A flurry of activity ensued. Jack temporarily stabilized the FBI agent's condition with his healing techniques. The two gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen had depleted the agent, now in his fifties or sixties, of nearly a third of his blood.
Perhaps due to aging, his body functions were less robust than those of a younger person, and the premature onset of hemorrhagic shock had plunged him into a prolonged state of near-death.
However, the problem remained thorny. Near-death was near-death. In this state of systemic organ failure due to lack of blood supply, even Jack's healing techniques, short of a miracle, could only temporarily delay death.
While his treatment was unscientific, it adhered to the law of conservation of matter. And in front of everyone, Jack couldn't force-feed the victim a full stomachful of sugar water to replenish his lost blood.
Cheng Hao's car's first aid kit contained only epinephrine and naloxone injections—not even a packet of glucose—and the victim urgently needed electrolyte fluids for an infusion.
Now the old agent is hanging on to his life thanks to Jack's healing skills. If they had arrived a few minutes later, his heartbeat might have stopped completely.
At this time, Danny and Kono had finished searching the cabin, and after confirming that there was no threat, they hurried back. "There's no one in the house. There are signs of forced entry and footprints, but there's no trace of Julie."
Cheng Hao, who was standing next to him, had just hung up the satellite phone. "The Coast Guard has a rescue helicopter that can be called up, but it will take at least half an hour to be ready. Including the travel time, it will take at least 45 minutes. At the same time, we must first clear a landing field.
In addition, the HPD support team is on the way with police dogs, but the larger search team still needs time to assemble."
Jack looked up and followed his gaze at the several fruit trees in the open space in front of the house. Two of the particularly tall palm trees and coconut trees had to be cut down to avoid affecting the helicopter's landing.
Coconut trees? A thought struck him, a thought reminiscing about an old movie he'd seen. "I need a few fresh coconuts for emergency treatment, fresh, green coconuts."
"???"
Question marks popped up in everyone's heads. Kono was the quickest to guess what he was going to do, though her expression was hesitant. "You want to use coconut water for an IV? I've only seen it online."
"I've read relevant papers and asked the military doctor about it while I was in DEVGRU. It's true that fresh coconut water can be used as a temporary substitute for IVs. It's risky, but there's no better solution right now."
"When did you join the military? And join DEVGRU?" Danny knew his "nephew" was quite capable, but he knew very little about his past experiences. He wasn't sure about going to Mexico with SEAL Team B to fight drug traffickers or anything like that.
"Not really joining the military, just three months there. We'll talk about that later," Jack said confidently.
With his healing skills behind him, it wasn't a big risk. But if he didn't, he couldn't explain how he'd saved a wounded soldier with so much blood loss with his bare hands.
The coconut water mentioned here, of course, isn't the kind of coconut milk mixed with coconut slurry you'd find on the "Grown Up" brand.
Rather, it's the clear, watery part of the coconut, which contains readily absorbable fructose and electrolytes rich in inorganic ions like sodium, potassium, and calcium. Crucially, a well-sealed coconut is relatively sterile, and the coconut water from a newly mature, yet still young, coconut has an osmotic pressure similar to that of blood.
Immediately, Cheng Hao and Danny retrieved a chainsaw from the bed of their F150 and, with the help of the four HPD officers who had arrived with them, easily felled the coconut tree.
They continued clearing the remaining trees in the clearing. Kono, drawing on her extensive island experience, selected three fresh coconuts and hung them in a net bag on the F150's rearview mirror.
Meanwhile, Jack had fashioned a simple IV set using a needle and knotted tubing, inserting a small piece of gauze to filter out impurities.
Kono, squatting beside him and assisting him, watched this truly idiotic operation with horror. The disinfectant he'd used wasn't even some proper alcohol; she could clearly smell the scent of liquor.
Using the knot on the hose to adjust the flow of the coconut water, Jack inserted the needle into a vein in the old agent's arm, then breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
Danny and Cheng Hao, equally busy on the other side, also came over, watching the incredible scene intently, hoping for a miracle.
Seeing the old agent's chest finally rise and fall visibly, and his pale lips regaining a hint of color, Danny exclaimed, "Fuck, this actually works."
As the sound of a helicopter engine reached the distance, Jack breathed a sigh of relief and pulled out the needle. The rescue helicopter must have brought enough first aid supplies, so these emergency measures wouldn't be necessary.
By then, Cheng Hao and several HPD officers had towed the fallen trees from the open space in front of the house in their police car. A red and white helicopter landed safely, and two paramedics, hunched over and trotting toward them with a makeshift stretcher, came over.
"How's the patient?"
one of them asked, seemingly a temporary emergency doctor, a white man in his forties who hadn't even had time to change out of his white coat.
"He's relatively stable. One bullet lodged in the abdominal cavity, which has definitely caused contamination. The other bullet exited from the back, and I'm not sure if there's shrapnel left in the body. But the wound caused excessive bleeding, so I used some emergency measures,"
Jack said as he helped put the patient on the stretcher.
"Are you a military doctor? Excellent job. We'll take care of the rest." The white doctor applied plasma to the old agent, glanced at the simple coconut IV drip hanging from the F150's rearview mirror, and gave Jack a thumbs-up.
In his opinion, only a military doctor would use such reckless first aid measures, focused on saving the most lives possible.
"Did we succeed?" Danny watched the helicopter depart, still a bit incredulous at what had just happened.
"The rest depends on the hospital," Jack sighed, feigning worry.
The shot to the right side of the old agent's chest was well-placed; not only was it a penetrating wound, the bullet also missed the pulmonary artery and vein. But the shot to the abdomen was more problematic. Intestinal damage had caused feces to flow into the abdominal cavity, which could cause a serious infection and even sepsis.
But he was very lucky to have met me. As long as the surgeon who performed his surgery was not too bad, he would not have any sequelae other than a small section of missing intestine and a scar.
"Let's get our attention back to Julie. That girl's whereabouts are still unknown." The joy of successfully saving someone quickly faded from Danny's face. They now faced a more difficult task.
"Yes, our problems are far more serious than this." Cheng Hao tilted his head slightly to the crowd, motioning them to follow him.
He walked behind one of the two police cars they had seen when they arrived and opened the trunk. Inside were two male bodies, stripped down to their underwear. One had been shot in the head, and the other had been shot twice in the back.
"They are Officers Tim Rackahan and Joe Lee. I just confirmed this with the HPD," Cheng Hao said with a grim expression as he revealed the identities of the two bodies.
(End of Chapter)