Chapter 3

Did you ever notice how funny time is? What was that thing they say about a 'watched microwave never gets to fixin that 'hungry man dinner'; well that's about how I felt now. It had to be time for food, wait this was still a hospital, what was I thinking, food? C'mon man, they want to keep you sick and play the 'mushroom' game, especially here in Houston.

The suit came in, told me I had a visitor and asked what I wanted to do. The suit still had my sat phone I guess. "Leaving this cage and we get us a steak might work. By the way, you are?"

"Mr. Black, colour coordinated don't you know. Mr. White and Mr. Grey are here too. I'm the kind, gentle, good-looking one. Your friend in Plano said to call him when you got hungry, BBQ at the ranch then? You want to see this guy or not? He wont tell me why and he has company."

"No one else then? Any pretty girls or cute nurses around? If we can 'blow this popsicle stand Mr. Black, that BBQ is looking mighty tasty right about now. Do we get back-up soon before any company gets in?"

"Well, I sort of called for some guys to 'play' cards or something. Here!" He handed me a 1911.45 and 2 extra clips.

The wait was short, the iron was welcome and I think the hospital must have been happy to get rid of me. Mr. Black and three bigger guys seemed to 'expedite' my departure from here.

Here is the quick version of what happened, at least what was relayed to me.

This from Mr. Black, who as it turned out was more than just a bodyguard. My friend in Plano was pretty well connected. He employed more than 16,000 people around the world and most of them were ex something or other. He was also the kind of guy that you did not want to get on his 'bad' side. I had been set-up. The attack at the airport a fake in order to test me in protecting Mr. Sanchez's daughter. He must have figured that six big men would be a good test. In that case he was wrong, there was nothing to test, and in this case, I saw it as survival for the girl and me.

Her name was Julie and she was the in-house guardian of his 'daughter' (Plural I later was told). When the cops, then Texas Rangers came, along with TSA and Homeland Security my friend was already making calls and Mr. Black showed up soon after. Me, I was still out cold, lying on the floor as if it was a feather cover.

From what he said, the two bozos I had shot were still on the floor bleeding all over. A Mr. Sanchez with three goons was standing by the four other goofs. They were all explaining how me, the guy out cold on the ground attacked the ten of them and must have hit my head on the floor while they were protecting the girl.

This 'fairy tale' seemed to be repeated to each group, LEO, Ranger and Federal. Transport and an ambulance or two or three had been called. They were certain, based on the gun that I was the 'bad' guy and these fine citizens merely protect the little girl from rape or worse. Mr. Black made it sound simple but I imagined there must have been a bit more. Anyhow, this line continued for a bit until three guys in dark suits, according to Mr. Black all decent suits were black, came in. The obvious lead nodded to Mr. Black who motioned over to the 10 or 20 peacekeepers who just knew they had 'captured' either a terrorist, public enemy No 1 or some such alien. The first thing out of the lead's mouth as he was displaying some credential was "were all the witnesses interviewed?" Mr. Sanchez shouted an un-equivocal "Yes" pointing to me on the ground, while one of the new trio was inspecting me on the ground, face down.

Julie, bless her, calmly said "No" despite a look that spoke of fate worse than death, she began her version of what happened.

Long story short.

Six men were staging on attack on her. She and the men all worked for Mr. Sanchez who told her that they had to test some guy before he would let him guard his daughter. The 'act' became a little too real as two of the men had grabbed her, ripping her blouse and started slapping her around and calling her a 'Puta'. Having grown up in Texas, she knew what they were calling her and started to object a bit. When the guy showed up (Me on the floor), things were getting out of hand. It did not seem to be an act and she was about to start defending herself and hurt them, really badly. That the two hitting her were shot was not in question. Julie said that instead of running away as she had been told by me, she went over and placed her hands over the gun and started to say ... That was when one of the new guys took his pistol and hit him (Me) on the head from behind. She screamed at him since no one was in any further danger the Glock was pointed down and her hand were on it. The two other new guys started kicking and I got another hit on the head. Her scream stopped the guy with the gum from shooting me.