Chapter 4

I dropped the knife I had been holding and raced for the girls' room. I drew my weapon as I approached their door. Ray and Jerry were only a few steps behind me and stayed outside to cover the hall, pistols drawn and eyes alert. I flew into the room and saw Rachel cradling Becca and stroking her hair as they rocked slowly back and forth.

As I approached them Rachel held a finger to her lips to silence me. I heard her cooing softly, "It's all right, Becca. Softly then, love... shhh. Its okay, we're safe now. Wayne will keep us safe." As she stroked Becca's hair I saw the tears trailing down Rachel's cheeks.

I motioned for Jerry and Ray to go ahead that everything was being taken care of. Jerry said softly, "We've got the watch, boss. Take care of the ladies and we'll keep an eye on things." They turned and moved back towards the kitchen and sent Maggie to us.

Maggie came into the room with her med kit, and quickly moved over to the bed. She moved so that Becca could see her before she sat on the bed, so as not to panic the stricken woman, and began trying to calm her hysteria. I watched as she swabbed Becca's arm and gave her an injection. A few minutes later Becca drifted off to sleep and they laid the sleeping woman on the bed. I mentioned the burn on her leg and Maggie, cursing Winslow the whole time, cleaned and dressed the wound before covering her up and bringing Rachel out of the room with her.

Maggie turned to Rachel and asked, "What set her off? When I looked in on you a bit ago you were both sleeping fine."

A tear ran down Rachel's face as she said, "She woke me and asked me where her master was. I told her that Roger wasn't her master anymore and that she had no master and as near as I can fathom, she panicked."

I took the elfin woman in my arms and held her for a few moments and moved all of us into the lounge and onto the couch. Maggie took a chair and asked "Do you know what he was doing to her? How did he get her to call him master?"

Rachel wiped her face on her sleeve and told us "I don't know what he was giving her but that vile Arab he kept at the house was giving her injections of some drug several times a day. The day they took me, the Arab did what he called a 'scratch test' on me with some drug and it made the site swell immediately and was painful for two more days. The Arab told him that if they used the drug on me it would kill me almost immediately. They started... raping me after the test showed he couldn't use his drug on me."

Rachel began to rock back and forth and I again held her and stroked her hair until she calmed down some.

Maggie frowned at me and said, "We need to call Mel and have her look for those drugs. If I know what he was giving her I may be able to counter its effects. At the very least I'll know better how to treat her."

I held out the encrypted phone and said "She's speed dial one. Keep it brief, they don't have that number and can't get it from our end but they may be able to track her end of things" She nodded and went into the kitchen as she dialed Mel's number.

When Maggie came back she handed Rachel a pill and a glass of water and said, "Take this. Your sister will be out for a least the next ten hours. She needs the rest and by then I should have some idea of what is going on and how to begin fixing it. That pill will help you sleep. You need to rest, too. This should let you get about six hours of uninterrupted sleep. It should prevent any nightmares and let you rest peacefully. I won't give these to you often but I think you need it right now."

Rachel took the pill and drank the water. Soon Rachel had nodded off as the drug took effect, so I picked her up gently, carried her up to her room and laid her gently on the bed. She snuggled into her pillow without as much as a whimper. She looked so calm and peaceful lying there.

I turned and limped over to my own room. I pulled out my swim trunks and quickly changed. As I was exiting my room I heard a low whistle. I turned and Maggie was standing in the hall; she was still in her scrubs from the hospital.

I smiled grimly and said, "Doctors must have a depraved sense of humor if you like what you see."

She cocked and eyebrow at me and asked, "What do you think I see, cowboy?"

I grunted, "A tired, overweight, half-crippled warhorse that would like to take a soak in that hot tub. I didn't bring my meds and my leg is killing me."

She frowned and shook her head at me when I told her I was in pain. "Unh uhn. Back in the bedroom for a minute, soldier boy, I'm going to check you out. Maybe I can help. We'll finish this conversation after I take a good look at you." I started to protest and she cut me off. "Stow it, Grunt! Rumor has it I'm a pretty fair doctor so go in there while I get my kit. Doctors orders!" She punctuated each word with a poke in my chest.

In my defense I was just too damned tired to argue. I was starting to come down from the adrenaline rush of the raid and flight. We were relatively safe for the moment. My mind knew this and had told my body, so I was crashing.

Maggie came back into my room with her doctor's bag and the large carryall containing the drugs Red had provided her. She had changed and was wearing an oversized terrycloth bathrobe. She smiled and said "This shouldn't hurt a bit."

She quickly looked me over and checked me for any other injuries. While she was examining the mound of scar tissue that used to be my right knee she got a thoughtful look on her face and asked "What does the knee feel like right now?"

I looked at her and said "It feels like it always feels. When I bend my knee I can feel something grinding in there but the surgeon says it's just my imagination. I had an appointment to see another doctor next week but it looks like I'm gonna miss that one."

She frowned and shook her head. "Let me guess: When you're on your feet for very long your knee aches and after a while it becomes inflamed and you have to get off it and soak it or put ice on it to reduce the swelling. Your therapist believes you but can't figure out what's going on or thinks you're not telling them everything you are doing to stress the joint."

My jaw dropped. "That's almost a verbatim quote of... of what they said last time I was in."

She ran her hand up my knee pushing gently. At one spot to the outside of the joint pain flared in my knee and I hissed and I jerked in pain. "I suspect that that is where you have something embedded in the connective tissues of your knee. The doctor who repaired your knee was either incompetent and missed something or he closed something up in there. When you walk it saws back and forth and this causes the inflammation. The inflammation puts pressure on the nerves and the result is flaring pain. I'd need an X-ray to see what exactly is going on in there but from the position I think it's working its way out and I might be able to remove it with a local and the field kit you got for me. I don't want to wait to long though. Every step you take puts more stress on the knee and it could end up cutting a nerve or tendon or ligament."