Leandra straightened her shoulders and pushed open the door. The general was sitting sideways on a gurney, still mostly dressed in his black combat fatigues and scowling darkly as he picked at the bandage around his head. Even smelling faintly of sweat and smoke, bloodied and tired, the man cut an imposing figure. Part of it was that he was built like a tank and the lack of a uniform jacket helped drive that point home. Mostly, though, it was the force of his will, almost tangible now that he was too focused on the hunt to rein himself in and let others breathe. The result was that Leandra was extremely aware she was about to face down the huge, hurt, ill-tempered head of SOCOM who was, understandably, carrying a grudge.
Too late to run, she thought, and strode through the doorway with her head held high and her face carefully blank. Medical branch or not, she was a soldier. Her posture was flawless. Her salute perfect. If her pulse was elevated, she didn’t acknowledge it.
“Sir!”
Young gave her a dirty look and tugged on the wrappings again. “You take a wrong turn somewhere, Lieutenant?”
“Yes, sir!”
Her answer must’ve surprised him, because Young stopped what he was doing and raised one blood-crusted eyebrow. “You did?”
It was now or never, so Leandra took a deep breath and stared resolutely at the wall two inches from the general’s head. Time to try and salvage this situation… and her career.
“Yes, sir. When I went over your head, sir. Wrong decision, sir. I came to apologize.”
There. She hadn’t even choked on it. Her mama would’ve been proud.
Icy blue eyes tried to drill holes into her composure, but Lieutenant Dr. Leandra Butler was a tougher nut to crack than most people. She stood her ground stoically, didn’t allow herself a single twitch of nerves.
Apparently she passed muster, because Young grunted grumpily and went back to disassembling his bandage.
“When this is over, you and I are gonna have us a talk about this,” he promised ominously, though it didn’t sound quite like the threat it could’ve
been. “What about the entity? No, wait,”—he lifted a hand to forestall her answer—“what about those fuckers who ambushed us? Did any of the CCTV cameras catch them?”
“No, sir.” She’d double-checked her facts before coming to see the general, knowing she had no more leeway. “The garage is under construction, so the security cameras were down. We’re still going through the material on the confiscated phones, but so far no luck.”
Even the most hardcore voyeurs had scattered once the shooting had started. Good thing, too, or civilian casualties would’ve been even higher.
As it was, two bystanders had been killed and six wounded. Leandra had been forced to contact the Commander in Chief, who’d put a gag order on the press and local police citing national security reasons. The Internet was already buzzing with speculation anyway, but most of the theories out there were going the terrorist route, not even close to the truth. So far, the situation was under control, but she doubted they could afford another public shootout.