Blood Red: a Rob Walker thriller by John Etterlee

Author:John Etterlee [Etterlee, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Independent
Published: 2023-01-29T16:00:00+00:00

TWENTY

ALL WAS QUIET IN the room as a group of Ukrainian special ops soldiers sat at a folding table in the corner, playing cards to kill some time.

Near a row of lockers on the other side, Rob and Riley were keeping busy, cleaning weapons and the glass on their gun optics. Rob alternated between wiping his rifle and adjusting his kit. He wasn’t a fan of the downtime. But that was almost always the way it was in combat, periodic engagements mixed with bouts of boredom.

Rob removed the bolt from his M4 and dabbled a little oil onto it. He rubbed it in until a light film lubricated it. He jolted the bolt forward and inserted the tip into his rifle. He slid the charging handle onto it and pushed it into the rifle with his thumb. Rob slammed the M4 together and pressed the rear takedown pin until it locked in place. He grabbed his ACOG, or advanced combat optical gunsight, and mounted it to the rail on top. Rob set the weapon against the wall and snatched his M2010 rifle to clean it.

In a room nearby, Eight Ball was pacing with his satellite phone to his ear. Rob peeked around the edge of the doorway and saw him in a heated discussion with someone, possibly his superiors.

A few minutes later, Lieutenant Petrenko came marching down the hallway. He peeked his head into the room.

“Master Sergeant Walker.” His voice bounced off the walls. “You have a call in my office.”

Rob stood up and glanced over the lockers. “Who is it?” he asked.

“It is your commander,” replied Petrenko.

“Shit,” Rob said to Riley, propping his long gun up with the other one. “Be back in a minute.”

Rob made his way down to the lieutenant’s office. He entered and snatched the phone from the table.

“Master Sergeant Walker,” he said.

“Walker,” the voice replied. “Give me a sitrep.”

“Sitrep” stood for situation report.

The caller was the Charlie Company commander, Major John Wilkins.

“Major?” Rob asked.

“Don’t mess with me, Walker. I need a report on the attack in Warsaw, anything you know. The colonel is on my ass to figure out what happened. And the general is on his ass. You know how this works. What can you tell me?”

Rob hunched forward against the desk and held the phone to his ear with his shoulder.

“Sir,” he replied, “we’re still working on determining who planted the bomb. We have a lead and are running with it. It’s just going to take some time.”

“What kind of lead?” Wilkins asked. “Talk to me.”

“A piece we found in the wreckage, Major. There’s an old friend of mine, an agency guy here who’s helping us. We’re also running it through the local bomb expert. But we think it’s the same people.”

“What same people, Master Sergeant?”

“The same people who killed Wells, the same people who killed General Lipko, the same people causing carnage across Ukraine, sir.”

Rob could hear the major clearing his throat.

“What makes you say that?” Wilkins asked.

“It’s a hunch, Major,” said Rob.

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