The captain shook his head. Then he gave a quick glance down the hall at all the people milling around the waiting room.
“That’s what I want to give you a heads-up about, Hanwell,” he said then. He took a step closer and lowered his voice. “It’s pretty damning.”
I frowned. “Damning?”
“You made a lot of mistakes today—rookie mistakes, really. I’m surprised at you. And though I’m sure you never meant to—”
I broke in. “What mistakes? I didn’t make any mistakes!”
The captain gave me an uncomfortable look that had a lot of pity in it.
“What mistakes did DeStasio say I made?”
The captain took a breath. Then he put on his reading glasses and lifted up his phone, presumably to read from DeStasio’s report. “Well, for starters, the way you insisted on entering the structure, even though—”
“Ididn’t insist on entering the structure! That was DeStasio! He said he saw a child inside.”
“The report says you saw the child.”
“It washim.”
“Either way, you had standing orders not to go in.”
“That’s what I told DeStasio!”
“But you went in anyway.”
“DeStasio wouldn’t wait. He was going in with or without me—and taking the rookie.”
“You should have waited for orders.”
“We were running out of time. I radioed you at each decision point.”
The captain shook his head. “I had no radio communications from you.”
“I tried. There was only static on our end.”
“The report states that when DeStasio tried to stop you from entering the building—”
This was insane. “Iwas trying to stophimfrom going in!”
“You had no water, no backup, and insufficient equipment—and you recklessly endangered the lives of all three crew members.”
What the hell was going on? “That washim!”
“He had the presence of mind to tie a guide rope to a pole before following you—”
“I tied the guide line!”
“—but when the rookie became disoriented and showed clear signs of cyanide poisoning, you still refused to exit the structure.”
“What?”
“Then DeStasio pulled the rookie to safety and ordered you to give the antidote—over your objections.”
“He’s lying!” I shouted, and when the crowd down the hall turned to look our way, I lowered my voice. “He’s confused.”
The captain looked offended for DeStasio’s sake. “What are you saying, Hanwell?”
