Chapter 30 · Names on the Flight List

Cole hit the table with both hands. The map jumped.

"She's there. We know she's there."

I didn't look up from the supply manifest. Three crates of medical gear, two of ammunition, one of—I stopped reading. Cole's knuckles were white against the plywood.

"We don't know anything," I said. "We know Hammer's crew burned your village. We know they took people. We don't know where."

"The kid said—"

"The kid said the cargo drop is tomorrow night. That's it."

Cole straightened. His jacket was still streaked with soot from yesterday's fire. The burn on his neck hadn't been cleaned. He'd been awake all night. I could see it in the way he held his shoulders, the way his jaw locked when he wasn't talking.

"She's eighteen," he said.

I put the manifest down. "I know."

"If they took her to one of the labor sites—"

"Then she's alive. Labor sites need workers. They don't waste them."

His mouth thinned. "You don't know that."

I didn't. But I wasn't going to tell him the other options.