Page 32 of What Remains (John Worthy #3)

“Listen,” Driver said, cupping his hands around a mug of steaming broth, “I gotta ask about something that’s been on my mind since the hot spring.”

“Yeah?” They were done for the day, and John was doing what he normally did: slowly defrosting in front of their tent heater.

If at all possible, he would’ve hugged the thing.

By day’s end, he was always stunned a little stupid from cold and fatigue not to mention high altitude hiking with a heavy pack.

The tent would never be cozy, but thanks to their military-grade portable heater, they wouldn’t freeze either.

Driver figured they had enough fuel for a full week of travel before they ran dry.

He hadn’t said what they’d do if, after a week, they still needed a heater, but details.

“What’s on your mind?” But his mouth was still numb and so this came out as gobbledygook: Washunermine?

“Same thing you asked when you first saw me. You hit that water, man. I saw you go under.” Driver blew steam from his mug and sipped. “So, how come you’re not dead?”

“Lush.” Luck

“Got to be more than just that.”

“Reflex.” Reflush.

“What do you mean?” When he didn’t reply, Driver said, “Hey, don’t just stare at your mug. The sooner you get something hot in your stomach, the better you’ll feel. We also might have a mutually intelligible conversation.”

Sound medical advice. But when he tried raising his mug, his hands shook so hard that liquid sloshed over the rim. He couldn’t even work up the energy to curse.

“Hey, it’s okay. It happens. Here.” Driver slid a hand under the mug to hold it steady. “Take it slow. A sip at a time.”

He did, and as the liquid traced a warm finger down the center of his chest, the tension bleed from his shoulders and his shuddering eased.

“Better?” Without waiting for a reply, Driver refilled John’s mug with more broth. “Keep drinking. Plenty more where that came from.”

He was on his third mug when Driver said, “Okay, no more room service. Now tell me how come you’re alive.”

“I told you. Reflex,” he said, his tongue now cooperating at producing recognizable words.

“When water hits the back of your throat, your windpipe snaps shut. It happens all the time when you swallow, right? You can’t both swallow and breathe at the same time.

So that reflex is doubly strong when water is cold. ”

“You mean all those people who fall through thin ice into a lake actually suffocate instead of drowning?”

“A fair number. Most adults can’t be resuscitated.

Some can, though, mostly because in very cold water, your metabolism slows way down, and blood is shunted to your brain and heart.

The reflex is really strong in children.

That’s why we always went all out for any kid who’d fallen through the ice and brought in clinically dead. ”

“Hunh. Well, that explains why CPR worked for you.” Driver let a beat pass. “Seeing as how you’re a kid.”

“Oh, ha-ha.”

“What do you actually remember?”

Roni’s face as I fell into that whirlpool. “Hitting the water. The cold.” He let a beat slip. “Figuring I was a dead man.”

“But then you weren’t.”

“But then I wasn’t. Next thing I know, I’m in the ICU at Ramstein, connected to a ventilator and more IV lines than can possibly be good for a person. Dunno how I got there.”

“Flowers.” At his look of surprise, Driver continued, “Mac told me. He ordered everyone to clear out, but he and Flowers waited. Then, maybe thirty, forty minutes after everyone else is gone, you wash out on a big wave and Flowers CPR’ed your ass.”

“Why did Mac wait?” Then he remembered Driver frantically shouting into his Harris. “He heard you?”

Driver nodded. “I don’t know why I didn’t get his reply.

Then, when neither Roni nor I appeared, Mac decided you were the only survivor and left.

Drove like a bat out of hell. You stopped breathing a couple times before the medical transport Mac called for met them halfway. The chopper had a couple PJs onboard.”

“Hunh.” The American Air Force’s pararescue personnel were normally used in special operations. Given that Mac organized off-the-books missions, however, having the PJs along for the ride made sense. “Helps to know people in high places, I guess.”

“Yup. Mac said the PJs shocked your heart twice before they got back to Kabul.”

“Well, that would explain why I woke up thinking I’d been kicked in the chest by a pissed-off horse. No one at Ramstein would give me a straight story.”

“It’s possible they didn’t know. Remember, Mac is a spook.”

