That would be hard to do – bless those that can and do.
Natalie36: They’re finally on the right track.
We’ll be checking in on Kyle and Dan in today’s update.
CandyliciousLovah: We’ll be checking in on him in today’s update.
keepsmiling7: Thanks!
Lol, would we do that?
Max and Liz have reached a point where he does understand that.
The tattoo is intricate enough that it draws the attention away from the scar.
Alien_Friend: We’ll check in on Kyle today. The guys have a difficult job and they know they have to be there 100% in order to do it to the best of their ability.
Lol, no, we’d never ever say you were biased. It took them a hundred parts to get there, but they definitely made a statement, lol. Hmm, Max do a lap dance? We’ll have to see what he says about that. They’re definitely going all in to make this thing between them work.
It’s good to have someone else in on what’s going on because as intelligent as Isabel is she’s taking a big risk.
Thanks! You never know, we might just do that! With all we still have to happen… it could happen.
Lol, that bit about Courtney was funny!
kismet: That will be difficult for Michael and we’ll be checking in on Kyle today.
We’ll have to wait and see what Tess does.
It was past time for that step, lol.
zaneri1: Thanks, we’re glad you’re enjoying TIC TAC!
sarammlover: Well… what we’ve done with Kyle will be seen in this update.
LOL, Nurse Tess, huh?roswellian love: This could be a very important moment for all of them.
Intense is a good word, lol.
Alex has a funny way of doing that. Oh, she’ll see it at some point, hopefully not before it’s too late.
begonia9508: Thanks!
Lol, Max and Liz agree with you!
True… but there are sexpectations on both sides.
First responders do have honorable and dangerous jobs, God bless them all!
xilaj: Max and Liz have definitely had to work hard to get where they are today. They’ve come a long way and they’re finding a true balance in their relationship. Hmm, maybe Max will share the story behind his tattoo one day.
You hit the nail on the head about the situation Isabel’s in! She thinks she’s controlling the situation and the truth is Richard’s the one holding all of the cards. She just hasn’t realized that yet, so it’s good that Tess now knows. Lol, Michael may not be the best person to tell about the problem, you could be right about that. Although, on the other hand, the situation with Kyle and Tess is different and his reaction would most likely be different too.
We’ll be checking in on Kyle, Dan, and the little girl in today’s update. Thanks, we’re having a lot of fun writing it and reading everyone’s thoughts on updates!
Part 101
Breath Into Me
At the opposite end of the tunnel firefighters were thrown to the ground from the force of the blast. They had been in the process of evacuating when the warning had come across their radios that toxins and explosives were present. Thick dust hung in the air as Tony pushed himself up, coughing and sputtering in an effort to clear his lungs. He made a grab for his face mask and held it in place, drawing in fresh oxygen.
He shook his head and slowly got to his feet, moving his body this way and that in an effort to determine if anything was broken. His head spun a little at the movement, but sore ribs, patches of skin that burned and indicated scrapes or cuts seemed to be the most serious of his injuries. He checked with his fellow firefighters as they all got to their feet before reaching for his radio to check in on Valenti and Gilyard.
They ran back down the tunnel, sidestepping or jumping over the debris that worsened and slowed them down the closer they got to their destination. Just past the opening they had used to get down into the tunnel they found themselves facing a wall of debris that trapped their friends and coworkers on the other side with explosives and toxins.
“Carter,” Brody Maverick yelled down into the hole, his upper body hanging down while he laid flat on the street above. He glanced around and noticed everyone was evacuating in a hurry.
“Get the hell up here so I can get a hold of you.”
“We’ve got men trapped down here, Maverick!” he yelled back.
“The entire tunnel’s collapsed,” he said and looked up to see the longish tear in the street where the asphalt had collapsed after the explosions. “They’ll try to get to them from a different point.”
Tony shook his head. “If there’re explosive materials on that side the clock’s tickin’. We don’t have time to go around and find another way in!” He had never been one to disobey orders but they had a very small window to reach Valenti and Gilyard.
“Carter, you gonna fucking burrow a whole with your hands to get through that debris?” Maverick yelled back. “The whole thing’s collapsed, okay?”
