for. What else?
She had broken ribs. Tell me something I don’t know, Promise thought as she probed her side. They were wrapped tightly and she didn’t feel much like breathing, and the beep beep beep was still harassing her.
“Please, shut that off before I get up and do it myself.” She heard movement, and then silence.
She had a lacerated kidney. Fine, I’ll piss red until I don’t.
Her left wrist was broken in three spots and she was missing her … “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Promise said aloud. She raised her right hand and saw double for a moment. Saw the bandage and more fingers than she actually had on one hand. When it all came into focus she felt like punching someone in the jaw. Her middle finger was MIA, nothing but a stub, and her brain was telling her it was still there. She even swore she could feel them bend around a phantom trigger, but where flesh and bone had been before she’d fallen unconscious there was only recycled air now. If the driver of the Clydesdale isn’t dead already I’m going to kill him myself.
“Just noticed that, huh.” Captain Yates drew up beside Promise’s bed. “Promise, you are one crazy jane and a glutton for punishment.” Yates turned toward the monitor and pursed her lips. “How are you feeling?”
“Fine,” Promise said. “Well, I’ll be fine.” She didn’t know how to take the crazy jane comment. What is that supposed to mean? The captain couldn’t possibly know she heard voices in her head, or that she talked to her dead mother on a semiregular basis. Could she? Promise wondered. Then Yates’s stern façade cracked.
“Lighten up, Lieutenant. That was a joke. Maybe the doc needs to do another scan of your jelly.”
Promise forced a smile. “I’m just glad to be alive.”
“You and the lance corporal probably saved the pilot and copilot’s life by going out there in exosuits. Probably saved the LAC too. You did good work on Kathy’s arm. Otherwise, she would have bled out.” Yates’s eyes grew as wide as saucers. “I can’t believe you actually fought a couple of Clydesdales in exosuits. Exosuits. God knows what might have happened if those metal behemoths had intercepted Second Platoon after the colonel ordered them to secure the LAC. Something tells me they wouldn’t have fared nearly as well as you did. Why is that?”
“Ma’am?”
“Some Marines have a knack for the improbable.” Yates pulled up a chair and sat down. “When I heard you’d fought in an exo I shook my head. ‘Sounds like Lieutenant Paen’ is what I actually said. Then I replayed what happened. I watched the vids. The LAC’s pickups captured most of the exchange, and your helmet got a decent shot of it too.” Yates gave her a skewed look. “At one point, you were shooting with your off hand. Did you realize that?”
“About the helmet, ma’am. I was just—”
“Violating orders. I know. You were told to leave your armor behind.”
“Technically, I did. Ma’am.”
“Promise, I’ve already endorsed your actions. So has the colonel, by the way. Where’d you learn to shoot like that?”
“I’m sorry, ma’am. Come again?”
“Really, Lieutenant. The fake modesty is getting old. When you took the merc’s pulse pistol from him, um, after you shot him with it, it was in your left hand. Then you fired at his partner with your off hand and as near as I can tell from the vid you didn’t have time to aim.”
“Ah…”
Yates cocked her head. “That was a compliment. I’ve tried to improve my off hand for years. I qualify with my left … barely. That was some nice shooting, Lieutenant. Not as nice as the lance corporal’s. Prichart used your senior to hit the one chink in the woman’s armor.”
“Ah…”
“A ‘Thank you, ma’am’ will do. Do you always carry your senior into battle?”
“Right. Ah…”
“You’re impossible. You know that?” Yates sat back and crossed her arms. “I’ve nominated you and Kathy for the Silver Star. I was filling out the screenwork for the Medal of Honor, for you, but the colonel reminded me that you are persona non grata with some powerful people in the Congress. We don’t want to paint too large a bull’s-eye on your back. I told the colonel you’d already taken care of that. Still, he has a point. Sorry.” Yates’s eyes were seas of emotion. Equal parts humor and mist. Yates turned away and cleared her throat.
“Ma’am, I already have a Silver Star,” Promise said.
Yates nearly choked on