She beamed. ‘Hi.’

‘You’re not one of mine. I have no interest in you.’

He bent over Anders’s body. ‘Even I can’t help this one. I’ll send a clean-up team.’ He turned to go. ‘With your permission, Commander.’ He disappeared after his prospective patients.

Commander Hay turned to go. ‘Charlie, tell the doctor to feed them, water them and clean them up. With the exception of Major Ellis, I want every one of them in my office in one hour’s time. You too, Major Callen.’

She walked out.

37

37

Half an hour later, Max was saying goodbye to a recovering Matthew.

‘I suppose you know what you’re doing.’

‘I do, Mum, and it’s important.’

‘OK. Your choice. Just try to get to the end of the month alive. It’s my birthday. Don’t worry too much about my present – anything big and expensive will do – but your father’s looking forward to seeing you.’

‘I’ll be there. Promise.’

She wandered outside to the medtec’s station. The duty medtec asked if he could help her.

‘Just waiting a few minutes for a friend, if you don’t mind.’

He nodded and retired behind his desk.

Grint emerged slowly from the treatment room. Like a bewildered little boy on his first day at school, his world was upside down and he wasn’t dealing with it very well.

Max said brightly, ‘There you are.’

He looked up. ‘What do you want?’

‘I brought you a coffee.’ She passed him a paper cup.

He glowered suspiciously. ‘You spat in it.’

‘And not just me.’

‘Why?’

‘No one likes you.’

He sighed, visibly making an effort. ‘I mean, why would you bring me coffee?’

‘An old enemy is the next best thing to an old friend and we go back a long way.’

He sat heavily on a bench and said reluctantly, ‘Thanks.’

‘Old enemies have a lot in common.’

He made no reply.

She seated herself beside him. ‘Listen, feel free to ignore me if you want, it’s up to you, but why don’t you talk to Hay?’

He frowned. ‘Why would you say that? The two of you can barely be in the same room as each other.’

‘It’s true that we agree over nothing, but that doesn’t prevent her being a good commander. Talk to her, Grint. Get it all out into the open. Stop mooching around the corridors full of a vague discontent that even you yourself don’t understand. Stop listening to rumours and gossip. Stop letting yourself be used in other people’s schemes. Take charge of your own life. Go and speak to Hay.’

He looked down into his coffee. ‘Like I’m going to take advice from St Mary’s.’

She sighed. ‘We’re just like Rome and Carthage, aren’t we?’

He stared, baffled. ‘Who?’