He went back across the open ground toward the tyre centre and his own people. James went after him ten metres, enough to make sure he kept going, and then stopped. He did not chase him. That was not the job.
Eamon had blood on his upper arm, coming through a tear in his sleeve. He looked at it and swore.
"Is that bad?"
"It's not good." He pressed his hand over it. "It's grand. It's grand. Come on."
Behind them, the soldiers got the stretcher behind the blocks, and somebody shouted *clear*, and somebody else shouted it back.
---
Finn came over a minute later, at a jog.
The corner of the tyre centre was holding behind him. His face was black with smoke, and there was a cut on his forehead that had bled down into his eyebrow.
"Did you get her?" he said. "The woman. The one with the sword."
"No," said James. "She pulled back."
