Noble Beginnings Read Free Page B

stove,
mini-fridge and microwave, and a wooden table with two matching chairs.
Frankly, we didn’t need much else. We ate, slept, trained on our own and
performed missions with the CIA ops teams. Outside of the missions, the
operatives had no interaction with us. It wasn’t a written rule or anything
like that. They didn’t want anything to do with us. These guys looked down on
the Marines in the program. A stark contrast from the operatives based in the
U.S. and Europe. They welcomed the help and our point of view on the missions.
Christ, they pulled us eight weeks into recruit training, and we were then put
through CIA training. It’s not like Bear and I were hard core Marines.
    Bear returned
to the room carrying a twelve pack of piss warm beer.
    “Get anything
to eat?” I asked.
    He held up the
twelve pack. “Figured it’s a good night to drink our dinner.”
    “Only problem
with that,” I said, “is six beers doesn’t make a meal.”
    He stepped
through the doorway and into the room then lifted his other arm. “That’s why I
got you your own.”
    I laughed, then
grabbed the cardboard box holding my dinner and cracked open a warm one, taking
a long pull from the bottle.
    “God, this
stuff is awful,” I said.
    Bear chugged
three quarters of a bottle then set it down on the table and let out a loud
exhale.
    “I don’t know,
Jack. It’s not that bad.” A loud belch followed.
    I finished my
beer and pushed back from the table. “And with that, I’m going to get a
shower.”
    I exited the
room into the dimly lit hallway. It was quiet. I checked my watch and saw it
was only ten p.m. It was too quiet for ten, though. I shook my head to clear
the thoughts and shrugged off the anxiety. I entered the bathroom and shower
facility at our end of the hall, finding the communal shower room empty. I
quickly washed the sweat, dirt and blood off and then moved to the far end of
the row of sinks. I looked into the mirror and smiled at the growth of hair on
my face. It had been almost two weeks since I had last shaved. I pulled out a
can of shaving cream and my razor, but opted to keep the short beard, for now
at least. I liked it.
    I couldn’t help
but think of how bad that night had gone. Everything was routine until the
group of men showed up a few blocks away from the house. People never
approached us unless they meant trouble. And lately we found plenty of trouble.
A quarter of our assignments in Iraq ended up with us getting into an external
conflict apart from our primary target. And it always ended up being a mistake
on the part of the men who engaged us. Not just our group either, this was the
standard for all ops teams. The men who tried to take us on had no way of
knowing who we were. And they had no chance of living long enough to find out.
Despite that, they always engaged us. It was like they had nothing to live for.
    Or maybe they
had everything to die for.
    On this night,
though, those men hung back, like they were waiting for something. Maybe they
were playing games with Bear, the false advancement and the tall man yelling at
us. That would have been enough to throw us off, make us think that they were a
group of regular guys. Of course, they could have just been a group of regular
guys. Maybe they were waiting for us to do something. It’d give them a reason,
at least.
    Then there was
Martinez. He was in rare form tonight. Bear and I worked together, but we
weren’t always assigned to the same CIA team. We floated between four different
groups. We’d spent enough time with Martinez to know he was a high strung, high
motor midget. His guys weren’t any different, either. This incident wasn’t the
first time that we’d squared off. It had happened three other times, including
once on base. But this time he seemed to be daring me to make a move. Every
time we got into it, it was because he pushed the limits on acceptable
treatment of detainees. He pushed further than ever before with the woman,