Search and Destroy Read Online Free

a bouncer?”
    “Yeah.” Clay took another long pull on his beer.
    “So what happened to quick-draw McGraw?”
    “Well, Patty makes a chilli that you can grease an axle with. So when he passed by Buffalo Joe, he got a face full of it. I grabbed the gun and Joe landed the hammer on him. That was pretty much the end of him. The sheriff rolled by ten minutes later and hauled his ass off to jail.”
    “You still keep in touch with Joe?”
    “I see him now and again on the rodeo circuit.”
    “I liked him. Plus he’s the only Indian I’ve ever really talked to.”
    “We say ‘Native American’ these days.”
    “Whatever, I remember he had hands as big as a gorilla.”
    “Yeah, he’s a tough one, all right. He took a lot of crap in the army on his way up. Good in the field though. For a big guy he never made a sound when he was on duty. He’d just turn up out of the darkness like a ghost.”
    “Well, Casper he ain’t,” Danny mimicked Clay’s southern drawl perfectly.
    “You got that right.”
    Danny drummed his fingers on the neck of the bottle. “Talking of things that go bump in the night, what do you reckon about Area 51?”
    “What, about the UFOs?”
    Danny nodded.
    “Well it’s an Air Force base and testing range, one of the biggest in the world. People are bound to see lights in the sky. You know how people are. I don’t doubt there’s some secret shit going on in there, but little green men? I don’t think so.”
    “We say ‘Alien Americans’ these days,” Danny smirked.
    “Wiseass.”
    “Still, I’m looking forward to seeing the alien café tomorrow.”
    Clay stretched out his long legs, sliding lower in his seat. “They do a good burger. And the folks of Rachel are friendly enough. Probably sick to the back teeth of sky-watchers, though.”
    “You want another?”
    Clay emptied his bottle and nodded. Seconds later another cold one was in his callused hand.
    As Danny sat down he again favoured his right side. Clay looked on, his face impassive, only his eyes displaying concern for his younger brother. “How you feeling now?”
    “It hurts like a son of a bitch. But I’m still alive and kickin’… and still got all of my pieces. That’s more than I can say for some of the boys over there.”
    “Why don’t you end that shit an’ come and live with me? I thought that when you left the army, you were done. Yet here you are, still yomping around with the private sector.”
    Danny looked down at his hands; they were clean but not too long ago they hadn’t been.
His left hand closing over the sentry’s mouth as his knife slipped deep into his kidney. Once, twice, three times to be sure. The body stiffening, high on tiptoes; then falling as a loose pile of limbs.
    “Ground Control to Major Dan…”
    Danny gave a weak smile. “I’m not ready to settle down yet. But I do appreciate the offer.”
    “Consider it an open invitation. I can get you as much work as you want. The studios are always looking for ex-servicemen to act as extras and I’m good friends with Harry H. He knows good men when he sees them and he uses them in all the movies he works on. The pay is good, and there’ll be no more of these to contend with.” Clay traced the jagged scar that ran from his hairline down to his left eyebrow.
    Danny’s mouth twitched as he remembered.
    * * *
    He is sixteen—just a few weeks away from joining the army—and using his last days as a civvy in the Scottish town of Dumfries to try to get into Cindy Howard’s pants.
    Cindy is a great-looking girl and rumoured to be free with her favours to the right boys. But she also has an on-off boyfriend, Steve Grayson. Steve is two years older and fifty pounds heavier than Danny.
    The couple happen upon Steve and five of his friends at a local shopping arcade. It is early evening and the cold night air has just started to turn their breath to mist.
    “Wha’ the fuck’s goin’ on here, eh?”
    Cindy backs up a couple of steps.