"Mitchell."
She looked up.
"You lead."
For a second, Sarah hesitated.
Avery repeated.
"Lead."
She did.
They built an anchor point.
Bennett became the main lifting force.
Marcus controlled the rope.
Avery stabilized the casualty.
Sarah directed angles.
It worked.
Slowly.
The lieutenant's leg came free.
Then the mountain moved.
A crack echoed above.
Everyone looked up.
"Move!"
Loose rock came down.
Not an avalanche.
Enough.
Bennett shoved Marcus aside.
A stone struck Bennett's shoulder.
He fell.
Sarah reached him.
"I'm good."
He wasn't.
His right arm hung wrong.
Avery looked at the sky.
"Now we have three."
The rescue had changed.
Again.
Sarah felt something old tighten in her chest.
One mission.
Multiple casualties.
Limited time.
No perfect choice.
She looked at Bennett.
He saw it.
"Don't."
"What?"
"Don't do that thing."
"What thing?"
"Turn into your dad."
Sarah almost laughed.
"This is not the time."
"I'm serious."
Bennett pushed himself upright.
"You don't have to solve everything perfectly."
She stared at him.
The words landed.
Not because they were brilliant.
Because they were true.
Sarah took a breath.
Then made decisions.
Avery and Marcus began moving the lieutenant.
Colonel Mitchell could walk with assistance.
Bennett insisted he could move.
Sarah let him.
Not because he was fine.
Because the alternative delayed everyone.
Every choice creates responsibility.
She stayed beside him.
The climb took two hours.
Weather shut down helicopter extraction.
They had to reach a ground-access point farther west.
By midnight, everyone was exhausted.
Bennett's shoulder was swollen.
The lieutenant drifted in and out.
Sarah began doubting every decision.
Then Bennett said, "She's still breathing."
Sarah looked at him.
"What?"
"You keep looking at her like you failed."
Sarah said nothing.
"She's breathing."
He nodded toward the team.
"We're moving."
He winced.
"Nobody got left."
Sarah looked away.
Her father would have liked him.
That realization surprised her.
They reached ground rescue at 0217.
All four crash survivors lived.
Bennett had a fractured clavicle.
His hidden hip injury turned out to be worse than he admitted.
A stress fracture.
Medical removed him from training immediately.
He took the news badly.
Sarah found him outside the clinic the next afternoon.
He sat with his arm in a sling.
"Three months."
She nodded.
"Doctor say surgery?"
"Maybe."
"That bad?"
He stared ahead.
"I knew."
Sarah sat beside him.
"You knew what?"
"About the hip."
"I know."
"No."
He looked at her.
"I knew it could fracture."
Sarah frowned.
"Then why were you training?"