He found the ladder that had fallen and put it back up before hauling ass up the ladder and going straight to the Chief. “Chief McCoy, I think we’ve got a better shot of getting to our guys from this end of the tunnel. We’ve got explosive materials on their side and the fire’s getting closer to them with every second we waste debating this. We can’t risk the time it’s gonna take tryin’ to get to them from another location. Let me have a couple of guys and some equipment. If we can get to them from this side we have a chance of maybe containing the situation from below. Either way it’s our best shot of getting them out.”
McCoy glanced down into the hole again while he considered the young firefighter’s suggestion. “I can only give you two men. Be careful down there.” He was right, there was no time to waste and nobody knew at this point how many people were still trapped.
“Thank you, Sir.” He nodded at the two men the Chief motioned to and they hurried to pull the gear they needed off of one of the trucks and hurried back down into the old tunnel. “Carlos, check the debris as close to the top as you can get, see if we have any give up there. JT, start at that end and I’ll take this end, let’s see if we’ve got any give at all.”
“I got something here,” Carlos hollered after checking a few sections.
Tony climbed up over the debris, using the pointed edge of the collapsible shovel to dig out a spot so he could use his knee to support him. He ran a gloved hand over the area that Carlos indicated and pulled it back, holding it in front of his flashlight and frowning as he sniffed the wet material. “Sonofabitch,” he muttered.
“What is it?” JT asked.
“Just water, but that’s not good either. That clock’s tickin’ faster at every turn.” He rammed the shovel blade into the debris and dragged it down, sending a small avalanche to the ground below them.
“Watch out,” Carlos yelled and sprang to the side, pulling Tony with him. Their bodies hit the hard rock below them and just a moment later several huge rocks fell from the ceiling that had obviously only been supported by the debris they had pulled away.
“At least now we have a decent-size hole to crawl through.” Tony grimaced in pain when he got up again and reached down to help his partner up.
JT winced when pain shot through his hand and nodded to himself as he approached the mountain of debris. His middle finger had gotten caught in the handle of his shovel when he was thrown to the ground and he knew it was broken. He took his place next to Carter and started digging to widen the gap.
On the other side Kyle coughed for several minutes before he dropped his head back and opened his eyes. He fumbled with his flashlight, pressing the button several times before realizing that it must have been broken in the explosion. He pushed himself up and felt around in the dark, trying to find the girl he had been carrying when he had been thrown by the force of the blast. “Dan?” he choked out. His lungs felt like they were straining, as if he couldn’t get enough air, and his throat burned.
He shook his gloves off when he felt something malleable and he realized it was the girl his partner had handed off to him. He swallowed with difficulty when he found her pulse point and he couldn’t feel anything. He moved his hand up to cover her nose and mouth and dropped his head forward when there were no breath signs.
“Damn it,” he muttered, grimacing when every breath felt like agony.
He was still searching for Dan when another explosion rumbled behind them and he was thrown to the ground. He was rolling over when something heavy landed on him, pinning him to the ground and making the already difficult task of breathing nearly impossible. He fought to stay conscious, knowing how important it was to his survival, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t focus on anything.
“You okay?” Tony looked at JT where had had landed after the last explosion had thrown him down the small hill of debris they had been standing on.
“Yeah,” the man said, his voice sounding strangled as he sat up.
“Take a small break,” he nodded and turned to go back to work, relieved to see the last tremors had caused more rocks to loosen and fall, widening the gap to the other side. Now it was large enough for them to get through it easily. “I’ll go first.”
“Be careful, Carter,” Carlos told him.
Tony tested some of the rocks with his foot first and started to push forward when he was sure they were stable enough to hold him. “Valenti, can you hear me?” he called into the hollow space in front of him and for the first time he got a good look of the situation. The scene in front of him left him in shock for a moment, but he knew he needed to keep going because time was working against them. “Kyle,” he called again and signaled for Carlos to follow him before he climbed down over the small hills of debris.
“Holy shit,” the other firefighter muttered when he saw the extent of the damage.
“We need to get past that barrier.” Tony pointed at an iron beam that had fallen and was buried under more debris.
“Let’s do it,” his partner agreed, although he had little hope that they would find anyone alive under all the rubble.
JT caught his second wind and crawled through the hole they had created, cursing when the rubble shifted beneath him and he surfed down on his belly. “Fuck, this just isn’t my day,” he muttered as he flipped himself around and got his feet under him. He unclipped the flashlight from his jacket and swept the beam across what was left of the tunnel and he shook his head at the destruction.
