“The Beirutis will be here for their passengers very soon. And from your reports, I would guess there is only one sniper.”
The commander snatched the beads up into his palm. He drained the dregs of his coffee and stood up as if to leave.
“One sniper? It is an insult to suggest that is all they would send against our elite forces. Listen. Ordinary agents and canisters cannot obscure the area around the turbines where the skycruiser has crashed. The wind in the mountains is strong and constant. In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. It is why we built them there!”
The others watched in silence. The military men mocked the president for his inexperience in combat and the religious leaders mocked him for his so-called spinelessness; he had once bowed to his European sponsors,
