Chapter 33

David sat at the bar. Even in the dim smoky room the noise and cheering out on the street filtered through. "At least the barman doesn't have the radio going" he thought. His leg was starting to ache, so he got from the stool and limped over to a table with a padded cured high backed bench partially surrounding it. Settling in and stretching his leg out in front of him, he sipped his beer and thought about the past several weeks.

The dull ache in his leg reminded him of the moment when he woke that terrible evening to such intense pain. Even when he was being tortured by the Japs – it hadn't been as bad. His moaning had brought Julia over to him. "It's OK my love – you will be OK." She murmured it over and over again. David could hear her voice catching and he felt a heavy lead weight settle in his stomach. She's trying to reassure herself" he reasoned. "This is going to be bad"

He knew that Julia had seen much death and violence and bodily damage. This did not give him much hope for his pain to go away any time soon.

Suddenly there was a muffled explosion and the room shifted, and the walls groaned. "I'm on the sub" he thought, "and the Russians are trying to get us." As his mind continued to clear, he started to make out the sounds of others who were also in some pain.

"Josh..." he whispered. Julia understood.

"He has a few broken bones and bullet holes, but nothing too bad." she replied. "Apart from our dead – you are our most serious patient." David tried open his eyes. Nothing happened – he couldn't see. He struggled to raise himself from the bed, only to have Julia forcefully push him down onto his back. "Don't move my love, be still!" Here voiced seemed ragged. "The doctor wants you to remain still. I'll get him to come and give you some more morphine."

David's sense of panic was not receding – but he gritted his teeth and tried to breath deeply. The pain was practically unbearable. He realised he must have some broken ribs. He tried to make small movements with his fingers and toes – they seemed to be bandaged. His arms and legs seemed to in casts. He couldn't easily move his head - "maybe a neck brace" he thought.

Another explosion – but not as close – maybe the destroyers on the surface were moving away.

In a moment of clarity, just before the doctor came and injected him, David realised that the mission to get Popov could not proceed. Without him there would be no hard evidence to impeach the President – and Britain would sooner or later cease to exist as a free country. He felt the failure of it deeply. His thoughts began to break up and he drifted off into a troubled sleep.

"Damn bloody tin can!" The voice woke David up. "Bloody tin can, bloody Russians! He continued. It was Josh – grumbling from somewhere behind and to his left.

"Could you stop with moaning Josh – I'm trying to get some sleep here!" David quipped.

"David! Thank God you're alright! I'd get up and come and hug you if only the bloody Doctor hadn't strapped me into this torture device."

"By torture device do you mean your bed?" David inquired.

"Bloody Yank! Just goes to show what sort of uncomfortable sleeping arrangements you have to put up with in the colonies! We refined types from the Mother country have more exacting standards!

As he listened to Josh pontificate regarding feather beds and Egyptian cotton sheets – David could also hear the normal sounds of a submarine. Maybe the destroyers had given up, and they were on their way home. Thinking became too much of an effort and he quickly fell asleep once more.

"Colonel!" He struggled to get up before realising he was constrained. "Easy David!!" He felt a hand gently touching his shoulder. "I'm Captain Bugges – I'm your Doctor. I am going to take the bandages from around your head. You suffered a major skull fracture – I not sure how severe the damage might have been to your sight – so I want you to let me know what is happening."

Slowly the doctor began the process of unwrapping his head. Gradually David began to see some light. He warned the Doctor that it might be too bright – someone turned the cabin light off. Finally the bandages were off.