“Nothing about the Viper,” she finally told Frank. She wasn’t really positive about that. But she didn’t want to get him going any faster than he already was. Lately, he couldn’t seem to stop jumping to theories, most of them far-fetched.

“What about the rescue? She grill you on—what?—the welcoming committee? I mean, who were those guys?”

“I was massively turned around,” Mary reminded him. “Could have been hallucinating.”

“Yeah, I know,” Frank said.

She thought about it one more time. She remembered the trees on fire. She could feel the heat from them. But not her tree, the tree she was in—that was whole and cool. She thought she must have lost her sense of hearing. Maybe she’d gotten too close to the engine. But the thing that worried her most was the paramedic squad. She remembered them, clearly, wearing black. No, some of them were in jeans and T-shirts. That was the thing she had to believe she could have imagined. They wore white, right? That was the uniform. Well, maybe not. Could be black. Could be casual. Could be, definitely.

Frank was talking about how he had found the last guy on the maintenance crew just this morning. He told Frank that Mary’s engine had spent its usual time the week before the crash in the Hush House. They’d taken it apart, put it back together, stuck it back in the Viper as usual. It went to the blocks in perfect shape. Crew loved Mary, Frank reported. “You’re the only pilot in the squadron who doesn’t leave used piddle packs tucked back in the corner by the flicsip,” he said.

Piddle packs by the flight-control-systems panel. It was like leaving the toilet seat up. No, more like piss on the rim. Mary recalled how she’d befriended her first crew chief, asked him, What drives you nuts? Piddle packs in tight spots topped the list. He gave her runners-up, and she remembered them: pilots who left fuel master switches in off, Alt Flaps in extend, DED bright turned all the way down, Air Source in off. Frank was a regular offender on each. Mary wondered how honest anyone from Maintenance would be with him.

She was most curious about the weapons loaders. Frank said none of them would speak to him. That baffled her. She wasn’t permitted to ask them anything until the investigation was concluded. But she would then.