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

dark, inky pools of black staring out. Summers sat there for a moment, staring into his own eyes.

Then the man’s head exploded.

Summers watched as his body fell to the ground. He could hear someone yelling in the distance. A woman?

His heart was still racing.

The men around him fled for the trees, none looking back. He turned to the gate. Someone with a gun was rushing outside.

Right.

He still needed blood.

Summers took one more step forward and the heartbeat pounding in his ears abruptly stopped.

That probably wasn’t good.

Summers felt the strength leave his body as the ground rushed up to meet him.

Chapter 26: Trials and Tribulations

Summers gasped for breath. He tried sit up, only to be pushed back down. Cortez kneeled over him, her hands pressed against his chest.

Had she been giving him CPR?

“Holy shit, you’re actually alive.” Cortez stared down at him.

Summers only then realized he was in a tent of some kind. He looked around, trying to get his bearings.

“Can you understand me?” Cortez watched him, concerned.

“What . . . ? Yeah?” Summers looked to see thick, black blood pooling around his side. It looked to have been hastily bandaged.

“Stay down,” Cortez instructed. “You were just dead for a solid ten minutes there.”

Summers just stared at her, wide-eyed. “Are you fucking serious?”

“Do I look like I’m joking, you creepy fuck?” Cortez swallowed, trying to hide her anxiety. “Seriously, do you even remember what happened?”

Summers blinked. He’d been fighting, and then he was on the ground. Everything else was sort of a blur.

He heard struggling from outside.

“Don’t think I won’t put you down!”

He recognized Rhodes’s voice, even from a distance.

“Shit,” Cortez muttered, hefting her own weapon and offering him a hand. “Forget what I said. Can you get up?”

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

Summers leaned on the nearby wall to keep himself upright. They quickly found the source of the commotion.

Rhodes stood beside Nisha and three of his men with tight grips on their guns. Nowak had blocked the entrance to the tent, along with Pat, and one of the twins.

Rhodes himself looked like hell. He was pale, and it was clear the injury he’d taken earlier had done more than a little damage.

Rhodes spotted Summers, pointing a finger in his direction. “You have no idea what he is.”

“You want us gone?” Nowak answered. “Give us a fucking boat, and we’ll leave.”

“No. Not now.” Rhodes ignored the man, trying to push past him before Pat stepped in his way.

“He doesn’t deserve this.” Pat looked to Nisha. “Tell him I’ll have my father vouch for him. That should be enough.”

Nisha seemed uncertain, but translated for Rhodes. “The payrst said the councilman—”

“I don’t give a fuck what his daddy says.”

Nisha tensed, but said nothing.

Summers could still hear the intermittent pops from the guards on the wall. The battle hadn’t ended, despite everything. This was just a break in the action.

Men stared down at them from the wall. Mostly at Rhodes, but a few from their own squads. Their weapons weren’t drawn, but Summers could see that changing if things went sideways.

“You don’t want to do this.” Logan spoke from behind Rhodes. “Just let us go. You’ll never have to deal with us again.”

“If it means putting him down, I don’t give a shit what happens afterwards.”

Rhodes looked at Summers with open hostility.

Summers just stared back, more puzzled than angry.

“What the hell is this about?”

Rhodes paused for a moment, seemingly surprised to hear Summers speak. “Name and rank.”

“What?”

“Give me your name. And your fucking rank.”

“Corporal Alex Summers . . .”

Rhodes looked at Summers, genuinely confused.

“We’re not letting this happen.” Nowak spoke, his weapon pointed at the guard beside Rhodes.

Nisha put a hand on Rhodes’s shoulder, gesturing to Pat. Summers had no idea what kind of political clout the kid had, but apparently, it was enough to give the two pause.

Rhodes considered him for a moment before looking back to Summers.

“Tell them I want to hold this son of a bitch on trial.” He looked back toward Nisha. “That’s their law, right?”

Nisha hesitated a moment before nodding.

Summers barely registered what was happening before the guards began to relax. Everyone but Nowak.

“You hear that? We’ll do it nice and fair. He’ll get his moment. So, hand it over, Sergeant.” Rhodes gestured to Nowak’s rifle. “You, too.” He pointed to Cortez.

Summers eyed the men on the wall and the nervous glances they gave each other. For all he knew, Rhodes would tell his men to kill him the moment they let their guard down. But if it meant avoiding a bloodbath, that might be worth it. He put a hand on Nowak’s shoulder.

“Fine. I accept.”

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

They were taken back to the castle shortly thereafter. Nisha had argued that, because both Rhodes and Summers were injured, they should be given time to “prepare.” Whether that had been for his benefit or Rhodes’s, he couldn’t tell.

Pat had explained that Bard and Orvar were injured in the fight and being cared for as his “guests.” He’d commandeered the others in his squad to speak to his father. Summers had no idea what any of that entailed, but the kid had promised him every bit of his support and given him very little reason to doubt it. The others just stared at Summers with wide, terrified eyes. That included the men on the wall.

And so, Summers sat with Nowak, Cortez, and Logan in the common room. Guards had been posted in the hallway outside their door in a not-so-subtle display of power, and although they’d each been armed with rifles, they still watched him with an expression Summers speculated was “barely concealed terror.”

Whether that was a good thing or not was something they’d