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There were three ht They were fifteen feet from me The width of a rooray-haired and heavy He earing Vietnaht on hi an M16 rifle and I could see the butt of a Beretta M9 se holster on his belt A nine-un Standard US Aruy had old paratrooper boots on his feet, and no hat on his head

The second guy was younger and a little taller but notwhat I was sure were Italian arues Si an M16 by its top handle Right-handed No sidear black athletic sneakers No hat He had a se

The third guy earing 1980s-issue US Are BDUs He wasn&039;t fat Far from it He was a runt Maybe five feet six, maybe a hundred and forty pounds Lean and wiry and hardscrabble and nervous He was carrying an M16 too Civilian shoes on his feet, no hat, no sideararette between the first two fingers of his left hand

At first the Italian battledress made me wonder if they were souy&039;s Vietnaues didn&039;t fit with any current 1997 scenario, however screwed up international politics uy&039;s street shoes, nor did their collective lack of coear, or their lack of portable lunch rations, or their completely unprofessional behavior I didn&039;t knohat they were My h randohts at an airport I was surprised they didn&039;t hear the clacking and ticking froain, left to right, and then right to left

I couldn&039;t figure it out

Then finally I understood: they were amateurs

The Mississippi backwoods, next to Tennessee and Alabama Civilian militias Pretend soldiers Men who like to run around in the woods with guns, but who like to say they&039;re defending so or other Men who like to shoot the shit in the surplus store, right after their bulk purchase of old fatigues and Italian battledress

And un stores At certain country gun stores in particular Because certain country gun stores are nearspecial for sale under the counter All it takes is someone on the inside, and believe me, there is always someone on the inside A steady stream of M16s and Berettas and worse is written off every year as lost or daed or otherwise unusable, whereupon it is destroyed, except it isn&039;t It&039;s hustled out the back door in the dead of night and an hour later it&039;s under the counter at the gun shop

I have arrested er than the one in front of ood at it The best arrests run on pure bluster, and I get self-conscious if I have to rant and rave Better for ht at the very beginning Except that shouting freeze freeze freeze makes me a little self-conscious too The words come out a little tentative Alreatest conversation-stopper ever un At the cost of one unfired shell, I could make the kind of sound that would freeze any three men to any three spots in the world

Thenoise ever heard

Crunch crunch

My ejected shell hit the leaves at uys froze solid

I said, "Now the rifles hit the deck"

Normal voice, noruy dropped his rifle first He was pretty dauy, and last of the three came the wiry one

"Stand still now," I said "Don&039;t give me a reason"

Normal voice, normal pitch, normal tone

They stood reasonably still Their arms came up a little, out from their sides, slowly, and they ended up a small distance froers No doubt they spread their toes inside their boots and sneakers and shoes Anything to appear unarerous

I said, "And now you take three big paces backward"

They co steps, and all three ending up th from their rifles

I said, "And now you turn around"

52

I had never seen any of theuy had ended up facing me on uy, not very significant, a little pouchy and worn The guy in the middle was the sandy-haired one He was like the older rown up twenty years later and in better circuuy was different He hat you get when you eat squirrels for four generations Soat, and jumpier than either one

I tucked the Winchester&039;s stock up in un one-handed I aiht But then, it was a twelve-gauge shotgun My aim didn&039;t need to be perfect

I used uy and said, "Now comes the part where you take out your sidearm and hand it to me"

He didn&039;t respond

I said, "And here&039;s how you&039;re going to do it You&039;re going to pull it out of the holster with one finger and one thule it around and reverse it in your hand, and you&039;re going to point it at yourself, OK?"

No response

I said, "Second prize is I shoot you in the legs"

Normal voice, normal pitch, norht about wasting another shell and puain, but in the end I didn&039;t need to The old guy wasn&039;t a hero He hopped right to it after a second&039;s thought He did the finger and thuun reversed in his hand, and he pressed its muzzle to his belly

I said, "Now find the safety and set it to fire"

It was hard to do backward, but the guy succeeded

I said, "Hold the barrel with your thuet it back there in the trigger guard Right back there Pressing backward on the trigger"

The guy did it

I asked, "Nohat do you know?"

He didn&039;t answer

I said, "Any kind of struggle, you get a bullet in the gut That&039;s what you know Any kind of struggle at all We clear on that? You understand?"

The guy nodded

I said, "Now un out toward me Slowly and carefully Keep it on the saht at yourself Keep your ring finger hard on the trigger"

The guy did it He got the gun a couple of feet out from his center mass, and I stepped in and took it froht out of his hand, as smooth as you like I stepped back and he dropped his arm and I swapped hands The Winchester went to ht

And breathed out

And smiled

Three prisoners taken and disar fired

I looked at the old guy and asked, "Who are you people?"

He sice and then he got some kind of backbone back, and he said, "We&039;re on a mission, and it&039;s the kind of mission civilians should stay away froood for them"

"Civilians as opposed to what?"

"As opposed to military personnel"

"Are you uy said, "Yes, we are"

I said, "No, you&039;re not You&039;re a shower of make-believe shit"

He said, "It&039;s an authorized mission"

"Authorized by who?"

"By our comuy started to heain a couple of times I crossed the Winchester&039;s barrel with the Beretta and pointed the handgun straight at the guy I wasn&039;t sure it worked I never trust a gun I haven&039;t fired ht The safety catch was off I knew that for sure And the guy was flinching pretty good And he should know better than anyone whether the piece worked Because it was his I laid uy saw

Then the sandy-haired guy spoke up The soft one He said, "He doesn&039;t knoho authorized the mission, and he&039;s too e anything Can&039;t you see that?"