Afghan Sunset: A Jackson Pike Novella by Patrick Adams

Author:Patrick Adams [Adams, Patrick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B00D5X0Z36
Published: 2013-07-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15:

Military Special Operations training teaches you to be constantly vigilant, to always expect an assault at the most unexpected time. It is an awareness bordering on paranoia.

And it had already saved my life once in the past twenty-four hours.

The awareness in the back of my mind was heightened.

But I was not afraid. Leigh and Clementine were safe. And I could handle myself.

As the thick metal door to my cell clanged shut and the long steel bolt slid closed on the outside, I let out a deep breath and sat on the edge of the uncomfortable bed.

Waiting.

I sat like that for a long while. My awareness heightened, my body in a state of near rest.

Light streamed through the small window in my cell. It had to be mid afternoon by now.

Still there had been no aggressive action. No enemy to rail against.

The waiting was truly the hardest part of any operation.

There was a time when my extremities would have trembled at the surge of adrenaline that came before a combat operation.

Not anymore.

I looked down at my hands. They were steady.

I waited.

The attack never came.

The buzzer did.

I opened my eyes from the state of near rest I had placed myself in. It was a form of meditation that I had learned from long flights in uncomfortable conditions, and long hours in the decompression chamber of submarines.

You could call it a subconscious awareness of your conscious surroundings; a waking sleep.

I shook myself from the heightened awareness and dulled emotions of the meditative state and stood.

I plied my sore back and stretched to my full height. It was uncomfortable. Slouching would have taken the pressure off of my back, but I wanted to portray no sign of weakness.

So, I smiled through the pain and nodded to the chubby young Petty Officer who waited beyond the door to my cell.

He returned the nod, and I stepped down the corridor slowly, his footsteps echoing behind me. Ahead, the normally bright fluorescent lights of the dining hall were dark. I glanced around. The sun had set at some point while I had straddled the border of consciousness and sleep in my cell.

Awaiting the attack.

The attack that was happening right now.

I spun, but was too slow. The guard's Taser dug deeply into my side. My side and back exploded in pain as I collapsed hard to the concrete floor below. As my world dimmed, the light draining from the periphery of my vision, I saw the young guard above me smile, his crooked teeth bright white in the dim hallway, a gleaming pair of handcuffs in his hands.

The stun effect of the Taser lasted for about a minute, best I could tell. When I came to, still groggy and disoriented, the guard was pulling me to my feet.

"You shouldn't have done that". He said.

I shook my head, vainly trying to clear the cobwebs.

"Attacking a guard is grounds for transfer to solitary confinement." He flashed the crooked, joyless smile again as he halfway pulled me down a long gray hallway that ran perpendicular to the entrance of the dining hall.

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