Nurse Rosen set down the clipboard and started working with the IV tubing in the Korean patient’s left arm.
“Are you the interpreter?” Her voice had a flat, nasal Minnesota accent.
“Yes,” Wyatt responded, than asked quietly, “What are you doing?”
“His IV keeps slipping out and the solution is spilling under the skin in his arm. That’s what’s causing the yellowing around the bruise. He struggled so hard, I think the veins are in shreds in there.”
“Why don’t you use the right arm instead?”
“I’d love to, but one of your troopers squeezed too hard in the scuffle, and his right arm’s veins are even worse.”
Wyatt looked back at Trooper Harland, who merely shrugged as if to say,“What was I supposed to do? Ask him politely to stop?”
“I guess he really didn’t want to be arrested,” Trooper Wyatt answered.
The man started muttering something in Korean. Lonnie listened, intently but could only make out parts of it. “The general… earth ….. uhhh…..Choi found …. pay….”
She spoke to him in Korean. “Sir, what were you doing at Mr. Kim’s house? Why were you there?”
“Colonel Kim……ask Colonel Kim….get the guns and turn off the lights.”
The military title grabbed her attention. “Who is Colonel Kim?”
“Juche… the general starts…” He coughed a deep wet gurgling rumble. Blood spattered out of his mouth.
“Oh, my God!” exclaimed the nurse. “His lungs are filling up.” She hit the intercom button and called for a doctor to come to the room. She pressed the foot pedal and raised the head of the bed to keep him from choking on his own blood.
“You will have to question him later, Trooper. He can’t take too much right now.”
“It can’t wait,” Wyatt responded, then switched back to Korean. “What is your name?”
“Lieutenant Ho Jik Hyun,” he muttered. Red froth foamed at the edge of his lips.
“Lieutenant in what?” she asked. “Are you in the Army?”
“People’s Army,” he replied.
Wyatt snapped her eyes to the other trooper. “Harland, you’d better get the chief over here. Tell him this guy is North Korean.”
Harland stepped out into the hallway, pulling his radio close to his lips.
A beeper went off on the medication meter connected to the patient’s IV. The nurse pressed a button to stop the noise. A message flashed on the small LCD screen on the device. “Medication Empty. Replace Vial.”
“Oh, my God,” exclaimed the nurse, tension rising fast in her voice. “He’s swelling. We have to loosen this strap ASAP.”
Nurse Rosen motioned to Wyatt. “Trooper, help me here. Hold him up so he doesn’t tip over while I loosen this strap a little.”
Wyatt put her hands on his shoulders to keep him from falling forward as the nurse unbuckled the strap across his mid-section, which held his wrists tightly to the bed. She then started to do the same for the one across his chest. The man groaned deeply as the pressure was released.
The nurse released the buckle from the metal pin that had held it tight and started to slide the buckle to the next hole in the leather strap when suddenly, the man’s right arm flew up in a blur of motion. He threw the loosened strap off and pounded the side of his fist in a hammer blow straight into Wyatt’s forehead.
Trooper Wyatt reeled backwards. She crashed into the heating unit under the windowpane.
Lieutenant Ho brought his fist back with equal speed and delivered a crushing punch to the nurse’s chest. The young woman crumpled to the ground, a rush of air leaving her lungs in a great whoosh. She toppled over, unconscious.
Harland and Edwards burst into the room at the noise. They rushed toward the patient on the bed. Lieutenant Ho ripped the IV tube from the machine that metered his medication, stuck it into his mouth, and blew hard into the end.
The troopers leaped onto Ho to hold him down. Edwards squeezed on the blood vessels that crossed under the armpit in an attempt to stop the air bubbles from entering Ho’s heart and killing him. As hard as he pressed, Edwards felt not one, but several, small bubbles pass under his hand through the blood vessel.
Wyatt tried to stand and help, but was overcome by dizziness and slipped back down to the floor. The room spun around her.
Lieutenant Ho’s body convulsed. His face twisted in a grotesque mask of pain. He screamed a terrible shriek, and then went into spastic convulsions. His body suddenly went rigid, eyelids stretched wide open staring into space. His face turned a deep purple. His eyes rolled up in their sockets and he slumped back into the bed.
The heart monitor sounded an even steady tone.
The troopers started CPR. Moments later, a whole cadre of doctors and nurses rushed into the room. Some tried to revive the man, while others moved the two injured women out of the room. After several attempts with a defibrillator, the doctor in charge gave the signal. Lieutenant Ho Jik Hyun of the People’s Army of North Korea was dead.
Chapter 18
A nurse attended to Wyatt in a room across the hall from the dead North Korean lieutenant. The blow to her head had been hard. She had been winded by the fall back against the heater unit. Her body armor had protected her from any broken bones or cuts.
Other than a bruise on her forehead and a moderate headache, she felt fine. The nurse gave her a couple of aspirin and said to call immediately if she started to feel dizzy again.
As the nurse walked out of the exam room, Commander Stark entered. A frown creased his face.
“What in God’s name happened in there, Wyatt? I sent you over here to translate for the