Tony was studying a large beam, trying to determine the best way to go at it when JT’s light passed over him. “We’re gonna need the lift bags. We don’t have a prayer of movin’ this on our own.”
“I’ll get what we need.” He paused when he reached the hole they had used for entry. “Hey, Carter, you located Valenti or Gilyard yet?”
“They’ve gotta be on the other side.”
Carlos shot a look at the beam and the large structural pieces bearing down on it. They all knew there was a very real possibility that the other firefighters were buried beneath it.
*****
“She’s ready for transport.” Michael put away the used needles and pushed the drip into the hand of the EMT who would be riding to the hospital with his last patient. Since the first explosion he had been working on autopilot, trying to concentrate on his tasks and not on the fact that his best friend might be hurt.
“Take a small break.” Dana stood beside him and held a bottle of water out to him. “We’ve got everyone taken care of for now.”
He took it, but didn’t open it up. “I’m gonna check with the Chief.”
“Michael,” she tried, but knew she couldn’t stop him and she wouldn’t have stopped either in his situation.
“Chief McCoy,” he called the man when he reached him just a few feet from the huge gap in the street.
The older man turned towards him and immediately knew what his request would be. “We’re still looking, Guerin.” He took his helmet off for a moment and wiped his sweaty forehead. Now that the sun was slowly coming up behind the huge buildings all around them, the extent of the damage caused by the fire and explosions could be seen for the first time.
Michael turned to follow the man’s gaze and he shook his head at the devastation. The damage would run into the millions, hundreds of millions, but as he stared at the destruction it wasn’t the money he was thinking about. It was the countless bodies that had been pulled from the buildings over the hours they had been working that kept running through his mind. His gaze shifted to the gaping hole in the street. “I need to get down there.”
The Chief settled his helmet back on his head and studied him for a few long moments before he nodded and hooked his thumb over his shoulder. “Go on, Guerin. Just remember, we find more wounded you’re back up.”
“Yes, Sir.” He practically ran over to the hole, grabbing onto the ladder and swinging around to climb down into the dim, dust-filled cavern. He followed the noise of the firefighters working to rescue the men trapped inside, scrambling up over the debris, through the short tunnel that had been created, and down the other side.
Tony used his arm to wipe the sweat from his brow as he turned to cough and he nodded when he caught sight of his friend. “Thanks,” he rasped when Michael handed him a bottle of water. “We’ve just about got enough of the debris dug away to get the lift bags under the beam.”
“I heard you haven’t been able to raise ‘em on the radio,” he said quietly.
He shook his head after a moment. “No. Could be…”
“It’s not interference.”
“No.” Radio communications had been significantly upgraded since the attacks on 9/11 and there was no point lying to each other in a pathetic attempt to cover their worry. “They could be unconscious; their radios could’ve been knocked loose during the explosion, or any number of things.” He capped the water bottle and tossed it back to Michael. “We’re just about ready to get started with the bags. Maybe we’ll get lucky and find them right off the bat.”
“Anything I can do to help?” He hated standing around in situations like this.
“Keep trying to radio them, if they don’t answer, we may still be able to locate them from the sounds. Other than that, let us do our job and then you do yours, Guerin,” Tony said, knowing it wasn’t what the man wanted to hear, but the room they had to move around was already very limited.
Michael pressed his teeth together and nodded silently.
“Alright, guys, let’s move this thing.” Tony pointed at different sections and Carlos and JT took up their position and put the lift bags in position under the beam.
“I’m not sure this is gonna work, Carter,” JT said doubtfully when the beam of his flashback danced over the area, but he didn’t stop working. “This thing’s totally wedged.”
“We’re gonna try anyway,” Tony said, determined. Too much time had already passed and they all knew their friend’s time was limited, so if they couldn’t move the beam their chances would lower significantly.
“Ready,” Carlos said when he’d found a steady place to place the bag.
“Me too,” JT agreed.
“Here we go.” Tony turned the equipment on and they held their breath as the bags began to fill, slowly creating a gap between the ground and the beam. As the bags reached their maximum height JT and Carlos started assembling the shoring equipment to fit the space they had been given, moving in closer when Tony shut the valve off and carefully wedging the cylinders into place.
