Missing (23 page)

     “No, ma’am.”

     “Good night, then. Don’t forget to watch her closely when you’re in here.”

     “Yes, ma’am. Good night.”

     Mark checked the time, then adjusted his bed to the same height as Hannah’s.

     He watched her intently as he held her hand.

     Just as Nurse Ratchet had instructed him to.

     But he’d have watched her intently even if he hadn’t been so ordered.

     He looked at the clock above her bed. It was nearing eight o’clock.

     He wondered how things were going back home, and hoped that Sarah had been found. He hated to think she might have to spend a second night alone.

Chapter 47

     At ten o’clock sharp Mark eased himself out of bed, walked over to Hannah’s left side and gently kissed her on her cheek.

     “I don’t know if you can hear me, baby, but I’m here. I’m going downstairs to get something to eat and to call home and check on things. I’ll be back shortly, I promise.”

     He kissed her a second time and said, “I love you, doll.”

     He paused before leaving. It wasn’t that he really expected her to open her eyes and answer him.

     But he hoped she would nonetheless.

     Mark grabbed his backpack and headed first to the hospital control center. He met a sleepy second lieutenant at the desk who looked like he’d rather be anywhere but there working the night shift.

     “Good evening, lieutenant.”

     The greeting caught the young officer in the middle of a nod, and he jerked instantly awake.  

     He immediately sat bolt upright in his chair, perhaps thinking that Mark was a higher ranking officer in civilian clothes.

     Then he got a closer look at Mark’s somewhat shaggy hairstyle and four day growth of beard and realized that this man wasn’t someone the military would have accepted among its ranks.

     He relaxed and answered, “Good evening. How can I help you?”

     “I was told that you had a ham radio I might be able to use after twenty two hundred.”

     Mark was hoping his use of military time would impress the young man. If it did, he didn’t let on.

     “Second door on the left. You can close the door if you need some privacy.”

     “Thank you very much.”

     “Don’t mention it.”

     As he walked away, Mark couldn’t help but notice the lieutenant putting his head down on the desk.

     He chuckled.

     Apparently there wasn’t much going on at the hospital control center at night.

     He entered a small room marked with a sign that said “Radio Room.”

     There wasn’t much to it. A small desk with a ham radio on it, two chairs and an ash tray.

     The ash tray was overflowing with cigarette butts.

     He turned on the unit and studied it for a minute to see how it operated. Then he dialed in the frequency for the compound’s control center and keyed the microphone.

     “Frank, I know you’re still on duty because you’re too stubborn to go to bed. This is Mark. Come in.”

     He couldn’t see Frank and Brad laughing on the other end.

     “I’ll have you know I had a two hour nap right after you left, young pup. That’s enough to do me for awhile.”

     “Yeah, sure. What is that, four hours sleep in three days? That’ll give you gray hair and make an old man out of you.”

     “I’m already an old man, and I’ve already got gray hair. How’s Hannah?”

     “Still sleeping. The doc says she’s plumb tuckered out and her body is making her sleep to help it recover. How are things there? You can start by telling me that Sarah is back and she’s safe and sound.”

     There was a slight pause.

     “I’d give my right arm if I could tell you that, Mark. But I’d have to lie to do it. The truth is, the dog lost the scent and they had to pack it up for the night.”

     “Oh, no.”

     “It’s not the end of the world, though. The handler said it’s not uncommon for a dog’s nose to just get tired after several hours on the trail and lose its sensitivity. He said that after they bed down for the night, the dog will probably be able to pick it back up again.”

     “So the search has been shut down for the night?”

     “You know better than that. Bryan would start shooting people if that happened.

     “Only the tracking dog is taking a break. The Army people broke into two shifts earlier so they could send half of their men back to their tents to get some rest. Those guys are on their way out to where the dog is so they can relieve the day shift. They’ve got flashlights and fresh batteries, and since they now know the general direction she was headed, they’ll search through the night. In my opinion she can’t be that far away now. My money says they find her tonight, sleeping like a baby under a tree.”

     “Let’s hope so. Is Bryan still out there?”

     “Does a bear go doo doo in the woods?”

     “Usually. I know for a fact he’s gone two full days without a wink of sleep.”

     “And he’ll go ten more if that’s what it takes. You know your brother better than anyone.”

     “Yes, but I can’t judge him too harshly. If Eva was out there you’d be doing the same thing. If it was Hannah, so would I. Is he at least in radio contact now?”

     “Yes. We sent him out a fresh battery, and a spare.”

     “Would you call him and tell him I’d be there to help. But I’ve got my own situation going on here.”

     “He knows. And he said to tell you not to worry about him or Sarah. Just to make sure that Hannah got well.”

     “How’s Sami holding up?”

     Frank handed the microphone to Brad.

     “Debbie gave her a sedative an hour ago and I put her to bed. I hope she sleeps through the night.

