Read Weapons of War for Free Online Page B

chance, that's all I need. Don't ever talk to me like he's gone, Gabriel. Until someone proves otherwise, Soon is alive on Earth, helping the rebels take the fight back to the Dread."
    "Okay," Gabriel said, wiping his eyes. "We'll save him. We'll save all of them."
    "I know that, too. You and your father, you're cut from the same cloth. Neither one of you will be able to die before we're living peacefully on Earth again."
    "I hope you're right about that," Gabriel said, his thoughts turning to Theodore again. "Are you going to be okay?"
    "I won't lie and tell you that I'm one hundred percent. I'd rather have Soon here with me, and I'm going to miss the hell out of him. I'll survive, just like he will."
    "I can bring Wallace over if that helps. So you don't have to be alone."
    Daphne laughed at that, stepping into Gabriel and wrapping her arms around him. He returned the embrace, holding her in silence for a minute and letting her decide when to pull away.
    "I don't need his hair all over my bed," she said. "But maybe I'll stop by and take him for a run."
    "Anytime."
    Daphne straightened her uniform, and then flattened her hair and wiped her eyes one last time. She looked back in at her team, pretending to be busy while they kept an eye on her.  
    "I'll tell them what happened," she said. "We're stronger together than we are alone."
    Gabriel nodded. He knew it was true.
    Now he just had to convince his father of that.

  TEN

    Sergeant Diallo was standing outside Theodore's quarters when Gabriel arrived. She had a stern look on her face, one that suggested at her strict loyalty and stricter orders not to let anyone past.
    "Colonel Choi was already here," she said as Gabriel approached. "She didn't get past me, and neither will you, Captain. General's orders."
    "I'm not here as an officer," Gabriel said. "I'm here as a son."
    Diallo shook her head. "I'm sorry, Gabriel. He doesn't want to see anyone."
    "I know. That's why I came."
    "He knew you would. So did I. He specifically told me not to let you in."
    "And you're going to listen to him?"
    She bit her lip. "Please don't make me choose. I promised your father I would follow him. If I renege on that, he'll never forgive me."
    Gabriel thought about it. He appreciated the woman's loyalty to Theodore, even if it was getting in the way of his mission. "Okay. I won't ask you to choose. Can you just pass a message to him for me?"
    "That I can do."
    Gabriel paused. He wasn't sure it was a card he wanted to use, but what choice did he have? His father had holed himself up in his quarters, feeling sorry for himself instead of taking charge. It was an embarrassing response to his moment of failure. A response that Gabriel wasn't going to let him get away with.
    "Tell him I have news about my mother. About Juliet. He doesn't get to know what it is unless he lets me in."
    "Do you really have news?" she asked.
    "Yes."
    "Do you swear?"
    "I very rarely lie, Sergeant, and only when it's important."
    She raised her eyebrow.
    Gabriel smiled. "I promise."
    "Fine. I'll tell him. Step back a little. I don't want you trying to sucker me."
    "Would I do that?"
    "I think if it were important."
    Gabriel took a few steps back, putting his hands behind him for good measure. Sergeant Diallo smiled and then opened the hatch to Theodore's quarters. Gabriel looked past her. His father wasn't sitting out in the open. It was more likely that he was in that bathroom sick, or in bed, tired.
    She vanished inside, the hatch closing smoothly behind her. Of course, that one would be in good working order. Gabriel leaned back against the bulkhead to wait, keeping his arms folded behind his back.
    He didn't have to stand there for long.
    "He said he'll see you," Diallo said as the hatch opened. "Provided, as he says, 'you keep your coonass opinions of my fitness for duty to your damn self.'"
    Gabriel smiled. At least there was still some sass in his old man. "You know I won't," he said.
    "I know," she replied,