it. Aren’t those the tactics the bad guys used in Vietnam? Don’t we like, need a jungle or something for that?”
John laughed.
“Not necessarily. Guerilla means ‘little war’ in Spanish, and it’s been used in every war to some degree, whether there’s a jungle or not.
“Guerilla warfare is nothing more than unconventional attacks on your enemy. Traditional warfare means two armies shooting at each other trying to annihilate each other. Guerillas work in small pockets, sometimes behind the lines, to take out the enemy a few at a time. They use various means to do so. Like booby traps and snipers and ambushes.”
“So, in essence, blowing the tunnel on top of them was a guerilla tactic.”
John smiled.
“Exactly. So in reality you’re already guerilla fighters. By blowing the tunnel we’ve already whittled their forces by half. More than that. Now we need to whittle them down even more.”
“Okay. Well, I don’t really think they’re going to try the tunnel again. So what’s the next plan?”
“We’ll send out a small team, two men, to take a couple of them out. It’s been several days now since they lost seven men in the mine. When their men first disappeared, they were on high alert. Now, my guess is they’ve started to relax a bit. Several days of pulling guard duty for twelve hours a day and not seeing anything has probably made them a bit complacent.
“Complacency means sloppiness. They’ve probably let their guard down, to some degree. And that’s the best time to hit them.
“So we’ll send a two man team out to take out a couple more of them. Then we’ll back off and bide our time, and let them get sloppy again.
“The idea is to deplete their numbers as much as possible, so that when we actually do our assault there’s only a couple or three left.”
Bryan was uneasy with the idea, and said as much.
“I have to tell you, John, it sounds good in theory. But I don’t much like the thought of sending just two of our own out there. I mean, if something goes wrong, they’ll be on their own. What if they get pinned down, they’re getting shot at, and we can’t get to them to help them? Or, even worse, if they get shot and we can’t get into the compound to get them back out?”
“Who said they ’d be in the compound?”
Bryan looked puzzled.
John continued.
“Look, Bryan, I understand your concern. There’s a right way and a wrong way to do this. We’ll do it the right way. And it’ll be well coordinated. We won’t go until we’re positive we can make it back safely. In wartime, and make no mistake about it, this is a war we’ve got here… in wartime, nothing is ever guaranteed. Nobody can say for sure that nothing will ever go wrong. But we’ll do everything we can to ensure our safety before we go. And I won’t ask you to go if you’re not comfortable.”
“Oh, crap, that’s not what I’m saying, John. I’m not afraid to go. I just don’t like the idea of splitting up, when thus far we’ve stayed as a group and we’ve done quite well.”
John was irked.
“ We haven’t done that well, Bryan. In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve had to evacuate our home. Bullets were flying. Sami almost died. And it was just by the grace of God that she was our only casualty. This is the way to go. We strike them one or two at a time, we strike them hard, and then we get the hell out of there. And then, when their numbers are lessened, we go in as a group.”
Chapter 16
John and Bryan made their way through the woods on the west side of the compound on a four wheel drive Gator. The Gator was essentially a two seater quad runner on steroids, with a tiny pickup bed in the back for hauling feed, seed,
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