Kombat Kids - 43. Sorting Things Out

02:08 4,500 METERS ABOVE LZ IN SOUTHERN WASHINGTON

Flashing red, blue, white and yellow lights of vehicles from four different law enforcement agencies and the blinding spot lights of the orbiting helicopters lent a sense of the surreal to the still dark forest surrounding the Prince Cabin. The LAV snorted and whined as Justin backed the heavy vehicle from its blocking position on the dirt road.

Totally unaware of what was transpiring outside the trailer, Doctor Davidson and Jesse fought to save the lives of the two boys who would have thought nothing of killing Jacky. The personal monitor for the Alcorn boy faithfully reported his blood pressure, pulse and blood oxygen level every two minutes. Marty Morton and Mike Hedding had calmed down and were performing their duties, if not with panache, then with a steadiness that belied their earlier squeamishness. The doctor shook his head as he mumbled to himself about the foolishness and stupidity of some mother's children. As a doctor, Doctor Davidson took an oath to try his hardest to save anyone he attended to; he had to try, but he didn't have to like it though. This was one of those times when he really didn't care if the person lived or died.

In the Prince Cabin basement, Jap wept over his ravaged boyfriend, the bruises on his body were bad enough, but the way they treated him infuriated the little redheaded sniper. Jacky had been left in his own filth for two days, and it was apparent that his captors had used him as a dog would use a fire hydrant. The clothing that Jap had cut him out of was still damp with their urine, Jap sent out a call to the members of the Unit nearest him for their water bottles so that he could cleanse his lover before they moved him. Thank God, Jap thought;"At least he wasn't raped like Phil and David had been the previous summer." Gently turning Jacky on his side that hadn't been bruised, he went about the odorous job of cleaning shit from his groin and butt. One of the Squaddies had given Jap a roll of paper towels he had found in the kitchen of the cabin and this aided him in cleaning up his lover. Just as he was discarding a piece of the toweling, he heard an unknown voice yell out;"What the fuck is going on down there?" Before the unknown man could continue speaking six firearms were pointing up the stairs and the snicking sound of the safeties being clicked off was the only noise to be heard in the basement.

The unknown men froze in mid-step as they heard the distinctive sound, then;"Hold your fire, hold your fire! We're U.S. Marshals, let's all take it easy now, just calm down."

Keener was the first to speak;"Sir, we need to see some identification, NOW."

The man closest to the bottom of the stairs said;"Okay now men, let's all be calm, I'm going to reach in my pocket and get my I.D., let's all take it easy now." The man kept his left hand down by his side as he slowly reached into his back pocket with his right hand to pull out a leather folder which he held to the front so all of the basements’ occupants could see in the dim light of the two Coleman lanterns that had been lit. "I'm United States Marshal Maxwell Jamison, please lower your firearms."

When Keener put the safety on his AR-15 and lowered the muzzle, the rest of the Unit Squaddies did the same. Still taking care not to startle the highly strung men and boys in the basement the Marshall and his partner slowly descended the stairs. When the Marshals were both down the stairs, they slowly took in the camouflage uniforms and firearms of the people spread around the basement. Looking over to one side, they saw one of the men, no a boy, a young boy guarding a bound large fat teenager in just briefs who was propped against the wall. Turning back to Keener the man asked;"Son will you please tell me what's going on here?"

Keener slung his rifle on his shoulder and started to explain about Jacky Hoffman being kidnapped by the Prince Brothers and their two friends and how they had freed him. The story, leaving out the part about their insertion by parachuting from twenty some thousand feet from a C-130U took Keener a good ten minutes. Turning to his partner he said;"Fred, go outside and have George come down here with his kit and see what he can do for the boy." Fred nodded and was turning around when Keener said;"Hold a second sir, David, go with him so he won't have any trouble with the Squadies."

David Allyn replied;"Yes sir." Turning to the Marshall he said; “Sir, if you please, it would be better if I led." The boy and the man hurried up the stairs to find the EMT that had accompanied the Marshals.

Moving carefully, the Marshal knelt beside the weeping Jap and his boyfriend, seeing the condition of the fourteen-year-old Jacky all he could say was, "Jesus Christ, Jesus, Mary and Joseph."

The Marshal heard a whimper from the fat teenager then a whining;"Hey what about me, I'm hurt, they shot me." The Marshal stood and walked over to the bound boy;"Consider yourself lucky, if I'd been on the entry team you'd be dead. You just sit there and keep your fucking mouth shut or I'll correct that error."

