Part 73 (1/2)

pushed past Top and began checking Finn myself. I saw the burn and pulled Finn's s.h.i.+rt completely open to look at it. Finn tried to stop me, his fingers quick and nervous.

”Finn,” I said, helping him sit up, ”what the h.e.l.l happened?” He shook his head and looked past me at the blood. ”My men,” he whispered. ”Bear . . . Cheech Wizard,” he said slowly, his voice barely a whisper, ”Jazzman.”

I took him by the shoulders and tried to steady him. Gave him just a little shake, maybe put some of his marbles back into their slots. ”Finn, what happened here? Where's your team? Where are your men?”

I almost said what are your men. My pulse was still hammering.

Finn's eyes roved around the town square, from one patch of blood to the other.

”Here,” he said hollowly. ”Joe . . . they were all just here.”

Top and Bunny glanced at me, but I let nothing show.

”What happened out here?” asked Bunny.

But Finn's eyes rolled up in their sockets and he pitched forward into my arms.

I took his weight and, with Bunny's help, carried him out of the big pool of blood and onto to unmarked ground.We propped him up with his back against a rock wall. Top watched and I could tell from the calculating look in his eyes that he was doing the math on all this and wasn't happy with the numbers.

Top gave me a small sideways tic of the head, and I rose and walked a dozen yards away with him.We stood there, surveying the carnage.Top took a pack of gum from his s.h.i.+rt and we each had a piece. He saw my hands trembling as I unwrapped mine.

I tapped my earbud. ”Cowboy to Bug.”

It took five tries to get a static-filled connection. ”Go for Bug.”

”Give me a rundown on thermal and satellite feeds.”

”Satellites are a negative. They went offline ten minutes ago. NASA's working on it.”

”b.a.l.l.s. And the thermals? We getting any signal?”

”We got lots of signals, Cowboy.We got four signatures right now-Echo and Finn.All cl.u.s.tered together.That's cool that you found him. How is he?”

Bug had never been great at the formality of tactical radio chatter.