Chapter 7 - Four Red Stars

I hadn't told anyone those words. I thought the blast had swallowed them.

"Eli said it over the radio," I told Rourke. "He was trying to tell me something. I couldn't hear the rest."

"Maybe he wanted you to remember a code."

"Maybe he knew he was about to die."

We met Tessa and June at a roadside animal clinic after midnight. Tessa looked thinner than I remembered. June hugged a stuffed rabbit so tightly one ear bent backward.

Atlas saw her before she saw him. His tail made three uncertain sweeps. June dropped the rabbit.

"Atlas?"

He walked to her slowly, then sat at her feet. She pressed her face into the thick fur along his neck and began crying. Tessa turned away, hands over her mouth.

"Daddy said Atlas was the bravest one," June whispered.

"He was pretty brave himself," I said.

She looked up. "Then why didn't he come home?"

I had answered soldiers under fire. I had answered doctors telling me I might never run again. I had no answer that would fit inside a child's heart.

"I don't know all of it yet," I said. "But I'm trying to find out."

Tessa took a folded paper from her purse. "Eli mailed this before the mission. I thought it was nonsense."

Across the page he'd drawn four red stars in a square, with a small circle beneath each one. In the margin he'd written: IF I FORGET, FOLLOW THE LIGHTS.

Rourke examined it. "These resemble status indicators on the Cinderline signal relay."

I remembered the portable relay mounted beside the convoy radio. Four red lights had blinked whenever the unit failed a security check. Nina Flores had complained about it for weeks.

"Eli knew something about those devices," I said.

June reached into her rabbit's torn back seam. "Daddy gave me this too. He said only Mom was supposed to see it."

She pulled out a small brass token stamped with a five-digit equipment number.

Tessa stared. "You've kept that inside Bunny this whole time?"

June nodded. "The man from school asked if I had it. I said no."

Rourke took a picture without touching the token.

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From outside came a shout, a sharp impact, and the sound of a car accelerating. The state trooper's radio hit the pavement.

Atlas was already on his feet.