melon.
The middle boy dropped his rifle and turned to run, screaming and throwing his hands into the air. Both Labaan and Delmar turned their pistols on the boy's back, firing so close together that Adam couldn't tell whose shots were whose. The boy was flung downward over his erstwhile friend, bleeding and ruined.
Down below, from the rear of the bus where Abdi and Gheddi had taken firing positions, an altogether more violent firing burst out. In less than a second, so it seemed to Adam, the muzzles that had been visible ahead of the bus disappeared. There was a brief pause and then his two submachine gun bearing captors appeared ahead. They aimed downward. With three more bursts of fire, it was over.
Adam, trembling, pushed his head out an open window and threw up.
'And that's foreign aid, too, boy,' Labaan said.
Adam was back in his chair, still trembling and gone comparatively pale, as Labaan and Delmar dragged the two boys' bodies out. A few minutes later the driver reboarded the bus and grabbed the feet of the only bandit who had been of age and fully responsible. That gunman, as had the children, left a trail of blood along the tattered rubber matting of the floor.
It seemed like a long time to Adam before everyone reboarded. The four captors sat and began to disassemble and clean their firearms, taking care to reload the magazines as well. The driver took a broom out from somewhere under the bus. He gathered some dirt in his hands and, reentering, began to spread it over the blood stains. With the broom he spread the dirt around, collecting up the blood.
'It attracts flies,' the driver explained, unnecessarily. He then swept the dirt forward and down the steps.
When he looked down, Adam saw that indeed flies were beginning to settle on the remnants of the blood. He looked up and out the window, mostly to avert his eyes from the sight. This was worse, as vultures were settling in a mass not so very far away. Once again, Adam stood and stuck his head out a window to vomit.
Gheddi laughed at the captive, earning a sharp rebuke from Labaan.
'I remember you, cousin, the first time in action. Be polite, lest we bring up things better left forgotten.'
With a scowl, Gheddi turned back to his firearm.
When he'd finished, and resumed his seat, Adam gasped, 'They were just children and you shot them in cold blood. Like animals.' He seemed to have forgotten his own earlier comparison to hyenas.
'They were animals,' Labaan answered. 'Feral,' he added, unconsciously voicing Adam's own, earlier thought. 'Clan- and tribe-less. No one will miss them. And the world is better off without them. I don't know their precise crimes, yet that they had a lengthy list of them I have no doubt.'
'I doubt they had kidnapping on those list of crimes,' Adam said, raising a grin from Labaan.
'No, probably not kidnapping, unless you count temporarily, for purposes of rape. And what I do for my tribe is not a crime.'
CHAPTER NINE
Courage is the greatest of all the virtues.
Because if you haven't courage, you may not have
an opportunity to use any of the others.
-Dr. Samuel Johnson
D-120, San Antonio, TX
Warren Zevon's 'Lawyers, Guns, and Money' was playing from the computer's speakers as Phillie walked into the office.
'Is what we're doing legal?' Phillie asked of Bridges. 'I asked Wes and he said you used to be a lawyer and I should talk to you.'
Matt Bridges, late forties, balding, glasses, pushed himself back from the computer where he'd been working on the standard enlistment contract, and setting up dummy corporations for the procurement of everything from land, to ships, to aircraft, to rubber boats. He rotated his chair and began drumming the fingers of his right hand over and around his mouth. He actually knew the answer, already, but this delay gave him a chance to appreciate the sheer good looks of Philomena Potter, something all the crew liked to do when chance offered.
'Have a seat, Phillie,' Bridges said, indicating with on hand the chair normally used by Ralph Boxer. When she'd sat down, he continued, 'The answer is yes, in part, and no, in part. It's complex.
'The overall operation is legal. We are hired by a foreign entity that has practical sovereignty over a part of the Earth's surface to accomplish a hostage rescue. That's legal. Not even in violation of sundry treaties against the use of mercenaries, since it's more a police function than a military one. To that end, we are buying a ship, aircraft, arms, equipment. That's all legal.
'Moreover, while that entity has practical sovereignty over an area, nobody recognizes anyone as having legal sovereignty over what used to be the overall country. The former state has no diplomatic presence anywhere. It has no national government. No one accepts passports from there. Pirates operate from there and no one local even tries to control them. International law-wise, it's a black hole and anyone can do pretty much anything there.
'However'-Bridges's chin went up on the how and down on the ever-'Terry is taking a team day after tomorrow to Myanmar, to spring a legally held prisoner from custody. That's illegal. Biggus Dickus Thornton is going to pick up a patrol boat for sale in Finland, which is legal, but then intercept a merchant vessel at sea, and either interrogate and release the crew or kill them and sink the vessel. That's illegal.'
Phillie suddenly had a sinking feeling. She'd been so caught up the excitement at first, the air of sheer energy as Wes' apartment turned into a headquarters, that she hadn't thought enough about it.
'It was also, for example, legal for us to buy that old missile complex. It will be legal for us to assemble some light aircraft there. However, it is illegal for us to transport a couple of dozen bright looking Mexican illegal immigrants there to put those kit planes together.'
'We are not going to be importing any illegal weapons into the United States. On the other hand, we are going to be importing a very large quantity of extremely illegal weapons into Brazil. We are also, unless Stauer takes my suggestion and goes in by sea, going to smuggle some portion of them into Kenya, illegally. Moreover, while many of the items we are going to purchase will be legally acquired, a fair proportion are likely to have been stolen-misappropriated, anyway-from somebody's arsenals.'
