I arrived to find that Vasquez had finished stitching up the incubus and had moved to take over from the agent who had been tending to Sally, who was lying down, moaning softly, blood still oozing from the bandages clamped to her shoulder. I stepped up to help him.

“How is she?”

Vasquez looked up and shook his head slightly. He looked worried.

“Hold pressure on that bandage, Sally. I need to go and get some supplies.”

He stood up and pulled me away, out of hearing distance.

“I don’t know what to do, here,” he whispered. “She is losing a lot of blood. I think the bullet is still in there and I don’t how to get it out. I’m not a surgeon. Should we try to operate?”

“If you do, you’ll probably kill her,” startled, I turned to see Simon had swiveled around on his cot to face us. “Ideally, you should get her to a hospital, but if that isn’t an option, leave the bullet in. Clean the wound. Stitch it up and stop the bleeding.”

Vasquez blinked in surprise. This was the first time he had heard Simon speak since they met.

“Are you sure? We can just leave a bullet in there?”

“Ask James Garfield.”

“What?”

“Nothing. Look, I know what I am talking about. I am a paramedic. This is her best chance.”

“Really?” I couldn’t help but be a bit surprised. He had been less than useless treating his own wound earlier.

“Yes, really,” he seemed a bit offended. “Forgive me for not being all that helpful before. I’ve never been shot and hunted before. Not to mention the whiskey and drugs.”

I mouthed Advil to Vasquez with a little smirk.

“Excuse me if was just a little thrown by the whole thing. I’m not used to this. I’m not like you people.”

“No, you’re a terrorist,” Vasquez snapped.

I frowned. It hadn’t occurred to me, until that moment that this could be a problem. Whatever was really going on, our people were dying out there and Simon had already admitted to being a part of the group causing it. There were probably going to be some hard feelings. But I had said I would keep him safe, and I wasn’t going to be made a liar by my own people.

“He came to us, Vasquez. He’s the only reason most of us are alive right now. Play nice.”

“Yeah, sure. I have my orders, don’t worry,” he didn’t look that convinced.

“We don’t have time for this. I can help you,” Simon pushed himself off the cot. “Show me the injury, and I’ll do what I can for her.”

Vasquez hesitated for a moment, I could tell he didn’t want him touching Sally, but her injury was more serious than anything we were used to treating. If he really was a trained paramedic, we needed his help.

“Fine. Come with me,” Vasquez relented. “Ray, you mind checking on Wilson?”

He pointed me towards the only other occupant of a cot, the man Gail had brought in. He didn’t look badly injured, but he hadn’t been able to walk in on his own, so it was probably his leg.

“Wilson?” I sat down on a chair by the cot.

“Yeah.”

“Ray,” I offered a hand, and we shook. “Hear you had a rough time out there. Can I take a look?”

He gingerly stretched out his leg and raised a pant leg. There was a crudely bandaged gunshot wound through his calf. I removed the old cloth and studied the through and through shot.

“How did this happen?” I talked while I cleaned the injury.

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“Got a call last night,” he gritted his teeth as he spoke. “It was a verified Council contact number. They gave me a tip, telling me where I could find my latest target. There was nothing out of the ordinary about it. I think I even recognized the voice.”

“Did they give you a name?” I gave him a minute after I poured antiseptic on the wound.

“No. But that isn’t that odd either. It was just a quick heads-up. I went to the address they gave me. It was a nightclub on the outskirts. That was when I first thought something might be wrong. It looked closed, there were boards up on the windows. I was going to go in anyway, take a look around, to make sure that he wasn’t squatting there. I had just reached the door when I got the warning from James. I turned to go back to my truck, until I could figure out what is going on. Which was when someone opened fire from the windows of the building. All things considered, I got pretty lucky.”

He shot a worried glance over to where Sally was being patched up. Someone had put a lot of effort into this. This many ambushes in one night, many of which were successful, was no mean feat, even if the target was completely unaware. These Domini had manpower and someone with an excellent tactical mind. Bad news.

“Could you tell if there was more than one shooter?”

“I think it was only one, but I can’t be sure.”

