Fireteam Delta by J. Halpin (ebook reader that looks like a book txt) 📕

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

By the time practice had finished, Summers was mentally exhausted, and more than a little annoyed.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rhodes approaching. Turning, he found Asle and a guard with him, along with another man.

That man was bound with rope.

“How’s the first day of school going?” Rhodes smiled broadly at Summers and his recruits. Almost all of them had bowed to Rhodes as he approached.

“I’m making progress.” Summers looked at the bound man. It took him only a moment to realize it was the merchant whose head he had nearly caved in trying to help Synel. “Not that it’s my business, but is there any particular reason you’ve got a merchant tied up?”

“Good, you know who he is.” Rhodes nodded. “This man has been causing problems. He’s been trying to take you to court. Now, I can’t have that, seeing as you work for me, so I’m taking care of two problems at once.”

Rhodes gestured, and the guard began leading the bound merchant to the targets at the far wall.

“Pick your best shooter. I got a new target for him.” Rhodes looked at the recruits in front of him.

Summers froze.

“You want me to use him as target practice . . . ?”

“I want them going into the fight knowing the sight of blood,” Rhodes confirmed.

“And how does a trial prevent me from doing my job?” Summers met Rhodes’s eyes.

Rhodes whistled, and the guard stopped, heading back toward the group. “Am I to understand that you do not want to shoot the man trying to kill you?”

“Kill me?” Summers thought for a moment before he looked down at Asle. “Asle, what the hell is a trial?”

“An honor duel, the same we saw at the caravan.” Asle looked at the bound merchant. “He claims you insulted him.”

“For fuck’s sake. And if I win, that puts an end to this?”

Asle nodded, almost solemnly.

“Fine.” Summers looked to Rhodes. He wasn’t about to execute a man for being on the ass end of an ass-kicking.

Rhodes just smiled. “You sure? I’m saving you heartache here, but if you want the trial, then by all means . . .” Rhodes said something to the guard, and the merchant’s binds were cut. A moment later, there was a spear in his hands.

A guard from the wall was called down, and Summers was given his spear. In a moment, his recruits had assembled into a ring around the two.

Summers somehow thought that there would be more to this . . .

The merchant in front of him had a mad look in his eye, watching Summers with such naked desperation that it was almost worrying.

He barely had time to register a guard shouting something before the merchant sprang forward, the tip of his spear pointed at Summers’ chest.

A part of him felt like an idiot for assuming the man might be grateful.

He dodged to the side just in time to bring the blunt end of his spear down on the man’s back. He’d put enough force into the blow to crack bone. By the audible crunch he’d heard, there was a good chance he’d accomplished just that.

The merchant fell, writhing in pain. It had only been a few seconds since the “trial” began.

“There.” Summers looked down at the whimpering man below him. “Trial done. Now, can I get back to work?”

Rhodes just gestured at the man. “Ain’t done til he’s dead.” Rhodes held his hands up before Summers could say anything. “Not my rules, for once. Ask them.” He gestured to the elves around him.

Each watched Summers intently. Even Asle was waiting, silent. After a moment, she nodded.

He knew he’d be fighting alongside them. He knew that. There wasn’t a moment he believed he could stand by while they used refugees as a shield.

Summers twisted the shaft of his spear, then planted it in the left side of the man’s back.

The man groaned, then stopped breathing. At least he’d saved him from a longer, messier end.

Asle was beside him a moment later, taking the spear in her hand, pressing the bloodied edge to his.

She looked up at him expectantly. “Ceremony.”

Right. The blood.

“Get on with it.”

The tip of the spear cut a shallow line on his hand. He felt it only for an instant before the pain subsided.

“Seems like it’s always the hard way with you.” Rhodes clapped Summers on the back. “Now, if you would, I’d like to continue our little training exercise.”

He gestured to the guard, who hefted the merchant up, dragging him, once again, to the far wall.

“Are you serious?” Summers looked at Rhodes, incredulous.

Rhodes arched an eyebrow. “I don’t think I made myself clear. This is an order.”

Summers watched as the merchant was propped, then tied to the wooden planks they were using as targets.

It seemed no matter what he did, Rhodes got his way.

For now, anyway.

“Orvar, you’re up.”

Chapter 24: Beyond the Walls

“It’s not my imagination. They’re getting longer, right?” Summers felt at his ears.

They had, in fact, gotten longer. And pointier.

“Think he’s right, they’re still growing.” Cortez held Summers by the head, tilting him toward the light.

It had been two and a half weeks since they’d started their little training camp in the city, and since then, Summers’ ears had begun growing into their current, elf-like state. It wasn’t much, but they’d now come to the point where Summers could no longer deny there was something wrong.

“Could be elf is an STD?” Cortez mused.

“It’s not . . . no,” Summers replied, with more than a little annoyance.

“Is this the fog? Because you’re literally going native on us.” Nowak looked at Summers skeptically.

“Christ, maybe? Does anyone know about a drug that