About 10 years ago, somewhere in the Middle East

  Johnny sat back in his seat, holding a paperback with one hand. He idly scratched at the stubble on his cheek as he read the words with a cocked brow. The army sergeant tried to tune out the faint hum of the fan that had to have been there since the 70s and tried like hell to keep up with the heat of the desert.

  “God dammit, Lou, how many times I gotta ask you not to fold my cover behind the book like that? It ruins the binding!”

  Johnny just blinked at the heavily accented yelling and shook his head. “How the hell do you read this shit, man? Someone gets sucked into a video game? Come on.”

  Ellis gave him a sheepish grin and a shrug. “Well, I can’t really play many video games while I’m doing my duty, so..” he trailed off and motioned towards the book.

  A snort and a nod before Johnny tossed the book back over to him. “Yeah, I guess. Sorry, I folded the cover over. What’s the word?”

  Ellis stood a little shorter than Johnny did and had the tan skin that gave him away as a local. He was also quite swarthy, sporting a thick beard and an unfortunate unibrow. The AFF soldier looked down at Johnny with his brown eyes.

  Johnny grinned up at him with his blue eyes. He was sitting on an old beat-up couch without a shirt and with his pants rolled up as high as he could. This heat was never something he’d get used to. During his years and years of service, he had been around the world, but sitting in this godforsaken desert just made him feel like he was living directly on the sun.

  “Extraction tonight. There’s some high-profile target on the south side of town,” Ellis explained.

  “Yeah, we know who?”

  Ellis shrugged. “Does it matter? Some asshole who watched too many Pinky and the Brain cartoons and has plans for world domination. Maybe he just wants to bring down the Western world. What’s your saying?”

  Johnny grinned and nodded his head before wiping the sweat from his brow with his shirt. “Mine is not to reason why. Alright then, I’ll gather the troops. Get the briefing room ready.”

  “You got it,” Ellis answered and walked away. “I will clean off the kitchen table.”

  He sighed before Johnny looked at the ground with his eyes closed and rubbed them with his fingers. The weight of two governments is funding this shit, and they’re hiding out in some shitty house in the suburbs and expected to make it work. When he finally opened his eyes, he saw stars from rubbing them so hard.

  Once he fixed himself and made himself look as respectable as he could inside a house that had to be almost 100 degrees Fahrenheit, or whatever the fuck that equaled to being in Celsius. He didn’t bother putting the faded soft brown shirt on, just threw it over his shoulder and left the exposed abs and chest to try to get fresh air.

  Up the stairs, and through a hall until he stood between two closed doors that were opposite each other. Without knocking or waiting for any sort of ceremony, he just opened it and let the door swing open softly.

  In the room to his right was a single female, Laura, playing with a sizable Belgian shepherd she named affectionately Spike. She sat on the bed in her AFF fatigue pants of plain dull green and a sports bra. She played with a squeeze toy with the dog. Johnny was surprised the dog’s teeth didn’t pop it. As if Johnny wasn’t already sort of afraid of Spike, the dog had titanium teeth.

  Before she could curse at the Army lieutenant, he raised a finger and silenced her. He looked over at the three men huddled around a table playing cards. They all stared at him like a deer in headlights. The three of them knew it was technically against the regs to be playing poker, but the fuck did he care? They were out here kicking ass and risking their lives every night. They may as well be able to blow off some steam.

  “Efran, Steve, Jim, Laura. Briefing room in ten minutes. We got a job to do tonight,” Johnny told them sternly.

  They responded with various grunts and groans about having to work.

  “At least we’ll be out after dark,” Johnny tried to placate them.

  This didn’t work at all for any of them. They griped, and the men threw their cards in the middle. Laura just sighed and lowered her head before she petted the dog roughly and scratched him behind his ears.

  “Will there be snacks this time?” Jim looked up and grinned. “I like to have catered meetings since we’re so close to the food.”

  Johnny just sighed and rolled his eyes before he walked back down, calling up and reminding them they had eight more minutes.

  When he walked into the dining room, he looked at Ellis, who was setting up the screen and projector. “You know, I hear about some teams that have bunkers. Entire bunkers for their crew to live in. Or they just take over some oligarch’s mansion and use that,” he lamented.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Ellis smirked and shrugged. “We’re in a smaller country, with fewer things going on, fewer oligarchs. I don’t know, sir.”

  Johnny snorted as he sat on one of the chairs and lifted his feet onto the table. “If I’m the lieutenant, then why are you getting our orders and giving them out?”

  “Because I’m the local ranking person,” Ellis said as he reached and pushed Johnny’s feet off the table. “Come on, man, I eat my breakfast there.”

  He held a hand up placatingly. “I’m just doing everything to piss you off today, aren’t I?”

  “Think it’s cause you’re kind of an asshole, Lou,” Jim’s voice answered before Ellis could say anything.

