"I won't tell Peng about the rifle. It'll be our little secret," Hei Bai chuckled to me as we prepared our gear. It was our first operation since leaving the hospital, where we had stayed for two weeks. I can't imagine the pain I would have felt had the smoke of those fields entered my lung. I had heard medics talk of industrial accidents before. I can't imagine a worse way to die either than to be beset by chemicals. Panicking in the smoke for a respirator, I had discarded my rifle the moment it snagged on a branch. For what it's worth I was using a sling this time.
Hei Bai had given me the Jian standard issue rifle as a replacement. The Fire Nation Firearm, Automatic, Lightweight - FN FAL. Chambered in the in the powerful 7.62x51mm Sato cartridge and fed from a twenty round magazine. As the previous owners of Jia, the Fire Nation had left a trove of arms behind that picked up by Water Tribe security forces. The FAL's straight and elegant lines contrasted the knotty curves of my QBZ. The FN FAL was also more effective at range than the QBZ, while was less effective in close quarters. After all, most people hesitated to close the distance with an enemy that can melt your face off with the flick of their wrist. But the long sight lines and vegetation of the Jian landscape suited the rifle. The Jian's had made excellent use of it.
"It's a better rifle anyway," continued Hei Bai. He chuckled again. "Besides, children won't mistake you for terrorists this way."
This first mission had started like any other. We were riding in the reinforcement convoy on response to another terrorist attack. Everything was routine, until a hummingbird landed beside our truck with great haste and Hei Bei urged us all on board. The Humming took off before I could pull both my feet inside and raced at top speed to a Kopje overlooking the village. I could not speak over the roaring of the rotors, but I knew in that instant we were heading for the overwatch. I knew it wasn't good either.
After circling the hilltop and seeing no signs of motion, the hummingbird descended. We hopped out, rifles still at the ready. What we saw was a bloodbath. beneath the camo netting, the entire overwatch was stained in blood. By the looks of it, who ever had done this had caught them by complete surprise. The work of professionals; the handlers, the outsiders, the elusive true enemy of this war.
In their dugout, against a stack of sandbags, a pair of Jian soldiers lay slain at their posts. One a member of the Water Tribe. The other a tribal Jian native. Their fates intertwined. Both shot through their hearts; their blood had flowed from their bodies and pooled together inseperably and indistinguishably into a single a single dark puddle.
For a while the first plane to respond to an attack would make its approach to the village by flying directly over the heads of the overwatch team. The attack plane would see the battlefield from the overwatch team's perspective while they guided it in on final approach. Time was of the essence and this saved precious minutes. But our enemy had figured this out, and they had used it to backtrack to where our team had hidden. This was the first major casualty on our side. The Jians had killed or arrested troublemakers in droves but had yet best their masters. One-nothing, terrorists. Once again the Jian's would need to change strategies immediately.
This tragedy was great enough that it demanded we meet the chancellor once again.
"I can't do this, Hiro. I can't freaking do this!" Koko protested, her voice cracking like a child. She tried her best to stand in high heels as she wobbled back and forth. An ill-fitted orange Cheongsam clung poorly to her body. I don't think it was even hers. Without a hat, her blue arrow tattoos - an air bender rite of passage - shone brightly on her shaven head. She looked at me for sympathy.
I shrugged, "What do you think I can do about it?"
If she could have done it without falling over, I'm sure she would have slapped me. She paused for a brief moment to scrunch her eyebrows together in consideration. Instead she stuck out her tongue at me, giving me the akanbe with one hand and performing another rude hand gesture with the other.
"Stow the chatter!" Buno barked, "Front and center."
We all snapped to attention (Koko tried, bless her heart, and almost fell over). A soldier opened the doors to Du Lin's office. We stepped inside.
"Well, I'm glad to see everyone is dressed…. appropriately this time," Du Lin said.
