* * * * *

The only thing that helped Cortin's frustration at being kept out of
the convent defense was saying Mass, and that only helped for the brief
time it was going on. By the time it was over, though, she'd come to
one conclusion: His Majesty had ordered her not to get into the action,
but he hadn't said anything about not going to the Palace
communications center to listen to the tactical radio!

But following the defense that way was less informative than she'd
hoped. She wasn't familiar enough with the terrain to visualize the
deployment, which made movement orders impossible to follow. About all
she could be sure of was that the Royals were winning, even though they
were taking heavier casualties than she liked or had expected. She
couldn't help praying that none of her people were among the dead and
wounded, though she felt a little uncomfortable asking for that sort of
special consideration; if the casualties weren't from her team, they
had others who'd care as strongly about them.

At last it sounded like the fighting must be about over; Bradford was
ordering the prisoners taken to a holding area and calling in the
medevac units. As further transmissions showed things were winding up,
she decided she might as well go back to the Lodge and make one final
check of her preparations before prisoners started arriving. She was
thanking the communications techs for their courtesy when Bradford's
voice again came from the radio. "Palace Com, this is Strike Leader.
Request Azrael be contacted and asked to join us at her earliest
convenience."

"Azrael is on scene, Strike Leader," the tech said. "One moment,
please."

Cortin took the microphone he offered. "Azrael here, Strike Leader.
What's the problem?"

"Prisoner evaluation. We have some here who present unexpected
problems, and I would appreciate your expertise."

"Unexpected problems?" That didn't sound too likely, Cortin
thought--Brad and Dave both had more specialty-time than she did,
though she had to admit that her position had probably given her a
wider variety of cases. Still, likely or not, she wasn't about to
argue with anything that would get her out into the field, however
briefly. "I'll be there as soon as I can find transportation. Azrael
out."

To her surprise, fifteen minutes later she was airborne and well on her
way to the convent. His Majesty had both ground and air transportation
available