The Charm School

the angel whirling in the night sky and understood that it was no gas-induced apparition but a helicopter, clearing the air around him, creating a small pocket of life in the dead zone.
    Hollis shook his head. “No! Go away!” Haiphong harbor was his second chance. He deserved that one, but he didn’t deserve this one. “Go away!”
    The helicopter slipped to the side, and he saw her kneeling in the open door, ten feet above him, her hand extended toward him. Beside her was Brennan, and in the window was Mills. In the pilot’s seat O’Shea was flying with far more skill than he was capable of.
    Hollis shook his head and waved them off.
    “Sam! Please!” She leaned farther out the door, and Brennan pulled her back, then threw a looped line down to him.
    The helicopter hovered a moment, and Hollis saw it was being buffeted by its own downdraft. He realized that O’Shea would sit there until he either crashed or was killed by the gas. Hollis drew the looped line under his arms and felt his body leave the ground, swinging through the air, then he felt nothing.

 
42
    Sam Hollis felt his body swinging through the black void. The sensations of weightlessness and motion were soothing and pleasant, and he wanted it to last, but by stages he realized he was not floating but sitting still.
    He opened his eyes to blackness and stared at distant lights until they came closer and took the familiar form of a cockpit instrument panel. He focused on a clock in front of him and saw it was nearly six. He assumed it was A . M . He turned his head and looked at O’Shea, sitting in the pilot’s seat beside him. “Where the hell are you going?”
    O’Shea glanced at him. “Hello. Feeling all right?”
    “I feel fine. Answer my question, Captain.”
    Lisa leaned between the seats and kissed him on the cheek. She took his hand. “Hello, Sam.”
    “Hello to you. Hello to everyone back there. Where the hell are we going? The embassy is only twenty minutes—”
    Bert Mills, sitting behind him, said, “We can’t go to the embassy with this load, General. Captain O’Shea, Bill, and I are officially in Helsinki. You and Lisa are officially dead. Dodson died almost twenty years ago, and Burov is a major complication.”
    Hollis nodded. He knew all that. “We’re going to the gulf.”
    O’Shea replied, “Yes, sir. Gulf of Finland. To rendezvous with a ship.” O’Shea added, “Congratulations on your promotion.”
    Typical military, Hollis thought. No congratulations on being alive, but promotions were important. He grunted. “Thanks.”
    Mills asked, “How do you feel physically?”
    Hollis moved his legs, then his arms, but didn’t feel any lack of coordination. His vision was good, and his other senses seemed all right. He smelled a faint odor of vomit and realized it was coming from his sweat shirt. He hadn’t voided his bladder or bowels, which was good. He realized the right side of his face was numb and put his fingers to his cheek, feeling a gauze pad over the area where Burov’s teeth had ripped his flesh. The numbness, he assumed, was caused by a local anesthetic and not the effects of nerve gas. “I’m all right.” He turned in his seat and stared at Mills. “You administered pralidoxime?”
    Mills nodded, acknowledging that what they were discussing was the antidote for nerve gas, not sleeping gas.
    “Did I convulse?”
    “Slight. But if you feel all right, then you’re all right. That’s how that stuff is.”
    Lisa said, “I didn’t think sleeping gas could make you so sick.”
    No one replied.
    Hollis turned and looked around the dark cabin. Lisa was kneeling on the floor between the seats, Mills was directly behind Hollis, and Brennan was sleeping peacefully in the seat behind O’Shea. In the two rear seats were Dodson and Burov, odd seating companions, he thought. They both were held upright by shoulder harnesses.
    Mills said, “Dodson will be okay. He just needs a few square meals. Burov… well, he needs his face rebuilt. I hope there’s no brain damage.”
    “He started with brain damage,” Hollis replied. Hollis felt Lisa squeeze his hand, and remembering his one regret, squeezed it in return. He said, “Good to see you.”
    She said, “We waited for you, but…”
    “You weren’t supposed to wait, and you weren’t supposed to come back and risk everything.”
    Mills said, “We took a vote, and I lost. Nothing personal, General. Just for the record.” Mills added, “Also