The Demon Deception Read Free Page A

get down to the convoy. He put his hand on her arm,
“here, why don’t you walk in front of me. They’re probably jumpy
right now. Dressed like this, they’d probably think I’m a Taliban
trying to finish what began earlier. I would hate for them to start
shooting before I get you to them.”
    She stepped in front of him and began
walking, “What are you doing here?”
    “It’s my job. I find missing people.”
    “Are you Special Forces?”
    “Ah, nothing special about me, young
lady.”
    She slipped on the sloped gravel. She felt
his strong hands grip her arm, and help her stay up.
    “Thank you.”
    “It’s nothing. Come on, we’re almost there.
They’ll see you soon enough.”
    She kept walking forward. One of the infantry
soldiers, Corporal Meredith, saw her first. He yelled over at
Lieutenant Macy, “Lieutenant, I think you should take a look. I
think it’s Hartman!”
    2 nd Lieutenant Macey looked at SFC
Summer. While SSG Alciannas was in charge of the logistics part of
the convoy, 2 nd Lieutenant Macey was in charge of the
overall convoy, the infantry commander, and SFC Summer was his
platoon sergeant. SFC Summer did what any experienced NCO would do,
and went to the other side, away from where Hartman was walking in,
just in case this was some kind of diversion. If it was a
diversion, he would be in place to direct fire on the attack. The
vehicles were arranged in a circle. Everybody took cover, ready for
another ambush. The three wounded soldiers from the IED explosion
were in the center of the circle. A Combat Lifesaver was working on
them, though injuries were light.
    Hartman had been discovered missing when SFC
Summer did a head count and ACE report. The Lieutenant sent a
contact report to his command via radio, as well as the information
about the three wounded and one missing soldier. Right now,
helicopter gunships were about five minutes out. There was a rapid
reaction force racing out to the position as well, with an
additional platoon of infantry. The lieutenant was going to lead
his convoy back to the area as soon as they had the gunships on
site.
    Lieutenant Macey raced over to Corporal
Meredith. Meredith pointed towards SPC Hartman. She was walking
calmly to the convoy. Macey put his hand on Meredith’s shoulder,
then pointed at two other soldiers, and said, “Meredith, Clancy,
Alcides, go check her out. Get her back here, ASAP.”
    It killed Macey to send the soldiers out when
he wanted to go, but he knew that SFC Summer would kick his ass if
he ran out there. It was the lieutenant’s job to manage operations,
not play the hero. The sergeant would be very respectful when he
did so, but it would still be a major verbal ass kicking. As
Meredith and the two soldiers ran out from behind the cover of the
Humvees, Macey yelled up at the Humvee gunners to keep them
covered.
    He couldn’t just let the missing ‘soldier’ walk up to the Humvees. He had to make sure that
she was, in fact, Hartman. If it wasn’t Hartman, he needed that
person checked for explosives to make sure they weren’t on a
suicide mission. The three soldiers got to Hartman quickly. CPL
Meredith did a quick check for explosives. The three soldiers
surrounded her, and walked her back to the vehicles. Macey was very
relieved to see it was, in fact, SPC Hartman.
    She walked into the cover of the Humvees, and
immediately, several soldiers clapped her on the shoulders, happy
to see her back. Macey was happy as hell that he hadn’t lost a
soldier. It would have weighed heavily on him to lose a soldier,
and have to explain to her parents that she had been lost under his
command. He walked over to SPC Hartman, “Are you okay, Specialist?
How did you find us?”
    She looked around, looking for Eli, “Eli
helped me. Where is he? I want to thank him for helping me get
back.”
    Lieutenant Macey looked at her, “Eli? There’s
nobody with you, Specialist. You walked in here by yourself.”
    She looked around, confused, “But,