worse.
The nurses came in, cleaned me up and held me while I puked up a thin bile that burned my sinuses and my throat. The doctor ordered something and they put it in my IV; in minutes, I was floating, my stomach forgotten.
"Don‘t fall asleep, Jade." Voices annoyed me all night, wouldn‘t let me sleep.