Read Online Renegade (2013) by Mel Odom - Free Book Online Page B

these patched clunkers back to their owners.”
    “Thanks. I’m probably gonna be working late tonight, so I’ll make up for any lost time.”
    “Sure. Go ahead. Maybe when Hector gets a little older, I can hire him to be my accountant. That’ll make the missus happy.”
    “I’m going to take him over to the diner. We can get a table there and spread out.”
    Monty nodded.
    “Hello, Mr. Pike.” With a frustrated sigh, Hector held out his thick math book. “It is this thing again. My teacher is still unhappy with me.” He opened the book and took out a sheaf of papers thathad been marked up with enough red pencil that they looked like they were hemorrhaging.
    “What’s going on?”
    “She says I work too fast and don’t show the steps again.” Hector sighed. “Showing all the steps is boring. The math is too easy.”
    “Sure, I get that. Mechanic work is too easy too. Remember me telling you that?”
    “Yes.”
    “A mechanic has to be methodical in what he’s doing. One step at a time. If he doesn’t, he’s liable to leave something out that’s important and cause a bigger problem than he started with. We’ve been over this.”
    “I know.” Hector looked forlorn. “This is why you take screws out of a part and put them in a small cup. So they stay together.”
    “That’s right.” Hector had been watching Pike work on cars for months. The kid was bright, always learning. “That’s what you have to do when you take a math problem apart: keep all the bits and pieces in their proper places.” Pike dropped his rag onto the worktable. “Let’s go over to the diner. Get you a Coke. Then we’ll take a look at those papers.”

8
    “WHEN YOU GO through the door, Hasan, there must be no hesitation. If you hesitate, you may well die. Do you understand?”
    Hasan nodded, but Yaqub could see the fear in the boy’s eyes. Hasan believed in God and he believed in Yaqub, but he did not yet believe in himself. That was the gift Yaqub intended to give him today.
    The boy was fourteen, older than Yaqub had been when his father had first placed a rifle in his hands and taught him to kill the Russian soldiers who had invaded Afghanistan. Yaqub had only been eleven, but he had been blessed with a love of his God, a desire to see his enemies killed, and steady hands.
    Leaning down so that his face was level with the boy’s, Yaqub held Hasan’s gaze with his own. “You will not hesitate, for I have chosen you to be one of my warriors. You are one of the few that I permit to follow me wherever I go. Do you understand this?”
    “I understand.” Hasan’s voice cracked. “I will not fail you.”
    “You will not fail me because you will not fail God. Do you understand?”
    The boy nodded.
    “You serve God, as I do, and we have been given the task of ridding our country of the Westerners who would kill us and destroy our faith. This is not to be allowed.”
    “I will not allow it.”
    “Good, and know that if the time should come that you must give your life in pursuit of serving God, you will ascend immediately to heaven and know delights that will never be yours here in this world.”
    “I know these things, Mullah.”
    Yaqub smiled and once more stood straight. “Of course you do. I have taught them to you.” He turned from the boy and stared at the building across the street where the CIA team was holed up.
    It was early morning. The sun was only now lighting the sky in the east. Pedestrians filled Parachinar’s streets, all of them wanting to finish their morning chores and shopping so they could get back inside and escape the chill that had fallen from the mountains.
    Running the Americans to ground had taken only a few hours. Zulfigar’s grandsons proved very adroit at scouting through the streets. The question remained, however, whether they had accomplished their goal without alerting their quarry.
    The three Americans and their two Pashtun guides stayed to the shadows of the city, but they