Read Online FORSAKEN: THE SYSTEMIC SERIES by K.W. CALLAHAN - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: K.W. CALLAHAN
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what would happen.
Ava had quickly realized that growing their private army was going to be a necessary evil if they were going to compete in Atlanta. They needed manpower to execute raids, defend their spoils, and carry out all the menial tasks that she and Jake neither had the time nor desire to handle. However, in the post-flu world, Ava also realized that there was a point at which “peak manpower” was reached. Hitting this point meant that it was just as much or more trouble to add new bodies to their organization than their productivity was worth. More men meant more mouths to feed, more alcohol and cigarettes to provide, more guns and ammo to supply, more potential for dissent or mutiny, and more mad dogs with the potential to overstep boundaries that could bring the wrath of the Three Families down upon the entire organization. And while their operation had yet to achieve this point, and still had some room to grow, Ava knew that at some point in the near future they would reach it; and once they did, things could quickly get out of hand.
Ava viewed the situation seeing two distinct options when it came to the expansion of their empire. Either they kept growing until their operation turned into an overweight, slow moving, inefficient blob that would eventually succumb to one of the aforementioned fates, or they kept it lean, mean, trim, and agile, which would allow them to move when necessary and take what they wanted when they wanted it.
She looked at the development of their own little army as a general might. They could take Russia’s World War II approach of mass assaults and just throw bodies at bullets, which at times had benefits when looking to trim some fat, or you could develop a more professional army.
Personally, she was a fan of the latter.
The problem that she saw within their own organization though, was that their band of miscreants was anything but a professional army. And while she and Jake were decent leaders, they weren’t combat trained. While Jake liked to think he was something special when it came to leading his men into combat, Ava recognized that neither of them had the proper skills to develop their band of mouth-breathers into any sort of truly cohesive fighting unit.
She’d been pondering what to do about this issue for some time since she knew that Jake certainly wouldn’t be losing any sleep over it. It wasn’t that he didn’t care; he just didn’t know how to resolve it. And he figured that was why he had her.
This was when Ava began to formulate the current portion of their longer-term plan, the first phase of which they were preparing to execute today. And as far as she knew, none of the Three Families had yet laid claim to the items that were on her appropriation list, which surprised her since they could prove to be some of the most valuable. She guessed that due to the size of their organizations and relative lack of competition, they hadn’t felt a need for such things and likely believed that should they ever become necessary, they could just take them. She could already see that the families were becoming overconfident in their positions of power, and today, she hoped to use this slight miscalculation to her advantage.
But right now, she needed some cannon fodder, and she knew just where to find it.
She’d learned that it helped to leave Jake behind when she went on the type of recruiting mission that she had planned for this morning. His presence was often a turnoff to prospective recruits. He was the up front and forthright type, which Ava found an attractive quality. There was no beating around the bush with him. However, many others found it to be a severe character flaw, something that made him instantly dislikeable to many. And when you were trying to get people to lay their lives on the line for a bag of drugs or a case of booze, you often needed all the people skills you could muster.
Ava
Ava had quickly realized that growing their private army was going to be a necessary evil if they were going to compete in Atlanta. They needed manpower to execute raids, defend their spoils, and carry out all the menial tasks that she and Jake neither had the time nor desire to handle. However, in the post-flu world, Ava also realized that there was a point at which “peak manpower” was reached. Hitting this point meant that it was just as much or more trouble to add new bodies to their organization than their productivity was worth. More men meant more mouths to feed, more alcohol and cigarettes to provide, more guns and ammo to supply, more potential for dissent or mutiny, and more mad dogs with the potential to overstep boundaries that could bring the wrath of the Three Families down upon the entire organization. And while their operation had yet to achieve this point, and still had some room to grow, Ava knew that at some point in the near future they would reach it; and once they did, things could quickly get out of hand.
Ava viewed the situation seeing two distinct options when it came to the expansion of their empire. Either they kept growing until their operation turned into an overweight, slow moving, inefficient blob that would eventually succumb to one of the aforementioned fates, or they kept it lean, mean, trim, and agile, which would allow them to move when necessary and take what they wanted when they wanted it.
She looked at the development of their own little army as a general might. They could take Russia’s World War II approach of mass assaults and just throw bodies at bullets, which at times had benefits when looking to trim some fat, or you could develop a more professional army.
Personally, she was a fan of the latter.
The problem that she saw within their own organization though, was that their band of miscreants was anything but a professional army. And while she and Jake were decent leaders, they weren’t combat trained. While Jake liked to think he was something special when it came to leading his men into combat, Ava recognized that neither of them had the proper skills to develop their band of mouth-breathers into any sort of truly cohesive fighting unit.
She’d been pondering what to do about this issue for some time since she knew that Jake certainly wouldn’t be losing any sleep over it. It wasn’t that he didn’t care; he just didn’t know how to resolve it. And he figured that was why he had her.
This was when Ava began to formulate the current portion of their longer-term plan, the first phase of which they were preparing to execute today. And as far as she knew, none of the Three Families had yet laid claim to the items that were on her appropriation list, which surprised her since they could prove to be some of the most valuable. She guessed that due to the size of their organizations and relative lack of competition, they hadn’t felt a need for such things and likely believed that should they ever become necessary, they could just take them. She could already see that the families were becoming overconfident in their positions of power, and today, she hoped to use this slight miscalculation to her advantage.
But right now, she needed some cannon fodder, and she knew just where to find it.
She’d learned that it helped to leave Jake behind when she went on the type of recruiting mission that she had planned for this morning. His presence was often a turnoff to prospective recruits. He was the up front and forthright type, which Ava found an attractive quality. There was no beating around the bush with him. However, many others found it to be a severe character flaw, something that made him instantly dislikeable to many. And when you were trying to get people to lay their lives on the line for a bag of drugs or a case of booze, you often needed all the people skills you could muster.
Ava
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