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‘And you’re about to enlighten me?’

It was phrased as a question but the gravelly sound resonated through her, pulling her stoed hi to have to back it up Either that, or he would dismiss her as weak for ever

She gritted her teeth but refused to back down That wasn’t what her uncle had ever taught her And, besides, a terrible part of her desperately wanted this man’s respect His esteem

‘I understand that you’ve recently been promoted to colonel, and that you were a major on the front line before that, so this is a new unit for you, and these are men that you don’t knoell yet I appreciate that you’re only looking out for them after what happened with Colonel Waterson He was their CO and it was a shock to them But it was a shock to us all Razorwire isn’t in a warzone; we have a different mission to whatever we’ve had before Whatever you’ve had before, on the front line’

‘And your point, Major?’ he demanded impatiently

‘My point, Colonel, is that your men—my QRF—are juet for anyone on the ground with rocket launchers, and the QRF don’t want us to hang around too long But we’re not in a warzone, Colonel We’re on a Hearts and Minds otten that in the wake of Colonel Waterson’s death They never had a probleain in a feeeks And the reason I juet to the heli in tiht not make it if we just abandon them’

There it was, she noted triumphantly

The flash in his eyes suggested her words had hit home She’d suspected that, of all people, this new Colonel wasn’t the type to leave a fallen ht; he’d reacted as soon as she’d said the word abandon

Still, he clearly wasn’t about to give in that easily And that didn’t surprise her

‘My er’

‘With all due respect, sir, your men aren’t trauma doctors I am Just because there are no bombs out here, no IEDs, with fatalities and casualties requiring ent cases’

‘I a into her ‘I’ve carried a fair few men to a MERT over the years’

‘Yes, but usually from the front line, I understand Out here, we have non-combat injuries to deal with, froas bottle explosions around their ho troops with appendicitis to local woht not always look fatal to your battle-hardened troops but fatality coement call each time’

And she’d been right each time too, not that she was about to offer that inforreater impact when the Colonel found that out for himself And she kneithout a doubt that he would

‘Indeed?’ The Colonel raised his eyebrows at her