Free Slow Burn (Book 5): Torrent by Bobby Adair

nodded noncommittally.
    “They are organizing. They’re communicating. We’re at war, Murphy. We’re fighting to the death, and if we don’t go on the offensive and go start killing those bastards, they’re going to kill us.”
    Murphy’s smile left his face. Only the serious, older Murphy remained. As much as he didn’t want to see it, he believed it. At least I think he believed it.
    “We have to do something about them, Murphy.”
    “What can we do?”
    I looked back at the pile of weapons stacked all over the pontoon boat’s deck.
    Murphy grinned and pointed at Nico. “He’s our secret weapon.”
    I shook my head. “You know what I’m talking about.”
    “What about the weapons, then?” Murphy waved a hand at the crates. “Are we gonna shoot all of ‘em? Everybody who thought that’d work is dead. It doesn’t matter how many bullets you have. It ain’t enough. You see that, right? Tell me you see that, Zed. ‘Cause you know the people who used to have all these weapons are dead now, right? You see that, right?”
    As much as I wanted to argue, I couldn’t deny that truth.
    Murphy pushed his point. “Your little nuclear bomb idea didn’t work.”
    “It was a gasoline vapor bomb.”
    “It doesn’t matter. It didn’t work. And do you know why?”
    “Probably the humidity was too high. Maybe the wind mucked up the concentration of gasoline in the air. The ratio was wrong. Maybe if I’d detonated sooner—”
    “No, Zed.” Murphy jumped to his feet and moved around to plant himself in front of me. “You don’t see what the problem is, but I do.”
    In spite of the interruption, I was ready to hear the answer. Murphy served in the Army. Maybe he knew what to fix to make it all work next time.
    “It’s because you don’t know what the fuck you’re doing.”
    That wasn’t the answer I was looking for, and in fact, it pissed me right off. I huffed and looked around Murphy to see out over the bow. “Just because my bomb didn’t work on the first try doesn’t mean I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing.”
    “You don’t get it, Zed.”
    “What don’t I get?”
    “You think just because you know a bunch of random ass little shit that everything you try is going to work out like it did in some book you read or some movie you saw. The real world doesn’t work like that.”
    “I know.” It was a weak protest.
    “No, you don’t know. You say you know because you know that’s what a smart person should say, but you don’t know. You just think you know. And what you don’t know is when you’re running around, using up all of your luck, trying shit that shouldn’t ever have any chance of working, you’re wearing yourself out.”
    I didn’t understand. “Wearing myself out? What?”
    Murphy grinned. “You’re using up the luck so when I need it there won’t be any left for me.”
    “So it’s all about you?”
    Murphy grinned again. “Looks like that stick is back in your ass.”
    I rolled my eyes again. “I thought we were having a serious conversation.”
    We motored along a while longer. Whites were on the banks, peeking through the trees, or running along trying to keep up. At least their numbers were thinning.
    “Murphy, you know I believe we’ve got to do something about the Smart Ones.”
    “I know you believe that.”
    “And you believe it, too.”
    “Yeah, but believing something needs to be done isn’t the same as believing something can be done.”
    “You don’t think we can kill all of the Smart Ones?”
    “I won’t even talk about what a stupid hope that is.” Murphy shook his head. “Even if we could, we don’t even know which ones are which until it’s too late.”
    I couldn’t argue with him. “That’s not an unsolvable problem. I don’t really think we’ll ever kill all of the Smart Ones, but we need to kill enough of them so we have a chance to be safe, so we’ll have a chance to survive.”
    “So give me the bottom line here, Zed.”