Chapter 46

Standing in the terminal waiting for Sven to find a jet and a pilot to take me to Antonia, I stared at my own reflection in the glass. I wondered how long Sven was going to take, I was trying to stay calm, letting Sven do his job as my own jet was out of service being repaired. I knew I had not been standing there long but I felt the need to move so I walked across the mostly empty lounge, only stopping when I made it to the other side to look out that window at the rain that was falling there too.

The first message was that Antonia and several others had been involved in an accident down in the new section of the tunnel, helicopters had been summoned to fly the injured to treatment. As far as the list of dead there was only one that Thor had stated whom it was I did not know and truthfully did not care as he had already stated Antonia was being flown to a hospital.

Walking back to the spot I held previously, I replayed in my mind again trying to remember anything I might have missed the first second or even third time I asked Sven what Thor had said. Each time the conversation replayed the same.

Turning to talk to the other side once again, I paused as I heard footsteps approaching. Looking up I could see Sven walking my way with three other people, two men and a woman. Sven did not look happy. Still approaching he answered my unspoken question, saying, "Deific, Thor called again, Antonia is being airlifted to Athens."

"Why Athens and not a closer hospital?"

"Thor is reporting that Antonia was the most severely injured of those recovered so far, unconscious and bleeding from her head when guards made it to the tunnel. When he last saw her as she was being loaded onto the helicopter she was still unconscious. Thor is also reporting the tunnel has been flooded up past the bend."

"Have Thor tell the doctors to keep her alive until I get there. You know what I can do."

"Yes Deific, I understand, Thor was not allowed to accompany her on the helicopter as he is not her family."

"Fine then, tell her father and have him keep the doctors away." I shot back.

"Deific, Thor is also reporting he is one of the missing," Sven replied.

"Fine, call the hospital and tell them. Next question, do we have a plane yet?"

"Yes and no Deific, the charter service has the plane but no pilots on call this morning. They are trying to get a pilot as we speak. I may have an alternative though; while I was trying to arrange transportation, I called our hosts to cancel your meeting later today. Mr. Oldsman is the Ambassador's aide, I explained the reason for canceling our meeting and he offered, with the Ambassador's blessing, the use of their diplomatic jet. He says the jet was scheduled to return to Israel today so a short stop in Athens is not a problem. I accepted on your behalf."

"How soon will the jet be ready?"

Sven smiled pointing out of the window. Following where he was looking there was a jet filling the window of the terminal just waiting. Turning back, I offered, "Mr. Oldsman I presume?" extending my hand. He took it and we talked for a few seconds before I turned to Sven asking if he notified the US Government to which he nodded. Turning back to Mr. Oldsman, I offered, "It is always good to know who's one's friends are."

Nodding, he replied, saying, "It is and one day soon we would like to sit down and talk business for a while." Before I could interrupt, he shook his head, adding, "Today is not that day, today you need to get on that plane and allow us to fly you to your wife."

After another round of handshakes Sven, my guards and I did just that stepping out into the rain to board the diplomatic jet with the symbol of Israel on the tail. Once aboard the pilot did not even wait for us to take our seats as I felt the jet start to move down the taxiway. Mere seconds after I was buckled in, the engines picked up and sooner than I thought, we were hustling down the runway, to leap into the darkened sky.

For the next couple of hours I worried about Antonia and wonder what the Israelis wanted from me. Taking their offer of the plane without knowing what they wanted in return was risky, getting to Antonia was more important. In the past, the Israelis had been more than fair and the people I dealt with in the past knew what I could do so I did not expect any treachery from them.

Thankfully, for my sanity the flight was mercifully short as I noted we were already descending into Athens before the sun even began to lighten the horizon. My friends went beyond just supplying a jet to get me to Athens as the pilot came over the plane's intercom saying transportation to the hospital had already been arranged to take me to the hospital.

Arriving at the hospital, I realized someone had already leaked to the media there had been an accident as dozens of cameras flashed when I emerged from the car I had been riding in. Ignoring them, I walked into the hospital to be met by a nurse who had been informed Antonia's husband had arrived. I had no idea who had done me that service but I would find out in time and show my appreciation because I was soon standing outside the operating room my wife was in, the operating room nurse waiting for me.

