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“Spoke to the Embassy. Since she’s not military, they want her to go straight to America after she’s stabilized. It’s going to be tough going for her, though.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It got out that she’d been kidnapped, and that her company screwed her over. It’s made national news. Everybody and their brother are going to want to interview her.”
Brax swallowed down bile. That was the last thing Jenny needed. “That’s all the more reason to take her to the American military hospital in Germany.”
“Can’t. The embassy is insisting that getting her back to the States and proving that she is well is their number one priority.”
“How’s Jase doing?” Ryker interrupted.
That gave Brax a moment to cool down and take Jenny’s temperature for the umpteenth time. It was one-oh-three point eight.
Dammit.
“I gave him something for the pain,” Nolan answered Ryker. “He’s out. From what I can tell there are no fragments in his leg, and if that’s the case I just want them to put him in a soft cast so they can operate on him in Landstuhl.”
The men on the comm all grunted in agreement.
It was decided that Kostya, Linc, Ryker, Gideon and Mateo would drive over the Indian border to Kolkata, and fly to Germany from there. In the meantime, Nolan would stay with Jase and Brax would stay with Jenny when they checked into the hospital.
Brax continued to hold Jenny in his arms as he watched Jase get immediate attention in the emergency room and rushed back through the double doors.
Nolan got the attention of one of the doctors who had assessed Jase and practically dragged him over to where Brax was standing with Jenny. The doctor took one look at Jenny and said, “She’s not a priority.”
“She absolutely is a priority,” Brax growled. “She’s severely dehydrated. She has pneumonia. Her temperature is over one-hundred and four degrees, and she has at least one broken rib.”
The doctor looked around the overflowing emergency room and hesitated. Then he slipped his stethoscope from around his neck and listened to Jenny’s lungs. He listened for maybe fifteen seconds before she started coughing. Deep racking coughs that had her weak arm creeping up her body to clutch at her side where her ribs were hurting.
The doctor looked up at Brax, and that was when Brax noticed he looked like a kid, despite his air of authority. “You’re right. We need to get her seen,” the doctor said. “Bring her back.”
Nolan followed Brax as he pushed through the double doors. Brax knew he needed to explain what needed to be done with Jase. None of the team wanted Jase’s surgery to be done here. He needed to be operated on at the military hospital in Germany. Where were the Embassy guys?
Brax laid Jenny down carefully on one of the beds in the ER, and a different doctor came over to assess her. While he examined her IV, he tried to get Jenny to answer questions, but it was no use, she was too out of it to answer, so Brax did.
The nurse was hooking the tubing to the IV and taking her temperature, blood pressure, pulse and oxygen levels.
“She seems severely malnourished, dehydrated besides having pneumonia. How did she get in this state?”
“Her name is Jenny Rivers. She was kidnapped twenty-eight days ago. I don’t know how much she was fed, but by the looks of her, not much.”
“Kidnapped?” The whites of the doctor’s eyes showed.
“Yes. Some of my friends and I rescued her yesterday. I’m convinced that at least one of her ribs is broken. I don’t know what kind of abuse she has been through.”
The doctor nodded. “We’ll need to get x-rays of her lungs and ribs after we get her fever down.”
“Her nose has been bleeding,” Brax told him.
The doctor pulled a scope off the wall and looked up Jenny’s nose. “There is a great deal of dried mud inside her nose, irritating the vessels. That and dehydration is what causes the bleeding. It’s nothing to worry about. Her fever is what concerns me the most.” He turned to the nurse. “Begin the protocols to reduce her fever and get a culture.”
The nurse nodded.
The doctor turned to Brax. “I’ll need you to wait in the waiting room.”
“That’s not going to happen. Ms. Rivers is an American citizen who was targeted by mercenaries. As soon as she is stable, the American Embassy is going to want to fly her to the States. It is my job to ensure her safety. I need to stay close to her, even while she is being treated in the hospital.”
The doctor gave him a long look. “All right. But don’t get in our way, otherwise I’ll call security.”