  He led the others from upstairs into the cramped room, and Johnny stood to walk into the kitchen to grab a pot of coffee. He told them what he was doing, and they all scoffed.

  “Aren’t we going to want to sleep after this?” Efran asked.

  “Well, fuck you then,” Johnny said and came back to the dining room. He frowned when he saw all the chairs were taken and just went and leaned in the corner.

  Laura had entered with Spike walking between her legs, and the dog was now sitting under her chair. The relationship they had fascinated Johnny. He had delt with some of the AFF special forces before that used dogs, and frankly, he always thought they were a special breed. Not the dogs, but the people. The people put these dogs through so much training that if a dog loses its teeth, like Spike had, they don’t retire it. They give them teeth made of titanium.

  He looked at the pair of them a little and wondered exactly how long Laura had been with Spike. He wasn’t sure about that side of everything. Did she get him when he was a puppy and basically raise and train him from then? Johnny shook the thoughts off and looked at the screen Ellis was flicking through pictures of.

  It landed on a typical profile picture and some brief info.

  “Emek Tanyu,” Ellis started. “He’s the brother of some hotshot badass wannabe warlord, and since he’s here hiding out, the government asked us to pick him up for them.”

  Steve groaned and crossed his arms against his chest before he leaned back in his seat a little more. “Seems like it’s another regular old smash and grab job, huh?”

  Johnny frowned and looked at Steve. He was more muscular than Jim. Jim was a kind of scrawny and kept his head bald. He was more of a computer nerd-looking kind of guy, but Johnny had personally watched him beat down martial arts masters. Don’t let the thick, black thick rimmed birth control glasses fool you. The man could fuck shit up.

  Steve was bulkier, a muscle headed jock type. Spent more time in the workout room instead of reading. He was a good enough guy though, just not the brightest bulb in the box. Johnny always had a sneaking suspicion that the muscles the man cultivated were more for show than actual use, but Steve always proved his worth in the field. The man never let anyone down, so if he wanted to be vain, then what did he care?

  “Um, not quite,” Ellis said and looked at Steve with a frown. He clicked through various pictures until a large mansion popped up on the screen.

  “That’s the kind of shit I was talking about earlier,” Johnny offered.

  Ellis just frowned at him before he looked back at Steve. “We’re expecting this place to be packed to the gills with guards and protection for Emek. Not sure exactly who his cousin is, but he’s got money. I’m thinking he might be involved with the oil barons or something.”

  That made everyone pause, and eventually Steve whistled through his teeth. “So, we’re gonna be in it tonight then, huh?”

  Ellis nodded his head solemnly. “No worries though, we have a plan, and we have the best people in the country in this room and some of the best as backup if we need them.”

  “Let’s not need them,” Jim said with a grin. He looked like he was going to say more, but a cuff from Laura and a threatening glare from Ellis silenced him.

  From there, the five of them listened to the plan Ellis had set up. Technically, Johnny probably should have done more in the way of leading, since he was the highest-ranking person on the team. Johnny liked to trust the locals though, not only that, but Ellis was the eye in the sky. Ellis was the sharpshooter who would save their asses if something got too close for comfort.

  Johnny let the man’s plan, but in the field, everyone knew who was in charge. Johnny had the ability to keep calm and pull everyone where they needed to be when they needed to be there, when shit was going down around them. They respected that, and they followed that.

  The plan was straightforward. Not as eloquent as Ellis made it seem when he put down Steve’s smash and grab idea, but it wasn’t exactly that much better either. Wait until the dead of night, snip the power, rush in and grab the guy. Johnny thought it over and then balked. It was just a smash and grab job. He smirked and lowered his head as he shook it. Still though, Ellis had a plan for everyone and everything.

  Johnny looked over at Laura and then at Spike under her. “He gonna be good?”

  She grinned. “Always is. He’s gonna be in his holster until I need him. Then we shall let loose the real dogs of war.”

  Spike gave a soft woof in agreement, and I went wide-eyed.

  “I wish I got to ride around until the action started,” Jim joked and looked back at her.

  Steve grunted. “I just wish I had something to ride.”

  Another cuff from Laura, this time to Steve.

  “Alright, guys, let’s pack it in. Get some shut-eye until nightfall. Then it’ll be time for action,” Johnny ordered.

  Everyone gave the affirmative and climbed to their feet.

  “No more cards, seriously get some rest,” Johnny said and pointed to the three of them.

  They just waved, and all went into their room. It was a point of contention that the three of them had to share a room while Laura got to bunk solo, and Johnny and Ellis got to share between the two of them.

  Well, truth be told, more often than not, Ellis slept in the room by himself. Johnny was pulled into Laura’s room by his wrist once she was sure the three frat boys were locked away in their room.

  “You know, we really should get some sleep,” Johnny tried to say.

  Laura just snorted. “We’ll sleep much better after we’ve had our way with each other.”

  Johnny pushed her onto the bed and grinned. “Can’t argue with that logic.”

  Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy!

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