Tom felt a bit sheepish as Yuri walked away, because obviously the big Russian kid thought Tom needed an encouraging shoulder pat. This really must be bad. As he and Vik launched into playing some games, the images blurred before his eyes.

“You’re in poor form tonight, Doctor,” Vik noted.

“I’m winning.”

“Poor form for you. Hey, you’re not really depressed, are you?” He sounded awkward just asking it. Tom shook his head.

“No, man. I’m good.”

“I figured. You’ll come back from this, Doctor. You always do.”

But later, when he was alone again, Tom stared up at those five reasons he was so, so screwed. He desperately wanted to be proud of it like Vik said, but the smile on his face made him feel like some sort of demented gargoyle, and the knot in his stomach was made of pure dread.

TOM WASN’T LOOKING forward to General Marsh’s reaction to his disgrace. His stomach plummeted when the summons appeared in his vision center. This meeting would not bode well for him. He was sure Marsh regretted recruiting him, wasting time on him. His legs felt like lead the entire walk up to the twelfth-floor observation deck, where General Marsh waited.

The night air was chilly, and Tom shivered a bit when he stepped out and snapped to attention. Marsh waved for him to be at ease, so Tom settled there, resigned to his fate.

“You wanted to see me, sir?”

Marsh beckoned him forward. “Do you know I have a grandson your age, Mr. Raines?”

Tom hesitated, then joined him by the railing. “I didn’t know that.”

“A little younger than you, but he’s a good kid. Very smart. If he’d been born at a different time, there’s no knowing what he could’ve gone on to be.” Marsh nodded up at the sky. “What do you see up there?”

“Uh, the moon, sir.” In the clear skies around Washington, DC, it looked stark, vivid, and full, and with a proper telescope, Tom was sure Chinese equipment could even be seen.

“Not the moon. That is Russo-Chinese territory and the end of this war.” Marsh jabbed his finger up at the rounded rock. “While we were busy shoveling money hand over fist to Wyndham Harks, gutting our schools and bombing people in deserts for Nobridis, the Chinese were busy training up millions of scientists, building their space program, and claiming the most strategically vital territory in a war we weren’t fighting yet. Whoever holds the moon holds the solar system, Mr. Raines, and whoever holds the solar system holds the future of humanity.”

He waved his stubby finger like he could point out the equipment, the weapons, the armaments.