“Supervisor.” The man seemed to be on the point of reeling. “Gotta talk. I’m just . . .” He blinked harder, seemed to be fighting for coherence. “Shit. Shoulda asked for a stim shot.”

“Come on, let me help you.” Not that she could really do much to assist a man on crutches.

He gave her a silly grin, hitching around on his crutches, saying, “Moving helps. Listen, shit’s coming down. That idiot Soukup. I mean, Kylee and that Falise woman. They got us out. Of the wreck, I mean. And that damned quetzal. I rode a quetzal, can you believe? All the way up to the airtruck. And then . . .” He worked his face, as if the action would pump energy into his brain. “Then, I’m getting the airtruck ready to go, and here’s Flute. With the fucking IG hanging out of his mouth.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Flute! He carried the IG up the hill. Dangling from his teeth, can you believe? Through the forest. And Flute reaches in, tender as can be, and carefully deposits the IG on the deck just inside the door. Then he turns around and vanishes back into the forest.”

“Wouldn’t surprise me,” Kalico said with a chuckle. “Kylee and that quetzal, they’re quite a—”

“‘Give me that pistol,’” Fenn continued without a break. “That’s what the IG says, so I hand my revolver to him. You said to obey his orders. No matter what. I did. And the toilet-sucker points it at me, and says, ‘Fly. Now. That’s an order.’”

“Wait a minute.”

“Yeah. At gunpoint, I’m ordered to fly off. You said to follow his orders, ma’am. But I told him no. He cocked the pistol, aimed it right at my heart.” Fenn shook his head, still bobbing doggedly along on his crutches. “I could see it in his eyes, Supervisor. The guy was crazy. I mean, he’s got broken collarbones. He can’t even hold the gun up, pain sweat’s running down his head. But that big revolver . . . braced in his lap like that . . . he’s going to shoot me if I don’t fly us out of there. And me, with a broken leg!”

“And you did?”

Fenn nodded his head, lips pinched. “For one thing, he’s a Board Appointed IG, and you said to follow his orders. For another, he didn’t care. He’d have killed me and never batted an eye.” He grimaced. “But we left Kylee Simonov and Falise Taglioni out there. Abandoned them. Left them stranded in some really mean bush, ma’am.”

Kalico ground her teeth, cursing under her breath. “Have you told anyone?”