Chapter 5: Turn-about is Fair Play

August 22, 1996

General Wynn sat behind his desk chuckling. He shook his head in amusement and asked, “Did you see the news broadcasts with Sada?”

Teacher Washington answered, “Yes. I did catch her speech in Amra, and her interview in Palarma on the news. I particularly enjoyed her interview in Palarma.”

“She sounded like a teenage girl inviting her friends over to a slumber party.” Imitating her, he said, “You’re welcome to come and watch. They’ll be twenty of us.”

“She did take acting lessons as a cadet, didn’t she?”

“Yes. She failed her expert exam. Apparently, she forgot her lines and got flustered. It was a superb performance that fooled no one, but we failed her anyway. She was appropriately saddened.”

“I’m sure she was,” Teacher Washington said with a smile.

General Wynn leaned back in his chair studying the world map that hung on the wall of his office. He really wanted to be in Palarma to watch what was happening. This was exactly the kind of war for which Jade Force was created.

He said, “I have no idea what she’s planning.”

“I don’t have a clue, either. I have never been able to get in her head.”

“If I were an Enforcer of God, there’s no way I would go to Carsecusa. She’s going to eat them alive.”

“That thought crossed my mind,” Teacher Washington said.

“Those Enforcers of God are an emotional group. I’m sure that her little challenge will not go unmet.”

“Which challenge?”

General Wynn said, “The quip when she said: ‘It’s just a bunch of Enforcers of God getting killed by Jade Warriors. It’s nothing. Really.’”

“How many did they kill?”

“The news put it at over fifty.”

“Any Jade Warriors hurt?”

“No. It was an ambush. The Enforcers of God didn’t stand a chance.”

Teacher Washington asked, “Do you think that Carsecusa is an ambush?”

“Of course it is. I fear that she’s been too clever this time. If they trap them inside that city, it will become death ground. They’re going to fight like the devil.”

“Sada has been lucky so far.”

“She knows what she’s doing. She failed achieving an expert rating in strategy and in tactics with stupid mistakes that even a fifth year cadet wouldn’t make.”

“She was appropriately saddened?”

“Yes.”

“I thought so. How many expert exams has she failed.”

“Every one she’s ever taken, with the exception of one, which she didn’t know she was taking.”

“Was she appropriately overjoyed at having passed it?”

“Not really.”

“That doesn’t surprise me.”

“What are we going to do with her?”

“I wasn’t aware anything needed to be done with her.”

General Wynn gave Teacher Washington a dirty look.

Nine white trucks drove along the dirt road leading to the field. Several of the men inside the lead truck had spotted a large antenna sticking above the trees. It was their hope that this was the source of interference that was overpowering the signal from the radio station in the capitol. They wanted to end the broadcasts calling for people to rise against the Enforcers of God.

Although they would be happy to destroy it, they really wanted to take the broadcast facility intact. With the kind of power at which it transmitted, their message could reach across the entire country. They were starting to lose the media game, and that hurt. They had made four tapes for broadcast and had tried sending them to Hamasada, but only one had arrived. Jade Force had killed the other three couriers.

Jade Force was airing tapes of all of the beheadings and deaths of the followers of Jarjan. The snide comments about big bad terrorists brutally killing helpless little children was having a negative effect on public opinion. It was making them look weak. They were losing popular support quickly. Without being able to give their version of reality, fictional accounts of deaths of innocents by bad non-believers, they were being looked upon as sadistic criminals.

Jade Force was a real puzzle. The Enforcers of God couldn’t figure out how to deal with them. Whereas the Enforcers had been able to dance around the Amra soldiers and lead them on a merry chase, the Jade Warriors didn’t play the game the right way. They sneaked in, killed a couple men, and then ran off. They took out small groups with lightning fast raids. When there was a large group, their gunships came in hot and heavy. They were gone before an effective means of resisting them developed. Now the Enforcers of God were getting killed by improvised explosives set alongside of the road.

