Chapter Nine
When they caught up with Lojab, he stood at the edge of a group of thirty foot-soldiers standing in a ring, watching two men fight. They laughed and shouted, egging on the fighters.
“The smoke around here is thick enough to get an elephant high,” Joaquin said.
The men were passing small bowls around. Each man would inhale deeply over a bowl, then pass it on. The clay bowls were filled with smoldering hemp leaves.
“Mind if I try that?” Lojab said to one of the foot-soldiers.
The soldier looked him over, mumbled something, then shoved him backwards, into Sparks.
Karina flipped on her comm switch. “Hey, Sarge. You online?”
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“We might have a little confrontation here.”
“Where are you?”
“In the woods, below the market.”
“What the hell you doing down the
