Chapter 79

79

Aboard the Oregon

Callie's eyes fluttered open. All she could see was white.

Her head ached as if her skull were pinned inside of a hydraulic press. A hiss filled the air.

She rolled her throbbing head over to find relief. Instead, she saw an angel's familiar face in a portal window.

"Hello, sleepyhead." Dr. Huxley's voice sounded tinny on the speakers inside of the Nomad 's hyperbaric chamber. "I bet you feel terrible, don't you?"

Callie tried to smile, but it hurt. In fact, she hurt all over. The kind of hurt she'd only felt once before.

"Terrible…would be an improvement," she finally managed to say. "How…long?" She struggled to finish the sentence.

"You've been in there for a little over four hours. I'm monitoring your vitals. It will be at least another thirty minutes before you're completely out of the woods and then we can pop the tab."

Callie noticed her arm was tethered to a half-empty IV drip, and ECG nodes were attached to her chest. There was also a pulse oximetry clip on the end of her finger. All of her vitals were being monitored wirelessly.

"Hungry, dear?"

"A little. And thirsty."

"I'll put in an order with the galley right now. Someone's here to see you."

Huxley stepped aside and Juan's bruised and bandaged face replaced it. Max, Eddie, and Murphy, in a sling, crowded behind his broad shoulders, trying to see Callie through the tiny portal, too. The three of them waved and smiled as they caught glimpses of her.

Callie felt like Dorothy in her bed after she got back from Oz.

"How did I wind up here?" Callie asked.

"Doc said it was a miracle," Juan said. "Another thirty seconds and we'd have lost you."

"The Vendor?" she asked.

"Dead as a doornail."

"The neurotoxin?"

"Dispersed harmlessly into the sea, thanks to you."

Callie nodded. "I'm just glad it worked out okay."

"I don't know how you came up with that plan."

Callie grinned. "Sometimes crazy is the plan."

Juan laughed. "You get better fast. That's an order."

"Aye, Cap'n," she whispered as her eyes fluttered and she fell back to sleep.