Free The War Planners by Andrew Watts

five-minute break.”
    The group got up and scattered to bathrooms and stocked refrigerators. Natesh got a plastic bottled water and went back to the podium.  Bill and David were there waiting for him.
    David said, “Hey, nice job so far.”
    “Thank you, David.  I appreciate the participation.”
    Bill said, “Yep, I think this group should do a fine job at this.  I just wish I knew it was going to take this long.”
    “Oh?  You got somewhere to be?” David said.
    Bill looked uncomfortable, like he hadn’t meant to share.  “Well.  The truth is, Allison’s been sick.”
    David looked at Natesh and then back to Bill.  “Oh.  Hey, I’m sorry to hear that.”
    Bill said, “Ah, it’s all right.  It’s been going on for a few years now, on and off.  I agreed with my boss that I would go on this trip just a few days ago, before we knew her results.  But just a few hours before I left, we found out.  I told her I would cancel the trip, but she said the chemo wouldn’t start until I got back.”
    Natesh looked down at the floor.  He was still in his twenties.  He’d never known anyone with cancer.  But he knew what it was like to lose a family member.  “Bill, I am so sorry.  Please let me know if there’s anything I can do.”
    Bill looked up as if he’s snapped out of a spell.  “Oh ah, thanks there Natesh.  Naw, you don’t worry about it.  Sorry to bring it up.  It’s just been on my mind.  Let’s just get back to work and get this done right.”  David and Bill walked up the stairs of the stadium-seating classroom as Natesh re-checked his notes.
    After everyone sat back down, he began, “I was not always a California guy.  I went to high school in the Big Apple.  I remember one field trip we took when I was 17.  We went to see this professional pickpocket, if you can believe it.  This guy had learned the trade from his family but he didn’t want to be a criminal himself.  So he decided to teach seminars and do shows about being a pickpocket.  He would call people up on stage and say, “Hi, my name is so and so, and in less than three minutes, I’m going to take your wallet.”  And the thing is...he would do just that.  It was unbelievable to see.  And the audience members who were up there on the stage would have no idea it had happened until after the fact.”
    Natesh was getting comfortable now.  He walked down from the stage and up the stairs, the way Lena had yesterday when they had all arrived.  There she was, still in the back of the class.  She wasn’t looking at him now.  Natesh saw her watching people and then writing notes in her book. 
    “This fellow was a professional pick-pocket.  But not the kind that made a living taking people’s money.  This was a man that had learned how to do all of those things on the street, but now lived an honest life by performing for audiences and showing people how it was done.  He was incredible.  I saw him take a man’s wallet, then his cell phone, and even his wristwatch without him knowing it.  But that wasn’t all.  He actually took the man’s eyeglasses off his face.  The man’s eyeglasses .  I know it’s hard to believe and I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it myself.”
    Natesh gave a wide grin.  “It was incredible.  My friends, I’ve worked on strategy for a number of years.  I realize that I’m younger than the majority of you here.  But in studying our situation for the past day and comparing it to various past scenarios in the private sector, I think this may be one of the potential routes we can take.  We need to identify how we can take America’s glasses right off its face.”
    Bill said, “You want the Chinese to become pickpockets?”
    Still smiling, Natesh responded, “Precisely that.  You see, the pickpocket man told us all how he was able to do what he did.  He told us all how much practice it had taken him to perfect the sleight of hand moves to take the various