“That’s not going to be good enough, Bastian.”
Dog didn’t reply. Samson rubbed his forehead.
There must be some way out of this, he thought. Forget the damage to his career — this was going to make the Air Force look bad. Very, very bad.
“What’s the status of the plane?” snapped Samson.
“I have it under guard.”
“All right. Dismissed.”
“That’s it?”
“Of course that’s not it. But at the moment, Bastian, I don’t want to see your face. And let me make one thing perfectly clear: You have no command. Do you understand? You are not in charge here. You cannot give an order relating to Dreamland, not even for coffee,” he said. “Got me?”
“Loud and clear.”
“Catch the first flight you can back to Dreamland. I’ll deal with you there.”
“Remember what I said about standing up for your people,” said Dog.
“When I want advice from you, I’ll ask for it.”
The Abner Read’s sickbay had some of the most modern medical equipment in the world, crammed into a space that would have made a broom feel crowded. Zen and Breanna occupied exactly fifty percent of the beds.
Zen had cuts all over his body. Acting on the advice of a doctor aboard the
Breanna’s case was more difficult to diagnose. Besides her broken bones, there appeared to be some light internal bleeding in her chest cavity. After consulting with a doctor on the
Breanna was awake when the helicopter arrived. Zen, exhausted, was snoring loudly.
“Don’t wake him,” Breanna whispered to the doctors when they came in to examine her. “He needs to sleep.”
“A good prescription,” said the doctor.
“I’ll see you later, babe,” Breanna told her sleeping husband as her cot was gently lifted. “Pleasant dreams.”
“I hear Samson’s a real prick,” said Jones as they waited in the dark.
“I don’t think it matters whether he’s nice to us or not,” said Liu. “The facts are the facts.”
“I wish I could be as calm as you,” said Blow. He rubbed his hands together; the night had turned chilly. “Look at these arrangements — we gotta fly halfway around the world, land in Germany, catch a plane to D.C., then over to who knows where before we go home.”
“’Cause he’s keeping us away from the Navy,” said Jones. “That might be a good sign.”
“It’s not going to be bad,” said Liu calmly.
“Man, I can still see that baby.” Jones pounded his eyes with his fist. “I can’t stand it.”
“It’ll be OK,” said Liu. He touched the other man’s back. “The baby’s in heaven.”
No one said anything else until Blow pointed out the Osprey in the sky, its searchlight shining through the darkness.
“That’s ours,” said the sergeant. “Coming for us.”
He was in the air, tumbling and falling. Breanna was there too, but just out of reach. He kept trying to get her, though, throwing his hands out, grabbing for her.
Then suddenly she stopped. He continued to fall, plummeting toward the sea.
“Breanna,” he called. “Bree. Bree.”
The water felt like cement as he hit. His legs were crushed beneath him.
“Breanna!” Zen cried, and he woke in the sickbay.
He knew where he was, knew they were OK, but whatever part of his consciousness controlled his emotions was stuck back in the frightful dream. When he finally caught his breath, he turned and looked for Breanna.
The cot was empty.
“Bree!” he shouted.
He pushed to get up, but couldn’t. There were straps across his chest.
“Major Stockard, what’s wrong, what’s wrong?” said a corpsman, running in.
“My wife. Where is she?”
“She’s OK, sir. They’ve taken her to the
“Why?”
“The aircraft carrier, Major. It has better facilities. She’s fine, believe me. They’ve got great doctors. We just want to make sure there’s no bleeding. If there is any, if by any chance they needed to operate, they have the facilities.”
“Why the hell didn’t you wake me up?”
“She said not to.”
Zen dropped his head back on the bed. His whole body felt cold, and bruised.
“Can you undo me?” he asked the man.
“Don’t want you falling out of bed, sir.”
“Just undo me. I’m not going for a walk.”
“Yes, sir.”
Zen pulled his hands free but couldn’t reach the strap over his chest. As soon as he was able, he pushed himself into a sitting position.
“You know what the weird thing is, sailor,” he said as he sat up.
“You can call me Terry, sir.”
“I’m Zen.”
The sailor smiled, and pushed a pillow behind his patient’s back.
“The weird thing is that I could swear I actually feel pain in my legs.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I haven’t walked in a couple of years. I don’t feel anything.”
“Doctor said it’s like a normal thing. Phantom pain.”
“Yeah. But I haven’t felt it in years. Sure feels real.”
Zen stared at his legs, then did something he hadn’t done in a long, long time — he tried to make them move.
They wouldn’t. But they did hurt. They definitely did hurt.
“Yeah. Weird thing, the body,” said Zen. “Real weird.”
“Ms. Gleason is sleeping,” said the nurse on duty in the
“How is her knee?”
“The primary problem is her kneecap, or the patella. They’ll have to replace it. But there’s a lot of work with prostheses over the last ten or twenty years. She’ll definitely walk again, after rehab.”
“Will she run?”
“Did she run before?”
