The Autumn Aircraft: Avery's Recruits Read Free Page A

for themselves.  Those are tragedies because people get hurt when the situation could’ve been avoided.”
    “Okay?”
    “What do you mean okay?  Do you think it’s fair for our boy to be getting all this attention right now?”
                  Alan chuckled and clapped Danny on the shoulder.  “It’s only going to get worse, man.  And not just for him but for us as well.  You’re worried about this Danny.  Okay, I want you to remember back to 2010.  You would’ve been about ten, I think.”
                  “What about it?”
                  “There was a man, with a turban on his head and a beard thick like old Saint Nick.  Man had a clique, man had support, and the man was the most wanted in America, he was a goddamn prick.”
                  “The rhyme’s doing nothing for me, hate to tell you.  What are you saying?”
                  “A fortress is where he resided and for a while, it went under the radar.  As least symbolically, he was still at large.”
                  Danny said nothing, just looked at him.
                  “Do you know who I’m talking about?”
                  “Osama bin Laden, right?  What’s your point?” Danny was showing a hint of irritation.  Directly in front of him, a man in an army jacket was jumping up and down with a poster board held in both hands.
                  “If the U.S. government was able to get to him, imagine the hell they’re going to reign down on us and Avery when they learn we have the only way out.  So my point is that you need to get used to the discomfort, because, my friend, it’s only going to get much worse.”
    “Yeah?”
    “Yep.”
    “I say prison time for the asshole who broke into the school,” shouted the man in the army jacket.  Danny rolled his eyes.
    “If we didn’t have the tools we had,” Alan said. “We’d reach the point where we wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call without sending half the American authorities to our front steps.  That may not come but that kind of situation is fast approaching.  No bullshit, Danny.  It’s all coming.  Phone taps, assassins, spies.  We might as well accept it so we’re not shocked when it’s here.”
    “Are you listening?  That asshole broke into the school!”
    “No one broke into the school,” Danny said.  “He walked in during broad daylight, right through the front door.  Not a break in.  Get your head out your ass.”
    The man looked over his shoulder at Danny and furrowed his bushy brow into a frown before turning back to face the front.  He continued to jump up and down and repeat the lie.
                  “Fucking asshole,” Danny muttered.
                  “What the hell you say to me, boy,” the man said, casting a cold look back over his shoulder at him.
                  “Whoa, you shouldn’t be talking to me like that,” Danny said, putting his hands up in a mock gesture of defenselessness.  “After all, I’m just a kid, motherfucker, so watch your mouth.”
                  Alan chuckled, putting a closed fist over his mouth as if holding in a cough.
                  “How are you not taking this seriously?” the man asked, his face reddening.  “Don’t you care about the safety of the schools you go to?  Goddamn ingrate.”
                  Danny nudged Alan, smiling.  “Did you hear what this old guy called me?  Did you hear him, Alan.  An ingrate.  He called me an ingrate. Do you know what the means?”
                  Alan shrugged, his arms folded.  “No.”
                  “You two need to go find something else to do with yourselves,” the man said.  “If you’re just here to make trouble, instead of trying to do something meaningful to change the way the schools are run, then no