Chapter 24

Shield Pua arrived at the Jade Citadel early in the morning after a long flight from Hamasada. She was tired. She had been eating power bars for the whole trip, and was looking forward to a meal prepared by a Hearth. She had a few things to do, though, before eating and sleeping.

She headed to her dorm. The heat was shocking after the temperatures in Hamasada. When she reached her dorm she took a shower and changed her undergarments. She put on her second set of armor so that her first one could be cleaned.

She went in search of Susanna. After a visit to the school she was told that Susanna was most likely at the dorm for older orphans. She was given instructions on how to find it. She found her way there. The kids were in a field playing some running game that involved kicking a ball. She approached a woman she didn’t recognize to learn where she could find Susanna.

The woman spotted her and said, “Greetings Jade Warrior. How may I help you?”

“I’m looking for Susanna.”

“You must be Shield Pua.”

“I am.”

“Susanna will be so happy to see you. She talks about you all of the time.”

“I can’t wait to see her.”

The woman shouted, “Susanna! Come here!”

A young girl broke out of the crowd on the field. She ran over to the woman and then spotted Shield Pua. She hugged Shield Pua while saying, “You’re home!”

“Yes. I came right over to see you,” Shield Pua said feeling choked up.

Excited, Susanna said, “I’ve got so many things to show you. Would you like to see my room?”

“Sure.”

Susanna took her hand and dragged her towards the building. It was a different kind of building than Shield Pua had been raised in. There were drawings hung on the wall. None of the rooms were marked with symbols that matched a medallion. Susanna led her to a room with four beds.

“This is my room,” she said happily. Pointing to one of the beds, she said, “This is my bed.”

“It’s a nice room,” Shield Pua said.

Susanna said, “I love my room. Oh and this is my stuffed animal. His name is Fred.”

Susanna held out a small cloth toy in the shape of an elephant. Shield Pua looked at it and said, “That’s a nice stuffed animal. What does it do?”

“Fred keeps me company and he watches over me at night, like you used to,” Susanna said brightly. “He’s the bestest stuffed animal in the world.”

“That’s good of Fred,” Shield Pua said feeling guilty for not being there for Susanna for so long.

Susanna pulled a card out from the drawer of a small table next to her bed. She held it up for Shield Pua to look at. Proudly, she said, “I’m making straight A’s in school.”

Completely clueless as to what straight A’s meant, Shield Pua asked, “Is that good?”

“You can’t make better grades in school.”

“I’m so proud of you,” Shield Pua said thinking she was going to have to get someone to explain this grade thing to her. She wondered if it was like a rating in skills.

Susanna said, “I have to get back to the game. Will you come here after lunch for a cookie? I’m going to be making them with my friends. You’ll get to meet them then.”

“I’d love to have a cookie and meet your friends.”

Susanna took her hand and led her out of the room. She stopped in the hall and pointed at a drawing that was hanging on the wall. She said, “I drew that picture.”

“It’s wonderful picture,” Shield Pua said.

“I’ll make one for you so that you can hang it on the wall and think about me,” Susanna said.

“That would be nice.”

“Let’s go,” Susanna said pulling her hand.

The young girl led her outside and back to the woman. She said, “Mama Kachina. Can Shield Pua come over and eat some of the cookies we’re making after lunch?”

“Sure, Susanna.”

“Great! Come see me after lunch, Shield Pua.”

“I will,” Shield Pua said finding it hard to say the words.

“That’s great! I’ll see you later,” Susanna shouted while turning to run out to the field.

Kachina said, “I’m sorry.”

Shield Pua wiped her eyes and asked, “It’s a little dusty here. Why are you sorry?”

“You were gone a long time. She’s made a life here with the kids.”

“I understand,” Shield Pua said.

“You’ll come for cookies?”

“Yes. What time?”

“One is fine. They should be done baking by then,” Kachina said.

“Good.”

“She does love you, you know?”

“Sure,” Shield Pua said. “I’ve got to get some sleep. I’ve been traveling a long way.”

“Okay.”

Kachina watched Shield Pua jog back towards the Jade Warrior complex. She knew that Jade Warriors didn’t show pain very often. She must really be hurting badly to be openly crying like that.

“Should I call you Sandy Dancing or Pen Sada?” General Fox asked.

“I enjoyed being Sandy Dancing, but that was just a role. The world knows me as Pen Sada, but I’m not really a Pen since I’ve never committed to that cadre. I prefer to be addressed as just ‘Sada.’”

With a certain amount of admiration in his voice, he said, “You fooled everyone with that Sandy Dancing disguise. That was quite a feat to pull that one off for so long.”

“Not really.”

“Why do you say that?”

Sada answered, “Jade Warriors are rated by skill levels in various areas of martial arts. By martial arts, I don’t mean just fighting with hands. We mean the real martial arts: including strategy, tactics, logistics, cooking, medicine, and well ... I’m sure you get the gist.

“You’ll find that almost all Jade Warriors have a dozen skills in which they are rated at an expert level. All of them have a couple dozen areas in which they are just at master level. I’ve tested at a master’s level in a lot of skills. In fact, I’ve mastered more skills than any other Jade Warrior.

“I’ve only tested as an expert in one skill. Would you like to guess what skill that was?”

“I have no clue,” he answered. “I suppose ... disguise.”

“The skill was deception.”

“That I would believe.”

“I am curious why you insisted on surrendering to me rather than Pen Hopo.”

