0312. Second floor, last door on the left. The squeeze comes up the stack, the door goes, and the man in the bed has an alarm set for 0600 that is never getting its chance. Somebody has to say the first words he hears. On every team it is the same guy, and he says them at the volume of a mom on a school morning. Years later, back home, that guy has a kid with a 0630 bus and the exact same method. Door open, overhead light on, already standing at the foot of the bed. He has not knocked once. The 14-year-old now sleeps in his shoes.

THE DEBRIEF

Wakey on the left, Wakey on the right, in speckled brush script with no punctuation. Between them, one operator in line art, squared up and cut off at the belt: helmet, four-tube NODs, balaclava, vest with three mags up front, an antenna over one shoulder, gloved hands, and a suppressed carbine pointed straight at you.