“Bollar!” Trent called out, “I am an agent with the Interstellar Police Force. You are hereby ordered to drop your weapon and stand down. You are under arrest!” Bollar was amused at the absurdity of the statement and called back, “Not today, friend!”
That’s when Jeff and Genghis saw the object thrown in a high arc into the ally. It bounced off a side wall and landed not five feet from them. They both made eye contact and shouted the warning to each other, “COVER!”
Genghis bolted around the corner where they came in and Jeff jumped behind a dumpster as Bollar's second IPF device exploded. Jagged pieces of shrapnel ripped through Trent’s right leg as he landed on the ground hard. He could feel a burning pain in his leg. He heard movement and then someone running.
Genghis came around the corner, “Jeff?” He ran over to him. “Jeff, you hit?”
“Yeah,” Jeff said, as he used the dumpster to stand. “Caught it in the leg. Come on,” As Jeff Trent and Genghis Khan approached the edge of the alley where Bollar was, Jeff quickly came around it with his PK in front of him. Bollar was gone, but he had left a small puddle of blood on the ground. Twenty feet from that, around a sharp corner, was the exit to the alley.
“Shit!” Genghis said as they came out onto Fifth Avenue. They both looked up and down the street. Bollar was nowhere in sight. Genghis brought his nose to the ground, then into the air. “This way!” Genghis said, as he took a couple of steps to the right. “We’ve got blood on the ground over here too.”
The police sirens were everywhere and getting closer. “They heard the shots and grenade go off,” Jeff said. His breathing was becoming erratic.“Genghis, I’m in no shape to pursue. We better get out of here and back to the cruiser. We’ll never be able to explain any of this to the local PD.” Jeff started to hobble. As Genghis trotted closer to him, Trent placed his hand firmly on his partner's back for support. Jeff Trent and Genghis Khan slowly worked their way back to the Thunderbird.
Chapter Forty-Nine
The Thunderbird was in the parking lot of the Riverside Mall. The top was up and the vehicle locked up. Jeff and Genghis were below decks in the medical center. Jeff Trent was lying on his back on a long silver examining table. He was propping himself up on his elbows in order to watch Genghis examine his leg. The Doberman Pinscher was sitting on a tall stool, back legs tight together, balancing on the seat, front paws were placed on the silver table. “Yeah, it tore you up pretty good,” he said, looking at Trent’s wounds. Jeff’s pant leg was cut away from above the knee, revealing four very nasty jagged lacerations in his leg. The worst was two inches long and opened a quarter inch wide.
Genghis reached a paw up and pulled down a device that was attached to an articulated arm. The Medical Diagnostic and Surgical Unit was a large, rectangular device made from the same silver material as the table and bristling with probes, microscopes, and surgical gear of all kinds. Genghis switched it on, made a few adjustments to the MDSU computer screen on the side of the device, and asked, “Pain meds kicking in yet?”
“Yes, it’s pretty numb now,” Trent said, still watching.
The powerful bright light from the unit illuminated the wounds. Genghis could see, in between the dark crimson walls of the interior of Jeff’s leg, a piece of shrapnel that was embedded deep into the muscle. The Medical Diagnostic and Surgical Unit started to scan the wound with a yellow-pink laser that fanned out and started oscillating over it. As it did, Genghis read the computer screen. “Well, good news, no nerve damage. Bad news, you got a chunk of metal in the muscle of your leg.”
“Could have been worse,” Jeff said with a grimace.
“Yeah, you're lucky it didn’t nick the femoral artery.” Genghis made a couple of more adjustments. As the unit started to move closer to Trent’s leg, Genghis had to duck as the articulated arm’s elbow swung around to get a better view of the wounds. It then started to make a humming sound. Genghis watched the computer display as the piece of metal gently started to vibrate and retreat from the muscle. Blood slowly started to flow. “Hang on,” Genghis said, reaching up and pausing the procedure. “Let me stop that bleeding.” He picked up an instrument the size of a pen from a tray that was beside him. He held it in between his canine digits and pointed it into the wound. A small green laser shot from it and Genghis was able to cauterize and stop the bleeding. “There we go.” The procedure continued and the piece of metal slowly started to pull away from the muscle in Jeff’s leg. It finally fell to the table with a ringing sound.
“Well done, Mister Khan,” Jeff said weakly.
“You're welcome, Mister Trent. Now let’s close this one up and start on the others.”
Out of the bottom of the MDSU. came a thin silver wand and as it drew closer to Trent’s leg, it unfolded with three elbows to the length of just under two feet. The very thin tapered tip of the wand entered the wound in Jeff’s leg and started to fire small lasers in quick succession and, as the wand started to retreat out of the wound, the walls of the laceration in Trent’s leg started to close.
It had been a little over ten hours
