Main Dishes

PART 2 The heavy reinforced tactical boots hit the sun-baked asphalt with a deliberate, purposeful weight. The powerful jet turbine engines of the modified Black Hawk spooled down, their deafening roar transitioning into a high-pitched, menacing whine. As the chaotic swirl of pulverized asphalt and coastal sand began to drift away on the Pacific breeze,…

PART 2 “Safety is off. Finger is on the trigger, but your stance is off-balance.” Allison Prescott watched from the freezing, oil-stained asphalt, her breath hitching painfully in her throat. The heavy, damp air of the Seattle night felt as though it had suddenly turned to solid ice. Six feet away from her, the towering,…

The gym. That was the same excuse she used when she was out sleeping with her boyfriend. I just stood there, staring at a stranger wearing my wife’s face. She tried to soften her tone. “Maybe we shouldn’t be so rash while things are raw. Maybe we can try counseling. You know we still love…

PART 2 “Titan,” I said, my voice dropping into a calm, authoritative register that cut through the chaotic noise of the kennel like a blade. “Zit.” The word hung in the sterile, bleach-scented air. It was barely more than a whisper, yet it struck the enraged Belgian Malinois with the undeniable force of a physical…

PART 2 Private Slater stayed frozen, suspended in a terrified crouch as if the small piece of fabric on the linoleum floor were a live fragmentation grenade. He didn’t dare breathe. His wide eyes were fixated entirely on the matte black velcro patch and the intricate metallic charcoal thread that shimmered under the harsh, flickering…

PART 2 The trigger break was a clean, sharp snap. The heavy M2010 ESR barked, sending a massive shockwave of displaced air kicking up a cloud of fine, white Arizona dust around my prone form. The recoil punched into my shoulder with the familiar, comforting violence I hadn’t felt in over two years. I didn’t…

PART 2 The man in the maintenance uniform hit the bottom of the service stairs at a dead run. His toolkit banged against the railing, metal on metal, and the sound cut through the station noise like a warning shot. I saw his face clearly for the first time — mid-thirties, unshaven, eyes wide with…

PART 2 — FULL STORY The desert wind cut through the silence that followed my words. It was a dry, cold wind, the kind that siphons heat from your bones and reminds you that the Arizona night is not your friend. I’ve spent sixteen years in this wind. I know its voice. That night, it…

PART 2 — FULL STORY I had felt that particular ache in my shoulder for 51 years, ever since a humid afternoon in Quang Tri Province when the world went bright white and loud and threw me face-first into a muddy riverbank. Marcus Webb’s gun butt landed on the same cluster of scar tissue and…

That night, after she fell asleep, I did something I promised myself I would never do, that I checked her phone. It was full of explicit, highly sexual messages between her and Vance. They were detailing things they wanted to do to each other. I felt like I had been punched in the throat. I took…