She reached Xavier’s room, and the door was closed. Knowing the doctor would have finished at least twenty minutes ago, she knocked. The door was opened by the Navy captain she’d met last night. “Oh. I’m sorry. I’ll go to the waiting room.”

The man pulled the door wide. “Please, join us, Dr. Kendrick. This involves you too.”

She stepped into the room and saw the solemn expression on the admiral’s and Xavier’s faces. She braced herself for whatever they had to say.

The captain cleared his throat. “Petty Officer Third Class Collins had surgery yesterday afternoon. It went well and his prognosis is good, in spite of the delays. Medic Smith is to be commended for managing to keep infection at bay under difficult conditions.”

“I’m so glad to hear it,” she said, seeing the same relief in Xavier’s eyes.

The captain nodded. “Collins woke for the first time late last night. By early this morning, he was coherent enough to answer questions. He was able to share what happened to him and the three missing SEALs. We haven’t yet been able to confirm his account, but Lieutenant Flyte is leading the search, now that we know where to begin looking.”

“That’s as far as they got before you arrived,” Xavier said. He nodded toward the visitor’s chair. “I have a feeling you’ll want to sit for this.”

She nodded and skirted the bed and dropped into the chair. She felt flushed and had cold chills at the same time. Her body was going into overtime stress reaction after a brief respite from the nightmare.

She met the admiral’s gaze. It wasn’t lost on her that two high-ranking Naval officers were delivering this news personally to the man who bore the weight of the entire disastrous training.

It was a kindness. A show of support. But it also meant the news was very, very bad.

The admiral picked up the story. “Collins said his team extracted from the lake in the location they’d selected during the planning session on Whidbey. Less than fifteen minutes after they entered the forest, they were engaged by an enemy combatant. Thinking it was part of the training, they took cover and returned fire. They had direct hits on their target and expected the man to lay down his arms and play dead, as expected given the shots landed in areas not protected by body armor. He should at least have presented as injured when the Simunition round hit an extremity. But the trainer—as that is who they believed they were engaging—didn’t surrender. Instead, he approached Commander Odent and shot him point blank in the face.”

Audrey covered her mouth with her hand and gasped, imagining the horror of the moment.