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“We’ll get them back,” I heard Markus say somberly. “I promise. But the window of opportunity is closing fast, and we’re sitting here fucking around. Murphy, you’re only holding us back now. Diminishing our chances.”

I heard the whine of a helicopter starting up. The slow SWOOP SWOOP SWOOP of chopper blades, throttling gradually up to idle speed.

“Kyle, we have to go NOW.”

I crossed the room barefoot, my feet cold against the bumpy canvas floor. Very quickly I wriggled into my clothes.

“You do everything you can,” I heard Kyle say sternly.

“I will.”

“I’m serious!” he shouted. “This might be our last chance to—”

“I WILL!”

I emerged from the tent just as Dakota was turning away. He and Markus were fully geared up, their bodies bristling with armor and weapons. He paused as he saw me, and our gazes met. Everything passed wordlessly. There was nothing left to say.

“Go.”

He nodded back at me crisply, and somehow he managed a smile. One quick kiss on the cheek later, he was scrambling across the camp. Jumping alongside Markus through the side door of a drab green helicopter, one with sleek, blue-tinged windows and a terrifying-looking, side-mounted gun.

I moved closer to Kyle, and in the chaos I found his hand. I took it, but there was no life in it yet. Even when I squeezed him, he just held it limply at his side.

“They’re going to be okay,” I assured him. “They’re going to be—”

My sentence was cut off by the roar of the helicopter’s engine. Another half-dozen men slipped into the aircraft and the engine whirred, spinning to life. The rotors disappeared in a blur of motion.

Be safe, I thought. Bring them back…

I raised my arm up over my eyes as dust and sand swirled around us. But Kyle still wasn’t moving. He stood there leaning on his one long crutch, staring ahead as the big machine lifted into the sky. We watched it together, side by side. Staring at it until it disappeared into the darkness, while just behind us, the first light of dawn was cracking the sky.

“So this is how it feels for you,” he murmured softly.

“Hmm?”

“When we go away. When we leave you alone.”

I nodded in sudden understanding. “Yes. Sometimes.”

His body shivered against the cold. “I feel so helpless. Almost… useless.”

“You?” I let out a short, nervous laugh. “You’re far from useless, Kyle. Just look at your l

eg. You’ve done everything you can.”

I squeezed his arm reassuringly. When I pulled him back toward the tent again, he didn’t resist.

“It’s time to let them have a shot,” I told him. “Dakota. Ryan, if he’s still out there. Even Markus.”

Kyle’s lip curled slightly at the mere mention of the last name.

“I don’t trust him,” he said sullenly.

“Neither do I,” I told him as we ducked inside. “But right now we don’t have a choice.”

Forty

SAMMARA