Read Soul Full of Guns: Dave vs the Monsters for Free Online

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    “Nice work, kid,” she said, and then in Russian, “ А дело бывало—и коза волка съедала .”
    “What?” Nguyen said, careful not to get any closer to the woman, who still had the sword gripped loosely in her right hand. The blade was dark with blood. Or what she presumed was blood.
    Trinder appeared at her elbow, grinning and holding a shotgun on the Russian. “She said, ‘ It’s happening ,’ Agent Nguyen. ‘ A goat is eating up a wolf .’ Or something like that. My colloquial Russian is rusty.”
    He swayed a little on his feet but his aim was rock solid. It never shifted from Varatchevsky’s center mass.
    “Good work,” he added and despite the weird banality of it, she thrilled to the compliment. She was not long with OSCAR but the ill temper of the senior supervising agent was legendary, and he had plenty to be ill of temper about this evening. Thankfully, not her.
    “This isn’t on me,” said Varatchevsky. Her smile as she indicated the corpse of the enormous and inexplicable Swamp Thing was unexpected and even disarming. Her accent held not a trace of its origins.
    Nguyen settled deeper into her shooter’s stance.
    “Drop the weapon,” she said flatly.
    More of the tactical ops guys were back on their feet, and they brought their weapons to bear too. A private gun, one of Varatchevsky’s mercenary hires for sure, looked from his employer to Trinder who didn’t even bother to show him ID.
    “Fancy some time in Egypt, son?” Trinder asked offhandedly. “The security service there, the Mabahith Amn ad-Dawla, they do a damn fine line in the sort of torture the courts just won’t let me enjoy here.”
    “Stupid judgey courts,” said Nguyen, getting into her sidekick role, but never taking her eyes or her aim off Varatchevsky.
    The bodyguard allowed himself one plaintive look at the Russian but she smiled that strangely soothing smile again.
    “It’s okay, Tony. I paid in advance. Go on. You can have the rest of the night off. Oh and nice work,” she added, inclining her head toward the Swamp Thing.
    The security man let his gun fall as he backed away towards the spiral staircase. A few halting steps at first, and then he spun around and ran, taking the risers two or three at a time on the way down.
    “I believe Agent Nguyen instructed you to lay down your weapon, Colonel,” Trinder said, grinning as though he expected her to refuse. As though he wanted her to.
    But she shrugged and lay down the sword.
    “Step away from the pig sticker, now, if you would,” he said, before barking at one of the FBI guys. “You. Clear that weapon.”
    The man waited until Varatchevsky had moved back, her hands in the air. He shouldered his assault rifle and advanced on her with a pistol drawn. He was about to kick the sword aside when Trinder said, “Just pick it up.”
    He did.
    Then he screamed.

CHAPTER FIVE
    It was almost funny. The decoy had her cold. The little half-caste Asian Miss with the bad henna tattoo messing up her pretty face. The one Karin had made as soon as she’d laid eyes on her. She was the only one on her feet, the only one doing her job—and that included Colonel Ekaterina Varatchevsky of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian Federation.
    Karin had blacked but she didn’t think it had lasted very long, a few seconds at most—but long enough. When she regained her senses the decoy had a gun on her and the other Americans were quickly coming to. More and more guns were pointing at her, although the Asian girl’s Glock 27 was probably enough on its own. She’d shown herself willing to pull that trigger when she’d pumped a couple of magazines into…
    Superiorae Pr’chutt un Theshrendum un Qwm .
    As soon as the name occurred to her in the strange unknown tongue, in a language she now spoke fluently, Karin’s thoughts fell back to her native language.
    “Cuchka derganaya!”
    Crazy bitch!
    She’d given this thing a name