The kid went on whining, though, pissing his pants.

Just get it over with, Ocho thought.

But Sayle liked the maggots squirming.

It was another thing Ocho didn’t like about the LT. The man was crazy. One of those bastards who’d grown up and found out that war was where he lived best. Sayle enjoyed suffering.

Sayle kept on, questioning the prisoner, making him think he had a chance. Like baiting a dog with meat and then pulling it out of reach again and again. Making the pathetic little licebiter stand up and bounce around on his hind legs, tongue hanging out.

Sayle offered freedom. He coaxed people to rat their relatives, to rat their food stores. He was good at it, the dangling. But it made Ocho ill, and he tried to be away from it when he could. Couldn’t pull it off every time, though. If the LT thought you were a weak link, bad things happened. So sometimes you just had to stand by while some war maggot begged.

“She ran! She went away. Her and the half-man. They headed out. She was going to leave. Go north.”

It made sense to Ocho. The doctor girl had seemed like the kind who had a plan. For sure, she’d ripped the hell out of the platoon.

“You’re covering for her,” Sayle said.

“No! I swear it! She told me not to come back here. Told me not to do it. She said the doctor was stupid. Said I was.” He spat blood and the despair in his voice made Ocho look over. Little war maggot looked like he’d lost her, all right. No hope there.

Sayle caught Ocho’s gaze. “What do you think?”

Ocho leaned against a flame-blackened wall, trying not to show how much his ribs hurt. Wishing that Hoopie hadn’t shot the doctor. It would have been good to recruit a real pill pusher into the company. Now Ocho’s survival was pretty much up to the Fates; if he picked up an infection, he was done.

“I think he’s telling the truth,” Ocho said. “Doctor was crazy, for sure. I can see him coming back alone. Humanitarian, right? All kinds of do-gooder.”

“This one, too? And ditch the girl?” Sayle looked down at their prisoner.

Ocho shrugged. “Doctor was surprised when the coywolv came in. The girl’s pure Drowned Cities. Don’t matter if she’s a castoff or not. She’s got the war instinct.”

“Maggot was smart, all right.”

“Yeah. But the doctor?” Ocho shrugged.