Fortunate Sons

Chapter 18: Sue's discovery: Tran Vong Military Hospital Than Ahn

"Can you feel your toes soldier?" Sue asked.

"They hurt every time I flex them," the young American replied. "Not sure what's up with'em."

"We'll find out," Sue replied. "The good news is you won't lose any limbs but we will need to operate on that wound you've got in your leg."

"Whatever you've got to do," the soldier replied.

Sue helped Leah and Robin lift the young man onto a gurney before the two of them wheeled the young man off to surgery. Through her exhausted eyes, Sue spotted her aunt coming in from triage, wiping her hands with a clean rag.

"You alright Auntie?" Sue asked.

"Oh honey I'm fine," Lin replied. "I've been doing this for fifteen years and I have yet to see anything out of the ordinary."

Sue cast her eyes down to her feet, almost as though she didn't want Auntie Lin to see how tired she really was. Every ounce of her strength was spent and yet she still managed to plug away at a job most people would have quit in a matter of weeks.

"Listen Suie," Auntie Lin told her. "If you need to get some rest, go and rest. I can finish the job."

"No Auntie it's fine, I can finish my shift, I only have half an hour left."

"Finish your shift and then go rest," Auntie Lin told her. "When you're exhausted there's room for fatal mistakes to sneak their way in."

Sue nodded obediently, reluctant to leave, but knowing Auntie Lin would give her hell if she disobeyed. Sue made the last half hour of her shift count, making her rounds with her aunt and the other nursing and medical staff. Only when Auntie Lin started to shoo her away did Sue finally relent.

She walked across the hospital yard to the nurse's dormitory, eager to trade her boots for a pair of open toed sandals. She headed up to the second floor to her temporary quarters and unlocked the door.

When she opened up the door, Sue gasped. The whole room was in a state of total disarray. The bedcovers were thrown aside, keepsakes were knocked off the shelf, her medical books and a copy of To Kill A Mockingbird all tossed onto the floor. The drawer to her nightstand lay upside down, its contents scattered all around.

Sue couldn't understand who would do such a thing or why. Of course there were a few senior nurses who refused to come off their high horses, but Sue had never known any of them to trash a room of someone they couldn't stand. Maybe one of them had simply snapped after a stressful day.

Sue explored the scene of the crime to its fullest extent when she noticed something rather strange sitting on the nightstand. A piece of yellowed paper had been placed near her lamp, folded up so neatly that she thought it had all been one piece. When she unfolded it, her eyes traced over the markings written in red.

If you wish to spare the lives of your friends, you will return what was stolen. Disobey and they will be killed.

A terrible chill turned her blood cold and filled her with fear. Taylor, Mitch, Dix, all of them were in terrible danger if this was true.

Then there was the matter of the book. Taylor had told her that he had hidden it away somewhere, but where exactly was a mystery to her. All she knew was that if it fell into the wrong hands, bad things would happen. A suspicious thought began to creep into her head. What if whoever had torn up the dormitory suspected that she had it?

Oh God I don't like this.....she thought.

Everyone she loved and cared about was in terrible danger. Her sisters who had been with her since training day, Taylor and his crew, Uncle, Auntie Lin, Tri who was barely three years old. She had to make sure the book was hidden away and safe from whoever was trying to find it.