Tom Clancy Chain of Command by Marc Cameron
Author:Marc Cameron [Cameron, Marc]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2021-11-16T00:00:00+00:00
34
The fan in the hall bathroom flicked on, nudging Debs from his thoughts. He heard a cough and realized it was Burt, up again to pee. The poor guyâs prostate was likely the size of a tennis ball. It took him a full five minutes to finish up before he wandered out, his scared face bewildered with sleepâand something more insidious. In the old days, when Debs had first met him, Burt Pennington had been a force to be reckoned with, with a stern visage that could make grown men weep. Now his cockeyed mustache and tendency to park his lower teeth in front of his uppers made him look like a human incarnation of Sylvester the cartoon cat.
âWhatcha got there, Leo?â he asked, scratching his ass as he shuffled across the clay tile floor.
Debs leaned back and gave a long, groaning yawn, speaking softly as he might to a small child. âGoing over the routes again, Burt. Timing, that sort of thing.â
âRoutes for what?â The older man moved closer, wide-eyed, interested to see what was going on.
Debs groaned again. âRoutes for the mission . . .â
Burt touched the scar around his drooping eyelid. He did that when he needed a moment to compose himself. The angry pink flesh served as a reminder to those around him that heâd done his bit.
âYeah.â The confusion in his good eye settled as he studied the map in front of Debs. âSure. I get it. I just meant, you know, specifically what routes. Thought Iâd let you talk things through. It always helped me when we talked a plan through . . .â
âI hear you,â Debs said, careful not to show pity. It was an open secret that Burt was getting worse. Burt himself knew, locked in that terrifying moment when he was hyperaware of his own failing mental state. When Leo came aboard, Burt was one of the most capable members of the Camarilla. Aggressive, the fitness level of a decathlete, and weapons skills unmatched even by Debs. Ten years older than anyone else in the group, he served as caustically blunt Dutch uncle, wise elder statesman, and even the father that many of the men never had.
The IED in Côte dâIvoire would have killed Craig Taylor but Burt, the only one of the group wearing a Kevlar helmet, had pushed him away. The blast had scarred his face and, as evidenced with each passing day, wreaked havoc on his brain, particularly his amygdala and hypothalamus. At first some words eluded himâbut they all had that problem once in a while. A year after the accident heâd wandered off on a job in Athens and they hadnât been able to find him. Heâd brushed it off to getting turned around and having all comms on silent. The streets were a nightmare so the team let it slide. He seemed now to be lost most of the time, locked inside his own head. Worst of all, heâd lost all aggression, apologizing even for othersâ mistakes.
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