He glanced back at Michael, knowing he hadn’t been able to raise Kyle or Dan on the radio while they had been waiting. He saw the worried glance as he watched the equipment being moved into place, shoring the beam and giving them as much of a safe crawlspace as possible to make their rescue.
Michael reached for his radio on autopilot when it crackled to life. “Guerin.”
“I need you out here,” Dana’s voice responded. “They just found a pocket in the rubble and we’ve got two injured officers and a couple of kids.”
“On my way,” he responded regretfully. He didn’t want to leave, but he knew there were other people who needed his help and he couldn’t ignore it just because a friend was probably injured.
“Stay focused,” Tony told him. “We’ve got this and as soon as I know anything I’ll radio.”
“Good luck an’ watch yourself Carter,” Michael agreed and turned to make his way back up to his partner.
His attention shifted back to the other firefighters and he moved in between them to check the stability of the beam as they finished shoring it up. “Let’s hope we don’t have any more explosions before we get them out,” he said quietly as he grabbed his shovel and started pulling loose debris away from the crawlspace.
“Hold on,” JT warned and grabbed Tony’s upper arm with a tight grip.
“What’s – “
The other man bent down and rubbed his hand over the loose debris a few times before he pulled something out. They all swallowed when they saw that it was one of the radios the station used.
“Those blasts were pretty powerful,” Carlos said. “Be easy to lose a radio with all that rockin’ an’ rollin’ goin’ on.”
“At least it’s an explanation why we couldn’t reach them,” Tony nodded and glanced through the crawlspace. “Valenti? Gilyard?”
Kyle cracked his eyes open in spite of the urge to sleep. He opened his mouth to shout out to Tony, let him know where he was, but what came out was little more than a hoarse whisper. They couldn’t hear him, he thought as panic swept over him. He couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, and he had no way to let them know he was still alive. His panicked brain was unable to process anything beyond his situation and the fact that he could hardly breathe.
It was still too dark to see anything but he had to let them know he was alive. He had to at least give them some idea of his location. His left hand clawed through the debris and as his fingers wrapped around a rock the size of a golf ball something in him began to settle. Stay calm, Valenti! He repeated the order over and over in his head until he was focused on nothing more than that rock. He couldn’t move his hand more than an inch or two but he started to rub the rock against something in the debris, hoping it would catch someone’s attention. It wasn’t loud, but he knew from experience it didn’t have to be. The rescue team would be listening for the slightest sound.
Tony sighed when he didn’t get a reply. “I’ll crawl through first,” he told the other firefighters and handed the shovel to JT before he got down on the ground, flat on his stomach. He used his elbows, knees, and feet to move forward and wondered if the much more muscled and broader Carlos would fit through at all. “Valenti,” he yelled again when he got his head past the beam. He held his breath and listened in the mostly silent cavern, frowning at the very quiet, very distant sound, like something rasping against stone.
“What’s going on?” JT asked when he didn’t move any further.
“I’m not sure,” Tony replied and listened again. “Got a sound, not sure what it is.” Could just be a rat, he thought. He cupped his hands around his mouth, “If anyone can hear me and needs help, please knock twice.”
Kyle heard Tony call out but his voice was muffled and sounded far away. How far back had the tunnel collapsed? He knew the drill, knew he would be hollering for anyone needing help to knock twice. They would wait a few long seconds, straining to hear any responding sound. He vaguely realized he was so focused on rescue tactics that he was letting time pass without doing anything to let them know where he was. He tightened his grip on the rock and lifted his hand as far as he could to strike it against the ground, hoping that whatever he had been scratching the rock against was hard enough to make a sound.
Tony almost gave up and started to crawl when he heard the sound again, a bit louder this time. “There’s something, maybe 10 or 15 feet away.”
Carlos ran back to the street opening when the Chief called and a moment later he returned with something that he handed to his partner. JT reached through the small space and poked Carter in the ribs with the end of a high-powered portable search light he had just been given. It would only take moments to assemble and they were going to need more light than their flashlights could provide. “Here, this should give us a better idea of what we’re lookin’ at.”
“Thanks,” he grabbed it and moved forward until he was all the way behind the beam. The cave wasn’t high enough for him to stand, but at least he was able to see the room a little better with the help of the new light. “Fuck,” he muttered. “I can see someone, looks like a little girl.”
JT swallowed hard. “Alive?”
