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CHAPTER ONE
THE NOISE HAD CHANGED. The steady drone of the engines had taken on a new pitch. Avery lifted his hat from over his eyes and sat up a little. Every bone in his body ached; muscles he hadn’t even known he had were protesting. Three plane journeys over twelve hours would do that to a man. It didn’t help that he’d been on duty for twenty-four hours before that.
He’d expected to have a few days’ rest before shipping out to Italy from Utah. But plans in the US Air Force often came unstuck.
His orders had changed overnight. A fellow physician who’d been scheduled to come to Japan had been struck down with a mystery illness. So, instead of flying over the boot-shaped coast of Italy, he found himself looking at the emerging coastline of Japan. The change of noise was due to the flaps moving and wheels coming down on the aircraft. His stomach growled loudly and the serviceman sitting next to him gave him a smile and passed over a packet of crisps. They weren’t flying on a commercial jet—there were no air hostesses, no bar and no food. They were flying on a military jet and it wasn’t exactly built for comfort. Avery couldn’t wait to find his accommodation and get his head down for a few hours. Sleep was all he cared about right now.
The plane landed with a bump. He pulled open the packet of crisps and started eating—the quicker he ate the sooner he would get to sleep. The jet took a few minutes to taxi to a halt. The rest
of the servicemen were grabbing their packs, ready to disembark.
Avery kept looking outside, trying to get a better feel for the base. It housed nineteen thousand servicemen and servicewomen and contained one of the biggest military hospitals. Set in the outskirts of Tokyo, the base was a home away from home. Most of the staff stayed on-site. There were stores, cafés, schools for the kids, places of worship and even a golf course. The base had been here since the end of the Second World War.
He waited until the rest of the servicemen disembarked before finally grabbing his backpack and walking down the steps of the plane.
The warm air hit him straight away. The base was situated on the coast, and the air was muggy. He could see the metropolis of Tokyo stretching in front of him. He smiled. A whole world he’d never experienced.
He was kind of excited. He’d been stationed in a range of bases all around the world. Normally, he spent a little time finding about where he’d be stationed. Europe. The Middle East. And numerous places around the US. This time around he hadn’t had a chance. He’d no idea what he’d find at Okatu.
He followed the rest of the servicemen into the main hangar. Transfer between bases always took a little paperwork. A few were already heading towards the housing department.
Avery sighed and completed his obligatory paperwork and picked up the information sheet on the base. His stomach growled again. There was no way he could sleep until he’d eaten. It made more sense to find something to eat first, then come back and speak to the housing officer to find out where he’d be staying.
He walked out of the building, glanced at his sheet and turned left. He took things slowly, trying to shake off all the aches and pains of travel. The base was huge and during the stroll he passed an elementary school, a middle school, a gymnasium, the officers’ club, a travel centre, a few shops and a library. It was a fifteen-minute walk before the ten-year-old hospital appeared before him.
There it was. The buzz. The tickle. That crazy little sensation he felt whenever he saw somewhere new. The William Bates Memorial Hospital was named after an aviator hero from the First World War. It had one hundred and fifty beds, an ER, four theatres, an ICU, a mother-and-infant care centre, a neonatal intensive care unit, a medical ward, a surgical ward and a mental health inpatient facility. He loved hospitals like this. Most surgeons liked to specialise in one area. The military gave surgeons that opportunity too—there were a few specialists already here. But Avery had never just wanted to work in one area. He liked variety—and here he would get it.
He started to walk towards the main entrance to the hospital, then changed his mind, turning right and heading towards the ER. He may as well get a look around the place.
The glass doors slid open just as a siren started to sound. He looked around. The main reception area was empty. Where was everyone?
It didn’t take long to find out. Someone came running towards him, making the doors ahead slide open. He took a quick glance and kept walking down the corridor.
The ER was set up like many he’d worked in before. Cubicles with curtains, some side rooms, a treatment room and a room with around ten people standing outside. Resus, the most important room in the ER.
A Japanese orderly rushed past, pushing a wheelchair. He threw Avery a second glance, looking him up and down. ‘You work here?’
He nodded and waved his ID. ‘From tomorrow. Captain Avery Flynn. I’m a doctor.’ He was relieved the man had spoken to him in English. He didn’t know a word of Japanese and he wasn’t sure if it was going to be a problem. Most military bases didn’t just serve their own personnel. Often they took cases from the surrounding areas. Having no grasp of the language could prove a problem.
The man gave him a nod. ‘No time for introductions. We’re expecting seven.’
He disappeared quicker than a cartoon character. Seven what? wondered Avery. ‘Oof!’
A force hit him from behind, knocking him clean off his feet and onto the floor. He barely had time to put out his hands to break his fall.
‘Get out of the way’ came the sharp voice.
All he could see was feet. Lots of feet, crammed into the resus room. He pushed himself up and shrugged off his backpack. If he was needed, he was needed.
