He cut her ties. “Now make sure you dry out and keep yourself alive. You’re of absolutely no use to me otherwise,” he said. “And, if you’ll continue to be so mouthy, remember that I’d just as soon put a bullet in your head and walk away. Your choice.”
With that, he slammed the door, sealing her in. She quickly grabbed the blankets and rubbed her arms, slowly at first because her hands were uncoordinated and her arms didn’t seem to have the strength to make anything move. But finally she got some blood circulating, and then she kept it up, with more and more rubbing, more pinching and slapping of her skin, all in order to make the blood circulate better and stronger.
Her teeth still chattered in fits and starts. It would be really bad at times, and then they would calm down for a while, and then start up really bad again. But over time she felt that she was slowly winning the war. When she could finally stop with the rubbing, she wrapped the blankets around her, curled up, still shivering every once in a while, but almost back up to her normal body temperature.
She felt herself lulled into a deep sleep from the exhaustion of the cold. She was petrified to fall asleep in case he came down when she was out, but she didn’t have much choice. She needed her energy in order to find that moment when she could get free of this asshole. Right now she didn’t have too many options. At least it didn’t appear that way.
She knew that, for somebody like Bullard, this place was probably full of weapons options, but she wasn’t trained like he was. She’d been trained to heal and to save people, not to kill them. And, for the first time ever in her life, she was wondering about changing her stance on that. Because, if she had a scalpel in her hand right now, she’d have taken this kidnapping asshole’s life in a heartbeat.
*
“Kano just confirmed that they’re talking to the islanders,” Dave said.
Bullard turned to look at him in shock. “He got to the island that fast?”
“He flew over in a seaplane,” he said.
“Is that even possible?”
“He knew somebody who gave him a lift. He’s on the island doing a quick check. He said there’s no sign of her, and nobody’s seen her.”
“Which means our best bet is the asshole out here in front of us.”
“After he talks to a couple more people, Kano’s getting back on the seaplane. A witch doctor here is looking for, … has been waiting for Terk.”
At that, Bullard straightened, turned to look at him, and said, “Oh my God, that old seer woman, the medicine woman on the island. She’s been talking about Terk finding me.”
“Good,” Dave said, “because that’s who sent me here.”
“Damn! I forgot all about that,” he said. “I did get the message earlier, but it didn’t make any sense to me. I didn’t remember who he was.”
“Well, Terk’s damn hard to forget,” Dave muttered.
“You’re not kidding there. So he really found me? Jesus.”
Dave shook his head at that. “That guy’s a genius.”
“No, I’d say he’s driven by whatever it is that powers that craziness in his head. He’s psychic, and there’s absolutely no explanation for it. Either you believe or you don’t.”
“Well, I’ll tell you this,” Dave said. “He’s the one who sent me out this way to begin with, and, when I would turn around to head back, he stopped me.”
“He called and stopped you?”
“He finally did, after I wouldn’t listen.” His tone turned softer.
Bullard started to laugh. “God, that sounds like him too.”
“And when I got him on the phone, he was pretty frustrated that I wasn’t listening to him.”
“And had you actually heard him? Like speaking into your brain?”
Dave was quiet for a long moment, and then he said, “Yes. I did. But I didn’t believe it. I thought I had to be mistaken, that I was just dreaming things up because I wanted to.”
“Yeah, he’s, … he’s good at that,” Bullard said. “I bet he gave you shit afterward, didn’t he?”
“Yeah, he sure did,” Dave said, shaking his head. “Believe me. At this point in time, I’m a firm believer. Terk was pretty sad and said that the bulk of the world has to have a hands-on experience like this in order to become a believer. He was pretty fed up with trying to convince those who he needed to act to listen to him.”
“I imagine that would be pretty frustrating,” Bullard said, his gaze on the approaching horizon. “What the hell will we do here? We’ll never find her.”
“We’ll find her.”
Just then they heard a plane flying overhead. As it did, it dipped its wings. Bullard raised a hand, as somebody waved down at him. “Jesus Christ,” he said, his heart filling with joy. “It’ll be good to see everybody again.”
“You have no idea,” Dave said, shaking his head.
“I just want to go home and hide away.” Then he stopped abruptly and looked at Dave. “That’s what she would say too, isn’t it?”
“Again you get to reevaluate what you want to do and how you want to do it now,” he said. “No need for you to go out on missions. No need for you to go out and prove that you’re the big bwana.”
“Is that what I was doing?” he asked in a dry tone.
“Some of the time I think you were, yes,” Dave muttered.
“Maybe, but that seems simplistic.”
“Sure it is. You were looking for yourself. Yet it took something like this for you to stop and to figure out who you actually are.”
“Maybe. The whole thing’s pretty insane.”
“It is. So let’s find her and get you guys home again.”
“Let’s get all of us home,” he said.
“That’s for sure. Everybody’s had more than enough of this shit for a while.”
“I can imagine.”
“They’ve all grown through the experience though,” he said. “Almost all of them have found partners along the way, too.”
Bullard stared at him and shook his head. “That doesn’t sound like my guys.”
“I think they got a pinch of Levi’s fairy dust,” Dave said in a dry tone.
“I don’t know,” he said. “What about you? Did you get it too?”
Dave shook his head. “Not me,” he said. “I’m still as single as ever.”
“Not sure that’s a good thing,” he said. “I’m starting to feel pretty old and broken myself.”
“Yeah, and maybe that’s to be expected, considering all you’ve been through. It goes back to that thing about you getting to choose who and what you want to be from now on, remember?”
“Remind me of that when it’s all over,” he said, “because right now it doesn’t seem like it’s even possible. Not while assholes are out there trying to steal a beautiful woman like Leia.”
“The question is, why?”
As soon as they pulled up close to the marina, Bullard looked around and said, “Jesus, boats are everywhere. How will we find her?”