Turning back to Keener: "You said they had knives?"

Keener nodded and pointed to the large buck knife that Bill Jordan had in his hand when he came running down the stairs. "That's it over there, we left it where he dropped it, and I wasn’t taking any chances with these assholes. Last year this tub of shit and seven of his buddies beat and raped two of our members so bad they almost died. Like I said, I wasn't going to give them a chance to hurt any of the other boys."

The Marshal walked back over to Launy and said;"Tell me your name."

Launy started whining, "I want a lawyer, I want my dad, I want a doctor I wa . . . ."

The Marshall reached out and grabbed Launy by his left ear and twisted it viciously;"Boy, all I want out of you is your name, I can keep on twisting this ear till it comes completely off, NOW WHAT IS YOUR FUCKING NAME?"

"Ooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwww, okay, okay, okay, it's Launy Prince, my name is Launy Prince, please stop twisting my ear, pleeeeeease."

The Marshall released Launy's ear and reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a card. "Launy Prince I'm placing you under arrest for kidnapping, assault, and attempted murder. You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to consult with an attorney. If you can not afford an attorney, one will be provided for you; do you understand these rights as they have been read to you?"

"Yes I do, I want an attorney." Launy whined.

While Marshall Jamison was reading Launy his rights, Matt Bateman and Tommy Martin were conferring with the senior U.S. Marshall, Ben Mathews. The Marshall had been inspecting the carnage that Jap had rent on three out of the four Mexican hitmen who had entered the U.S. illegally. Each one of the three dead men had one round through their heads, all in the center that was presented to Jap. "Would someone mind telling me what happened here? I mean what the fuck was they doing that they had to be put down hard like this?" Asked the Marshall.

Matt gestured towards Mitch lying on the ground waiting for someone to help him move out of the way. Matt pointed to two of the hitters and said;"These guys jumped out of the car and took Mitch here under fire, the guy with the MP-5 hit him three times in the chest and abdomen. The other guy took out his leg so Jap put them both down before they could hit him in a vital spot."

"Vital Spot?" Yelled the Marshall. "The guy got hit four times and they didn't hit him in a vital spot?"

Matt just nodded;"Mitch is wearing Class III body armor and the asshole who shot him with the shotgun hit him in his artificial leg. That's when Jap took them down. The last one had his shotgun up and was going to shoot one of the guys on the porch when Jap took him out."

"As far as the four wounded in the house, Deputy Sheriff Martin took the guy who had just pumped a round of .00 buck in to me. Staff Sergeant Keener took out the three who were charging down the basement stairs armed with a knife. He was protecting the injured boy who was being worked on by our Unit Corpsman and he wasn't going to take a chance on them hurting any more of our boys." Matt finished.

Just then, David Allyn and one of the Marshals came running up to them;"Where's George, we need him right now down in the basement." Marshall Timmons asked.

Matthews looked over at the first vehicle parked by the trailer;"Over there, he was going to see if he could help out with the two being worked on in the trailer, but the Doc said he didn't need him."

Timmons nodded and headed over to talk to the EMT. Turning back to Matt and Tommy;"I need to talk to this guy Jap, I want to hear his side of what went down."

Matt looked a little sheepish;"That may take awhile, right now he's with Jacky Hoffman, the boy who was kidnapped. He's cleaning him up and I don't think he'll be ready to talk about this for a little while. You see Jacky's his boyfriend and he's been a basket case every since he got to him. Right now he's washing him down, these assholes left him sitting in his own piss and shit for two days. That wasn't near as bad as them pissing on him and then beating the crap out of him while he was tied up. So I'm asking you to hold off for awhile, please?"

Marshall Mathews shook his head and was about to agree when one of the ATF agents let out a whoop;"Jesus H. Christ on a B-52, there must be 20 kilos of 'shit' in here.

As one of the State Police was checking out the vehicle, Doctor Davidson was working frantically to save Bill Jordan's life. Jordan had lost a lot of blood and if the Doctor couldn't get the few remaining torn and ruptured veins and arteries tied off soon, he would bleed out. Looking at Mike Hedding;"Michael, get another bag of Ringers and D5W up, we need to keep fluid in his system."

Mike quickly grabbed another bag and had it prepped and ready when the doctor called for it, the Doctor stopped his work only long enough to swap it with the almost empty one. He then went back to work on the boy's wound.

Jesse looked up from what he was doing and asked; “Doc, what now? I think I got all the big bleeders."