Somehow I think that comment was addressed at me. But what caught my eye was seeing the infinity pool through the windows behind her desk. It seemed to connect the to Capitol grounds to Dragon Tale fjord - a continuous path of water from the High Chancellor's office to the ocean. I wondered, did the Fire Nation build that when they made the building or did Du Lin order it? I wondered how much something like that cost.
Then I noticed that in the corner near the honor guards was a plain-clothed man. He looked to be a native by his complexion and features.
"So it was indeed your squad that was first to respond?" Asked Du Lin.
"Yes. We secured the hilltop but found no trace of the attackers. No casings. No signs of bending. Not even any footprints. only bullet fragments recovered from the bodies."
Du Lin continued to face Hei Bai but her eye's glanced over to make contact with mine, "Could a human do such a thing? Not a demon?"
Hei Bai said, "it depends on how strongly you believe in demons. Thein Kyu?"
The plain clothed man stepped forward, "Ma'am. Some of these insurgents are indeed well trained from beyond the borders, but none are trained as well as these people. I have no doubts that your outsiders have done this."
Hei Bai nodded.
"Simply put, they have so far bested us, despite all those that we have killed. We cannot let their transgression go unpunished," said Du Lin. "There is also the matter of the human heart, and whether or not we control its high ground. It is a front of the war the we must win."
"No," Said Hei Bai. "It is the only front of this war that actually matters. We hold it for the moment. But our control is slipping. We'll lose it by the next election at this rate. If we keep our efforts up we'll exhaust these troublemakers, but not until after then."
Du Lin scowled. "Chang! You are a native, yet you believe in this fight?"
"Of course, madame," Said Chang. "This fight is my fight."
"Lieutenant Nguyen!" Du Lin said, "where is your place in this war?"
The lone female honor guard stepped forward, "Ma'am, those… trouble makers.. They have slain my husband and brought shame to me and my village. I have joined the military as the lone educated member of my village and refused to either throw myself on his funeral pyre or rest until our honor is restored."
Upon her saying this, Thein Kyu diverted his eyes away from her and to the floor.
"I have left the native peoples of Jia alone to practice their cultures, as they wish to be left alone to practice their culture. I have given them all vaccinations and access to medical care. Those that wish to come to city and share our wealth may come here. Those that wish to vote have access to schools. What more can I do?" Du Lin asked no one in particular.
Kyu answered. "It is precisely because you have left them alone that the troublemakers are winning. The cities and their Water Tribe peoples and their fate are a very far away place. I am sure that many of them truly appreciate what you have done. But it is a question of getting an education years from now versus having your arm chopped off tomorrow. If your life is so disconnected from the Capital, then the choice should be obvious. If you want them to feel a part of this country, you should strive to bring true equality. Even give them the vote."
"This war has nothing to actually do with the vote!" Du Lin protested.
"Then you have failed to understand this war as a war truy is. A war is not only about killing or terrain. If the world believes that this war is about the vote and persecution then it is so. This is something my handlers understood very well, and it was why for every village we sacked we handed out copies of Quotations of Chairman Kuvira in another."
The pause could fill a lifetime.
"All war is based on deception," Hei Bai interrupted the silence. "No. All war is based on perception. It doesn't matter if the treatment of natives and the war we are fighting are two separate issues. They have been made to be seen as one in the same."
After a moment to think about what Hei Bai had said, Du Lin's brow furrowed, "Damn them all. All this trouble, because of voting? Peng! In the Earth Kingdom, do all citizens not have the right to vote, but for a candidate groomed and hand picked by the state's only Party? Hiro! In the Fire Nation, do all citizens not have the right to vote, but only because they are a nation that has expunged all minorities and outsiders? Koko! In the Air Sovereignty, do all citizens not have the right to vote, but only because non airbenders are not even recognized as citizens in the first place? I do not grant the innate right to vote. But all the people within Jia are fully Jia's citizens and may earn the right to vote with an education. This is a requirement I put before the Jian citizen both native and Water Tribe alike."
"...why don't you," me and my big stupid mouth "Just give them all the right to vote."
