Daniel secured himself and made his “off call” to dispatch. “Medevac Ten responding, four souls, two hours’ fuel.” He listened to the dispatcher on the headset give him the details as they took off.

He sighed and made eye contact with Crista. “Bar brawl.”

At Nilay’s wide-eyed expression, he answered, “Nope, not too early—these are the ones that were out all night getting drunk, and now they fight.” He shrugged and shook his head.

The vibrations and noise of the chopper were familiar to Daniel, but he was impressed by how Nilay took it all in stride. The chopper landed in a field and the ambulance was already waiting for them.

“We’ll do it hot,” came the order from Andrea.

Daniel nodded as he got off the chopper behind Nilay, pushing the boy’s head down so he was bent at the waist as they exited behind Crista. “She wants us to move fast, so she’s not turning off the blades.”

They approached the ambulance to find the patient strapped to the stretcher with a large piece of glass protruding from his arm. Crista spoke to the EMTs while Daniel explained to Nilay, “He has a penetrating injury to his arm. With the amount of blood we see in the gauze, there may be a major blood vessel involved, which is why they called us.” He dropped his bag and crouched down to open it, pulling out multiple packets of gauze. “This is QuikClot. It’s a special gauze that has clotting agents in it to promote quick blood clotting, so our patient doesn’t bleed out.” He glanced at Nilay. There was a lot of blood, but damn, the kid was listening and observing the patient with no sign of even going pale. “Here, put on these gloves and let’s open a few of these packets and apply them.”

Nilay did exactly as he was told. He moved naturally, as if he’d done this his whole life. Daniel smiled as he applied the QuikClot Nilay handed him. “You’re a natural.”

“Thanks.”

“We’re attaching a monitor to the patient so we can continuously monitor blood pressure. We’ll also monitor his oxygen levels and heart rate for any rhythm changes.”

“All right, boys. Let’s move.” Crista was ready.

As Crista and Daniel loaded their patient into the waiting chopper, Nilay was already seated, buckled, helmeted and ready for liftoff.

Daniel smiled at him.

Nilay grinned and mouthed, “This is awesome!”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

ANNIKA

NAYA PATTED DOWN her sari for the billionth time, and Annika couldn’t help her grin.

“Oh my God, Naya, it’s going to be fine. You look amazing. That burgundy looks like you were born to wear it, so stop fussing. I’m never wrong.”