Traitors (Damned of the 2/19th - Book Five) - Finished

Almost Christmas

2/19th Special Weapons Group Barracks
Restricted Area - Western Germany
Early Winter - 1986
Day: Twelve

The tiny little chrome bead snapped off the chain with a click and I swept it into the little hole on the bedframe. The beds in the barracks were designed to be made into bunk beds by dropping pegs into the holes on the head and foot boards, then stacking the next bed. Normally Bomber and I used them to hang things from the bed, but this time we were using the one on my bed to keep track of the days by dropping a metal bead taken from my long dogtag chain each morning.

"And a metal bead in a bunk bed." Nagle said softly, imitating the Christmas carol.

"Six more days till Christmas." Bomber added. "Provided we live that long."

"I want Santa to bring me 10 minutes with Oakes in the laundry room." Nagle snarled, flexing her fingers. The scar on her face deepened in color. It'd become a sure gauge of her real temper over the last year, and it gave her a look I'd found more and more attractive.

"I'll take three minutes with the LT." Bomber chipped in. "Break him like a fucking maverick."

I nodded, sitting down on the weight bench and staring at my hands. Bomber was standing at the window, staring out at the snow. Nagle was sitting in the chair by the desk. We were wearing our PT uniforms, one of the guys guarding us had agreed to wash our uniforms for us, and they were in the laundry room. Logan seemed like too good of a guy to be one of the LT's minions, and his lack of sudden promotion had me thinking I was probably right.

"What do you want for Christmas, Ant?" Bomber asked me after a few moments of silence.

"The Rangers to show up again." I answered, laying back. "Before it gets much worse."

"Much worse? We had the shit beaten out of us, how can it get much worse?" Nagle snarled.

"Him." Bomber answered, tapping the glass. "It's only a matter of time now."

The building punctuated what Bomber said with a low groan that I could feel under my feet. There were a few pops, as loud as nearby pistol shots, above us.

"Cheap ass contractors." Bomber said.

"Lowest bidder, baby. Trucks by Tonka rifles by Mattel." Nagle added. I just snorted. "Ant, come here, I want to see your front teeth."

I sighed theatrically and got up, moving over to kneel in front of her. She pulled my lower lip down and shook her head. "They hurt too bad?"

"No." I told her, running my tongue over my broken teeth when she let my lip go. She pulled me close against her chest, hugging me tightly, then pushed me away and waved at the weight bench. I moved over to sit back down on the weight bench.

"You still want to do this the easy way?" Bomber asked. "I'm not too willing to take another ass kicking while some paranoid fucking nutcase screams questions at me."

"That bitch Oakes touches my face again, and I'll tear her tits off, Ant, I'm not kidding." Nagle added.

"We open that door, there isn't any going back." I said. "We start spilling blood, and Tandy will go into a fucking frenzy again. He goes into a frenzy, things will get really bad really fast."

"It's already really bad, Ant." Bomber said, slamming the bottom of his fist against the baby-shit yellow painted cinderblock. "It's fucking bad for us." He turned from the window and pointed at his nose and the heavy bruising under both eyes. "Why should we be the only poor bastards who it gets bad for?"

I sat silently for a long time, staring at the floor.

"Answer me, goddamn it." Bomber said, taking two steps forward.