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said.
    Herb turned to Dr. Morgan. “If you remove eighty percent of a malignant tumor, would you consider that a successful operation?”
    â€œOf course not. It would be a failure.”
    â€œBecause?”
    â€œWell, while it would provide temporary relief, it would only buy time for the patient. The tumor would simply grow back.”
    Herb slowly got to his feet. Every eye was on him and it felt like nobody was even breathing. “If my understanding is correct, they are still a formidable force, equipped with more of the same weaponry that was in the trucks.”
    â€œI agree. Although we are now much better able to defend ourselves,” my mother noted.
    â€œFrom a frontal assault, yes, but they won’t make the same mistake again. We are no more able to defend ourselves from a group of men coming out of the trees at night equipped with launchers and RPGs than we were before. They’d simply blow apart our outer walls.”
    â€œBut they wouldn’t be able to overwhelm us, take us over. We’d be able to defend ourselves,” Howie said.
    â€œNot without casualties. Again, I’m just making an estimate, but I would suspect that a sustained attack with RPGs would result in over a hundred of our people being killed and that those deaths would not simply be guards on the walls but innocents in their homes who would be hit by explosives.”
    â€œBut after all that’s happened, do you really think they’d attack?” Judge Roberts asked.
    â€œRight now they’re probably not fully aware of what happened. They’ve not had any radio contact with their men, and it’s been almost a full day. They will be increasingly suspicious, but it could take a day or two before they risk sending out a team to investigate.”
    â€œWouldn’t they have seen the smoke?” I asked. “I know it was visible from a long way off … I’ve seen it from my plane when almost down by the lake.”
    â€œIf they did see it, they would have only interpreted it as evidence of an attack on us by their soldiers. They have no reason to question the success of the attack.”
    â€œBut once they do find out what happened, wouldn’t that scare them away?” Howie asked. “Wouldn’t they be afraid to face us?”
    â€œOr they’d want revenge immediately,” Herb countered. “Or they’d simply wait, gaining strength, regrowing like a tumor, preying on smaller, more vulnerable communities until they felt that they were strong enough to move against us once again. And this time they’d do it in a way that we might not be able to stop. Our element of surprise, which depends on their arrogance and overconfidence, would be gone.”
    â€œWhat are you proposing?” Judge Roberts asked.
    The old spy paused, looking around the room. I leaned forward and noticed everyone else doing the same. There was a sense of dread, of anticipation, of fear. I could see it in people’s eyes, I could almost smell it in the air.
    â€œWe have to finish the job we started,” Herb said. “We have to attack them. There’s nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal. We have to do to them what they were planning on doing to us. We have to destroy them.”
    â€œDestroy them?” the judge asked. “That makes us no better than them.”
    â€œWe don’t have any choice. As long as they’re capable of launching an attack, they’re a real and present danger, not only to us but to all others simply trying to live. They’re predators who must be stopped. Either we go after them or they come after us. Not today, not tomorrow, and possibly not for months, but they’ll be coming back at us. Of that I have no doubt.”
    â€œI thought it was over,” Dr. Morgan said. “I guess I just wanted to believe that.”
    â€œWe all wanted to believe that. But how do we tell our people? They’re