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Mace started to feel his foot swell in earnest. He knew the venom took thirty minutes and they were at the twenty-minute mark. Yep, his foot was beginning to blow up like a balloon. Nate signed off on the sat phone. Mace wasn’t one to ask favors from some deity, but he did find himself praying that the snake hadn’t bitten into a major artery. If it had, he knew he’d die. He’d never make it to Cusco in time.
“Okay,” Nate murmured, leaning over Cale, “I’ll take over from here. You call the Army at the Lima airport. Get an ETA on that Hawk for me?”
“Hey,” Mace said, “how’s the shelf life on the antivenin? It’s only good for ninety days.”
“We’re within limits,” Nate told him. He put on yet another pair of latex gloves and quickly cleaned up the bloody area. “You’re going to be fine, Mace. We’ve done everything in time. I just need you to stay relaxed.”
Standard medical pablum, Mace knew, but he nodded and let Nate pretend it kept him calmer. Medics were funny people. Someone could be dying on them, but they would tell them they were fine. And Mace knew he wasn’t fine.
Cale turned and said, “Fifty-five minutes ETA,” to Nate.
Mace saw Nate’s face tense, but he said nothing as he quickly wrapped Mace’s swelling foot in loose gauze to protect it from further infection from the jungle Petrie dish. The longer it took to get him to a hospital, the less likely it was that he’d make it. This was the last thing Mace remembered.
Sierra had just finished her first cup of Saturday morning coffee when the phone rang. It was only six a.m. Who was calling at this hour? As she rushed to the phone on the wall of her kitchen, the late May sunrise was coloring the eastern sky a lush pink color outside. There was a Shield Security Memorial Day picnic on roster for this afternoon at a nearby park and she’d just been getting ready to make deviled eggs for all the staff who would be there. The sky was clear, and Spring had definitely sprung.
“Hello?”
“Sierra? This is Nate. I’m calling from Cusco.”
“Nate?” she gasped. “What’s wrong?” Her heartbeat tripled, her fingers closing tightly around the phone. Sierra stared blindly out the kitchen windows, not even seeing the deepening color of sunrise.
“Mace got bit by a Fer-de-lance viper in the jungle. I’m here at the Cusco hospital with him. Look, I’m sorry to land this on your doorstep, but he’s in bad shape.”
“Oh, God…. no…,” and Sierra gripped the counter. Of all things that could have happened, it was a viper that had gotten to him. Not a bullet. “H-how is he?”
“Critical,” Nate admitted heavily. “Listen, Cale and I are here with him. We’re doing everything medically and humanly possible for him. The docs here know how to treat this viper’s venom, but he got a shitload of it in his foot. The snake bit clean through his leather boot.”
“What can I do?” she asked, her voice wobbling with terror. Mace could NOT die! She felt pain gut her.
Nate said, “He told me before you left, that if anything happened to him? On his personal papers, you’re his point of contact. Did you know he put you down as his POA, power of attorney?”
“What?”
“Yeah, right here. I’m looking at the papers right now because Cale and I have to set up an Air Force C-130 to pick him up and take him to the nearest hospital to where you live. That would be Joint Base Andrews, right?”
She heard the stress in Nate’s voice. Blinking, stunned by the news, she stammered, “Yes… Andrews. Nate? When did this POA thing happen?” and she choked, emotion welling up through her.
“I don’t know, Sierra. I mean… well, hell, Cale and I knew there was something between the two of you. You’d have to be blind not to see it. Mace never said anything about it, though. Neither of us knew he’d put you down as his POA until he told me to give you these papers if anything ever happened to him down here. I promised I’d let you know…”
Touching her brow, her heart tearing with anguish, Sierra whispered, “I didn’t know about this at all, Nate… I’m sorry. Oh, God…” and tears jammed into her eyes, running down her drawn cheeks.
“I’m so sorry to drop all this on you,” he apologized, his voice cracking with raw emotion. “But Mace has you down as next of kin and his POA. That means you’re to make all decisions for him if he’s incapacitated. From the military’s view, you’re his legal guardian if he can’t make decisions for himself. And believe me, he can’t make any of them right now. They have him in ICU right now and he’s unconscious. They’re afraid he’s going to nosedive into a coma… and that’s the worst sign possible… I’m so sorry…”
Urgency thrummed through her. “Then, what do I need to do?”
“There’s a Colonel Jackson who’s his commander out of the base in North Carolina where we’re stationed whenever we’re back stateside. He’s going to be calling you to verify you are his POA. Just go along with him, Sierra. Tell him that yes, you’re Mace’s legal guardian, that you know you’re his POA.”
“But, what about his father? Hank Kilmer?”
“Mace doesn’t have him on this contact form, Sierra. Only you. Are you up to this? I’m sorry I can’t be up there to help you or explain this in more detail. I-I’m not sure he’s going to pull through. You need to know that. He… uh… he became conscious for a few minutes in ER after we got him flown in here, and he asked for you. Said to contact you and I was to give you this info.”
Staggered, Sierra forced her emotions away. “Should I fly into Cusco? To be with him?”
“No. We’re going to know by the end of the next twenty-four hours whether he’s going to pull through or not. They’ve already given him a platelet transfusion. He took a shitload of venom into him. The docs here are wanting to amputate his foot from the ankle down because of the severe tissue damage from the viper bite. I’ve been fighting with them on it all morning to stop it from happening. What I need from you is to talk to his primary physician here at the hospital. Tell him you do NOT authorize the amputation. I’m going to give you the doctor’s fax number and you send him a copy of the POA, so he knows it’s legal and he’ll abide by your decision. Mace is tough. If anyone’s going to pull through, he will. And he’ll be damn well good and pissed off if they cut off his foot in his unconscious state. You can stop that now.”
Shaken, Sierra tried to think coherently. She grabbed the small pad and pen she had hanging beneath the wall phone. “Can you have the doctor call me so I can talk with him and tell him I’m faxing the POA legal document?”
“Yeah, here’s his name and numbers. I’m going to hunt the bastard down right now. In the meantime, take down my and Cale’s cell phone numbers as well. These aren’t burners, they’re our personal phones. One of us will be in contact with you the minute anything changes. What I need from you is to know that if he stabilizes and gets out of ICU, they’re flying him into Joint Base Andrews.”
