Luke was already kneeling, sliding his right boot off and ripping the tiny radio transmitter out of the side compartment where it was sewn in. He clicked the button, opened the transmitter to its full length, and held the thin metal antenna to his mouth.

“Swann, you with me?”

Swann’s deep voice came across the airwaves. It sounded tinny, like Swann was speaking to him from the bottom of a soup can.

“Stone? I’ll be damned. This thing works. We’re right here. You guys alive?”

Luke looked at Ed.

“We’re alive. We’re fine. No injuries. Parr is dead. Cole is dead. Newsam and I have the hostages secured and can protect them. Bring in the choppers. If they ride the loudspeaker and let everybody know what’s up, I’ll bet they can take this place in about five minutes flat. They should take out the main gate first, which is actually a bus. Once that’s gone, these guys can’t protect themselves. They’ll be looking for friendlies to surrender to.”

“Awesome, Luke. Here comes the cavalry. Over.”

“Thank you. Over and out.”

Luke folded the antenna closed. He looked at Newsam again.

Newsam’s eyes were hard. “You and me are gonna talk about this. We get back to base, we’re gonna talk for real. We’re not in the service anymore. We don’t need to worry about rank.”

Luke nearly smiled, but then didn’t. He thought at first that the guy was putting him on, but now he could see that he wasn’t. He was honestly mad.

The operation had been a total success. Parr was dead. In a little while, the 1st Cavalry was going to storm this palace, and the women and girls would be returned to their families. The money and stolen antiquities would be recovered.

Okay, Luke had made a mistake. It put Ed in a dangerous position for a moment. But it had worked out fine.

“What’s your problem?” Luke said.

Ed pointed at him. “You’re my problem. Rock stars like you. You could have gotten me killed. But the mission would have been a success anyway. I’ve seen a lot of that in my time. We did what we were sent to do, but oh yeah, spear carrier third from left got wasted. Oh well. Tragic, really, but they’re going to bury him at Arlington and his mama’s gonna hold the flag.”

Luke shook his head. “What do you want me to do? Say I’m sorry?”

Ed’s fierce eyes stared. “No. I’ve heard about you, man. And I’m going to demonstrate to you that I’m not the one you drop in a hole on your way to glory.”

“Buddy, you know what they say when you’re picking a dancing partner, don’t you?”

Ed shook his head. “No. Why don’t you tell me?”

Luke nodded. “They say, Choose wisely.”