allow himself to be distracted until Joel had been strapped onto the tool cart and was rolling away as fast as athletic volunteers thought was within the controllable-vehicle range.
Leo turned to gaze at the cargo bay, to see if he'd really seen what he thought he'd seen. Sure enough, there was an oversized buggy, smelling like it had just had a hard run. There was Anthony, looking sound (if you discounted puffy, red-rimmed eyes), plus Trevin and Renzo, plus a young man he'd never seen before. And there were flowers. Heaps and heaps of fresh flowers.
"Leo, I need to talk to the lieutenant first. I could be a while. If you want to go to sick bay, I'll check there after I'm done with Ott," Harvey said.
Leo shook his head. "I need to do post-flight checks," he said.
"We'll get it, boss," some of the men said.
"Or, we'll leave it for you, if you can't stand letting the rest of us work," one man volunteered.
Leo turned toward his crew, but held his eyes down, as he thought. He needed to be both places, but that was impossible.
"Bah, I told you he thinks we're incompetents who can't possibly get along without him," someone said.
Leo fought a grin, and lost. "Yeah, and maybe I do. Here's your chance to prove me wrong. I'm gonna go check on Joel. Let's just see what I find when I show up back here when you least expect it," he said. He took off, before he started bawling.
Trevin sat in the doorway of the helicopter and suggested that it might have been nice if someone had thought to order up some sort of transportation for a guy with a broken leg.
"You can use my chair, I'll walk," Harvey said.
"Oh, no you don't," Trevin said back. "We need you worse than we need me. I can't fly anything. I should be all right with my crutches. I was joking. Really. I was joking."
"So was I, actually," Harvey said. "I could trade off with you, though, if that would help."
"If someone will let an engineer get a word in edgewise, we do have a knee scooter here. We use it for fun, but it's designed for people with foot injuries. Are you OK from the knee up?" one of Leo's crew said.
"Or you could test out my PedoCreeper," another man said.
"Do I even want to know what that is?" Trevin asked.
"You stand on it, and it moves along on treads," someone explained.
"Just help me get to where Joel is, will you? I don't care how," Trevin said.
"Got it!" a man yelled. He cleared the top of another mechanic's cart, and got to one end, ready to push. "And before you object too strenuously, this option allows a couple of other guys a chance to go see how things are going. But don't tell anybody I said that."
Trevin surrendered to the men who badly wanted to push a cart all the way to sick bay, for fun and info. Soon he'd rolled out of sight, Robert jogging along with them, since he was duty bound to check in with the lieutenant upon arrival.
"I'll go tell Amy that Joel's hurt," Anthony said. "Renzo, you come with me."
Harvey gave Anthony a look he'd perfected when they were boys. In their younger days, it meant 'Dad and Mom are not going to like this, and I'm likely to get in more trouble than you if I let you go ahead and do it.' Anthony correctly read it now as 'Ott is not going to like this, and I'm probably going to be in more trouble than you if I let you do this.'
Anthony excused himself from Renzo and went to have a conference with his brother.
"You're forgetting he's on the sort of probation that needs two watchers at all times," Harvey whispered.
"I'm not forgetting. I'm willing to answer for it. I need to talk to him, and if you haven't noticed, around here the only people who are left are people who need to check the bird, and guard the bird, plus you, and you have to report to Ott. I'd rather answer for taking sole charge of one basically well behaved foundling, than answer for taking guards away from the only helicopter we have at this base. Do you really want to argue with me on this?"
"I give up," Harvey said.
"Good," Anthony said. He retrieved Renzo and headed off to talk to Joel's wife.
Harvey realized he was in a tight spot. He hadn't let Leo set him up in a powered chair yet. He needed to report to Ott right away, but if he asked for someone to push him, he'd be taking someone away from a skeleton hanger crew. He wished he'd thought to corner one of the men who'd headed off to dash Trevin through the tunnel. They'd had at least one spare man there. It was no good dwelling on it, though. He started rolling toward the tunnel. The acting chief assigned a man to push him. Harvey looked at the chief, not sure he wanted to mention that the crew was already pretty sparse.
The chief gave him a reassuring smile. "The guys who rolled carts down will be right back, not wanting to upset Leo. We'll be all right until they get here," he said.
