Honor of the Clan by John Ringo Read Free Book Online Page B

of it was that Granpa had grumbled so little over the years. She remembered the old rule about officers not bitching in front of the troops, hauled on her game face and tried to think of something to say. Ah.
    "I shall endeavor to satisfy," Cally said, then winked. "Got it covered."
    "Thanks," Shari said, getting up. "Want some tea?"
    "Love some," Cally said as the woman walked from the room. "Now, how do I have it covered?" she asked herself.
     
    Thursday, December 24, 2054
    It was after seven, dark and cold with a harsh wind blowing in off the Atlantic, when Cally finally got a moment to go see Jake Mosovich and David Mueller. She remembered them well, she thought, from their brief visit to Rabun Gap when she was thirteen and a cocky, savage warrior—albeit one eager to learn the mysteries of make-up and men. She had had to think in terms of men. Billy and the other kids with Shari and Wendy were the only actual boys she'd seen in a coon's age, and they didn't count.
    Anyway, Jake and Mueller had made an impression. Mueller, despite his pretty gruesome facial scars, because of the way he looked at her. Oh, he hadn't leered much, but when nobody was looking, and he was preoccupied, it had leaked through. It had made her feel . . . powerful. Not at all like that creep whose knee she'd had to shoot out. And she had to admit that one of the times she'd bent over to pick something up while David was around, she'd dropped it on purpose.
    Therefore, she had no idea who she was looking at when a juved guy, no relative or Sunday as far as she remembered, with "seen action" eyes answered Ashley Privett's door. "I was looking for Jake Mosovich and David Mueller?" she asked politely.
    "You found 'em. They told me you'd changed, Cally, but damn ." He looked her up and down with open appreciation.
    "David?" she asked, blinking. Now she could see it around the eyes. The lack of scars had confused her, but somehow he wore his face as if they were still there.
    "Yeah. I wouldn't have recognized you, either, except there couldn't be two girls on the island to fit your description." He goggled at her breasts cheerfully, as if he sensed that he was one of the few people that she wouldn't have slapped down like a sledgehammer.
    "My eyes are up here," she snapped, but couldn't hide that for once she found it funny.
    "Yup. But I'm enjoying the view."
    She grinned. "I won't slap you unless you keep me standing out here in the fucking cold."
    "Oh, damn. Yeah, come on in." He moved back, opening the door wider and yelling over his shoulder. "Hey, Jake. Got an old friend at the door."
    "Old friend, my ass. I would have remembered. Unless you were two or something." Erstwhile Lieutenant Colonel Jacob Mosovich stepped around the corner out of the kitchen, mumbling around a mouthful of gingerbread.
    "He missed the briefing," Mueller said with a grin.
    "Close. Thirteen," she said.
    " Cally ?" he squeaked. "Damn, girl. You've grown. An' I'm not just talking up ."
    Cally stepped through the black, faux wrought-iron curlicues of Ashley's storm door. A green mat like coarse astroturf absorbed the inevitable sand grains falling off her sneakers.
    She invited herself in and sat in the painted wooden rocking chair, whose gold-colored built-in seat cushions would have been okay without the worn orange terry cloth pillows someone had added for comfort. Unconsciously, she sat on the edge, her weight tilting the chair forward onto the front of its rockers, arms pulled in at her sides almost as if the ugliness of the room and its furnishings could bite her. Ashley was a nice woman, but Wendy's good taste had clearly skipped a generation.
    The men didn't appear to have noticed. David took a seat on the couch at right angles to her, almost knee to knee. The coaster with his glass of iced tea—consumed here even in winter—sat in front of him as if to prove that he wasn't sitting closer than necessary, but just returning to the place he'd left. Jake grabbed the