Mando Bk. 03: General Badass Ch. 11

"PLEASE DO!" I feel like I'm losing my mind.

"Danny, your persistence, and consistency in developing the balance between body, mind, spirit, and life allow the Chi to flow freely. Today you needed its power desperately, and it flowed where needed. It flowed from your grief and desires to Kammy giving her what she needed."

I stare at him. I blink. I shake my head to clear it. Computing this data is a struggle. "Do you mean I healed Kammy? Me?" I must look like a fish out of water sucking air. "B-b-b-but Gino y-y-you are the h-healer, not m-me."

Kammy giggles. "Are you two healer hawks ready to fly home?"

Astonished is too mild to describe my state of mind. Astounded doesn't even touch it. Doubtful, disbelieving, uncertain, disconnected, and disconcerted come close, but hopeful fits in there somewhere. Can it be true?

Kammy tugs on my sleeve. "Boss Bird, can I get up now?"

"Huh? Oh, sure." When I unfold and let go her armor catches my eye. "Kammy, that's your front plate, let's look."

She snags it off the floor and is about to hand it to me. Then she goes silent, frowns, looking puzzled and confused. She puts her fingers in the ragged hole in the armor the stream of bullets ripped through. "Was I shot this bad?"

I nod. "See why I was distraught?"

"But, this incredible amount of damage. It's got to be deadly. Why didn't I die?" Kammy's pupils dilate as she stares at me, unsure of what happened.

That is the one thing that confuses me too. "You did."

That rattles her. She stares at me with wide eyes marked by bewilderment. "Say what?"

"When you were drawing your last breath, I fell apart Kammy. It was the death rattle, and I knew it. When Gino came through the door, you had been dead for five minutes. Or that's what I thought. But now that I think about it, a minute or two after that, more or less, I felt you warming back up. I was so upset I didn't realize what it meant. I was too rattled to even think about it." I shiver.

"Gino you said my burst of grief triggered the Chi, right?" I search his eyes for confirmation.

He nods. "No other explanation; like anger at the mother and nine, and twelve-year-old daughters being beaten and raped triggered mine in China." His questioning eyes dart from Kammy to me. "I wonder how the news will handle this."

My shoulders hunch in a shrug. "Don't see why they'll handle it any differently from any other rescue. That asshole was off camera when he shot."

"Yes, but she's a foot shorter than me, and ten inches shorter than you." He seems worried.

Kammy speaks up. "Maybe, but if the sponsors went searching for the shooter and found him dead, they'd know something went wrong, right?"

I shake my head. "He called the kill before I shot him. If there was a spotter, he saw that bastard shoot you to hell and back."

"HEY!" Kammy punches me in the arm. Ouch.

I grin. "OOPS. Sorry, Kammy, I wasn't thinking. I meant after they saw the shooter blow you to heaven and back. Whoever finds him won't see a connection. Besides, since I left him in an alley, someone else owns a grease gun, nice wallet, and new shoes."

Kammy's mind is racing. "Then the news won't mention it, and the bad guys will think they succeeded because it was far enough away not to be connected, right?"

We laugh, but Gino puts our thoughts into words. "Maybe that Hawk will stay dead until after the election."

He does.

END CHAPTER TEN