Chapter 25

"Well, we can't wait here," I said. "Trust me when I tell you that this is exactly where they are headed. We have to get off this lake and out of Page as fast as possible."

She gave me a very long, confused look, and said, "How ... How could you know any of this. It's impossible...

"How could you know the Judge already suspected Renee Carson?

"Who are you?

"Where did you come from?

"Why do I believe every word you said, when not one word makes the slightest sense?"

"I know I've blown your circuits. And I know you think I'm insane, but we have to go. We have to go now."

Catherine wasn't about to doubt me. She radioed her teams, and I got us moving as fast as the houseboat would go. We only had about six miles to go, and I pushed the throttles to the stops and listened to the engines whine, not caring about obscene amounts of fuel I was burning.

We topped out at nearly twenty-seven miles per hour, according to the GPS. As we came up to the dock, I reversed the throttles, slammed them to their fullest reverse setting, and let the boat kiss the floating dock, as I rushed out to tie us off.

Catherine was beside me as we stormed off the dock, and ran towards the Suburban closest to us. I sensed the other agents coming up on the dock, but had eyes only for our safety. As we closed on the Suburban, Catherine tossed me the keys, and said, "You drive. I might need to shoot."

As I pressed the unlock button, I felt the impact of the first bullet. How did they get here and set up so fast? Where did they get their people, and weapons? I had so many questions, and a bunch of people shooting at me to keep me from asking them.

Suddenly the air was alive with gunfire. We were pinned against the side of the Suburban, and it was taking round after round of high-powered rifle fire. Since the doors were unlocked, Catherine opened one from the ground, and reached in to get us more weapons.

She handed me a shotgun and took an automatic rifle for herself. Having some heavy weapons almost made us even.

I thought my wound was pretty bad and decided that I had nothing to lose, so before I passed out, I crawled around the front of the Suburban, and shot two of our tormenters before they redirected their fire at me. By then I had scooted back far enough to use the wheel for a shield. Catherine poured fire at them, along with several of her team that had closed on us and added their weapons to the gun battle.

We gave as good as we got, but the other side had the advantages of surprise and cover.

We needed to figure a way to take away their advantages. I caught Catherine's eye and pointed at the back of the Suburban, then made a pointing motion, to indicate I wanted her to draw fire, so I could move to where I could get a better shot.

Catherine slid to the rear, banged her rifle against the back fender, and started shooting in the area where we knew at least some of them were hidden. Her partners, not knowing our intent, start to shoot into the same spot, giving me enough distraction to move to a better shooting spot. Once safely hidden in behind a dumpster, I waited for a good shot.

Pretty soon the shooters started to shift in preparation for something, and I guessed it was to make their move to safer ground. I waited until I saw silhouettes of four bodies and opened up as fast as I could rack shells through the shotgun. I knew I hit two, before the others dropped straight to the ground out of my sites. The sudden change in momentum gave Catherine and her crew the opportunity to take the attack to them, and as soon as I understood they were making their move, I poured shots at our enemy, to keep their heads down.

The cold helped me stay awake, even as blood loss threatened to pull me under. I took a moment to reload, and continued to blindly throw round after round of very lethal twelve-gauge, hell at them, while Catherine and her crew looked for new targets.

It worked, because my shooting flushed two more shooters into the open, trying to escape the lead pounding their position, and Catherine put a round into one, while one of her team took the other one down. Catherine shot one more, her buddies shot one more each, and I hit two. How many more were there?

The bullet had torn a hole through my side, and the pain was breathtaking. Each time I swung the gun around trying to cover Catherine seeking a new target, the stabbing pain nearly put me on the ground.

Far to the right I heard squealing tires and tracked the sound, searching for the car. It wasn't hard to find, as it was coming straight at us. Before Catherine could get a shot off, I put four rounds into the windshield, and the car seemed to hesitate before it swerved to our left and went nose first into the lake. Other agents covered it in case anyone swam out and wanted to continue the gunfight.

I reloaded and waited, gasping from the pain, and fighting nausea, blood loss, and brutal pain. Then I heard a helicopter coming in, and wondered if it was on our side, or theirs, but before I determined which it was; I passed out.

The next things I knew were bits and pieces. Voices and flashes of light, but nothing I could latch onto and understand. "Hang on Kevin ... We're on the way to the hospital ... Hang in there ... We're almost there ... Stay with me ... Stay with me ... Kevin ... I need you to stay with me, Kevin ... Concentrate on my voice, and stay with us..."

I forgot all about staying with anybody, while I tried to just breathe. The pain was unearthly, and I heard myself moaning almost non-stop, but it was impossible to wake up. I was caught just enough unconscious to be awake, and just enough awake to be unconscious.

There were voices all around me, but I really couldn't respond to any of them. At one point the lights and noise convinced me I was in the hospital, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't wake up.

Just as I thought I was breaking out into the light, everything went black.

My next moment of awareness found me in the ER, being tended by what appeared to be a dozen people. The lights were extremely bright, and there was a lot of noise, but when I concentrated, I separated several voices from the cacophony.

Catherine was urgently talking on the phone, while a man, who had to be a doctor, was giving orders for some kind of drip to be increased. Several voices seemed to be arguing, and then I heard a shout, and a big bang. That started a stampede, and the room emptied out except for the doctor and Catherine. She had her handgun out and pointed at the door.

The doctor seemed frozen with both hands in the air, and a look of horror on his face.

I waited for something to happen, but the silence stretched out too far for there to be another shoe to drop, so I looked at Catherine, who was poised to take out anyone who came through the door, and said, weakly, "What's happening out there?"

She spun around at the sound of my voice, and said, "Someone wanted to come through the ER doors, and one of my men got into a scuffle with them. The guy pulled Stan off balance, and they crashed into a vending machine, making an awful noise. Everything seems to be Ok, but after what we've been through, I'm not trusting anything or anyone."

She retreated from the door to stand beside me and gently, almost lovingly, brushed the hair across my forehead. "How are you feeling? You had us pretty worried there."

I thought about her question. How did I feel? Instead of answering, I turned my head toward the doctor. "Sir, How bad is the bullet wound?"

Being addressed seemed to snap him out of his frightened state and he looked at me and said, "You took a high powered round in the side that pierced ... well ... everything in its path. Fortunately, your organs were spared, so other than losing an awful lot of blood, and having about a week of intense pain, limited mobility, and weakness to look forward to, you should be on your feet pretty soon.

"I would caution you against any trauma. Your head wound is healing up very well, but your body has taken far too much, and any additional trauma could kill you without warning."

Well. There you go...