"I need to tell the chief something in private," Harvey told the man assigned to push him. The man stepped out of earshot. "That missile that's missing brought down an Era 667 that was playing 'strafing run' with our guys on the ground," Harvey told the chief. "There wasn't any indication that they saw me before they got hit, and we didn't see anybody on the way back, but…"
"My job is to set up war footing without necessarily looking like I'm setting up war footing, then."
"Something like that, I guess. I'm really not sure on the protocol on something like this."
"It's not what I planned on when I got up this morning, but we'll do our best. You'd better get off to Ott. Fast."
Harvey's human engine was called back over, and Harvey headed off to face whatever music a man who might have triggered a shooting war needed to face.
"I guess I forgot to ask if you're up to a trip to town," Anthony said, as they walked along. Renzo didn't seem to know how to answer that, so Anthony tried again. "Physically, I mean. You don't seem hurt, but in all the rush and fuss to take care of Joel, I forgot to ask. Are you all right?"
"I am not injured significantly," Renzo said, with defensive courtesy.
"Too tired?"
"No."
"All right, then. I'm going to set a stiff pace, because I want to get word to Joel's wife as soon as possible. But you let me know if it's too fast for you."
Renzo nodded, but Anthony got the impression that he hated to be along, and might be close to a breaking point. He wondered if Harvey had seen something he hadn't, and had known this might happen. It was too late now, though, unless he wanted to go back to the hanger to put Renzo under the care of the mechanics, before going to town.
He shot another look at his companion, who'd gone from happy wordless wonder in the copter, to a deep, brooding mood. Renzo glanced over at him. Their eyes met. Renzo pulled his eyes away immediately, but not before Anthony saw the deep pain and turmoil, laced with anger.
Anthony smiled. He wasn't sure he'd seen what he'd seen, but he was fairly sure. He doubled down on his praying for Renzo's struggling soul, and kicked into a jog, to get his present task out of the way sooner.
"Too fast," Renzo said.
Anthony went back to a fast walk.
Amy Johnson wasn't at home, so Anthony led the way to the Harrison household, which was the most likely spot to find half the women in town, if they weren't home. He drew up just shy of the door, as it hit him that Joel and Trevin had gone to Nyssatun to collect Mercury Harrison, but hadn't brought him back.
"Renzo, do you know why Mr. Harrison didn't come back with you?" he asked.
Renzo jumped to the conclusion that Mr. Johnson and Mr. Lexington would be punished if he said something he shouldn't. He clamped his mouth shut.
"All right. Perhaps I should have asked Mr. Lexington before he got off. Sorry if I put you on the spot. If something bad has happened, just be careful what you say about it, if you say anything. As far as I know, nobody told his wife and kids about the mission. It's likely they'll be here, and we don't want to make a bad situation worse, so just be careful, please," Anthony said.
Renzo looked at him, obviously not sure how to respond to this show of reasonableness.
"Later, Renz
o. We need to find Amy first," Anthony said. He stepped to the door and knocked.
Scott answered. He was looking older than he'd looked before his mentor's wife had dropped dead in his living room, but he was poised. There were also the slightest hints of improved muscle tone, thanks to an exercise regimen he'd started after his jogs in the tunnel had proved how out of shape he was. He grinned when he saw it was the pastor, but quickly caught on that it wasn't simply a social call. "Now what?" he asked, with admirable manly directness.
"I think he's probably going to be all right, but Joel Johnson got hurt, and I'm looking for Amy. Is she here?"
Scott nodded and waved them in. Four ladies were seated at the dining table, drinking tea and eating cookies, while children tumbled with each other all around the room.
"Hello, ladies. Please excuse the intrusion," Anthony said. "Amy, I think he'll probably be all right, but Joel got hurt and the Annextun med team is working on him, and it's bad enough I think you ought to go over."
"We'll watch the kids," the other three ladies said at the same time.
The Johnson toddlers sensed the trouble more than understood it, and rushed to their mommy. She gave them hugs then held them where they could see her face. "It's all right, sweethearts. Daddy has a bad ow-ie, and Mommy is going to go to the base and see him. You'll be fine. You just stay here, or with any of the ladies here who might want to take you home. Mommy will be back."
That made them happy enough to go back to tumbling.
Renzo moaned and