“I’m not sure,” Tony answered while he crawled carefully over the different sized rocks to get to her. “Doesn’t look like she’s conscious.”
He couldn’t see the little girl because Carter was blocking her from view so he started to crawl in the opposite direction. He scanned the low ceiling made up of a large slab of concrete that had dropped in the explosion. He checked with Carter before turning and they carefully and simultaneously placed a couple of the shoring mounts in place before moving in their separate directions.
JT crawled on his belly until he was about a dozen feet in before placing another one and he felt nauseous when he saw the gloved hand sticking up from the rubble. “God,” he whispered before reaching out and closing his own hand around it to see if he could pull the person clear. With so little room to work it made it difficult and after a moment he knew they were going to have to dig the firefighter out.
“No sign of life,” Tony called, his tone one of shock, when he had reached the girl. “She’s dead.” He had to squeeze his eyes shut for a moment to control his nausea when the full injuries of the little body came into sight as soon as he had pulled a few rocks off of her.
“Carter…” JT unfolded the collapsible shovel and started gently dragging the debris away from the body of his fallen comrade. “I’ve got one of ‘em. Don’t know which one it is yet.” As he cleared a spot an arm came into view and he brushed his gloved hand over the skin visible through the man’s torn sleeve. “It’s Dan,” he said when he saw the familiar tattoo the man had gotten decades before when he had been in the military. Dan loved the artwork – a young woman in a sexy pose that looked very much like his wife – and more than once they had seen him tease her about it at barbecues or other get-togethers.
“Is he alive?” Please say yes, he thought and moved from his position to get closer to his partner.
He followed the man’s arm down, knocking more debris away so he could pull it free and he gave a sharp bark of elation when the fingers flexed. “I’ll be damned! Tough old bastard. He’s alive, Carter!” He shook his glove off and checked the man’s pulse. “Pulse is weak but he’s still with us!”
Tony grabbed the radio and pushed the button to speak. “We found Gilyard. Weak, but alive and still buried under debris.” He let go again and glanced around. “I’m gonna try to get through to ya from this side, JT.”
Michael didn’t pause as he worked on an injured police officer but he glanced up at Dana when they heard the news that one of their own had been found alive. He wanted nothing more than to be down there with them as they searched but he knew he had a job to do and it had to come first.
JT was careful as he removed the debris covering Gilyard’s body, not wanting to do more damage than had already been done. “I’ve got it cleared enough for us to pull him free. I hate that we’re gonna have to drag him out.” They had no choice though because there was just enough room to crawl thanks to the collapsed ceiling.
“I’m almost there,” Tony told him, but hesitated when he heard the whispery scratching sound again. Quickly he turned around and saw just a hint of movement in a shadowed area that the light hardly hit because of several rocks. It was only about a foot from the dead girl’s body, he thought, horrified.
“Carter?” JT asked when he heard him moving away from him again.
“I heard somethin’ back this way.” He crawled back the way he had come, maneuvering around the rocks. He paused and snatched the flashlight off of his jacket and swept the beam over the shadowed area. “Valenti,” he muttered in relief when he saw the man’s filthy face. He backtracked, calling for Carlos to send in another of the shoring bars and crawling back to Kyle’s location as soon as he had it in hand.
He wedged it into place on the other side of the man’s body before taking in the full impact of the scene before him. Kyle was trapped under a jagged cement slab, his face a worrisome shade a gray below the dirt and grime covering it. His eyes were open but heavily lidded and they weren’t tracking the light or locking on him even though he was in plain sight now. And there was a trail of blood slowly but steadily trickling from the corner of his mouth.
“Valenti, you with me, buddy?” he asked quietly.
Kyle noticed that someone was near him, but the voice talking to him was muffled and echoed in his head. He couldn't focus on anything and his eyes couldn’t form a clear view even now with the light around. “’-n’t brea-“ he croaked.
Tony grabbed his radio and called for medic assistance. His friend wasn’t responding very well. He was sluggish, his breathing was impaired, and he was most likely bleeding internally. He grabbed his radio again. “Carlos, I need the hydraulic jack. Valenti’s trapped under a slab of concrete and it’s too heavy to move with the limited space we’ve got to work in. And hurry it up,” he shouted, “he can’t breathe!”
The Chief listened to the rescue on the radio and looked around. “Connor, McKency, you go down and give them a hand.”
