INVITING FIRE (A Sydney Rye Novel, #6) Read Online Free PDF

soaked into the dust. I walked up to the man and aimed my gun at his forehead. He went to speak but I pulled the trigger. The bang was loud. His eyes were open, the wound between them oozing blood slower than the severed hand.
    I looked up at the sky. Clear blue above the cloud of black smoke that drifted between me and it. The sun further down the western side of the world. I couldn't hear the flies or the crickets. Blue pushed his forehead against my wrist. I let my fist, still clenched around the machete, brush against him, then rest on his fur as I looked back to the building. At the pile of bodies.
    I walked down, weapons in both hands. Stepping into the plume of smoke I coughed. Blue followed me and when I stood over Malina, he sat and whined. Then his voice rose louder, into a howl. I felt the same.

HOT AND COLD
    A sad numbness took root in my gut and it felt like I was more than paralyzed, I was frozen. Behind a wall of ice while the world around me kept going. Blue nudged me forward, my emotions as bombed out as the pickup truck I'd left behind.
    I called from a dusty pay phone. The coins clunking into the machine. The line ringing. A man passed by me, his eyes roving over my body. I'd changed into clean clothing, bathing myself in the cow's water trough. The man smiled like he enjoyed what he saw. Anger lanced through me, shattering the shock around my heart. It pounded against my chest as I watched him walk away.
    "Hello," Merl said.
    "Merl," I said. "Extract me."
    "Yes."
    I watched the man continue down the street. He didn't look back at me. Blue tapped his nose to my hip. I hung up the phone and followed the man. The sun was setting, casting a soft pinkness over the landscape. It made the cinderblock buildings covered in dust appear beautiful. It made everything beautiful. The man noticed me coming and stopped to turn, his eyes lighting up with excitement. I realized he was just a surfer dude. His hair unruly, board shorts low on his hips, T-shirt tight against his strong chest. I stopped and he smiled. I shook my head. "Sorry," I said. "I thought you were someone else."
    He stepped toward me. "Can I help?" he asked, his accent sounded like Southern California.
    I shook my head. "No." He shrugged and I turned and hurried back to my Land Rover.
    Less than four hours later I was facing Merl in person. He'd met me at the helicopter and we walked silently along the paths. Everyone was in bed. The only sounds came from the wild creatures we shared this jungle with. I expected to go to Merl's office but instead he took me to the kitchen. It was under the dining hall and the windows peered out into the trees rather than the vista above. When Merl flicked on the lights the windows turned into mirrors, reflecting back the clean and tidy stainless steel kitchen. Merl walked over to the fridge and began pulling out sandwich supplies.
    "When was the last time you ate?" he asked.
    "Not sure," I said, swallowing. "Malina and I got a bite this morning." I was thrown back into a memory less than a day old. Malina smiling at me as she made fun of my lack of language skills with the waitress at the cantina where we'd eaten breakfast. I could almost hear the tinkling laugh that had brought men to their knees and women to her side.
    Merl began to make a sandwich. His dogs and Blue watched him intently. "She's...," a lump rose in my throat and I couldn't continue.
    Merl looked up at me, his hands stilling. "She died," he said. His voice broke and he turned away from me. Merl's grief was too much to bear and I looked down at the floor. A hot tear escaped and I watched it fall onto the pristine linoleum floor. Blue moved closer to me, his weight against my leg.
    I gave Merl an account of the day’s events—how what began as a seemingly safe reconnaissance mission had turned into mayhem.
    "We started Joyful Justice knowing there would be casualties," Merl said, his voice sounding stronger. He started to move again. I heard the clink