"That's absurd!" she spat at me. "I am not some petty tyrant trying to win a popularity contest. I am trying to build a lasting home for my people that will persist long after I am gone. We need long term planning. We need the people to make educated decisions. For example, agriculture has brought us immense wealth. But what happens if the Earth Kingdom finally figures out viable hydroponics? What happens if the climate continues to become even more arid? Problems that require much deliberation and planning. It's why I'm trying to build the solar farms. Forward thinking, not some charlatan trading handouts for votes."
Thein Kyu said, "say what you want to say, but the support of the tribals is waning. And so is the sympathy for your country abroad."
Du Lin said, "Then both you and Hei Bai know what we must do."
"One must go for the throat when hunting boar-q-pine," Buno said.
After all, it was Buno who deserved credit for this mission we were now preparing for. It started with a police case of elephant-mandril poaching. As a ranger, he had meticulously tracked the changes in grazing patterns, the numbers per week, and the distinct lack of footprints or brass casings. Only a single spent case had been found in three months: EKA standard issue for the QBZ.
Not much to go, it's a rather ubiquitous cartridge. But what sort of a poacher would take the meat from an elephant-mandril and leave the tusks behind? That is how we found the source of our troublemakers. And with help from Thein Kyu or one of the many turncoats like him we also pinpointed the most likely exact location of their camp. It was on top of one of the many hills to the west, but this one had a basin on it's summit. In such a formation over one hundred men could hide completely unseen. Du Lin ordered the mission immediately, and Hei Bai orchestrated it. No wonder it was going to get us all killed.
"This is nuts," said Koko. "This is nuts for spooks, and spec-ops. This is even nuts for an airbender"
"I know it's crazy," Hei Bai said. "That's why it will work."
No amount of training in the world will ever you prepare you for Hei Bai's nuttery. Today, we were going to jump out of Hummingbird at over one hundred kilos per hour. Without a parachute."
Peng said, "It's not just crazy, it's stupid"
Hei Bai said, "what's the matter, is the great and powerful Peng not up to the task?"
Peng's insult must have bruised Hei Bai's ego. Could that really be possible? Could it be that Hei Bai himself planned this entire operation?
"No it's not." Buno answered Peng. "I know those hills like the back of my hand. The vegetation's perfect. The angle of the slope is perfect. Nice and cushy but not too slippery. Math checks out, too. You can argue with Hei Bai all you want, but the math is math. Don't take my opinion on it either. This is something people a lot smarter than me figured out, and I trust them a lot more than I trust me"
"Look, team – I know I'm asking a lot from you, but you know full-well what we're up against. These guys are seeing everything we do. The only thing we have left is the fact that they're so secure about their ability to see ten steps ahead of us, that they won't see the play that's directly in front of them. I don't know about you, but after that stunt they pulled with the poison ivy, I'm ready for some payback. Are you with me?"
"You know I am, boss," Buno said.
"I know you want payback, Peng," said Hei Bai. "You're always pissed, but you're definitely pissed at these guys more. what d'ya say?"
"Convince me," he said.
"I'll tell you guys what… for whoever's alive when we get back from this operation, the next five rounds of sake are on me."
Peng smiled, "Yeah, I guess I'm in"
Koko spoke for both of us, "Then we're in too."
"Alright then," Hei Bai spoke. "Everybody better be here at twelve hundred. Dismissed."
Of course Buno and Hei Bai both walked away, while the rest stayed behind.
"How low does he think our standards are?" I said. "A crummy pep talk and some free sake? We can get free booze off of Chang whenever we want."
"Did you catch that whole thing about whoever makes it out of the operation alive?" Koko said.
"I'll tell you guys what," Peng said mocking Hei Bai's voice. "If this operation goes bad I'll make sure Hei Bai's the first casualty myself."