“Yes, Sir,” the men replied shortly and climbed down the gap in the street, taking the hydraulic jacks with them that Carter had asked for.
Once they were down in the tunnel McKency slipped through the hole and turned to accept the jack. He quickly located Carter and crawled over to him. “I’ll get these set up,” he said and worked his way around them to put the jacks under the corners of the slab. He had come to the station a few weeks after Valenti and the other firefighters had given him a lot of flack over his size at first. He was by far the smallest guy at the station but the first time they had gotten into a tight situation and he had wiggled his way into a space none of the others could get into and proven he could do the job just as well they had stopped razzing him.
Tony glanced back at the others and was relieved when JT, Carlos, and Connor were working hard on getting Dan out. He focused on Kyle, checking his pulse and breathing once again. “We’ll get you outta here soon. Stay with us.”
“Ready.” As the jacks were activated the slab slowly began to lift, giving them just enough room to slide Kyle out from under it.
“We’ll have them both up in a few minutes,” Tony said into the radio. “Immediate transport to the nearest hospital requested.” He moved around slightly. “We need to turn him around.”
Connor quickly shifted, getting into position to help turn Valenti so they could start working him toward the exit. “He doesn’t sound too good,” he said as they carefully but quickly moved the other man into position.
“Yeah,” he agreed, his tone worried. His breathing was raspy with a gurgling sound now and from just quick check he could already tell that he had broken ribs, possibly causing damage to internal organs. “I’ll go backwards, come on.” He started to move backwards, which was anything but easy, but the determination to help his friend helped him to motivate every bit of strength he had left.
Once they reached the opening they stopped and he took his helmet off to wipe the sweat from his brow. He moved aside when he saw the uniformed paramedics coming toward them and it wasn’t until they got closer that he recognized Guerin and Dana. They lifted the board they were carrying and slid it through the opening to him. He was aligning it with Valenti’s prone body when they crowded into the small space next to him and went to work.
Tony glanced at JT, when he came into sight. “What’s up with Dan?”
“Breathing’s shallow and he hasn’t regained consciousness,” the man answered. “Broken bones for sure, but…” he shook his head. “They’re transporting him out now but we don’t know much more about his injuries. At least he’s alive though. God only knows how.” He nodded at Valenti. “What about him? How’s he doin’?”
Tony was about to answer, when all hell broke out around the body of his friend.
“He’s crashing!” Dana shouted and pulled the stethoscope from her ears as she checked his breathing. “Resuscitation, Michael.”
He watched helplessly as they worked on Valenti, trying to stabilize him so that he could be moved. Now that he was out from under the rubble it was even more apparent that his injuries were extensive. He wanted to look away but couldn’t as they finally got him breathing again. They intubated him and Michael monitored his breathing while Dana started checking him for other injuries.
“Let’s get him on the board,” she said after a few minutes.
“How bad is it?” Tony asked.
She shook her head. “We’ll know more when we get him to the hospital.”
Michael collected the medical stuff lying around everywhere and packed it into the case again. He had tried to shut all of his thoughts off while they had been taking care of Kyle, but it wasn't as easy as it normally was… with strangers.
“He’s stabilized. We need to move him now,” Dana let him know.
“Right,” he nodded. A few minutes later they had Kyle loaded in the back of the paramedic’s truck and he glanced back at Tony as he jumped in the back, taking the drip from his partner.
“I’ll catch up with you as soon as I can get away.” He rested his hand on Michael’s shoulder for a moment before he backed up and slammed the doors. He slapped the side of the truck, letting Dana know they were ready for transport.
“Good job,” Chief McCoy showed up at his side and nodded.
“Let’s hope it wasn’t for nothing,” Tony mumbled and glanced at the gap. “There’s still a body down there, little girl. Think Valenti and Gilyard found her and were on their way back when the first explosion happened.”
“I’ll send a retrieval team in to collect the body. We’ve got a team looking into the cause of the explosion, the fire’s nearly under control, and it’s been a long damn night.” He studied the younger man for a few moments before nodding in the direction the paramedic had taken. “I need to notify their families. You get back in there and let’s get this fire stomped out.”
“On my way, Sir,” he nodded and took off, although he didn’t feel like moving another inch at the moment. His body as well as his mind was exhausted, but the job wasn’t over yet.
