HOPELESS

We have combed all areas of the island of Cebu but no sign of Martha, Merlyn, and Rojack. All warehouses were raided and inspected but nothing was found.

"Where in the world did they keep my Mom?" Juan said.

Alex was crying secretly for his wife. He felt hopeless.

Juan comforted him. "Boss we will find them!" Juan said.

"I just overheard that they are in a different location, but I don't know if it is also a warehouse. I think what they mean is a separate island because they rode a pump boat, yes I heard the word pump boat, that is what they used to escape from Luzon." Tony said.

" Let's monitor the coastlines near the warehouse, our target now is pump boats. Let the detectives have some vacation that needs a pump boat ride, who knows we can get a lead. Some will try pump boats going inter-island!" Juan said.

Rojack is getting stronger and has the technology, he has the capability to supply Visayas and Mindanao with drugs.

One of the wounded kidnappers was in critical condition in Cebu Doctors Hospital, Jacky decided to do the operation. She has the best qualifications and experience. She was allowed to do the surgery.

"GSW chest unable to breathe from a collapsed lung," A nurse said.

In the operating room, an anesthesiologist and Jacky as the surgeon will direct his care in conjunction with the OR nurses. The anesthesiologist will be responsible for keeping him alive during this very crucial period. They will insert a breathing tube, manage the status of his breathing, and make sure to treat any potentially fatal acidosis. He or she will administer life-saving medications, fluids, and transfuse blood as necessary. Electrolytes, body temperature, blood loss, urine output, and cardiac output must all be monitored closely as changes can occur quickly within seconds to minutes, and can be fatal. Often patients are too unstable to withstand even small amounts of anesthesia, and awareness or some level of consciousness under anesthesia is more common in trauma surgery than any other type of surgery.

While this is occurring, Jacky will work quickly to identify and treat the injury, especially if the gunshot wound has induced life-threatening bleeding. Jacky must often deal with numerous injuries at the same time, in the setting of serious trauma and bleeding. This is a great challenge as identifying important anatomy becomes very hard when bullets change the appearance of normal tissues and organs. Jacky may repair the wound but often complete resolution is impossible at the time of initial surgery. He may have tubes coming out of his chest and/or abdomen. Many times the abdomen is left wide open with a large midline incision padded with gauze and plastic wrapping to keep the intestines from protruding.

The surgery was successful and the patient was in the ICU to recover.

After two days, the patient was transferred to a recovery room. He can talk and is thankful that he survived. Jacky visited him and he expressed his thanks to his beautiful doctor. Jacky smiled and comforted him that he will recover.

"You will recover but you will also go to jail after," Jacky said.

"Who paid for my bills here Doc?" Marlon asked.

"Why you asked?" Jacky said.

"I want to thank him. I don't deserve to be helped because I am a criminal, but why did he save me?" Marlon said.

"Tell it to him when you meet him. Rest so you will recover fast," Jacky said.

Jacky informed Juan about their conversation, Juan was happy, he sees this criminal is not hopeless, he is like the criminal on the cross with Jesus, he can be also in paradise if he will believe in Christ as Savior.

Luk 23:39-43: "Then one of the criminals, who were hanging [on a cross also] spoke abusively to Him, saying, "Are you not the Christ [i.e., God's specially chosen one]? [If you are], then save yourself and us." But the other criminal spoke harshly to the first one, saying, "Do you not even have any fear of God [left], since you [too] are experiencing the same sentence of condemnation? And for us, it is truly a just sentence, for we are getting back what we deserve for our actions, but this man has not done anything wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember [to be merciful to] me when you come into your kingdom." Then Jesus said to him, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise [Note: This is a place in God's presence, referred to as "the third heaven" (II Cor. 12:2-4).

The next day, Juan visited Marlon Rivera. He went there in his side and stand looking to him for a while Jacky is assisting to clean his wounds. After it was dressed and he is to rest. Jacky said, "Marlon, met your sponsor, Atty. Juan Tera".

Marlon knows who he was. Marlon was close to Rojack, he is one of his trusted friends and was the one in charge of Tony's captivity and hospitalization.

" What? but I'm an enemy! Why did you save me? and paid for my bills?" Marlon asked.

Juan looked at him seriously, and said "What would Jesus do, Jesus said Love your enemies."

"Is that real? I can not believe it! Thank you, and he cried. I already accepted that I will die that night. But when I wake up I'm already done and recovering, I can not believe that you will do this kindness to me. Then you truly believe Jesus is for real?" Marlon asked in tears.

There was a knock in the door, the guard opened, and said, his wife boss? Juan signaled to let her in.

Both of them in tears and their little daughter about six years old called him, "Papa!" Helen cried: "Marlon I came here to get you from the morgue but they said, you are alive."

"They saved me!" Marlon pointed to them.

Helen kneeled and thank them "I know Marlon does not deserve this from you, and we thank you all from this grace. We will do anything to pay you back someday!" Helen said.

"Don't think of the repayment, we don't require it, as we obey Jesus, we just hope that both of you will also obey Him" Juan said.

"Marlon and Helen embraced with their baby and said, "I will, we will!" Marlon said.