“MOUSE,” MAHLIA WHISPERED.
She cradled him in her arms. He seemed small. He’d always been small. But now, broken and torn, he was tiny. And pale. Much paler…
Blood loss, some part of her doctor’s mind told her. He was losing all his blood. She kept running through procedures that might help, trying to find some solution to the pool of ruby that spread all around them, slick and sticky.
Direct pressure, surgery. Plasma. IVs that she didn’t have. Painkillers. Raise the legs. Treat for shock. Airway, breathing, circulation. Stabilize. Operate.
All of it useless. She didn’t have the tools. All of Doctor Mahfouz’s teachings were useless.
Mouse reached up and touched her face. “How come I always got to do the rescuing around here?” he whispered.
Mahlia clutched him to her. “I’m so sorry.” Tears ran down her cheeks. “I’m so, so sorry.”
Mouse tried to talk. Coughed. “Can’t believe you followed me.”
“I had to.”
“No.” He shook his head, smiling tiredly. “That’s how I do.” He trailed his fingers through her tears, pushed at her chin, joking like he always had. “You’re supposed to be the smart one.” He coughed again, and blood stained his lips. He grunted in pain. “Should’ve listened to you, huh?”
A shell came down, shaking the building.
“I’m going to get you out,” Mahlia said.
“If you knew what I done, you wouldn’t say that.”
“I don’t care what you done. I’m getting you out of here.” She tried to rise, but Mouse reached up and pulled her close, surprisingly strong. Holding on to her like a vise as he stared into her eyes.
“You got to get out,” he whispered fiercely. “Get out and don’t ever come back.” His expression was fiercer than she’d ever seen. “You got to promise me not to die,” he said, and then he smiled at her, and his breath went out, leaving Mahlia clutching an empty body.
Tool crouched down beside her. “It’s time to leave. Long past time.”
Mahlia didn’t look up. She just held Mouse. “He’s dead.”
The half-man was silent for a moment. “I lost all of my pack as well. Remember him. Tell his story.”
“That’s not much.”
“It’s nothing. It’s what we have.”
The soldier sergeant, the one called Ocho, limped over. Mahlia could feel him looking down on her. “Get up, girl. You don’t get up, you die.”
“What do you care?” she said. “You’re the one who was trying to kill me.”
The soldier gave an exasperated sigh. “And now I’m the one that’s trying to save your maggot ass.”
The building rocked with another explosion. More followed. The ceiling rattled as shells crashed down in quick succession. Ocho and Tool looked up at the ceiling.
“Damn,” Ocho said. “That’s starting to sound serious.”
“The Army of God will be preparing an assault,” Tool said.
Ocho laughed at that, his expression grim as he scanned the command center. “They don’t need to bother. It looks like you just about killed every single one of the command staff. They can roll in anytime and we won’t know what hit us.”
Tool growled agreement. “The UPF is headless. I left no commanding officers.”
Another artillery round hammered into the building. Masonry fell from the ceiling.
“I got to get to my boys,” Ocho said suddenly. “They’re dead if they don’t got someone to tell them what to do.”
“Indeed,” Tool rumbled. Mahlia was surprised to see the half-man hold out a huge hand to Ocho. “Thank you,” he said.
Ocho looked at the half-man with an expression of shock on his face. For a second, Mahlia thought he was going to flinch away. But then he took the offered hand, his own smaller one disappearing in Tool’s grip.
The sergeant looked down at Mouse, then at Mahlia again. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save him,” he said. “I tried. If I’d known what they were going to—” He broke off, took a ragged breath. “Anyway, I’m sorry.” He turned and limped toward the door.
Mahlia watched the sergeant go. He was just a kid. They were all just kids. All of them waving guns and killing one another, while a bunch of men who claimed they were older and wiser pushed them around. Maggots like Lieutenant Sayle and Colonel Stern and General Sachs.
He was just some kid who’d been in the wrong place at the wrong time. A kid who turned out to be useful to men who didn’t give a damn about him, except to make sure he did what he was told. Just like Mouse.
“Hey!” she called to him. “Soldier boy!”
Ocho turned. “Yeah?”
An idea was forming in her mind. A gamble. A big one. It wasn’t the way she’d imagined it, but she thought it could work. She could make it work. She just needed to believe, and reach out to this soldier boy.
“You want to get out?” she asked. “Get out for good?”
She held her breath, praying that she wasn’t just some civvy to him. That he didn’t see her as a peacekeeper castoff or a traitor, any more than she saw him as a soldier. They were just two people, victims of something bigger than either of them. There weren’t any sides, and there weren’t any enemies.
She just needed to make him believe it, too.
“Out of here?” The sergeant smiled. “No way any of us is getting out. There’s nowhere to go, and no one to take us. Blockades all around. AOG gunning for the triple hash.” He touched his cheek. “There’s no way out, not for any of us.”
“Scavenge companies go in and out,” Mahlia said.
“We ain’t scavenge.”
“What if I know where we could get some?” she said. “Rich stuff. Can you get us to the blood buyers? Can you get us and some scavenge to the docks?”
“That treasure room of yours?” Ocho hesitated, then said, “I can’t leave my boys.”
Mahlia almost gave up on the idea. The thought of all of Ocho’s other troops scared the hell out of her. She swallowed. She was gambling, again. Gambling big.
“Can you lead them?” Mahlia asked. “Can you get them to follow you? To follow me? Can you give us protection?”
Tool looked at her with sudden surprise and respect as he figured out what she was planning. Another rumble of artillery rocked the building. Ocho looked up at the cracking ceiling, then at Mahlia.
“They’ll follow me,” he said. “If they’re still there, they’ll follow.”
Mahlia’s heart was beating faster. She was going to do it. For real. She was getting out. She hugged Mouse close, one last time, and let him go.