Color of Blood(104)

Dennis shut the door, grabbed the chair and lodged it at an angle under the doorknob.

He sat on the bed next to Judy and for a moment was afraid to touch her. He pulled the tape off her mouth, and she reflexively opened it slightly to breathe.

“Judy,” he said, shaking her head gently. “Wake up.”

Standing up, he switched on the TV and turned up the volume, then went back into the bathroom and soaked a hand towel in cold water.

Sitting next to her again, he patted her flushed cheeks and gently kissed her lips. “Judy, come on. Wake up. Come on.”

After several minutes of jostling and whispering into her ear, Judy opened her eyes.

“Dennis,” she said hoarsely. “Where am I?”

“You’re in the hotel room, but we have to get out of here. I need you to wake up. Can you do that?”

After five minutes she was able to sit up. Dennis cut her plastic binds off. As she began to explain what happened, he shushed her, pointing to the closet. He turned up the TV even louder so that their conversation could not be heard.

Dennis had found a black nylon backpack next to the bed. Inside was a small two-way radio, just like the ones he had confiscated from the ATV riders, several more plastic ties, a liter bottle of water, and a plastic medical syringe gun.

“We need to get out of here as fast as we can. I don’t want him hearing what we’re talking about. Can you walk?”

She nodded and tried to stand up but fell back on the bed.

“I feel so strange,” she said.

Dennis packed their clothes as fast as he could and put the two roll-on suitcases at the front door. He canvassed the room one final time and had Judy walk around the room to get her muscles moving.

He pulled a chair over in front of the closet, gave Judy his pistol, and whispered in her ear over the blaring TV.

“If he tries to get out, shoot him. He will kill you if you don’t shoot him. Do you understand?”

She nodded.

Dennis jogged to the car, pulling the roll-ons behind him. He felt more secure in the darkness and moved the Cruiser to a block behind the hotel.

Judy was still slumped awkwardly in the chair when he arrived.

“I think I fell asleep,” she said weakly.

“No problem,” he said.

Dennis picked up the agent’s backpack and took out the radio. He pried open the back and took out the nine-volt battery, dropping it into his front pocket. He held the syringe gun up to the light and saw it had a rotating cylinder he presumed equated to the number of injections. He rotated it forward one notch for the next shot, clicked off the safety button, and walked over to the closet. Removing the chair, he pulled the door open and stood back.

The agent sat on the floor in nearly the same position he had left him.

“I’m going to bleed to death if you don’t get me some help,” the agent said.

“Don’t be stupid; it’s a minor wound. You’ll be fine. But I do have something for you,” Dennis said, stepping forward and shooting the man in his thigh with the syringe. The ‘pop’ startled the agent, and he jerked awkwardly.

“You *,” he yelled.

“Sleep tight,” Dennis said, closing the door. He jammed the chair underneath the door.

Above the sound of the TV, he said loudly, “Now you stay in this chair, and if that bastard tries to get out, just empty the clip into the door.”

Judy looked at him, confused and still glassy-eyed.

He motioned for her to follow him out of the room, and they quietly closed the door.

Within ten minutes they were racing to the airport outside of Newton, the cool desert air rushing through the open windows mixed with the hot air from the heater as Judy held Dennis’s hand.





Chapter 38


He canvassed the small airport lounge and saw only three surly, leather-faced men hunched in the corner. They looked like mining employees on their way to the big city. A SkyWest flight to Perth was scheduled in two hours. He went out and gathered up Judy.

“I don’t want to go,” she said.

“Sorry. It’s not an option. You need to exchange your missed flight for this next one to Perth and show up at work tomorrow. These guys won’t touch you. You’re an employee of Australia’s Federal Police service, and they’re running a black program that your government most likely knows nothing about. Or if they do know about it, they don’t want to bring it to anyone’s attention.”

“But what are you going to do?” she said.

“I’m going to Port Hedland to see if I can find a container that was shipped from the mine a couple of days ago. Or at least I hope it’s still there.”

“Dennis, don’t you think they’ll be looking for you?”

“Not sure. My hope is they’ll think they’ve scared me enough and that I’ll just stop.”

“So why don’t you come back to Perth with me? That would be the safe thing to do.”

“There’s just one more thing to do,” he said.

“If you go on to Port Hedland, I don’t know if I’m ever going to see you again,” she said, her eyes welling up. “What is wrong with you, Dennis? I just don’t understand why this is so important.”

Dennis held her hand and looked out the open window into the blackness of the desert. Except for two street lamps in the parking lot and navigational lights on the small airport tower, the sky was lit with a million stars shining through the smog-free atmosphere.