To him, everything was a battle — including raising his son.
And winning was always his number one goal.
Cobb had let him have the upper hand until graduation when he finally made his move. His father had assumed Jack would join the Marines. That had been the master plan all along, and Jack had always followed orders, like a good soldier should. But Jack had gone behind his father’s back and applied to West Point, a military academy for the Army, a rival branch of the service. He did this not only to get out from his father’s shadow, but also to hurt him for his years of emotional neglect.
And Cobb’s decision to join the Army definitely stung.
His father viewed it as a slap in the face.
Which was exactly how it was intended.
Since then, the two of them had barely talked.
Unfortunately, all of that moving around had affected Cobb. Though he was quite popular, he had found it difficult to make close friends because he was always the new guy in town. It wasn’t until West Point that he finally let some people into his life. Slowly but surely he had bonded with two of his roommates and opened up to them about his upbringing and his hatred of his father. They were from military families, too, and understood him in ways that he never thought possible.
For once in his life, he didn’t feel like an outsider.
Sadly, their friendship was short-lived.
Both men were killed in a training accident shortly after being commissioned as second lieutenants in the Army. The news had devastated Cobb and made him pull inward even further to protect himself. He knew deaths were common in his line of work and decided he couldn’t do his job if he was emotionally attached to those around him. As strange as it sounded, Cobb was more than willing to risk his lives for others, but he wasn’t willing to share his life with anyone.
He had his father to blame for that.
“You know,” Payne said, “this is the first time I’ve ever seen you happy.”
“Screw you,” Cobb said with a laugh.
“I’m serious, Jack. I’ve never seen you happy before.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
Payne relented. “Maybe ‘happy’ is a poor choice of words. I’ve seen you smile — once or twice — but I’ve never seen you with your guard down.”
Cobb stared at his mug. “I guess the Reef Donkey is working.”
“Maybe. Or maybe this is the first time since kindergarten that you can actually lower your defenses and be yourself. I mean, when DJ and I flew to Fort Campbell to recruit you, we liked you a lot, but I’ll be honest: you kind of seemed like a robot.”
“No, I didn’t!”
“Oh, yes you did. And not a cool robot. I’m talking C-3PO.”
Cobb laughed. “You were interviewing me! I was trying to be professional!”
“Well, you came off as robotic. Don’t get me wrong: you loosened up as the night went on, but in our eyes, you never made it past an android.”
“That’s it,” Cobb announced as he pulled the pitcher of beer out of Payne’s reach. “I’m officially cutting you off. Remember what I said earlier? My beer, my rules. And you just violated our terms of agreement.”
Payne responded in the voice of a robot. “You violated our terms of agreement. That does not compute. Must protect beer at all costs. Death to humans.”
Cobb laughed and flipped him off with both hands even though he realized Payne’s humor was grounded in reality. Cobb had been told on more than one occasion that his greatest flaw as a leader was his emotional distance. His troops always respected him — most even revered him — but they were reluctant to befriend him.
He simply preferred it that way.
“Granted,” Cobb said, “I’m not gregarious like you. You’re best friends with your second in command and probably still get Christmas cards from all your men.”
“Not all of them. One guy is Jewish.”
“And yet both our styles were effective.”
“Maybe so. But we had a lot more fun.”
“Which is why your squad’s name was so appropriate.” Cobb twirled his finger next to his head to suggest the MANIACs were crazy. “Do you know what the SEALs and Rangers called you behind your backs?”
“Awesome?”
Cobb shook his head. “They called you the hyenas — because you laughed so much on the battlefield.”
Payne smiled. He had heard that nickname before. He took it as a compliment. “And yet, do you know how many SEALs and Rangers begged to join my squad?”
“Let me guess. All of them?”
“Not all, but most.”
“That’s because you were given the coolest missions.”
“Only because we had the coolest leaders.”
“Cockiest, definitely. I’m not sure about coolest.”
“Coolest, biggest, strongest, sexiest. Pretty much all the ‘-ests’.”
Cobb laughed. “Truth be told, I’m not sure how you did it.”
“Did what?”
“Maintained discipline in your ranks while having fun.”
Payne shrugged. “I didn’t focus on fun. It wasn’t like we were playing Scrabble in a combat zone, but I had to do things differently because our missions lasted a hell of a lot longer than anything you did with the Night Stalkers. Correct me if I’m wrong, but you tended to fly in and fly out. Everything was swift, violent, precise. You could afford to be hyperintense because your missions were over so quickly.”
“True,” Cobb admitted.
“I didn’t have that luxury. Sometimes my guys would stay in the field for days at a time behind enemy lines, so we had to blow off steam when we could or we would burn out quickly. In my opinion, the best way to do that was through humor. We might’ve been laughing, but we never lost focus. In fact, laughing helped us sustain focus.”
“Interesting,” Cobb said, “I’ll have to try that some…”
His voiced faded out before he finished his thought.
For a moment there, he had forgotten about his current situation. He was thinking about ways to improve his unit when he realized he no longer had one.
Cobb cursed under his breath.
Payne noticed. “That used to happen to me, too. I’d think of a great new tactic to try with my squad, then I’d remember I was a civilian.”
“How long did that last?”
“Honestly? It still happens from time to time, but not nearly as frequent as the first year. Back then, I’d think about tactics constantly.”
“Do you still teach? I remember running into you in K-town. You said you were giving a briefing on advanced weaponry.”
Payne smiled. He had been in Kaiserslautern, Germany, on one of his adventures when he had bumped into Cobb on the street. He couldn’t afford to tell him why he was there — meeting with a well-known smuggler named Kaiser — so he had lied about his presence to protect his friend. “That’s what I said, all right. Wasn’t the least bit true, but that’s what I said.”
Cobb raised his brow. “Color me intrigued.”
“Well, I’d be happy to tell you all about it… cough… unfortunately, my throat… cough… is getting pretty dry from all this talking. If only someone would—”
Cobb pushed the pitcher of beer toward Payne, who grabbed it and filled his mug before Cobb could change his mind. He patiently waited for Payne to take a large sip of the amber ale before he said another word. “Better?”
Payne nodded. “Much.”
Cobb raised his arms in victory. “For the record, let it show that a West Point grad just bailed out a Naval officer in physical and emotional distress.”
Payne dropped his head in shame. “Son of a bitch!”
“Call me crazy, but it looks like the coolest, cockiest MANIAC of them all walked right into my trap. Maybe I should be the one teaching you a thing or two about tactics.”