Max Read online

  CONTENTS

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-One

  Twenty-Two

  Twenty-Three

  Twenty-Four

  Twenty-Five

  Note

  Credits

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  ONE

  THE LATE-AFTERNOON SUN POURED IN THROUGH Justin’s bedroom window. A glare reflected off his computer screen, but he couldn’t get up to pull down the blinds: He was right in the middle of a seriously epic battle against an entire military unit. And at the moment, he was winning.

  It was another hot summer day in Lufkin, Texas—which meant that it was another day Justin had spent almost entirely in his room.

  His best friend, Chuy, who was practically his only friend, sat on Justin’s bed and watched him play the video game. Chuy let out a couple of whoops and “Dudes!” as Justin took down soldier after soldier.

  As Justin finished the level, his computer’s disc drive whirred and clicked. He was also burning a copy of the game for Chuy to give to his older cousin, Emilio. Emilio paid Justin cash for clean copies of the latest games, as long as they had no security codes or encryption. It wasn’t like Justin was a computer genius or anything; he’d just figured out how to do it . . . and how to sell them. Which, it turned out, was a pretty decent way for a fourteen-year-old to make some extra money. And he didn’t have to leave his room to do it.

  Chuy bounced on Justin’s bed, impatiently waiting for the disc.

  “Seriously, man, what’s taking so long?” Chuy asked from his perch on the edge of Justin’s bed.

  “Just a couple more minutes. Chill.” Justin clicked away at the controller as a steady stream of soldiers fired away on-screen. The virtual army let out a series of grunts and pumped their fists in the air or fell to the ground.

  Justin used to play this video game with his older brother, Kyle. More accurately, Justin used to lose to Kyle on a regular basis. But now Kyle was a real soldier, fighting in Afghanistan, on the other side of the world. Sometimes Justin tried to picture Kyle as one of these guys, but it was just too weird. He couldn’t imagine his brother shooting anyone.

  Chuy got up and began pacing the room. He ran a hand through his short, curly hair and pulled up his sagging shorts.

  “Dude, I can’t focus with you acting like a caged animal back there. Cut it out,” Justin said. Chuy always had more energy than he knew what to do with. His best friend sat back down on the edge of the bed, bouncing his knee up and down. Finally, the disc drive stopped spinning.

  “Here you go,” Justin said, hitting Eject and picking up the burned disc from the computer tray. “Clean master. No codes, no encryption. You can’t rush perfection, Chuy.”

  Chuy rolled his eyes and reached for the disc in Justin’s outstretched hand.

  “Yeah, yeah, I get it. You’re like the ninja master,” Chuy said.

  “You got that right.” Justin gripped the disc tightly so that Chuy couldn’t take it from him. “Tell Emilio I want an extra two hundred for this one.”

  Chuy’s eyes widened as he said, “Uh, what was that? ’Cause I know I didn’t hear you right.”

  “He’s selling the Assassin’s Creed I ripped all the way up in Austin. I think he can afford a couple hundred bucks.” Justin released the disc into Chuy’s hand.

  “You don’t want any beef with my cousin, man. Trust me,” Chuy replied.

  Justin shrugged. “Two hundred more, or this is the last one.” He spun around in his desk chair to face his computer again. He waited for Chuy’s comeback, but, surprisingly, none came.

  From behind him, Justin heard the bedsprings squeak as his friend quickly stood up.

  “Hello, Mr. Wincott,” Chuy said in a stiff voice.

  With a start, Justin turned around to face his dad, Ray, who filled the doorframe. Even in his Open Range Storage jumpsuit, his dad still managed to look like a Marine. His posture was ramrod straight, his hair buzzed military short, his expression stern.

  “Hello, Chuy,” said Justin’s dad.

  Chuy shifted nervously from foot to foot. “Uh, I was just leaving. Bye, Justin. See you around.” Chuy shuffled toward the door. Justin’s dad stepped aside, and Chuy slipped his skinny body by him like a guilty cat sneaking past a dog.

