THE HARDEST WALK
When last we left Major Richard Blaine, he was so weak that he could barely lift his head from his hospital pillow ...
He has been told that General Eisenhower is coming with two O.S.S. assassins to kill him ....
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THE HARDEST WALK
“Life is a contest. Death is justthe prize for those who come out second best.”
– Adolph Hitler as quoted byGeneral Eisenhower
Nurse Reynolds gasped to the MI6 agent, “Youcannot be serious.”
“I’m always serious about death,Luv.”
“Then, you must stay.”
“No, I must leave. Now.”
He turned to me. “I like you,mate, but I won’t kill the Supreme Commander of Overlord for you. MI6 willforgive me slight indiscretions but not that.”
“I fight … my own battles.”
“Not in the shape you’re in, oldchum.”
“Watch … me.”
“That’s just it. I won’t bestaying to watch.”
“Coward!” snapped Nurse Reynolds.
“Auckland Champ, dove.”
“You cannot even get out of bed,”half-sobbed the nurse.
I turned a shaking head to thedim shape of Cloverfield. Was my vision failing me? No. I refused to pass out.Not now. Not just yet. One last battle.
“When Nurse Reynolds …leaves thehospital, … get her to where … she thinks … she will be safe.”
“Safe?” the nurse frowned.
“The general can’t afford toleave any witnesses behind, luv.”
“I’m the only nurse on duty.”
“Then, you are especially atrisk, dove.”
He turned to me. “And I will notkill to protect this lovely thing. MI6 doesn’t care a rotten fig for anyone buttheir own.”
I sighed, and a strange strengthgave me breath as Sentient spoke through me, “If I can render her invisible sothat she can safely walk past them, will you escort her when she walks out ofthis hospital?”
“Strewth, mate, if you can dothat, I will even kill the bloke hanging from the window sill out there.”
“Hey!” came the weak protest fromoutside the window.
“At ease, Corporal Wentworth,” Not-Mesaid low. “You’ll get your chance to kill me after the general and his goonsleave.”
Nurse Reynolds looked strangelyat me. “Does anyone not want to kill you?”
“Helen Mayfair.” Sentient and Igave it some thought. “Most of the time.”
Cloverfield frowned. “I wasn’taware there was a Wentworth in your Spartan 3oo.”
“A late addition from Bradley toget our squad up to twenty.”
“Our?”
“I have a … dark passenger at themoment.”
‘Very unamusing.’
‘Imagine how I feel about it.’
“Anybody else of whom I amunaware, chap?”
“You.”
“What?”
Nurse Reynolds smiled wide andcold. “Apparently, MI6 is not as fond of you as you thought.”
His frown deepened. “I can stillsee her, mate. And I can hear the general and his killers approaching. Tick.Tock.”
A force not my own swept my handand arm up and over in a graceful motion. Nurse Reynolds disappeared as abruptlyas fingers become a fist. You did not mock Sentient.
“Stone and Blood, mate! You didit.”
I flicked blurring eyes to him.“Tick. Tock.”
He was gone out the window with such speed andgrace that I envied him his uninjured body. I turned my eyes to the spot fromwhere I still smelled the nurse’s perfume.
Not-I spoke through me. “Silentand swift, Nurse Reynolds. Have Cloverfield take you where you feel you’ll besafe.”
The scent of her perfume hadn’tlessened. “Go.”
“What will you do?” came herdisembodied voice.
“Improvise ... Now, go.”
Her perfume faded … as did mystrength. ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, for my next trick ….’
‘Those approaching are nogentlemen, Blaine, nor am I a lady.’
‘Aw, jeez, and I harbored suchhopes.’
I drew in a painful, ragged breath. It was hard to live a good life ... harder still to die a good death.
Yet, it was not death that a manshould fear, but rather he should fear never having lived.
In that month with Helen Mayfair,I learned what it meant to love, to live.
I smiled with bloody lips. It wasenough.
***
“Dying is a wild night and a newroad.”
– Emily Dickinson
