Read Return of the Phoenix - 01 for Free Online Page A

camp together, Security Forces school and Combat Controller school together.
    “You get paged, too?” Dave asked.
    “Yup. I figured it was a full deployment and that we’d all be paged, no?” TD answered, glancing around the locker room and noticing that nobody else was coming or going.
    “Nope. I called Marley and Pride to see if they might need a ride in and they said they weren’t paged.” Marshal had that look on his face that always made TD’s guts spin. Something wasn’t right.
    “Cap wants us in his office. Maybe we’ll get the low-down on what the fuck is going on.”
    Marshal poured a cup of coffee from the mixer stand. “All I know is, if we’re bugging out tonight, I’m gonna need some go-juice to keep my butt going. We were supposed to have a three day R&R and I haven’t slept since Cap cut us loose.”
    TD stood and headed towards the CO’s door. Marshal held his ‘cup-o-mud’ but followed. After knocking and Cap clearing them for entry, both men entered and waited for acknowledg ement. Their CO was going through papers and told them without looking up, “Take a seat, boys. I’ve got new orders for you.”
    Both men sat simultaneously and waited for Cap to tell them what the hell was going on. Cap finally looked up at both of them and sighed. “Orders just came in. You’re both taking off first thing in the morning.”
    TD had to ask, “But, Cap, we just got here a couple of weeks ago. We were supposed to start training nubs in less than two weeks. Surely they can’t send us back to the sandbox already?”
    Cap cleared his throat and hiked his eyebrows at them. “Boys, I don’t have a friggin’ clue where you’re headed. All I got was this set of orders sent out from the Pentagon telling me to release the two of you for follow-up commands. It doesn’t say where you’re going, what you’ll be doing, or who you’ll be doing it with. It just says to have your butts on the tarmac at 0600 for sendoff.”
    Marshal looked up from his coffee. “The Pentagon, sir?”
    Cap gave him an exasperated look. “Yes, Dave. The friggin’ Pentagon. You know what that is? The big five-sided building in DC where all the higher ups sit around with their thumbs up their petunias and try to second guess the men in the field! That Pentagon!” Cap cleared his throat and sat back in his chair, studying the two men. “Either one of you put in a request for a change of scenery lately?”
    TD and Marshal exchanged glances, shaking their heads. “No, sir,” TD replied. “I’ve been looking forward to instructor duty for some time now. Actually thought of it as a bit of a break, to be honest.”
    Cap nodded his head. “You both have earned a little down time, that’s for sure. But orders is orders and mine are telling me to cargo you boys outta here. I don’t like it. I don’t like it one bit.” Cap reached into his bottom drawer and pulled out his ‘hidden’ bottle of cheap rotgut and three shot glasses. “But I figure if you boys are leaving, then we might as well have at least one drink together so I can wish you boys all the luck in the world...for whatever the hell it is they’re going to do with you.
    Cap poured the three shots and handed the men theirs. “ Salud ,” he offered.
    “ Salud ,” they responded and tossed back the hooch.
    Cap grimaced slightly. “Whew. That will put some starch in your shorts, I tell ya.”
    Marshal, gasping for air, stuttered out, “Real smooth, sir.”
    “Bullshit. I can’t afford the ‘smooth’ stuff. This is rotgut in a fancy whiskey bottle.” Cap sighed heavily. “I hate to get in new instructors and then have them pulled out from under me like this.”
    “So this has happened before, sir?” TD asked.
    “Nope. First time. Usually once the detailers send you boys to me, I have you for two years.” Setting the bottle back in the bottom of his drawer, Cap said, “This is honestly the first time I’ve had guys pulled out from under me after