“He got me good right after we came through the bunker door,” Mac said. “The big guy. I didn’t think he saw us coming.”
Prig seemed to notice Cat then and he cried out, a wordless, sad sound, as he dropped by her side and rolled her onto her back. Her face was a mask of blood, her eyes half-lidded and lifeless. As he dragged her into the corner beside Ant, he made a sound like might have been a sob. Hearing such a sound from such a big, strapping guy struck Elna hard, and her vision went blurry.
“Tell me you got them,” Prig said tightly, speaking through clenched teeth. “Spence, Mac, tell me you got every last one of them.”
“The mercenaries are all dead,” Spence said. “The last three are lying out there in the hallway, including the commander. Be careful. The floor is slick and messy. The commander doesn’t have much of a head left.”
“Good,” Prig said, bent over Cat, his hand resting on her belly. “It’s what they deserved.”
“Sorry, sir,” Spence said. “I tried to draw them away from the control room door, but they didn’t take the bait. They weren’t leaving the area for nothing.”
“You did your job, Marines,” Prig said. “So did Archer, Fish, and Cat.”
Just then the console gave a soft beep. Elna saw a line of text appear on the green screen, though she couldn’t read it through the haze. Golf picked himself off the floor, righted his chair, and sat down in front of the console. He typed something on the keyboard, read another line of text, then gave a huge sigh of relief.
“Help is on the way, sir,” he said. “They’re sending a whole company to the island. En route right now.”
“Oh, thank God,” Prig said. “Thank God.”
Elna had reached her limit. She couldn’t even enjoy the victory. The pain and exhaustion had finally pushed her to a breaking point. She flopped down onto the floor on her back, waves and waves of bone-deep weariness washing over her. Folding her hands on her stomach, she stared at the bent panel on the ceiling overhead and struggled to stay awake.
I could sleep for a month, she thought. It’s all I really want right now.
Malin lay down beside her, folding his hands on his stomach just like her.
“Shame about Cat,” he said, softly. “She was a great Marine…a great person.”
Elna couldn’t even bring herself to reply.
33
Elna shook two ibuprofens out of the bottle, popped them in her mouth, and downed them with a cup of water. Though the chairs on the veranda were painted metal, somehow she found sitting in them as comfortable, as familiar, as an old recliner. She leaned back, propping her feet on the bottom railing of the handrail, as she gazed across the parking lot at the familiar trees, the slope down to the western shore.
She would have preferred the couch in the lobby of course. It had always been the most comfortable place to stretch out on a lazy afternoon, especially when dealing with aches and pains. When she glanced over her shoulder and saw the jagged remnants of the lobby windows and the charred walls beyond, she felt a deep sadness. About half of the guesthouse had been damaged in the fire, and the rest of the rooms had absorbed the smoke. Everything reeked of ashes.
“It’s a shame about the house,” Pop said, resting in the chair across from her.
It was just the two of them at the moment. Malin had insisted Elna take a break while the other able-bodied islanders moved their stuff over to the winery. They were going to have to live in there for the time being. An employee break room had been portioned into bedrooms, and there were a couple of small offices as well. They would make it work.
“We’ll rebuild it all somehow,” Elna replied. “It won’t be the same, but since we could’ve lost the entire island, not to mention our lives, I think things turned out okay.”
She heard someone approaching from the direction of the vineyard, and she turned in her seat. Her back and shoulders still hurt like hell, even two days after the battle. If anything, raw pain was gradually giving way to unbearable stiffness. Still, with some effort, she managed to turn and look southward, where she saw Selene and Dr. Ruzka approaching. The doctor had a big backpack hanging from her shoulders, her long blonde hair tied back in a kerchief. Selene had her herb bag, practically overflowing with herbal treatments of one kind or another. They seemed to be deep in conversation, but when they drew near, Selene looked up.
“Well, they don’t need our help any longer,” she said. “There’s like a hundred Marines swarming over the old military base down there. They’ve got equipment, machines, all sorts of stuff. It’s quite an operation.”
“They’ve also got their own medics,” Dr. Ruzka said. “We offered our services, but we were politely declined. I guess we’ll go check on our own people.”
“Sniffy wouldn’t come with me,” Selene noted. “He doesn’t want to go within a hundred yards of those Marines. Poor little guy had his fill of guns and soldiers and explosions. He may never be the same.”
“I’m sure he’ll be fine now that things have settled down,” Elna said. “He just needs a little peace and quiet.”
Dr. Ruzka and Selene walked past the veranda and headed to the winery beyond. Elna took another swig of water. The desalination process was working great. At least their water supply hadn’t been damaged or destroyed in the fighting. After a few minutes, she heard laughter and squealing, and she saw Daniel and Chloe running with Sniffy on the far side of the parking lot.
“When are you supposed to meet with the captain?” Pop asked.
“Prig said they’d head up here when they found a chance to get away,” Elna replied. “I guess they’re digging out, repairing, and reinforcing the
