There was no anger in his face. Only a kind of tired certainty.
Then he looked back down at the woman and adjusted the scarf beneath her head, so her neck stayed straight.
He didn't say a word. He didn't need to.
Dorian stood there for a long moment. Then he turned on his heel and walked back toward the building.
The sirens came 6 minutes later.
Two paramedics jumped out and took over, and Caleb gave them everything he had seen. The pulse, the pupils, the smell.
One of the paramedics gave him a quick nod. The kind that said this detail might matter.
They lifted the woman onto a stretcher. And just as they reached the doors of the ambulance, her eyes opened.
They were gray, clouded, but focused on him.
Her gloved hand found his sleeve and gripped it with surprising strength. She pulled him down until his ear was close to her lips.
"Don't let them," she whispered. "Know I'm here."
Then her hand fell away.
The doors slammed shut, and the ambulance tore off toward the highway, its lights spinning red across the frost.
Caleb stood alone in the visitor lot.
Don't let who know?
He had no idea what she meant.
He only knew that behind him, a dozen people were watching. And none of them were looking at the ambulance anymore.
They were looking at him.
* * *
Caleb walked back to Hangar 4.
Nothing had been damaged, and nothing on the flight line had so much as flickered. For about 20 minutes, he let himself believe that was the end of it.
Then the overhead speaker crackled.
"Caleb Mercer to Conference Room B."
Conference Room B was small and windowless, lit by a humming fluorescent light.
Dorian Voss sat at the head of the table with his hands folded.
Beside him sat Mara Ellison, the head of human resources. 45 years old, with a thick folder open in front of her. She was reading his file.
"Sit down, Mercer," Dorian said.
Caleb sat.
"I'll make this quick. There are three violations here."
Dorian lifted one finger.
"Abandoning your assigned post without authorization."
A second finger.
"Disruption of scheduled flight line operations."
A third.
"Violation of site safety protocol, by leaving active equipment unattended. Any one of those is grounds for termination. You managed all three before 7:15."
"A woman collapsed at the gate," Caleb said evenly. "She had a toxic reaction to something. If nobody had helped her, she could have died on that concrete."
"Security was 20 feet away."
"Security was watching."
Dorian's jaw tightened. He leaned forward.