“We wouldn’t have seen you if you hadn’t broken out onto that open patch of the mountain.”

“How’d you get my vicinity?”

“We got there after the explosion at the chalet, did a sweep below the outside brink of the valley. We were scanning the mountainsides with a parabolic mike, picked up the audio signature of your murmuring. You were…”

“What?”

“You were apologizing.”

… sorry. I’m sorry …

The boy had saved Evan’s life, then, not vice versa.

Evan would repay the favor soon enough.

If the kid hadn’t called, if Evan hadn’t answered, Jack’s crew wouldn’t have zeroed in on him. If he hadn’t broken tree cover to stagger for the summit, he wouldn’t have been spotted. The last ounce of what he had to give was the ounce that had saved his life.

A burning intensified on Evan’s leg. He flipped back the sheets. A red scar seamed the inside of his calf. They’d harvested a saphenous vein?

He said, “How am I…?”

“We took you offline,” Jack said. “Suspended animation.”

Evan waited.

“The doc induced hypothermia. Drained your blood, flushed your system with cold saline.”

“My veins?”

“Internal organs, heart, brain—everything. We took you down to fifty degrees. The colder the cells are, the less oxygen they need. We had to slow down your chemical reactions, keep your brain from realizing it wasn’t getting any oxygen.”

“You making this up?”

“Nah. They been playing with it behind the fence for years now. They call it emergency preservation and resuscitation.”

“It’s been tested?”

“On pigs.” At this, Jack allowed a gleam of amusement to cross his eyes.

“Survivability rate?”

“Seven percent.”

Evan swallowed.

“Oh, come on,” Jack said. “Best odds you’ve had your whole damn life.” He looked away quickly, but not before Evan saw his blue eyes moisten. “You were dead for two hours and thirteen minutes. The trauma surgeon finally showed up.”

“What’d she do?”

“After taking my head off? She performed the graft. Then we packed you in hot-water bladders to bring you back to body temperature, rapid-infused you with warmed blood products, kick-started you with a defib. You’re Frankenstein’s monster. ‘The fallen angel.’”

“Where’s my phone?”

Jack looked concerned at that; he must have read the emotion on Evan’s face. Sliding open the nightstand drawer, he pulled out the beat-up RoamZone and tossed it onto the sheets. “You okay?”

“Do I fucking look okay, Jack?”

“I know we have a lot to talk about.”

“You think?”

Jack glanced away, his jaw shifting.

“I can’t believe it’s Thursday.” Evan tried to sit up, with mixed results. His vision spotted, and then the spots bled together. He lay back down. “I’ve never been out four days.”

“You’ve never been dead before.”

“Right. Unlike you.”

Snowflakes plastered the window.

“Where am I?”

“Alleghenies.”

“Am I free to leave?”