Luke raised a hand. Ed! Okay. I think you got him. Hes done. Let him down easy. These floors look like marble.

Luke glanced at the other guard. He was already sprawled out on the ground, eyes closed, mouth open, head leaning against the wall. Ed had made short work of them both. Luke hadnt made a dent.

Luke pulled a couple of plastic zip ties from his pocket and kneeled by his man. He bound the mans ankles. He trussed them tight, like a prized pig. Eventually, someone would come and cut these things off. When they did, the guy probably wouldnt have any feeling in his feet for an hour.

Ed was doing the same with his man.

Youre a little rusty, Luke, he said.

Me? Nah. Im not even supposed to fight. They hired me for my brains. He could still feel the place on his throat where the mans hand had been. It was going to be sore tomorrow.

Ed shook his head. I was Delta Force, same as you. I came in two years after the Stanley Combat Outpost operation in Nuristan. People were still talking about it. How they dropped you guys up there and you got overrun. In the morning, only three men were still fighting. You were one of them, right?

Luke grunted. Im not aware of the existence of…

Dont bullshit me, Ed said. Classified or not, I know the story.

Luke had learned to live his life in air-tight compartments. He rarely talked about the forward fire base incident. It took place a lifetime before, in a corner of eastern Afghanistan so remote that just putting some troops on the ground there was supposed to mean something. It was ancient history. His wife didnt even know about it.

But Ed was Delta, so… okay.

Yeah, he said. I was there. Bad intelligence put us up there, and it turned into the worst night of my life. He gestured at the two men on the floor.

It makes this look like an episode of Happy Days. We lost nine good men. Just before dawn, we ran out of ammo. Luke shook his head. It got ugly. Most of our guys were dead by then. And the three of us that made it… I dont know if we ever really came back. Martinez is paralyzed from the waist down. Last I heard, Murphy is homeless, in and out of the VA psychiatric ward.

And you?

I have nightmares about it to this day.

Ed was binding the wrists of his man. I knew a guy who was on the clean-up detail after they cleared the area. He said they counted 167 bodies on that hill, not including our guys. There were 21 enemy hand-to-hand combat deaths inside the perimeter.

Luke looked at him. Why are you telling me this?