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blonde woman and Autumn exchanged more hand signs, but Autumn wasn’t speaking aloud; just watching and responding with her hands.

      After a moment, Autumn reached for the woman’s hand. “Autumn,” she said, putting her hand to her chest.

      “Autumn?” the blonde asked.

      “Yes.”

      “Autumn.” She put her hand to her own chest. “Tin Tin Ban Sunia.”

      “Tin Tin Ban Sunia. What a beautiful name.”

      Tin Tin Ban Sunia led Autumn to the other woman. “Liada,” she said as she put the two women’s hands together. “Autumn,” she said to Liada.

      “Liada,” Autumn said. “I am so glad to meet you.”

      The three women walked together toward the horses, away from the platoon.

      Liada smiled. “Autumn.” She spoke some other words.

      Autumn touched Tin Tin’s cheek. “That’s not a tattoo.”

      “What is it?” Kawalski asked on the comm.

      “It’s scarred over, and it looks very much like a brand.”

      “She was branded?” Kawalski asked. “Like a cow?”

      “Yes, and from the looks of the scar, it was done a long time ago. It’s like a pitchfork, with a snake winding around the shaft. Then there’s an arrow going across the shaft.”

      Tin Tin smiled and reached to turn Liada’s face to the side.

      “Liada has one just like it,” Autumn said. “They were both branded when they were children.”

      Tin Tin spoke to Liada while using sign language for Autumn’s benefit. She motioned toward the platoon and touched Autumn’s shoulder. Liada pointed toward Alexander. All three looked at him. They were about thirty yards away. As Alexander squirmed under their gaze and shifted Autumn’s rifle to his other hand, Kawalski laughed.

      “Knock it off, Kawalski,” Alexander said.

      “Right, Sarge.” Kawalski grinned.

      “He is Alexander,” Autumn said to Liada.

      “Alder…” Liada said. “Alexder?”

      “Yeah, that’s a hard one. Just call him ‘Sarge.’” She smiled. “Sarge.”

      “Sarge?” Liada asked.

      “Yes, his name is ‘Sarge.’”

      Tin Tin and Liada spoke to each other for a moment, repeating the word “Sarge” several times.

      Liada tapped Autumn’s helmet with the back of her fingers and raised her shoulders.

      “Oh, this thing?” She unbuckled the chinstrap and pulled off her helmet, letting her long black hair fall. She handed it to Liada. “Helmet.”

      “Helmet?” Liada took it and looked it over.

      Tin Tin reached to touch Autumn’s hair. She smiled and said something as she ran her fingers through the waist-length black strands.

      “Thank you,” Autumn said, “but it must be a mess.”

      She took a brush from an inside pocket of her jacket, pulled her hair over her shoulder, and began brushing. Tin Tin Ban Sunia was fascinated with the hairbrush. She said something to Liada.

      “Oh, God,” Kawalski said on the comm. “Here we go. First the hair, next they’ll talk about makeup. After that, it’ll be the clothes.”

      Liada looked at the helmet, cocking her head to the side and wrinkling her brow.

      “I think Liada hears us,” Karina said.

      Autumn flipped her hair back over her shoulder and handed her brush to Tin Tin, who smiled and tried to brush her hair, but it was too tangled.

      “Here,” Autumn said, “let me show you.” She pulled Tin Tin’s hair over her shoulder and began at the ends. Her hair was almost as long as Autumn’s. “You know what? Some women would kill for naturally curly hair.”

      Autumn and Tin Tin continued to talk and use hand signs as Autumn brushed Tin Tin’s hair, but the rest of the platoon could no longer hear them.

      “I think you’ve lost control of this one, Sarge,” Kawalski said.

      Alexander agreed.

      Tin Tin motioned toward the platoon and asked a question. Autumn raised her right arm and pointed toward the southeast. She made a rising and falling motion with her hand, like something far away over the hills. She then gave the brush to Tin Tin to free her hands and asked in signs, “What is this place?”

      Tin Tin spoke, but the platoon couldn’t hear what she said. Autumn touched the sleeve of Tin Tin’s tunic, feeling the material. Tin Tin asked something about the zipper on Autumn’s camo jacket.

      “What’d I tell you?” Kawalski said. “Here we go with the clothing. Lipstick can’t be far behind.”

      “Kawalski,” Karina said, “you don’t even know what’s important in life, do you?”

      “Well, apparently it’s hair, clothing, and makeup. The Apache seems to have forgotten about ‘Where are we?’, ‘Who are you people?’, and ‘What’s up with all those elephants?’”

      Liada lifted the helmet toward her ear, obviously curious. She glanced at Autumn, raising her eyebrows.

      “Sure, put it on.” Autumn made a motion toward Liada’s head.

      “Hey, Sarge,” Lojab said. “You see that?”

      “This should be interesting,” Alexander said.

      “Can she hear us?” Sparks asked.

      “Sure, if the Apache has the comm on.”

      “Hey, babe,” Lojab said.

      When half the platoon began talking at once, Liada uttered an exclamation and yanked off the helmet. She looked inside, then around the outside of the helmet, finally handing it to Tin Tin, saying something to her. Tin Tin looked inside but shook her head.

      Autumn leaned close to the mic in the helmet. “If you guys are going to talk to the ladies, do it one at a time. Otherwise, you’re scaring the hell out of ’em.” She motioned for Tin Tin to put on the helmet as she flipped Tin Tin’s hair back over her shoulder.

      Tin Tin handed the hairbrush to Liada, then carefully slipped on the helmet as she cocked her head to the side and listened. Her eyes widened.

      “Sarge?”

      “Sarge?” Liada asked as she began brushing her hair as she’d seen Autumn do for Tin Tin.

      Tin Tin tapped the side of the helmet, over her right ear. She said something else to Liada, then both of them looked toward Alexander, who smiled and tapped the side of his helmet. Autumn pointed to the tiny mic embedded in the inside edge of the helmet and made a talking motion with her hand.

      Tin Tin spoke into the mic. “Tin Tin Ban Sunia.”

      “Sarge,” Alexander said.

      Tin Tin smiled. “Liada,” she said and pointed to her friend.

      “Liada,” Sarge said.

      “Autumn,” Tin Tin said.

      “Yes, Autumn Eaglemoon.”

      “Yes,” Tin Tin repeated. “Autumn Eagle Mon.” She smiled at Autumn.

      “Hey, Sarge,” Lojab said. “I saw her first. Let me talk to her.”

      Tin Tin looked around for the source of the new voice. Alexander pointed to Lojab.

      “Lojab,” he said into his mic.

      “Lojab,” Tin Tin said.

      “Hi, Tin Tin.” Lojab waved.

      She waved and smiled. “Misplace

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