Model Soldier (6 page)

“An Army staff sergeant,” Blake repeated with a laugh.

“Yeah. What about it?” Hawk straightened his spine, his knuckles whitening around his beer.

Blake shook his head. “It’s just that a few months ago I was you. I was Army Staff Sergeant John Blake. I was a tank commander in Ramadi. We were eyeball deep in snipers at camp to the point we couldn’t even go to chow without body armor. A few weeks before I left, I had to watch one of my men get hit with a vehicle-born IED right in front of my eyes while he was dismounted. He was out of that tank following my orders. Good thing he’s got a hard head and lived.”

Blake shook his head again and took a sip of his beer. “And now look where I am and what I’m doing. I’ve got more shit implanted in my body than I ever knew existed and I’m running around in the Alps playing what’s probably the most expensive game of paint ball on earth. What a difference a bit of time can make.”

Hawk frowned at him. “You’re trying to tell me that a few months ago you were just an normal Joe out there in the sandbox.”

Blake nodded. “Yup. It was my third, and I guess my final tour.”

“So what happened? How did they get you?”

Blake laughed. “You make it sound like they took me hostage and brainwashed me or something.”

Exactly
. At first glance, all the Zeta guys had a bit of that
Stepford Wife
quality to them. Too perfect, too coordinated, too in tune with each other, as if they were humans replaced by robots, just like in that movie.

“I find it hard to believe that they pluck totally average guys out of the theater and turn them into you super soldiers.”

Blake shrugged. “I can’t speak for all the rest of them, but in my case, yeah, believe it.”

“So you are honestly trying to tell me that you are all regular guys, just like me, but with better toys?”

At that, Blake laughed out loud. “Yeah, they…we…do have some pretty amazing toys, half of which Coleman over there invented. Now, he is
not
normal. He’s an actual card carrying genius.”

Noticing that Hawk still didn’t look convinced, Blake continued, “Look. I’m not saying any one of the troops out there would be right for the teams. Of course they’re more selective than that. You have to have certain qualities. Like the capability to work as a group, the aptitude to both lead as well as follow, and to switch between the two on a moment’s notice.

“And it helps to be a language expert like Trey Williams over there, or be able to drop a man with your bare hands like Jack Gordon, or never miss a shot like Jack’s brother Commander Gordon, or be a bomb expert like Bull Ford or a diving and swimming champion like BB Dalton.”

Yeah, Hawk got the idea. All perfectly regular guys.
Sure
. “So what are you? They all have specialties. What’s yours?”

Blake smiled. “I asked Miller that exact question when he mysteriously showed up at camp in Ramadi one day, dressed head to toe in his black body armor. He made quite an impression, I can tell you that.”

“And?”

“He said I had an instinct, some innate ability to think like the bad guys, and that was as valuable a skill as any of the others.” Blake shrugged as if he had trouble believing it himself.

“I’ve been told I have that instinct in me,” Hawk admitted. Staying one step ahead of the baddies, it was a skill that had kept him and his men alive more than once. Or perhaps it was just dumb luck. At this point, Hawk wasn’t so sure anymore.

Blake nodded. “I know you do. I saw it today during the exercise.”

Hawk let out a bitter snort of a laugh. “You mean the slaughter.”

Blake smiled and raised his beer to salute Hawk. “It’s all in the toys, Hawkins. Just the toys.”

Against his will, Hawkins smiled along with him. But god help him if Miller was wrong and the bad guys got their hands on those toys, too.

He was still smiling when Dalton appeared at his side. “So, Hawkins. Your assignment is all set and approved.”

That information chased the short-lived humor right out of him, especially when Blake asked Dalton, “You’re really going to make him go through with that?”

Pretty Boy bobbed his head. “Damn right, I am. A bet is a bet. And besides, it’s all set up and ready to go already.”

Hawk turned to Blake accusingly, maybe even a bit hopefully. “You know what this is about?”

“Oh, yeah. He wanted me to do it originally but apparently I wasn’t right for it now that I’m no longer enlisted Army. Not that I was going to do that shit anyway.”

