Page 38 of Lucky Charm
“Did I mention how much I hate being cold?”
“Once or twice. We get in the rescue chopper, and you get the first blanket.”
“Oh wow, don’t spoil me.” She grinned at him, her confidence returning as she managed to bind Quaid’s wound.
Twenty minutes later with several short direction briefs, Carter spoke. “Coming in behind, Alpha One.”
“Copy.” Hunt helped roll Quaid to his back. “Carter is close.”
“Good. I want to get some pain meds in him.”
Hunt lifted his weapon and moved toward Cait in case anyone arrived instead of Carter. Another explosion in the distance sounded like their confusion tactics had worked. The enemy was in the wrong place.
A shush of snow and Carter appeared in front of him. “Who’s hurt?”
He glanced over at Cait. “Quaid.”
“Give me your bag, Carter. I want to get some pain meds into him, then Hunt wants to move.”
“Anything behind you, Carter?”
“No, we spooked them good. Worked like we thought. They moved farther east.”
“Well, now we’ll have to hope they don’t catch a clue and screw up our plan to meet our ride.”
“We on that?” Carter handed Cait the necessary drugs from his pack.
“Yeah, Baxter went over to establish contact. Let’s move. I’ll carry Quaid. Can you handle Doc?”
“Yeah.”
Carter and Cait finished with Quaid and bundled him to protect his wound.
She rose and looked the injured man over. “That’s the best I can do until we get someplace more secure. There’s no exit hole but I couldn’t look thoroughly.” Quaid groaned but didn’t wake.
“He’s going to be dead weight, LT.” Carter helped Doc move out of the way.
“Understood. Can’t be helped.” Hunt handed Carter his weapon and bent to lift Quaid over his shoulder in a fireman carry. His back was going to need a spa vacation when this was over. “I’ll bring up the rear. Go first with Doc, Carter.” He took his weapon back and shifted the man’s weight until he was in a balanced position.
Cait had become an expert on getting on a man’s back. She hopped onto Carter’s back as if she’d been doing it all her life.”
“Good job, Doc.” Carter grinned at her.
“I’m trainable.”
Impatience roared through Hunt’s gut. Tapping it down, he rebalanced Quaid on his shoulder. “Let’s move, Carter.”
The trail was a slushy mess of snow now. The temperature had risen enough for a constant drip of the melting snow. They moved slowly, the time ticking off in Hunt’s head. He was in the best place possible. Protecting Cait’s but taking care of his team.
Chapter Seven
“This may hurt a bit.” With no pause between words and actions, Cait irrigated the wound on Quaid’s side, ignoring his hiss of pain. Hunt leaned over Cait’s shoulder and watched her work.
Mid-afternoon and they were stalled again under a rocky overhang with Quaid desperately needing more medical attention. Hunt waited for updates from the team working on misdirection and rescue contact, as well as for Cait to stabilize Quaid.
“Who are these guys? They can’t all be Haquiri’s people.” Quaid’s words slurred as he hissed again at Cait’s treatment.
“That’s for later determination,” he answered, choosing non-descript over pointless speculation. He wasn’t having an in-depth mission discussion in front of Cait. It was bad enough that the CIA hijacked a medical mission to get access. He wasn’t explaining that one either.
