The Independents Read Online Free PDF Page B

them with me like I should have. I swore never to let that happen again. I swore never to feel so helpless and stupid. ”
    Terri got up and walked over to him. They hugged each other very close and held on for a long time. After a bit, she felt Bishop’s body tense and then several small convulsions raked his frame. He was crying , but she pretended not to notice . She held him tightly and soothed the back of his head.
    “Bishop, you can’t feel guilt y over that. It was an oversight – an accident. It sounds like you did everything you could.”
    After a time, h e sniffed, released his embrace, and then held her at arm’s length, looking deeply into her eyes. “Baby, the guilt I feel over the equipment is just part of the story. My demon is that I survived. I’m still alive , and the others aren’t. They were more experienced – they were better at fighting. When you go into…situations…yeah, situations like we did, you want to believe surviving is more than just luck. You want to have faith i n your skill, or knowledge, or G od…or whatever. You want to count on anything, anything at all, but dumb, random luck. Well, I’ll tell you something – sometimes skill has nothing to do with it. Sometimes all the training in the world doesn’t make any difference. If it did, I w ould ’ve died that day with those men. I didn’t deserve to walk away. You can’t control luck. I’ve burned more than my share of luck in this life. Working in places like where we lost Reaper and Elvis, and walking out alive. Acting like an invincible fool on the trip out here. Now I’m thinking I shouldn’t p ress it anymore. Now I wonder if going to check on that plane is going to suck me back into a shit storm I don’t want or need. ”
    Terri thought about h is concern for a moment and replied. “Bishop, we didn’t go looking for trouble today. That plane came to us. Sometimes you can’t control what life throws at you. We’ve made it through because of what we are and how we have handled it. I trust your instincts and your judgment. I’m with you all the way. Cowering all scared and timid in our little canyon might work – or it might make things worse. It’s your call.”
    He pulled her back close to him, holding her tightly for a while . He announced his decision by looking at his watch and proclaiming , “I ’ve got to get going. I have an airplane to find and a mystery to solve. Help me get into all this gear ; would ya , babe?”
     

Chapter 2  
    The President of the United States stood looking at a large wall map of his country , his hands folded behind his back. To the casual observer, the jacket he w ore looked like a quality light weight fall coat , with the President ial seal above his heart a nd the acronym POTUS ( President of the United States) in gold embroidery across his back. In reality, th e simple windbreaker was a multi-thousand dollar piece of equipment, which the Secret Service now demanded he wear at all times.
    While it was perhaps a few ounces heavier than an identical style purchased off the shelf at a fine men’s store , the jacket provided the same protection as level IIIA body armor. Able to defeat any handgun and all but the largest rifle calibers, the material used in the lining was a state secret.
    The embroidery on both the front and back had a security role as well. The thread had been treated with a special chemical that emitted heat at a specific frequency. When viewe d through the s ervice’s forward- looking infrared goggles, anyone wearing the jacket would stand out like a neon sign glowing in a dark night.
    The drawstring at the waist was an an tenna connected to two micro- transmitters sewn into the collar. Along the zipper , hidden in a slightly wider than normal seam , was a battery pack designed to power the se tiny radio stations for five years. These transmitters allowed the Air Force Space Comm and’s satellites to pinpoint the location of the jacket to within one