Read Girl Takes The Oath (An Emily Kane Adventure Book 5) for Free Online Page A

on her hand-to-hand skills, and Stacie insisted on joining us.”
    “You got room for one more, or is it girls-only?” he asked, in a voice dripping with sarcasm.
    “Sure, if CJ doesn’t mind. But, you know, she’s not super-confident about her physical skills. She may not want any more attention.”
    “Don’t worry. I won’t freak her out.”
    “Okay. We’ll see you out on Sherman Field at 0500.” The mere sound of the words, oh-five-hundred, produced the desired effect on Zaki’s enthusiasm about joining his friends.
    “Sherman? But you guys have been meeting on Farragut.”
    “Obviously we’ve been drawing too much attention there.”
    “But Sherman’s almost a mile away,” he groaned.
    “More if you cross at Decatur, which is the way we’re going. And if too many more people start clamoring to join us, we’ll move it across the 450 Bridge to Jonas Green. You still up for this?”
    “You drive a hard bargain,” he said as they turned down a corridor leading into Chauvenet Hall. “Hold up, I’ve gotta hit the head. Wait for me, okay?”
    “You don’t have to keep watch over me, Zaki.”
    He shot her one of those looks that said, “You’re joking, right?” She glared back at him.
    “Just wait for me.”
    ~~~~~~~
    “This is not right,” Captain James Crichton said, standing by the window of the Commandant’s office. Autumn color had faded earlier than usual this year, but not all the leaves had fallen yet.
    “I’m only telling you because you knew her father, but nothing leaves this office,” Captain Raymond Jefferies said.
    “I’m just saying, it’s not right. We don’t dangle one of our own like this. Whose brilliant idea is it anyway?”
    “I got it from the Admiral, who got it directly from SECNAV. That means the Chiefs must have signed off.”
    “It reeks of CIA. You know the way they think, they dream up some scheme and dump it in someone else’s lap, without a thought of the human factor, unit cohesion, nothing.”
    “With Cardano running the National Clandestine Service, I doubt this plan could have come through CIA,” Jefferies said.
    “Then who, NSA?”
    “Jim, I think our speculations on this matter have exceeded their usefulness. How’s the girl holding up?”
    “Top of her class in AOM and MOM,” Crichton reported, beaming.
    “I imagine that’s produced some resentment.”
    “Her company commander reported an uptick in plebe harassment in the 28th, which seems to originate mainly from the 17th. So, yeah, she’s attracted her share of heat,” Crichton said.
    “I hear she wants to do Leatherneck. Has she been down to Quantico?”
    “I see where you’re going with that. She missed Durant when she was there for her Professional Training. He had a leave.”
    “Are you saying you’re not curious about what that reunion might be like? Because she may be doing some follow-up professional training.”
    Crichton smiled at the thought, since just three years ago, sitting in another office in this very building, he and Jefferies had watched a video of their last meeting. A karate tournament in Norfolk, packed with marines and assorted sailors—and a high school girl dominated the men’s kumite , which Durant had practically owned for the previous few years. She even dominated Durant himself. Yes, it would be worth an awful lot to see that reunion , Crichton thought.
    “It’s just that… I don’t think SECNAV understands the kind of roots she has in the fleet,” he blurted out.
    “You mean because the Leone brothers happen to know her?”
    “It’s more than that, Ray. One or another of those guys is always calling to check up on her. A week doesn’t go by… she’s not just an acquaintance of theirs. It’s strange to say, but it’s deeper than family, the way they feel about her.”
    “Do you have any idea what that’s about?”
    “No, and it’s not just the Leones. It’s her whole company, the way they rally around her. You remember how we