"Oh, shit!"
He heard a burst from a CAR-4, then his lights went out.
"It's okay, kid, we've got him."
"Don't you call me kid, you oversized sonofabitch!"
"Goddamn, Charley, didn't you hear me when I said to remember to duck?"
"Where's Timmons?"
"You took a couple of hits-one in the ass, one in the leg-from what I'd say was that short Russian round, the 5.45?39. Not too much tissue damage, but you lost a lot of blood."
"Where's Timmons?"
"You want a shot? Or the happy pill?"
"I don't want either. Where the fuck is Timmons?"
"Not your choice, Charley, the one you took in the leg broke it. It's going to start hurting bad right about now."
"I don't want to go out, goddamn you!"
He didn't remember a needle prick, or any sense of being drugged, or even of feeling dizzy.
One moment, he was fighting with Colin Leverette.
The next moment, nothing.
[TWO]
Room 142
Hospital Britanico
Avenida Italia 2420
Montevideo, Uruguay 1035 24 September 2005 "I shudder to think how you're going to answer the calls of nature in that apparatus, Colonel," Chief Warrant Officer Five Colin Leverette said to Lieutenant Colonel C. G. Castillo from the door of the room.
Castillo was suspended over-not in-his hospital bed. His left leg was encased in plaster from above the knee. Stainless steel cables attached to small D-rings in the plaster held the leg six inches over the mattress. This was necessary to keep the leg straight, this in turn being necessary to accommodate a cradle under Colonel Castillo's buttocks, which allowed his left buttock to hang free, which was also suspended from stainless steel cables attached to a frame above the bed.
Colonel Castillo gave Mr. Leverette the finger with his right hand. His left hand held a long black cigar.
"I don't think you're supposed to be smoking," Leverette said.
Castillo gave him the finger again.
"Where am I, and what am doing here?"
"You're in the British Hospital in Montevideo, Uruguay. I think the term is 'recuperating.' You apparently were involved in a firearms accident while hunting feral swine in the north."
"And Timmons?"
"Special Agent Timmons is undergoing drug detoxification in Saint Albans Hospital in Washington, D.C. Sergeant Mullroney is also in Saint Albans, recovering from minor injuries he suffered while shooting feral hogs with you."
"Anybody else get hit?"
Leverette shook his head.