Remember your training, whispered the Cop. Observe first, gather intel. Process it, evaluate it. Assess the situation and determine your tactical position.

Position? Up shit creek without a paddle.

Then I felt a presence near me. It wasn’t exactly a sound; more of a sensation of awareness, as if someone was watching me and noticed that I was awake.

A voice said, “Cap’n?”

I had to concentrate to identify the voice. “Top…?” I whispered.

“Yeah,” he said and squeezed my shoulder very gently.

My eyesight came back slowly, slowly. It was dim and blurry, but I could see Top sitting beside me in the back of the truck.

“Where’s the team? Is everyone okay?”

“We got out,” was all he said. A few moments later he added, “Got a stealth helo coming for us. Be here any minute.”

I licked my lips, and Top put a straw to my lips and let me drink.

“Top…?”

“Yeah?”

“What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I move?”

There was a pause.

“Come on, First Sergeant … tell me.”

Top said, “You’re all messed up. You took a lot of—”

“Christ! Is my back broken? Is that why I can’t move?”

“No,” he soothed. “No. It’s your head. Lydia thinks you might have a skull fracture. Definitely a concussion, and a mother of one.”

“What does Khalid say, goddamn it? He’s the frigging doctor.”

Top’s face was filled with pain. “Khalid’s gone, Cap’n. You know that. You were there.”

But I didn’t remember.

“Gone? Christ, what happened at the refinery?”

“We got the scrambler. You did, you and Khalid. But…”

“But what? Stop screwing around and tell me.”

“Those knights. They killed some of the staff and took their places. They were rigging the whole place. C-4 charges on wellheads, charges all over. Looks like once the nuke was active they wanted to bury it under a couple million tons of flaming debris. Wouldn’t stop the nuke down there in the subbasement, but if we were an hour later we’d never have gotten to it. Not unless we knew the tunnel system, and we didn’t.”

“We stopped it, though, right?”

“The nuke? Yeah. Nobody’s going to set it off. Not now.”

I didn’t like the way he said that. “What’s wrong? What are you not telling me?”

Top sighed. He nodded to someone, and I slowly turned to see Bunny sitting at the back corner of the truck. There were tear tracks on his cheeks.

“Good to see you awake, Boss,” he said, but there was no life in his voice.

Top said, “Open the door.”

Bunny cut a worried look at me and back to Top. “Sure you want to do that?”

“Open it, Farmboy.”

With a heavy sigh, Bunny pushed the door open so that I could see the bright noonday sun.