Operation Honey Trap vs The Emperor of the Apocalypse-Chapter 167: Stop Spraying Dog Food

Brenner wobbled for a few moments before he fell.

Delphi screamed, "Alton!"

Alton looked up to see the man plummeting, almost on top of him. He wrapped his legs around the steep column as a brace and hooked the man in his bent arm. Brenner grabbed onto Alton’s arm with both hands, clinging, while Alton groaned under his weight.

He gradually hoisted the man up a few inches, his arm shaking with the effort, until Brenner was able to grab onto the steel crossbeam.

Once he had a grip on the steel beam, Brenner hoisted himself back up onto the girder. He was sweating bullets and had dropped his weapon, which landed in the river and was swept away.

As soon as she saw that Brenner was safe, Delphi took over clearing the bridge for the both of them. She was firing her crossbow indiscriminately, taking out most of the remaining soldiers in a state of high anxiety.

"Go Delphi," said Arrie quietly, feeling that she was no longer needed.

The General was doing more than fine all by herself it seemed. It wasn’t the first time she’d seen Delphi go all cold and ruthless when the lives of her people were threatened.

Brenner turned to Alton. "Thanks man," he said sincerely, "you probably saved my life right there. Who knows where I would have landed and what I would have hit on the way down..."

"You might have landed in the drink, and we could have fished you out. Anyway, I can’t afford to lose a good soldier," said Alton gruffly.

"Well, I owe you one man. I’ll be sure to pay you back."

Just staying away from Delphi would be more than enough, thought Alton, but it wasn’t the time for that discussion.

"Climb around me and head down so you can grab another weapon," Alton turned back to the soldiers below. "Stay down there with Delphi this time. I don’t have another catch like that in me."

"Don’t worry," said Brenner, edging around Alton. "I don’t have another balancing act like that in me right now either. My life just flashed before my eyes."

Alton joined Delphi, finishing off the last of the soldiers as they fired down at the two left on their feet.

Delphi had largely handled them all herself while he was otherwise occupied, he noticed with admiration. A lesser warrior would have been distracted and let them escape.

"Nice going, baby," he called down to her.

"Not as good as your catch," she replied, still firing her crossbow as she spoke. "That was heroic. I’d give you a medal if you weren’t already a General."

"I’ll take my reward in another form," he called.

"Guys, I’m still here," said Arrie. "Can you stop spraying dog food on the single dog."

Alton and Delphi had cleared the south side of the bridge of able-bodied soldiers before Brenner returned with another bow and quiver full of arrows.

"You two don’t mess around do you," he commented, looking down at the carnage.

"Nope," said General Meyer. "Let Baer know to take us down lower but not all the way. We want to be in quick climbing distance of the southern end of the bridge, but we don’t want those soldiers on the north side to have any easy time of it."

Baer dropped the bridge span down so they could all climb onto the lower cross beams and slide down onto the south side of the bridge. He set the bridge span to travel back up to the highest point and sprinted out of the cottage, making a jump onto the tower and climbing down after the team.

"That oughta make their lives difficult," he grunted with satisfaction.

"That’s the last bridge we’re crossing on this mission," Alton said testily, as they jogged off the bridge.

Niko laughed. "If we don’t cross any more bridges we’ll be going a very long way around."

"So be it. We have bad juju with bridges. I don’t know how we missed that soldier in the cottage." He was kicking himself. It seemed so obvious now.

"He was well-hidden. That was his entire purpose, to hide up there and avoid being seen."

"Even so, we need to do better. That was too close for comfort."

Brenner joined the two men as they marched into the outskirts of the capital.

"A word, General?"

"I’ll leave you to it," Niko dropped back to march with Baer, who he knew was dying to tell him about his exploits on the bridge. The big man couldn’t wipe the grin off his face. He was in his element.

"Private," Alton grunted at Brenner.

"I just wanted to say thank you for saving my life back there, General. I know words aren’t enough to repay you, but don’t worry, I’ll pay you back what I owe you in this lifetime."

"No need to be so serious. There’s nothing to repay. It’s my job to save all of your lives if I can; and I need you. The rebellion needs you."

"Even so," Brenner insisted, "what you did was above and beyond what you can expect from a commanding officer. My weight could easily have pulled you down with me. You took a huge risk. So thank you, man."

Alton nodded in acknowledgement.

"And listen, I hope there’s no hard feelings between us about Delphi. I play hard for what I want, but I’m not a sore loser. I’ll never step between a man and his woman. Now that she’s with you, I’ll respect that."

"Good. If you just stick with that, you’ll have more than repaid me."

"I wanted to let you know too... that night at the silo..."

"There’s no need, private," Alton said quickly. "Delphi and I have been through it... in detail."

"Even so, I need to get this off my chest or I won’t feel right."

Alton signed in resignation. Whenever he heard that phrase it always seemed to be a confession that made the confessor feel better and the listener was left reeling.

"I switched the light out in the bathroom so Delphi couldn’t see me. She thought I was you and I didn’t help her out... I knew it. The minute she worked out it wasn’t you; she stopped and turned the light back on."

Stopped what? thought Alton, feeling his jealousy kick in like a punch to the guts. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

"She wouldn’t have a bar of me from then on. She said she’d made you a promise and she intended to keep it. She didn’t cheat on you man."

"I know," Alton grunted. "She hunted down the CCTV footage and shared it with me this morning, so I saw what happened," he looked pointedly at Brenner, who had the good grace to duck his head and look ashamed.

"You know everything then man, so don’t be hard on her anymore. She definitely likes you. You’re a very lucky man," Brenner said wistfully.