“Good luck,” Little Wolf said and laid his head down. Dave washed the wound with whiskey, which had to burn but Little Wolf never flinched. Dave picked up the knife sighed and looked at Jozette who nodded. Slowly he cut into the wound then poked with the tweezers looking for the bullet. There was no way to tell where it was without an X-ray. Was it near the surface or deep, close to the artery? He proceeded very cautiously. He was nearly two inches in and nothing so he stopped and thought for a moment.
“What’s wrong?” Jozette asked.
“I can’t find it.”
“What can you do?” She asked.
“Little Wolf, when I was digging around did you feel anything?”
“No.”
“Alright, I’m going in again and if you feel any sensation, tell me.”
“Okay, get going with it.” Dave started up again moving left to right to try and find the path.
“Oh,” Little Wolf moaned. “I felt that.”
“Okay,” Dave said and probed with the tweezers until he felt something. He tried to grab it but it kept slipping away. Then one more time and he had it. Slowly he pulled the tweezers out and there it was and it was a big one and in one piece so there were no fragments. He laid the tweezers on the table, sighed deeply and shook his head.
“Well,” Little Wolf said.
“That’s it.” Jozette was relived and Little Wolf let out a groan of satisfaction. Dave sewed up the wound, doused it with whiskey then bandaged it up. He gave Little Wolf four painkillers. Jozette grabbed Dave’s arm and looked at him with wet eyes.
“Thanks, Dave,” she said with a trembling voice and he winked.
“You thank me now just wait until you get the bill.” Jozette smiled as she wiped Little Wolf’s brow. Dave found a chair and sat down to rest and recover emotionally. He wasn’t a surgeon or a doctor or anything actually. He was a trained EMT and that’s all. Whenever the group was in trouble and they needed a medical person they turned to Dave. He didn’t look forward to playing doctor but he had many times and would do so again in the future if necessary.
“How are you, Madam President?” Bonnie asked.
“I’m fine, Bonnie, my concern is with the people who’ve been shot and those people who are out there risking their lives to keep the heads of state safe.”
“I know, Ma’am.”
“President Deniken, when will your security forces arrive?” Ellen asked.
“Unknown, Madam President. Soon I hope.” Ellen turned to Bonnie who shrugged her shoulders.
“I wonder if Valerie tried to get back to Washington,” Ellen posed.
“I hope so,” Bonnie said.
“Henry and Andrew could’ve worked something out. How many secret service agents were back at the hotel?”
“Three or four, I’m not sure.”
“That’s not enough. Trent was right, I should never have come here with the scant security we had.”
“He usually is right but hopefully we can get you back to Washington safely.”
“That’s not important to me.”
“Of course, it is.”
“Oh, I don’t have a death wish but what matters most is that there’s not a nuclear incident.”
“You think there’s a chance of that?”
“With these Stalinists involved anything’s possible.” Bonnie nodded.
“Yes, Comrade,” Radinsky said over the phone to Kulagin.
“And they have made no effort to break in?”
“No, Comrade, I have the doomsday device in place. If they break in the missiles will launch.”
“Okay, I want you to vent ten of them, the Americans will pick up it up on their satellites and raise their security level and that’ll step things up. We want to be on the edge when we make our demands. We want everyone scared”
“Yes, Comrade.” Radinsky went to the control panel and vented ten missiles as instructed. Steam and smoke escaped giving the impression of a launch warm-up to a satellite. Kulagin was playing with fire but he had nerves of steel and besides he didn’t care if the world was plunged into a nuclear exchange. His mission was on the edge of atomic suicide from the start. If it went that far… he couldn’t care less. Crazies like Kulagin are the most difficult ones with which to negotiate. They want to die and don’t care who they take with them.
“General Zumwalt, sir,” Jerry Fillmore said as he walked up to the general’s console.
“What is it, Sergeant?”
“Sir, satellite images show the missiles being vented at Kapustin Yar.” General Zumwalt sat up as Deke Winters heard and came over.
“He can launch by himself, sir,” Deke said and Walter nodded.
“Get me General Ledger on the horn.” In an instant the phone was handed to the general. “Hello, Tommy, it’s Zumwalt. We’ve got a problem. Our satellites have picked venting of the missiles at Kapustin Yar.”
“So, they’re ready.”
“Yeah, get all planes in the air, buzz their airspace; I’m going to DEFCON Two.”
“Yes, sir,” General Ledger said and Zumwalt handed the phone off.
“Warning them, sir?” Deke asked and Walter nodded.
“Take us to DEFCON two, Deke.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Sir, there’s been a change in the situation,” Cheryl Wallach said to Don Lexington as they stood in the hall of the first family residence.
“What?”
“You and your children need to go to the bunker, now.”
“Why, what’s happened?”
“I can’t tell you that, sir.”
“Does it involve my wife, please tell me if something’s happened to her.” Wallach sighed and looked away for a moment.
“We know nothing more about the President; this is another matter and you need to proceed to the basement immediately.” Don thought for a moment then realized what it meant and nodded.
“I understand… Brian, Shelly, come with me, we’re going to the basement.”
“Why?” Brian asked.
“Because I said so, now move it.” Shelly didn’t hesitate and Brian finally shrugged his shoulders and followed his dad to the basement and the bunker. The Presidential Emergency Operations center (PEOC) lies under the Whitehouse and could withstand a nuclear attack.
“Dad, what’s happening?” Shelly asked.
“Is it Mom?” Brian asked.
“No, though she’s still being held somewhere.”
“What is it then?” Shelly asked.
“Agent Brewster didn’t say for certain but I sort of gleaned that it involves the military.” There was silence for a moment.
“You mean nuclear weapons,” Shelly posed.
“Yes.”
“Are we going to be attacked?” Brian said nervously with a scared look on his face.
“Not necessarily, I think they’ve moved the DEFCON level closer to one.”
“You mean like the movies?” Shelly asked.
“Something like that, yes. This group in Russia who kidnapped your mother and the Russian president mean business and I’m guessing that they might’ve taken over a nuclear facility to get what they want.”
“You know that for a fact?” Shelly asked.
“No, but it’s the only thing that makes any sense.”
“What do we do?” Brian asked.
“Sit here and wait.”
“Wait for what?” Shelly asked.
“Some good news,” Don said.
“Comrade, more men are here,” Kolchevsky said.
“Good.”
“Comrade,” a disheveled man said as he came into the lobby out of breath.
“What is it?” Kulagin asked.
“We’ve hit resistance. They have some weapons.”
“What happened?” Kulagin asked.
“We lost seven men.”
“What!” Kulagin screamed.