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 ....

THE HARDEST WALK

“Life is a contest. Death is just the prize for those who come out second best.”

– Adolph Hitler as quoted by General Eisenhower

 

Nurse Reynolds gasped to the MI6 agent, “You cannot 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 will forgive me slight indiscretions but not that.”

“I fight … my own battles.”

“Not in the shape you’re in, old chum.”

“Watch … me.”

“That’s just it. I won’t be staying 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 the dim 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 the hospital, … get her to where … she thinks … she will be safe.”

“Safe?” the nurse frowned.

“The general can’t afford to leave any witnesses behind, luv.”

“I’m the only nurse on duty.”

“Then, you are especially at risk, dove.”

He turned to me. “And I will not kill to protect this lovely thing. MI6 doesn’t care a rotten fig for anyone but their own.”

I sighed, and a strange strength gave me breath as Sentient spoke through me, “If I can render her invisible so that she can safely walk past them, will you escort her when she walks out of this hospital?”

“Strewth, mate, if you can do that, I will even kill the bloke hanging from the window sill out there.”

“Hey!” came the weak protest from outside the window.

“At ease, Corporal Wentworth,” Not-Me said low. “You’ll get your chance to kill me after the general and his goons leave.”

Nurse Reynolds looked strangely at me. “Does anyone not want to kill you?”

“Helen Mayfair.” Sentient and I gave it some thought. “Most of the time.”

Cloverfield frowned. “I wasn’t aware there was a Wentworth in your Spartan 3oo.”

“A late addition from Bradley to get our squad up to twenty.”

“Our?”

“I have a … dark passenger at the moment.”

‘Very unamusing.’

‘Imagine how I feel about it.’

“Anybody else of whom I am unaware, chap?”

“You.”

“What?”

Nurse Reynolds smiled wide and cold. “Apparently, MI6 is not as fond of you as you thought.”

His frown deepened. “I can still see her, mate. And I can hear the general and his killers approaching. Tick. Tock.”

A force not my own swept my hand and arm up and over in a graceful motion. Nurse Reynolds disappeared as abruptly as fingers become a fist. You did not mock Sentient.

“Stone and Blood, mate! You did it.”

I flicked blurring eyes to him. “Tick. Tock.”

He was gone out the window with such speed and grace that I envied him his uninjured body. I turned my eyes to the spot from where I still smelled the nurse’s perfume.

Not-I spoke through me. “Silent and swift, Nurse Reynolds. Have Cloverfield take you where you feel you’ll be safe.”

The scent of her perfume hadn’t lessened. “Go.”

“What will you do?” came her disembodied voice.

“Improvise ... Now, go.”

Her perfume faded … as did my strength. ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, for my next trick ….’

‘Those approaching are no gentlemen, Blaine, nor am I a lady.’

‘Aw, jeez, and I harbored such hopes.’

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 man should 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 was enough.

***

“Dying is a wild night and a new road.”

– Emily Dickinson