As we lined up to board the hummingbird, Thein Kyu approached us and climbed aboard. Kitted out like a proper Jian soldier, the look of shame on his face replaced with a cold and serious determination. He spoke no words, but his eyes spoke volumes. So here we all were, now huddled together in the back of a Hummingbird, linked at the elbows, about to jump out a moving aircraft without a parachute.
"Get ready!" our pilot shouted to us. "Coming up on the drop zone in ten seconds!"
He held out his hand, counting down the time with his fingers. Three… two… one…
He clenched his fist.
The timing had to be perfect. The pilot had to be flying at an exact speed. At an exact altitude. Exactly level. At on an exact approach over the exact right spot on the right hill. If done correctly, the reverse slope would almost match our parabolic trajectory, gently catching us as we slid down the mountain. Too slow, we splatter on the mountain. Too fast, fall in parallel to the curve of the hill, maybe only centimeters above it, and splatter on the valley below. If conditions weren't right the first time, there would be no circling around for a second pass for fear of arousing suspicions.
Oh, well. Time to jump and hope for the best.
I felt my stomach rise into my chest for what seemed like eternity. The ground whizzed past us, barely out of reach. I wondered if we missed, but a few moments later I felt the tips of dew covered grasses whipping the backs of my legs and buttocks. Next thing I knew we were crashing feet first through stalks of wet grass at a hundred kilometers per hour. I kept my legs spread, trying to keep stable. By now, most of us had lost grip with the person next to us. Koko got to the bottom of the hill first, sliding into a wall of tall-grass that stopped her like a pillow. Peng was next, then me and Hei Bai. I stood up and heard the someone laughing,
"watch out below, kingii!"
With the force of a freight train Buno crashed into me, knocking me into the tall grass. His weight pinned me to ground, heaving up and down on my torso with his big hearty laugh. I couldn't tell if he was more amused at our kilometer long water slide or my poor luck.
"Please. Get. Off."
"Oh, sorry, Hiro," He said, rolling off of me.
Peng said, "Has anybody seen Chang?"
We all looked up the hill and saw him, walking down to us from about a quarter of the way up.
"What took you so long?" asked Koko.
"I hit the only patch of bare dirt about halfway down the hill."
We didn't see it till he reached us and turned around. The friction had destroyed his pants – at least part of them. For the most part they were intact but his butt was completely exposed
"No… Way!" Koko grinned, "Gees, Chang, you've gotta nice budonk."
Peng rolled his eyes.
"It looks a bit red, too. Spankings aren't your kink are they?."
"Just don't tell my wife and kids about this, alright?"
Thein Kyu stood apart from us, rifle at the ready. His chin up like a hound smelling the air.
"Okay," said Hei Bai, "That's enough, Koko. Everybody get ready move. We've got a long night ahead of us."
For the rest of dusk, we hike up and down the hillsides. At the rate we were moving, the enemy wouldn't have to kill us. The mountains would do it for them. The sky behind us grew dark. The sky ahead of us was set ablaze in orange and scarlet. The sound of cicadas gradually became replaced by the sound of crickets.
As we crested one of the hills, however, a trail of smoke could be seen on the horizon, rising from one of the valleys.
"Hei Bai…" I asked, "What is that?"
Hei Bai said, "Most likely, that's the wreckage of the Hummingbird that dropped us off, probably shot down immediately after making the dummy drop on Hill two two five four seven Bravo."
"You mean…."
Chang interjected, "Well what are we waiting for! We've got to and get that pilot out of there!"
"We can't. Not part of the plan."
"What about the radio?" asked Koko. "We could call a gunship in for an extraction. They'd never know we weren't in that drop."
"Not going to happen," said Hei Bai. "Breaking radio silence is too risky. The insurgents are going to be spending the next several hours combing that hill looking for a spec-ops team that was never inserted. I don't want them getting scattered in a gunship assault."
"How can you say that," asked Chang, "to leave one of our own behind like that, behind enemy lines and wounded, all alone, surrounded by enemies."
"You don't get it. Pilot Hama is dead." answered Thein Kyu
"Y-You don't know that! He could still be alive."
