rsue a gang of horse thieves
into a still-contaminated area.

The medics were putting her onto a litter, careful to support her back.
As they picked up the litter, her eyes flickered open and she looked in
Odeon's direction. "Mike?"

A gesture stopped the medics. "What is it, Joanie?"

"Don't let 'em kick me out . . . while I can't fight back. I've gotta
. . . get the bastards who did this . . . Mike, promise . . ."

"I promise, Joanie. I'll do everything I can, you know that." He
waved the medics on, looking after them, then turned to his second.
"Find anything useful, Sergeant?"

"Afraid not, sir. They're too damn good at covering up. We won't have
a thing, unless Captain Cortin's able to give us some descriptions."

"All right. Call in a specialist squad from New Denver; they may be
able to find some kind of evidence. Fingerprints, footprints,
identifiable bullets--damn, but I wish we had what the prewars had!"

"Able to identify a culprit from a speck of blood or a hair?" Sergeant
Vincent laughed bitterly. "Hell, if we could do that, we'd have the
Brothers under control in six months."

"Yeah." Odeon tried to hide his frustrtion. "No use playing what-if,
though; we could do that forever. Let's get back to HQ."

Silently, respecting their leader's mood, the Special Operations team
returned to their command van for the copter-lift back to their
Middletown headquarters. It wasn't until they were landing that anyone
spoke. "Captain?"

"What is it, Boris?"

"I spoke with the physician, sir. Captain Cortin will be stabilized at
the local clinic, then sent to New Denver for surgery. You are due for
leave, are you not?"

"Yeah, and I intend to take advantage of it. Two years' worth of
accumulated leave ought to give me time to help her stay in."

* * * * *

Leave arrangements weren't difficult to make. Special Operations teams
tended to stay together, but casualties were high; anyone could be
replaced quickly. By mid-morning the next day Odeon had finished
briefing his temporary replacement, and by noon he'd used his Special
Ops identification to get aboard a plane to New Denver.

He'd only flown twice before, with the exception of command-van
copter-lifts, so he slept lightly when he did sleep, then took
advantage of a rest stop to work the kinks of too much sitting out
before the second leg. Back aboard, he listened to the engines and
tried to doze off ag