Medical Sleuthing
Lake Zurich is where the Island of Ufenau in the Swiss Canton of Schwyz meets the Canton of Zurich. To say it is picturesque is an understatement. People travel the world to glimpse it by air and then hike it’s rugged, breathtakingly gorgeous terrain for weeks on end.
As Heinlen’s helicopter reaches the Island of Ufenau below them his head starts to feel like its splitting open. It’s sledgehammer pain – pounding with each pulse, electrifying his eyes into kaleidoscopic color bursts. Heinlen grabs the sides of his skull and moans – loudly to get somebody’s attention.
He knows – this isn’t’ good. He feels himself fading into an agonizing darkness.
Per L’Enfant unbuckles his seatbelt and runs over to his Hetman, whose eyes are now fluttering and rolling up inside their sockets. His shoulders start to tremor. He bounds into the pilot’s cabin and yells over the rotor noise.
“MEDICAL EMERGENCY – HEINLEN IS SEIZURING. GET US TO ZURICH MEMORIAL FAST – CALL IN A CRASH CART TO MEET US ON THE ROOF. HAVE AN OPERATING THEATER STANDING BY. IT LOOKS LIKE A STROKE OR BRAIN BLEED!!”
Swiss Emergency Medical Rescue Helicopters typically fly at speeds up to 140 knots – and at that speed can get from any point in Lake Zurich to Zurich Memorial Hospital in about ten minutes.
It’s a long ten minutes – but like an apparition from heaven the landing target circles atop Zurich Memorial come into view below them and soon Per L’Enfant, Xen Chen and Dirk Fremd are helping to roll a gurney with Heinlen strapped to it into the Executive Intensive Care Unit. By then, Heinlen’s breathing is shallow.
L’Enfant has seen this before in his policing past. The eye flutter, shallow breathing, tremoring – it’s brain related. He’s sure of it. The three Paladins pace the waiting area for the better part of a half-hour until a middle-aged, balding, prototypically precise Swiss doctor comes out to update them. The doctor seems perplexed. They let him explain at length.
“I am Doctor Hallenbeck, Chief Neurologist at Zurich Memorial. First – let me assure you that Mr. Heinlen is stable and sleeping peacefully. We are administering a measured drip of Dexamethasone – a strong corticosteroid – to reduce his brain swelling. This is the cause of the pain in his head, triggering seizures in his Cerebral Cortex.
I’ve reviewed the Surgical records of the Clinique de Lavoisier – Drs. Borchert, Brabenfeld and Vorshilovka. Their operative procedure to relieve and repair his trauma-induced parietal hematoma was textbook perfect. Our X-rays and CAT scan show no re-occurrence of the hematoma or tearing of the wound site. It’s been over a year – and healing has proceeded uninterrupted.
We have, however, located deep inside his operative cranial bone flap, just below the parietal suture site, this curious object……”
Dr. Hallenbeck holds up a small glass vial, in which there is a silver BB-sized sphere. L’Enfant takes it from him and he and his comrades in arms take turns hefting it and studying it.
L’Enfant returns it to the doctor. They all just shrug, speechless.
Dr. Hallenbeck pops the vial back into his pocket and continues his commentary.
“Microscopic analysis of this object confirms that it is an advanced device to time-release an extremely concentrated form of corticosteroid over a finite period of time. I can’t predict the exact shut-down date, but it appears to be petering out. That is why Heinlen’s headaches are getting worse. His internal mega-dosing is winding down. We don’t have an electron microscope at Zurich Memorial – but if we did – I’m pretty sure we’d find that what this thing is leeching into Heinlen’s brain has been configured on a molecular level, perhaps specifically mated to Heinlen’s RNA. This is advanced science. We don’t have anything like this.
The sphere meters a constant flow of maximized synthetic corticosteroid into the patient. It wasn’t drilled into him at Clinique de Lavoisier – which begs the question, when and where did Heinlen get this. From the looks of his skull bone flap operative site, this object was inserted about nine months afterwards and resulted in inflammation and infection.
Where was he nine months after his brain surgery at Clinique de Lavoisier? Do you know? This is important because whoever did it knew his brain swelling put him in fatal danger – and they had to keep it in check for at least a year afterwards with these evil, addicting superdrugs. They were buying time – by burning him out! They effectively gave him a shelf-life!!!
Who has this technology? I am baffled.
We will keep him in the hospital and perform a “Taper” – wean him off these supercharged corticosteroids and acclimatize his body to life without drugs.
He will have to live with headaches until his body adjusts.
This implant was a cruel, temporary way to keep this patient alive – a quick-fix. It assigned to Heinlen an expiration date. I’ve never seen such an insidious thing. Whatever doctor did this is not practicing medicine. He’s an evil Frankenstein. He put a ticking time-bomb inside this man’s head.