"He does know that," said Hei Bai "Hama getting shot down wasn't an accident. We knew it was likely to happen when this mission was planned."
Peng shouted, "Why, you—"
"You don't think Hama knew the risks? He knew this was a likely one-way ticket, and he volunteered for this mission. This was his choice."
Then, Buno spoke, "I don't like the math on this one either. I knew Warrant Officer Hama. He was a good man. But what's done is done. If we don't get moving now, Hama's sacrifice – his life – will have been for nothing."
"Then we're good," said Hei Bai, "Over that next hill we'll be within range of the enemy. I want absolute light and noise discipline on this one. Understood? Yes? Good."
Chang said, "But—"
"No 'buts.' Let's go."
Hei Bai's noise discipline was two-fold. Yes, we were getting close to the enemy, and noiselessness was important for vital, practical reasons. But secondly, I think he didn't want to give us the opportunity to openly discuss our dissenting opinions on this operation.
We slinked out way across the hill tops. We made our first sighting of the enemy at about 2300 hours. We dodged patrols for the next several hours. It wasn't until 200 hours that we crested a hill and saw their base camp on another hill seven hundred yards away through our night-vision goggles. Camouflage netting had been place to stop detection from air.
"Alright," said Buno, "this is where we dig in, halfway down the slope."
Peng flexed his muscle and carved out a trench across the side of the hill with his bending. We then put up camouflage netting of our own, along with a screen of material designed to make us invisible to any tripod mounted infra-red cameras they may have been using.
we spent the next several days eating MRE's and relieving ourselves into their empty wrappers. Hei Bai spent almost all his time behind binoculars. At least in the afternoon, anyway. From 500 to 1100 hours in the morning, the entire valley was covered in dew and filled with the densest fog I've ever seen. Those were the only time's Hei Bai would choose to sleep.
"Why don't we call in an air-strike? A fighter wing will get here way too fast for them to scatter. They'd never see it coming. Kaboom! Problem solved. forever."
"No good, Koko," Hei Bai said, "There are going to be pieces of intelligence in that camp of theirs. That's the real mission. A golf-bomb from a jet would obliterate nearly everything. Nothing small enough to safely drop has any chance of being effective on its own."
"Well you can't just expect us to walk their, they'd see us the moment we'd start to head down that slope."
"That would very bad indeed – they'd torch their Intel documents immediately."
"well I was more concerned about how they'd be able pick us off with snipers and kill all of us, but yeah, the intel thing would be a real bummer too, I guess."
"Either way, time is an issue," Hei-Bai said. "we make an assault on that base tomorrow or call it all off."
"Whaaat? You don't even have a plan yet."
"No, but I will tomorrow. Get some sleep, We'll be up at 500 hours."
That was the thing about Hei Bai. He seemed to walk a razor's edge between genius and insanity. I could never truly tell if his plans were coldly calculated and manipulative - seeing ten steps ahead of his enemy like some sort of Go master - or if he merely made up everything he did on the fly.
"Are you ready for what's going to happen tomorrow morning?"
It was Peng, sitting on a rock and loading his gun, a large-bore lever-action rifle. A blast from the past, bastardized with modern accessories. Not the weirdest choice I've seen. The slugs were potent and the range would be short. A lot lighter than the autoloaders too. He was a combat-engineer after all, more concerned with barricades and bombs than shooting.
"Why wouldn't I be?"
"It's a dangerous game that Hei Bai is playing. If you were smart, you'd take you money now and go home."
"You looking for a larger cut, Peng? You're sudden concern is bit… unusual."
"Well, take it or leave it… my advice I mean. But don't say I didn't warn you."
"So why are you staying then, Peng?"
"You should know why," said Peng. "If you're not careful, you'll become a ghost even if you live"
"Is that what happened to you, Peng?" Thein Kyu interrupted as he emerged from the shadows and squatted next to us. "If Hiro dies, the only money you'll get is Hell Money."
