CHAPTER ONE

Tacky mud pulled at Sergeant Jonas Vega’s boots as he trudged through the trench.  He wove his way past the beams that reinforced the carved walls and the ladders that stretched to the lips of the ravine, often pulling his gas mask carrier closer to his hip to slide through the narrower passages.  The soldiers perched atop the ladders didn’t offer a glance in his direction, instead keeping their eyes glued to binoculars that looked out across the fields above Vega’s . . .