The Arizona State Guard Trilogy by Jeffrey M. Fortney

Author:Jeffrey M. Fortney
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2017-11-03T00:00:00+00:00

***

June 28th

Omega Mining Compound

Northwestern, AZ

Shortly after sunrise, the three men approached the camouflaged location of the remainder of the team. Again, Mokri gave a coyote call, which was quickly answered by Cowen, who then stepped from his hidden observation post. The men greeted one another then walked over to where Templeton and their concealed vehicles waited. Mokri removed the evidence bags containing the radiological sample and put them in a compartment of his ATV.

After greetings were exchanged again, Cowen examined Caldwell's ankle. SGM Templeton stepped over to LTC Roman and said, "Sir, I think you should see something." With that, the senior NCO led Marcus out of the camouflaged outpost and further up the dry wash. Reaching a spot with several large stones set on the dry sand, Templeton reached into the sand, gripped the edge of a sand covered tarp, and pulled the tarp up and away.

Marcus was stunned by the grisly sight under the tarp. It was the remains of a human being; a man based upon the remaining clothing. The body was badly decayed and partially animal chewed. As Marcus leaned closer to check the body, Templeton touched his shoulder and spoke softly. "I wouldn't do that, sir! We checked and this man is contaminated with radioactivity. Even the animals don't like more than a couple of bites before leaving him alone."

LTC Roman looked up at his senior noncommissioned officer then looked back at the dead man. Templeton, meanwhile, picked up a small, dead mesquite branch and pointed to the man's exposed wrist. "Look at this! This area is more heavily damaged than the rest of the body...and it's not from animal bites."

Rocking back on his heels, Marcus paused to think then said, "Okay, let's see if we can get this guy uncovered then wrapped up in some tarps. We need to take him back for examination, even at the risk of some radiation exposure to ourselves. Hell, Abe found some kind of radioactive chemical back at the compound and brought a tiny sample out."

"Maybe we could rig some kind of travois that we can tow behind one of the ATVs?" suggested Sergeant Major Templeton. Marcus grinned and clapped his old friend on the shoulder. Leave it to Temp, he thought, to come up with a means to literally drag this man's remains back to civilization while providing us with a little distance from the contamination.

"Great idea, Temp! Let's get to it," said Marcus. Back at their encampment, Marcus explained their plan while Templeton gathered two of the long branches they had found and used as part of the camouflage for their temporary outpost. Using ropes and another tarp, the old NCO fashions a frame with the tarp slung between the two branches. Templeton lashed the point of the triangular structure to his ATV's tow hitch and fired up his vehicle.

Templeton and Mokri drove their ATVs over to where the dead man lay in the wash and used their entrenching tools to uncover the body. Once the

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