Heinlen is in good hands now. We will attend to him.”
Heinlen balances the small glass vial containing the little silver BB on his two fingers and studies it in the sunlight of his hospital room. Captain Vucic – also in hospital garb – sits on the side of his bed, keeping a cold compress against his aching forehead.
She’s now his roommate – and he appreciates her company. Heinlen also appreciates her hands-on nursing abilities.
Per L’Enfant sits a few feet away in a basic hospital chair reading a Road & Track Magazine. He spies Heinlen examining what Dr. Hallenbeck just removed from his skull.
“Perhaps we can get a patent on it, Mon Capitane! Make a little money, eh?”
Heinlen’s not in a jocular mood.
“Don’t dance around the subject, L’Enfant. We both know who did this to me.
I thought The Old Ones cured me with their magic medicine – turns out they did nothing except extricate me from their “Daughter’s” life. For good. They got their girl Leeds back – and her son, Arkhan, too. I still don’t know who the kid’s father was. I just know it wasn’t me.
The Old Ones never even repaired my brain surgery scar tissue. They just shot me with this short-term fix that guaranteed I’d crap out never darken their door again. They didn’t heal me or make me stronger. I was a temporary inconvenience to them.
Leeds wanted me out of the way…. this was their solution.”
It’s like that old Slavic saying: “Lay down with Dogs and you get fleas”. The moral of this story is – “Lay down with Demons and get screwed”.
Dr. Hallenbeck drops by his room and once again goes over Heinlen’s future treatment regimen. A slowly decreasing corticosteroid dependency. A strict diet of fresh fruits and vegetables, minimal meats and no alcohol. Above all – Heinlen must avoid stress. Blood pressure is key to his rehabilitation.
One thing for certain – the Hetman’s days as a front-line Commanding Officer are over, at least for the immediate future. Captain Vucic is also temporarily out of commission. And Heinlen needs his valiant Paladins – Per L’Enfant, Xen Chen and Dirk Fremd by his side. Who will lead the VARYAG? Major Markovic is a senior officer – an administrator. He runs a tight, efficient day-to-day organization. But he’s too long in the tooth to run with the young dogs in hand-to-hand combat.
Who will lead the VARYAG into Battle?
He asks “Andy” Vucic and her answer surprises him.
“My cousin, Magda Jovanovic. Major Magda Jovanovic. The Avenging Angel of St. Sophia. But first, we have to break her out of Prison.”
The Angel of Saint Sophia
Captain Vucic sits on the edge of Heinlen’s hospital bed, poised for a heart-to-heart talk. She’s obviously impressed on a deeply personal level by her cousin’s deeds and angered by the woman’s current predicament.
“Let me tell you the story of the Avenging Angel of St. Sophia, Magda Jovanovic.
In Serbia, almost on the border of Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, is the Orthodox Convent of Saint Sophia. During the Bosnian conflict and the years that followed, Christian Serbians and Moslem Bosnians fought bitterly, tearing open old resentments and historical ethnic strife. Sectarian tensions and tribal animosities engulfed all of Serbia and Bosnia – resulting in conflict that the United Nations and NATO forces ultimately moved in to quell. Serbia, being traditional allies with Orthodox Russia, however, resulted in NATO militarily punishing Serbia as a Russian Proxy. Serbia was severely battered and trounced by the overwhelmingly better equipped NATO – and United States – armed forces.
During this maelstrom of this ethnic combat an incident occurred at the Convent of Saint Sophia on the border frontier of Serbia. Twenty-five Orthodox Nuns were raped and murdered by a squad of “Black Mountain Division” Bosnian Moslem fighters. The women were so thoroughly butchered that to this day their remains are mixed together in shallow graves marked by nameless hand-hewn Orthodox crosses.
A farmer’s daughter from the village neighboring St. Sophia’s Convent training with a handful of professional “Lovacs” or Hunters looking for game for the coming Winter came upon the Convent after the Bosnians raided it and killed the Nuns.
The young woman’s name was Magda Jovanovic.
She and these five Serbian “Lovacs” – professional game hunters – tracked the squad of thirteen Bosnian murderers for three days. They shot – but didn’t kill – the Bosnians in a valley “hollow”. They picked them off them like fish in a barrel. Magda Jovanovic then hung each Bosnian upside-down from a tree and cut his throat. She bled out thirteen Bosnian murderers. She then pulled the men’s shirts down to expose their bare chests and carved a large “M” into their flesh.
“M” for Magda.