A hand grabbed him from behind and a male nurse grinned at him. ‘Hey, you must be new. Falling for the nurses already?’
Avery blinked as he dumped his jacket next to his backpack and flashed his ID. ‘What...? Who was that?’
The guy hadn’t stopped smiling. ‘Faiyakuraka.’
‘What?’ Avery couldn’t quite make sense of the word.
The guy tapped him on the shoulder. ‘It’s Japanese for firecracker. But you can only call her that once you know her well. For you, it’ll be Katsuko.’ Then he shook his head. ‘Actually, let’s try to keep you safe. Just call her First Lieutenant Williams.’ He moved forward. ‘Now, let’s see if you’re any good or not.’ And with that, he disappeared into the scrum in front of them.
It was difficult to tell who was who. These people weren’t in regular military uniforms. The majority of them wore the usual garb for an ER—pale green scrubs. He had no idea who was a nurse, a doctor or an aerospace medical technician.
‘I need an airway. I need an airway now!’ came the shout.
Avery shouldered his way in.
It brought everything into focus. That, he could do.
He put up his hand. ‘I’ll do it.’ A few heads turned at the unfamiliar voice and a little space appeared in the crowd.
The woman who had sent him flying had her short dark hair leaning over the patient. Her head shot up and her eyes narrowed. She had the darkest brown eyes he’d ever seen.
‘Who are you?’
Blood. Everywhere. All over the chest of a young child. His reactions were instant. Now he understood the clamour around the bed. Hands were everywhere, pressing on the little chest, trying to stem the flow.
The woman was right. This young patient needed an airway now.
The large penetrating wound—a spear of some kind through the chest—told him everything he needed to know.
He moved to the top of the bed and nudged her out of his way. Or, at least, he tried to.
Her hips stayed firmly in place. ‘Who are you?’ She was practically growling at him.
He glanced at the nearby trolley, opening the first few drawers until he found what he needed. ‘Do we have IV access?’ he asked a nurse to his left.
‘Just,’ she said promptly.
A small, firm hand closed over his. He turned around. The woman who’d sent him flying was just about in his face. Her dark brown eyes could have swallowed him up. She spoke so quietly he was sure no one else could hear. ‘I’m not going to ask you again.’ She gave a squeeze over his hand—and this time her grip was like iron. ‘I’m just going to break your hand.’
He lifted his ID and slid it between both their faces. ‘Let me do my job. We’ve got six months to fight with each other.’
She was small, obviously of Japanese descent but her skin was slightly darker than he would have expected. Her hair was poker straight, cut very short at the nape of her neck but becoming longer down past her ears. From straight on it looked like a bob. A smart cut for a nurse, short enough to be off her collar but not long enough to need tying up every day.
There seemed to be something about her. A presence. She was like a cannonball. People paid attention to her even though she couldn’t be the highest-ranking person in the room. Far from it, in fact. She only looked in her mid-twenties.
Firecracker? He couldn’t remember what the Japanese word was but somehow the nickname suited her. It seemed to sum her up perfectly.
It was obvious that in this room people respected her. He liked that. He liked that she was direct and efficient at her job.
&nbs
p; Her eyes shifted and focused on the ID. She turned without a word and started shouting orders at others in the room. ‘Get an IV run through.’ She glanced at the endotracheal tube in the hand of her colleague. ‘I think we’ll need something smaller.’
Perfect. A nurse he could work with. All air force and military nurses and personnel were efficient and well trained. But he always worked best with those who could think ahead and weren’t afraid to voice their opinion. He had a sneaky suspicion that Katsuko—was that her name?—would never be afraid to voice her opinion.
Avery tried to ignore the bedlam around him. He tried to cut out the noise. There were two trolleys in the resus room and another team was working on another patient. They were moving like clockwork, performing cardiac massage.
He moved swiftly. ‘Any other doctors in here?’
‘Two are up on the helipad. They haven’t even managed to get the patient down yet.’ She pressed her lips together. ‘Blake won’t give up on the other kid. Not until he’s tried everything.’
The doctor attending to the little boy on the other trolley. Blake Anderson. The guy he was supposed to report to tomorrow. The scene on the other trolley was disheartening and he didn’t feel the urge to introduce himself right now. If he didn’t pay attention to the kid directly in front of him, he might end up resuscitating him too.
Avery took a breath and held out his hand. The area around this little boy’s neck and chest was swelling, a reaction to the severe injury that could compromise his airway. His sallow skin was losing its natural colour rapidly. A nurse was poised next to the IV meds, awaiting his instructions. He gave them quickly. Something for pain control. Something to sedate the boy and steroids to reduce the swelling and allow him to intubate. Airway first. Everything else later.
The nurse nodded and inserted the drugs into the IV cannula on the inside of the kid’s elbow.
‘ET tube.’ Avery held out his hand, bending down at the top of the trolley and tilting the little boy’s head. ‘Do we have his name?’
