Z-Minus (Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

frowned and tried again, closing one eye and concentrating hard. One inch away this time.
    “All right, all right,” Paul said. “I notice a charity case when I see one. Especially one trying so hard to appear so.”
    “Thanks, Paul,” Roach said.
    Paul poured a shot into the glass.
    “You all right, Roach?” Paul said. “You seem a little more distant than usual.”
    “I’m fine,” Roach said. “Like always.”
    His uniform was crumpled and creased, his beret lying on the bar at his shoulder.
    “How long you been back?” Paul said.
    Roach looked at his watch, squinting to peer closer at the dial.
    “One hour and twenty-three minutes,” he said.
    “You must have missed Jack,” Paul said, flicking the bottle of Jack Daniels.
    “More than any other,” Roach said. “Besides you of course, Paul.”
    “Of course,” Paul said.
    Someone opened the door, and offensive natural light invaded the dark interior. Roach leaned away from it. A young suit staggered into the bar with a big bosomed young lady under either arm. They led him to the bar. The young man fell onto a stool and raised a hand.
    “Bartender,” he said.
    Paul rolled an eye at Roach before heading over.
    “What can I do for you?” Paul said.
    “Three of your finest cocktails please, barman,” the yuppy said. “And one for yourself. And for our soldier friend.”
    Roach nodded. He wasn’t one to turn down a drink.
    “I need to go to the ladies’ room,” one of the women said. “You’ve smudged my eyeliner.”
    “Be gone then, fair maiden,” the yuppy said.
    Paul served up the drinks, took the man’s money, and returned to Roach. He leaned on his elbows, in close to Roach.
    “What are the odds she’s a maiden, do you think?” Paul said.
    “About the same as you are,” Roach said. “I believe the young fellow bought me a drink.”
    Paul poured Roach another whiskey.
    The young man in the suit pressed his head against the remaining woman, his face finding her breasts. He buried himself in deep like a tick and fell asleep. The woman leaned her head against an arm bent at the elbow, checked her watch, and shut her eyes.
    “Warms the cockles of your heart, doesn’t it?” Paul said.
    “Warms something,” Roach said, shifting position. “Why is it someone like him gets the ladies?”
    “Would you want a lady like that?” Paul said dubiously.
    “For an hour,” Roach said.
    He threw back the shot of whiskey like it was water.
    “You do things,” Roach said, “for yourself, for your family, for your country… and then one day you wake up and remember you never really wanted to do any of this. You have no family, and you don’t know what you owed your country to have left in the first place. They convince you we’re born with a debt to the nation. And then you look around after all these years of service, and see people doing well, with lots of money, beautiful girls, and they never had to struggle the way we did in foreign lands. You come back, and you realize you gave away your life to a people and a place that don’t care.”
    “I care,” Paul said. “All the fellas in this bar care. It’s thanks to people like you that we can sleep safe and sound at night.”
    “Then why don’t I feel safe?” Roach said, throwing his glass back. It was already empty.
    Paul frowned. He’d heard some crazy things from Roach over the years, but nothing so somber as this.
    “But don’t you worry about me,” Roach said. “I’ll be all right. Survivor Roach, that’s what they call me. Chop off my head and I carry on like nothing was ever the problem.”
    “Suggests to me you ought to put more in your head in the first place,” Paul said.
    Roach grinned, wagging his finger at Paul for the zinger.
    “I’ll have to remember that one,” he said.
    He picked up his car keys. Paul put his hand on Roach’s forearm.
    “Roach, I can’t let you drive,” Paul said.
    Roach looked at Paul’s hand, and then into Paul’s eyes. There