Praetorian Series [3] A Hunter and His Legion Read Online Free PDF

directed toward my friend.
    “Stryker!  Get back here and get your toy before I shove it up your fucking ass!”
    I smiled unwittingly, thinking of how many times I’d uttered a similar line at my old pal.  I glanced at the trio of men, and saw Santino toss Stryker’s crossbow into the air and take off into the night.  Stryker, so caught up in catching his weapon, barely even noticed Santino’s escape, and he desperately looked to find the man who was to blame as Brewster hobbled toward him.  Cuyler, meanwhile, took that moment as a sign to leave as well, leaving Stryker alone to deal with the irate woman, but luckily for him, Brewster tripped and fell just as she passed by me.  I lashed out with a hand and managed to grab the woman before she hit the dirt, but when I looked up for help, Stryker had vanished just as easily as Santino had earlier.
    I looked back at the downed woman.
    “Medic!”  I called out, but without shouting.
    Wang popped his head out from his tent, and I saw it fall against his chest in annoyance before he dipped back in to retrieve his bag. He trotted over seconds later and knelt beside Brewster, but then another woman fell to her knees beside him.
    Technical Sergeant Patricia Martin was in the Air Force, and while I didn’t remember what the outfit was called in her military, it had sounded a lot like the Pararescuemen, who were combat troops that were doctors almost as much as they were warriors.  Their motto was, “That Others May Live,” a slogan they took very seriously as they risked their lives to drop in behind enemy lines to rescue downed military personal who were too wounded to help themselves.  They were a valorous bunch, and were just as well trained as my SEALs, only they were practically M.D.s as well.
    As for Patricia Martin, she was tall and relatively good-looking, with brown hair not unlike my own, only cut even shorter and more haphazardly.  She also had a tattoo of a blazing, red sun on her left cheek, something that wouldn’t have been allowed back where I came from.  The tattoo and close cropped hair gave her an intimidating vibe, which seemed odd since she was a medic.
    Days ago, wh en Archer, Artie, and the others had traveled back in time and joined us here in Ancient Rome, I’d originally thought Artie the only girl in the bunch.  I had been dazed and woozy from the pain, medication, and my own episode with time travel, so I hadn’t even noticed Martin and Brewster being women until hours later when they’d removed their face masks and let their hair down – well, at least Brewster had let her hair down.
    I’d been surprised to see such a high ratio of women to men in what was apparently a Special Forces unit, but when I’d later asked Archer about it, he’d nonchalantly made it clear that women had been serving as equally as the men in their armed forces for many decades.  His comment made me think of Israel, and how women in that country had fought alongside the men for many years before the idea even entered into the minds of other militaries.
    Wang looked at Martin’s arrival in surprise, not used to another medic around to help patch us up, but the two quickly got to work treating the wound and it was nice not to see friction between the two healers.
    I stood and moved away from the downed Brewster before I found myself in the way.  I knew when I wa sn’t needed most of the time, and this incident was clearly something beyond my professional pedigree.  I turned my head and noticed our pair of Romans, Gaius and Marcus, standing just outside their tent – this one clearly of the local variety – observing the medical procedure beside me.  I sent them a wave and they returned it before the pair moved off to join Vincent, Titus, Archer, and Cuyler around the camp’s central fire.
    I watched them go for half a moment before setting off again toward my intended destination.  I noticed with an amused smirk that since I’d left my rock, I’d