CAMP LEMONNIER, DJIBOUTI
Kimberley Hustwait’s surgery lasted four hours. She had lost a lot of blood, and at one point her heart had stopped beating for ten seconds. But in the end, she pulled through.
Afterwards, still in his bloody scrubs, the surgeon had explained to Caine that Kimberley had been extremely lucky. The knife wound had only nicked her major organs and she had suffered no serious damage. But considering the amount of blood she had lost, they had only just got her to the base in time.
Caine sat with Kimberley in the post anesthetic ward while she slept. He visited her again the next day in the general ward. She was still asleep. He watched the IV fluids drip down one splash at a time through the tube attached to her arm.
It was late into the afternoon when her eyelids flicked open. She glanced around, taking in her surroundings. They were in a drab military hospital ward. Everything was khaki and utilitarian.
“I’m not dead?” she said with surprise.
“You’re not dead,” Caine said, and laughed. He sat close to her,
patting her arm affectionately. “You're on the base in Djibouti. You made it.”
She smiled, and Caine saw again how pretty she was. If he wasn’t involved in a complex relationship with Rebecca, he knew he would have returned her kiss in the desert.
“The bastard stabbed me,” Kimberley said through a grimace of discomfort. “Why the hell did he stab me?”
Caine shrugged. “Well, he’s dead now.”
Her face twisted with concern. “What about Safiya? And her boys, Mohammad and Hussein?”
“They’re fine. They’re reunited again. And so are the other children and their families."
His voice softened. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
She laughed, then coughed and winced in pain. “Don’t make me laugh, Tom. This bloody hurts.”
He smiled and just looked at her for a while. He’d been worried that she wouldn’t make it. That the time taken to divert the flight to the Al Qaeda camp might have made the difference between life and death for her. This time, he’d gotten lucky. But as the surgeon said, it had been a close call.
“I thought Australians were supposed to be tough?”
“It’s a myth we Aussies are happy to encourage. You ever been to Australia, Tom?”
“I’ve been to Sydney Airport.”
She made a scoffing noise. “That’s like your favorite band playing at the Big Day Out, and you only buy their souvenir t-shirt.”
“Big Day Out?”
“You've never heard of Big Day Out? It’s one of our biggest music festivals. You should really visit, Tom.”
He nodded. “I think I might.”
Kimberley lay back, exhausted. She was joking around, but Caine could see she was still in pain from her injuries. She looked weak and frail, but who wouldn’t after such a grievous wound? But
he could also see determination in her beautiful blue eyes… She would get through this.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Like what?”
“You look sad, Tom.”
He nodded. He knew why. Kimberley was a civilian. He was a covert paramilitary officer with the Central Intelligence Agency. They were two very different kinds of people who didn’t mix well in the real world.
It was time to say goodbye.
“You’re going to walk out of here soon, aren’t you Tom, and I’m never going to see you again?”
He shrugged and held her hand. “Not just yet. And who knows, Kimberley. Anything is possible in this world.”