Stone Soldiers 5: Black Knight Down Read Online Free PDF Page A

back and forth between the Colonel and Josie.
    "Hey, what about that collar thingy?" Phillips asked, drying his hair once more, a towel around his waist.
    "You know- the one we used on that Russian."
    Kenslir glared at Phillips, while Smith cocked an eyebrow.
    "Collar?" Josie asked, looking at her grandfather. "Is there a way he can stay human?"
    "It's not that simple," Kenslir said. He turned to glare at Jimmy. "In fact it's quite painful. And there's no guarantee it will work."
    "Well, what're we waiting for?" Josie asked. "Where is it?"
    ***
     
    Lieutenant Colonel Brian Hunt wanted to know the same thing. About Black Knight. He was reading a map in the back of a UH-60, desperately trying to straighten it out as the helicopter raced along, wind whipping in the open sides.
    "Where the fuck are we?" Hunt asked over the headset he was wearing.
    "Oklahoma, sir," the pilot answered.
    "Well, no shit, Sherlock," Hunt responded. "Where in Oklahoma?"
    The helicopter banked and began its decent, allowing Hunt to put his eyes on the Anomaly for the first time.
    A gleaming, smoking tube of what appeared to be black glass, it was laying in a large crater the size of a small football stadium- some thirty feet below ground level.
    "We're ten miles from Salem, Oklahoma, sir," the pilot said as he eased the Special Ops helicopter down. "Farm country."
    As soon as the helo's wheels touched the ground, the eight Air Force men on board leapt out, ducked low and running away from the helicopter. Three other helicopters similarly disgorged more men- each having landing on a compass point around the strange anomaly and its crater.
    Hunt gave up on his map and wadded it up, throwing it out of the helo. He stepped down and unslung his M4 rifle and calmly walked away from the helo. Once he was clear, the Blackhawk lifted back into the air.
    "Man that perimeter , boys!" Hunt growled into the whisper mic around his throat. Slightly taller than average, with dark, dark skin and a shaved head, Hunt had almost no neck and the thinnest of moustaches under his wide nose. He looked more like a brawler than an Air Force officer.
    To the west, he could just make out the flashing lights of police cars- holding a perimeter more of his men were slowly taking over. He checked his watch- he was ahead of schedule. Now he just had to wait for the eggheads to get here and decide what this thing was.
    "Crawford! With me!" Hunt barked. He walked up the slight rise of dirt and debris pushed up around the edge of crater.
    Stopping at the top of the massive impact crater, he looked down at the Anomaly, steam still rising from it.
    "What is it, Sir?" Senior Airman Crawford asked. He was a scrawny young man, barely up to Hunt's shoulder, with a baggy uniform that seemed too big for him. Politics had put him in the Special Operations Unit and on the Crash Recovery Team- against Hunt's wishes.
    "How the fuck should I know, Airman?" Hunt said. He pulled a cigar from a pocket of his shirt and put it in his mouth, chewing it.
    "C'mon," Hunt said, and walked down into the crater.
    Crawford followed him, carefully watching where he stepped, sliding on loose rock and nearly falling several times.
    When they finally reached the bottom, Hunt handed his M4 rifle to Crawford and pulled a camera from a pouch on his belt.
    The Colonel walked up to the gleaming black tube and began taking pictures. After his third, his camera died.
    "What the hell?" Hunt said, examining the camera and even shaking it.
    He reached up and keyed the whisper mike around his throat, but again, nothing happened.
    "Sir?" Crawford asked. He was gripping his rifle a little too tightly now, nervously staring at the glassy tube and all the ornate markings on it.
    "Damn radio is out. Stay there."
    Hunt walked partly back up the slope of the crater, trying to key his microphone again. "Perkins? Perkins- you read me?"
    Airman Crawford seemed more relaxed now, still staring intently at the strange, fallen satellite. He