"They will," the captain said, with a glance toward the nurse that warned someone's head would roll if they didn't. "You'll have it by the time I come back for you, in half an hour or so. A couple of other fellows here I want to scoop up if I can."

A doctor gave Theo the codeine and a reproachful look. "You should stay longer. You're nowhere near healed."

"I'll manage," Theo said. "I'm sick of laying around."

"Lying," the doctor said automatically.

"No, sir. I'm telling the truth."

"Right." The doctor looked more reproachful yet. Theo hadn't thought he could. "Maybe we're lucky to get rid of you."

"Maybe you are. Most of me doesn't need the bed-only my hand."

When the panzer captain came back for Theo, he had one other fellow (who walked with a limp) in tow and a discontented expression on his face. "The last guy I want is shirking," he growled. "I'd bet my last mark on it even if I can't prove it. Well, I just have to make do with you two. Let's go."

They'd laundered Theo's black coveralls. Putting them on again did feel good. The other panzer crewman, whose name was Paul, seemed to feel the same way. Once he had the black on, he stood taller and straighter and seemed to move more fluidly.

The captain bundled them both into a Citroen he'd got somewhere or other and headed west. They drove past and through the wreckage of a nearly successful campaign. Dead panzers-German, French, and British-littered the landscape, along with burnt-out trucks and shot-up autos. Here and there, German technicians salvaged what they could from the metal carcasses.

Just outside of Mondidier, the captain stopped. "You boys get out here," he said. "We're regrouping for a fresh go at the pigdogs. They'll fit you into new crews."