The sensation was strange. Jay heard the noises of the ICU before he opened his eyes. The continuous beeping from the monitors. The voices of nurses and doctors talking about his condition and recovery like he wasn’t there. He felt the oxygen feeding into this throat through the automated ventilator. A constant pattern. Air in. A pause. Air out.
When he did open his eyes, he saw ceiling tiles and fluorescent lights. A dark metal frame surrounded his head. He couldn’t feel much, but he could feel the pinches of the titanium screws in his scalp. The one thing he couldn’t do was move. He could twitch his nose and blink his eyes. He felt a slight sensation in his fingertips and toes, but that was it. He also felt a dull pain in the back of his neck.
He lay with his eyes open for a long time before someone noticed. Then, finally, the nurses came in and checked on him but never looked at his face. They checked his pulse, listened to his heart with their stethoscopes, and injected medicine into his IV bag. But they didn’t know he was awake.
At first, Jay didn’t care. The pain medication kept him sleepy and dizzy. But after some time, he got annoyed. Annoyance turned to depression. Why was he even alive? Couldn’t they let him go? He didn’t want to live like this. But he wasn’t in control anymore. He was at the mercy of the doctors.
Then he felt a tingling sensation in his hand. Like needles poking his skin. Could he recover? He felt warmth like somebody was holding his hand. He tried to squeeze, but nothing happened.
“Jay?” a soft voice said. Then her face appeared in his field of vision.
“Jay, are you there? Can you hear me?”
It was Olivia, looking beautiful and healthy. Her cheeks were red from exposure to the sun and wind. Was he dreaming? He wanted to respond but didn’t know how to communicate. He tried to talk, but his lips wouldn’t move. He wanted to hug her and kiss her. Tell her how much he loved her. But he couldn’t.
“Jay, blink twice if you can hear me.”
Jay blinked the best he could. Tears ran down his cheeks.
“Oh my God!” she screamed. “Jay, you’re there. Do you understand me?”
Jay blinked twice again.
“Oh, thank God. It’s a miracle!” Olivia said. “Jay, we didn’t know if you were brain dead or not. I flew in last week from California. I’m not leaving. Ever again. We’ve been waiting for days for you to wake up. We didn’t know if you would. I love you.”
Jay blinked twice. More tears rolling down his cheek.
“Let me find a nurse. They want to tell you what’s going on. Hold on.”
Jay watched Olivia scramble out of the room. A few minutes later, she came back with two nurses. They adjusted his bed so he could see better. It was a small, intensive care room filled with instruments and a crash cart. The nurses wiped his face with a warm face cloth and cleaned him up.
When done, a male doctor came into the room.
“Hello, Mr. Mendes,” the doctor said. “ My name is Doctor Sandeesh. I’m the head of neurosurgery here at Boston General. If you can hear and understand me, blink twice.”
Jay blinked twice.
“Good. That’s a great sign. We removed several bullet fragments from your neck and shoulders. One fragment was pressing against your spinal cord, which caused the paralysis. There’s a lot of swelling from the surgery. You will continue to have a loss of feeling until the swelling goes down. But we are quite confident you will recover most of your strength and mobility. Do you understand?”
Jay blinked twice.
“You are probably wondering about the metal frame around your head. That is a skull halo and keeps your neck from moving. We will remove it later today. We’ll also remove the ventilator so you will be able to speak. Understand?”
Jay blinked twice.
“Good. You have had a lot of visitors. But unfortunately, there are also reporters and law enforcement officials anxious to speak with you. You do not have to speak with anybody unless you want to. Your recovery and health are our priorities. They should be yours too. Understand?”
Jay blinked twice.
“You are a lucky man. I hope you appreciate your friends and family.”
Jay blinked over and over again.
“Now, get some rest.”
The next few days were a blur. Jay endured numerous procedures and tests. One test known as an electromyogram (EMG) reminded him of his anti-interrogation training. Technicians attached probes to his fingers and toes, then transmitted electric shocks through his nerves. He wanted to invoke his Geneva Convention rights. Luckily, the tests didn’t last long, and he was allowed to leave.
