Apocalypse Dawn by Mel Odom Read Free Book Online Page A

them. She had threatened to tape them and play them at family gatherings.

    “Sir,” Goose said, curbing his impatience and his anger because he knew Remington maintained a no-fly zone for those emotions, “Sergeant Michaels can take care of the evacuation. His qualifications-“
    “Make the adjustment now, Sergeant,” Remington said. “That’s an order.”
    “Yes, sir.” Stung, Goose gave Tanaka the order, then reset the GPS heading himself while Tanaka made the course correction. “New course has been laid in, Captain.”
    “Goose,” Remington said in a quieter voice, “I need you there. The Syrians launched a wave of short-range missiles eighteen seconds ago. Glitter City is one of their targets. ” He paused. “Do what you can to save whatever’s left of them, Goose.”

    United States of America
    Fort Banning, Georgia
    Local Time 11:57 P.M.
    “Mommy, I don’t want you to go! I don’t want you to go!”
    Megan’s heart shattered at the unhappiness in her five-year-old son’s plaintive cries. She wiped tears from Chris’s cheeks and looked into his china blue eyes that were so much like his fathers.
    “It’s going to be all right, little guy,” Megan said as she carried Chris in through the double doors of the staff support building. She’d called ahead to arrange emergency baby-sitting. She’d also left messages on Joey’s pager and forwarded all incoming calls to her cell phone.
    “Daddy calls me little guy,” Chris said petulantly. “Not you, Mommy.”
    “I know. I just felt like calling you little guy. So you can be my little guy the way you are for Daddy. You’re just going to be here a little while. Then we’ll go home.”
    Megan carried Chris on her hip, surprised at how big he’d gotten since the summer. The thought that Goose wouldn’t even recognize his son when he returned from his current tour swept into her mind and brought new pain.

    Extended absences during active tours were a hazard of the kind of soldiering Goose did. He and Megan had talked long and hard about those absences, about how much they affected a marriage as well as any children of that marriage. That was the biggest fear Goose had had about getting married. He’d seen military careers destroy families, and he believed too much in what he was doing to back away until he had finished the career he’d promised himself to deliver.
    And compromise was a hard thing for Goose. He loved his family as fiercely as he loved his country. Having to choose between them would have destroyed him, and Megan knew that. So she chose to be strong for him, to be the woman she had trained herself to be after her first husband had abandoned Joey and her, and to wait for the time that Goose would be home again.
    God willing, she prayed softly. Please, God, be willing. She always kept Goose close in her prayers.
    “No, Mommy! No!” Chris wailed. He butted his head against her shoulder in frustration.
    “It’s going to be all right, Chris,” Megan said. “It’ll only be for a little while. Then I’ll take you home and we can cuddle in my bed. I don’t work in the morning, so we can watch your favorite videos together. I’ll make pancakes. I promise.”
    Right after I get through grounding your brother for the rest of his natural life, Megan thought. Leaving Chris asleep in his own bed would have been so much easier than getting him up, getting him dressed, and getting him upset. If Joey had been home when he was supposed to be, she could have done just that. Her frustration and anger at her older son grew.
    “Okay,” Chris said sleepily. He lay against her more contentedly, and his breath whispered soft and warm against the hollow of her throat. “I love you, Mommy.”
    “I love you, too, baby,” she told him.
    One of the three women on duty in the emergency baby-sitting facilities met her at the door. Since Megan had used the services before and was on file, all she had to do was show her military ID to check Chris