Snippet #2277398

Desmond turned to Delryn as he spoke of the mission as a success and shook his head, his gaze passing to the black bag in the middle of the plane, “Yes… a rousing success, that’s exactly how the boys upstairs will see this, the elimination of three Class 1 targets with only one confirmed loss…” his eyes were glazed, unable to pull away from the body, “That’s their cold calculus, but between me and you I can only chalk this up as an absolute failure… one loss is far too many.” He sat there for a moment, Artemis looking at the general from the corner of the airframe and Anora sitting with her head in her hands, Daniel wasn’t speaking as he stood at the entrance to the cockpit. After a few moments the General stood and moved to the bag. He knelt and gripped the zipper, pulling it down to expose Sam’s face. His eyes had been closed by Daniel after they had retrieved his body so he could have been asleep, however the blood stained neck and clothing gave the truth more volume. Reaching into his pocket the General took out two silver coins and placed them on Sam’s eye’s, muttering something in some foreign language before resealing the bag and stepping to the front of the bird, instructing the pilots to head for the Academy instead of the Capitol Air Command Base.