Life Blood ---XIV---Page No--45

Wouldn't be that hard to end up a statistic. We can alert the embassy. Have them start looking for her.""Listen, there's a lot more going on between Alex Goddardand me than you know." This was definitely not the time to tell him about the babies, or about Carly and the threats. "Trust me. I'm going down there. In the morning, if I can. Who knows? Sarah and Ramos might even be on the same plane."

As I was finishing that pronouncement, two nurses came in rolling a gurney and announced that his room was ready. Then they gave him a sedative.

Was I being irrational? The thing was, though, what would
you do? I was absolutely sure Ramos had taken her. So it was
obvious that was where he would go next. He was a "diplomat,"
apparently, so he could easily fudge the passport formalities.

As the nurses were helping Lou onto the gurney, I stood there holding his hand and thinking about what lay ahead. Steve was in Belize and maybe not even reachable, but I decided to start by giving him a call the minute I got home.

Then a middle-aged WASP, with dark hair, slightly balding,
strode in the room. The photo ID on his chest read "Dr. M.
Summers."

"So, how's the patient?" he enquired cheerily, ignoring me as
he immediately began checking the chart at the foot of Lou's bed.
        "Felt better," Lou said, not being taken in by his pro forma
cheer.

"Well, we're going to make sure you get a good night's rest." Dr. Summers finished with the chart and started taking his pulse. "What's left of it."

"How long am I going to be in here, Doc?" Lou asked,

flinching as the nurses removed the IV stuck in his arm.

"A couple of days. For observation. To make sure there're no
complications." He smiled again. "You're a lucky man, Mr. . .
Crenshaw. Just a superficial cut. But we don't want you out
playing handball for a few days." He turned and gave me a
conspiratorial wink, then glanced back. "Okay, up we go."
        "Can I come with him?" I asked, not optimistic but hoping.
        The doctor looked genuinely contrite. "I'm really sorry, but
 he's going to be fine and visiting hours are long past. You can call
in the morning. And you can come up anytime after two P.M.
tomorrow. Let's let him get some rest now."

I walked around and took Lou's hand, hot and fevered, feeling so agitated.

"Don't think about anything tonight, okay? Worrying won't

help. Just get some sleep. I'm going to find her, I promise you."

"Don't—" He mumbled some words, but I think the sedative the
nurses had given him was seriously starting to kick
        "Look, you can call down to 26 Federal Plaza tomorrow. See
what they can do. In the meantime, let me follow my nose."
        He tried to answer, but he was too far gone. I then watched
wistfully as he disappeared down the sterile alley of beds.
        After I stopped by the desk and helped them fill out the
insurance forms, I caught a cab downtown to retrieve my Toyota.
The time was now two-fifteen in the morning, but I still had plenty
to do. When I got home, the first thing I did after I walked in the
door was grab a phone book and call American Airlines. They had
a flight, in the morning at nine-thirty. I gave them my credit card
specifics and made a reservation.

I no longer thought that Alex Goddard's Children of Light and
its Guatemalan accomplices were merely doing something shady.
My hunch now was that it was completely illegal. They were
getting hundreds of white babies in some way that couldn't bear
the light of day, and they were prepared to do whatever it took to
prevent me from highlighting them in my film. And with the Army
involved, and now Sarah taken, their game was beginning to feel
more and more like kidnapping. They certainly knew how.
        Sarah had become a pawn, and all because of me. I almost
wondered if I'd been unconsciously led to him by her, though that
was impossible. Whatever had happened, the remorse I now felt
was overpowering. It was, in fact, an intensified version of the
guilt that had dogged me for the past fifteen years, the horrible
feeling I'd somehow let her down, not done enough for her. I could
have flown back for her high school graduation, but I was
cramming for grad school finals and didn't take the time. Things
like that, which, looking back, seemed terribly selfish. And now I'd
brought this on her. God.

Okay, I thought, glancing at the clock, time to start making it
up to her. Screw up your courage and wake Steve.
        The problem was, Lou had been right about one thing. It'd
been years since I'd been to Guatemala, and I wasn't sure I knew
beans about how things operated down there these days. I was
high on motivation and only so-so in the area of modus operandi. I
needed Steve's help in plying the tricky waters of that part of the
planet. He was busy, but this was definitely "us against the world"
time, so maybe he could drive over to Guatemala City and help.