Metal and Ash (Apex Trilogy) Read Free Page A

butt?” Shiner asked.
    “Knock it off!”
     
    ***
     
    LaFrance sat staring up at the gray ceiling of Outpost Tango Charlie’s meeting room, waiting for the answer.
    “But you haven’t told me if we can trust him,” LaFrance said, finally looking back at the personnel, seated about table.
    Morris and Norton were there, so was Special Teams Leader Gregory Knobel, LaFrance’s second in command, and Cassidy Campbell, outpost engineer and dog handler. Morris enjoyed calling her the “Mutt Slut”, but never to her face. Ever.
    “How do you know if you can trust anyone?” Norton asked rhetorically. “I expect Morris to snap at any second and kill us all in our sleep. I’ve even mentioned it to you, OC. But, yet, he’s still here.”
    “I’d never do it in your sleep,” Morris said as he shook his head. “The rooms are too spread out. I’d wait until we were all in one spot together. Get you idiots in one blow. Less work.”
    “Dogs don’t mind him,” Campbell said. She looked at everyone, bored. “I trust the dogs.”
    “That’s all you trust,” Morris said. “Your precious dogs.”
    “They don’t like you,” Campbell grinned. “So they haven’t let me down yet.”
    “Can we get back to the issue of Shiner?” LaFrance asked, tired of the bickering. “Is he stable?”
    All eyes fell on Norton.
    “Short answer: yes,” Norton responded. “He’s stable and I do trust him. Long answer? We can’t ever really know if we can ever trust anyone. I’m just glad he’s on our side.”
    LaFrance nodded, accepting the answer. “Good, good. Then let’s move onto the Americans.”
    “The ones in the boats or the ones in the wasteland?” Knobel asked. “The wasteland ones are being monitored at all times. I know nothing about the ones in the boats.”
    “I’ve got that covered,” LaFrance said. “I’ve spoken to their commanding officer Blue Masterson and their ETA for hitting the west coast is one week.”
    “Not a lot of time,” Morris said. “Will the shield be down by then?”
    “No,” LaFrance said. “And we can’t get it down from here.”
    “I’m sorry, what?” Knobel asked. He turned to Norton. “You can’t flip a switch?”
    “It’s specifically designed to not be switchable,” Norton replied. “It takes a coordinated effort from the shield station in what used to be Monterey. Although the shield station hasn’t been checked in forever. Who knows what it will take to get the shield down.”
    “That means we have to send someone down to coordinate with Capreze and his crew,” LaFrance said.
    “You want us to head into the wasteland?” Knobel asked. “That’s a lot of Hell between here and there. What the hell do we tell them?”
    “I’m going to work that out with Masterson,” LaFrance replied. “We have to keep Capreze informed, but we don’t know how much we can trust him. He and his crew have been under the impression that they are all that’s left between the human race and a few hundred thousand of the undead. If he knows how much they have been deceived for centuries he may not react well. I wouldn’t. He’s a Mech Base Commander and used to going to war as a first response. This will need to be handled delicately.”
    “What does Control have to say?” Morris asked. “Surely they should be the ones handling this.”
    “Control handles politics,” LaFrance laughed. “They don’t handle logistics. We get the grunt work while they negotiate with Masterson about how this will all shape out when we come out on top.”
    “If we come out on top,” Campbell said. “The League of Monarchies’ forces have us all outnumbered by ten to one if the sat scans are correct.”
    “They are,” Norton corroborated.
    “But we aren’t dealing with the LOM anymore,” LaFrance said. “It is now the Three that run things.”
    “Three what?” Morris asked.
    “We aren’t sure,” LaFrance replied. “Control says they have lost all contact with them. The