The Lazarus Moment Read Online Free PDF Page A

been
stationed. It had been love at first sight.
    Maybe
second sight.
    She
smiled as she remembered how awkward he had been that first day, asking her out
for coffee after class. It wasn’t until their second date, an actual dinner
date, that he had confessed he was in the ROTC program, the Air Force paying
for his education in exchange for four years of service after.
    That was when she knew he was the one.
    They
married straight out of college, just before his first posting, and little
Janice had been born less than a year later.
    And
now whoever you are.
    She stared
at her stomach then shrugged.
    Embrace
it!
    She
touched up her lipstick then headed down the hall, poking her head into
Janice’s room. “Are you ready?”
    The
little four-year-old nodded, looking anything but ready.
    The
doorbell rang.
    She
frowned.
    “Who
could that be?”
    “I’ll
get it!”
    Little
feet pounded on the parquet floors as Cecilia rushed after her. “Don’t open the
door, honey, let Mommy do it.”
    Janice
stopped short of the door, turning toward her mother. The doorbell rang again.
“Coming!” She hated when people were impatient. She had half a mind to not
answer, but she was already late for the meet-and-greet.
    It’s
probably Betty wanting a ride.
    Betty
was her neighbor.
    Her
chronically late neighbor.
    She
opened the door, surprised to see two men in suits standing on the doorstep.
Immediately her heart raced.
    Something’s
happened to Cameron!
    She
looked again.
    There
was no chaplain. And they weren’t wearing uniforms.
    He’s
okay.
    “Can I
help you?”
    “Are you
Mrs. Cecilia Lennox?”
    She
nodded. “Yes.”
    Something
sprayed in her face and her world went black.
     
     

 
     
    Air Force Base Waterkloof, Outside Pretoria, South Africa
    One day before the Air Force One crash
     
    Command Sergeant Major Burt “Big Dog” Dawson laughed at his best
friend and second-in-command, Master Sergeant Mike “Red” Belme. “You drew the
short straw.”
    “I
always draw the short straw.”
    “Then
you shouldn’t let me hold them.”
    “You
mean you’ve been cheating all these years?”
    “Nobody’s
that unlucky.”
    Red’s
face screwed up as he eyeballed his friend. “Bullshit. You’re the most honest
guy I know. There’s no way you’ve been cheating.”
    Dawson
shrugged. “Then I guess you’re the unluckiest bastard ever.”
    Sergeant
Carl “Niner” Sung poked the air with a finger. “My money’s on that. Have you
ever been to Vegas with Red? He puts it on red, it comes up black. Puts it on
black, comes up red. Keeps putting it on red, black has a streak like you’ve
never seen. He switches. It’s red.”
    Red
nodded. “That’s why my wife won’t let me play poker with you guys anymore,
she’s afraid I’ll lose the car.”
    “We play
for nickels,” boomed Sergeant Leon “Atlas” James, his impossibly deep voice
filling the room. “I think it’s safe.”
    “Have
you seen his car?” asked Niner. “If that thing’s worth more than a
buck-ninety-five I’ll renounce my Korean family.” He turned to Atlas. “They’re
starving, you know, so clearly I must really believe his car’s a piece of
shit.”
    “You’re South Korean,” groaned Sergeant Jerry “Jimmy Olsen” Hudson. “And you’re not even
that! You were born two hundred miles from where I was for Pete’s sake!”
    “Did you
read that in your school paper, Jimmy Olsen?”
    Jimmy
flushed, his moniker earned when someone had discovered he had been editor of
his school paper. “I can tell you one thing, there was a hell of a lot more
truth in that rag than what’s coming out of your mouth.”
    “So you
think the car is worth more than a buck-ninety-five?”
    “Can we
please stop talking about my car? I like my car.”
    Niner
nodded toward Red’s normally bald scalp, orange stubble showing. “Look, the
poor man can’t even afford razor blades for his head.”
    Red
pulled his bowie knife. “I use this. It’s also good