Page 152 of Honeyfires

"Thank you." She lowered her hand. Made a note.

Davidson continued. "You have seventy-two hours to decide. And Alves—" His voice shifted slightly. "You made the right choice. Even if it cost you."

Outside in the hallway, Vera was waiting.

When she saw my face, she ran.

"They cleared me," I said. "But they're recommending a transfer. Station 47. Copper Valley. Three and a half hours away. Minimum one year."

She processed this without flinching. "Three and a half hours."

"Yeah."

"When do you have to decide?"

"Seventy-two hours."

She nodded. Pulled herself together. "Okay. Then we figure it out together."

But we both knew the truth of it. I couldn't stay in San Jacinto; the board had made that clear enough without saying it. The community wanted someone to blame, and I was the easiest target. Staying meant fighting every day on ground that had turned against me.

Going meant leaving everything we'd built.

Diana appeared at my shoulder. She handed me a business card: a name, a phone number, a Phoenix area code. "Colleague of mine in the Copper Valley district. Employment attorney. If the new station gives you any trouble about the transfer circumstances, call her." She looked at me for a moment with something in her expression that wasn't quite warmth but wasn't far from it. "You told the truth when the script stopped working. That's why it landed."

She shook my hand. Vera's. And walked away down the corridor with her briefcase, already making another phone call before she'd reached the end of the hallway.

Rodriguez found me before I made it to the door.

"Alves."

"Captain."

We moved to a quiet corner. He looked tired, older than he had six weeks ago.

"You made the right call," he said, without preamble. "I should have listened."

"Cap—"

"I was working from outdated predictions and pride. Pride that I knew better. But you were on the ground. You had information I didn't. And you trusted your training when I told you not to." He met my eyes. "I was wrong. The analysis proves it. Stevens's survival proves it. You saved your crew, and I tried to stop you."

"You were doing your job."

"I was protecting my authority." He was quiet for a moment. "Take the transfer."

"What?"

"Get out of here. Away from the media, the politics, the noise. Go somewhere you can do the work without all of this following you into every shift." He gripped my shoulder once, briefly. "You're the best crew boss I've ever had, Alves. Don't let this destroy you. Go to Copper Valley. Do the work. Come back if you want to. The door's open."

"Thank you, Cap."

"Take care of yourself." He released my shoulder. "And that librarian of yours. She's got more spine than most firefighters I know." He almost smiled. "Don't tell her I said that."

He walked away.

Vera appeared beside me. She slipped her hand into mine.

We walked out of the building into the Arizona afternoon, the sun enormous and the desert stretched out around San Jacinto in every direction, patient and ancient and entirely indifferent to the verdict that had just been delivered inside.