Chapter 23

Major Constantine gets up from the muds and dust himself and beckoned on Deloria to get up too and reclaim the horseback so that they get out of the dangerous forest but, both Deloria and the horse remained mute on the ground. It was then he realized she has been badly hit. He got himself off the horseback and hauled her unto his and sped away. He brought her down at a safe point in a stream and tries to stop the blood oozing out of her thighs, and he did that perfectly. He was at it when the sound of a grating helicopter's rotor was heard by him, clattering some distance away from him.

Major Constantine rushed and finished all that he was doing and got Deloria on the horseback again and continued his journey along the forest paths. Soon, he sighted three AH-64D Apache Longbow Helicopters, the third being an air ambulance, thronging towards his cabin with a deafening sound.

Suddenly, the three helicopters changed course, now bumbles directly to his location. Constantine leapt in joy, "Deloria will get the much needed medical attention," he said.

Heavily armed uniformed men, numbering twenty, disembarks from the gunship and spread around it, far and near, followed by four paramedics, all wearing white coats, kitted with hand gloves, bound Deloria to a platform and stretched her into the ambulance.

The detective took a stock count f his belongings, according special attention to his computer storage devices and the files in his suitcase. All were intact but one: the sum of €200 was missing from a bundle of ten thousand. "Why should someone put himself in a risky position of being arrested by breaking into a well-protected room only to steal a two hundred euro?"

The next day, Mr Morley Rocque scheduled a meeting with lady Stefflon Don and then handed over his findings to her.

"Good job," she said, "I would like you to playback the videos and let me see what is in there." Just when Mr Rocque was preparing to carry out her commands, an incoming g call began to buzz from her phone and all eyes went in its direction. She was undecided whether to pick the call or not. She was in that mood when the phone stopped ringing.

The caller calls again, this time, she

picks it and slammed it to her ears, "Allo!" She said, still frowning.

While she listens to the caller's talk, the frown on her face gradually dissolved into despair and grieve. "Deloria?" She asked and paused again for the feedback. "When did that happen?"

It looks like the caller is getting irritated by the unnecessary questions from Lady Stefflon and her voice was so loud that Mr Rocque could hear it. "Come to the military hospital at Everest drive, 46ID, Rome," and the caller cuts the call.

"How dare you cut the call on me, son of a …?" Said Lady Stefflon Don to the phone. She stood up and walks out on the detective but turned back and said to him, "my daughter is in an emergency; we shall continue with this conversation at a suitably appointed time and venue appointed by me." She said this and then walks away, hammering the floors with the pointed hills of her shoes.

Lady and Mr Rafeal Massimo arrived at the Emergency Department of the Military hospital. Doctors, nurses and other clinical staff were either busy receiving traumatic patience as they trickle in, or moving hastily, from one point to the other, pushing accident victims on hospital beds being administered drips of blood or water into an emergency room.

They both stood at the entrance not knowing who to talk to as everyone seems to be obsessed with one thing or the other. A nurse that has just finished speaking to someone spoke to Lady Stefflon, "ma'am, how may I help you?"

"Dear, I was told my daughter was brought into the emergency unit of this hospital, could you please help us locate her?"

"I cannot, but someone whose job it is to do so will, and don't forget to put on your face masks." said the nurse.

She directed them to three ladies standing behind a counter attending to clients to tell them what she has told them.

Easy said than done; Rafael and Lady Stefflon were shown two seats to sit down and wait for their turn on a long queue.

"Not again," grumbled Mr Rafeal, "must we always follow queues, why can't we for once break those freaking protocols for a change?"

"Do they know what it means to have a loved one in an emergency unit without any of their loved ones around?" Asked Lady Stefflon. "No, am not sure they do, for If they do, they wouldn't have asked us to join this long winding line."

The twosome was called at the nick of time when they were about to walk past the clerical staff to the ER's to search for their daughter. They tendered their inquiries to a nurse with a ponytail hairstyle, wearing the hospital's blue uniform with its logo.

A male nurse was assigned to accompany them. They were taken to a private room with a glass wall. "There she is, ma'am; she's placed under oxygen. You will only be permitted in for five minutes afterwards, you will not be able to see her again till the next day when she has shown sign of recovery." They thanked the nurse and sat beside her.

Lady Stefflon held Deloria's hand and tears began to roll down her cheek. "I have the confidence you will make it out of your sickbed alive." Mr Rafeal caressed his wife while she continued to speak words of encouragement to Deloria.

The nurse stood with his file, anxious to get them moving because the time allotted to them was over.

On their way out of the hospital, they bumped into Major Constantine. Lady Stefflon besieged him and said to him, "What happened to my daughter?". "Calm down, Ma'am. We were victims at the receiving end of a violent mob attack as a result of the spill-over of the judgement at the Supreme Court."

"Idiots!" She cursed, snapping off her binoculars from her face. "My daughter is not to be held responsible for the outcome of the courts, but the judge is. Who are these rogues, Mr Constantine? They must pay dearly to what they did to my daughter."

"Do not worry, Ma'am, the job of bringing them to justice is rested on me; I will do all it takes to effect that change soon." Lady Stefflon shifted her gaze from his face to the bunch of flowers he held in his hands. "Make sure she is fine," she said to him, "we shall be here again same time to find out how she is faring." And they took their leave.

At the exit door, Mr Rafeal made a rough but unavoidable shoulder contact with one of two hefty men, wearing dark Panama hats and overall coats, forcing their way into the hospital and did not border to show sign of remorse for their rude behaviours; Mr Rafeal did not care either. They hopped into their car and drove off.

Two minutes later, a machine gun went loose, pumping bullets into the air, shattering glasses and disrupting the free flow of activities in the hospital. People dropped out in mass and escaped being taken hostage while many others were trapped within the facility.

One of the gunmen pulled up the secretary to her feet who has been lying belly flat on the floor. Three army privates were gunned down while the second gunman took the position of the entrance and exit doors and everyone within the building lying face down.

"Which of the wards is Deloria located?" He demanded, pointing a gun into her eyeball. "Miss, I will not repeat the question. If you will not tell me, I will blast your eyeball out of its socket. Major Constantine peeped from the intensive care unit where Deloria is kept and saw everything that was happening. He recognized the face of the gunman at the counter; he was among the battalion that raided his holiday home at Switzerland -Italian border town.

Major Constantine flung away the flower he was holding and forced himself into the intensive care room where Deloria was kept.

The lady at the counter moved gently to the computer, with the gun firmly stuck in her eyes. "If you don't mind," she said, "would you please remove that from my eye so that I can function properly?" Initially, he refused to grant her request but later did.

From where she was standing, she could see what Major Constantine was doing but the gunman could not. She decided to be slow on purpose to allow him moved the patient to a safe location but the gunman was running out of patience. He poked the gun back into her eyes again. This time around, the last pointed to a direction for him. "That way," she said, "female ward, room 101."

"After you," he said. The secretary took the lead. She tramped to a corridor and announced, "here,"

"Are you sure this is Deloria?" He asked while trying to ascertain from the transparent glass the identity of the person lying within.

The door was unlocked, confirming his doubled; it was another person lying in the bed, not Deloria.

"You lied to me, bitch." He muttered in anger before beheading her with a machete. In less than a second, the secretary fell permanently.