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they see ‘their’ women shot up. And before you ask, no, it’s unlikely anybody is going to be court-martialed over it. Temporary insanity would be the plea, and no jury of ours would convict, while no jury of yours could be trusted.”
    Cruz turned around then, to see the tail of his column disappearing into the jungle. He dropped his pack, then pulled a can out. This he passed over to Hendryksen who shook it.
    “Legionary rum? To what do—”
    “Oh, just shut up and take it, you damned Viking!” said Cruz, slinging his heavy pack back across his back. “No promises, but if I get the chance I’ll look you up again.”
    “Thank you, Centurion,” answered Campbell warmly. Why is it the really good ones are already taken ?

    Kaiserswerth, Sachsen, Tauran Union, Terra Nova
    Khalid, Fernandez’s chief assassin, maintained several homes in the parts of the Tauran Union that fell under his purview, as well as two safe houses, that were out of that purview. One of the safe houses was in Kaiserswerth.
    And will it remain safe after I do this ? wondered Khalid. “This” was something Khalid found truly, nay epically, bizarre, the preparation and placing into the mail of several hundred letters of condolence from the president of the Republic of Balboa, to the next of kin of Sachsen and Gallic soldiers recently fallen in battle in Balboa, along with— What the fuck are they thinking ? —checks in the same amount, six thousand Federated States Drachma converted into Tauran currency, as was given immediately to the families of Balboa’s fallen to tide them over until the regular system of family support and insurance could catch up.
    No real question about how they came up with the information, though. They’ve got the bodies and they’ve got the records. Indeed, they know better than the nations of the Tauran Union . . . ohhhh . . . now I get it. Well, best get on with doing up the letters and having the computer sign the checks.
    Khalid, a man more than ordinarily religious in a nation and armed force themselves more than ordinarily religious, looked Heavenward and said, “Allah, I appreciate it that, being a bad man myself, I am, by Your grace, allowed to work for men even more wicked than I. It demonstrates that if there is hope for them then surely there must be hope for me.” Then, laughing softly, he began churning out the letters of condolence.
    Over the grinding of the printer could be heard, in Arabic, “Wicked, wicked , WICKED men!”
    On the plus side, at least they haven’t forged letters on official stationary ordering widows out of their military housing . . . ummm . . . yet.

    Port of Balboa, Balboa, Terra Nova

    Several ships tied up at dock had disgorged little and were not counted among the twenty that had brought in that half million tons. Oh, they’d given up something, of course. The one labeled Queenie on her stern, for example, had vomited up a hundred thousand containerized sacks of rice, then had taken on several hundred other containers before sailing off to Yamato, there to link up with another, similar vessel, the Quernmore , where some cargo would be transshipped. Another, a substantial cruise ship that just happened to be in the area—where Carrera, who owned it, had ordered it to be—had been “commandeered,” then filled to bursting with young children and a fair complement of adults and older boys to care for them. This ship, the Emerald of Hibernia , Balboan registry, was heading to a port in Valdivia, Saavedra, the narrow, mountainous country on the eastern coast of Colombia del Norte. This was partly for the children’s safety, partly to reduce the logistic burden within Balboa should the war kick off again, as everyone really expected, partly to get a ship in position to bring back to Balboa the thousand superb mountain infantry Valdivia had offered to help defend Balboa against further Tauran aggression, plus another four national contingents that were of about the same