Hostiles by Ethan Johnson

Author:Ethan Johnson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Arcturus Press
Published: 2019-09-21T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Diane sat in briefing room 1A two hours later. Hathaway took a seat beside her and grunted. He had dark circles under his eyes and looked like he hadn’t slept for days. Diane nudged him and whispered, “Is everything okay?”

Hathaway muttered something under his breath and nodded. He took a long pull from a paper coffee cup and exhaled with a loud hiss. Diane decided not to push the issue. She figured they could talk in the cruiser, away from people who didn’t need to hear about any personal problems her partner was having. She shot an annoyed glance at Gabe, who pretended to follow the path of a gnat around the briefing room as justification for looking in her direction.

Sergeant Addison kicked off the briefing at 7:00 A.M. sharp. He looked around the room and nodded with an intense air that made Diane sit up straight. Hathaway slumped in his seat and sipped his coffee.

“Okay, ladies and gentlemen, some serious stuff is going down, and Panther’s under the microscope big time,” the sergeant intoned. “Everybody’s gonna have to put on their big girl panties and man up.” Diane cocked her head at this but didn’t speak. None of the other officers said anything. The room rustled with the sound of people shifting in their seats. The sergeant continued. “It’s, uh, come to my attention that not everyone is on board with certain changes, and that needs to end pronto ASAP.” He pronounced the abbreviation “ay-sap”, which threw Diane off. She focused on “pronto” and assumed the second word was similar. Her forehead began to ache in response.

Sergeant Griggs swiveled in his seat and addressed Diane’s side of the room. “Some of you seem to think the rules don’t apply to you. That it’s perfectly acceptable to go off in your own direction at the expense of the team. If that fits your description,” he glowered at Diane as he spoke, “you are mistaken. The Panther Division has no place for—”

Sergeant Addison raised his hand and waved Griggs off with an air of disgust. “Stand down, Oliver. I’ve got this.” Sergeant Griggs grimaced at the interruption and turned to face the lectern once more.

“Yes, of course, Vincent. I merely intended to reinforce the gravity of the situation, to show a united front.”

“Noted and appreciated Sergeant, but again, I’ve got this. So, like he said, we’re a team here, and that means we don’t just wear the same uniform. We all have to sing from the same sheet of music, and we all have to keep our eye on the ball. Any stray ducklings have to be brought back into the herd, you get me? Panther gets it done, period. We all succeed, or nobody does, capiche?”

Diane looked around nervously. Hathaway took another sip of coffee and seemed to be shutting her out. Was this about last night? I was done with my shift. What I do after hours is my business, she thought darkly. He probably didn’t spend time getting tortured last night, or swim across the Hudson.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.