“How are you doing soldier?” he asked.

Indicating my bandages and neck support, I said, “I’ve been better, Sir.”

“The doctors tell me that, based on your previous recuperation; they believe you should be better within a week if not less.”

“That’s good to know,” I said. “I wish it were sooner. Sir.”

He chuckled. “I imagine so, soldier.” Castle looked around the room. “I never much liked the infirmary myself. Been here too many times. Seen too many friends here.”

I was shocked. This was the first time I had ever heard anything that sounded like emotion come out of the man. For some reason, I just assumed he was made of stone, or maybe he powered down at night. Aw, don’t ruin it for me.

“Well, Sir, I don’t like it either. Every time I see an angel, I end up in a place like this. So, yeah, not my favorite.” A tiny crack of a smile appeared in the corner of his lips. I quickly remembered to add, “Sir.”

“I’m proud of you, Delaney, you and your team did what no one else has managed to do so far. The rest of the military is very interested in this project now, thanks to your success.”

Proud? Of me? I could not imagine him feeling more than, at best, a mild sense of disdain for any of us.

“Thank you, Sir.”

“No need to thank me. We asked you to do something everyone worried was impossible. And you did it. I should be thanking you.”

Wow. This was…weird.

“Thanks to you and your team, we know that the enemy can be affected by our weaponry. Now, the question is simply ‘how much firepower is necessary’? Your weapons affected it and wore it down. What if we’d use more explosives? What if there were more of you to start with? What other ordinance could we use? That sort of thing is what we’ll need to figure out over the next few weeks before we try tangling with these things again.”

I nodded. The idea of raining rockets down on an angel’s head was particularly satisfying. If only we could have attacked it with vehicle-mounted weaponry; that would be something I would like to test myself. A helicopter’s chain-gun and rockets or a tank’s main battery, yeah that would be the ticket.

“It would be difficult sir, to bring a lot more to bear; considering they always attack populated, urban areas.”

“Agreed, but we are going to have to be willing to lose a few strip malls and rock stadiums if it means taking the bastards out. I’m not going to cry over it. If the angels aren’t stopped, those places are going to be destroyed anyway.”

“Yeah. Of course, we were lucky, sir.”

“Oh? How do you suppose soldier?” he asked.

“It wasn’t like the one in New York, Sir. The ones that just, you know, ‘explode’ when they show up. We probably would have all died if that were the case.” There were other angels like ‘Mercy’ since New York, but they were the rarest kind, thankfully.

“Now, I want to talk to you about this… person you saw,” he said, his voice quiet.

Great, I’m sure he thought I was crazy. That’s all I needed right now.

“What’s to say, sir? I’m sure you’ve read my report.”

“Walk me through it Private. I want to rectify the discrepancies between your account and that of Private Kimura.”

“Ok Sir,” I said. I then told him everything I had said in my report, again. I could not help but let exasperation into my voice. I hurt too much and too many people I knew were now dead.

He said nothing if he even noticed my tone at all. General Castle just nodded, as though he were confirming something he already knew.

When I finished, I asked, “Does it mean anything to you, sir? Have there been other reports of similar occurrences with other countries’ Changed?” I did not think I was going to be that lucky and have a pat explanation fall into my lap, but it could not hurt to ask.

“No, soldier, I’m afraid not. You are the first, at least the first that I am aware of, to encounter this figure. I have no idea who or what it may be, but it appears it is not our enemy. At least not at this time.”

Wait, what? Did that mean people were taking me seriously? “Sir? Does that mean you believe me?” I asked.

General Castle did not say anything for a moment, his gaze appeared far away. When he returned to me, he said, “How can I not? We live in a world where we’re being invaded by aliens or angels or something, where people are turning into super-powered soldiers. You tell me you saw something that did not want to be seen, something that the angel reacted to; something that fought it. God yes girl, I want to believe you. I want to believe that something out there wants to help us against these things.”

I was so surprised I was speechless. This was a side of him I had never seen. Probably no one had seen it in the history of ever. Words failed me; I was afraid to break this strange magic that had entered my room.

“I’ve analyzed this report with the heads of Seer division and their belief is that, whoever this is, they are a Changed that has developed abilities we have yet to catalog. Those abilities include some kind of power to avoid detection and something that can be used as a direct weapon against the angels. Since your friend did not bother to involve himself until the angel was weakened, we have to assume that his powers are limited and can only work against an angel whose defenses are weakened. God knows how he knew that, but there you go.”

That made a lot of sense. I guess I just thought that we knew all the abilities of the Changed. The idea that he might have some unknown powers never crossed my mind.

General Castle’s eyes hardened. “Of course, we cannot just sit back and hope and pray that we have an ally against the enemy. You’ve seen something and we still don’t know what that something is. So for now, we have to act as though we are very much alone. That means you will have to keep a tight lid on what you think you saw until we have more details. As far as anyone else who was not there is concerned, you and your team destroyed the angel’s shield and drove it off alone. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes Sir!” I said. I was overjoyed to know that someone might believe me.

General Castle stood. “All right soldier, I want you to rest and get better. That’s an order.”

Settling back into the pillows, I said, “Yes Sir.” That was an order I wanted to follow.

That night I dreamed of beautiful music that called to me, that spoke to me. I dreamed of the dark sad eyes that had watched over me.

Eyes that were watching me still.