Blink: Leviathan (Book 2)

21

Amber exhaled a gasp of relief and let her carbine drop, thanking every deity on every planet she could think of. The six operatives of Tundra squad also lowered their weapons, exchanging confused looks before Vass Juntaar stepped forward, cocking his head quizzically to one side.

"Is that you, Garret?" he said, a faint smile crossing his sharp features. "You look like hell."

She raised an eyebrow. "Hello to you too."

Vass grinned and tapped the operative to his left on the shoulder, indicating Amber with a nod. The blond-haired girl stepped forward holding a medical kit in one hand.

"Sit down," she said, her voice soft and almost lyrical. "Let me have a look at you."

Amber obeyed, gratefully slumping into a sitting position against the wall as Tundra's medic examined her injuries. The girl started with her face, disinfecting a small wad of cotton and gently brushing away the final vestiges of blood and any tiny splinters of glass that still clung to her eyelid. The chemicals stung, but Amber forced herself not to move, only twitching under the treatment.

"You were very lucky," the medic said, shaking her head slowly. "You could easily have lost an eye."

"Tell me about it," Amber muttered.

Her hands were bloodied and scraped from her tumble during the cave-in, but most of her other injuries were invisible to the naked eye. The Blink body armour and tough, reinforced dry suit had protected her skin – if not her bones. When the medic reached the huge dent in the knee plate her brow furrowed.

"Your leg?" she questioned.

"Hurts like hell."

She nodded and gentle hands slipped around Amber's knee joint, probing the muscles. "How does that f-,"

The medic broke off when Amber let out an involuntary hiss of pain. She turned her eyes skyward, her whole body going rigid as agony burst through her leg and she ground her teeth together to contain a yell.

"Not good." The blond girl frowned. "And you've been walking on it all this time?"

"Running," Amber corrected through gritted teeth.

"How on Earth did you manage that?!"

"I took a lot of painkillers."

The girl looked at her aghast. "You're joking?"

Amber glared back, starting to lose her patience. "No I'm not joking. It was either pop a load of drugs to keep myself going or stay down there and die! Now, are you going to sit there and judge me or are you going to help?"

"Cath, what's the bottom line," Vass interjected, but he sounded casual, almost bored.

"Bottom line?" Cath looked at him. "The bottom line is that she should be in a hospital with an injury like this. Every step she takes on that knee is going to make it worse."

"Well I didn't bring a hospital, I brought you," the squad leader returned smoothly. "So do what you can."

The girl gave him a sour look but didn't argue the point. Instead she opened up her kit and set to work on the injured leg. She injected a muscle strengthener into one side of the knee to start with, and then unfolded the spindly skeletal structure of a temporary splint. Wrapping it around Amber's knee joint, she pressed a button and the lattice metal snapped tight around the limb, tiny drills burying into her muscle and bone to lock it into place.

Amber ground her teeth together against the agony, fighting to keep her leg still as the splint did its work. When it was completely welded to her the pain fell away and she let out a gasp of relief, slumping back against the wall. Cath stood up, still sporting an unhappy look when she addressed her commander.