Summary

Veck carries the angel into the poisoned air and tries to force her to grant his last wish, but the gas destroys him faster than any command can take hold. Still handcuffed to the German Fahrpanzer, Bagger tries to identify the chemical attack by memory and instinct while the cloud eats at Veck’s body. Veck staggers through the haze, screaming apologies to Naomi, and in his panic he crashes into wreckage and punctures the flamethrower’s tank. The fuel ignites in a sudden blast that tears Veck apart and knocks Bagger unconscious.

In the darkness that follows, Bagger drifts through a vision filled with his father’s sermons and the language of scripture, as if the war has rewritten his mind into biblical cadence. He perceives the angel as something shifting and monstrous before she settles again into the woman in the red...