     “I’m worried about her because now she feels all alone in the world. And it breaks my heart.”

     “She’s not alone. She has you. Granted, you’re not much, but she’ll soon have the baby.”

     “Yeah, we talked about the baby today. And all she could say was, “Dad was looking forward to taking the baby fishing. Dad was looking forward to teaching the baby how to ride a horse. Dad was looking forward to teaching the baby gun safety…”

     “I doubt if the baby would have much interest in riding horses or shooting guns.”

     “You know what I mean, dumbass.”

     “All I’m saying is, I’m glad you’re there for Sami, to help her get through this. If she was still single, she’d have a lot harder time dealing with it.”

     “I know.”

     “Would you guys do me a favor?”

     “Sure. What?”

     “Would you keep an eye on Bryan for me, since I can’t be there? I feel bad because we’ve always been together to help each other when one of us had a crisis. This is the first time we’ve each had a crisis in two different places, and I feel bad that I’m not there for him.

     “Would you just give him some extra moral support if he needs it? He’ll be okay once Sarah is found and back home again. But in the meantime he’s probably going nuts.”

     “We’ll watch out for him. But do you want to hear something funny?”

     “Sure. What?”

     “He called us on the radio not ten minutes ago expressing the same concerns about you.”

     “Nice to know. Hey, I want to get back to Hannah. I’ll check back in tomorrow morning. And I’ll pray that they find Sarah by then.”

     “Okay, good buddy. Give Hannah our best wishes when she wakes up.”

     “Will do. Signing off now.”

     Mark walked back out to the hospital control center to find the same lieutenant pacing back and forth in an effort to stay awake.

     He was curious.

     “Hey, no offense, but I was just wondering. What does a hospital control center do, anyway?”

     The lieutenant stated the obvious.

     “Actually, not much this time of night. During the day they’re pretty busy. They dispatch all the ambulances and medevacs, answer emergency phone calls, work the poison call-in center, that kind of stuff.”

     “Oh. Okay. Hey, thanks for letting me use your radio.”

     “No problem.”

Chapter 48

     Mark stopped by the surgery department in search of the men’s shower room. He expected it to be a bustling place, but he had it all to himself.

     Apparently operations were another thing that weren’t performed much at night.

     He’d never had any surgeries done on himself. Unless broken limbs counted. But those were always set in emergency rooms or in doctors’ offices.

     He’d always been relatively healthy, but also very clumsy. He was the guy who fell off the roof one summer, then out of a tree the following summer. He was the guy who laid down his brand new motorcycle and skidded forty feet the second day he had it.

     So Mark was a terrible klutz, but was relatively inexperienced when it came to the hows and whys of surgical procedures. He remembered that every time his mom or dad or brother had surgeries done, they were always done in the morning.

     He wondered why.

     Maybe the surgeons liked to get their work done early so they could play golf in the afternoon.

     He’d have to find a surgeon and ask.

     His stomach started to growl again as he toweled off.

     “Oh, shut up,” he said. “We’re going there next.”

     He walked into the cafeteria a few minutes later, freshly scrubbed and shaven.

     And famished.

     Compared to the rest of the hospital, this place was quite busy. A serving line was in full operation, making pancakes and eggs to order. There were three people ahead of him.

     The man directly in front of him was short and stout. And it occurred to Mark that maybe the world really was getting back to normal. For years now he never saw a fat person. Food was so scarce, so hard to come by, that people all around him shed weight. People were getting more exercise too. Whether they farmed for their food or scavenged for it, they had to work. They no longer had the option of popping a microwave dinner in to cook and then plopping back down in front of the television while they waited for it. The obese became thin. The thin became thinner. It seemed there was no way to avoid it.

     Yet it happened so gradually that it didn’t dawn on Mark until now that the world in general had become slimmer and in better shape. Not because anybody wanted to, necessarily. But because they had to.

     So here in front of him was this portly man, and Mark wondered how he’d been able to gain so much of his weight back.

     Then the man behind the grill handed the man his plate.

     A stack of six pancakes and six slices of bacon.

     Oh.

     He couldn’t help but marvel that some people were getting back into the same bad habits they’d once had, without learning anything from them.

     The short order cook looked at Mark and asked, “What’ll you have?”

     “How about a cheese omelet? And can you throw some sliced jalapenos and onions on it if you have any?”

     “Sure.”

     “And a couple slices of bacon if you can spare them.”

     “No problem. Coming right up.”

     Mark’s curiosity got the best of him.

     “How do you guys manage to get fresh eggs and pork, and vegetables? Do you grow them yourselves out back?”

     “Oh, no. The Army’s got this huge growing operation over at the old Kelly Air Force Base. They grow cows and pigs by the thousands. We’re allotted one hog every two weeks. We try to stretch each one out until we get the next one, but sometimes we run out of pork for a couple of days.