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Cole was already moving before I could stop him.
I grabbed his sleeve and yanked him back down behind the concrete barrier. He hit the dirt hard, breath punching out of him. The rest of the crew froze.
"What the hell are you doing?" I kept my voice low, but I wanted to scream it.
He twisted in my grip, eyes wide and wet. "That's my village. That smoke—"
"I know."
"Then we have to—"
"We have to stay alive." I shoved him flat and scanned the ridge ahead. Nothing moved yet, but that didn't mean anything. Hammer's people were out here. They'd been tracking us since we crossed the rail line, and Cole just gave them a reason to close in.
Leah crawled up beside me, med kit strapped across her back. "Evie. He's not wrong. If there are survivors—"
"There won't be." I didn't look at her. "You saw the smoke. That wasn't a campfire."
Cole made a sound like something broke inside him. I ignored it. I had to.
The ridge was maybe two hundred yards out. Scrub grass, a few burned-out cars, and a water tower that hadn't held water in years. Good cover for a spotter. I counted three likely positions. If I were setting an ambush, I'd put someone up there with a radio and let the rest of the squad flank from the gully to the east.
Which meant we had maybe five minutes before this turned into a shooting gallery.
"Rivas." I didn't raise my voice. "Look at me."
He didn't move.
"Cole."
That got him. He turned his head, and I saw it all over his face. Grief. Rage. The kind of stupid hope that gets people killed.
"Your village is gone," I said. "You go running toward that smoke, you'll be gone too. Then Leah dies trying to pull you out, and I die trying to pull her out, and the rest of them die because nobody's covering the approach. You want that?"
His jaw worked. "No."
"Then stay down and do your job."
I moved before he could argue. Slid along the barrier, rifle up, and glassed the ridge. The sun was low enough to throw long shadows, and the wind carried dust and the smell of burning wood. I counted heartbeats and scanned each position twice.
There.
Third position. Water tower. Something moved behind the railing, just a flicker of fabric catching the light. I tracked it and waited.
Leah crawled up on my left. "You see something?"
"Spotter. Water tower. He's got a radio."
"How do you know?"
"Because if I were him, that's where I'd be."
She didn't argue. That was one thing I liked about Leah. She knew when to shut up and trust the person with the gun.
Cole was still breathing too loud behind me. I could hear it even over the wind. The kid was about to crack, and I didn't have time to put him back together.
"Rivas." I didn't look back. "You know how to shoot?"
"I—yeah."
"You ever kill anyone?"
Silence.
"That's a no." I lowered the rifle and turned just enough to see him. He was still flat on his stomach, fingers digging into the dirt like he could hold onto something solid. "Get up here."
He hesitated.
"Now."
He crawled forward. His hands were shaking. I passed him the rifle.
"What are you—"
"Water tower. Third position. There's a man up there with a radio. If he calls in our position, we're dead. You understand?"
Cole stared at the rifle like it might bite him.
"Do you understand?"
"Yes."
"Good." I moved behind him and adjusted his grip. His skin was cold. "Breathe. Find him in the scope. When you're ready, you take the shot."
"I can't—"
"You can." My voice came out flat. "You wanted revenge. This is what it looks like. You don't get to run toward the smoke and feel better. You sit here, you do the work, and you live with it after."
He was crying. I could hear it in his breathing. But he brought the rifle up and pressed his cheek against the stock.
Leah grabbed my arm. "Evie. He's eighteen."
"Old enough to carry a gun." I pulled free and kept my eyes on the ridge. "Old enough to watch his village burn. Old enough to follow me out here. He takes the shot or he goes home."
"There's no home left."
"Exactly."
Cole's breath evened out. I watched his finger slide onto the trigger. The wind died. For a second, everything went quiet.
The shot cracked across the valley.
The figure at the water tower jerked and dropped. I didn't wait to see if he was dead. I grabbed the rifle back and scanned the gully.
Movement. Three—no, four—figures breaking cover and running toward us. They'd heard the shot and now they knew where we were.
"Contact east!" I brought the rifle up and fired twice. One of them went down. The others scattered. "Leah, get everyone moving. Back the way we came. Stay low and don't stop."
She was already pulling people up and shoving them toward cover. Cole just sat there, staring at his hands.
I grabbed his collar and dragged him to his feet. "Move."
"I killed him."
"Yeah. Congratulations. Now move before his friends kill you."
I shoved him after Leah and laid down cover fire. The crew was already running, bent low, rifles up. They weren't soldiers, but they knew how to follow orders when bullets started flying. That was something.
I counted to three and ran.
We made it maybe fifty yards before I heard the radio.
It wasn't ours. It was lying in the dirt near the barrier, half-buried under a strip of torn fabric. One of the crew must've grabbed it off a body back at the rail yard and forgot to mention it. I scooped it up without breaking stride and stuffed it into my jacket.
Static crackled. Then a voice. Low, calm, and way too sure of itself.
"All units. New objective. Take the woman alive. Repeat, alive. She's carrying Iron Gate's lifeline, and we need to know where the rest of it is."
I stopped running.
Leah looked back and shouted something, but I didn't hear it. I was too busy staring at the radio in my hand.
They knew.
They knew I had the supply drop manifest. They knew I was the one calling shots. They knew I was the thread holding this crew together, and if they pulled me out, the whole thing unraveled.
Hammer wasn't just trying to kill us.
He was trying to take me.
"Evie!" Leah's voice cut through. "Come on!"
I looked up. The crew was disappearing into the rocks ahead. Cole was still visible, stumbling, his rifle hanging loose in one hand.
Behind me, voices shouted. Boots hit dirt. They were coming fast.
I turned the radio over in my hand. Hammer's voice came through again, soft and easy, like he was talking to someone he knew.
"Don't make this hard, Cross. You're worth more to me alive. Your people? Not so much."
I dropped the radio and ran.