"I'm sorry," the commander said, exactly the wrong words to come out of her mouth. "It's impossible. You have to go without him."

She clearly had a different definition of impossible than I did. "I'm not leaving," I said in no uncertain terms, "without Max."

So there, Order lady. Take that.

Before the big, burly woman could express her unhappiness with my statement, Oliver leaned closer to me and addressed her over ...