Tom Clancy Support and Defend

Epilogue

Adara Sherman picked Caruso up twenty minutes later from the driveway of an unoccupied mountain chalet. Dom had been hiding behind a woodshed as Italian police cars raced by, but when she arrived he ran across the driveway, climbed into her rented BMW, then laid himself gingerly in the passenger seat and lowered it flat.

Adara had the BMW turned around and leaving the area again in seconds.

They passed dozens more emergency vehicles rolling through the valley, they even heard a helo in the air, though the weather was likely still below minimums. Adara concentrated on the road, but after only a few minutes of rolling in silence, Sherman looked down at Dom and thought he might have passed out.

Adara asked, “Caruso? Caruso? Talk to me. Are you injured?”

Dom just nodded slowly.

Her eyes widened. “You’re hit? Where are you hit?”

“I’m going to need you to evaluate me. See how bad it is.”

“Okay. I’m pulling over.”

“No. Keep going. We’ll get out of here, back on the highway, head back to the northwest.”

“You sure you can hang on?”

Dom nodded. Coughed a little. His eyes closed.

“Just keep talking to me, okay?”

“I’ll… I’ll try.”

They drove for a full minute before Adara said, “When you came up to the car on the drive, I didn’t see you were hurt. You looked tired, yeah, but not wounded.”

“It’s bad, Sherman. I told you.”

“Okay,” she said. Then, “Where, exactly, were you hit? I don’t see blood.”

Dom fought a little smile now. Adara missed it. “Look. You’re the medic, not me. You’ll have to check me out. There’s a hotel I passed on the way down. It looked really nice. A steak restaurant off the lobby. I say we check in for the night, order a couple of bottles of champagne.” One of Dom’s eyes cracked open and looked over at Adara quickly, then it closed again. “For medicinal purposes, only, of course.” He coughed, making a show of it now. “And then you give me a complete physical.”

Now both eyes opened slowly, and he found Adara behind the wheel, staring down at him. A little smile crossed her lips, but she seemed to be fighting it.

“You’re an asshole. You had me worried.”

Dom said, “It’s about ten more miles. Near the border.” He smiled. “I’ll try to hang on till then.”

Adara just drove now, looking out at the road. After a long moment she said, “My first inclination is to say no, to drop you off at the next bus stop I see, and to go home without you.”

Dom pushed the button to move his seat back into the upright position now. He said, “I’m holding out hope for your second inclination.”

Adara nodded. “Gerry will want me to sign off on you before you return to duty. Maybe we should start that process with a complete physical.”

Dom shrugged. “Okay. Sure. Let’s do it for Gerry.”

Adara said, “But I’ll warn you now. It won’t be easy. You will have to prove to me you are in peak condition.”

“I’ll give it my all, Sherman.”

The black BMW drove on through a brightening afternoon, the light snow tapering to nothing and the clouds above curling up and away as the last winter storm of the season moved off to the east.