Leonid
Our marine breaks eggs. We grab chunks of black bread and sop them up. Hmmm, good stuff. Double good when I not do it. He complains we don't have the "right stuff" and we should try his "pulled pork". He can make own hand jobs.
Kapitan takes most of us for errands. Doc gets dropped off for do good at hospital. Rest of us go to see George, our friend with American GRU the DIA. Don and Ed watch car while she takes me into the house. They talk too much.
"Those tags and logs you gave me have my superiors stirred up. They're something we're supposed to be on the look out for."
Kapitan lets quiet speak for her. Technique works well, George fills the silence. "Bad ass special ops team code-named Zulu. The records indicate they succeeded in grabbing their objective. Did you find anything?"
"We found a lot of things George.You're going to have to tell me what it is you're looking for." There goes my dreams of a record player.
"Two items captain. One should be a research log, either in a journal or in a graph book, sorta like what you did labs in back at school. The second is a prototype, rough worked, bigger than a breadbox, but smaller than a truck. We're not really sure what it looks like."
"I gave you all the written material we found. What's this thing supposed to do."
"You know I shouldn't say."
"So, we shouldn't be here either."
"Look, I don't have many details, but I can tell you it would make reconstruction much easier if we can get it back home."
No, don't ruin my plans for music, dancing and parties. I never told you about the parties. I hum tunelessly. Kapitan looks back over me and shakes, no.
"I got something to show you George, back at the house."
----------
I smell it as soon as I enter the front hall. Cordite and blood. My hands flick off my safety. "Stop."
I bring the AKR up and step around the Kapitan. "Smell it."
"Yeah." She pulls her handgun. "George, back to the jeep. Some thing's happened."
I glide down the hall. Kapitan's got my back. I hear the city and street. Nothing further in for now. The basement door stands open. The door jam and wood floor scarred by the impact of something heavy. Something that came up from where we placed the box.
"I see it," from Kap.
"I go, you stay."
"Right." And I'm headed down. Slow steps, near the edges, no creaks. Our marine lies against the wall near where the box had been. Blood pools in his lap and around his legs. I ignore him, section the room. Nothing, nothing, nothing. Check the coal room, empty.
Basement secure I check on our marine. Pulse and breath still there. He doesn't have his vest on. Two sodden holes are punched through his shirt."Kapitan, Lou's down, still breathing!"
She takes care of him while I return to the main hall. Donald's in at the door. We make sure of the rest of the house. Some one's tossed our rooms. Made off with Don's stash from Chestochawa and that of a few of the others. The air vent in my room is undisturbed. I don't check, the others don't need to know where my stash is.
By the time we finish, Lou's sitting a the kitchen table with a swath of bandages wrapped around his middle. Pale faced he recounts his story to the Kapitan.
"We were checking the gear from the countryside haul. Randy said he needed a dump. He came back with a shotgun. Gave me both barrels."
"Good thing you were wearing your vest then." He starts to protest and she talks right over him. "Have to let Doc get a look at you for the ribs. You must have hit your head when you fell."
Looking over at George, "Those head wounds bleed a lot. George. We got some business to attend to. Put the word out to look for that Cutler bastard. Ed will get you wherever you need to go. We got a rat bastard to catch. Ed, grab Doc after you drop him off."
No comments:
Post a Comment