“If Jimmy told you to do it, Blake, you’d do it. Believe me. How do you think I got roped into it last year? The commander ordered me.”

Hawk had the sudden urge to rip his own hair out of his head. “What is this ‘it’ you are both talking about? Come on, Dalton. I lost. I admit that. I’ll take the stupid assignment, but you at least have to tell me what it is!”

“The orders will be waiting for you back at Hohenfels,” Pretty Boy told him with a warning glance at Blake that said he better not spill the beans in the meantime.

Why was everyone being so mysterious?

“Hey, Hawkins? You got a girl?” A new voice coming from somewhere behind Dalton asked.

What the hell did his love life have to do with anything and who the fuck was asking? Leaning past Dalton so he could identify the speaker as the computer god himself, Hawk answered gruffly, “No. Why?”

“Because after this assignment, you will,” Matt Coleman said, walking in on the conversation uninvited. “Maybe too many of them. Last year, the team had to physically protect BB here from his adoring female fans at a bar. Of course, since they were taking their wet t-shirts off at the time, that wasn’t such a chore.”

Fans?
Adoring
female
fans ripping their clothes off? Hawk glanced at Blake who shrugged and said, “Don’t look at me. That was before my time.”

“So anyway, Hawkins, I wanted to say good job today,” the computer god added, sounding actually sincere.

Reminded again of the loss, and that Matt Coleman and his computers were the cause of it, Hawk scowled. “Yeah, thanks.”

“No really. I mean it. If I didn’t have your entire squad mapped with thermal satellite images so I was able to tell our boys your exact locations, you might have had a chance.”

Thermal satellite images.
Crap. The word “cheaters” sprang to Hawk’s mind again as he let out a disgusted sigh before taking another gulp of his beer.

“Toys, Hawkins. Just toys,” Blake reminded as he grinned once again.

Hawk was starting to really hate these boys and their toys.

Chapter Six

On the flight to Germany, Emily had read and reread every document in the file Katie had given her—the plans and goals for the marketing campaign and, more importantly, the information about David “Hawk” Hawkins. The scarce little there was about him she devoured eagerly.

Too excited to really concentrate on anything, Emily totally ignored both the paperback novel she’d bought at the airport shop and Jai Devereaux, the photographer on the assignment with her. Out of guilt, Emily finally turned the book over to Jai to read on the long, boring overseas flight.

When Katie had decided it was best to schedule phase one of the campaign, the photo shoot, for as soon as possible, Emily hadn’t argued. Katie’s motives for the rush was because, for some reason, she was totally convinced Hawk would back out and they’d have to find a replacement.

Emily’s motives for the rush were very different.

She’d scrambled to secure both a photographer and plane tickets and had done so incredibly fast. Just three days after BB had chosen Hawk, Emily was in the air and on the way to meet him in Germany.

Hawk
. God, she loved that nickname. It was so manly. She glanced down at the file for the thousandth time.
Staff Sergeant David S. Hawkins. Nickname “Hawk”.

Oh, yes. A man with a name like that brought to mind all sorts of images and possibilities, and Emily considered each and every one of them repeatedly throughout the flight, and during the wait for the luggage, and then on the drive to the base at Hohenfels, where she hoped her dreams would finally come true.

“How long until we get there?” she asked for the second time during the drive from the airport.

Behind the wheel of the rental car, Jai raised one dark eyebrow and glanced at her sideways. “Anxious to get there, are we?” he asked.

She may have known Jai for two years now and worked with him on countless of Katie’s marketing campaigns, but that didn’t mean she would be willing to indulge the real reason her hand that held the paper she’d once again taken out shook unsteadily. Prince Charming was just miles, or rather kilometers, away now. And after studying him on paper for days, Emily was already half in love with him.

“Of course, I’m anxious, Jai. This is the first solo assignment Katie’s ever trusted me with.”

“Yeah, about that. How did you get her to do that? She’s usually totally hands on.”