Present tense. Meaning Driver was still in touch? “Do you know what happened? Why the wall collapsed?”

“Uh-huh.” Emptying a packet of instant broth into a mug, Driver added hot water and stirred.

“Back at the aqueduct, right after you hit the water, part of the wall leading to the next chamber collapsed. Later, I found out that while you torched most of those fighters with that flare, one still managed to squirt off an RPG. Lucky for Mac, the guy had rotten aim. Meeks took care of the stragglers before they could fire another.”

“An RPG took out of the wall?”

“More like the first domino. You just happened to be on the right side of the cave-in. When water came gushing out of the cave’s mouth, you were along for the ride. Washed up like a beached fish is what Flowers said.”

It was on the tip of his tongue to ask about Flowers and Meeks. Instead, he asked, “Your turn. Last I saw of you and Roni, you guys were headed in the wrong direction. You were going back the way we’d come.”

“Mmm.” Driver sipped broth. “Remember what I said way back at the airport about the way these aqueducts were constructed?”

“Along a series of wells, yeah.” Then something Flowers mentioned floated up from memory: rungs driven into rock. “Son of a gun. You went into an old well shaft.”

“Dumb luck. I spotted the shaft when I was climbing up the wall. That’s why I was going one way while you went the other.

I ducked in right before the same collapse that sent you out on wave of displaced water.

I was just lucky this well wasn’t plugged too bad.

Had to use my knife to dig to the surface.

Took forever. When I finally broke through, the stars were out. ”

“And after you were out?”

“Still had my radio, so I got Mac on the horn. By then, he was back in Kabul.”

“But the boys we rescued got out.”

“But the boys we rescued got out on that last plane.” Driver sipped more broth. “You’re dancing around what you really want to know.”

“What do I really want to know?”

“Now who’s playing stupid?” An undercurrent of something close to anger in Driver’s tone now. “Did it ever occur to you that maybe I feel guilty, too? She was with me, after all. You were already…” He made a vague gesture.

“Dead? Out of the picture?” And isn’t that what you really wanted?

“Yes, I thought you were dead.”

“Were you happy?”

“Go screw yourself.” Although there was little heat in his voice. With the telling, Driver sounded as wrung out as John felt. “I called for her to follow. This was literally, like, ten seconds, before the wall collapsed. The last I saw, Roni was moving up to where I was.”

“So, you were already in the shaft.” Why did that sound like an accusation? “You must’ve made like Spiderman to make it that fast.”

“It was luck,” Driver said, flatly. “Get as pissy as you want, if that makes you feel better. But the wall broke open and you fell. I watched you go under. You didn’t come back up, so forgive me for assuming you croaked. Which you sort of did.”

He couldn’t argue that. “What then?”

“I told you, Worthy. I called for her to follow. She looked up, she saw me and started to move. I climbed into the shaft, hooked an arm around one rung— one !” Driver held up a finger.

“Okay? I didn’t keep climbing and I wasn’t where she couldn’t see me.

I was half-in and half-out, and I waited.

But then the rest of the wall came down.

I didn’t see her fall, but she must have because when I looked for her, she wasn’t there.

All right? I waited to see if she would surface, but she didn’t.

Hate me all you want, Worthy, but I did the best I could. ”

Hatred seemed pointless now. “After the wall came down, why didn’t you go out the way we’d come in?”

“Couldn’t. I was cut off. Remember I said you got washed out? The wall created a barrier that kept the water on my side.”

He thought about that. “So, Roni got washed backwards?”

“As near as I can figure. I think she got sucked back down into the tunnels.”

A reasonable hypothesis, if grisly. “And after Mac came back for you?”

“It was middle of the night before they picked me up. We made it back to the airport about noon. The last transport was gone. There were still people waiting in line to get out of the country, but no one had told those poor people there wouldn’t be any more transports.”

“So as not to spark a panic.”

Driver nodded. “Our people were already breaking down operations. Anyway, a medic checked me over and then we all got on a transport.”

“And left.”

“Yes, Worthy. I kicked the sand from my boots and put Afghanistan in my rear view.” Driver’s mouth quirked in a sardonic grimace. “Until now.”