“Cover!” I shouted even as I hit the deck. An instant later the first grenade detonated somewhere behind me, rocking the bridge, but not before Alex hurled the second grenade back, where it exploded in the doorway.
Using the moment of calm that followed, I scrambled behind the nearest console for cover, but instead met my worst nightmare—Katherine covered in blood.
With a strangled cry I slid in next to her, cradling her head in my lap while trying to apply pressure to the largest of the many shrapnel wounds she had taken from the grenade.
“Katherine!” I said. “It’ll be alright. Just hold on!” I’m not sure even I believed the hollow words, but she didn’t respond. Her skin was pale and her eyes closed.
She wasn’t breathing.
“We have to go,” Alex said, pulling my shoulder. I pushed the
