Initiative (The Red Gambit Series Book 6) by Colin Gee Read Free Book Online Page A

looked at Crail, silently seeking advice on whether to continue, or just disappear back into his greenhouse.
    Crail bit the bullet.
    “Carry on, Dick.”
    “Okay, Major. I have absolutely no problem with this whatsoever, and I’ll tell you why.”
    Loveless pushed the cap back, adjusting the headphones so he could hear his own words properly.
    “For a start, the Nips started it. We didn’t… so they have whatever coming.”
    The silence drew him on.
    “Yes, we’re bringing something new and awful, but they’d use it on us for sure…” he waved his finger to emphasise his point, “You know they’d use it on us, so I have no problem with that.”
    Parsons piped up.
    “Well, they tried that plague stuff out at the start of this war, and on the Chinese in the last war, so we know they have no moral stops on killing hundreds at a time with anything they can get their hands on.”
    George Nelleson jumped on that comment immediately.
    “We’re not talking hundreds, we’re talking thousands, and not just military personnel either. We’re going to kill a fucking city here!”
    Crail went to speak, but Loveless was faster.
    “Yes, George, we are. We are going to kill thousands of people in one moment of light.”
    He cleared his throat and continued.
    “Is that any worse than killing millions slowly by starvation, eh? The Nips are starving, dying in their droves every day, because we blockade them and they can’t work the land. Any worse than shooting them down in their tens of thousands when we try and invade… when our soldiers too will be shot down in their thousands on the beaches and in the goddamned paddy fields, all because the war goes on and on and on, eh?”
    “No but…”
    “No, but nothing, George.”
    He slapped his friend’s knee, trying to defuse the sudden adversarial tension.
    “I don’t believe half of the bullshit that we were spoon-fed, no more than any of us do, I ‘spect.”
    Loveless suddenly realised that everyman who could see was fixed on him, eyes staring directly at him.
    “Err, don’t forget we’ve an aircraft to fly here, folks!”
    The moment broken, the pilots and flight engineers looked over their instruments, the two naval officers relaxed their tensed muscles and leant against the bulkheads.
    “Look fellahs, I really believe that this’ll shorten the war and save lives. I actually believe it’ll save Japanese lives too, in the long run. It has to, surely?”
    He left that hanging for a moment.
    The point had been debated and turned over many times before, but not in this situation… not on the flight deck of a B-29 less than an hour out from deploying the first atomic bomb ever dropped on an enemy state.
    Such imminence of action crystallised thinking much more than debate in some warm and safe Quonset hut back on Saipan.
    Burnett spoke up from the flight engineer’s position.
    “Yeah, but look at Hamburg and Dresden. Conventional bombing was supposed to shorten the war, and look at what those RAF boys went through afterwards from the press and politicians. And that was normal bombs and stuff, not atomics. Just imagine what lies in wait for us poor doggies, eh?”
    1st Lieutenant Fletcher, the navigator, joined in.
    “Fair point, Ralph. Even Prime Minister Churchill had his piece of that action.”
    “Yeah, exactly… plus Hamburg, Cologne, Dresden, and all the others put up a defence. These poor bastards ain’t got a chance.”
    Crail couldn’t help himself.
    “So it would all be fine if they could shoot us down, yeah? Well, in case you boys ain’t noticed, we’re already sporting a little extra ventilation, and that’s before we do the deed.”
    His voice carried the humour he intended and again the situation relaxed perceptibly.
    Crail’s mind had debated, listened to the words of others, and made a firm decision.
    “And, for the record, I’m doing what I think is right, regardless of what the press might judge now or in twenty years’