Emily bit her tongue about the pregnancy and instead shrugged. “I didn’t do anything.” That part was true at least. “She thinks I’m ready.”
I hope she’s right
, Emily added silently.

“You’ll do fine.” Jai’s dreadlocks swung as he pivoted his head to glance at her and then turned quickly back to the road as a car right on their tail flashed its lights at them and then passed them in the oncoming lane of traffic.

Damn, people drove fast here in Germany. Emily was certainly glad Jai had offered to drive. Once she could breathe again, she said, “I’ve got some ideas for shots.”

“Sure, shoot.” Jai grinned at his own little joke.

Rolling her eyes, Emily couldn’t help but smile herself. “Well, I’ve been considering what to have Hawk wear. I guess we have to get a few of him in his dress uniform. But I really want a bunch of pictures in those cute camouflage pants, too.”

“Oh, of course. I totally agree. Camo was all over the runways in Milan and Paris this season.”

“I know!” Excited, it wasn’t until she saw Jai’s smirk that Emily realized he was teasing her.

“Sorry, Em. Couldn’t resist,” Jai offered in answer to her scowl.

When she still wouldn’t talk, he prompted, “Go on. What else did you have in mind?”

Glancing at the death grip Jai had on the steering wheel as another car whizzed past, rocking both them and the vehicle, Emily decided the rest could wait. “Let’s see what we find when we get there. We might get more ideas on site.”

“Looks like you don’t have long to wait now because here we are,” Jai informed her.

Emily put down the folder and saw the high fence of the base coming into view. She felt her heart thud harder.

Oh, my
. No, there wasn’t long to wait at all.

Jai slowed the car to a crawl as they neared the two armed, make that
very armed
, guards at the gate. He stopped and rolled down the window. “Jai Devereaux and Emily Price. We’re here to photograph Staff Sergeant Hawkins. We’re expected, I believe.”

“Yes, sir. IDs, please.”

“Got your passport handy?” Jai looked at Emily expectantly as he passed his own to the guard through the open window.

“Um, oh. Yeah. Hold on.” Emily searched through her large and now rather unorganized carry-on and finally, after a brief moment of panic, found her passport in the side pocket. She handed it to Jai, who gave it to the scary guard for his intense scrutiny.

“I’ll have to ask you both to exit the vehicle.”

Emily froze and whispered to Jai, “What did we do? Are they going to search us?” Oh my god! What if they strip-searched her? Was she wearing nice underwear? She couldn’t remember.

“It’s fine, Em. Just do as they say,” Jai assured, looking much calmer than she felt.

Emily stared at Jai, suddenly unable to move. “But…”

“Em. Trust me. Just get out of the car, please…and try to be quiet,” Jai hissed back as the armed and ready guards waited seemingly patiently for them to get out of the car.

Here was an unexpected wrench in Emily’s fairytale scenario, getting strip searched or shot or thrown in a foreign prison or whatever by the guards at the gate.

The one guard who had moved to her side of the vehicle made her so nervous it took Emily two tries to get the door of the car to open. When he told her to leave her bag inside, she nearly passed out from anxiety. Airport security she was used to. Stone-faced men with machine guns calling her “ma’am” as they ordered her about and searched her belongings was quite another.

Although the sun shone brightly, Emily wrapped her arms closer around herself to ward off both the cold air and the chill of fear.

After the one guard had finished inspecting the front and back seats while the other one stood by and watched with weapon in hand, the first camouflage-clad soldier told Jai, “Pop the trunk, sir.”

While Emily decided men in camouflage uniforms might not be so sexy after all, Jai nodded and reached in to hit the button on the door to open the trunk where they’d stowed their luggage and photographic equipment at the airport.

Just as Emily decided she was going to call Katie as soon as possible and tell her she would never take another military assignment again, a soldier rushed toward them in a light jog. Instinct had her taking a step back, until she noticed he was smiling and had his hand extended in greeting. The fact he wasn’t armed with some kind of machine gun also helped calm her immensely.