Special Forces 01 Read Online Free Page B

by tomorrow.
    The Admiral started laughing out loud.
    “Don’t you dare,” Rys growled at him. “It was not funny.”
    That only made him laugh all the harder. “A-actually it was h-h-hilarious,” he finally managed to choke out.
    “Now we will all need to hear the full story,” Brandon demanded. He gave Rys a smug smile, one that would have earned him a swift slap on the back of the head if he were a member of Rys’s team.
    Why do I get the distinct vibration that he would enjoy anything that would embarrass me? Rys sighed, and figured he might as well fess up; at least this way he could put his own spin on it. Besides, if he didn’t tell them, the Admiral surely would. “Erksome—and probably Gremlin too—rigged my computer to laugh like someone having a manic break down every time I opened or closed a program. It sounded like some villain, twirling his handlebar mustache, right out of a class B horror flick. And if I hit a certain combination of keyboard commands, it would hurtle insults at me, to boot.”
    “What made it worse,” Bloch added with true merriment in his voice, warming to his subject, “is that he had to use that computer. We didn’t even have a spare he could borrow. Our assigned work area was right in the middle of Command Central, where all of the top brass and bureaucrats could hear it.”
    “Oh, and they could hear it all right,” Rys affirmed darkly. “He tampered with the volume control, too.”
    Everyone’s eyes widened as the full implications of this “techno prank” hit them. Then they all started breaking up, everyone with their own signature brand of laughter.
    “I will kill him when I get my hands on him,” Rys promised himself aloud. “No, a quick death would be too honorable for Erksome; he will suffer slowly for his lack of foresight and self-preservation. I’ll hijack his computer! That computer is closer to him than his own Mother. I’ll have him pulled into the fetal position, sucking his thumb before the close of business tomorrow.” Cheered by those happy thoughts, Rys went back to eating his dinner with true enthusiasm.
    “Have you figured out how to fix it yet?” Dylan wanted to know.
    Rys eyed him. What an extremely inquisitive and focused child; he was always asking questions. Could he be treated like any other green recruit? Possibly. “Not all of it. I figured out the volume control problem first, so I can at least mute it now.” That all by itself was a blessing.
    “Who was the other person you mentioned?” Sara asked, now that a line of inquiry was open into his team. Her eyes were twinkling merrily with repressed laughter. “Gremlin, I think you said.”
    “Lieutenant Bran Gremillion,” Rys responded almost absently. “He would be my team’s computer expert.”
    “All of Special Force 01 is divided into four man teams, aren’t they?” Ashley, quiet until now, surprised him by asking. “Who is your other man?”
    “Lieutenant Dave Snelson is assigned as my weapons expert.”
    “And his nickname is…?” Sara had a wicked smile on her face, anticipating his answer.
    “Snails.”
    “Just because of his last name, I suppose?” Brandon rolled his eyes.
    “No,” Rys refuted calmly shaking his head, “because he is the slowest, most methodical, plodding man I’ve ever met in my life. My entire team could complete anything faster than he could. Granted, he does a far superior job, but Snails can never move fast unless it is a life or death emergency.”
    “You know, they’re not yours anymore,” Brandon pointed out rudely. “You’re not in the Army anymore.”
    That was too much of a direct challenge to let it go. Rys put his fork down, and mentally picked up the gauntlet as he stared Brandon directly in the eye. “They are my men.” His voice was deceptively quiet, but rang with a steel-lined finality. “We might be living in separate quarters, but my team has not been disbanded.” Belatedly realizing what he’d almost let