Phin was there when the anesthesia wore off.
“How’d it go?” I mumbled.
He patted my hand. “Good.”
“Will I walk again?”
“Too soon to say. Do you… feel anything?”
I shook my head. “I’m sorry, Phin.”
“It’s okay.”
“You saved me.”
“Of course I did. I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
• • •
Phin was there when I woke up.
“Herb’s okay?”
“He keeps asking about you. You up for visitors?”
I nodded.
Phin calls him. Turns out Herb was waiting in the hallway. His wife pushes his wheelchair in.
“Hiya, partner,” Herb says, reaching out to hold my hand.
“Herb… I… I didn’t know you were still alive.”
“I know. Chandler told me. It wasn’t your fault, Jack.”
“You’re okay?”
“I should make a full recovery. It’s Bernice I’m worried about.”
I looked at Bernice, a question on my face. She gave her husband a slap on the arm and blushed.
“What am I missing here?” I asked.
“She can’t get enough of my trim new body. So she promised me sex every day for a full year,” Herb said. “She’s got three hundred and sixty-four days to go.”
“Your arm and leg are broken,” I said.
“Everything else works fine,” laughed Bernice.
“I’m glad you’re back, Herb.”
“Glad to be back. Why don’t you guys stop in Chicago before you go back to Florida? First beer is on me.”
• • •
Phin was there when I opened my eyes.
So was McGlade. He had bandages on his face.
“Hiya, Jackie.”
“Harry. Where are Heckle and Jeckle with the cameras?”
“Good news and bad news. Good news, I’ve hit over four hundred million views. My thongs and coffee cups are selling like crazy.”
“And the bad news?”
McGlade handed me his iPhone and pressed the screen. A video started.
It’s of the land train. There was general commotion, as prisoners milled about and Chandler subdued some guards. Then Heckle came into frame, and he and Jeckle, who was obviously running the camera, moved away from the crowd and went behind the land train. They came up to Annie’s Silverado, tipped on its side. They walked past it, and over to two bodies.
One was Wyatt. Eyes open. Obviously dead.
The other was the Cowboy.
Heckle felt for a pulse, and then lifted her up.
They brought her back to the Silverado. It took them a few minutes to attach a tow chain to the undercarriage, and pull it back onto all four wheels. They put Annie into the cab, and drove off. Then the video ended.
“I put two in her chest,” Phin said.
“Right here?” Harry patted his left side.
Phin nodded.
“You can see that in the video, if you pause it. You can also see her breathing. I had a hunch. So I pulled some strings, paid a few people, to do Wyatt’s autopsy early. He was born with his heart on his right side. It’s called dextrocardia. It’s genetic, happens one in twelve thousand people. I’m betting his twin sister inherited the same anomaly.”
“Where did the twins take her?” I asked.
Harry shrugged. “Authorities are looking for them, and the truck. Nothing’s turned up.”
I sighed. “I knew those guys were bad news.”
“You should have said something to me,” Harry said.
• • •
Phin woke me up, holding out my phone. “You should take this.”
I expected it to be Sam, or my mother.
“Heard you still can’t walk.”
It was Chandler.
“Bullet hit my T-11 thoracic nerve. I have no feeling below my belly button.”
“I’m sorry.”
“If you’re feeling bad, you can come and change my diaper.”
“Pass. Meant to visit, but I had business out of the country. I thought that you should hear something. Might make you feel a little better.”
“You’ve got some secret government serum that can regrow nerve tissue.”
“No. I’ve been doing some digging into the land train and its owner. His name was Yuri Morozov. Former KGB, head of a death squad in Belarus. Real first class asshole. On board the train were eight tungsten rods, two and a half tons each. You ever hear the term rod from god?”
“No.”
“It’s a kinetic bombardment weapon. In a nutshell, you put the rods on a low earth orbit satellite, then drop them on your target. They hit going Mach 10. Each one has the explosive force of twelve tons of TNT. I did some digging, and Yuri actually had a satellite ready to go.”
“There are agencies that stop that sort of thing. Right?
“Wrong. The Outer Space Treaty bans WMDs in orbit. But tungsten carbide isn’t considered a weapon of mass destruction.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Welcome to diplomacy. Yuri would have launched, and he could have killed tens of thousands. Maybe hundreds of thousands. And who knows what that would have led to.”
I couldn’t quite wrap my head around it.
“You did good, Jack. You and McGlade prevented the biggest terrorist attack in history. Something that may have caused World War 3. How do you feel about that?”
“Numb.”
“Interesting.”
“Interesting?”
“I feel the same way, every time I save the world. I gotta run. Do everyone a favor and get better.”
Chandler hung up.
“We saved the world,” I told my husband.
Phin said, “Cool.”
• • •
Phin was there when I woke up.
So was Tequila.
“Thanks,” he said.
I nodded.
Not one for conversation, Tequila left, Rosalina trotting along behind him.
• • •
Phin was there when I opened my eyes.
I began to cry.
“I might never walk again,” I said.
“You won’t need to,” he assured me. “I’ll carry you. Everywhere.”
• • •
When I opened my eyes, Phin was there.
Phin was always there.
It took me too damn long to figure that out, but I finally did, and the feeling of being so loved overwhelmed me.
“I love you,” I said, holding his hand. “I love you so much.”
• • •
I opened my eyes, and Phin was there.
So was Mom. And Sam.
Without asking, Sam hopped up onto my hospital bed and threw her arms around my neck.
“I missed you Mommy I love you so much!”
I winced. “I love you too, Sammy. But you’re hurting Mommy’s legs.”
Phin’s eyes got wide.
I was confused, then I realized what I just said.
And I knew, I just knew, that everything was going to be okay.