Bond awoke, light was streaming through the blinds which were only partially down. Stretching he felt the tightness of the dressing on his wound. Checking his shoulder for movement, he found it did not hurt too much.
His surroundings were familiar, a single patient ward. However, the equipment all turned off. Looking around he found an attention button and pressed it.
Then it started to come back to him, the shots, the screaming, the voices and then vague recollections of being in a helicopter. He had no idea how long he had been in the hospital, or how long he had been out.
Standing gingerly the tiled floor was cold. Picking up a robe which laid at the end of his bed, he parted the blinds with two fingers expecting to see the Phoenix Skyline, except it wasn’t there, only desert, military vehicles and military personnel. The door behind him swung open. ‘Tut, tut Samuel you shouldn’t be up until the doctor has seen you.’
Now he was confused, he remembered the shock of being shot and the searing hot pain in his chest, but looking now there was only bruising around the dressing. ‘How long have I been in here?’ expecting the worse.
‘Don’t you remember, you were bought here yesterday morning.’ She said looking concerned. ‘I think you should get some rest until the doctor comes round.’
It was a while before anyone else came round, Bond had checked the room and his personal effects were not here. He could only assume that his team knew where he was.
Around mid morning the doors opened again and in walked Agent Rothman, the CIA agent who had assisted with the hunt for Santana. Bond drew a deep breath expecting a barrage of questions from the spook, but he only walked over to the bed and threw a set of military coveralls onto the bed along with a bag. ‘Get dressed your ready to leave.’ Since they had met, Rothman had enforced everything Bond thought he knew of the CIA, they were arrogant and men of few words.
Checking the pouch Bond found his private effects, a P226 with no magazine, wallet, a silver chain with a cross on it and his mobile phone. At least he would be able to speak with the unit once they were outside.
Hurriedly he dressed, obviously his wounds had not been as bad as he had first thought, Bond had only ever been shot three times before and luckily, he had never been seriously wounded. But from what he remembered Holly’s face had shown anxiety at the extent of his wounds, maybe it had been the twilight that had caused her to overreact and think his wounds were worse than they actually were.
Rothman lead the FBI agent outside where a blacked out people carrier awaited. Getting inside there was only Rothman and the driver. Immediately they were in the driver took off.
‘So what happened yesterday Rothman?’ He was anxious to find out how the manhunt had ended. Santana, cornered by at least twenty men with more on their way had no way out.
‘You’ll find out when you get back and speak with your unit.’ He offered little more than was necessary and the fifteen-minute journey seemed like hours. The only information he imparted was they had not recovered the satellite piece.
When they stopped it was next to a black helicopter similar to one the CIA had yesterday. Before they boarded Bond pulled his mobile phone and dialled Holly, her mobile phone rang and rang was passed to her message service. Leaving a brief message, he then called Mac. The phoned started beeping, looking at the display it was flashing message ‘Low Battery’. Bond pocketed the Mobile and stepped on board the dark helicopter. Inside it was completely dark apart from the eerily green glow from control panels. The pilot turned to check his passengers and Bond noted that he could not see his face his visor pulled right down was completely black.
They took off and flew for an hour or so, bond found it hard to determine, as his watch had not been in his personal effects.
‘This is where we part company Bond’ Rothman announced as they landed, stepping into the light Bond could see that they were at a major airport. ‘Go straight through there and you are in the arrivals lounge.’ Bond looked to where he was pointing and spotted a door about fifty meters away. Turning to thank the CIA agent, he was already leaving and making his way towards a Leer Jet parked only a short distance away. Therefore, Bond made his way to the arrivals lounge.
Making his way through the arrivals lounge he pulled a credit card from his wallet as he spied a pay phone.
Sitting in the reception area, Lee and Mac were getting restless. Lee had known his unit leader for only a few weeks but had already developed a deep respect for him. Now the boss had been missing for over a day and all their lines or enquiry had resulted in dead ends. He noticed that while they had been sitting there Mac had been unusually quiet.
They both started when Mac’s mobile phone began to ring. Checking the display, he did not recognise the number. ‘MacIntire.’ He said in the most informal voice he could muster.
‘Mac, its Bond come and pick me up.’
The disbelief registered on his face immediately and Lee was quick to pick it up. ‘Who is it?
‘Where are you and more to the point where the hell have you been?’ The flood of relief made Mac angry, the boss had been missing and was now calling sounding casual as if nothing had happened.
‘I’m in the arrivals lounge of Phoenix airport, I’ll meet you outside.’ Bond offered no explanation for his absence as he knew it would take to long and right now, he needed to get to grips with it himself.
‘Right, we’ll pick you up in fifteen minutes.’ Turning to Lee with an almost blank expression Mac offered the little information, he had. ‘That was Bond, come on were going to pick him from the Airport.’
Lee was almost as confused as Mac and showed it. ‘The Airport?’
Both Agents headed towards their loan car and made their way across town to the Airport. Mac let Lee drive while he started to telephone around to inform all those involved in the search for Bond.
Lee waited in the car as Mac wandered into the Airport. It had not taken long to spot Bond, waiting there in khaki coveralls holding a bum bag in his hand. The two agents quickly walked back to the car and Mac noted that Bond was in exceptionally high spirits, he had a mountain of questions to ask but decided to wait until they were in the car.
Lee was relieved to see Bond and pulled out into the traffic to start the journey back to the Holiday Inn. ‘So where you been, everyone has been looking for you and why didn’t you call? Lee had seized the moment to steal the wind from Mac’s sails by getting the question in before him.
‘I don’t know, it was some military base around here. Apparently, the guy with the back injury was a CIA agent. The CIA didn’t want him going to one of the Phoenix hospitals and redirected the helicopter to another base within the area.’ Bond said casually.
‘You’re looking well for someone who has been shot in the chest, Holly said your wounds were very serious.’ Mac had worked with Holly for only a week and so far had no grounds not to believe her professional judgement. She had shown she was good in her field and her medical capabilities were almost as good as his were. Yet Bond was walking and talking as if he had never been shot.
Unbuttoning the coveralls, Bond pulled the dressing aside. It revealed only a scar that looked as if it had healed over already. ‘I don’t think it was as bad as reported, maybe it was the light or it bled a lot, but it feels alright now. Just a bit of tender from the bruising.’
Mac was sceptical but let the matter rest for now until he could speak with Holly again regarding the matter.
‘Why didn’t you call, I’ve had the everyone looking for you including our boss and the Assistant Director for Phoenix.’ It was Mac chance to vent some of the anger that had started to swell within him.
‘I only woke this morning, apparently I was in surgery most of yesterday and have been sleeping the effects off since I came out.’ Even to Bond that sounded strange. ‘I did leave a message late this morning on Holly’s message service but the battery of my mobile ran out when I tried to call you. Anyone got a spare battery or charger so I can get it going again?’
Mac gestured towards a pile of bags behind Bond. ‘That’s your gear from the motel behind you.’ Mac was not convinced the wound Sam had shown was nearly completely healed and only showed signs of bruising. ‘Holly was properly still asleep, she had a rough time of it yesterday.’
Bond rummaged through his bags, picked up a spare cell, and plugged it into his mobile phone. Turning he looked concerned at Mac. ‘She is ok isn’t she?’
‘Yea, she’s fine just needs some rest.’