‘So they’re both safe. And you’ll negotiate transport in exchange for the hostages?’
‘We don’t know yet,’ the sergeant said. ‘These guys are dangerous. We need to get permission from higher up the line. Our politicians are talking to the only people here who are fit to speak. That’s the deputy head of council and the finance councillor, and they’re both still in a state of shock. But the decision to negotiate isn’t up to us.’
‘It has to be.’
‘You want to storm the place?’
‘No, but…’
‘Then…’ The sergeant was watching him curiously, sensing his tension. This was the team sent in as a front line at every crisis, and he knew Ben well. Ben usually worked efficiently, with little emotion. He was emotional now.
He couldn’t stop being emotional.
‘I need to talk to Lily.’
‘We need your written assessment by dusk,’ the sergeant said mildly.
‘You’ll have it. But the priority is Lily.’
He found her sitting outside the hospital, under a group of palms in the hospital gardens. There were three islanders with her-an old woman and two children. The old woman was keening her distress while the children looked on in incomprehension. Ben hesitated, but then he walked close enough to listen.
Lily glanced up as he approached. He gave a slight shake of his head. The hope that had flared in her eyes faded, and she turned again to the old woman, pulling her into her arms and hugging her close.
‘Hush. Kira died instantly, Mary. You know that.’
‘My only sister.’
Lily didn’t speak again. She simply held her, not hurrying, waiting until the woman had sobbed the worst of her grief out, waiting until she raised her head of her own accord, waiting until she was ready to talk.
‘Do you want help to look after the children?’ she asked her at last. ‘I can find someone if you need to be alone.’
The old woman glared and pulled away as if Lily had said something obscene. She put out her arms and the children, a girl of about five and a boy of about three, scooted in and were hugged tight.
‘They’ll stay with me until their mother is well enough to care for them again. Or until their father can get here.’
‘Here’s Dr Blayden. He’s here to help me with the injuries. He helped operate on your mother last night, kids. He’s a hero, right when we need him.’
The kids looked up at him, doubtful, looking for a real-life hero. Ben smiled and crossed to the little group, squatting down beside them and delving in his pocket for sweets. He carried them everywhere, for just such an emergency as this.
‘Tell me your names,’ he said, folding the sweets into their hands before they had a chance to draw back.
‘Nicki,’ the little girl whispered, staring down at her lolly, while the boy huddled behind his grandmother, keeping his hand closed over the precious sweet. ‘And my brother is Lanie.’
‘Is your mother’s name Louie?’
‘Yes.’
‘I did help fix her last night,’ he told them.
‘Nicki and Lanie were with their mother when the men came,’ Lily said briefly, and Ben thought Lily knew what she was doing. Traumatised kids had to talk about what happened. ‘Louie ran with them. She ran to her mother’s.’
The bullet had pierced Louie’s shoulder as she’d run. Ben winced. What sort of criminals shot at a mother, fleeing with her children?
‘I think these men are very, very bad and very, very stupid,’ he told the children. ‘But our soldiers have them all in one place now and they can’t hurt anyone. And your mother is getting better. You can visit her now if you like.’
‘I was just coming to tell them that,’ Lily said.
‘She’ll feel much better after she’s seen you,’ Ben said, and he smiled at the old lady. ‘And after she’s seen her mother.’ He delved back into his pocket and brought out six more sweets. They were sold as Traffic Lights, round, flat shining discs, red, green and yellow. ‘Choose one more each,’ he told the children. ‘And then I want you to choose two each to take to your mother. Can you do that?’
The children nodded and the old lady stood. Her face had cleared a little, some of the horror fading.
‘My daughter truly will be well?’
‘She truly will be well,’ Ben said, and he and Lily stood and watched as the little family bade them farewell and went to do their hospital visiting.
Ben was left with Lily.
She looked a thousand per cent better than the night before, he thought. She’d showered and changed. She was wearing a tiny denim skirt, a T-shirt and leather sandals-hardly the attire of a doctor about to do her rounds- but he could see nothing amiss with it. Except that her legs were covered with scratches. A couple of them were deep and nasty.
‘Let me see to your legs,’ he said, and she gazed down as if wondering what he was talking about. Seeing the bloody scratches, she merely shrugged.
‘They’ll be fine. Trivial stuff.’
‘Not so trivial if they get infected.’
‘I have more to worry about than infected legs.’
‘Maybe,’ he said. ‘But legs come first. You want to come voluntarily or do you want to be carried? I’m a lieutenant, you know. I have authority in this place.’
She managed a feeble smile. ‘I’d rather be bribed with sweets,’ she said, and he shoved a hand in his pocket and produced a handful.
‘Eat one,’ he said, and she shook her head.
‘When did you last eat?’
‘I can’t remember.’
‘Then eat a sweet,’ he told her. ‘I’ll bathe those legs and then you’re going to be fed.’
‘But-’
‘Don’t argue, Dr Cyprano. As of last night your deputy head of council gave us authority in this place. I’m therefore representing the occupying force and what I say goes. You eat.’
She opened her mouth to protest. He’d been unwrapping a sweet while he’d talked and he popped it in.
‘No protests.’
‘No, sir,’ she told him with a mouth full of red sweet. ‘Or, yes, sir. I don’t know which.’
He dressed her legs. She stayed silent throughout, which suited his mood. There were things that had to be said but he didn’t know where to start. Bathing her scratches, applying antiseptic and dressing the worst of them gave him time to think. It was as if he was getting used to her all over again.
She lay passively on an examination trolley while he worked. She stared straight ahead, seemingly oblivious when he had to scrub, though he must have hurt her. Then he took her to the mess tent, waved away anyone who would have talked to them, sat her down and watched as she mechanically ate the pasta he brought her, as she drank coffee, and as she pushed her mug away and rose and said, ‘Thank you very much, I need to go now.’
‘I’m coming with you.’
Unless there were new developments Ben wasn’t needed now in the hospital. The uprising had been quelled so fast that maybe they could have managed with less manpower. But the fact that they’d come fast and hard had maybe averted a greater tragedy, he thought.
But for now there were enough medics to cope with medical needs. There was no more organisation for Ben to do. He could stay by Lily’s side. For she intended to go back to the roadblock in front of the compound. He knew that without asking. That was where negotiations were taking place. If he had been Lily, that was where he’d want to be.