  “Son.” His father nodded.

  “Hey, Dad.” Justin started to turn back toward his computer.

  “I need you to help me unload some stuff from the truck.”

  “I’ll be there in a minute,” Justin replied.

  “Now,” his dad said sternly.

  Justin sighed and pushed back his chair. His dad was always bossing him around. Maybe his brother, Kyle, was okay with doing whatever their dad asked, but Justin didn’t need obedience training.

  “Fine,” Justin said, and followed his dad out of the room. On his way out, he noticed that Chuy had left the disc behind on his bed. He smiled to himself. Leave it to Chuy to be so freaked out by Justin’s dad that he forgot what he had come here for. Emilio was pretty hard-core—possibly even in a gang—and he wasn’t going to be happy when he learned that Chuy had misplaced his new game.

  His dad limped through the hallway and down the stairs, Justin following close behind. It never ceased to amaze him how fast his dad could move, especially with the leg injury that had gotten him sent home from the first Gulf War. Justin and Kyle weren’t even alive when that had happened, and they’d never known their dad without his limp. It was just something they’d grown up with, and wasn’t a big deal. But sometimes Justin felt as if the injury had only made Kyle worship their dad even more.

  Kyle had followed in their father’s footsteps in a million ways. He worked hard, he did well in school, and now he was a Marine and a hero, just like their dad. Not Justin, though. It wasn’t exactly on purpose, but he couldn’t have been more opposite from either one of them.

  Although there was one thing Kyle had done differently from their dad. Justin’s brother wasn’t just a regular Marine—he was specially trained to work with a military working dog, who was stationed with him in Afghanistan. Not only did their parents think Kyle was the perfect son, but they talked about his dog, Max, as though he was their third child. Justin felt like he’d been one-upped by a canine.

  Justin followed his dad out of the house and into the backyard. The hot Texas air immediately enveloped them. What also surrounded Justin was his dad’s temper.

  “I was expecting to see you at work this morning,” his dad said without looking at Justin, surveying the yard.

  “So you could pay me eight bucks an hour sweeping your floors?” Justin shook his head. “No thanks.”

  His dad stopped by the sliding patio doors that led into the living room. Justin’s mom, Pamela, was inside vacuuming. She had just gotten home from her job at Walmart and still had her name tag pinned to her shirt. Justin watched her through the glass doors as he braced himself for his dad’s response.

  “I guess you’d rather I pay you to sit on your butt playing video games all day,” his dad said.

  Justin clenched and unclenched his fists. He knew exactly where this conversation was going. “Better than running some stupid storage place where people keep the junk they should just throw away.”
>
  His dad’s whole body tensed. Justin took a step backward. Maybe he had pushed his dad too far, but he wasn’t the perfect son—that role was already filled—and he wasn’t about to be.

  “That junk puts food in your smart mouth, son.” His dad’s eyes were lit up with anger. “And I don’t run it. I own it. Most folks are lucky for the chance to punch a time card, but not me. I’m my own boss.”

  “Maybe you are. Maybe you were even Kyle’s boss. But you’re not mine,” Justin said.

  Justin could see his dad’s jaw tightening and the muscles in his face twitching.

  “I advise you to leave your brother out of this,” his dad said coldly. “At least he knows what it means to put in a hard day’s work. And to show some respect.”

  Justin rolled his eyes. “Yeah, and that ‘hard work’ is doing us a lot of good halfway around the world. He’s not even here to help out.”

  “Stop now, Justin.” His dad took a step toward him, his eyes locked on his son’s.

  Justin had definitely gone too far this time. He turned away and headed for the driveway, looking for where he’d left his bike. He could ride to Chuy’s house and spend the night there. Justin stepped onto the concrete and heard his dad’s footsteps following close behind. Justin spun around so they were face-to-face.

  “What, Dad? Is this the part where you tell me again how Kyle is so perfect because he’s a Marine just like you?” Justin asked.

