Copyright © 2022 by Maya Bechi
Published in the United States by Robson and Puritan
PO Box 1107
Cypress, TX 77410–1107
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
ISBN 978–0–578–28043–1
Medium.com Digital Edition: May 2022
This is a work of fiction. Characters, corporations, institutions and organizations in this novel are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, used fictitiously without any intent to describe their actual conduct.
For further information about this novel, please visit: contact
Cover design by Donovan Bechi
Year: 1958
“Bleed! Bleed! Bleed!”
The staff sergeant was crouched low in the corner like a wounded animal as those three words growled from his mouth. At the shouting, the military policemen turned around to face the newly arrested soldier. The corporal on duty, also hearing the commotion, ran from his office to see what in the hell could have happened in a matter of seconds since they left his sight.
“Bleed! Bleed! Bleed!” the staff sergeant continued to cry out as he mercilessly slashed at his own wrists with the blade he’d found in his nearby toiletry kit. Blood rained down on the patches and his uniform which lay in a heap on the floor. Upon arrest he had been instructed to remove the rank insignia from his clothing. That command had ripped his soul apart. As each string of thread loosened, he recounted the hours of drills, the physical training, the mental dedication. and the late nights studying and perfecting every directive and segment of the U.S. Army standard operating procedures. His mind raced through the years he’d spent training to be prepared, as if by instinct, for the time when he would be in enemy territory defending freedom. With rapid succession he calculated the amount of men who had been trained under him, and those among them intrinsically motivated to become the best. The Korean war had ended, and this was supposed to be a time of peace and preparation, a time to defend this country against any impending foreign…
