Oath of Honor

fooled around, married or not. She didn’t pass judgment on those who

did. When you spent days on end, week after week, with the same

people in the tensest situations imaginable, doing things you couldn’t

tell your friends and family, letting off steam together was only natural.

Sometimes letting off steam took the shape of sweaty groping in a hotel

room in some city on the way to or from the next point on a map.

“Just saying,” Gary said.

“Well, don’t.”

The beat of helicopter rotors cut through the howling wind, and a

Coast Guard medevac chopper appeared overhead.

“Transport’s here,” she called.

“One minute!” Wes pulled a neck immobilizer from her bag and

eased it behind the figure’s neck.

Evyn switched radio channels and advised the helicopter to lower

their Stokes basket. The helo rocked above them in the wind, and the

metal-mesh toboggan swung back and forth like a pendulum on its

cables as it descended from the open belly. She and Gary went forward

to guide the basket down.

“How does it look?” she asked Wes.

“First stage hypothermia, potential head and neck injury from

impact on the water, and possible aspiration. His neck is stable, we’ve

got the thermal blankets on, and I’ve started antibiotics. He needs a

CAT scan upon arrival.”

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RADCLYfFE

“Can we transfer?”

Wash kicked up from the rotors and sprayed Wes’s back and face.

She blinked the water away. “He’s ready.”

Evyn signaled the chopper to continue lowering the Stokes. A

sharp gust of wind nearly knocked her off her feet. The chopper dipped

and rose sharply, canting in the shifting air currents. A crack like a rifle

shot cut through the air and the rear cable securing the basket snapped.

The metal toboggan came crashing down. Evyn lunged for the flailing

cable end as Wes crouched over the mannequin, shielding the figure

from the careening basket. The end of the madly swinging metal carrier

sliced the air, struck Wes in the shoulder, and knocked her out of the

boat.For one millisecond Evyn was completely paralyzed. The deck

where Wes had knelt was empty. The surface of the sea was nothing but

angry water. Wes was gone.

Evyn jumped up on the bulwark and dove over the side.

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Oath Of hOnOr

chapter eighteen

The world spun crazily upside down. The light flickered rapidly

and finally blinked out and all that was left was cold. Only

pain and blood-stopping cold. Unseen hands dragged Wes deeper

beneath the icy mantle, into a blackness that extinguished the last

glimmer of illumination. Instinctively, she held her breath, struggling

to orient herself in the surreal landscape of shock and panic. Her left

arm wouldn’t obey her. She kicked and flailed but her water-filled boots

and sodden jeans weighed her down. Up and down held no meaning—

she revolved in a world without substance. Her animal brain fled from

the freezing darkness, away from the primeval terror engulfing her.

Primitive reflexes kicked in, and she fought to return to the last place

she’d felt light and heat. The surface.

She struggled upward, her chest burning, the pain so huge she

hungered to suck in air to soothe the flames. She clamped her teeth

shut, finally recognizing the water that entombed her, water that would

provide no air, only sudden and swift death. With only her right arm

and her clumsy legs to power her, she flailed and kicked and writhed

her way toward the shimmer of light penetrating the gloom. Despair

squeezed her throat closed.

She wasn’t going to make it. Too far, too cold, too much pain.

Blood thundered in her ears, her heart crashed wildly against the

crushing pressure in her chest. Another second and instinct would

overrule reason. She had to breathe. Breathe and end the torture.

Fury washed through her. She would not surrender. Her mind

hazed, confusion dulled her senses. The cold bored deep inside her and

bloomed into heat, suffusing her with blissful warmth. Another few

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RADCLYfFE

seconds and the fear began to abate. She stopped thrashing. The vise

around her chest tightened, and her battle slowed. Her arms and legs

were so heavy. The sea—warmer now—enclosed her, streaming past

her face like gentle fingers caressing her, welcoming her. She was so

close to falling asleep, the cold forgotten.

A frigid blast of air hit her in the face and someone yelled into her

ear, “Breathe, damn it. Breathe!”

Wes jerked and sucked in a lungful of air. She coughed and life

returned to her arms and legs. Pins and needles shot into her fingers and

toes. A knife blade of slicing pain pierced her chest. The cold returned

with a vengeance. Enemies grasped at her, threatening to pull her back

into the dark. She thrashed.

“Wes, it’s Evyn! Don’t fight me.”

The darkness disappeared, gray sky flashed overhead. An arm

gripped her chest—Evyn. Evyn was towing her. Evyn was not the

enemy. Wes tried to kick her legs, but she couldn’t move.