“I’m going to call Gina right now. We need to find a hospital for you.”

“I am not injured.”

As near as he could tell, the outermost layer of her skin was gone. Why they had left her alive wasn’t clear, but it was certainly worrying him.

An obvious reason to pretend to have missed her would be that she was one of them.

“You’re in pain.” He had to get her to face that she needed rotation to a medical unit. He also wanted her gone.

“I’m not hurt!”

“You’re hurt.”

The team possessed an extensive medical kit—in addition to her portable sampling lab, she had a portable aid station that was a masterpiece of miniaturization. But there was nothing for an injury like this.

He called Gina.

She answered immediately.

“Linda’s down,” he said.

“I am not down!” She got up off the bed, then grabbed the sheet and pulled it around her.

“They abraded her. I think they took off the outer layer of skin.” He fought back acid, swallowed hard. “She’s oozing blood and you can see—see through her skin, almost.”

“Okay, look, I’m going to send a medical unit from Travis AFB to pick her up. She’s relieved until further notice.”

“I agree. But what happens now, Gina?” He did not mean to plead, but he was feeling seriously isolated. “We need to expand this program. We need the full attention of Delta Force, and maybe a lot more.”

“I want you to do two things. First, you return to the area where the ordnance was laid down, and you inspect it for any signs of remains. If there are remains, I’ll send a graves detail out to collect them and get them back to us here in Washington.”

“It’ll be my men.”

“And if we’re lucky, a hybrid or two.”

Linda interrupted, “Which you cannot sample properly without me. I do not require hospitalization, damnit.”

He clicked off the speakerphone. “And the second part of my orders?”

“You come to Washington. We’re planning a larger operation.” She paused. “We want you to run it.”

He had two skills: hunting and killing. “I belong in the field.”

“First things first. Go out there, give me a report from the scene. Then we’ll talk futures.”

“Are you sure—”

She cut the connection.

“—that’s a good idea?” He looked at the phone in his hand. Okay, she was upset. And with him, which made sense. He was, too, big-time.

He closed the phone. He had his orders and he would carry them out. But first he would deal with his injured soldier.

“Linda, whether you feel it or not, you’re wounded and you’re going into the hospital for evaluation.”

“I’m a doctor and I’m evaluated. Minor abrasions, nothing to write home about, end of story.”

“You’re going to be transported to a hospital.”