Feeling hopeful for the first time in days, he walked aft, hunched despite the decent headroom of the Bombardier jet. He squeezed Eli’s shoulder as he passed, and the operator looked up and smiled.

“No coffee for me?” the former Army CAG operator called after him.

“You know where it is,” he said without looking back. “No flight attendant on this bus, bro.”

David looked up at him from beside Eli, legs crossed and a Bible open in his lap.

“You good, Jed?” his TSL asked. David had stayed behind on the jet for the op, but he’d insisted on making the trip and Jed knew he’d been listening in on the comms the entire time.

“Yeah,” he said, then added, “You were silent on this one. Everything okay for you?”

“Yep,” David said, closing his Bible and smiling. “On this one it seemed like less was more in your ear. No point in me talking to hear myself speak. And anyway, with no Dark Ones in the mix, I figured it best to let the pros do their thing.”

Jed nodded. He wanted to ask about Sarah Beth but decided that was best a private conversation.

At the rear of the jet, just forward of the lavatory, the last row of seats had been removed and a bed had been secured to the floor in their place. Dr. Zhao lay still on his back, eyes half-open and looking very much dead.

“Is he okay?” Jed asked, knowing he’d asked that question four times already today.

“Yeah, he’s stable,” Bex said, and Jed could tell she was barely holding back from ribbing him. “Oxygen sats are 99 percent. Good vitals. Normal EKG. That John dude said it could be a few more hours till Zhao comes to .”

“All righty then,” he said.

On a lark, he tried reaching out with his mind looking for Zhao’s thread but found nothing. Maybe it didn’t work like that. And anyway, if the dude was literally comatose, what would he see or hear? Would Zhao’s mind be a void or broadcasting static?

I wonder, he thought and decided to ask Ben when they got back.

“Got a sec, Jed?” Nisha said from nearby.

“Sure.” He folded himself into a vacant seat across from her and beside Gayle.

“We’ve been talking about the, um, disposition of Dr. Zhao.”

“They’ve been talking about it,” John interrupted from the row behind. “I have no horse in this race. I’m the extract guy, and extract is complete. It’s customary to reward mission complete with a cocktail. So who’s buying?”