Peng smirked, "I was once K'un. But there is no water to swim in the Si Wong Desert, so I became Peng."
"We will see," Thein Kyu said.
One by one that morning, we lined up in a single file, Buno taking point. I can't speak for the others, but I know I was clutching my rifle with white knuckles.
"Okay everyone," Hei-Bai said, "Put your rifles on your backs. Out come your handguns and a grenade, each."
Everyone shuffled around for a second, looking at the nearest person to see if they weren't the only one confused. All I had for a side-arm was a tiny suppressed snub-nose. But I drew it, and grabbed a frag bomb with my left hand.
Hei Bai said, "When it happens, it's going to be fast and very close. As soon as you see the enemy, knuckleball those grenades right past them and start shooting. You won't have time to grab your rifles; the violence of action will be high. Hiro, no firebending on this one. We can't risk any fires."
Great, just great. There goes any edge I had on the field.
"All right, everyone. Single file. Let's March."
"That was not a suggestion people," shouted Buno. "Move out."
So how does a single lance manage to make an assault on a well-defended camp? The answer was simple to Hei-Bai. Walk straight there. Grenades in one hand and pistols in the other (except for Hei Bai The Nutcase: he had a pistol in both hands). we slogged down the hill, hiked through the valley and groaned our way back up the hill. We were cloaked in morning fog so thick that you couldn't see more than five feet in front of you. That was his big secret. And I hope it obscured us more than it obscured the enemy, because if anything went wrong – and it always does – I was on the very point of the spear with my dinky gas-sealed wheelgun.
At the summit Hei Bai checked his watch then motioned us to stop and said, "You might want to all lay down on your backs right now."
I didn't question it at this point, and I was glad not to. I don't know what sound I heard first, the explosion or the sound of the sky being torn asunder. A blur of motion and hurricane of wind as the jet buzzed our heads. Not even fifty feet over the top of this mountain. It's sight hidden by the fog. It's sound hidden by own speed. I had only enough hearing left to hear the dozens of ricocheting metal fragments ka'pwing around inside the basin. And then few seconds later heard the explosions a dozen times more as they echoed off of the hills. Sailing twenty feet over our heads, there goes an insurgent's charred and shattered helmet. off to land somewhere in the valley hundreds of yards below us.
The horror of it all!
I must give credit to all these terrorists to keep fighting when on the receiving end of such destructive forces. That was no real air strike, just a singular fifty kilo frag bomb. I could not keep control of my bladder but was lucky to not drop my live grenade.
"Now!" commanded Hei Bai. "up and over!"
The seven of us ran shoulder to shoulder up the last ten meters. We heard shouting and whistles and screaming. "Toss 'em now!"
Faster than they could say 'open fire,' six grenades go over the top of the sandbags. We didn't stop running, but jumped into the smog and fog filled pits as we threw the grenades. I jumped onto the terrorist in front of me. Despite the bomb and sonic boom he brought his rifle to my face. I grabbed the barrel with my free hand while stuffing my pistol into his belly. Another reached up to grab at my shirt and I electrocuted him. We began point-shooting our pistols at anything that moved around us. Peng threw up a curtain of dirt to protect us from the the six sets of explosions that went off a moment later.
The air became deadly quiet.
We hopped over the wall and formed up in a line, creeping forward while aiming down the sights of our rifles. An operation like this is all about throttle control: knowing when to give it fuel and move as fast as you can, and then knowing when to ease back on the throttle, fluidly slowing down to a crawl, not ever getting ahead of yourself. A single confused insurgent tried running to where he thought was safe, and was cut down with a wall of bullets. We kept inching forward one step at a time. And then came the breeze.
"Koko, we're losing fog. Bend back our concealment," said Hei Bai
"I'm trying!" Koko shouted as she gritted her teeth and waived. It wasn't working.
