Page 9 of S.O.S. Mizzay

Cobble wanted to fight it, but after that last burst of adrenaline, his energy level was seriously flagging. Perhaps once he regained some strength he could fight this; convince the MTF that the doctor here was wrong.

“Okay,” Cobble finally agreed. Reluctantly. Anything to get the doctor—with whom Cobble was now seriously annoyed—out of the room.

After a little more poking and prodding, the doctor finally departed, leaving Cobble alone with Andy, once again.

“Listen—” they both said at the same time, then gave wry laughs.

“You first,” Andy deferred to him.

Cobble began, trying not to wear his heart on his sleeve. “LT, this whole thing is shitty. But I don’t want you blaming yourself for what happened. I know that’s how you roll, but from what I can recall, we were in that office for a routine transfer, and got completely blindsided.”

Andy’s face grew hard and she didn’t acknowledge his attempt at releasing her from guilt.

Of course she didn’t.

“What do you remember?” Andy asked instead.

“Not much. Yet,” he allowed. “My memory is foggy and my head isn’t quite clear, but I’m getting bits and pieces of what happened. I should have the whole scenario for you, soon.” Even if it caused him pain, he’d fight for details.

Of course there was always…

“What did HQ find out?” he asked hopefully. “They must have done an investigation.” He sat up straighter in bed, winced, then crossed his fingers that Andy would shed some light on the circumstances he couldn’t yet recall.

Her gentle hands eased him back down as she shook her head.

Her touch set off a whole plethora of feelings, but her expression…A bad sign.

“They determined it was a lone, rebel faction simply acting out and making trouble.” Her face soured as she spit out the words.

“But you don’t believe that.” Even in his weakened state, he could see that she wasn’t buying it.

“No. I don’t. I took pictures, and… It doesn’t add up. Once you’re back on your feet, we can go over my findings and you can tell me, with what you recall, if I’m way off base.”

“But you think…?” he led. He trusted her judgement.

She glowered. “It looks to me like this was a precise and targeted attack.”

Cobble’s mind instantly flew back to that office.

Now he recalled the gunfire. He saw the first person fall. It was a male UN worker who’d been arguing…

Damn. That’s as far as that memory pathway went. But it was more than he had before. Maybe seeing the LT’s pictures would help jog his recollections, or perhaps he’d just regain particulars as he healed.Notreclaiming a full and detailed account wasn’t an option as far as he was concerned.

But then he remembered Andy had indicated that she had something else on her mind when they’d started this conversation. Maybe a change of subject would be good, and help him regroup.

“So, what were you going to say earlier when I interrupted?”

Now a small but genuine smile came to Andy’s face. “You may or may not like this, but I was tasked with making a call to your next of kin. Just in case…” she trailed off.

“In case I kicked it?” Cobble completed, then snorted. “That means you had a conversation with Chuck.”

“Uh, Charles Smalley? Yeah. He’s…?”

“My cousin. I was an only child, and so was he. We grew up next door to each other in Vermont, and even though he’s six years older than me, we acted more like brothers with all the shit we got into.” Cobble laughed. “We gave our parents a lot of gray hairs.” He raised a brow. “What did Chuck have to say?”

“He’s actually on his way here.” She looked at her watch. “He should be arriving at twenty-hundred hours. That’s seven hours from now.”

“Seriously?” Cobble was shocked, but thrilled. Smalley was normally far too busy with his job to get away for even a short visit. It had been almost a year since they’d seen each other and caught up.Damn.Chuck must really have been worried about him to clear his schedule on such short notice. “Did you tell him I was on death’s door?”

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