Without looking up the Doctor said;"Marty help Jesse turn him on his side. Jesse, when you get him up, you need to seal the exit wound, then I want you to check to make sure all the vessels are still clamped off from the entry side."

Marty moved to the side opposite Jesse and together they gently moved him up on his side. While Jesse held him in place he told Marty to open another Surgical Adhesive Drape and center it over the exit wound, then seal it in place. After Marty had that done, the two boys laid Larry on his back again. "FUCK!!!" Jesse yelled;"Two of the fucking clamps came loose." As he went back to trying to clamp off the major vessel that was pumping blood back into the chest cavity, Jesse started crying. "I can't do this, I can't do this, I'm fucking killing him."

"JESSE, SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Yelled the doctor.

Doctor Davidson's use of foul language took all three boys by surprise, while Jesse only just met him, Marty and Mike had known him for over a year and that was the first time they had ever heard him cuss.

"Calm down Jess." The Doctor told him;"Take a couple of deep breaths and continue working. All of you men are doing a great job, just keep doing what you’ve been doing and we'll save both these assholes. Ah, I mean poor young gentlemen."

The last statements caused the boys to giggle a little. Jesse did what the doctor told him and kept on working.

By this time, Jap had pretty well cleaned up his boyfriend as best he could and was just sitting, holding him in his arms. Weeping softly into Jacky's hair, wishing he were able to do more.

Keener was sitting along side him, more to comfort Jap than anything else, when the people in the basement heard David Allyn call out. "In the basement, I'm bringing an EMT down, hold your fire."

David, followed closely by an adult carrying two large hinged cases, hurried down the stairs and over to Jacky and Jap. From the other side of the room they heard Launy whine;"Hey, how about me, they shot me."

The EMT didn't even look up when he heard Launy whining, he started to check Jacky out. Launy started whining again about how he was hurt and he was going to lodge a complaint and how his daddy wasssssssss . . . . . . . .

George the EMT had heard enough of Launy's shit and had left Jacky for a few seconds to inject the fat kid with a large dose (3.5 cc's of Ketamine) of sedative and all of a sudden Launy went beddy bye.

Moving back to Jacky he said with a broad grin;"There, now isn't that better?"

Everyone in the basement started clapping and whistling and saying stuff like;"Way to go doc, nice job, I wish someone would have done that half an hour ago."

While George was taking his blood pressure and temperature, Jacky started to shiver. "Oh fuck" George said softly to himself. Without taking his eyes off Jacky he called out; “Someone find me a sleeping bag or several blankets, hurry!" Looking at Jap, his face softened and he asked;"Are you his brother or something?"

Jap bit off a caustic reply and looked George in the eye and said;"No, he's my boyfriend."

George just nodded his head, then said;"Okay Red, here's the deal, your boyfriend is going into hypothermia and we got to warm him up quick. I want you to take off all your clothes and hold him as close to you as you can, that way we give him the heat from your body to help warm him up."

Before the man could finish talking, Jap laid Jacky down gently and was quickly removing his clothing. Justin Tyme ran over to the EMT and gave him a musty smelling sleeping bag. While Jap was getting undressed, George unzipped the bag and shook it out to make sure there weren't any critters living in it. The EMT stretched the bag out alongside Jacky and with Jap and Keener's help; they quickly had him lying on the bag. Jap removed his boxers and climbed almost on top of Jacky. George, the EMT, folded the bag over both the Squaddies; taking care not to dislodge the I.V. Jesse had started. Turning to Justyn he ordered;"Go back up stairs and haul some blankets back here, the heavier the better."

"Yes sir." Justyn replied. As he turned and started for the stairs, he saw David Allyn standing by. "Come on Davey, give me a hand."

As David turned to follow, the EMT said;"Hold it a second, take these three bags of IV fluid with you, if there's a microwave upstairs, put them in it one at a time. Set the machine for ten seconds on medium, no higher, when they've all been heated bring them back down here." David thought for a second before saying;"Can't, the power's out, the microwave won't work."

George, thinking quickly, ordered David;"This place has a big hot water tank, fill up a sink or fill a bucket with fairly warm water then immerse the bags. Remember, I don't want the fluid in the bags hot, just body temperature or a little warmer, got it?"

David took the bags of fluid and said;"Yes sir, no problem, he then turned and quickly caught up with Justyn and followed him up the stairs, thinking to himself;"Damn he's got a nice ass." Shaking his head, he wondered where that thought came from.

