Crimson Strike by Peter Bostrom

Author:Peter Bostrom
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2020-04-20T04:00:00+00:00

20

THE COSMART FACTORY was in flames when my team—including Panthra and Harker—made our way back to Patel and the rest of the Peacekeeper soldiers. Kovac was walking next to Lopez, who was still shaken from her near-miss with Mohawk and upset that it was Winnifred who had saved her. Rand had slung his duffel bag over his shoulder as we walked and was examining Panthra’s green- and orange-striped coat for damage from her battle with the werewolves. Winnifred and I brought up the rear.

“So,” I said, taking advantage of the few moments I had with her. “What’s the Dominion like in your universe?”

“More powerful than you can imagine,” she said. “And twice as evil.”

“And the Resistance?”

“Heroic,” Winnifred said. “Just as you would expect. But our numbers are dwindling.” She frowned. “Hence, this desperate mission.”

I wanted to ask more, but just then, we arrived. A large group of soldiers had circled around Patel, who was standing on the square hood of a Peacekeeper transport and addressing the assembly. The moment shes saw us, she stopped talking abruptly and, raising her voice, said, “I assume the mobile command center was compromised?”

I shrugged in response, hoping that didn’t qualify as falsifying a military report. I had enough strikes against me already.

As Patel tilted her head to the side, I could practically see the gears turning inside. It was as if she was calculating exactly how much time she would lose by berating us in front of the others.

At the same time, one of the soldiers closest to us turned around, his eyes widening upon seeing Panthra. The moment he raised his plasma rifle, Kovac stared hard with his watery blue eyes, raised his weapon, and boomed, “Don’t do it, soldier. She’s on our side.”

Two back to back four-word sentences. I gave him a mental high five.

The soldier sheepishly lowered his weapon and turned back around.

“As I was saying,” Patel said, turning her gaze back to the other soldiers, “we still don’t know what their strategy is, so our mission is to first contain, then eliminate the enemy—and right now, anything with fangs is the enemy, even if it used to be a civilian—or a soldier.”

There was a nervous mumbling among the assembled group, but Patel kept talking. “I’ve sent a small team ahead to make sure the locals have all been evacuated. Three transports are also carrying advance teams into position—Kappa and Lambda squadrons will flank the north side of the park, while Sigma and Tau squadrons flank the south side. I’ll set up my command just inside the entrance.”

A couple of soldiers toward the back of the circle kept looking back at Panthra and nervously played with their plasma weapons. She let out a long, deep growl, and the two quickly returned their attention to Patel’s direction.

“The rest of you,” she continued, “will proceed forward according to the order of your unit designation. And our favorite team of fire-starters will bring up the rear—along with their pets.”

Murmurs of approval and chuckles ran through the crowd.

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