Page 89 of Lucky Charm

Day 15

She’d started a shitstorm. Thankfully, no one knew.

The gossip would have escalated to the unbearable.

Not that she was any more in the know about what was happening than the rest of the base, but she knew why.

They were hunting IQS.

Every available special operations unit and the Afghan Army were moving in and out of Kabul and Bagram with a frequency that made stealth impossible. Oh, they’d covered the movement by announcing troop exercises and making good on the announcement, but she knew that wasn’t the whole story.

Injuries were on the uptick. Nothing fatal, yet. Complaints from the cheap seats, however, were an annoyance that stabbed randomly at her composure and escalated her worry for Hunt. She’d seen him last night, yet she couldn’t shake her nerves.

Currently, she stood to the side of the main area writing surgical notes on a patient bound for Germany and listened to a male and female corpsman share their opinions.

The tall, slender new guy who looked about ten years old spoke. “Man, is it always like this around here?”

“Of course, stupid, we’re in a war zone.” The woman with him was an old hand.

“But we are in a drawdown. I thought that meant no shooting. Should we even be doing this right now?”

Cait shook her head. Doing what? These two had no idea. About to say something to them, she dropped back when Colonel Cartwright approached the man and woman. Head nurse with authority on joint-service protocols trumped lowly trauma surgeon.

“Get to work. It’s not our place to be standing around and gossiping about stuff that’s none of our business. We don’t run this war. We clean up after it. Move.”

That Jo continued to Cait rattled her mental balance. Another side effect of the mountain mission.

“Colonel Banner wants to see you in his office.” Jo’s clipped tone grated.

Cait struggled to keep her face neutral. “I’m almost finished with this.”

“Make it snappy.” Giving her no clue as to his topic, the colonel walked away. She wasn’t usually cranky, so she must have gotten an earful from the commander, too.

“Yes, ma’am.” She turned back to her report, quit dawdling over the wording and finished, signing her name with a quick scribble.

Before she could leave, Duncan came to her side. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

“I’ve got to go see the commander first.”

Duncan’s face fell. “I wanted to say I’m sorry. I don’t like this between us. It sucks. You were right. I messed up.”

Cait patted his shoulder and gave him a tentative smile. Little did he know she’d moved past their tiff and hadn’t given it another thought after venting to Hunt. “You’re forgiven. I don’t have the bandwidth to stay mad at you when you are concerned about me. Next time, though, let’s talk like the friends we are, okay?”

“Deal. Come see me after.”

Cait left him and turned in the report to the nurse at the station. She stopped in the locker room, used the facilities, brushed her hair, and scurried to the commander’s office all with the clock ticking in her head.

The door stood open, and the man’s stiff posture didn’t instill confidence. He stared at pictures of his home. She knocked lightly on the open door. “Sir, you wanted to see me.”

“Yes, Captain. Come in and shut the door.”

Cait did as he asked. In front of his desk, she stood respectfully, wishing for her uniform, not her black surgical scrubs. “What can I do for you, sir?”

“I know you drew the short straw with that last mission, and I’m glad to see you recovered.”

“Thank you, sir. Is there a problem?” Had Hunt’s command told the Colonel about the mess? Antsy, she gripped her hand over her other wrist behind her back.

“We have our usual health center rotation coming up. Sorry, I can’t take you out of the lineup for that one.”