After introducing herself, (she spoke English), she explained the care Antonia was receiving since she had arrived nearly three hours earlier. Even with the hospital ignoring my instructions as to keeping her stable until I arrived, I could not fault what they were doing as she was saying Antonia's internal injuries were making it increasing difficult to stabilize her compounded by the head injury she received in the tunnel. The nurse had questions for me, which at that time I could not answer saying I had been in Paris when the accident happened but I would get the answers shortly when the rest of the team arrived.

The problem to getting my security to Athens was twofold as the pilot of my helicopter was also one of my guards but right then he was one of the missing as he had been with Antonia when the accident happened. During the day that would not be too much of an issue as we could simply call up a charter service to have one brought out when we wanted it. Only this was Greece and when things were not planned in advance people went home leaving no one to man the phones in their offices until the next morning. Or I should say, Thor and the rest arrived at seven as people showed up there at six. I would solve that problem, as I would simply purchase more helicopters and a couple more pilots. I told Sven what I wanted.

Thor's report on the accident was worse than I first thought, he had a casualty list of everyone injured and missing and at the top of the list was Antonia's father who had not been found but was known to be down with Antonia at the chamber with the doors. In addition to him, three of our engineers were injured but flown to other hospitals. There were three others missing giving me a total of three injured and four dead. I took it all in and was simply sick to my stomach; I knew them all when Thor gave me their names.

Thor did have an answer as to what happened saying the engineers had been working on cutting the hinges of the doors per Antonia's instructions as all of them were interested in what was on the other side of the doors. When the engineers finished cutting the first hinge (they were the welders on the ship) they started on the second hinge but before they could cut through the second hinge, the door gave way with Antonia being struck by the door propelled by a torrent of water pressurized by the ocean which the door was holding back. Having received his report, I had him return to the island while I had Sven try to locate divers available for rescue work and a long-term contract in case they saw more down there than I wanted the world to know as the accident asked even more questions that at this time could only be added to my list.

Thor's report was the distraction I needed as no sooner than I sent him back, Antonia's surgeon emerged to talk to me and let me know she was out of surgery. Being out of surgery was the good news, the bad news were her injuries with the first being Antonia had lost the baby having been hit by the door then slammed into the wall. He rattled through the rest of her injuries including broken bones as well as a fractured skull, but I was not listening, I was thinking about our baby.

When he finished stating everything wrong with her, he said the one thing that perked me up, "You can see her now." His statement got me away from my thoughts about our baby as he added he had done his best to do as little as possible according to my request, saying if did not recognize my name he would have done more but had read and seen articles about me when I was younger. All he asked was to be allowed to see what I did. Right then I only wanted to get to Antonia, knowing I could do a lot more than most doctors could. Being shown into Antonia's recovery area, I told the doctor to have a seat while Sven only got a look who nodded back to me taking up position outside of the room. All I told the doctor after that was to stay out of my way and keep everyone else out. Taking Antonia's hand, I found my focus and went to work.

Starting at the top of her head, I discovered the door that had hit her had done a lot more damage in addition to slamming her into the wall, as there were numerous broken bones I had to put back in place and align in addition to her fractured skull. One of the things the doctor said he had to do was remove several fragments of Antonia's skull as she had a nasty concussion on her brain that would put anyone down for the count, if not longer. I did what I could to reduce the swelling further but there was not a lot more I could do at that moment.

Her spine was intact though there was bruising there too and did what I could to mitigate the damage. The rest of her body was not much better with injuries to her organs that while present did not rate a surgeon to cut her open to do the repairs. The only organ I found that without me would need to be removed was her spleen but thankfully once I was done, removing it would not be necessary. I even found the piece of Antonia's skull that had been removed; the doctor had literally put them in her abdomen keeping them fresh long enough for the swelling to go down and he could put the pieces back allowing her body to heal her head just like any other fracture.

