The Quest

Vivian was caressing his hair and face. “You will be fine. You are fine. Just lie still… are you in pain?”

“A bit. Yes.” He turned his head toward Purcell. “Am I going to live?”

Purcell knelt opposite Vivian and put his fingers on Henry’s throat to feel his pulse, which seemed strong. “How is your breathing?”

“All right…”

He felt Henry’s forehead, and it was not cool or clammy. He informed Mercado, “Gann is dead. Miriam is dead.”

“No… oh, God… what happened…?”

“Gann got hold of a grenade.”

Purcell stood and walked over to one of the soldiers he’d executed. There was a U.S. Army first aid kit on the man’s web belt, and he snapped the canvas kit off and carried it to Vivian. He put it in her hand. “There should be a pressure bandage in there, and iodine. Get his clothes off and we’ll patch him up.”

She nodded and asked Mercado, “Can you sit up?”

She helped him roll onto his back, which seemed to cause him pain, then she pulled him up into a sitting position, took his backpack off, and began unbuttoning his shirt.

Purcell went back to the other two executed soldiers and retrieved their first aid kits, which each held a pressure bandage. He checked the two soldiers who’d taken the full brunt of the grenade blast, but their web gear was as shredded as their bodies, and he saw that one of them had a protruding intestine.

He went back to Gann, and he knelt beside him and felt for a pulse, but there was none. Purcell pushed his eyelids closed and said, “You did good, Colonel.”

Henry was naked now, on all fours, and Vivian was dabbing iodine on his legs and butt, which caused him to cry out in pain.

Purcell walked over to them and knelt on the other side of Henry. He counted three shrapnel wounds in his left leg and two in his buttocks. He could see the shrapnel sticking out of one wound and he pulled it out, which made Henry yell in pain. Purcell said, “I think you may be very lucky.” He took his penknife from his pocket and said, “This will hurt, but you will remain still and quiet.”

He managed to get all but one piece of metal out of Mercado’s flesh, and Henry kept relatively still, as Vivian kept talking to him.

He gave Vivian the other two first aid kits. “Bandage the ones that look the worst.”

He looked at her kneeling on the other side of Mercado and she looked at him. He said, “Be quick. We need to get out of here.”

“Where are we going?”

“You know where we’re going.”

She nodded, then started opening the first aid kits.

He stood and again surveyed the scene, then lit a cigarette. “My God. Oh my God.”

He wanted to bury Colonel Gann and Miriam and not leave them for the jackals, but he didn’t see a shovel, and he didn’t want to stay here any longer than he had to.

He walked over to Gann and hefted him onto his shoulder, then carried him to Miriam and laid Gann down beside her. He crossed their arms over their chests. Hopefully Getachu’s men, looking for their general, would know that someone had respected the bodies, and maybe they’d do the same. Maybe, too, they’d be happy to find their general with a bullet in his brain.

Purcell watched Vivian help Henry into his clothes. Henry seemed all right.

Purcell pulled up his pant leg and looked at his wound. A piece of metal protruded from his calf and he pulled it out.

Shrapnel from an exploding grenade or shell was a random thing, he recalled from his time in Southeast Asia-hot metal shards or pieces of spring-loaded wire, killing and maiming some, leaving others untouched. It really didn’t depend too much on where you were standing or lying when it went off-close, far, standing, or prone as Miriam was-it didn’t matter. When it was your time, it was your time. When it wasn’t, it wasn’t. It was Colonel Gann’s time, and Miriam’s time. It was not Henry Mercado’s time. Or Vivian’s, or his. Indeed, they had been chosen.

He walked over to them and said, “We are going to the black monastery. We are going to see the Holy Grail.”

Chapter 54

Purcell had the Uzi, and he gave Vivian his reloaded pistol, and Henry retrieved one of the AK-47s. They slipped on their backpacks and walked away from the rock quarry, down the slope toward the giant cedar, and continued on toward the wall of tropical growth in front of them.

No one spoke, but then Mercado asked Purcell, “Did you take any food from the soldiers?”

“No.”

“We should go back.”

Purcell replied, “Put your hand into the hand of God, Henry. That’s why we’re here.”

Mercado stayed silent as they continued on, then said, “Yes… I will.”

Vivian said, “We are all in God’s hands now.”

Purcell did not have to look at his compass to know he was heading due west, with the cedar and the monolith behind him.

There was a worn black rock lying on the ground at the edge of the wall of trees, and beyond the rock he saw a trailhead. They crossed over the black threshold and entered the rain forest. Limbs and vines reached out overhead and immediately blocked out the sunlight.