Free The State by G. Allen Mercer

huh?”
    “You said it yourself, she’s as good as anyone else on the team.  She has earned that,” he said with affirmation.
    “You sound like a proud papa.”
    “Yup, or a commander that doesn’t need to show favoritism.”
    Leah nodded.  “Roger that.”
     
     

 
    CHAPTER 9
     
    Hill Above the Tiller Farm
     
     
     
     
     
    Wu had an excellent view of the compound.  He was wedged between two small boulders with a clearing in front of him, giving him line of sight of almost any target of his choosing.
    The enemy drone had dropped its cargo almost ten minutes earlier.  He now knew for a fact that this compound housed people of importance.  They were leaders in some rebel force with connections to the regular army of the United States.
    Wu knew that he had a new mission, and he needed to do everything in his power to make sure that he captured information and reported back.  But, reporting back was the problem.  In order to report, he would need to steal a radio.   But that would be a task to undertake at night. For now, he needed to rest and collect information.
    With this task in mind, he produced a paper pad and started writing notes about the compound.  He had observed the watch rotation of the guards, the times at which they would patrol on foot or on horseback.  The number of people and whatever he could learn from the comings and goings of these rebels.  He even noted that the wounded dog seemed trained for commands.   But these were all observations prior to him nearly giving himself away.
    Right now, he could clearly see the two snipers deployed to the top floor of the red horse building.  Wu had never ridden a horse.  Horses actually frightened him with their size and crushing hooves.  But he knew that the red building was called something other than a ‘horse building.’  But, this word was not something that the State needed him to know, so, Wu accepted that action as fact.
    “But, apparently I do need to know it,” he said, quietly.  Almost as quickly, he scolded himself for even contradicting the teachings of the State.  Everything that he had become; a man, a soldier, an officer, these were because of the State.  This was the simple truth that made life easy, and this is one of the reasons that he was proud to be part of the liberation fighters in this new war.
    “We will make the Americans see that our way is the best,” he said, almost losing himself in his own nationalistic thoughts.   And that is when he heard the whining of the horse from below.
    One of the guards had mounted a horse and was patrolling along the foot of the hill that concealed Wu. 
    I must have dozed off.
    He reached for his binoculars and quickly found the snipers in the red building.
    “Where are the others?” he whispered to himself and panned the binoculars around.
    He could see the soldier on horseback, the two soldiers in the red building, and there…one along the tree line at the bottom of the hill, and, he panned over to the house.  The other one is at the door. 
    But where is the commander?  Where is the one that received the air dropped package?
    This was a thought that he would have to pack away as the soldier on horseback charged up the hill and towards his position.   Wu hastily moved up to the top of the ridge and over the other side.  He needed to retreat and let them think that he was no longer watching.
     
    <  >
     
    Ten minutes later.  “This is Tonto, I just worked the ridge, and there is negative sight of the enemy.  Over,” Joshua said into his two-way radio.  He kind of liked the code name Tonto.
    “Roger, Tonto, Bulls-eye wants you to not stray too far without support.   And, so do I. Over,” Bob said into the microphone.  His wounds regulating him to the desk job. 
    “Bob, I should have gone out there with them,” Ian said, he was sitting at the dining room table, struggling with the pod dropped by the drone. “You and I are the only ones with combat