Part 80 (2/2)

Another shrug.

”Excuse me,” said Top, ”you may be top-kick of that team, Finn, but I'm still a first sergeant and you're a master sergeant and I asked you a question.Where are the bodies of your team?”

Finn closed his eyes. ”Gone,” he said again, but then he added, ”They've been taken.”

”Taken by who?” demanded Bunny.

”I-don't know,” said Finn. I had the weird impression that he was hiding something but not actually lying to us. When I made eye contact with Top, I could see that he was in the same place as me.

I placed my hand on Finn's shoulder and gave him a rea.s.suring squeeze. ”Listen, brother, you've been out here for ten days and it's pretty clear you've been through some s.h.i.+t.”

”I've been through h.e.l.l,” he said without looking at me.

”If we're going to help you, then we need to know everything that happened.”

Finn shook his head. ”It's too late for that, Joe.”

”What do you mean?”

”Telling you won't make it better. My guys are lost.” ”Maybe not,” I said, putting some edge into it.

He gave me a pitying look like I was a nave idiot who didn't have a clue about how the world worked.

”I . . . ,” he began, then stopped and swallowed. He brushed a tear from his eye. ”Joe, I don't know why I'm even here. I should be dead, not them. I thought that was how it was supposed to work. Me, not them. It wasn't their fault.”

”What wasn't their fault?” I asked gently.

”That they . . . that they were lost.”

I noticed that he kept avoiding the word ”died” or ”killed.” He called it ”lost.” He said they were gone.

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