She took a deep breath and slowly let it out, exhaustion creeping along her spine. She rubbed her eyes, feeling the grit in them, already imagining hot running water in a hotel room.

The ping of a bullet striking the helicopter pushed all those thoughts away, and her heart leapt into her throat.

When their gunner started firing, she slapped her hand over her mouth to keep from crying out loud. The muzzle flashes lit up the inside of the cabin like silver lightning strikes. Every third round was a tracer and made his fire look like a ray gun, like something out of a science fiction movie. How could he even see down there? How did he know what to shoot at and in what direction his team lay versus anyone else?

She tried to look around him and see the ground, but the blackness covered the land and the muzzle flashes and tracer rounds had dazzled her eyes.

In her helmet, she heard the conversation between the pilot and the medic. “Got room for another patient? We have bad actors in the AO.”

“Roger,” Waller replied. “We can take him.”

They were landing in the middle of the gunfire! Her mouth went dry even as she realized that the gunner had quit returning fire. Logic started to push back her fear.

As the helicopter landed, a feeling of vertigo rushed up her chest and over her neck. It reminded her of descending in the elevator from the top of the Washington Monument. She closed her eyes and breathed slowly and deliberately, desperately hoping she wouldn’t get sick. When she heard someone boarding, she opened her eyes.

Swanson helped Rick in, then climbed in himself. “He got hit!” Swanson yelled as the helicopter lifted off again.

Cynthia heard the confirmation that everyone had gotten on board one of the other two helicopters, then felt the machine fly forward instead of just hovering above the ground. Pushing back the vertigo, she grabbed her bag from where she’d secured it and climbed through the group to where Rick sat, blood covering his face. Fear raced through her, making her trip.

She caught herself before she fell, then crouched next to him and pulled a pair of gloves out of her back pocket. “I need light,” she said in a harsh voice, taking his face in her hands. Waller shone a flashlight down on Rick’s head.

“It’s not that bad,” Rick said. “Just grazed me.”