30. Bastian

BASTIAN

I woke up, my heart racing, to see Doc Morgan leaning over me, his stethoscope moving across my chest.

“Doc? What the fuck? Where am I?”

Doc removed the stethoscope from his ears and answered. “You’re in the sick bay of the Eau Claire County Jail.”

“I’m what?”

“Oh, trust me, this was nobody’s idea of a fun Christmas Day. Me included. Apparently, you thought you’d take it upon yourself to try and open the door of an aircraft during take-off. That’s the bad news. The good news is, you weren’t alone in your efforts to completely shut down one of the biggest airports in the state. Seems Benji, Maggie, Lonnie, Ronnie, and Connie had the same wish to spend Christmas Day in the clink.”

Suddenly it all came back to me—Maggie’s car racing beside the plane…

Me trying to climb over Sterling…

The electric-eel zap of the taser.

Urgently I asked, “Where’s Benji? Are the Larsons okay? Is everyone okay? Is Benji okay?”

“Everyone’s fine,” Doc said, putting away his stethoscope. “And so are you. Sherriff Gates is in talks with the Eau Claire Police Department as we speak, begging for a little leniency. In the meantime, you’ve woken up just in time for your Christmas Day mugshot.”