HIRED
KENNETH GUTHRIE
(Smashwords Edition)
Smashwords Edition License Notes
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Copyright 2011 Kenneth Guthrie
Cover art courtesy of The U.S. Army at Flickr.com
Fonts courtesy of Tension Type at Fontsquirrel.com
PRODUCT INFORMATION
You’re hired. It’s day 29 and Frank’s out on the job with his fat partner Chase. The building they have been sent to inspect looks normal enough, but when Frank finds two men outside acting suspiciously, a battle for survival starts that will leave a trail of death in its wake. Will Frank survive his first month on the job? Find out inside.
SERIES INFORMATION
This is a concept model for a character that may play the hero in a war series I am considering at the moment.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Thank you for reading this short story. You will find more of my books with links at the back of this file. I would appreciate that if you like this work that you comment on it or download a sample of my other work as a way of saying “I enjoyed this.” Thanks for your time and enjoy!
“In March, 2003 the war began. I wasn't there. I've been here for 1 month now and things aren't pretty. In fact they downright suck. Then again, what about Iraq doesn't? My name is Frank Marks, soldier of the US army and likely to die today.”
DAY 29
Frank stood looking at the blown out building. The artillery had done their work nicely today and there wasn't much more than a wrecked shell of a building to look at.
Everywhere down this street there were buildings in similar states. The fools at the top had decided that it was high time to piss the natives off by trying to catch more terrorists through a show of force - scare tactics.
Unfortunately, the result was that often this created terrorists where there were none as regular people took up the family Kalashnikov and went to work killing America's finest.
Frank had been in Iraq for exactly 29 days. He'd heard that if you survived the first month then you were safe for the rest of your tour. John Heats, Franks friend, had lasted 31 days before being shot in the leg and being sent back home with a messed up knee, so he didn't believe that.
Heat had been the sort of guy that would storm into a building like this and do whatever needed to be done inside. That's probably why he ended up the way he did, Frank thought.
Frank signaled to his partner in the jeep behind them. A few months ago Frank had answered an advertisement: