The Captain's Cauldron (The Valley Book 2) by Jason Lambright

Author:Jason Lambright [Lambright, Jason]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-06-27T06:00:00+00:00

Four and a half years before Operation Cyclone

Sarah was running around like a lunatic, laughing and burbling as she chased after the cat, a calico named Penelope. Paul sat and watched her contentedly. Sometimes, the toddler would wear on his nerves, but today was not one of those days. Basically, he was babysitting. His wife was off in Morgantown teaching class. Paul’s parents were on a vacation, so he had the whole house to himself.

If it wouldn’t have been for Sarah, Paul would probably be bored and lonely. As it was, he had to keep an eye on her at all times, for his parents’ house had been built long before kid-friendly structures existed. He ticked off a list of places in his head that were no-go zones for the child, such as the scary basement steps. His father had talked for years about building new ones, but it had never happened. Hell, Paul would have bet his grandfather—who was still around at a sprightly 110 years old—had talked about it, too. Maybe Paul would ask him sometime. The steps leading upstairs could also be tricky. The kitchen was full of pots just waiting to be dropped on his daughter’s head… The list went on.

Yeah, he still kicked himself that he was retired in his forties. He beat himself up about it nearly every day, in fact. But the inner voice that cajoled him was growing quieter, and he had tried to do something around his medical commitments.

Several months earlier, he had landed a part-time gig at a furniture warehouse in Wintersville. A well-known chain of halo retail stores operated the place. The massive building was a distribution center for the fleets of cargo drones that would carry stuff off to the customers at their residences. Paul applied for a job as a materials handler.

He had seen the job posted on a halo ad. On a whim, he composed a resume and sent it to the company’s human resources department. A short time later, his halo had pinged. Paul clicked on the icon that had appeared in his visual, and he scheduled a halo interview for the next day.

The next morning, he got up and made himself presentable. He had no idea what was appropriate wear for an interview, so he put on his charcoal-gray suit that he had been married in, with medals still attached. When his countdown clock reached zero, another icon appeared with a woman’s face and title. Paul sat on the couch and accepted the call. The view went full scale, and Ms. Hyacinth Breunig appeared to be sitting in his living room. Of course, on her end, he was sitting in her office. It didn’t really matter, anyway.

The interview began. It went much as Paul expected, and he answered her questions in the most forthright manner that he could. A couple of the questions were awkward.

“So, Mr. Thompson, why is there this gap between your separation from the Forces and your application with us?” The pale, straight-brown-haired woman looked at him with what he hoped was friendly curiosity.

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