章 101: Chapter Forty-Seven

"You can't trust anyone," Sergeant Gretta Aspen said, "especially the little fucking kids. We had a kid come in with cookies for our unit. We wouldn't eat them; you know what it's like over there. Some moron American scarfed the whole plate. Next thing he's in the hospital with crushed glass all through his guts."

"Oh, come on," Creeley said, "you don't think a little kid baked the glass into the cookies?"

"I don't care who baked the cookies, but they were meant to harm. People use kids to get past our defenses. There are no noncombatants anymore. Everyone is suspect."

"That's got to be a hard way to live."