Read Online Redback by Lindy Cameron - Free Book Online Page B

Drake said. 'Sending little packs of soldiers to stand around in
foreign trouble spots and not engage the enemy, unless it lobs a grenade at their feet, is not what
I'm talking about. Peacekeepers are only useful after the fact. What's more, as you well know, UN
forces only get convened from whichever country wants to volunteer a couple of soldiers for duty in
that place, at that time, for that mission.'
    A derisive snort accompanied Lyall's cigar smoke. 'That's assuming the UN can make up its
collective mind to do anything at all.'
    'Forget the UN,' Drake insisted. 'I'm not talking about keeping the peace. I mean, how can you
keep something that simply doesn't exist in a war zone? And, as we all know, terrorists do not
confine their acts to war zones. What I'm talking about here is instant action, perhaps even
pre-emptive ball-busting.'
    Drake's companions laughed; partly because his fighting words matched neither his placid tone nor
his chubby school-boy appearance, but mostly because they were at odds with his usual position.
    'Since when are you in favour of the guns-blazing form of diplomacy?' Thorpe asked.
    'Despite malicious rumours to the contrary,' Drake said, acknowledging their reaction with good
humour, 'every now and then I do get the urge to take the fight to their front door.'
    'You Teddy?' Thorpe mocked. 'You've always been fervidly opposed to any overseas commitment.'
    'And I will forever argue against wasting our troops, en masse, overseas if it compromises our
domestic safety,' Drake said. 'But imagine having a small, specifically-trained force that could be
aimed at the heart of the problem, one that could be dispatched to cut off the head of that damn
regenerating serpent whenever, or wherever, it emerges from its bolt hole.'
    'Now who's dreaming,' Thorpe remarked. 'You'd never get that level of international cooperation.'
    'Isn't it time we worked to change that, instead of assuming it's impossible?' Drake said. 'I
tell you, my friends, our own bureaucracy is the greatest unintentional ally these terrorists have.
While we sit twiddling our proverbials, they're out there ready to blow theirs clean off just to get
the job done. We don't have a chance against them until we can find a way to play their game. Isn't
that so Adam?'
    As much as Lyall agreed with the idea, it was too soon to go too public against his own Commander
in Chief's sorry alternative. So, resisting the urge to concur with Drake's apparently-sudden
innovative solution to fighting terrorism, he trotted out his usual, 'I've been saying for years we
need a dedicated force to deal with those bastards.'
    'But that is not what your boss is advocating, is it?' Thorpe baited the lanky Virginian. 'Tell
us again what the POTUS will be putting to the PM tomorrow?'
    'Dick,' Lyall said, 'you know perfectly well that Garner is still flogging that dead-horse of
his. He's got a new name for it, but it's the same massive and unwieldy concept of a full-time but
high-rotation Coalition army - to be headed by us, naturally.'
    'Which is why it won't happen,' Ebrey said. 'We're over agreeing to everything your big guy
wants.'
    Lyall nodded. 'Problem is, my guy doesn't seem to get it that no one - especially in the
already-free world - likes being told what to do by someone who just thinks he knows best.'
    'On top of which,' Thorpe said, 'having thousands of troops holed- up in permanent forts located
only in the world's so-called hot spots is akin to offering them up for terrorist target practice.
Meanwhile, in the real world, the bastards will simply attack everywhere there are no troops.'
    'Hey, why not start with those Titan Guards,' Lyall suggested. 'A British-American company
employing the best ex-enlisted from Australia, Canada and South Africa, means they're already multi-
national. They proved their, I suppose you'd call it honour, by acting decisively and beyond the
call of money when they saved those Prime Ministers in Delhi last June, which I gather