William M. Hayes - Save Him

Save Him

Published by William M. Hayes

Edited by Kate Schomaker

Cover by Graphic Design by Pam

www.graphicdesignbypam.com

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Copyright 2019 William M Hayes

All rights are reserved.No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed inany printed or electronic form without the written permission ofWilliam M Hayes. Any violation of the international copyright lawis subject to criminal prosecution, fines, and/or imprisonment.

This book is licensed to the originalpurchaser and for personal enjoyment only. It may not be re-sold orgiven away to other people. If you would like to share this bookwith another person, please purchase an additional copy for eachreader. Please do not participate in piracy of books or othercreative works. Thank you for respecting the hard work of thisauthor.

This book is a work offiction. While reference may bemade to existing locations, thecharacters, incidents, names, and places are products of thisauthors imagination. Any resemblance to persons living or dead iscompletely coincidental.

Hayes blends a lethal fusion of science fiction andfaith in this gritty, military, science fiction novel.

~ V.Dublado, Readers Favorite

an original storyI thoroughly enjoyedreadinga thriller packed with action, packed with discovery andone that has a nail-biting finale

~A. Reynolds, Readers Favorite

author very creatively depicted many unimaginableeventsmade me wonder what he was going to think up next in what Ibelieve is an amazing book the ending was extremely exciting.

~Team Golfwell Book Reviews

Tom Balderrama and Bob Springett, thank youfor your insight. Both of you went above and beyond.

A huge thanks to my editor Kate Schomakerfor all the work you had to put into this bookdoing it in such aprofessional manner and with an awesome sense of humor.

Matt DeMazza at Reedsy, thank you forthe proofread.

Pam Cunningham at Graphic Design byPam, the front and back cover are everything I envisioned.

And Beth Werner from AuthorConnectionsI really enjoyed our conversations on how to reachreaders with this book. You made the business part of selling abook enjoyable.

The married couple entered the empty church and,hand in hand, walked past the cherrywood pews. Ahead of them, redvotive candles burned at either side of the altar.

The man took his time walking ahead. Theblack T-shirt, black cargo pants, black boots, athletic build, andstrong, clean-shaven jawline screamed military man. Hedropped to his knees in front of the altar, as did his wife, bothfacing Christ on the cross. The two bowed their heads and prayed.The womanin her late thirties, curvy, with black hair andlight-olive skinturned toward her husband, touched his weddingband, and slid her index finger back and forth over the ring. Shethen gently touched the gold crucifix hanging from the chain aroundhis neck.

"He's always looked after you. He will again.I'll be outside." She made the sign of the cross, rose to her feet,and left the church.

The sound of the doors closing behind himmade the man lift his head. He stared at the cross once more.Before every mission, he took this time alone to be with JesusChrist, eyeing each wound carefully. Always the same feeling ofsorrow, tinged with anger, surfaced at each nail driven into hisSavior. Ray Catlin stood, made the sign of the cross, and walkedaway.

He was ready.

__

Two hours later, Ray was in the back of a blackcivilian Humvee driven by a young officer who neither looked at norspoke to him the entire hour it took to reach the military base.Outside of the twenty-foot chain-link fence around the base, theHumvee and its occupants were searched and their IDs verifiedbefore entering. At a helicopter hangar, the Humvee pulled upalongside a pair of wide double doors that were slightly parted.Ray stepped out of the Humvee and slipped through the narrow spacethe doors provided. Inside the surrounding walls of gray, thehangar was empty of any flying machine owned or operated by themilitary. In front of Ray, only his boys and girls stood waiting:ten operators clothed in black cargo pants and diverse black combatshirts.

For three years, in some of the most hellishcircumstances, Ray had kept them safe. If it came down to theirlives or his, he would die for any one of them, just like any goodfather would.

With the window of opportunity slowly closingon having children with his wife, Kate, Ray felt the members of hisunit were his children to protect. It was a feeling formed on theirvery first mission together. Personality-wise, while they were alldifferent, they were, at their core, connected. Everythingdifferent about each individual operator seemed to draw themtogether, the familial bond growing stronger over the years. AndRay was the proud father.

Ray walked closer and addressed his team.

"We're being flown out tonight to the Genesislab. We'll prep there for our next mission. We leave in anhour."

The ten members of Ray's Unit were led by a mandressed entirely in white down a dark tunnel toward a white door.The members of the unit glanced at one another as they moved deeperinto the tunnel, the looks they shared illuminated by the onlylight availablea narrow strip of fluorescent light overhead.

All of them had heard of the lab, as being inthis elite unit allowed them access to privileged information. Dueto the team's status and responsibility, each member was entitledto information withheld from other select groups in themilitary.

They were known simply as the Unit, or Unit10. Their unit did not have a prestigious name like Delta Force orNavy SEALs, although most members came from those parts of themilitary. The members assembled when missions had to be completedoverseas and kept American civilians safe from threats most peoplewerent even aware existed. Civilians did not want to know aboutsome of these dangers unless they never wanted to sleep peacefullyagain.

And now here they were, hidden in the woodsof upstate New York. The military lab's rumored projects rangedfrom a better military boot to body armor that transformed soldiersinto walking tanks. There were even whispers of invisibility.

Campfire stories. Military lore told byout-of-the-loop military men and women with a few fragments of realknowledge about the place.

Each member in the Unit had no idea which ofthe rumored projects actually existed. Yet they had all benefited.The Unit got the new stuff to try out first, though some couldargue that they were all just military test dummies.

After being led into a large room, themembers of the Unit sat silently on benches attached to longtables, like the ones in high school cafeterias. Everything wassparkling white.

A door opened, and a man walked in, coming toa stop in front of the tables. He was solid, with broad shouldershis black suit could not conceal. Since being reassigned tosupervise the Genesis lab, the high-ranking officer was told not todress in uniform. His blond hair was trimmed short on top andrazor-close around the ears and neck. Formidable. But his eyes wereinviting, understanding, warm.

As Colonel John Adams looked over theoperators in front of him, another man in his early thirties,dressed in a white shirt and khakis, walked into the room followedby Ray, who stood and waited near the door. The man in the whiteshirt and khakis joined the colonel in front of the tables. WillStevens, with his hair neatly parted to the side and clothespressed to perfection, glanced slowly over the Unit in front ofhim, but not in the same way that the colonel had looked over thegroup. Will was the man in charge of the Genesis lab and could nothide the look of displeasure on his face.