Olivia stayed with him through everything. She told him she left Falmouth at six in the morning. Then stayed at the hospital until nine in the evening to avoid the traffic back to the Cape.
Jay loved how Olivia cared for him. She spoke with the nurses and relayed information to him. But, she never asked for anything in return.
Mack visited Jay as soon as he was able to speak.
“The bullet fragments from your neck matched bullets that killed the Goddard pilots. They were from a .380 handgun.”
“A .380?” Jay said. “We didn’t recover any guns that small in the cave. al-Mujadin carried a Makarov and an AK47. My team used standard military-issue Beretta .9 mils. A .380 is a concealed carry gun.”
“We’re at a dead-end without the gun. But there was something else. The bullet had traces of Matthew’s DNA on it.”
Jay stared at Mack. He couldn’t believe his ears. If Mack was right, there was no way Jay could have murdered Matthew. And now Jay thought he knew who killed him.
“We have to go back to the cave,” Jay said. “We have to find that gun.”
“Jay, you’re not going anywhere for a long time.”
Mack also talked about the seagull drones, “The one you recovered in Falmouth matched the design of the drone found in New York. Our forensic specialists were able to rebuild ninety percent of the drone. It appears the drones were controlled by a satellite download and relayed signals to the bomb control boards.”
“You mean the bomb triggers were for show?” Jay asked.
“It appears that way,” Mack replied. “We also learned the shrapnel found in the liquid bomb packets were ceramic pieces made by 3D printers. The ceramic withstood the heat of the blast because of its 4,500 degrees Fahrenheit melting point. Interpol tracked the source of the ceramic powder to a company in France. They were still looking for the printer manufacturer.
“How did the bombers beat the metal detectors?”
“We’re not sure, but we did learn the wiring used plastic conductors. But the circuit boards contained metal components and circuitry. So it’s still a mystery how they passed through the x-ray machines without detection.”
“What about my attacker?” Jay asked after the debrief. “Did he survive the explosion in Falmouth?”
“We didn’t find him,” Mack said. “The Coast Guard searched for his body without any success.”
“Is it possible he survived? He has a knack for that type of thing.”
“He could have. We did have one report of a mysterious man stealing a small motorboat after the explosion. Unfortunately, there was a lot of mayhem that night, and we can’t confirm the story.”
“Have you spoken with Jillian McPhee?” Jay said. “Marty’s sister. She knows someone who matches the man’s description.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that sooner?” Mack said, then paused. “Oh right. You haven’t exactly been available.”
“Jillian’s here at the hospital. She went downstairs to the cafeteria to get a bite to eat. She’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“Have you had a chance to thank Kyle yet?”
“What do you mean?” Jay said.
“Kyle and his friends saved your life. He pulled you out of Vineyard Sound and transported you to Upper Cape Hospital. Kyle, Brendan, and Carla took turns performing CPR. You wouldn’t be alive without those kids.”
“He didn’t tell me that,” Jillian said as she walked into the room.
“Hi, Jillian. I’m Special Agent John McCauley. Everyone calls me Mack. I need to ask you questions about a Canadian college professor named Dwight Harris.”
“I knew him a few years ago. But not well.”
“What can you tell me?”
“Well, he was a professor at the Marine University in St. John’s, Newfoundland. He said he knew my husband and allowed us to live in a guest house on his family’s farm.”
“Did you interact with him much? Did he ever say or do anything suspicious?”
“I didn’t since I was in school. But Professor Harris spent a lot of time with Kyle. He was polite and well-groomed. He wore wool sport coats with a bow tie.”
“How did he know your husband? ”
“Daniel did some joint research projects with him at the Maritime Institute. He was working on his doctoral thesis in robotics when he disappeared.”
“What was the research topic?”
“Daniel was trying to mimic animals. Birds in particular. He liked seagulls since there were many to study on Cape Cod.”
“Did you ever see any of the seagulls?”
