Free Hammer of Angels: A Novel of Shadowstorm by G. T. Almasi Page A

that we’re in the field together. When we’re awake, there are clues to help me remember he’s Brando and not Trick: small things in his manner, like how he’s still a little more serious or how he forgets to let me win at cribbage. He also wears more black clothing than Trick used to. But when Brando is asleep, I don’t get any of those hints. He even sleeps with his mouth half open, exactly like Trick did. Every night I have to resist the urge to touch his cheek.
    Our tent is waterproof and insulated, but we still need to sleep in our hi-tech long johns, socks, and big sweatshirts. I climb out of my sleeping bag, then crawl outside under our camouflage netting and piled-up tree branches. I suck in a lungful of frosty night air. It’s pitch black, of course. Even if the rebels had electricity, they’d stay dark at night to make themselves harder to find.
    The Circle’s members have found it’s easier to avoid detection by being as decentralized as possible. This policy shows itself in how they set up camp. Rather than cluster together, they spread out all over the woods. My built-in heat sensors show nothing but shivering trees and frozen sky, yet there are three hundred sleeping people hidden within a quarter mile of where I’m standing. All of them have been granted shelter by the Rabbi.
    He’s an interesting fellow. The Rabbi doesn’t look like much at first, kinda short and heavyset with a rolling motion to his walk. When he runs—and the man can shake a leg when he has to—his tummy bounces up and down like a basketball. He talks about being on a diet, but when someone in the group brings down a deer, the Rabbi goes up for seconds until there’s nothing left. He’s got a big laugh, and everyone in the Circle clearly adores him.
    There’s a Friar Tuck quality to him—he’s all jolly and shit—but he’s also perfectly willing to do whatever is necessary, no matter how gruesome. Brando and I are the first American agents to meet him in person, so part of our mission here is to sniff him out and see how what we think he can accomplish. The Rabbi’s cell has been effective, but his influence is limited to Yorkshire. A full-scale uprising will need a leader with an abundantly broader reach.
    One such person is former Wehrmacht colonel Victor Eisenberg, known as the Hammer, who seems to operate all over the Reich. According to the Rabbi, only Eisenberg has the military training and track record to lead a real rebellion against the slavery system.
    Another person of interest is Johannes Kruppe, a former Staatszeiger colonel. Kruppe is retired now, but his repression of Europe’s Jews continues through his membership in the Purity League. The Rabbi told us Kruppe is one nasty mofo. When I replied Kruppe ain’t met nasty until he’s met me, the Rabbi cautioned us not to take him lightly.
    The Kruppe family is very wealthy, and has extensive influence with the government, including the Gestapo. The Rabbi has also heard Kruppe had himself surgically upgraded with some lightweight Mods and surrounds himself with a full-time team of bodyguards.
    As part of our mission parameters, we’re “requested and required” to hoover up any intel we come across about any of these guys. My partner commed the Rabbi’s data about Kruppe back to HQ the second he heard it. The response from Brando’s Info Coordinator, Bill Harbaugh, was on the laconic side: “Data received, nice work.” But from Harbaugh that’s like a flying end zone chest bump.
    I’m about to go back inside my tent when my heat sensors pick up something warm. The heat source is about 1,200 yards away, too far away to make out a distinct shape, but since I don’t hear an engine, it’s safe to assume it’s a deer.
    Unless it’s another damned hallucination.
    I look away, then snap my eyes back. Still there. Must be a