An Old Friend

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***

- Anita Stark has appeared, prepare the operating theatre immediately!

The appearance of Augustus and Stark had set the entire mercenary base on edge. Because of the man's new costume, radically different from the past, he was not recognised. When the girl was taken from his back by a group of doctors, the explanatory work began. Who he was, where he came from, and down the list. August never showed his face, it was difficult to confirm his identity, but it all worked out. The man had documents issued on the first day of his registration as a mercenary. They were able to determine his identity.

While August was dealing with the confirmation of his identity, the doctors who had taken Anita away were already performing surgery. The girl was in critical condition. The injector with a miracle liquid injected by the mercenary only saved the multi-billionaire from death, but did not provide proper help. A month-long journey across Afghanistan without proper treatment and in unsanitary conditions played its part. The seemingly healed injuries progressed and developed into complications. One more month of travelling like this and Anita's health would be in danger.

Having cleared up the misunderstandings and confirmed his identity, Augustus set out to find his employer. Stark was taken to the infirmary, a separate two-story building connected to the main building. American and European mercenaries were usually treated there, but local mercenaries were not allowed in and were not helped. Roughly speaking - it was a closed infirmary only for "their own".

There were a couple of American mercenaries on duty near the entrance to the infirmary. They, of course, tried to delay August at the entrance, but they failed. Either the suit's formidable appearance scared the girls away from a direct confrontation or the man's menacing growl for them to get out of his way had an effect. As a result, August went inside the infirmary and caught a passing nurse, pinned her against the wall and found out from her where the recently arrived multi-billionaire was.Right during the operation, the mercenary unceremoniously entered the operating theatre and sat down on a couch in the corner of the room, making his presence known to the doctors performing the operation. Little did he know who was performing Anita's surgery now, August wouldn't be surprised if some underhanded assassin was among them. The man has long since accepted that he may have fallen into the universe of Marvel's dystopian. In such a world, anything could happen. With his presence behind him, the possible assassin will definitely not fool around and will not harm Stark, because for him it would be a real suicide.

The operation, or rather operations, had been going on for a long time. Anita literally right from scratch reassembled the bones and fixed in the right positions. It turns out that not only arms and legs and back were broken, ribs and collarbones were also affected. The miracle injector injected into the girl played its role and repaired the damage, but it repaired it wrong. Ribs and collarbones had to be broken and rebuilt. Special attention was paid to the internal organs and the thoracic section, there were carried out whole special operations to examine the organs and pull out the fragments lodged near the heart.

The military doctors, or as they were called by the American mercenaries - "butchers", were professionals. They had extensive medical experience. Stark's operation lasted twenty-three hours, at the end of which the doctors who operated on her, fell from fatigue. Anita under anaesthesia came to be picked up by the nurses on duty near the entrance. August followed her unconscious employer to her assigned room.

Stark was wheeled on a gurney into a single hospital room. Augustus silently walked in behind the nurses and sat down in the corner again, the sight of his mask unnerving the girls fidgeting around Anita.

- Mr....? - one of the nurses approached the seated armed man. August's appearance frightened her a little, so she acted modestly and timidly.

- Ratnik, my call sign is Ratnik.

- Mr Ratnick, Mrs Stark has been operated on, her life is now safe. - the woman's eyes flickered with excitement. - Mrs Stark needs to be looked after after after the operation...

- I'll take care of it, you only need medical assistance, leave the rest to me," August said firmly, folding his hands together.

The nurse did not argue with the man and left with the other nurses. The mercenary stayed with the unconscious Stark in the ward. Occasionally Anita would awaken and ramble, calling for someone to come to her. Augustus would hold the woman's hand at such times and whisper soothing words.

The girl doctors visited them a couple of times a day, changing the ducks and the solutions in the drip. They did all this under the total supervision of the mercenary. Such vigilance of August generated a lot of rumours in the infirmary, among themselves nurses began to call him the personal bodyguard of Anita Stark.

On the second day after the surgeries, the effects of the anaesthesia wore off and Anita was able to wake up. After waking up she needed rest, August decided to leave the girl's room and stand near the entrance outside. For his own convenience, he took a chair, on which he sat down right in front of the door to Stark's room.

The red-haired billionaire had a small walkie-talkie with her. The mercenary had purposely given her the walkie-talkie after waking up to use it as a panic button. Of course, Stark didn't use it for its intended purpose. She constantly called August to her room and asked him to sit with her or bring her a glass of water. She used him to the fullest. The man did not leave it like that and in retaliation for false button presses, constantly fined Stark for money, or simply - divorce.

On the fifth day, guests came to the infirmary. No one had warned the mercenary about them, so when at the end of the corridor he saw armed men in camouflage uniforms, he became wary.

- Get out of the way, mercenary," said a slim Negro woman in an officer's uniform.

- And who are you, exactly? - August asked politely, rising from his chair.

- Not your business, Afghan mercenary," the armed woman standing next to the black woman spat out contemptuously.

- My name is Jenna Rhodes, Colonel of the U.S. Air Force, get out of my way, - the Negro woman introduced herself and ignoring the mercenary standing near the door, tried to get inside.

August decided not to be ceremonious with the military men who did not understand him. Letting Jena get a little closer, he grabbed her arm and pinned her down. The girl officer was unable to resist the overwhelming force and was caught in the grip.

- Let go of the colonel, mercenary! - shrieked the soldiers following Rhodes and pointed their automatic rifles at Augustus and the captured Negro.

- Girls, you don't seem to understand something, - holding the escaping soldier with one hand, the mercenary drew his pistol with the other. Taking the safety off, he put it to the head of the officer who had fallen into his hands. - My employer is in a quiet hour, she is drunk on pills and needs to rest. You should have given advance notice of your arrival, if you don't understand my words, I can explain to you in another language.- If you do anything to the Colonel, we don't care if you're a man. You'll be the last man standing!

- Stand down, everybody, put your weapons down! - Rhodes shouted in a commanding voice. - I'm sorry mercenary, I think we've misunderstood each other. Anita and I are old friends. As soon as I found out that she had turned up at the mercenary base after her kidnapping, I rushed here, worried about her.

August started to remember something. He remembered Stark's black friend, who also had the surname Rhodes, but the name was different. It was understandable, it was a man's name there, but here it had become a woman's name. In principle, in the future it would still be necessary to contact the military, so that they could safely transport Anita back to America.

The mercenary lowered the gun from Rhodes' head and holstered it, then released the woman herself.

- 'Only you go, leave your support team here,' August said to Jenna as he opened the door to Stark's room.

- Stay here, don't let anyone in," the black woman ordered and followed the mercenary into her friend's room.

August approached the sleeping Anita, who had recently taken a large dose of medication and had fallen asleep. To wake her up, the man took a chicken feather out of his pocket and began to run it over her nose. Rhodes looked at all this strangely. The recently formidable mercenary who had nearly blown her brains out with a pistol was now just childishly amusing herself with her friend.

- Ahhhh! - Stark sneezed and opened her eyes. - Are you messing with me again?

- You've got a visitor, do you know her or should I smash her head against the wall? - August seemed to be joking, but somehow it seemed to Jenna that the man wasn't joking.

- Who... Jenna, have you come to see me? - Seeing a familiar face, Anita perked up and started a conversation with her old friend.

August didn't participate in the meeting of old friends, but just sat on the sidelines, watching.

*** 

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