Checking her lower anatomy I found where the door had struck her and the location of the bruising and the depth left no doubt in my mind why she had miscarried, the bruise had crossed her body and was nearly six inches wide. I did what I could in there to reduce the swelling keeping to my rules because if I did too much at one time, I could kill her. With a mental sigh, I went to work repairing what I could for best effect. How long I worked on her, I had no idea other than the fact that I could feel myself drawing power from around me.

Waking up I found myself still holding Antonia's hand though when exactly I had fallen asleep I did not know. Looking around the room, I spotted Sven sitting in a chair asleep while two of my guards stood outside the doorway evidently keeping everyone out. The doctor who had been in the room when I sat down with Antonia was nowhere to be seen.

Feeling for Antonia I could feel that she was comfortable though looking at her face I was glad she was unconscious as the bruising I had seen in her muscle tissue on the inside were now showing on the outside making her look as if she and I had gone a couple rounds without pads.

I knew of course the bruising would be the worst thing to be seen on the outside, it was the reduced levels of brain activity that concerned me. I knew of the possibility as the doctor explained her condition with the concussion she came in with and the possibility of a coma. Feeling the lack of significant brain activity, I did the only thing I could do and that was let nature take its course and wait. Having nothing else to do I simply sat there holding her hand and waiting like everyone else wondering if there was anything else I could do for her. Seeing nothing that she needed I put my head back down on the hand I was holding which one of my guards noticed who simply nodded to me before turning back around manning his post.

The next time I woke up I did not even bother to move as I was still holding Antonia's hand, so I simply found my focus and checked for any change in her brain activity. Sighing at the lack o change in her brain activity, I scanned the rest of her body looking for anything I may have missed. Finding her body healing normally, I pulled out wondering if I would have been happier if there was something wrong I could repair versus finding nothing wrong with her and all I could do was sit and wait for her to come out of her coma normally.

Returning to my own body, I let my focus fade to find that Sven was no longer in the room with me though another guard was sitting at the table along with two more standing outside the doorway. The first person to speak though was Antonia's surgeon, who said, "Your Storm Troopers are quite good. They have been standing there in pairs for two days, only allowing in a single nurse at a time. Then there are the doctors who they have not allowed any to pass with the exception of myself, why is that? As a final question, why do they refer to you as Deific?"

Diverting him for a second, I asked, "How is Antonia doing?"

"She is young and strong so whatever you did for her did not harm her, other than her head injury, she could probably get up and walk out of here right now."

"That is why they refer to me as Deific. Everyone who works for me gets the same level of care. Do you remember Korea?" I paused. With his nod, I continued, "Most of them were there with me and although we avoided the blast a few were injured and would've probably of died except for me being there. Knowing what I did for them, they now call me Deific."

The doctor and I talked for nearly an hour. At first I wondered why I was giving him the information I was but I soon discovered I was learning a few things from him as I never realized or contemplated I had fans, or maybe I should call them groupies. There were even websites dedicated to me and what I could do as well as others. Asking what Jabir meant talking about others, he stated there were more than the few I had met in Korea who had "powers of the mind." I found out there were hundreds if not thousands around the world whom I had no idea about. Jabir went on for a time talking about their various talents and strengths and while their "talents" were varied, no one was as strong as myself or had the range of abilities I did. We talked for a while longer until he stated he had other duties and would return that afternoon.

After the doctor left things got quiet with my guards preventing anyone from entering except the on duty nurse while I sat with Antonia, reading her energy level from time to time hoping for a change in her condition, but nothing changed.

The day after I woke up, Antonia's condition was upgraded to good, and she was moved to a private room, one with a lot less foot traffic around. Sven did his best to distract me by having me take calls from various people ranging from dignitaries and politicians, former patients as well as all of my partners in my various businesses. Then there was Thor who had the task of keeping people off the island who thought they should be allowed to dock and look around, both governmental and private busybodies. The governmental ones were the easier ones to get rid of as my agreement stated no one was allowed there without my express permission, which there was none. As far as other individuals and groups who wanted/ demanded to be let on my island, I told Thor to use his best judgment on how to get rid of them including shooting them; though I did encourage him to do that as a last resort, which he laughed at.