ARISEN, Book Eleven - Deathmatch (46 page)

Bazarov looked up to see Nina rounding on him, full of furious purpose as always. Even as he opened his mouth to speak, she cut him off.

“I’ve seen it,” she said. “It’s offline, it’ll be fine.”

“We should really unmount it an—”

“No time. We have a mission.” Also, Nina knew the sealed container kept the missile safe, even bent and broken, but she didn’t feel like taking time to explain this to her feckless gunner. “Pack up, suit up, saddle up. And move your ass for once.”

The hunt was back on.

And Nina had zero intention of missing out on the kill.

ARISEN, BOOK TWELVE – CARNAGE
launches on
03 September 2016

Yes, you read that right. Two new ARISEN books in a month – and for the same reason as last time: because you, the ARISEN readers, are awesome, and you deserve it.

Love this book? Share the love, support independent authors, and make me your best friend forever by posting a quick review on
Amazon.com
. Thanks!

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Arisen
readers, plus the writers themselves, by liking the
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Facebook page:
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A portion of the earnings from this book will be donated to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation – which provides full college scholarships to the children of all special-operations personnel killed in missions or training accidents. As you probably know, our special operators train like professional athletes, perform like minor gods, and lay it all on the line every day in the defense of freedom and decency. They have also trained and deployed constantly – and suffered disproportionately high casualties – since 9/11. Let’s send the children of their fallen to school. It’s the very, very least we can do. Tax-deductible donations to this foundation can be made at
www.specialops.org
.

Thanks & Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank the unbelievably generous, talented, and indispensable people who make up the ARISEN beta-reading team: Mark George Pitely, Amanda Jo Moore, Dave Fairfax, and Ron Purugganan (aka Nil Ate). Super extra thanks and special recognition to Electronics Technician Chief Petty Officer Mark D. Wiggins, USCG (ret) – for reading everything
twice
, and continuing to provide outstanding service as maritime, weapons, electronics, and avionics subject matter expert (are you listening, Hollywood?).

Thanks as always to the amazing Editrice ([email protected]), for making ARISEN bulletproof.

Thanks also and forever to Anna K. Brooksbank, Sara Natalie Fuchs, Richard S. Fuchs, Virginia Ann Sayers-King, Valerie Sayers, Alexander M. Heublein, Matthew David Grabowy, and Michael and Jayne Barnard, for their indispensable support. Also, Bruce, Wanda, Alec, and Brendan Fyfe for their service and sacrifice. Eternal thanks to Glynn James for coming up with
Arisen
.

The amazing cover image for this book was shot by the awesome Konstantin Lazarev (
konstantinlazarev.com
). Yeah, that’s a real Spetsnaz dude – and the photo is virtually totally untouched. No, I would not want Comrade Lazarev’s job! But many thanks for his amazing and death-defying work. Great cover image.

The line “I’ll give you ten bucks to stab me in the face right now” is from
Grey’s Anatomy
Season 8 Episode 24: “Flight”, written by Shonda Rhimes.

The Hollenbaugh Shot is from the book
Modern American Snipers: From The Legend to The Reaper—on the Battlefield with Special Operations Snipers
, by Chris Martin with
SOFREP.COM
- specifically the account of Delta Master Sergeant Don Hollenbaugh’s singlehanded defense of that Fallujah rooftop, for which he was awarded the Silver Star. (You should seriously buy and read this book, by the way – the author has more and better access to real Tier-1 guys than almost anything I’ve ever read.)

“Pouring down hate and discontent like a mother” is from SGT Antonio “Poke” Espera in
Generation Kill
(both
book
and
miniseries
are completely worth your time and money, and then some – why have you not watched this yet!?).

The Hebrew phrase
Dvekut baMesima
(“glued to the mission”) is via the amazing Steven Pressfield, who learned it researching his truly outstanding and amazing book
The Lion’s Gate
(one of his many very amazing books).

Slayer155 – you’re welcome (for dissing the drones).

The observation that “pounds equals pain,” and thus people wouldn’t be shooting so damned much in the boonies, is from the indispensable Mark Wiggins. Ditto the plasma-torch cutting of the
JFK
hatches – I originally had it as breaching charges, which would have killed most everyone on the deck before they took down a steel hatch! 8^) Ditto passageways (not companionways). And earbuds on ship, and ratings, and how navy chiefs are not called NCOs, and on and on and on. Thanks, Chief Wiggins!

Thanks to Ryan Holiday, and his life-changing book
The Obstacle is the Way
– probably the best and most useful thing I’ve read this millennium and from which I stole: “As the Haitian proverb puts it: Behind mountains are more mountains. Elysium is a myth. One does not overcome an obstacle to enter the land of no obstacles. There are always more obstacles, bigger challenges. You’re always fighting uphill. Get used to it and train accordingly.” This book genuinely contains the secret to life. (And I’m betting any operator would say the same thing.)

I can personally no longer operate without the
Daft Logic Google Maps Distance Calculator
. (Just try me! Go ahead – see if all those ground and air journeys are plausible! Ha ha ha. I’m too obsessive about realism for anyone’s good…)

Speaking of realism, I’m going to cop to this: a combat rubber raiding raft (CRRC), including its engine, weighs 322 pounds. No one, with the possible exception of Predator, could possibly carry one around. I just couldn’t think of any other plausible way to get it to go where I needed it! Sorry!

Thanks to Military Factory for the rather authoritative, and extremely well-thumbed by me, list of the
Weapons of Spetsnaz
.

You remember how in Book Seven, Juice wondered if Misha had learned all his English on
UrbanDictionary.com
? Well, yeah. Spent a lot of time there, virtually every time Misha opened his mouth. ;^)

A million thanks to Trevor Warfel,
user tmw350 on Spotify
– for powering me through the story design phase, and for stopgap-filling a
major
shortfall in running and writing music, with his Spotify playlist
“Octane / Turbo – Hard Rock from the 90s to Today”
. You don't know me, but you helped write this book. Thanks, man – for being me, when I was too busy to be me.

The full list of music used in this cycle of writing will be listed in the back of Book Twelve. 8^)

ARISEN
Hope Never Dies.