Model Soldier by Cat Johnson Read Free Book Online Page A

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,