Page 98 of Casualties of War
Chapter Twenty-One
Donaldson held out a mug of the detestable stone stew for her as Parris dropped her pack at the head of the circle and sat on it. She nodded her thanks and glanced around the circle. Everyone was eating. No one shot her sideways, speculative glances. Adán sat on the edge of the circle, eating a portion of the stew. Even he did not let his gaze linger upon her.
It was a perfectlynormal moment, only it felt different.
She cleared her throat. “I need to read you in on the next phase of our orders.”
Everyone looked up, then. She had their attention.
“You eat, I’ll talk,” she said.
They returned their attention to their mugs.
“There is a radioactive device hidden somewhere near this location. How it got here, why it is here, isn’t something you need to know. We’ve beentasked to find the thing. Ramirez, Donaldson, the scanners you were given at Los Alamitos also work as Geiger counters. You’ll quarter the area. Lieutenant Locke gets a break for five hours, so he’ll stay here and coordinate if necessary. Everyone else will split into pairs and use eyeballs.”
“Can I ask, sir, what the device’s core is?” Odesky asked. “It would be useful to know from a medicalpoint of view. I was handed a package of potassium iodide as we lifted.”
Parris nodded. “Cobalt 60.”
“Medical grade?” he asked, his tone sharp.
“Yes.”
Odesky flexed his jaw and scratched it. “Nasty stuff.”
Everyone else looked nervous. They were among the toughest men on the planet, only the idea of getting close to radioactive materials tended to undermine anyone’s courage.
Parris grippedher hands together. “Okay, eyes on me,” she said, her voice firm.
They turned their heads obediently.
“I didn’t tell you this. You hear?”
Nods.
“The Insurrectos plan to use the cobalt to build a dirty bomb they have threatened to detonate in one of the larger American cities.”
Silence.
Bernstein grimaced. He was from New York.
“We find this stuff and we take it from the Insurrectos if weneed to, so our families and kids and wives all stay safe. No one’s folks get to live through losing their hair and having their teeth fall out and their skin flake away.” She paused. “If you feel the need, talk to Odesky and get a prophylactic dose of the potassium. Know that we’ll all be treated when we get back home, though.”
A few of them shifted uneasily. Most kept their gaze on her.
Parrissmiled at them. “Hey, this is why we signed up, right? To save the world and conquer the women.”
“And men,” Rockman added, which earned him a friendly punch in the arm. His homosexuality had stopped being an issue after he had saved asses and bled for the unit.
“We move out in fifteen.” Parris got to her feet and hefted the mug. “I think this is the worst batch yet.”
The laughter was as freeand easy as always and she relaxed—as much as she ever relaxed while on active status. She put on her armor and checked her rifle and other weapons. The small, last minute gear-up processes helped her reach the mindset she needed to do her work.
Therefore, it wasn’t until she was ready to go that she noticed no one was speaking to Adán, not even the polite directions they had been giving himto keep him in line and out of the way.
Parris cast her mind back over the last twenty minutes, her heart sinking.
No one had evenlookedat Adán since the three of them had returned from the far end of the gulley.
