Read Online Swords of Exodus [Dead Six 02] by Larry Correia, Mike Kupari - Free Book Online Page B

indicates that.”
    “Everything we have heard about this Lorenzo says that he’s a ghost. He can go anywhere. The fact that we happened to encounter his brother, just when we needed a man like him, is I think, providence. Please let me speak to him.”
    I didn’t recognize the latest voice, and it was close. I groaned as I cracked open my eyes. The side of my head throbbed and the light streaming through the plane’s windows stabbed through my eyeballs and into my brain. The speaker was sitting across from me, a concerned look on his face. I was still in my chair.
    Albert Einstein ?I thought groggily. He was an older man, with wispy strands of white hair poking out from around his ears, and a mustache like a boot-brush. He studied me from behind his thick glasses. He was actually wearing a bow tie.
    “Good afternoon,” he said with a thick German accent. “I am Dr. Bundt.” He was holding my STI 9mm casually in his bony fist, pointed toward my chest. “I’m afraid Shen hit you a little hard. I apologize for getting off on the wrong foot, but you were threatening to blow us up.” His smile seemed genuine.
    “Who’re you?” The lump on my head hurt like a son of a bitch. Ling and Antoine were seated around me. Shen must have gone up front, behind the curtain. Brilliant Caribbean clouds scrolled past the windows.
    “As I say, I am Dr. Bundt. I oversee the treatment and well-being of those unfortunate souls that we rescue. As you may expect, I have gained some experience in helping people.”
    “Ironic,” I said, nodding toward my gun.
    “Oh, this?” He turned it around and held it out to me. I glanced toward Ling and Antoine, waiting to see which one was going to shoot me first, but neither moved. “Go on, take it.” He shook it slightly. I took the gun slowly, the textured grip was familiar and comforting. I didn’t do anything stupid, figuring that they had probably unloaded it while I was out. I reholstered without looking. “No more of the threats, yes? We have a common goal. Both of us want to see your brother rescued. He is very well respected in our organization now. He was most insistent that rescuing Mr. Valentine should be our first priority.”
    “My brother, the Fed , is friends with a bunch of terrorists?” I snorted.
    “I see there is much about your brother you do not know,” he said. “I think you will be very surprised when you see him next. In any case, if I were you, I’d be careful about using the word terrorist , Mr. Lorenzo. Is it not true that you were the right hand of Eduard Montalban?”
    I rubbed the knot on my head, not wanting to argue. Hopefully Shen at least broke a finger or something. “Will you please tell me what is so important about that kid?”
    “Mr. Valentine is one of us, though only in an honorary sense.”
    “One of you? When did that happen?”
    “Mexico,” Ling injected harshly. “A few years ago. He saved many lives, including mine.”
    Touched a nerve there. Ling had a personal stake in Valentine, and always looking for an angle, I filed that potentially useful information away for later.
    Dr. Bundt continued. “In any case, that fact was irrelevant to your brother. For him, young Mr. Valentine was far more important than that. Bob believes Valentine was the key to something very important, something which could have grave repercussions for all mankind.”
    “And what would that be?”
    “This I do not know. All he was able to convey to us was that there are powerful forces moving right now, and that something inside Mr. Valentine’s head may be the crux of it all.” Dr. Bundt shrugged his bony shoulders. “I do not know any more than that, I’m afraid. Once we rescue your brother you can ask him yourself. He was most adamant, though, that we need to get Mr. Valentine back alive.”
    “I wouldn’t get too worked up either way.” That stupid kid getting himself captured in Virginia could have compromised everyone that he’d been involved