Page 127 of Things You Save in a Fire

But DeStasio was already pulling on his bunker coat. “Let’s get moving.”

I started to get a bad feeling. “You want to go in?”

“There’s a child in there,” DeStasio said, like,Duh.

“We don’t have the right equipment,” I said, shaking my head. “We have to wait for backup.”

Something flashed over DeStasio’s face then—some kind of rage that I had never seen before. If I had to guess, I would say maybe being told he “had” to do something by a nonranking member of his crew—and a female, at that—didn’t sit too well with him. It’s also possible that he sensed I was doubting him about the child. I’d checked those windows, and I hadn’t seen anything—and why would a kid be inside a grocery store at this hour of the morning? It didn’t add up.

“What we have to do,” DeStasio said, in a voice tight with outrage, “is get in there. Right now!”

“We’ve got orders to stay out,” I said. “Backup will be here in ten minutes.”

“No,” DeStasio said. “We don’t have time to wait.”

Here was part of the problem: DeStasio, as he was constantly reminding me, had a lot more years in the department than I did. He was senior to me in every way—except one. I was a fully trained paramedic, and he was only an EMT.

Technically, even though he was the senior crew member, that made me the ranking medic on the scene.

Which might also account for some of that rage.

DeStasio turned toward Owen. “Get your mask on. We’re going in.”

“We have orders to stay out!” I said.

DeStasio leaned in, his eyes wild and vicious. “Radio the captain.”

So I tried.

I grabbed my handheld and fired it up. “Captain,” I said, “we’ve got a possible child trapped in the building. Over.”

I waited for a reply, but I could only hear static.

I tried again. “Captain, requesting permission to enter the structure and check for victims. Over.”

This time, his radio crackled to life, but it was half static and only half words. I couldn’t tell what he’d said—and, in truth, it sounded more like I was overhearing him than receiving a message from him.

I looked at DeStasio. “I am not reading you, Captain,” I said into the radio. “Please repeat. Over.”

Another long blast of static. Could he read me?

“That’s it,” DeStasio said. “We’re going in.”

“We have ordersnotto go in,” I said.

“Ask me if I care.”

“That’s insubordination,” I said.

“Tell that to the dying boy inside.”

DeStasio was already moving toward the building. He grabbed Owen as he went and pulled him along. Owen, of course, would have no choice but to follow DeStasio’s orders. That’s the essence of the paramilitary structure. DeStasio may have ranked below me, but Owen ranked well below us both.

“We have orders to stay out!” I shouted, again, following.

“That’s not what I just heard.”

“You heard static!” I said.

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