Not that it really mattered. They were ubarae, if they wanted, they could have easily recruited half a dozen civilians to help them. Or, as Simon insisted on reminding me, they could just send any agent of the Organization that they had managed to fully compromise. People with training and a good understanding of how we worked. People who knew us personally and how to get to us. Fuck. Did we even have a chance, here? I shook my head and finished bandaging Wilson’s leg. Such thoughts were counterproductive, it was better to keep working. Besides, we had no proof that they had all the Immune entirely turned. Tom seemed to have doubts, maybe he wasn’t the only one.

“How’s that feel?”

“A good as can be expected. Thanks,” Wilson pulled his pant leg back down.

“Just sit and rest for a while.”

He nodded and leaned back against the wall. I turned and headed back over to check on the other patient.

Sally was also resting, eyes closed, reclining on the bed. Simon stepped away to meet me.

“How did it go?”

“It wasn’t as bad as it looked. I think she’ll be all right,” Simon wiped blood off his hands onto a towel. “She needs rest, though.”

“And how about you? You looked like you were in pretty rough shape when we got you in here.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I just… It was too much. I… I’m ok now, really. Working helped a bit, gave me something to focus on, other than…”

I understood. It was tough to deal with this kind of thing if you weren’t used to it. I had seen it before. It was especially tough for ubarae, being so sensitive, they often reacted very strongly to bad situations. For that exact reason, they rarely took on high stress jobs. I had to ask,

“But you’re a paramedic, eh? That’s surprising.”

“For one of us, you mean?”

“Yeah. And for what you told me before…”

“I suppose it is a little strange. But it is where they wanted me, so that is what I did.”

“The Domini chose your career?”

“Yeah,” he rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed. “I was only 13 when I joined, after all. They picked a lot of things for me. Omega was my idol. I did whatever he wanted. And he wanted people embedded in emergency services.”

“Why?”

“He was preparing for a war. He wanted us in there to from relationships with people who could help us, heal us. Tip us off, if any injured agents showed up there after a failed hit.”

“He really put a lot of planning into this,” I could feel my stomach sinking.

“Yeah. He’s put everything into this, for years. All his time, all his energy. He has planned for every contingency.”

“You sound like you admire him.”

“Everyone does. It is hard not to. He is brilliant and charismatic, even for an incubus, and he is just… Hard to disagree with.”

“But you did, in the end.”

“I guess I did. Though, in a way, that was because of him, too.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“He’s the one that made me a paramedic. And that… changed me. Until then, I had spent most of my time with other members of the Domini. It never even occurred to me to question their views. Then he sent me out, had me work helping people. Working with people who dedicated their lives to saving others. Hard to be around that all the time and not be affected by it. Not learn the value of human life. To them, and to me.”

I doubted that complication would have even occurred to someone like Omega. His plans, his behaviour, he sounded like a rogue. Rogues were dangerous because they lacked exactly the empathy that Simon was describing. Some, like Vicki, even reversed it entirely, enjoying pain in their victims instead. They had a lot in common with human psychopaths. How many other Domini were simply being led astray by Omega? How many could be convinced to see reason and abandon this course?

“Those people, my coworkers, the people they helped? They didn’t deserve what the Domini wanted to do to them. And it wasn’t much of a jump from there to realizing that maybe no one did. It shouldn’t have taken me this long to figure that out.”

He shrugged, but I could see him flushing. He was ashamed. Of what he’d done. Of what he had allowed to occur. I put a hand on his shoulder,

“It matters that you did something about it.”

“Even if it is too late to really make a difference?” he looked around at the sparsely populated warehouse.

“Hey,” I tried for an encouraging smile. “Don’t count us out yet. We’re used to being outnumbered.”

He smiled back wanly,

“Thanks. I think I am just going to go and lie down for a bit, if that is ok. I’m still feeling a little off.”

“Sure. When the rest get here, will you be willing to tell us more about the Domini?”

“Of course. I’ll tell you everything I know. Anything I can do to help. Just come and get me.”

I left him to rest and wandered back to help Vasquez set up for more patients. Things were going to get worse, before they got better.