  His dad’s eyes practically bulged out of his head. “Justin, I swear—”

  Before his dad could finish the sentence, they both heard the sound of a car door slamming out front. They looked around the house and saw a black four-door sedan in their driveway. Two men in military uniforms headed for the walkway leading to their front door.

  “Dad—” Justin started to say, but his dad held up a hand to silence him, his body suddenly coiled like a spring. They watched the two men walk up the path and out of sight as they neared the front door. There was something in his dad’s face that Justin had never seen there before: fear. His mouth was clamped tightly shut, and his forehead was wrinkled with worry. Soldiers at their door could only mean one thing . . . Kyle. What had happened to him? Had he been hurt? Justin felt queasy.

  “Stay here, Justin,” his dad said in a raspy voice.

  His dad headed back across the yard. He stepped quickly through the sliding glass door and into the house just as the doorbell rang. He crossed the living room in a few purposeful strides while Justin’s mom opened the front door. Justin watched from the backyard as if it were a silent movie: His mom stepped back when she saw the men in uniform. His father caught her before she collapsed in shock. His father lowered his head, his body shaking. Then, finally, a single sound pierced the quiet—his mother’s choked sob.

  That’s when Justin knew for sure: His brother was dead. Kyle was dead.

  TWO

  “NICE ONE, J-BIRD.” KYLE WAS TEACHING JUSTIN HOW to hit baseballs into a net in their backyard. Kyle patted his kid brother on the head.

  “Gotta work on your follow-through,” Kyle said as he took the bat from Justin’s eight-year-old hands. “Now are you ready for some lemonade?”

  Justin nodded and smiled to himself as he followed his big brother into the house.

  Justin ripped open the plastic packaging of his new clothing. He pulled out a formal white shirt and held it up, shaking out the sleeves. The fabric was stiff, and the collar was even stiffer. He tugged at the strip of cardboard tucked inside the collar and tossed it down on his floor. He unbuttoned the shirt and slipped it on over his white T-shirt, then started the work of buttoning it back up. He tucked it into the black suit pants and buckled the thick leather belt. The cloth hung heavily against his legs, and the belt weighed a thousand pounds. He didn’t even have the jacket on yet, and he was already hot. He wondered how some men could wear these stuffy clothes every single day.

  Justin had never had a reason to wear a suit before, and he’d never thought that his brother’s funeral would be the first time. He could hear his mom crying softly on the other side of the wall and his father’s low voice comforting her.

  The morning sun peeked through the windows. It was another bright, blue-skied day, but Justin just felt dark inside. He hadn’t known it was possible to feel this lousy. Sad wasn’t quite the right word; it was more like . . . hopeless? Alone?

  With a sigh, he sat down on the edge of his unmade bed. He jammed his feet into the cruel-looking black dress shoes. The clock on his dresser told him he had twenty minutes to kill before his family left for the church. He didn’t want to walk around in these miserable clothes for a moment longer than necessary, so he lay back on his mound of pillows and looked up at his posters of indie bands and obscure old movies. Kyle had helped him hang some of them up before he’d left for the Marines. Kyle’s room, of course, was decorated with sports posters and trophies. He used to tease Justin about his “emo indie” taste.

  Justin closed his eyes so he couldn’t see the pictures hanging all over his walls. Everything reminded him of Kyle now.

  “Kyle! Kyyyyyyyyle!”

  Kyle came running through the living room in a T-shirt and boxer shorts, his face screwed up with worry.

  “Justin—what is it? Are you okay?”

  “I need help.”

  Kyle ran a hand through his hair. “Justin, what’s up? I’m studying for a trigonometry test, man. What does a fourth grader need?”

  “Help. I need help.” Justin pointed at the television, a black plastic controller wedged into his grubby hand. “I’m stuck on level four, and I really need the gold sword, or I can’t get to level five. Can you please help me?”

