The area around them had been turned in part into a camp for the reception of displaced people and in part into a field hospital. She was sure everything had materialized in the two hours it had taken them to get there, at his orders.
Suddenly coin-sized drops of water splashed down on her. Before she could move, it was as if floodgates had burst and there was no point in rushing away any more—or at all. She’d probably spend the next days soaking wet anyway. To make it worse, it was clear the heatwave had broken. With a vengeance.
She shuddered, raised her eyes to the sky, and even in the darkness saw the bloated clouds that promised a ceaseless deluge, and hoped Malek had estimated the site of their relief operation correctly, that it was on high enough ground not to join the afflicted areas in their watery fate.
“What have I told you about moving about without me?”
She jumped with a yelp before she subsided against him as he wrapped her in his jacket. Another thing she’d never get used to—his stealth. How could such a big man move so quietly?
He towed her to the nearest tent. “You’re soaked, and you weren’t dressed for this to start with.”
“Neither are you. And then I started the day in a heatwave, lost my jacket …” Stop, stop, you’re babbling.
And was it any wonder? Her eyes couldn’t tear themselves away from the sight of his clinging wet clothes showcasing the majesty of his chest, abdomen and thighs in distressing detail.
God—she was ogling him. She’d never done that, never felt the painful urge, or any urge at all, to tear a man’s clothes off him. And for her to feel this way here, now. It was crazy!
She busied herself with wringing her hair out as another crew member provided them with towels and waterproof, phosphorescent yellow uniforms like those everyone in the relief effort was wearing. She hurried into one of the still empty treatment compartments, dried herself and dressed, only then noticing that he’d ordered her a uniform indicating she was a doctor. “Tubeeb” was written in big letters above “Doctor”, front and back, plus the red crescent, indicating medical services.
She rushed out to find one of Malek’s men, Saeed, a huge, intimidating-looking man, the one she was now certain was the top aide he’d bequeathed her when he’d intended to leave her behind, and who’d been the one who’d accompanied them on the flight, taking Malek aside for a short, tense tête-à-tête.
Malek turned with a deep frown, reached out a silent hand to her. She rushed to take it.
“We’re holding a strategy planning meeting,” he murmured as she hurried beside him to another compartment where there were five men and one woman. They were gathered around a table with maps spread on it.
As soon as Malek entered they sprang up straight. The closest rushed over and kissed Malek’s shoulder.
Was that a kiss on the cheek going astray, with the man being so much shorter than Malek?
Malek cut through her musings. “No time for standing on ceremony.” Ceremony? This was the way to greet sheikhs here? Not that it was time to begin her education in the land’s customs. Malek’s taut admonition sent them all backing away. “A quick introduction is in order, though. Everyone, Dr Janaan Latimer is an emergency doctor who just this morning saved a citizen from a car crash. She’s an affiliate of GAO and she is generously volunteering even more services to our kingdom in its time of need.” Then he turned to her. “Janaan, let me introduce your colleagues in the relief effort. Dr Hessuh El-Etaibi.”
The striking dark-haired woman, who to Jay’s surprise was unveiled and dressed like the men, came forward and shook her hand with a smile full of genuine charm and interest.
She would have loved to have exchanged a more substantial greeting with her, but Malek swept her into a succession of lightning-quick introductions, giving her colleagues’ names but nothing about their functions.
It was over in one minute flat then Malek said, “Reports?”
“Those who escaped when the flashflood forged a new path down El Shamekh mountain,” Dr Essam said, “described it as a wall of water that came crashing down on them. They say their villages, which lie at its foot, here and here.” he pointed a baton on the map “ … have been wiped out.”
“Our meteorologists estimate that over twenty centimeters of rain have fallen over the last twelve hours,” Khaled El-Mussri, who looked and acted like some military type, said. “They predict more over the next seventy-two hours. Even in the areas that weren’t hit as hard, the water choked arterial roads and blocked them with waist-high water.”
“The timing, with night falling, proved a huge complication,” Hessuh said. “Then power lines went down and the blackout compounded the chaos. The local police and emergency services are paralyzed. The new mobile health units are either inundated by water or by people. We’re the first outside help to arrive.”
Malek took in all the information and exhaled. “The army has been mobilized but with the roads inaccessible, soldiers must hike for hours then use inflatable boats to reach the disaster areas. Every helicopter in the kingdom is on its way, but right now we are the only chance the victims have for immediate help.”
Essam shook his head. “There’s nothing we can do right now. The wind alone can bring the lighter helicopters down, and the zero visibility makes any rescue attempt before dawn futile.”
Malek straightened. She felt everyone in the compartment shrinking. She shivered, but it wasn’t with cold.
“Those people will not wait till dawn,” Malek snarled. “We’re repeating the drill we conducted in Ashgoon. Search-and-rescue teams will conduct continuous aerial surveys using the floodlights being fitted to the helicopters as we speak. They will pick up victims, deliver them to our medical team, then go back for more. When every single injured or stranded person has been rescued, we’ll continue the search for the missing and the dead. I am not leaving one person unaccounted for. Is that clear?”
There were unanimous nods, hers the most vigorous.
She knew that with him in charge, every life would be fought for and if not salvaged then honored, with everything humanly possible.
She ran after him as he distributed assignments to his team leaders.
“On which team will you be?” she gasped.
Malek looked down on her. “My helicopter is the only one equipped for both rescue and critical care. I’ll be on both.”