The Good Soldier Read Online Free

before anyone else talked to them.
    I got dressed, exited the restroom and walked back down the empty hallway to our room.
    I pushed the door open and called out to Bear from the hallway.
    "What do you say we go grab something to eat?"
    No response.
    "Bear?"
    I stuck my head in the room. The back door stood open. I figured he'd stepped outside for some fresh air and decided I might as well join him. I grabbed a beer and found my jacket. My hand reached inside a pocket, searching for my cell phone. Oddly, it was missing. It had been in that pocket all night long. I hadn't even taken it to check the time.
    "Bear, have you seen my phone?"
    Still no response.
    I stopped moving things around on the table and looked toward the back door and took two steps toward it. I saw Bear standing on the back patio, and he looked at me, but he said nothing.
    "Bear?"
    He clenched his jaw, but did not respond.
    "Jack Noble," a voice said from behind.
    I stopped and turned my head and saw two men, both armed, standing in the back of the room. I knew them by face, not by name. They weren't friends of mine. I dropped my beer and clasped my hands together behind my head. I looked at the floor and saw fizzing beer wrapping around the soles of my boots.
    Two other men led Bear inside. He looked at me and shook his head. Pretty obvious what he was thinking. Same thing I was.
    "What's going on guys?" I said.
    "Shut up, Noble," one of them said from behind me.
    "You can't just detain us without a reason," I said.
    The man laughed. "We're in Iraq, Noble. We can do whatever the hell we want."
    They grabbed my hands, forced them down and behind my back. I felt the thick plastic zip ties close around my wrist and draw my arms close together. The hard plastic dug into my skin the more I moved.
    "If we want you to disappear," he continued, "there are thousands of miles of deserted land where we can bury you."
    "That a promise?" I said.
    "Keep talking." He grabbed my wrists and forced them upward. "And it will be."
    "Jack," Bear said, his voice was low and trailed off at the end.
    I looked at him.
    He shook his head and looked down at the floor.
    I followed his gaze and saw my cell phone on the floor, crushed.
    "You know, I already talked to Col. Abbot about what happened tonight." I paused. "He's sending a team to investigate Martinez."
    The four men laughed.
    One behind me said, "You think we're worried about Abbot? He has less say here than he does in America." He walked around me, stopped with his face inches from the side of mine. "He doesn't have crap for pull with us. Our chain of command moves up a hell of a lot faster and farther than yours."
    I cleared my throat but said nothing. I felt a knot form in the pit of my stomach but didn't let my external expression change.
    "Are you getting this, Noble? You're screwed. Nothing is going to get you out of this."
    For what, I thought. Kicking that douchebag Martinez's ass? Hell, the other ops teams we worked with all said they couldn't stand him.
    "Let's go."
    They led us through the front door, down the hallway, and outside to a Humvee parked in front of the building. We climbed in through the back passenger side door. Bear and I sat in the middle. Two men sat in back with us, guarding the door. They held their weapons firmly pressed into our sides.
    "Make sure you avoid the potholes," I said.
    Bear chuckled. The four men didn't. These guys had no sense of humor.
    "Shut the hell up, Noble," the driver said.
    I did.
    We drove on in silence across the base. Stopped in front of the building we used for detaining persons of interest. Guess that was what Bear and I were now.

Chapter 3
    We waited in a gray concrete room. Mold covered the plaster ceiling and the rank smell of mildew overpowered my senses. There were no windows, only a single steel door, and just one table with two small wooden chairs. We were not in a cell, it was an interrogation room. We hadn't spent much time in this part of the building, as the