While Justyn was hauling the blankets down to the basement, David warmed the bags of D5W and Ringers lactate. When he had the bags warmed, he quickly took them to the EMT, George took a bag and while he was changing out the bag currently in use he said;"David, stick those other two bags in your shirt, so's they'll stay warm." David stuck them in his blouse and kept them next to his belly using both hands so they wouldn't fall to the floor.

While Jacky was being tended, members of the three different law enforcement agencies dug into the mystery surrounding the kidnapping; attempted hit and the intervention by Unit One. While two ATF agents and a Marshal searched the GMC Yukon, an INS agent was questioning the bound Mestizo. The agent got right into his face and was screaming so loud that he was easily heard by the people in the basement. The illegal, remained silent, he knew his best bet was to keep his mouth shut, at least for the time being. Getting nothing from the survivor of the hit team, the agent started to search the bodies of the three deceased hitmen, the only thing of note he came across was a small memo book in Benny's back pocket. Leafing through it, he became excited, turning to the senior INS agent, he shouted. "Hey Tim, I think I got something here." Tim Torkelson scanned the contents of the book and called for the Marshal and Tommy Martin, after explaining what was in the book.

As the INS agent was translating the contents of the book for the Marshall and Tommy, one of the ATF agents came out of the cabin and called his boss over. The two conferred for a minute or so and the agent went back in the cabin. Alex Shoemaker, the senior agent motioned for the Senior Feds and Tommy to group on him. When the three got close enough to talk in normal tones, the agent informed them of a find that all the agencies would be interested in. During the search of the basement, one of his agents noted scuff marks on the floor. On closer inspection, he found that a section of shelves were fixed so that they would swing out from the wall. When the agent moved the shelves away from the wall, he found a doorway into a secret room. Upon inspection, they found all the necessary equipment for cutting, packaging and storage of illegal drugs. On closer inspection, a half-kilo of heroin was discovered in a sealed container.

Tommy opened his cell phone and punched in his father's number.
"Sheriff, this is Deputy Martin, we have found evidence linking Don Prince to the scene as well as to a multi-million dollar drug shipment. The INS and the U.S. Marshall as well as the ATF people suggest that Mr. Prince be brought in for questioning. Oh, you have? They’re already there? You already have an arrest warrant? Thank you Sheriff, I'll inform them of the situation, goodbye."

While Tommy was explaining that his father, the Sheriff grinned. He was going to be able to serve the arrest warrant on Don Prince that he just happened to have. Oh yes, the three local DEA Agents were also going to serve a warrant to search the Prince property for illegal drugs. They had ‘luckily’ been visiting the Sheriff when he got the call, how fortunate.

As he was finishing his call, the Peterbilt tractor started up and was maneuvering to get back to the road. Sonny Beck had gotten several of the Squaddies to fill the trench with fire wood from the cabin that had been, "ahem" dug across the dirt road so he wouldn't get stuck while he was driving the truck to a location near SR 97 for a 'Dust Off' (helicopter medical evacuation). As the tractor-trailer was moving towards SR 97, the Doctor and the tree Squaddies braced themselves and held the two wounded boys on the tables. Both of them were still alive, but that could change in a hurry if they didn't get to a Trauma Center quickly.

The semi stopped about a 100 meters from SR 97 where one four bladed sleek Sikorsky S-76 Traumahawk helicopter was sitting in the open area where the dirt road started. Another Traumahawk was circling overhead waiting to land when the first lifted off.

As the two EMT's belonging to the Traumahawk crew and two Washington Patrol officers moved to the front of the semi where the Doctor was standing, Marty and Mike were standing in the door ready to help transfer the patients. Jesse was moving back and forth between the two boys on the tables, ensuring that their vital signs remained constant.

When the Medevac personnel and the Patrolmen arrived, the Doctor quickly briefed them on his patient's condition and the type of care they had received. The boys were quickly transferred from the trailer to the helicopter; Larry Alcorn was put in the main cabin, while Bill Jordan was put in the after cabin. As soon as the helicopter took off, the semi moved to SR 97 and turned left, moving just far enough up the road to allow the second Traumahawk to land. Within three minutes, a HUMVEE drove as close as it could get to the helicopter, George the U.S. Marshall EMT got out of the front seat and waved the aircrew EMT's over with their gurney. A short argument ensued about whether or not Jap was going to remain inside the sleeping bag as Jacky's sole means of external heat. It was really going to be interesting when the helicopter landed at the hospital with the two naked boys in a sleeping bag.