Page 52 of Attraction

“He’s your casualty, Lieutenant, you decide. As I said, all you’ve got to do is get him to exfil—it’s your problem to work out the how.” Darius smiles, smug and so sure of himself, as he turns his attention back to Digby who’s still laid on the ground rubbing his leg and nursing a bruised ego. “I guess I don’t need to explain this to you. You remember how it works. You know to play dead. Oh, and I’m warning you—you help her, you walk, and that’s it… she’s gone from this team—are we clear?”

“Yeah, we’re clear, I get it…Shit.” Digby sighs loudly as he lifts his head, staring at Kat who’s still confused about what she’s expected to do.

“Chopper will be here for exfil at first light.” Darius checks the time on his watch and smiles. “If you’re not there withyourcasualty then you both get left behind, it’s as simple as that.”

“Wait, so whatexactlydo you want me to do?” her frown deepens in lines across her sweaty brow. “If I heard you right, you just told him he can’t walk, so then how the hell are we supposed to get there?”

“Oh, you’ll figure it out, I’m sure. I mean, you covered casualty-evac in training, right?Never leave a man behindand all that.” He smiles, he couldn’t be any more annoyingly smug if he tried. “Oh, and Digby I hope you’re looking forward to that longwalk back?”

“Oh, you asshole, you’re fuckin’ lovin’ this!” he hisses through his clenched teeth. Then, picking up one of the larger rocks laid by his feet, he throws it as hard as he can in Darius’s direction— “Ah fuck!…” He sighs, but with his leg still dead he falls backward into the sand and closes his eyes.

Kat watches in shock as Darius sprints away.

“This is impossible.” She sighs.

“No, not impossible, but that’s not the point, the point is you’re notmeantto get us there—well, that’s what he’s hopin’.”

“Wait, not impossible? Then how?” She frowns. “How would you do it?”

“Carry you.” He smiles, laughing at the way she quizzically cocks her eyebrow. “Well, you asked, and that’s how I’d do it—that’s howhe’ddo it too.”

“What? You can’t be serious? Have you seen how far it is? I can’t carry you that distance, no fuckin’ way. Shit.” She rubs her head looking again at how far they have to go.

“Well if you can’t,” he says, “then we need to turn around and walk back.”

“Walk back? Are you fuckin’ kidding me?” She drops to the ground next to him, looking back at the fifteen miles of desert scrub from where they’ve just come. “Fuck!” She sighs with a growing disquiet of anger building inside. “You know did this. You and your stupid fuckin’joke! You pissed him off, and you made him do this.”

“What? No! No, I didn’t do this. Okay, granted, maybe he did it a little further out than I anticipated he would, but Kat, he had this planned—this is his test. This is what he does and to be honest, I’m a little pissed off because it should’ve been Bud sat here instead of me.”

“Bud? Why the hell would it have been Bud?”

“Because Darius always chooses the heaviest of us, so you kinda got a bonus with it bein’ me. I mean, if you’re lookin’ for a positive angle to spin on this.” He grins.

“Oh yeah, yeah… I’m thrilled, can’t you tell?” She sighs. “And that theory would begreat, except for one tiny detail—Bud’s not the heaviest.” She frowns, shaking her head. “You are.”

“What? Wait, no way. There is no way I can be heavier than Bud. Have you seen that man? I mean, you’ve seen how much he eats, he’s like a human trash can.”

“Digby that coming from you… it’s not even funny, but no, seriously, you’re five pounds heavier than him.” Her lip curls and despite their situation, she smiles. It’s funny because she can see how annoyed it makes him.

“What the fuck… since when?”

“I guess since I weighed you all. I told you those records were out of date. You are definitely heavier.”

“Hell! Well, I’ve gotta deal with that shit when we get back, though you know…” He grins playfully. “It might just be because my ‘assets’are bigger?” He smiles, grabbing his groin.

She frowns, ignoring him, and takes a deep breath. “Oh, damn…You know, after those helos, I really thought I had this licked. But now he’s just snatched it away at the end.” Her head drops between her knees and deflated, she sips some more water. Hot and exhausted, she takes a breath. “Guess he wins, and he got what he wanted—me gone from the team.”

“Not necessarily, not if you don’t let him. You could show him you can do it and that would wipe that smug grin off his face. But it’s up to you now. Do you wanna take a shot at this team? Or do you wanna call it a day? You know what you need to do, but you’re going to have to useLuna.You’ll need to channel her strength; I mean, if you really wanna do this.”

“I told you, I want to do this myself.Sheis not part of my life.”

“Fine … then he wins, and we should head back—no point in sittin’ here waitin’. It’s not like he’s gonna change his mind and come back for us.”

“What?…” She frowns. “Wait, just hold on. You want me to quit, just like that?”

“Well yeah, just like that. I’m hungry and there’s no point us stayin’ here if you’re not gonna do this—for one, it’s wasting daylight.”

“Hold up. I didn’t say Iwasn’tgoing to do it just… just give me a minute. I need to think.” She takes a breath, looking at how far they came and how far they have to go to the ridge.

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