Brigends (The Final War Series Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Asinine laughter soon followed.
    Max shook his head in disgust. “Dumbasses.”
    Hunkered down, he did his best to get as comfortable as possible. He had to remind himself, these aggravations were worth the money.
     
    Elsewhere...
    The night was quiet. Zoe Chacon ran her fingers through her wavy salt and pepper hair. She never liked the silence. Its unsettling nature made her hairs stand on end. She believed bad things happened when the world was quiet.
    She didn’t have an urgent reason to worry. Their lookout point was tactically perfect in every respects. Nestled among the collapsed ruins of the waterfront warehouses in old Brooklyn, it had provided incident free coverage for her and her team on many occasions during the last few months. Regardless of the track record, she was paranoid. The reason? They were smack dab in Boss Cho’s turf. This particular crime lord’s hunters were the fiercest in New York. If they ran across one of his roving squads, she and her boys would have a hell of a fight on their hands. For good measure, she kept her sensitive ears attuned to the surroundings.
    The nerves on her neck tingled again, this time making her brigend mark itch. The damn thing always bothered her, especially when she was cold or tense from stress. The tritium-laced dye was to blame. Its radioactivity guaranteed brigends couldn’t completely remove their marks if they attempted to do so. Even if one could cut off all the layers of inked tissue, the radioactive signature left behind would linger for decades. A majority of brigends didn’t have this problem. Unfortunately for Zoe, she was one of the few who were prone to the irritation. In spite of this biohazard, the authorities continued to use tritium without sympathy.
    A glossy shuttle flew overhead, earning her attention. She nudged Chadwick. He crouched behind the crumbled wall and aimed his trinoculars through a gap. Bronson, his partner, sat opposite of him, jotting down scribbles in a journal. Neither of the battle-hardened fighters looked old enough to wipe their own noses, let alone recon a dangerous op so far above ground. She had selected them, because they were the best. Their youth was immaterial.
    Compared to them, her shorter physique stood out. Although getting on in years — forty-five exactly — she was strong as a Class-A piston. Some would say she was freakishly strong. If need be, she could have taken on her boys single-handedly and kicked both their backsides without breaking a sweat. Thankfully for the boys, they were on the same team.
    The night had been long. After glassing the Zolaris Spire for hours, she had tired and turned over the duty to Chadwick. With his fresh eyes keeping guard, she tried to sleep, but somehow her mind wouldn’t comply.
    She looked to the sky and ran her fingers through her hair again, feeling the dirty oil clustering under her nails. It had been days since her last shower and her whole body felt dirty. As she thought about issues of hygiene, an itch on her inner thigh grew worse. She reached down and pinched the skin through the fabric of her trousers and vigorously attacked the intruder. The relief was so relaxing she didn’t notice Bronson staring in disbelief at her brazenness.
    When she did, she returned his disgusted glare with one of her own. It wasn’t like she haven’t watched those two apes shamelessly scratching themselves for the past couple of days. Unsympathetic to his discomfort, she applied increased comic motion to her relief effort. The kid rolled his eyes, and without making a peep, laughed. She smirked. It was a brief instance of levity in an otherwise boring recon. They needed it.
    There was a mild noise, like someone laughing. It didn’t come from Bronson. No, the disturbance was in the distance. She tried to zero in on the source, but the reverberation had already died. She scrutinized what she had heard for any red flags, but none waved for further analysis. Not convinced of its