ARISEN, Book Eleven - Deathmatch
Page 35
He tossed the handset back and slung himself into the driver’s seat of what had previously been Kuznetsov’s vehicle. “Go, go, go!” he shouted in his dinosaur voice, reaching out and banging on the roof in time to his monosyllables. “I want my shit back!”
Vasily climbed in and said, “So you think it was the bearded one who hacked the drone?”
Misha grunted. “Da. I knew he was here. I smelled him.”
“I saw him through my scope, back in the fight.”
Misha looked over in surprise. “Why didn’t you kill him?”
“I assumed you wanted him for yourself.”
It was true. He and Vasily understood each other.
“And I’m going to shoot that woman sniper in the face,” Vasily said, slumping in his seat. “She and I are not done.”
Truck engines roared to life, and the six vehicles pulled wide U-turns, crushing small trees under their tires. The hunted had become the hunters again.
A role they were much better suited for.
* * *
Nina had already pulled the engine cowling closed and secured it, and was gathering up her tools, when her radio went.
“Da. We can be in the air in ten minutes. Understood. We will carry out your orders – with pleasure.”
She found Bazarov examining one of the weapons pods on the right stub wing, which had earlier been hit with an RPG in the Stronghold battle – and now had taken much of the brunt of their close encounter with the ASRAAMs. In particular, he was looking at the pod with six Vikhr missiles suspended beneath it. The Vikhr came in a sealed launching container, like a steel poster tube, and there were six of them stacked two by three. But the force of the explosion had bent one of them on its mount – it now canted at a crazy angle, in toward the helo itself.
Bazarov looked up to see Nina rounding on him, full of furious purpose as always. Even as he opened his mouth to speak, she cut him off.
“I’ve seen it,” she said. “It’s offline, it’ll be fine.”
“We should really unmount it an—”
“No time. We have a mission.” Also, Nina knew the sealed container kept the missile safe, even bent and broken, but she didn’t feel like taking time to explain this to her feckless gunner. “Pack up, suit up, saddle up. And move your ass for once.”
The hunt was back on.
And Nina had zero intention of missing out on the kill.
ARISEN, BOOK TWELVE – CARNAGE
launches on 03 September 2016
Yes, you read that right. Two new ARISEN books in a month – and for the same reason as last time: because you, the ARISEN readers, are awesome, and you deserve it.
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A portion of the earnings from this book will be donated to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation – which provides full college scholarships to the children of all special-operations personnel killed in missions or training accidents. As you probably know, our special operators train like professional athletes, perform like minor gods, and lay it all on the line every day in the defense of freedom and decency. They have also trained and deployed constantly – and suffered disproportionately high casualties – since 9/11. Let’s send the children of their fallen to school. It’s the very, very least we can do. Tax-deductible donations to this foundation can be made at www.specialops.org.
Thanks & Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank the unbelievably generous, talented, and indispensable people who make up the ARISEN beta-reading team: Mark George Pitely, Amanda Jo Moore, Dave Fairfax, and Ron Purugganan (aka Nil Ate). Super extra thanks and special recognition to Electronics Technician Chief Petty Officer Mark D. Wiggins, USCG (ret) – for reading everything twice, and continuing to provide outstanding service as maritime, weapons, electronics, and avionics subject matter expert (are you listening, Hollywood?).
Thanks as always to the amazing Editrice (jacqui@ladyeditrice.co.uk), for making ARISEN bulletproof.
Thanks also and forever to Anna K. Brooksbank, Sara Natalie Fuchs, Richard S. Fuchs, Virginia Ann Sayers-King, Valerie Sayers, Alexander M. Heublein, Matthew David Grabowy, and Michael and Jayne Barnard, for their indispensable support. Also, Bruce, Wanda, Alec, and Brendan Fyfe for their service and sacrifice. Eternal thanks to Glynn James for coming up with Arisen.
The amazing cover image for this book was shot by the awesome Konstantin Lazarev (konstantinlazarev.com). Yeah, that’s a real Spetsnaz dude – and the photo is virtually totally untouched. No, I would not want Comrade Lazarev’s job! But many thanks for his amazing and death-defying work. Great cover image.
The line “I’ll give you ten bucks to stab me in the face right now” is from Grey’s Anatomy Season 8 Episode 24: “Flight”, written by Shonda Rhimes.
The Hollenbaugh Shot is from the book Modern American Snipers: From The Legend to The Reaper—on the Battlefield with Special Operations Snipers, by Chris Martin with SOFREP.COM - specifically the account of Delta Master Sergeant Don Hollenbaugh’s singlehanded defense of that Fallujah rooftop, for which he was awarded the Silver Star. (You should seriously buy and read this book, by the way – the author has more and better access to real Tier-1 guys than almost anything I’ve ever read.)
