Ronan: Ziva Payvan Book 3 Read Online Free PDF Page A

as long. “My team reached Alpha status two years ago.”
    “They start you that early in ops?”
    “Considering most of us are dead or retired before we’re forty, they don’t have much choice. It’s no different than joining the military at eighteen.”
    “Touché,” Sheen said. “You people in ops get the job done, and that’s what matters.”
    Ziva kept her gaze focused directly ahead, watching the ships that came and went from the base’s little spaceport. When the time came to leave the facility – assuming the trial ended positively – she’d pictured herself being escorted home by HSP or getting picked up by her squad. The thought of riding into Noro aboard a military transport full of sweaty GA recruits was less than appealing, but adapting to unappealing circumstances was no new concept.
    She had just opened her mouth to ask Sheen about his court-martial when the man’s communicator crackled to life. “Major, are you seeing this?” a voice hollered over the open transmission.
    It was then that Ziva noticed the whine of an approaching aircraft, not from the transport hub ahead but from behind them. All the military personnel in the vicinity had stopped what they were doing and turned their attention to the sky. Ziva swiveled to get a look for herself, immediately fixing her sights on the small ship descending toward them with a plume of jet black smoke billowing from its rear end. She studied its trajectory for a moment, calculating that they had approximately five seconds to move away before it crashed into the building they were standing beside.
    “Get back!” someone yelled as she grabbed Sheen’s arm and began to run.
    They made it across the walkway and managed to duck behind a low decorative wall just as the ship reached the earth. The impact sent tremors rolling through the ground beneath them and brought a hail of broken glass and debris raining down around them. Ziva threw her hands up to shield her face, feeling the sting of burning material as it met her skin. She held perfectly still and listened, risking a peek up over the wall as soon as most of the dust had settled.
    The nose of the craft had penetrated the building’s walls, and judging by what she could see of the tail through the billowing smoke, it was one of the GA’s own fighters. She worked her way to her feet, eyes to the sky as she searched for any sign of where the ship had come from and what had caused the crash. The air was completely clear, and based on the chatter that flooded the nearby soldiers’ comm units, even the spaceport traffic was being directed out of the area.
    Ziva stepped out from behind the wall, ignoring Sheen’s warnings about subsequent explosions. “Affirmative; it came down against the northwest corner of Mess Hall 3,” she heard him saying into his communicator. “Do we have any idea where it came from?”
    Sirens wailed within the building and military personnel poured out the front door, coughing and sputtering and looking wildly about. Ziva grabbed one man by the shoulders and helped him steady himself against the wall, narrowly avoiding a pair of base firecars that came swooping down out of nowhere. The emergency response crews leaped into action, working to augment the mess hall’s gaseous fire suppression system that had been rendered nearly useless by the gaping hole in the wall.
    She could hear the voice of whoever Sheen was on comm with shouting through the device. “But you said the clearance codes checked out,” the major responded. “What do you mean MIA ?”
    Ziva found she was only half-listening as she began to cautiously move toward the wreck. The fire crews had blanketed the downed ship in a thick layer of blue foam, successfully smothering the worst of the fire. Emergency responders closed in ahead of her, but even through the crowd and remaining wisps of smoke, she could see that the fighter’s cockpit was empty.
    A loud bang echoed through the air just as her mind