Going After Cacciato

Doc asks for the M&Ms and puts two in Bernie’s mouth. Lieutenant Sidney Martin goes to help Ben Nystrom with the radio. Frenchie has been shot through the nose and is lying at the mouth of the tunnel. While Bernie tells Doc that he heard the bang and Doc holds a bandage against Bernie’s throat, the lieutenant requests—“without urgency” (66)—an urgent dustoff (rescue helicopter). They need location coordinates, however, and the lieutenant works slowly to put them into code.

Bernie’s wound is “just below the throat and slanting steeply into the chest, the way men were always shot in tunnels” (67). Doc presses another compress to it and asks someone to insert an IV; Stink refuses. Oscar screams at the lieutenant to give the dustoff the coordinates and stop trying to code them. Rudy inserts the needle into Bernie’s arm, but it slips out. Doc puts it back in as Lieutenant Martin gives the coded coordinates. Ben Nystrom begins to cry.

There are two explosions; the second jars the needle loose again. Doc runs to his pouch to get tape to secure it. Bernie is confused and tries to sit up. Rudy holds him down on Doc’s instructions. A bubble forms and breaks on Bernie’s lips.