The Lance by Alex Lukeman

Author:Alex Lukeman
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: mystery & thriller
ISBN: 9781466241688
Publisher: Createspace
Published: 2011-08-17T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Ronnie and Nick met Lamont Cameron at a bar popular with past and present members of the various SOCOM units. It was crowded. It smelled of stale beer and overcooked frankfurters. No one ever came there for dinner.

Lamont looked good for pushing forty. His head was shaved and smooth. His skin was dark reddish brown, the color of fresh ground coffee. His eyes were an odd pale blue, a genetic trait inherited from his Ethiopian ancestors. He had even features, square cheekbones, and an aquiline nose.

A thin, jagged ridge of pink scar tissue cut through one black eyebrow and across his nose, a souvenir from Iraq. He’d left the Seals as a Master Chief. In the Seals that was a real accolade. Lamont was one of the smartest and toughest men Nick had ever met.

He was at a table in the back. He stood up as they approached. The three men high-fived.

“Hey Nick, you look a little rough around the edges.”

“Yeah, good to see you too.” Lamont signaled the waitress.

“Double Jameson’s for me,” Nick said, “soda back.”

“Coke, with a lime if you’ve got it,” Ronnie told her. Ronnie didn’t drink. On the Reservation he’d seen what it could do.

Lamont held up his half empty bottle.

“Another Bud.” When the waitress had gone he said, “Saw you on the tube saving the President’s ass. What were you doing there, anyway? You Secret Service now?”

“Nope. That’s part of what we want to talk with you about. How’ve you been, Shadow?”

“Can’t complain. Nobody would listen anyway.” He grinned, lifted the beer in mock salute.

“How’s civilian life?”

“Not what it’s cracked up to be. I’m staying at my Mom’s for now, keeping her company. Lots of changes since the last time I came home and none of them good. I’m trying to get her to move to a better part of town, but she’s stubborn. Her church is there, her friends. She’ll never move.”

Carter had been to the house. It was in part of the city where the landscape looked like a war zone. Decent people like Lamont’s mother lived with drive-by shootings, gang bangers and iron bars on the windows as part of life. It was one of those places most of America didn’t want to know about. Right in the heart of the American dream, the nation’s capitol. Even the cops didn’t go there unless they had plenty of backup.

The waitress brought the drinks. Nick downed the Irish and ordered another before she left.

“You have any plans?” he said. “What you’re going to do?”

“I know a guy who’s a commercial diver. I was thinking maybe I’d hook up with him. He wants to open a dive school.”

“Pretty tame.” Ronnie lifted his coke, sipped.

“Yeah.” Lamont looked a little depressed. Nick figured it was time to cheer him up.

“What would you say if I told you there’s another option? Not so tame?”

“Not so tame, like whatever you were doing in Jerusalem?”

“Yes.”

“Tell me all about it, amigo.”

During the next hour they filled him in on Harker and the Project.

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.