Read Smoke and Shadow for Free Online Page B

an emergency situation. The target site has a contingent of
almost two dozen child soldiers. They ’ re moving freely through the camp.
The adult commanders are forcing them to handle most of the
security and the support functions. There ’ s no viable way
to- “
     
    “ You mean you
called me in the middle of the night to tell me you
can ’ t get past a
few toddlers playing war? What the fuck is your malfunction,
Shadow? ”
     
    “ I ’ m calling
to let you know your opposition profile is flawed, probably like
the rest of your intel. The mission brief didn ’ t say anything about child soldiers
in the camp. ”
     
    “ Oh,
I ’ m sorry. I
didn ’ t realize
Baker provided you with the age, gender and favorite color of your
targets. Allow me to introduce you to the real fucking world. The
CNDP has been accused of using child soldiers by the UN, Human
Rights Watch and a dozen other useless monitoring groups. That
doesn ’ t change the
mission profile or the timetable. It also doesn ’ t change- “
     
    “ It changes
everything. I didn ’ t come out here to kill little kids. ”
     
    “ Killing kids is
not the mission. Destroying the weapons cache is the mission.
You ’ re supposed to
be the spec ops super ninja, right? If you do what
you ’ re supposed to
do, you won ’ t have
to kill anybody; get in, do the deed and get out, remember? So why
don ’ t you get the
fuck off my phone and- “
     
    “ If you spent
any time outside of a bar, you ’ d know contact variables
can ’ t be
predicted. There is no way for me to ensure zero casualties in an
infiltration. Even if there was, the blast radius of the explosion
is going to- “
     
    “ Shadow, I know
it ’ s been a few
days since we met, but you ’ ve clearly forgotten the extent to
which I don ’ t give
a fuck, so allow me to reorient you. Fuck you, fuck those little
kids and fuck your bullshit guilty conscience. Those little shits
probably killed their fathers and raped their mothers. Hell, maybe
they killed their mothers and raped their fathers. I don't know and
I don't care, so just do what I paid you to do. I
don ’ t give a fuck
if a few of them die. The ones that live will probably grow up to
burn down villages or blow up markets or whatever the fuck they do
in this backwater shit hole. The job is the job. You do it and then
you shut the fuck up about it, the end. ”
     
    “ This
isn ’ t about what
you want. This is about having professional standards that
don ’ t include
killing kids who got dragged into a war. ”
     
    “ See, this is
exactly what Shaw was talking about. You ’ ve had your head so far up
Baker ’ s ass for so
long that you don ’ t know your place. Well, this is about what I want. I want
what the client wants and the client wants that fucking cache to
disappear. Collateral damage is not a concern
so- “
     
    “ Have you ever
killed a man, Talbot? Have you ever killed a
child? ”
     
    “ I
can ’ t say that I
have. That ’ s what
we have jarheads like you for. I get to give the orders. You get to
worry about dead babies and shit. ”
     
    “ Fuck you,
Talbot. I ’ m- “
     
    “ Fuck you Trent.
You are going to go into that camp and take out those weapons. If
you don ’ t, I will
order a drone strike and take out every fucking kid I find. Then I
will make sure everyone from Al-Jazeera to the Washington Post
finds out what you did in Karbala. I will then inform the client of
your status as a financial loss leader and a tactical liability. I
will recommend you be relieved of both your contract and your
protected status in this organization. Then you and your bullshit
guilty conscience can hold each other at night while you wait for
someone to put a bullet in the back of your head. Do you understand
me, marine? ”
     
    Trent shut off
the sat phone. He knew enough about Talbot to believe his threats.
He didn ’ t need to
hear any more. He knew what he had to do to save as many of these
children as possible.