It was maddening trying to figure out how to fight them. The leadership of the Enforcers of God was beginning to understand how the Amran officers felt.

The commander of this group of Enforcers of God, Saa Kalb, was a veteran of a great many battles, mostly against Amran soldiers. He and his men had killed a lot of soldiers. He was confident that he could turn the tide against the Jade Warriors. Capturing this antenna was just the start.

“Stop,” he said.

The truck he was in came to a stop. The other trucks stopped behind him. He got out and, using a pair of binoculars, looked around the area. He could see the antenna in the next field. There was a small shack at the base of the antenna. Much to his surprise, there didn’t appear to be any kind of guards present. An asset like this should be protected.

He scanned the ragged clumps of trees that surrounded the field. There was some cover for guards, but not much. He didn’t trust it. There was something wrong here, but he couldn’t figure it out. He turned to look back at the trucks with him. Every thing looked all right there.

There was the ‘chuff’ noise of a grenade launcher that was quickly followed by three more ‘chuffs’. Four of the trucks disappeared in the plumes of explosions. He turned and saw that there were four Jade Warriors standing behind the line of trucks. There had been guards and he had driven right past them.

“Get out of the trucks and kill the infidels!”

His men were falling even as they leaped out the back of the pick up trucks. His men were spraying and praying, but their shots weren’t hitting anyone. With nine pickup trucks carrying six each, he had brought sixty-three men with him. He couldn’t believe that they were getting mowed down by four Jade Warriors. He brought up his rifle to fire, but they were too fast.

He watched one of the Jade Warriors kill one of his men. It had been an amazing shot. The man didn’t even bring his rifle to his shoulder to fire, but he was killing man after man. When one of his men paused to aim, he was shot. The rest of the men were spraying bullets everywhere except at a Jade Warrior. They were getting picked off with the most accurate shooting in a war zone he had ever seen.

He heard a noise behind him. Before he had a chance to check it out, he was hit in the back of the head and lost consciousness.

Saa Kalb woke with a screaming headache, but knew that was the least of his problems. He was tied to a chair. He struggled to get free, but to no avail. Even if he had gotten free, the two Jade Warriors standing in front of him would have made short work of him considering his current physical state.

He looked at the two men not liking what he saw. These were hard men. They had scars that testified to having seen action. That look in their eyes sent shivers of fear through him. He knew that look. It was the look of a carnivore watching dinner while it was still walking around.

“We have a little film for you to watch.”

“A film? Are you crazy? I don’t want to watch a film. Let me out of here.”

The two Jade Warriors stepped aside so that he could see a television set behind them. One of the men pressed a control and a video started playing. He was well familiar with the film. It was used to advertise the effectiveness of the Enforcers of God in upholding Jarjan’s law. It was a heavily edited recording of him killing a six year old boy. He watched it play out on the screen. He had cut the boy’s head off with a small knife. It had taken him forever to cut through the neck. It was followed by a scene of him killing the boy’s mother. That execution had been the act that had earned him command of a dozen men. Saa Kalb smiled.

“For some reason, this film doesn’t show the rape of the woman. I guess killing the boy excited you,” one of the Jade Warriors said in disgust.

“You don’t understand. I’ve been called by Jarjan. She wasn’t covered like a proper woman is supposed to be covered.”

“You have no remorse?”

“I did it in the name of Jarjan!”

“Why kill the boy?”

With righteous indignation, Saa Kalb answered, “His blood was tainted with her sinful ways.”

The two Jade Warriors looked at each other. First one, then the other nodded.

“Impalement.”

“I agree.”

A small swell of terror rose from the pit of his stomach. He shouted, “You can’t do that! I’ve been blessed by Jarjan!”

“No. You are a rapist and a serial murderer. You are not a warrior of God. We know the way of the warrior and you do not walk that path.”

“We would crucify you, but your chances of being rescued are too high to risk it.”

“No!” Saa Kalb shouted.