“Pouring down hate and discontent like a mother” is from SGT Antonio “Poke” Espera in Generation Kill (both book and miniseries are completely worth your time and money, and then some – why have you not watched this yet!?).
The Hebrew phrase Dvekut baMesima (“glued to the mission”) is via the amazing Steven Pressfield, who learned it researching his truly outstanding and amazing book The Lion’s Gate (one of his many very amazing books).
Slayer155 – you’re welcome (for dissing the drones).
The observation that “pounds equals pain,” and thus people wouldn’t be shooting so damned much in the boonies, is from the indispensable Mark Wiggins. Ditto the plasma-torch cutting of the JFK hatches – I originally had it as breaching charges, which would have killed most everyone on the deck before they took down a steel hatch! 8^) Ditto passageways (not companionways). And earbuds on ship, and ratings, and how navy chiefs are not called NCOs, and on and on and on. Thanks, Chief Wiggins!
Thanks to Ryan Holiday, and his life-changing book The Obstacle is the Way – probably the best and most useful thing I’ve read this millennium and from which I stole: “As the Haitian proverb puts it: Behind mountains are more mountains. Elysium is a myth. One does not overcome an obstacle to enter the land of no obstacles. There are always more obstacles, bigger challenges. You’re always fighting uphill. Get used to it and train accordingly.” This book genuinely contains the secret to life. (And I’m betting any operator would say the same thing.)
I can personally no longer operate without the Daft Logic Google Maps Distance Calculator. (Just try me! Go ahead – see if all those ground and air journeys are plausible! Ha ha ha. I’m too obsessive about realism for anyone’s good…)
Speaking of realism, I’m going to cop to this: a combat rubber raiding raft (CRRC), including its engine, weighs 322 pounds. No one, with the possible exception of Predator, could possibly carry one around. I just couldn’t think of any other plausible way to get it to go where I needed it! Sorry!
Thanks to Military Factory for the rather authoritative, and extremely well-thumbed by me, list of the Weapons of Spetsnaz.
You remember how in Book Seven, Juice wondered if Misha had learned all his
English on UrbanDictionary.com? Well, yeah. Spent a lot of time there, virtually every time Misha opened his mouth. ;^)
A million thanks to Trevor Warfel, user tmw350 on Spotify – for powering me through the story design phase, and for stopgap-filling a major shortfall in running and writing music, with his Spotify playlist “Octane / Turbo – Hard Rock from the 90s to Today”. You don't know me, but you helped write this book. Thanks, man – for being me, when I was too busy to be me.
The full list of music used in this cycle of writing will be listed in the back of Book Twelve. 8^)
ARISEN
Hope Never Dies.
Fans of the bestselling ARISEN series call it “Staggeringly good - the most consistently excellent franchise in zombie literature” … “Wall to wall adrenaline - edge of your seat unputdownable until the very last page” … “totally stunning in its originality” … “jaw dropping” … “moves like an avalanche” … “You can smell the smoke, feel the explosions, and hear the rounds headed down range” … “edge of the seat, nail biting, page turning mayhem” … “had me holding my breath more times than I could count” … “a knock down drag out kick ass read - the best ZA book series around, period” … “rolls along like an out of control freight train” … “Left me shaking at the last page…”
Alpha team will return in
ARISEN, BOOK THIRTEEN – THE SIEGE
(And then again in
ARISEN, BOOK FOURTEEN – END DAYS – and then that’s it, folks!)
They are the most capable, committed, and indispensable counter-terrorist operators in the world.
They have no rivals for skill, speed, ferocity, intelligence, flexibility, and sheer resolve.
Somewhere in the world, things are going horrifyingly wrong…
Readers call the D-BOYS series “a high-octane adrenaline-fueled action thrill-ride”, “one of the best action thrillers of the year (or any year for that matter)”, “a riveting, fast paced classic!!”, “pure action”, “The Best Techno Military Thriller I have read!”, “Awesome!”, “Gripping”, “Edge of your seat action”, “Kick butt in the most serious of ways and a thrill to read”, “What a wild ride!!! I simply could not put this book down”, “has a real humanity and philosophical side as well”, “a truly fast action, high octane book”, “Up there with Clancy and W.E.B. Griffin”, “one of the best Spec Ops reads I have run into”, and “hi-tech and action in one well-rounded explosive thriller.”