Elite Metal-ARE-epub Read Free Page A

end of the tugboat, engulfing the ship in flames as two armored vehicles barreled through the gate and opened fire.
    Titanium. His whole team.
    Fuck .
    He had to focus.
    “Chrome! The vehicles!” Steele yelled and rolled underneath the cargo truck. He could see the lower half of Zinc’s body crouched on the far side.
    “Already on it,” Chrome shouted back. “Merc. Copper. Get your asses here now. We’re dying. Beat feet and bring the heat.”
    Merc’s response was drowned out by another explosion and bursts of gunfire. Both from their men and the enemy.
    “Shit. Shit,” he groaned and fought to catch his breath.
    In the expanse of dull gray metal and mud covered exhaust pipes, a shock of white near the corner of his eye caught his attention. Strapped to the undercarriage was a square-shaped, bright white compound decorated with ribbons of colored wired.
    “Oh. Fuck.”
    He rolled back into the line of fire and shouted at Zinc. “Scatter!” As he ran in no particular direction, the C-4 under the truck detonated followed closely by the sonic boom of a bomb tearing through the deck of the container ship. It knocked the wind out of him when he hit the ground. Flames and smoke blocked out the morning sky as particles of metal and wood rained down from above like killer snowflakes.
    Through the mist and smoke Steele made out the shape of the seventy thousand ton vessel as it listed to the port side and began to sink at the rate of what looked like a foot with each of his heartbeats.
    Amongst the wreckage a figure lay face down in the snow and ash.
    “No…” The word fell from his lips as realization crashed down on him. He scrambled forward, forgetting everything but getting to his best friend.
    He slipped in the ice and blood and landed on his belly beside his fallen brother.
    Sniper fire lit up somewhere. Steele was exposed but he didn’t care.
    “Zinc!” He rolled him onto his back, tearing away Zinc’s thermal mask.
    The roar of the fires, the pop of gunfire, everything faded away as his focus narrowed to the pale face, shiny with sweat, and covered in blood.
    No. No it wasn’t supposed to go down like this. Not here. Not this way.
    “Hang in there, brother. Hang in there. Evac is on its way.”
    Damn it. His hands fluttered over Zinc’s chest. The Kevlar covering him looked like shredded tissue paper. Where the hell wasn’t the man hit with shrapnel.
    “Get. To. Safe—” Zinc stuttered.
    “Not without you.”
    “Go.”
    “No!” he roared and clutched at the bloody jacket. “Not without you!”
    “Please…” Zinc’s eyelashes fluttered and his breath hitched.
    “Fuck me. Damn it. You hang on, you asshole. Got it? Hang on.” Beneath his palms he felt the rise and fall of Zinc’s chest go slower and slower. “No. You can’t do this shit to me,Zach. You will not die on me.”
    The corner of Zinc’s lips twitched in the briefest of smiles as his eyelids drifted shut. “Looks like. You’re. Gonna win. That bet…”
     
     

 
    Chapter Two
     
    “Hey, Johnson,” the rig manager shouted. “Don’t even think about lighting up. What are you, stupid?”
    Steele paused with his thumb on the cylinder of his grandfather’s antique Zippo. Almost two years, and it still took him a second to respond to his new name.
    “Did you need something, boss?” he asked around the stub of his cigar.
    “Yeah, I need you to stop trying to blow us to smithereens, dipshit.”
    A dozen ways to kill the oil rig manager filtered through his mind—all of them far more painful than going down in a ball of flames.
    Judging by the way the man paled and lifted his hardhat to swipe at the sweat on his shiny, hair transplant-covered head, he was reading Steele loud and clear.
    “Anyway,” the rig boss continued after clearing his throat. “The last boat to Santa Barbara is leaving for shore in ten minutes.”
    “So?”
    “So, per union rules I gotta remind you of your right to take your