  For a second, he thought Kyle was going to be mad at him, but his brother just burst out into one of his huge grins—the kind that made their mother giggle and forgive him for anything.

  “J-Bird, you want me to fail my test?”

  “No,” Justin laughed. “But I really want you to help me get this sword.”

  Kyle sighed and dropped down onto the floor next to Justin. They leaned back against the couch together, and Kyle took the remote.

  “Watch the master at work, kiddo. And don’t forget how good you have it in elementary school.”

  Justin watched in awe as Kyle easily made his way through the caves and flames and monster hordes on-screen.

  “Dude, you rock at this game. Now I want you to fail your test so you can always help me,” Justin said.

  The doorbell rang downstairs. Justin didn’t move. It rang again, echoing through the quiet house. He waited for the sound of his parents’ footsteps, but the house was silent except for his mom’s hushed weeping. The bell rang a third time, and Justin finally gathered the energy to push himself up off his bed. He felt groggy, like he was half asleep. He trudged through the house to the front door and swung it open. A blast of summer heat came at him. A limo driver in a dark suit stood sweating on the porch, his long, dark car parked across the driveway behind him. He barely looked old enough to have a driver’s license.

  “Hi, I’m here to pick up the”—the driver checked a folded piece of paper in his hand—“the Wincotts. To go to the, uh . . .” He trailed off.

  “Yeah, that’s us,” Justin said. “We’ll be right out.”

  Justin shut the door and went back upstairs to his parents’ room. He listened for a moment, then knocked lightly.

  “Yes?” came his father’s gravelly voice.

  “The driver’s here.”

  “Okay, Justin, thanks. We’ll be right out,” his dad said.

  “Are you ready, honey?” his mom asked softly.

  “Yeah, Mom. I’m ready. I just need to get my jacket.”

  “Don’t tell Mom and Dad,” Justin begged.

  “What’s it worth to you, kiddo?” Kyle started his car as Justin buckled his seat belt. They pul
led away from the middle school and headed toward home.

  “No, seriously, Kyle—don’t tell them!”

  “I won’t, Justin.” Kyle turned to look at him. “Just be glad I’m the one who answered the phone and was able to come get you.” His expression turned serious. “What happened in there?”

  Justin looked down at his knees, then out the window. He didn’t know how to tell Kyle that he’d gotten in a fight over a stupid bike. Or that he’d been sucker-punched. Or that he’d managed not to hit back, because he didn’t think it was worth it.

  Despite all that, Justin had still gotten in trouble.

  Kyle had never gotten into trouble in his life—and no one had ever been mad at him. Kyle probably never felt so angry at other people that he couldn’t look at them sometimes, like Justin did. Kyle had never felt like the weird kid in a room full of jocks. He’d never been picked on. Kyle wouldn’t understand.

  “I don’t know. It’s just . . . I didn’t like the way he was talking about my friend’s bike. So I called him on it.” Justin squirmed in his seat. Kyle kept his hands on the steering wheel and his gaze straight ahead. “But I didn’t punch him, I swear.”

  They stopped at a red light, and Kyle turned to look at his little brother again. “I’m proud of you, J-Bird.”

  Justin thought he’d misheard him. “You’re what?”

  “I’m proud of you, man. Good for you for standing up for a friend. And for not hitting back.”

  “Thanks,” Justin mumbled. He fought the urge to smile at his brother’s words. He felt a rush of happiness, like he’d just won a championship game or something. Justin shifted in his seat and felt something bumping against his ankle. He leaned down and picked up a folder stuffed with forms and papers. On the front was a drawing of a bird with a flag in its mouth, resting atop the Earth. It was the U.S. Marine Corps logo.

  “What’s this?” Justin asked, happy to change the subject.

  Kyle cracked a huge grin and said, “That, my friend, is my future.”

  It took Justin a second to absorb what he was hearing. “Wait—are you saying—did you—”

  “Yeah, kiddo. I’m in. I enlisted.”