Now I we all stood naked in the middle of the pit, carcasses everywhere, with another dozen soldiers spitting distance away. I hit the deck as the bullets exploded their way past my body and wildly returned fire, aiming at nothing in particular. Peng erupted a berm of dirt in front of us, the only thing sparing us from their barrage
Then I saw a massive boulder rise from the earth and float into the air. Peng vaulted over barricade. With a sweep of his arm, he commanded the boulder into motion. Hurtling the boulder toward our assailants, he rode a wave of earth behind it, like an Ember Island surfboard, the boulder soaking up deadly bullets. Peng was smack dab into the middle of a dozen of the enemy. Catching them as they reloaded I watched him fire twice with his lever gun and two of them fell to the ground. A terrorist fired at him and missed, spilling the brains of one of his buddies.
With an outstretched arm, Peng fired several shots with just one hand, spinning the gun around his wrist to cycle it as his other arm bent up another wall of dirt. On the third shot he let the recoil push back on his arm, quick swing his gun up in and arc and then back down, resting on his shoulders. Bang bang bang! He fired his gun upside down and behind his head, like a pop-musician showing off on one of those new 'electric' guitars that all the kids like. For a minute he almost seemed to be – no. That wasn't in the realm of possibilities. But the thought of it stuck there like a splinter in my mind. The dust settled and around Peng there lay a dozen corpses; Koko whispered aloud to herself what all of us were thinking, "The… The Oni of Si Wong.''
By now the rest of us had jumped the berm to join Peng's assault. Chang had run ahead of me and was wearing the same pair of trousers he jumped in with. As he ran, his naked butt cheeks jiggled back and forth. War is hate and anger and death and madness and absurdity, but every once in a while, it's funny.
Peng ejects an empty casing and it lands in one of the insurgents' unblinking eyes. He pulls out a cigarette, cups his hands to his face to light it, and takes a drag. And the entire time, he was smiling.
"What are you looking at ladies!" Buno screams "We have a hilltop to secure!"
No one moved
"…it's secure, sergeant,'' said Chang. "That's all of them"
Hei Bai glared at Peng with anger over how impressed he was with his stunt, but said nothing of it. "Get these bodies secured. Side by side in a line. I want photos. I want this nice and orderly for record books. We don't have a lot of time before more bad-guys show up"
"I'm sorry, Thein Kyu," said Peng. "Was that your fun I was having?"
Thein Kyu did not dignify Peng with a response.
I grabbed the bodies by the feet and Chang grabbed them by the arms, giving them a one-two swinging toss into a pile. These bodies were warm. They weren't some barely tangible 'other' thing, like a skeleton or a desiccated corpse, stiffened with rigor mortis. They were warm and soft and only minutes moments ago they were a living, breathing person just like you. It's something you never quite get over. Chang and I picked up the corpse of one of the insurgents that had been shot in the head, and his brains fell out. Chang almost slipped on them, and ended up kicking his thoughts and memories down the side of the mountain.
"Koko, what are you doing?" asked Buno, "We've got a job to do here."
She stood there, staring at one of the bodies. She drew her bowie knife and grabbed one of the corpses by the scalp
Hei Bai shouts. "Koko no!"
She took her knife and began slicing through the top of the man's head. I dropped the body and ran over to pull Koko off. I grabbed her and yanked her off with as much force as I could.
"Have you lost your freaking mind?" I screamed
She fell backwards on top of me. In her right hand was the bowie knife. And in her left hand… nothing but hair.
"What in Yue's name was that, Koko?" Hei Bai asked. "are you trying to commit a war crime?"
"No, you don't understand!" she pleaded
"Don't understand what?"
"Look!" she said pointed to the body. "Look at it"
"Oh no… It can't be."
And then I saw it. Visible now that his hair was gone, there was a bright blue arrow shaped tattoo on the man's head.
"Don't you get it," Koko said at long last. "The handlers… This whole time… They weren't firebenders. They Weren't Fire Nation. This whole time they were Air Nomads. We've been at war with the Air Sovereignty"
This war had become even less simple.