Opposing Force: Book 01 - The God Particle Read Free

bolt slid open.
    "Drop your gun, sir! Don’t make us shoot you!" Sanchez shouted. "Concentrate sir, remember how they told…"
    Sanchez still spoke but his words faded amid the Klaxons, the screams of the soldier shot in the knee, and the voice inside Colonel Haas's head.
    Daddy…it’s almost too late…
    Haas activated the second switch, and yet another light turned from red to green and yet another electronic bolt released.
    Corporal Sanchez pleaded with him to stop, reciting from the textbook for such emergencies: reasoning with him, trying to get him to concentrate, trying to make him remember.
    What was my focus again? Was it a wildflower or something?
    Whatever the psychological warfare experts had wanted him to focus on was so far removed from his mind that he could not find it.
    The third switch opened and the third of four bolts made the door vibrate as it unlocked with a loud thud.
    Haas felt a tremendous push in the back that slammed him forward into the door. A millisecond later, he heard the sound of exploding cartridges
    Warmness rushed over his body. His strength flowed out. His body fell heavily to the floor, one arm reaching for the sealed door.
    "I’m sorry, Katy…"

2
    Thom Gant's dream came in a swirling mix of emotions. His sleeping mind could not translate the parade of formless images parading through his dream, but feelings of frustration and anger came through clear enough. There was something out there he could not quite comprehend.
    A loud buzzer pushed aside the emotions and undefinable shapes.
    Thom snapped awake.
    The phone rang again.
    He glanced to Jean and saw a jumbled mass of pillow, blanket, and tangled black hair. The only movement came from the gentle rise and fall of her chest. Thom supposed she had become dulled to phones ringing in the middle of the night.
    He answered with a whisper,"Yes?"
    Thom listened while rubbing sleep from his eyes. When the voice on the other end finished, he offered the obligatory "thank you" and cradled the receiver.
    He took a long look at that tumbled mass next to him, mildly surprised that his movement had yet to wake her. Perhaps she had truly become accustomed to his running off in the middle of the night, or the middle of the weekend, or the middle of their life.
    Thom swung his legs off the bed and walked away.
    Jean stopped pretending to be asleep and opened her eyes, but did not move.
    —
    The drone of the Learjet's engines hummed through the flying cigar tube, creating a steady and nearly hypnotizing vibration. No light came from outside but some of the soldiers had turned on overhead reading lights, resulting in patches of dark and light around the compartment.
    Major Thom Gant stood at the back near the refreshment cabinet. He surveyed his team while constructing another cup of coffee, sugar, and cream. It scared him that his men could be so calm. Several slept slumped in their seats, others read newspapers or books or listened to music on headphones. Had their job become so mundane that they could pass the time with so little anxiety? Or had they been so well trained, so disciplined, that they could switch off and on the adrenaline at will?
    Gant wondered which would be worse; their missions becoming routine, or the idea that human beings could be conditioned into such automatons.
    The major pushed aside his philosophical ramblings—they served no purpose in his profession—and returned the sugar dispenser to the pantry. After another sip he walked the center aisle through the patches of light and dark. As he moved he heard whispers among those men who were awake.
    Wells and Galati talked among themselves like a couple of junior high kids riding the school bus. Their banter was not the result of nerves, it was normal: those two were always chattering on, usually with Sal—Galati—telling some tall tale of adventure or relating a sexual conquest and Wells tossing in the occasional "bullshit" or "you're full of it."
    One of the patches of