Escalation (Maelstrom Rising Book 1) by Peter Nealen

Author:Peter Nealen [Nealen, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-04-03T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Standing there in the open, staring at the muzzles of those two CZ Bren 805s, was probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Including all the stuff that came later.

I discovered a long time ago that I’m not the kind to just lie down and die, or surrender. I’m not given to looking for fights just because—aside from joining the Triarii, which was explicitly looking for fights that needed to happen, but weren’t; that’s a whole other animal—but I won’t back down from them if I know that I’m in the right. And I just don’t like having weapons pointed at me.

But as far as I could see, this was the only option. It could mean that I was a dead man. It could mean that I’d be a prisoner for an unspecified amount of time before I was either bartered, years down the road, or shot in the back of the head behind some Slovak barn somewhere. That was out of my hands.

But that didn’t stop the urge to suddenly yell for covering fire, turn, and sprint back into the hedgerows for my rifle. A threat is a threat, whether it’s coming from hostiles, unknowns, or friendlies. These guys were currently unknowns, but that could change, real quick.

“I’m an American,” I said as they got closer. Both men who were closing in on me were wearing civilian clothes under plate carriers laden with magazines and grenades. So were the half-dozen or so back behind them on overwatch. “I need to talk to your commander.”

“American?” the smaller man, on my left, asked. His voice was thickly accented. “You do not look like American Army.”

Meaning I wasn’t wearing half my bodyweight in armor. I was in fatigues, chest rig, and a ghillie hood-over.

“I’m not,” I told him. “I’m part of a special unit that came in to fight the Kosovars.” It was true enough. And I knew that the Nationalists had no love for the Kosovars, the Turks, or the Syrians who had been pushed into the country by the EDC. “I do have some regular American soldiers with me. They survived the Germans’ sneak attack on their base.” I also knew, from the intel briefs, just how far the German-Slovak relationship had deteriorated since the EDC had started making demands based on economic blackmail. While it was up in the air just who was really running the EDC, the French or the Germans, a lot of the Nationalists blamed the Germans, especially since the majority of the EDC peacekeepers were Bundeswehr units.

The man studied me. “Where are the others?” he asked. His English, while accented, was clear and precise.

“They’re waiting in the woods for me to make contact,” I said. “Just descending on a town that’s been surrounded by the EDC didn’t seem like a good idea. We might get taken for the bad guys if we did that.” The hackles were going up on the back of my neck as I anticipated another mortar barrage. They had to have drones up that could see this little palaver.

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