Fear and Anger (The 47 Echo Series) Read online

  It was a slow second shift, but one that kept him late anyway. At the end of the shift, two convicts had gotten into a knock-down-drag-out over some stupid gang bullshit, and before Nick had been able to break it up, one of them had lost three teeth and broken four ribs. The loser went to 23rd General, and Nick went back up to his office to fill out incident and injury reports in triplicate.

  His third-shift relief, Lieutenant Coombs, had come and gone from the office already. Coombs was a prison guard back home, and actually seemed to enjoy the job that bored Nick to tears. The younger Marine was only too happy to stroll the prison, doing his rounds, leaving Nick in the office to deal with paperwork. It was almost eight at night by the time he finished his reports and sent them up the chain to the Camp commander. And just as he was getting ready to leave, a visitor appeared in his doorway for the second time that day.

  “Lieutenant Morrow,” the man said, his voice deep and rumbling.

  Nick didn’t recognize him, but he was a Navy Captain, about Nick’s height and probably one and a half time’s Nick’s muscle mass. He had short, graying brown hair that was shaved on the sides, and had about four days of beard stubble going.

  “Yes, sir? If you need to interrogate a prisoner, Lieutenant Coombs is the current duty officer, sir. I can page him for you.”

  “Nah. I’m here to see you,” the large Captain said, walking into Nick’s office and sitting down in the chair across from Nick’s desk.

  “Roger that, sir. Can I get you water, coffee, something?”

  “Army coffee is bad enough, LT. I’d hate to see what Army prison coffee tastes like,” the Captain said, motioning for Nick to sit down. Nick sat behind his desk and saw that the man wore no nametape, only black NWUs that said “U.S. NAVY” over the right breast pocket.

  “Name’s Hoppe,” the Captain said, waving halfheartedly. “I’m the SEAL commander for this theater.”

  Nick didn’t say anything, just nodded.

  “I have a bit of a problem, LT, and the people up the chain from me tell me what I want done is impossible,” Hoppe said, picking up a pen from Nick’s desk and twirling it through the fingers of his left hand. “But I also hear your unit is the go-to for impossible shit.”

  “That’s correct, sir. Or at least it used to be. I’m no longer in command of 47 Echo – I seem to be in command of this desk for the foreseeable future.”

  “Not anymore,” Hoppe said, tossing a folded paper to Nick. “Orders to resume command of 47 Echo immediately. Your second-in-command is on a flight here as we speak. Trade in the clipboard for an M4, Marine. Time to get out there and work miracles.”

  END

  About the Author

  Shawn Kupfer was born on Ellsworth Air Force Base in the Rapid City, South Dakota area in July 1978. Most of his childhood was spent bouncing from one military town to another, travelling across the United States and the world on the dime of the U.S. Air Force. In his younger days, he had stints working as a semi-professional kickboxer, a defense contractor, a magazine editor, and a general “pick this up and put it over there” laborer.

  In February 2009, Shawn anonymously started the Twitter Novel Project, where he posted novel-length works in 140-character chunks. In July of that year, he abandoned the anonymity factor. The second Twitter Novel Project book, 47 Echo, was picked up for publication soon after.

  He currently lives in the Dallas Fort-Worth Metroplex with his wife, Lisa, and their two dogs, Sadie and Edie. In his spare time, he enjoys travelling to Las Vegas and New Orleans.

  Copyright

  ISBN:

  Copyright © 2013 by Shawn Kupfer

  All rights reserved. By purchasing this novel, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferrable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of the text may be reproduced, downloaded, transmitted, reverse engineered, or decompiled without the express written permission of Eddington Press, LLC. In addition, no part of this text may be stored in/introduced into any information storage/retrieval system (in any form or by any means), whether mechanical or electronic, now known or invented in the future, without the express written permission of Eddington Press, LLC.

  All characters and situations portrayed in this book are entirely fictional, and have no relation to anyone bearing the same name(s). All incidents and events portrayed in this book are entirely fictional, and have no relation to any actual events.

  ® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with an ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark office.

  For more information, visit www.EddingtonPress.com.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Copyright