Zombie Killers: HEAT by John F Holmes Read Free Book Online Page A

the prisoners, but, remembering the failed Son Toy raid in Vietnam, I had asked him to let me check the site out first.
    Now I was waiting for the people I needed to come together. Angelo Redshirt had volunteered to go with me, but I had asked him to stay and keep an eye on the farm and trading post. Red had caught some grenade fragments in his foot several years ago, and it had gotten worse, to the point where it was more of a liability than my missing leg. Jimmy Bognaski was at OCS, and Lisa Capocci was caught a round in the stomach a few weeks ago. She was out of the fight for quite a while.
    No, there was only one person I wanted with me on this. He would come, if only for Brit’s sake. Sasha Zivcovic was one of the most intense and brutal men I knew, and, although he and I didn’t always get along, he had some weird kind of respectful relationship with Brit. I didn’t even know how to reach him; but I know that when he saw the news clip, he would show up here. I figured it would take a week; last I heard he had been in Kansas with his wife and child. We had run into him last year during the failed Air Force coup attempt, but I had no idea what he was doing now.
    Sure enough, even as I sat there on the porch with Nate, a small power boat pulled up to the dock, and a burly, scarred figure stepped out after throwing a rucksack onto the dock. Nate jumped up and ran down to him, yelling “UNCLE ZIV!”
    Uncle Ziv? As far as I knew, the kid hadn’t seen him in more than three years. I really wanted to know how Brit kept in touch with him. I got up and walked over to the former Serbian Special Forces Major, and offered him my hand. He took if for a second, which for him was an overwhelming show of emotion.
    “I knew you’d come, Ziv. How’s the wife and kid?”
    He put Nate down and told him to go run and get Uncle Angelo. After my son took running for the adjacent farm, he said, “They are dead. I was away working a job in Arizona, and raiders attacked our home. It was a large group, and she fought well, but in the end, there were too many. Last month.”
    “Oh Jesus, Ziv. I didn’t know. Brit never told me.”
    He scowled and said, “I didn’t tell her. They are dead, and there was nothing you could do to change anything, any of you, so why tell you?”
    “Because we’re your friends, Sasha. We would have come to see you.”
    He smiled a bitter smile. “Always the sentimental ass, Nick. It would have done no good. I was busy hunting.”
    “Did you get them all?” I asked, but I already knew the answer. He said nothing, just grabbed his pack and his AK and walked to the house. We sat down at the kitchen table when Red came over, and started planning.
    Ziv was insistent that Red come with us. “Nick, I know you,” snorted Ziv when I explained my plan. “We are supposed to be reconing, and you will get there and you will start thinking with your dick and go all Rambo and try to rescue the devil woman. I need someone who will help you think rationally. The Indian will help, and it will be easier to keep watch.”
    “Hey!” said Red. “Native American.”
    “Whatever, savage. You see my point.” I almost laughed at the irony of Ziv calling anyone savage, especially Red, who was as good natured of a person as I had ever met. The Serb was, in turn, the most naturally cold blooded killer I had ever met.
    “I kind of agree with him, Nick. With a small team like this, you can’t afford to play hero.”
    “Are you up to it?” I asked.
    “Are you?” he shot back. “Last I checked, I have more body parts than you, and I’m fifteen years younger than you are.”
    “OK then. We can do this two ways. A straight up recon of the camp, or we can play mercenary and attempt to get hired on and infiltrate.”
    Ziv pondered the map, looking at the terrain. “A hide site will be difficult, I expect that the people down there will know their woods. On the other hand, you and Red are fairly well known from newspapers