The Chemist

She’d planned to gather evidence on her way out, but she wasn’t sure she had time for that now. The dogs were quiet – did that mean everything was okay?

Well, after the volley of shots upstairs, it wasn’t like anyone outside was unaware of her presence. She sidled over to the door and crouched beside it, lower, she thought, than anyone would aim to shoot through the drywall. She reached over and pulled the door open a crack. No one shot at her.

“Daniel?” she called loudly.

“Alex!” he shouted back – he sounded as relieved as she suddenly felt.

“You’re okay?” she checked.

“Yes. Are you?”

“I’m coming out. Don’t shoot.”

She walked through the front door with her hands raised above her head, just in case. Einstein popped off the floor beside Lola and was at her heels.

She dropped her arms and jogged toward the Humvee. It was lit only by the lamps shining through the front door and windows, but from this vantage it appeared to be totally unharmed by their intentional accident.

Daniel slid out of the front seat.

“The shot?” she asked, her voice quieter as she approached. The dogs around the Humvee seemed relaxed enough, but…

“The last man. He must have climbed the side of the house to get away from the dogs. He was trying to edge around to the roof of the porch.”

Daniel gestured with the rifle to a dark mass crumpled on the gravel close to the east corner of the house. She pushed the gas mask back on her forehead, carefully moving the straps on the left side over her ear without touching it. She adjusted her trajectory, edging closer to the broken figure. Einstein shadowed her. A large standard German shepherd was pacing not too far off, seeming uninterested in the body.

Einstein suddenly sped up and passed her. He sniffed the body a few times while she cautiously picked her way forward, and then he turned to her with his tail wagging.

“Is that the all clear?” she muttered.

He kept wagging.

She leaned in for a closer look. It didn’t take long to see all there was to see. Impressed, she turned and walked back to the Humvee. Daniel was standing beside the open driver-side door, looking unsure what to do. He still didn’t appear to be having any kind of shock reaction.

“Nice shot,” she said. One bullet, literally right between the eyes. It couldn’t have been more perfect.

“I wasn’t very far away.”

He stepped toward her, closing the distance, and his gloved hands wrapped tightly around the tops of her arms. Then he gasped and spun to the side, wheeling her around so that the light was no longer behind her.

“How much of this blood is yours?”

“Not much,” she said. “I’m good.”

“Your ear!”

“Yeah, that’s not going to help anything, is it? You handy with a needle and thread?”

His head jerked back in surprise. “What?”

“It’s not hard. I can talk you through it.”

“Um…”

“One thing first.” She shook out of his grasp and ran back up the porch stairs. Lola was still curled in the same spot. She raised her head and thumped her tail limply when she saw Alex.

“Hey, Lola, good girl. Let me take a look at you.”

Alex sat cross-legged in front of her. She stroked Lola’s side with one hand while searching for the wound with the other.

“Is she okay?” Daniel asked softly. He was on the other side of the porch banister, his elbows resting on the edge of the floorboards. He seemed unwilling to get any closer to the house. She didn’t blame him. Lola whimpered as Alex felt along her legs.

“She’s lost some blood. It looks like the bullet went through her back left leg. I can’t tell if it hit bone, but the bullet definitely passed through. She was lucky.”

He reached through the slats to rub Lola’s nose. “Poor girl.”

“The stuff in the back of the Humvee must be in total chaos. I’m going to hunt up the first-aid kit. Keep her calm, will you?”

“Sure.”

Einstein followed Alex back to the vehicle, just as he’d trailed her to the porch. It surprised her how the silent support buoyed her, made her feel safe despite all the evidence to the contrary.

She opened the back of the Humvee, and an impatient Khan almost knocked her down. She dodged out of his way just in time as he sprang over her. She imagined the cargo hold was tight for him, though she had plenty of space as she crawled inside.

Guns and ammo were strewn haphazardly, loose bullets rolling under her knees. There wasn’t time to organize. Her conversation with Hector had been cut short; she hadn’t been able to ask one last vital question. What happens when the job is done? Who was expecting a call, and when? At least there was the third house still waiting. Unless Hector had made a call between the first and second stops.

Had he called his manager, told him which address had been cleared and which he was heading to next? Was the manager waiting for another call? Would he have realized that the call was overdue?

She located the duffel that held her first-aid kit. There was nothing she could do now except move fast and make the right decisions. The only problem was she still didn’t know exactly what those right decisions were.

“Okay,” she huffed as she and Einstein arrived back at Lola’s side.

She knelt beside Lola’s legs and quickly realized it was too dark for her to see what she was doing.