‘There was no point risking both of us. I needed fluid, direct access. You, as the observer, didn’t need the same level of connectivity.’ Eloise shrugged.
Toscano looked from Eloise to Larsen and back a couple of times before she couldn’t hold it anymore. She laughed. A full-on belly laugh that shook her freshly recovered insides, and it felt damn good. The disparity between the glower on Larsen’s face and the half-teasing, half-challenging mocking stubbornness on Eloise’s was hilarious.
‘Not helping.’ Larsen was glowering at her now.
‘I’m sorry, sir.’ Toscano laughed even more. It was really good to laugh. She hadn’t expected to ever do it again. ‘Well done, Ms Moretti. I admire the practicality of saving time by not informing the colonel up front of your intentions.’
‘Enough!’ Larsen snapped, but the corners of his lips quivered suspiciously. ‘But yes, it looks like Eloise learnt a few inappropriate things from you, Aisha.’
‘I would apologise, sir, but—’
‘I won’t,’ Eloise interrupted with stubborn finality. It was logical, what I did, dammit. And she was sick of Larsen telling her how reckless that had been. He had gone on and on, and Eloise had got bored listening to him, which of course had irritated him even more.
‘Ms Moretti, you’re lucky that it wasn’t something more permanent. We lost enough people as it is.’
‘No one else made it?’ Toscano asked, laughter instantly forgotten. She gave herself a mental kick for focusing so much on Wagner that she’d forgotten the bigger picture. ‘Captain Palmeiro? Sergeant Kizenberg?’ Her memories prior to her injuries seemed scattered. She’d seen Palmeiro getting hit, but couldn’t remember the severity of his injuries. There was also a memory of something happening to Sergeant Kizenberg, but it was all a blur.
‘We found no reference to either of them on Olympus’ system. The video of the explosion shows that Sergeant Kizenberg’s body was tossed against a wall at a speed of over two hundred and fifty kilometres per hour and pummelled with pieces of metal and nano-reinforced concrete—there wasn’t anything left. Captain Palmeiro took a direct hit to his head. His helmet shattered.’
‘Damn,’ Toscano whispered into the awkward silence. The memories were coming back now, and frankly, she could have done without them. So many things she would never be able to tell Federico Palmeiro. They went into Olympus expecting to pick up their banter and bickering afterwards. All gone.
And Kizenberg—she had survived so many near misses, it had seemed like nothing could bring her down.
‘And we lost Raymond as well.’
‘How?’ The croaked whisper had nothing to do with her recent coma.
‘He sacrificed himself. They had four civilian medium-range aircraft, Destra class, after us, all equipped with military-grade laser armaments. We took two down. Phantom was damaged. He was able to dupe the enemy into following him.’
Too late, Toscano tried not to look at Eloise. Their eyes met briefly before the Elite woman looked away. But even that brief contact was enough to see the pain in Eloise’s eyes. Her hands forming fists and the unnatural stiffness in her body were clear confirmation. The Elite woman had no understanding of her own feelings, but that didn’t make them any less painful.
And then there were Toscano’s own feelings. They hurt like a bitch.
‘You would have been proud of him,’ Larsen continued. ‘The way he handled his Stealthy and took one of the enemy aircraft out and lived through it to save us. He learnt that trick from one Molina Ortega.’
Toscano smiled without humour. ‘Thank you, sir. Thank you for telling me that. Will we ever be able to recover the body?’
‘I’ll do my best. We don’t know exactly where he crashed. The Hippo is gone, and until we recover the recordings from her, we won’t find any definite answers. Both the Hippo and Phantom crashed too far from Elite settlements for any satellite coverage. I can pinpoint the Hippo’s last location down to a twenty-kilometre radius and I have two teams flying search patterns, but with so many fires to put out, they only set off a few hours ago.
‘We will find where Phantom crashed. The craft will probably be picked clean of anything of value, but they should leave the body untouched. We’re prepared for a full ground search if necessary.
‘Either way, body or no body, there will be a full military service. For Lieutenant Rivas, as well as Captain Palmeiro and Sergeant Kizenberg.’
‘Of course.’ Toscano nodded. And for Megan, although you don’t know that yet…
Damn, how is it that I’m still alive after all that’s happened, while Raymond’s body is possibly being desecrated by a horde of angry, betrayed Leeches as we speak?
‘What about the Leeches?’ Toscano asked, going off on a tangent and deliberately looking to change topic, not only of the conversation but also of her own thoughts.
‘Most of them are still in for observation. Minor injuries, dehydration and nutritional deficiencies in most cases, along with heavy nano-hell sensitivities, addiction and toxicity. Mental trauma all around. A few dozen cases of severe abuse and physical trauma will take quite a while longer to heal. Two didn’t make it.’
‘Three,’ Eloise corrected. ‘A young man, seventeen years old, died just an hour ago. His body shut down despite the best nano-drugs.’
‘Damn.’ Toscano winced. The side effects of drugtox were already playing havoc with her. It was hard to absorb the news with any type of professional distance. Part of her was instantly blaming herself for not acting faster and saving them all. Another part wished she had died with them. And yet another—
‘You did good.’ Larsen squeezed her hand again. He recognised that scattered look and the tightening of her shoulders for what they were. There wasn’t much he could do until her body recovered from the drugtox, but genuine reassurance was likely to help some. ‘You did better than good.’
‘I couldn’t save her.’ A lonely tear
