Free Fight for Power by Eric Walters Page B

both. I want you to pull up and get elevation. We need to do a reconnaissance around the whole area to make sure that nothing is coming up from behind our squads.”
    â€œWe wouldn’t be able to see a man or two out there either, hidden among the houses.”
    â€œI’m not worried about a man or two. I’m worried about a hundred coming up in a coordinated ambush. That we’d see.”
    I pulled back on the stick, hit the rudder, and banked to start a circle around the perimeter.
    The sun was now completely above the horizon. I turned slightly away from the glow as it came up over my right side. Five minutes ago the rising sun was something I feared, an enemy that would make me visible. Now it felt like a friend, showing me the dangers below. Of course that also made me just as visible to anybody on the ground with a high-powered rifle and a scope. Instinctively, I pushed back on the stick and we dropped down quickly.
    â€œWhat’s wrong?” Herb demanded. “Do you see something?”
    â€œNothing and nothing. Just a little evasive action to be careful.”
    â€œCareful is good. They could be out there. We might have just missed them. They could have heard or seen us coming and fled. If we see them, we can give chase,” Herb said.
    â€œChase them? We’d send people after them?”
    â€œPeople, yes, but us first. I still have four grenades. We could take out a truck or two, maybe twenty men.”
    â€œOr they could take us out.”
    â€œThere’s always that,” Herb said.
    â€œShouldn’t we just be grateful they’re gone and not bother chasing them?”
    â€œThat’s the last thing we should be grateful for.”
    â€œBut we didn’t have to fight. We didn’t have anybody killed or hurt.”
    â€œNot now, but do you think it’s good to have a hundred or so armed men out there doing harm, causing havoc, killing innocents, and possibly coming back at us at some point?”
    â€œBut they ran from us now, so wouldn’t they be afraid to attack us?”
    â€œJust because they’re afraid now doesn’t mean they can’t rearm, gain strength, and come back at us again. The only certainty we could ever have of them never bothering us again is if we neutralize them once and for all.”
    Neutralize —such a polite word for kill .
    â€œOkay,” I said.
    â€œBack home, the committee has to know that really this was far from successful, but for everybody else this has to be seen simply as another victory. They need to feel good about the positive and not worry about the future. Worry can be paralyzing.”
    â€œOr the truth can be liberating,” I responded.
    â€œOnly as much truth as they can handle.”
    We circled around and Herb peered below with binoculars. He was looking down but also well into the distance. Would he be able to see them, driving away in their vehicles? And if he did would we go after them, just me and him, right now?
    I was just grateful for seeing nothing except houses, stores, and a few seemingly deserted factories. Lost down there among all those buildings could easily be a hundred armed men, or a thousand, or ten thousand. But I couldn’t let my mind get racing. It was only a hundred, and I was sure they were long gone, but it didn’t matter if they were hiding or not, as long as they didn’t attack our people.
    We kept banking, executing a big circle around the compound. I wasn’t seeing anything anywhere, not even the ordinary trickle of morning movement in the surrounding neighborhoods. No doubt the explosions and gunfire had kept people from chasing after water, food, and resources for a moment, but that moment was over.
    I thought back to something Herb had said. “How much truth do you give me?” I asked.
    â€œTruth is a tricky concept.”
    â€œNo it isn’t.”
    â€œYes it is. Truth is subjective. Just because I think