Eyes of the Hammer (The Green Berets) by Bob Mayer Read Free Book Online

Riley sourly. "Laugh all you want, guys. You're just damn lucky that one of those National Guardsmen was a Plattsburgh city cop and knew that state trooper. Otherwise, you might have spent the night in the local lockup until they got it straightened out."
    Partusi shook his head. "I thought the air force police were supposed to notify the local cops and state police of the exercise."
    Powers snorted. "They said they did. You know how that goes. Somebody always doesn't get the word."
    Riley stood up from where he had been reviewing his notes. "All right, let's get our act together. We have to brief their colonel in a minute or so. I want you all to remember not to throw stones or drop dimes. Let's keep this thing professional."
    Powers looked at the team leader. "I tell you what, Chief. I'm still kind of pissed off about the way they stopped my truck going off post. Those asshole toy cops had live rounds in their guns. Somebody could have gotten hurt. And that somebody could have been me."
    Riley sympathized with his senior noncommissioned officer. Powers looked like a not-so-gentle teddy bear sitting on top of a table in the back of the briefing room. "I know that, Top. I've already talked to Colonel Pike about it. But they didn't expect us to hit them in two places. Those guys who stopped you didn't know what was going on. We'll let the air police talk first and see what they have to say."
    Powers shook his head, still irritated with the whole thing. He was glad Riley was doing the briefing on this one. Not only could the team leader speak quite well, but his name and appearance always surprised people when they first met him, and Powers liked watching the reaction. Riley himself was used to the surprise. His last name conjured up visions of a freckle-faced Irishman. At the very least, it was difficult to connect that name with the short, wiry Puerto Rican wearing the silver bar with two black dots indicating U.S. Army chief warrant officer.
    Another strength of Riley's was that he exuded competence during briefings. It was hard to attribute to any one aspect of his appearance; it was the complete picture—the finely honed face, the piercing black eyes, the slim body that suggested a lot of power per pound. Most importantly, just the way he held himself.
    Riley's demeanor was carefully cultivated. Standing only five foot seven inches and weighing a lean 145 pounds, Riley had learned long ago the importance of first impressions. The product of a brief marriage between a long-forgotten Irish father and a Puerto Rican mother, Riley had learned his lessons at an early age on the streets of the South Bronx. He'd discovered that if he looked tough, then most often he didn't have to actually prove it was true. But Riley also knew how to follow through when it was necessary.
    Riley looked up as the door to the room swung open and Partusi called out "Attention!"
    The air base commander, Colonel Albright, walked in, followed by his staff and the major in charge of the air police on post. Trailing the party limped Colonel Pike. The old-looking army officer was in charge of the Department of Defense's nuclear facility testing team in addition to the many other jobs he did as army assistant to the DCSOP- SO. Pike presently had four Special Forces teams working for him on the project, one from each of the active army Special Forces groups. The teams traveled to every Department of Defense installation that held nuclear weapons and tested how well the weapons were safeguarded. Pike made it a point to attend every team's outbriefing at the installations they had tested. Riley had never met a senior officer he respected more than Pike.
    Pike was a legend in the Special Forces community. At the beginning of his army career, he'd been an enlisted man and served two tours with Special Forces in Vietnam. Because of the high quality of his performance of duty, he'd been recommended for officer candidate school (OCS) during his second tour.