“Sure. Daniel left behind several prototypes. He could never get them to work the way he wanted them to. That’s how Kyle got interested in robotics. He studied the old prototypes. Actually, it was more than studying. Kyle dissected each one. He learned how the circuits worked and analyzed every moving piece. Kyle learned like a sponge, and before I knew it, he was building his own drones and robots.”
“Is it possible for me to see the prototypes?”
“Of course, you can ask Kyle to show you. I’ll call him.”
“Jillian,” Jay asked. “Tell us about your husband. Marty told me he disappeared.”
“I met Daniel when I was sixteen years old. I was attending a summer program at the Marine Institute. I loved boating and spent every summer taking students out on small boats. Daniel was a graduate assistant at MIT during the summer. He was brilliant and quite cute.”
“How often did you see him?” Mack asked.
“Every day for a few weeks in July. After the program, he went back to Cambridge where he had an apartment close to the MIT campus.”
“When did you start dating?”
“When I was in college. I went to Emmanuel in Boston to study nursing. I hated it. Missed the water too much. We ran into each other in a bar one Friday night, and he asked me on a date. He took me out on a small boat, and we spent the day exploring Boston Harbor.”
“We understand you had Kyle when you were twenty years old.”
“We were dating for six months when I learned I was pregnant. I lived in a dorm on campus but spent the weekends at Dan’s. My parents didn’t know we were dating. My dad was an old-world type of guy and very religious. He lost his mind when he found out I was having premarital sex.”
“Did you consider an abortion?” Mack asked.
“Oh no, I would never. I was thrilled to be pregnant.”
“How about Daniel?”
“Daniel was supportive. He never suggested abortion, but he never appeared happy either. His parents came to visit when they learned the news.”
“What did they say?”
“That I was ruining their son’s life. And that I was a floozy trying to hook a rich guy by getting pregnant. That wasn’t true, of course. My father was as rich as anyone I knew. I didn’t care that Daniel had money. In fact, Daniel never talked about his family. I didn’t even know he was from Newfoundland.”
“Where in Newfoundland?” Mack asked.
“Gander. It’s a tiny place.”
“So, what happened next?”
“I left school and moved back to my parent’s house in Falmouth. My brother inherited it when my father died. My father instructed Marty to allow me to live here rent-free if I wanted to.”
“Didn’t he leave you any inheritance?”
“Yes. It’s in a trust fund for Kyle. It will pay for his college tuition when he is eighteen.”
“Tell us about your marriage?”
“It was casual, to say the least. Dan visited during the summer when he was working at the institute. He would play with Kyle, and we would go out on my father’s boat. We got an apartment in Woods Hole when he graduated from MIT. Kyle was four. I was planning on going to NE Maritime Academy in the fall and wanted to have fun. Dan landed a job with some defense company.
“Did Dan ever mention the name of the company?”
“No, he never talked about his work. He said he couldn’t tell me who they were. It was a top-secret project. He would leave for weeks at a time and then return without telling me. Then he disappeared.”
“What happened?”
“He took Kyle to Woodneck Beach. It’s near the house. Kyle played in the salt marsh, and Daniel worked on one of his projects. I expected them home for supper, but I went to the beach looking for them when they didn’t return. I found Kyle playing with a drone in the water. There was no sign of Daniel.”
“Did you call the police?”
“I didn’t have to. My brother’s a Falmouth police officer. They brought in the State Police, who used helicopters and dogs to search the marsh. The Coast Guard searched all of Buzzards Bay. We never found a trace.”
“Has Daniel contacted you since? Any types of messages?”
“No. Nothing. I never heard Daniel’s name mentioned until you asked.”
“One last question,” McCauley said. “Why didn’t you end your marriage?”
“How could I? He’s Kyle’s father, and Daniel wasn’t declared dead. I never gave up hope he would come back or… I would learn his fate. Not knowing what happened has always been the hardest part.”
“You never met another man? I mean, one you wanted to have a relationship with?”
“No. Not until I met Jay.”