Page 99 of Red Zone Awakened

CHAPTER42

The shuttle had stalled.

As they glided silently past Houston’s downtown skyline, Mace lying unconscious beside her, Keiko couldn’t think about how they’d get out of the shuttle.All she could think about was Mace.

She held him tight while facing the stranger who’d helped rescue them.“He’s dying.We need a hospital.”

Ignacio’s expression was compassionate.“That’s not gonna happen,bonita.You heard Sandi—the farthest we’re going is the bayou.But I’m a medic, and we’ll make sure our boy is patched up enough to live through this.”

Beneath her fingertips, she felt Mace slipping away from her, his breathing growing shallower by the second.She couldn’t lose him.Not after everything they’d been through.Not now.

Ignacio reached for Mace and felt for a pulse.“Too fast.He’s struggling to breathe.”He lifted Mace’s shirt.There was a massive black bruise on his side.He felt his way along it.“Broken ribs.”He placed his hands flat on Mace’s chest for a moment.“Uneven breathing.Punctured lung.Probably internal bleeding.”He seemed to be listing what he found purely for his own benefit.He ran his fingers down Mace’s throat.“Trachea’s shifting to the right.We need to relieve the pressure on his lung.”

“What does that mean?”Keiko asked.

He smiled at her and touched his ear, obviously activating a comm link.“Doc?I got a situation here.Looks like a tension pneumothorax, possibly a hemothorax.I don’t have any medical supplies, and our boy’s heart rate’s right up, breathing’s labored, and his trachea’s started moving right.”

Keiko took Mace’s hand and held it tight, her eyes on Ignacio, wishing she could hear both sides of the conversation.

“No can do,” he said.“We’re in engine failure.Sandi’s going to glide as far as she can, but we’ll have to bail.Right now, state he’s in, he won’t survive a jump.”He listened, his jaw tightening, and then his head fell forward.“Damn.Okay.Yeah, I’ll see what I can find.Stay on the line.”

“What is it?”she demanded.

Ignacio’s head came up, and his dark eyes met hers.“We need to get the air out of his chest cavity.It’s compressing his lungs and heart, and it’s killing him.There’s blood in there, too, but only surgery will fix that.Right now, our priority’s getting the air out.”

“How?”She looked at Mace.His face was pale, his lips turning blue.They were running out of time.

“Normally, I’d shove a fourteen-gauge needle in his chest, but we don’t have one.If I cut into him with my knife, the hole will just seal when I take it out, leaving the air trapped inside.We need something tube-like that can keep the hole open and let the air out.”

Keiko looked around, frantically searching for something, anything, that fit this description while Ignacio opened and shut the various cubbies.

“I can’t see anything.”Panic made her voice thin.

“Me neither.Sandi,” he called, “we need something tube-like.”

“There’s nothing up here.Can’t even see a med kit.”

“How long until we need to bail?”

He meant jump from the shuttle.Keiko’s stomach spasmed at the thought.But she’d already leaped from a building, right?She could do this.Only… the building hadn’t been moving at the time.Don’t think about that.Think about helping Mace.

“Five minutes, max.Probably less.We have some air currents that are helping keep us up here.But we won’t get much more time than that.”

Keiko looked out the window at the downtown skyline.They weren’t far from the park, but she wasn’t sure how much control the pilot had over a shuttle without an engine.They could only coast for so long.The chances of them crashing into one of the buildings seemed awfully high to her.And even if they made it to the park, what then?How would Mace survive a jump?How would any of them?

She returned her attention to Mace, and as she did so, her eyes caught something outside the shuttle.“There.”She pointed.“The telescoping antenna.It’s a hollow tube, right?”

Ignacio’s head snapped around.“Genius.Hold on while I open the door and get it.Sandi, I’m going outside.Keep it steady.”

“I’ll do what I can,” she called back.

He slid the door open, held on tight to its edge, leaned over the back of the shuttle, and snapped off the antenna.A blast hit the side of the shuttle, sending them hurtling sideways.Ignacio slipped.Keiko threw herself at him.He grabbed her hand, and she tugged.The shuttle evened out, and Ignacio crashed back inside.

“Thanks,” he said as he knelt beside Mace.

Rapid gunfire sounded off their left-hand side, and Keiko glanced away from Mace long enough to see that they had an Enforcement attack drone chasing them, a black helicopter following close behind.

“Striker,” Ignacio snapped into his communication device, “keep them off us.I’m about to cut into Mace.”