The Lazarus Moment Read Online Free PDF

for castration.”
    Niner
snapped his knees together, covering his boys. “So what do you think
your car’s worth?”
    “More
than a moment’s silence from you, that I can assure you.” He examined himself
in the blade’s reflection then ran his hand over his head. “I feel like I’m out
of uniform.”
    “Something
bothering you?” asked Dawson, his friend usually religious about keeping his
head shaved.
    Red
shrugged. “I’ve been thinking about growing it back.”
    Everyone
froze. Niner broke the silence. “You shittin’ us?”
    “No.”
Red sighed. “We were watching something on the news the other day about white
supremacists. Bryson pointed and said they looked like me then asked if I was a
racist.”
    “Want me
to talk to him?” asked Atlas. “I’m black and you’ve treated me with nothing but
respect. You’re the least racist man I know.”
    Red
smiled slightly. “Thanks, buddy, that means a lot. But it just got me thinking
about how impressionable young kids are. The last thing I want is my son
thinking his dad’s a racist.”
    Dawson
leaned forward. “He’d never think that, not if he knew what the word truly
meant.”
    “Yeah, I
suppose you’re right.” He rubbed his hand over his head again. “I’ll take care
of it later.”
    “You

better,” said Niner, nodding toward the orange stubble. “You’d stand out like a
damned airport beacon with that head of hair in the desert.”
    Dawson
laughed with the others, Red shaking his head. “I still have my knife out.”
    Niner
nodded toward his boys. “And I’m still covering them until you don’t.” He twisted
his legs to the left, putting the side of his hips between his jewels and the
knife. He motioned toward Red’s head. “Didn’t you start shaving that thing
because you were going bald at twenty-five?”
    Red
really flushed this time. “I’m going to take care of it now.”
    Dawson glanced
at his watch. “No time. Take care of it on the plane, you’re wheels up in
fifteen.”
    Red
rose, grabbing his gear. “I wish it had left fifteen minutes ago, then I
wouldn’t have had to listen to this scintillating conversation.”
    “You’ll
miss me,” said Niner, blowing a kiss.
    Red
flipped the knife in his hand.
    Niner
covered up again.
    Red gave
an exaggerated sigh as Jimmy, Jagger and Wings grabbed their gear. “The life of
a Delta Operator never ends.”
    “And
you’d have it no other way.”
    “Sad,
but true.” He turned to the others. “Have fun, boys, we’ll see you in Kenya.”
    “Don’t
get eaten.”
    Red eyed
Niner. “You do know they’ve got lions here, too.”
    Niner
looked about the room. “In here?”
    Red grinned
at Dawson. “I’m glad he’s on your team. I don’t think he’d survive on mine.”
    Dawson
slapped him on the back as he headed out the door, the rest of Red’s team
following. He sat back down and pulled out his phone, firing off a text message
to his girlfriend, Maggie Harris. She had been shot recently in Paris though
was recovering nicely. Her biggest concern now was the fact half her head had
been shaved, her gorgeous curls gone. Red’s wife Shirley had trimmed the rest
short for her and was keeping it that way until the side of her head that had
been operated on caught up.
    He had
nearly lost her that day, and he had thanked God every day since for sparing
her.
    His life
was dangerous. All their lives were dangerous. They were Special Forces,
America’s elite; some would say the best in the world. As a member of 1st
Special Forces Operational Detachment–Delta, commonly known as Delta Force, he
had been on ops around the world and around his country, Delta the only
military unit permitted to operate on American soil at the sole discretion of
the President.
    It was a
privilege they all understood the significance of.
    Yet
today they weren’t battling terrorists, they were on a babysitting mission. His
team, Bravo Team, had been called in to supplement the normally already