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‘We’ll want to evacuate a couple of the severely ill but stable patients that we can’t afford to leave behind if we can help it,’ Bridget interjected quickly.
‘Mandy didn’t mention it,’ pointed out Dean.
‘I know, but she will want to. I can guarantee it.’ There was nothing personal in Dean’s uncertainty, Bridget knew that, but she’d worked on enough projects over the years to be confident of her facts. ‘I understand you’ll need to contact her for confirmation but if you could factor it in. And if you could provide any additional support in that area.’
‘How many??
?? Hayden asked her.
Later, she would take her time mulling over the glorious fact that he hadn’t questioned her, he’d merely accepted. Later, though. Not now.
‘We have three four-by-fours for staff and a couple of patients. I think we’ll want to bring a minimum of four more who can’t be left. More, if you could accommodate them.’
‘Okay.’ Hayden dipped his head, adding more names to the list. ‘Dean, if you can ready a second DROPS to act as an ambulance. I’m thinking Dutton and Chester to drive, charity workers in the back with the patients.’
‘I’d maybe swap Dutton for Gould,’ Dean recommended. ‘Dutton pulled some kind of injury doing some groundworks yesterday. Not serious but I’d rather have another second driver.’
‘Fine. And speak to Carl, the infantry platoon commander, about picking a section to escort.’
‘Will do. I’ll head back now. Are you on your way?’
‘My guys will finish up here and then we’ll head out,’ Hayden confirmed, handing his second-in-command the list of names. ‘And, Dean, best let the embassy know.’
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THE TENT WAS ROASTING. Packed with jostling bodies and feverish conversation. But everyone fell silent the instant Hayden walked in, flanked by Dean and Mandy.
‘Okay, guys, as you’re all aware there have been escalating attacks on several of the villages in the region,’ Hayden began without preamble. ‘You’ll need to prepare for an emergency evacuation to Rejupe and the army will offer support.’
‘What about the patients?’ Bridget asked at once, her eyes on Mandy for fear that she’d give herself away if she looked at Hayden.
‘It has been decided that you’ll take the most serious of the patients only,’ Hayden answered instead.
As one, the medical staff all turned to Mandy, waiting for her to argue the case for staying. The refugees needed them. But uncharacteristically Mandy was silent.
‘How bad was the attack?’ Lisa demanded after a moment. ‘You’re the army. Can’t you guys fight them off?’
Bridget tried not to look at Hayden, but the draw was too strong.
‘We were sent here to build infrastructure for the surrounding area, not as a fighting force. We didn’t anticipate any hostile activity and we don’t have authorisation to engage them. You need to get ready to evacuate.’
‘We can’t just leave,’ Lisa argued. ‘Mandy, please. You can’t want us to leave?’
‘I do understand how you feel,’ the older woman replied empathetically. ‘Really, I do. But it isn’t a risk the charity can afford to take. I’ll need most of you to be ready to leave in the first wave back to Rejupe if necessary, taking the most critical patients and as much kit as we can.’
‘We can’t just leave the rest of the patients,’ Bridget pointed out. ‘They still need our care.’
‘We’ll keep a small group here—I’ll be one of them—to keep things ticking over,’ Mandy confirmed. ‘But if things get too dangerous, we’ll have to leave, too.’
As if they truly just thought this was a genuine, if tense back and forth between colleagues.
‘But we have a troop of Royal Engineers,’ someone said. ‘As well as a detachment of infantry a couple of hundred metres away. Surely these renegades would have to be crazy to attack us?’
Mandy nodded and shrugged all at once.
‘All the more reason to believe that they’re getting more and more desperate if they’re heading down this way, knowing all of that.’
‘And desperate groups are unpredictable groups,’ Hayden added. ‘We can’t assume they won’t get desperate enough to kidnap and ransom a charity worker.’
