Part 73 (2/2)

”Alive, minimal injuries but disoriented. Unable to debrief at this time. What about Rattlesnake?”

”Their signals are weird, Cowboy. One minute they're here, the next they're not. Then they're up in the mountains, then somewhere else.The telemetry is totally fritzed.”

”Okay. We're returning to the LZ. I need exfil for four now and then air surveillance. Screw the satellites, get me some helos.”

There was a squawk of static and we lost the signal again.

”s.h.i.+t,” I said, and picked up a rock to throw it as hard as I could. I stopped midthrow, weighed it in my hand, and dropped it.

Then I gave the order to make a stretcher and carry Finn back to the ancient town built into the mountain, back where his team had gone missing. There were enough slats from the unburned stake-bed pickup, and we used the jackets of dead men for a sling.Top and Bunny carried while I walked point.

”Why not wait here?” asked Bunny, and Top nodded.

Fair question.

”Because this s.h.i.+t started back by that small cave,” I said. ”I want to figure it out in some kind of order.”

As explanations go, it was lame as h.e.l.l; but they were sergeants and I was a captain and this wasn't a democracy. The truth . . . ? This place spooked me more than I could express. Those faces with the burning eyes had been too real, but I didn't want to talk about it with them. I've had some psych issues in the past, and I'm pretty sure my guys know about it. This was not the time to shake their confidence in me.

When we were back at the abandoned town, we placed Finn in the shade of pair of withered trees. He was still unconscious.

”I'm going to walk the scene,” I said to Top.

He glanced around, not liking it. ”This is a weird place, Cap'n.”

He left it there in case I wanted to say something. I didn't.

”Call me when Finn's awake.”

I stepped back from them, moving to the edge of the town square so I could see the whole thing. I used to be a pretty good homicide cop back in West Baltimore.A lot of what I know about working a crime scene comes from three reliable sources. The first was my dad, who was a cop before me, and he'd worked his way up from the street to a gold s.h.i.+eld to commissioner before finally jumping s.h.i.+p to run for mayor. None of his promotions were purely political. He'd been a cop's cop-he'd done his time and closed a big share of his cases. He taught me a lot.

The second source was my own time on the job. Baltimore has a lot of crime and never enough cops, so the guys on the job have to do the job.

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