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Rio kicks and glides toward hioes Tilo nearly brains her with a panicky fist, but she slips past hirabs his pack with one hand, and inserts the koummya between Tilo’s shoulder blade and the strap One quick slice cuts through, and Tilo is able to shrug off the rest as Rio gets beneath him and pushes his head up into the air
It’s not so hard, Rio thinks Long as you don’t panic Salt water stings the wound on her thigh
Tilo h at least to keep afloat once unburdened Rio surfaces, gasping for air, and gets a bellyful of salt water instead She gags and coughs and looks wildly around to see that the boat is now forty feet away The re a blue streak at the coxswain Cole is bobbing a few feet aith Cat in the crook of his ar to yell, but white foam rolls over them both
“Geer!” Rio shouts “Geer!”
There’s a porpoise-like eruption and Geer appears He has an unconscious Hansu Pang in his ar to keep him afloat Tilo, now mostly recovered, swi, who is larger and heavier than he looks, and haul him like a fish toward the beach The sand rises beneath the their boots to first touch and push off, and then to walk, fighting the retreating waves and allowing inco waves to help to push them toward the shore
It’s likeonce tasted them, is reluctant to spit them out Finally, Rio collapses face-first on the beach She
hugs the sand, gasping for air and retching up seawater
Geer is astride Pang, pushing down on his chest, forcing water frohs back to life and Geer stands and steps back, as if noishing to deny any connection to the weakly stirring GI
Frangie Marr is running beside Walter Green, a hundred yards down the beach where the landing craft has finally beached The boat is already turning back toward the transport
And with that a badly shaken Second Squad, Fifth Platoon, is ashore on Sicily, ood portion of its ammo, some of its weapons, and way too much of its food
But alive
13
RAINY SCHULTERMAN—ABOARD HMS TOPAZ, TYRRHENIAN SEA
The first dive was just a test dive As were the next three Lieutenant Co the crew at the peak of training
Cisco has spent ed and lashed into his hammock From time to time he’s been allowed up on deck to blink blearily at the sun before being led on wobbly legs back to his opium dreams