The Spawning by Tim Curran Read Free Book Online Page A

got the order, they’d slit your throat.
    â€œOkay everybody,” Special Ed said. “Let’s load up and head back.”
    â€œI don’t think we should,” Flagg said to him, never taking his eyes off of the good captain. “We scrambled and came out here almost ten miles from the station and we did that because it’s standard procedure. And now this guy is trying to order us off. I think we better stay. I think something about this whole situation really stinks.”
    Suddenly, it got very quiet.
    Dayton was bristling, not used to having his authority questioned.
    Nobody was saying a thing and nobody was making to leave either. Dayton just stood there glaring with his dead eyes and Flagg gave it right back to him while Special Ed looked from man to man, wondering how he could defuse this and keep everyone happy.
    But Flagg was right: this did stink.
    There was something wrong about the whole situation and they all knew it. Coyle knew it and it was sitting on him very wrong. Dayton was coming on far too strong for a simple helicopter wreck. He was acting like a flying saucer had crashed and he didn’t want anybody stealing the little green men.
    Dayton looked at Special Ed and Special Ed looked like he needed to piss real bad. “You will get your people out of here right now. Do you understand me?”
    Special Ed was nodding his head so frantically it looked like it might fall right off.
    Then Frye stood up. “No, sorry, chief, we’re not leaving. There’s something shitty in the old horsebarn and I plan on finding out what. These boys here—” he motioned towards Horn and Slim “—they found something under a tarp over there, something that must have been thrown clear of your chopper and I wanna know what.”
    Dayton took a step forward, brushing Special Ed aside. “What is under that tarp is Colony business.”
    â€œSorry, chief. I think otherwise.” He turned to Horn and Slim. “Now tell me, boys, what did you see under there? Don’t worry about this jarhead. He has no jurisdiction here.”
    Horn wisely kept his mouth shut, smelling something on Dayton he did not like.
    Slim just shrugged, that same shell-shocked look on his face. “I don’t know . . . it was big and weird and ugly,” he said, having trouble framing it into words. “It wasn’t a man . . . it was some kind of
thing.”
    â€œYou hear that, chief?” Frye said. “It was some kind of fucking thing. Now you want to tell us what kind of cargo that chopper was carrying or do we wait around until things cool and find out for ourselves?”
    Special Ed looked like there was something stuck in his throat he could not swallow down.
    Coyle stepped forward because he knew that Frye was incapable of backing down from any man. Problem was, Dayton was the same type. Only he had a gun.
    â€œAgain, what is under that tarp is Colony business,” Dayton insisted. “Now, please, sir, leave the area. I won’t ask you again.”
    Frye grinned, all working class attitude. “And if I refuse? You gonna pull that gun on me, junior? You got three boys and I got a good spit more. I’m thinking we’ll cornhole your merry ass three ways to Sunday if you try.”
    â€œOkay,” Special Ed said, “that’s enough.”
    Coyle figured it was, too.
    He got in-between Frye and Dayton and pulled Frye away, leading him over to the ‘Cat while Frye bitched the whole way, saying how there was one thing in this world he hated and that was uppity little Annapolis jarheads sucking government root. Frye cast Dayton a hard look and got into the ‘Cat. Flagg followed and Special Ed went with them like he didn’t trust those two not to get out again and make trouble.
    â€œC’mon,” Coyle told Horn and Slim who were just standing there in the wind. “Get in the fucking ‘Cat.”
    They moved now like