Free Kusanagi by Clem Chambers Page B

We’ve got to take this thing abroad.’
    They all nodded.
    â€˜So, Danny, you look like the one to go,’ he continued.
    â€˜Hey-hey,’ said Danny. He grinned nervously. ‘But where?’
    â€˜Home is too hot,’ said Casey. ‘We don’t want to shit in our own backyard.’
    â€˜Right,’ said Reece. ‘NY would be cool, but if we got busted, it would be game over. That leaves London, as far as I can see. Anyone got a better idea?’
    â€˜Hong Kong?’ Brandon suggested.
    No one responded, which meant they thought no.
    â€˜So we’ll go to London, England,’ said Reece.
    â€˜Londonshire,’ said Danny. ‘I like it!’
    â€˜Good job I got our furlough reassigned,’ said Reece, ‘cause meanwhile we’ll go back and keep looking for more of those coins while Danny’s out in England.’
    â€˜Agreed,’ said Casey.
    â€˜You’ve drawn up a plan of attack?’ said Danny.
    â€˜Sure,’ said Reece.
    â€˜So what’s the thing worth?’ asked Danny, for the hundredth time.
    Reece gestured at Brandon. ‘What do you think?’
    â€˜A million dollars,’ said Brandon.
    â€˜More,’ said Danny.
    â€˜How much more?’ said Casey.
    â€˜A hell of a lot more,’ said Danny.
    â€˜A million or more,’ said Reece, smiling.
    Danny tittered. ‘Reece, you sure you don’t want to go yourself?’
    â€˜Wish I could,’ he said, ‘but after that typhoon I want to be behind the wheel again on our next trip.’
    â€˜OK,’ said Danny, ‘but don’t blame me if I get more than a million for it.’
    â€˜We don’t do blame,’ said Reece.
    Danny was happy to stretch his legs. Getting a jump seat on a military transport was not a luxury experience. The seats were made for skinny airmen, not bulky marines like him. Mildenhall was some kind of field in England, and outside it looked like a normal day in Maine. He wasn’t a fan of green and rainy, he liked it hot and brown, like his home town, Austin, Texas. He was going to have to get some freakin’ train to London, but for now he was nervous about clearing the base with a duffel full of ancient gold.
    He didn’t have much to worry about. As a SEAL he was pretty much royalty and there was a lot of smiling and nodding as they stamped his papers. For Danny, respect was about the best thing in the world. It was why he had qualified as a doctor. He hadn’t expected to be a medic, but that was what it had taken for him to become a SEAL, so he had forced himself through the training. It was so much harder than the running and lifting, but to get the respect he craved he’d had to heave his brain through that course in the same way that he’d had to haul his body up and down hills and through water.
    It hurt his brain to learn more than it hurt his body to struggle, but he told himself it was just another ache in another muscle; a muscle that had never been his strongest. He liked his brain pumped up. Although he didn’t use it as a first reflex, he knew it had grown strong.
    His ‘little guy’ was in charge, a younger self that pulled on three levers: his mind, his body and his emotions. The ‘little guy’ had the last word and always had since the day the dog had attacked his little sister.
    They had been walking down a back alley near home when a dog had jumped a fence and gone for them. It was some kind of pit-bull thing, a giant beast to him and the little girl. It had grabbed her face and pushed her to the ground. He had grabbed it by the balls and yanked them as hard as he could. It had turned on him. As it had lunged, its fangs a perfect white, something had gelled inside his soul. The dog had grabbed his arm and pulled him to the ground. He had stuck his thumb into its right eye and pushed until it came out of its socket as the dog shook him. The dog shuddered, but