The Patch

Brannigan’s Blackhearts doesn’t have an official patch. They don’t have an official anything. But after the Burma mission, some of them worked up a logo, anyway.

***

The Blackhearts group was easy to pick out.  They were, by and large, more fit than anyone else in the room, and at that moment, also considerably louder.

Aziz, Jenkins, and Wade were arguing over a war story, specifically who had been where at what time.  Childress immediately identified the place as the village in northern Burma where Doc Villareal had been killed, and they had gone into a system of tunnels after the North Korean advisors to the Kokang Communists/drug runners.  It sounded like they were avoiding actually getting specific about the place, but this was bad enough.

Santelli stalked toward the table, murder in his eyes.  Jenkins looked up as he and Childress approached.  The former SEAL looked a little glazed; he’d clearly had a few already.

“Hey, Childress, check it out!” he said, pulling his sleeve back.  He’d gotten a new tattoo, still under a wrap of clear cellophane.  It was a black heart, with a fighting knife through it and crossed rifles behind it.  “We’ve got a logo, dude!”

Santelli was suddenly, despite his height, looming over Jenkins.  “And what the fuck made you think that that was a good idea?” he hissed.  “Hey, why don’t we do merchandising, maybe get a movie deal?  That sound good, too?  Then we can have all sorts of government agencies looking at what we’ve been doing lately!  Sounds fucking great!”  He looked around the inside of the bar.  “You been having fun, regaling complete strangers in public with stories that can’t possibly have any repercussions for any of us?”

“We haven’t said anything specific, Carlo,” Wade said quietly.  The former Ranger NCO was a big man, clean-shaven and brown haired, with pale blue eyes and an intensity that was coming out in the form of a growing anger at being dressed down this way.  “We’re not stupid.”

***

Now you can join the team. The patch doesn’t say “Brannigan’s Blackhearts.” But if you know, you know.

The twelfth adventure is out soon, too. Concrete Jungle comes out on Nov 22 on Kindle and Paperback.