Page 33 of Close Pursuit

The bastard went down, spouting blood everywhere. Jesus. What a mess.

“Who are you working for?” Alex demanded, already sliding his pack off his shoulders.

“Fuck you,” the guy snarled.

Alex pulled out an inflatable, internal pressure bandage. It looked like a deflated condom. Inserted into a puncture wound and inflated, its pressure stopped bleeding from the inside out. It was designed for wounds exactly like the one he’d given his opponent.

“Know what this is?” he asked tersely.

“Yeah.”

“You can have it if you tell me who you’re working for. Otherwise, you’re gonna bleed out in about two minutes. Your choice.”

At least the guy didn’t tell him to fuck off. In fact, the man actually seemed to consider the offer.

Alex counted the seconds in his head. “Sixty seconds or so, left, buddy. You should be starting to feel cold by now. Lightheaded. Maybe even having trouble breathing while blood starts to back up into that lung I nicked.”

The guy was silent but his jaw muscles flexed convulsively.

“I’ve got nothing against you, dude. I’ll even insert the pressure balloon for you. But I need to know who your boss is.”

“I don’t know. I was contacted from an encrypted website. They mailed me a burner phone and send me texts message.”

“Got that phone on you now?”

A pause. A rattling breath.

“If you die, I’m gonna search you and take it, anyway.”

“Pouch. Left hip,” the guy gasped. He was starting to make a death rattle when he inhaled.

Alex opened the pouch quickly and pulled out a cell phone. Not fancy, not crappy. Anonymous.

“Gimme that balloon, Koronov!”

This guy knew his real name?

That narrowed down considerably the list of who might have sicced this man on him.

Alex knelt beside the guy and jammed the balloon into the wound. Unlike birthing babies, he had a ton of experience with knife wounds from working in the prison infirmary. With quick efficiency, he inflated the balloon and blocked the bleeding. He applied a pair of butterfly bandages to hold the wound shut.

“Maybe you live, maybe you don’t,” Alex said briskly. “You waited a long time to play ball with me. Keep it clean and dry. Here’s some tape and clean gauze for you. Rest and drink a bunch of fluids to replace the blood you lost. No strenuous activity for three months, and see a doctor ASAP for real stitches.”

“You shitting me?” the guy muttered.

Alex shrugged as he rummaged in the guy’s hip pocket and came up with a set of keys. “Like I said. It’s nothing personal. If I wanted you dead, I’d have slit your throat when I first jumped you. Nice moves, but the way.”

“Fuck you,” the guy sighed as Alex tucked the phone and keys into his own pocket.

“You’re welcome,” Alex replied dryly.

He estimated the guy had hiked a quarter-mile from wherever he’d stashed his vehicle. It took Alex a while to backtrack to about the right area and hunt around until he spotted the brush-covered lump. But it was worth it as he started the four-wheeler’s engine and headed for Katie and Dawn.

Now they could reach their destination in one night, and maybe Baby Dawn stood a real chance of surviving the fiasco of her birth, after all.

Katie huddled over the baby in panic as the engine came closer and closer and got louder and louder.

Please God, let Alex not be dead. Please let whoever was on that ATV go right on past her and Dawn. Should she use the radio now? Call for help while she still had a chance?

---