Magda Jovanovic went on to gain high marks for “exterminating” Bosnian Kill Squads in Serbia. Eventually, NATO Special Forces got wind of her name and she was captured. The NATO High Court of International Justice in Brussels prosecuted Magda Jovanovic and convicted her of ‘War Crimes against Humanity”. She had no right to a lawyer, no benefit of an Appeal and was not allowed to see a priest. Magda Jovanovic was sentenced to ten years at the harshest prison in Central Europe: NATO’s Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo.
Camp Bondsteel is actually a secret “rendition and detention facility” for prisoners of NATO European Nations staffed by CIA “Black Ops”. It exclusively holds prisoners considered too politically problematic to be released back into Balkan Countries.
Camp Bondsteel is known to everyone who has fought in the Balkans as the “Kosovo Black Hole”. Once a prisoner is incarcerated there, they fall into a Black Hole. They are held totally incommunicado. Family members can get no information about Camp Bondsteel residents and are simply told: “Consider your loved one dead”. Inside the place is – by sketchy accounts and scraps of rumor that have been gleaned from providers of food and janitorial services to the prison – Hell. Beatings, solitary confinement, “boxing” prisoners into square cubicles half of their size for long stretches of time are whispered about.”
Heinlen listens intently to this History Andrea Vucic has just told him. By the look on his face, Andy anticipates his next questions: Why is Magda Jovanovic the perfect leader for the VARYAG – and How the Hell do we accomplish busting her out of Camp Bondsteel?
Andrea Vucic continues her narrative, her voice even more urgent and solemn.
“Major Magda Jovanovic is perfect to lead the VARYAG because she is spiritually wholesome and morally solid. She’s a Pagan of the Old School – believing in her Folk and Blood. She fights like a Mongol and can use a blade and axe better than anyone I’ve ever known. She is fearless. She is Freya. Her experience, toughness and already legendary status among our VARYAG rank and file makes her the only candidate worth considering.
Magda Jovanovic is truly OUR “Avenging Angel of St. Sophia”.
How do we get her out of the Kosovo Black Hole – Camp Bondsteel?
That’s where your tactical and strategic smarts come in….”
War on NATO?
Heinlen lies in his bed pondering the plight of Magda Jovanovic. She sure sounds like the right Gal to lead the VARYAG – but she’s got serious baggage.
What is he supposed to do? Attack a NATO – Black CIA Penal facility in Kosovo? His VARYAG boys are good – but attacking NATO is a tall order…. that’s declaring War on the United States of America.
Within the past year the United States lost about 25% of Manhattan to a bootleg nuclear device that was delivered by a rented straight job truck as it exited the George Washington Bridge onto New York soil. The Bridge is still not open. Sixty thousand American citizens are dead. Cancer cases are piling up by the hundreds of thousands.
The USA hit back – hard. They slammed two Nukes into Iran. Result? Even more carnage and destruction.
Things have largely been in stasis since then. But nerves are still raw. America isn’t done spoiling for fresh blood. The country has become a tinderbox police state, ready to blow at any time. Its much-vaunted Constitutional freedoms are largely now a historical footnote.
Heinlen knows in his gut: now’s not the time to pick a fight with NATO and the USA at a secured CIA shop in Kosovo.
He shifts his weight in the bed and repositions the cold packs around his forehead – his brain feels like it’s about to burst.
Suddenly, all Hell breaks loose.
A pint-sized Chinese tsunami blasts into his hospital room, rudely awakening Andy Vucic, who is fast asleep in her bed next to Heinlen’s own.
Peter Xiang-Li, Attorney at Law, barges in the room and bellows, Viva–Viva-Voce, a very not-so-warm greeting.
“JESUS CHRIST!!! I LEAVE FOR THREE WEEKS TO SEE MY MOTHER IN SHENZHEN AND EVERYTHING GOES TO SHIT IN A BUCKET!!!
YOU DAMN-NEAR HAVE A STROKE AND NOW HAVE TO STAY IN A GODDAMN HOSPITAL TO GET WEENED OFF OF SPACE-DRUGS THAT WERE BEING PUMPED INTO YOUR THICK SKULL FOR WELL OVER A YEAR – AND YOU DIDN’T HAVE A CLUE ABOUT IT!!!!
IS THIS MORE LEEDS BLOWBACK??? MORE OF HER “OLD ONES” BULLSHIT??? YOU SURE CAN PICK ‘EM, PAL!!!
ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS VISIT MY MOTHER IN CHINA!!! CAN’T ANYBODY ELSE KEEP THIS FRIGGIN’ SHITSHOW RUNNING ON AN EVEN KEEL???”
Heinlen just smiles at his friend.
“Hello, Peter. Allow me to introduce Andy – Andrea – Vucic.
And we’ve missed you, too.”
*NO PART OF THIS WORK PRODUCT IS GENERATED BY AI*
Copyright, 2026 – Jon Croft
www.bogironfoundry.com
Email: vlchek1@gmail.com
