The Reluctant Warrior Read Free

looking fellow like you wouldn’t have any trouble catching a pretty young thing,” he continued. “You just have to put yourself out there.”
    The breeze was more than just tugging at his jacket now, and so he cast a furtive glance over his shoulder at the direction it was coming from. “Why have you got such a strong interest in my love life?”
    “Because we’re pals, and for the past six years I’ve watched you being manipulated by that hellcat and been entirely powerless to do anything about it.” Rex noticed the wind now too. “You might be right about the kites,” he said, mentally gauging the speed it was travelling at before bringing his eyes back to rest on Jed’s solemn face. “I know you’re hurting. I know that you miss her. But you really are better off without her, she wasn’t right for you.”
    Jed didn’t bother to answer. What was the point? He never had been able to win an argument with Rex yet. Instead, he concentrated his efforts on unlashing his kite.
    “Good steady wind now,” Rex noted, fastening himself into his harness. “I didn’t expect to be using the kites so early on.”
    “Sooner the better,” Jed answered, looking around at the rest of the team. “Is everybody ready?”
     
    They made good time for the rest of that day and used the unusually moderate wind to great advantage for the next six that followed, and by the end of the first week they were well ahead of where they had hoped to be.
    “This has been a dream run,” Rex commented, as they broke camp on the morning of the eighth day. “Wouldn’t have believed it possible…but here we are.” He threw his arms open wide to take in the great expanse of icy terrain ahead of them. “And according to the G.P.S. we are on the verge of entering the zone where no man has been before.”
    Jed grinned. “Captain Kirk would be proud of us.”
    Rex laughed at his friends little joke. “I would have preferred to have come here in the Starship Enterprise,” he said drolly. “But I guess these kites are a pretty good substitute.”
    Jed nimbly clicked the last buckle together on his harness before stealing a glance at his chum. “You’ve waited a long time for this haven’t you?”
    Rex nodded. “Ever since I read Byrd’s account of his flight over the pole,” he admitted. “I suppose I couldn’t have been more than thirteen at the time. But I knew after reading it that I would someday be here myself.”
    “And here you are.”
    “And here I am,” he said blissfully, handing the G.P.S. to one of the team members.
    “That thing’s going to revolutionize polar exploration,” Jed said, as he watched it being calibrated.
    Rex scrutinized his friends face for a moment. “Glad you came now?”
    A grin broke out beneath Jed’s eight day old growth. “I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.”
    “Not even Cassie?”
    Jed shook his head. “John’s welcome to her. And you were right,” he said soberly, “we weren’t right for each other.”
    Rex chuckled. “I don’t think anyone’s right for Cassie.”
    The winds long icy fingers snatched crossly at Jed’s kite. “Looks like another good one for travelling.” He scanned the bleakness of the never-ending Antarctic sky. “Wonder what this new territory holds for us?”
    “Nothing more than ice, ice, and more ice,” Jonathon said drearily, bringing his sled up alongside Jed with an air of exaggerated apathy.
    Rex’s eyebrows formed an irritated scowl. “Why do you even bother to come on these expeditions?”
    Jonathon sneaked in a quick wink at Jed. “Because boredom is good for a man,” he said, in mock indignation, “it makes him appreciate what he’s left behind.”
    Jed winced. Jonathon liked nothing better than to wind Rex up, and his favorite ploy had always been to pretend he wasn’t having a good time. It was something that never failed to rattle Rex, and now his face displayed all the signs of an exasperated man. “Sometimes I wonder