“I guess you could say that it was a bit of foolish pride. She was here yesterday after your speech to the world. I could have surrendered then. An awful lot happened yesterday. Some of it was pretty ugly. I wanted to separate the defeat of the IFN from the destruction of Venu. I felt it was important to hold out for another day.”

“I can see why you might feel that way.”

“The destruction of Venu was far greater than it had to be. I’m curious. Why did you take it to such an extreme?”

Sada answered, “It was taken as far as necessary and no further. Like us, Venu believed in total warfare. It was the only country that we fought that did. All of the other countries rolled over as soon as defeat was on the horizon. All we had to do was to put a gun to the head of the leaders of the country and they were surrendering. If the fighting had ever reached the Jade Citadel, we would have fought to the last man or woman.

“With Venu, it was us or them. We knew it, and they knew it. We were fighting for the life of the Jade Empire and the death of Venu. They were much more ambitious than us. They were fighting for the life of Venu and the death of the world. They could have succeeded if they got past us. The rest of the world would have surrendered.

“Venu’s army was relatively poor in terms of men and equipment. They were relying on weapons of mass destruction. They had a massive amount of them; enough to take over the whole world. Those weapons gave them a far greater advantage than we had. One of our artillery shells could kill ten or twenty. One of theirs could kill two hundred. If fired into a dense civilian area, one shell could have killed thousands, possibly more.

“We only destroyed what had to be destroyed. We had to take out their storage facilities. If we didn’t, they’d destroy us with them. We had to take out the factories that could produce them. If we didn’t, they’d make more. We had to take out the military. If we didn’t, we’d be fighting them forever. We had to take out the government that would have tried to rebuild its war machine. If we didn’t, then we’d be fighting them again in twenty years.”

“You are probably right about most of the world surrendering. There are a few countries that would have fought to the end.”

“Who?”

“Engle, Espa, Romal, Franka, and Itan are countries that come to mind.”

“No. You’ll see how they react when we sink one ship in their harbor or lob one shell into a city. They’ll be signing surrender contracts immediately.”

“I’m from Espa. I’d fight you to the very end.”

“I believe you would fight to the very end, but you are forgetting that we don’t fight armies. We fight States, and States are run by politicians. Politicians aren’t very brave. In fact, they’re cowards. They’re happy to send you to war, but they run and hide as soon as war starts to reach out to them.”

General Fox slumped back in his chair. He knew that she was right. He doubted they’d even wait for the Jade Empire to make a show of force before surrendering. Or else they would go into hiding as soon as there was any sign of the Jade Empire on their doorstep and let the military and civilians die while they were tucked away safe and sound in some underground facility.

He said, “They’d hide in bunkers while we fought.”

“They have to reach the bunker first. Don’t forget that we understand our enemy.”

“It’s easy to forget that. What’s next for you?”

“We don’t talk about that,” Sada said.

There were a few loose ends to finish up in Joma, and one of them was dealing with Mr. Conway and Mr. Shoemaker. They had already sent Hamid home. The poor guy had wandered off to his truck wondering if he could put a military air base on his list of completed projects that he showed prospective clients.

He drove off thinking about how he was going to explain to his wife about being gone for twenty four hours without calling home. He could see how she’d react to a story about being held prisoner by Jade Warriors at the air base that he built thinking it was a shopping mall. She was definitely going to buy that story.

Mr. Shoemaker and Mr. Conway waved farewell to Hamid. They couldn’t blame him for being a little surly that morning. The cot wasn’t the most comfortable bed to sleep on.

Sword Toma said, “When you proposed building an airfield in the middle of Joma, I thought you were crazy, but you managed to do it.”

Mr. Conway said, “You tell people you’re doing one thing and they never question it, particularly if it seems like a very stupid thing to do.”

“People will accept stupidity as an excuse for all kinds of things that just don’t make sense,” Mr. Shoemaker said.

“For some reason, I think you two and Sada would get along famously.”

“I thought that whole impersonate a reporter thing she did was brilliant,” Mr. Conway said.

“She’s audacious and we appreciate audaciousness. Audaciousness ... is that a word?”

“Yes,” Mr. Conway said.

“So would you two enjoy a little vacation?”

“Sure. I wouldn’t mind a sunny beach, strong alcoholic drinks, and nearly naked women.”

“Or we could go fishing in a swamp, drink moonshine, and get bit up by mosquitoes.”

“Tough choice.”

Chuckling, Sword Tomas handed each of them a check. They looked at the amount on their check. Their eyebrows nearly rose to their hairline. This was a very good bonus.

“Just a little bonus for a job well done. I figure that ought to last you three months.”

“At least three months,” Mr. Conway said.

Mr. Shoemaker said, “With this much money, maybe we should invest in a shopping mall. What do you think, Mr. Conway?”

“It’s a possibility.”

Sword Tomas walked off while they were still debating what to do with their bonus check. He had great plans for those two in the future. In the Walford army, they would have put in their times as privates pulling guard duty or running around with a gun in their hand. It would have been a waste of a great talent. Deception and misdirection were two of the greatest military skills one could have and they had both, in spades.

Images of disaster areas have a kind unreality to them. Buildings collapsed in an earthquake, roofs torn off of buildings in a tornado, and flood waters above the waist aren’t horrifying. Bodies, if present, are often hidden below the debris. The result looks like God partied with some rockers and they just trashed the place on a grand scale.