“Christ! These aren’t gunrunners,” I said aloud. I turned to Tennet. “Does your com-link work?”
He lowered his camera and tapped his throat mic. “No…it’s malfunctioning.”
“Fuck. We have to get word to the fleet. This is a clusterfuck. These aren’t gunrunners. Look at ‘em. They’re machinists, factory workers. That’s why they called me a pirate. They think we’re the bad guys. Shit.”
Tennet picked up a length of steel pipe and held it defensively, then abruptly pointed past me. “Sergeant! Behind you!”
I whirled around. There was nothing. I heard a voice behind me say, “I’m sorry.”
It was Tennet, and it was an odd thing to say.
It was even odder when he slammed the pipe into my head.
I could hear the bones crack in my head. I felt myself fall. The taste of blood in my mouth was salty sweet. Sparks burst from the wiring in the machines and fireworks ignited in my vision. I fell in a pirouette, spinning with surreal slowness away from the point of impact. As I turned I could see the gunrunners renewing their advance on my remaining men. I could hear the chatter of gunfire from the other end of the room. Was it Zulu Team? Had they broken through? Or was it the gunrunners with Zulu’s guns?
As I hit the deck I wondered why the gunrunners didn’t have their own guns. It seemed strange. Almost funny. Gunrunners without guns.
And why had they called us ‘pirates’?
I sprawled on the ground, trying to sort it out. Trying to think. I felt blood in the back of my nose. I tasted it in my mouth.
I wanted to cough, but I couldn’t.
A shadow passed above me. Raising my eyes took incredible effort. I couldn’t manage it. But the shadow moved and came around to bend over me.
Tennet.
His eyes were still wide and excited…but he was smiling. Not an adrenaline grin. I’ve seen those. This was different. Almost sad. A little mean. A little something else, but I couldn’t put a word to it. My head hurt so much. Thinking was hard. He dropped the pipe.
He bent close. The noise around us was huge but it also seemed distant, muffled. My left eye suddenly went blind.
Tennet was speaking. But not to me. His camera was pointed past me.
“…as the shootout rages on, the brave men of Jigsaw team are clearly overmatched by the determined resistance of the gunrunners.”
Firefight. That was the right word, but though my mouth moved I couldn’t get the word off my tongue.
He clicked off the camera and looked down at me.
“Thanks,” he said.
I shaped the words ‘for what’?
“Ratings, Sergeant. This is sweeps week. This story will get me back in the big chair. I’ll be an anchor again before your bodies are cold.”
“The…tip-off…” I managed.
He nodded. “Good PR for everyone. Your bosses will leverage this for increased funding. The militia will get more money for security. And I get an anchor’s chair. Everyone’s a winner.”
I was sinking into the big black. I could feel myself moving away from the moment, sliding out of who I was. “You mother…fucker…” I gasped with what little voice I had.
“Hey,” he said, “you told me at least twenty times that you never get to pull a trigger, that good soldiering doesn’t require heroes. That’s a sad epitaph for a career Free-Ops agent.” He bent even closer. “I just made you a hero, Sergeant. I just made you a star!”
I wanted to grab him by the neck and tear his head off. I wanted to stuff his camera down his throat. I wanted to destroy the hard drive and all its images of my men fighting and dying.
But I didn’t have anything left.
So, with the gunfire like thunder around me, and the screams of good men dying on both sides, I closed my eyes. I knew that he’d turn his camera back on, that he’d film my last breaths. That he’d use my death—and the deaths of my men—to get exactly what he wanted.
But what the fuck. That’s show business.
Shit.
THE END
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Books by Jonathan Maberry available for your e-book reader:
SHORT E-STORIES
THE WIND THROUGH THE FENCE
LIKE PART OF THE FAMILY
MATERIAL WITNESS (e-story and audio)
COUNTDOWN (e-story and audio)
DOCTOR NINE (coming soon)
PEGLEG AND PADDY SAVE THE WORLD (coming soon)
CLEAN SWEEPS (coming soon)
THE ADVENTURE OF THE GREENBRIER GHOST (coming soon)
ZERO TOLERANCE (available on audio now; e-story coming soon)
DEEP, DARK (available on audio now; e-story coming soon)
DOG DAYS (exclusive audio-only story)
NOVELS
THE PINE DEEP TRILOGY (available in print, e-book and audio)
GHOST ROAD BLUES
DEAD MAN’S SONG
BAD MOON RISING
THE JOE LEDGER THRILLERS (available in print, e-book and audio)
PATIENT ZERO
THE DRAGON FACTORY
THE KING OF PLAGUES
JOE LEDGER: THE MISSING FILES
ASSASSIN’S CODE (April 2012)
EXTINCTION MACHINE (April 2013)
THE ROT & RUIN SERIES (available in print, e-book and audio)
ROT & RUIN
DUST & DECAY
FLESH & BONE (August 2012)
FIRE & ASH (August 2013)
STAND-ALONE NOVELS:
THE WOLFMAN (available in print, e-book and audio)
DEAD OF NIGHT (available in print, e-book and audio)
GRAPHIC NOVEL COLLECTIONS (print only)
BLACK PANTHER: POWER
DOOMWAR
PUNISHER: NAKED KILLS
MARVEL UNIVERSE VS THE PUNISHER
KLAWS OF THE PANTHER
MARVEL ZOMBIES RETURN
CAPTAIN AMERICA: HAIL HYDRA
MARVEL UNIVERSE VS WOLVERINE
NONFICTION
VAMPIRE UNIVERSE
THE CYPTOPEDIA
ZOMBIE CSU
THEY BITE
WANTED UNDEAD OR ALIVE
ANTHOLOGIES
THE NEW DEAD
21st CENTURY DEAD (2012)
DEAD SOULS
DEATH BE NOT PROUD
BEST NEW ZOMBIE TALES
Z: ZOMBIE STORIES
GRAVE CONDITIONS
HISTORY IS DEAD
THE LIVING DEAD 2
TALES FROM THE MOUNTAIN STATE 2
NEW BLOOD
THE MONSTER’S CORNER
KILLERS
TRIUMPH OF THE LIVING DEAD
GI JOE: TALES FROM THE COBRA WARS
UNDER THE MOONS OF MARS: NEW ADVENTURES ON BARSOOM (Feb 2012)
V-WARS (April 2012)
Jonathan Maberry, Clean Sweeps
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