8
Forward patrol. About time. Kee considered skipping chow after the briefing to go and check over her gun and the rest of the helo’s armament. She wanted to do the preflight check now, though it would be over an hour early.
She forced herself to go find Dilya. The girl was asleep in her cot, curled up in the tight ball she always slept in. She looked so small that Kee could imagine picking her up and putting the girl in her pocket to keep safe.
Kee had to shake Dilya awake, and she dragged her feet all the way to the mess tent and through the chow line. Kee could feel her own nerves climbing toward that high, steady plane of a pending mission. She always felt calmer when they were headed into a storm. What drove her crazy was all the sitting still in between.
“Sergeant Smith?”
“Yes,
