You might be able to force them to move out and leave their weapons behind, but they also had an inexhaustible supply of mortars and machine guns from...Saddam’s days of running things. Maybe you’d manage to shoot up their car or truck, but what was one more busted-up vehicle in Iraq? You couldn’t even brag about the body count, since they would fire from enough of a distance that even if you managed to hit one of them, they’d be able to get the body away before you could get a fire team. With a grassy and mossy area near its edge. Perfect to rest at. She came to it and sat down, just at the edge of the shade, to go over her pickings from the bushes on the way. In the quiet, the echoes of her subtle movements came back to her – proving that the insulation of the close-knit trees was total. She sniggered a bit at the realization that she might as well have been in a cave. Total isolation. Closing her eyes, she turned her face to the sun and smiled, breathing deeply. The sudden. ’ ‘Sometimes. I’ve been busy organising a gallery opening at my school. The parents wanted it done. You know what they’re like. They need something to show off their children’s brilliance to the other parents.’ ‘So you’re the organiser. Really? How’d you get stuck doing that?’ ‘Actually, I volunteered. Why?’ ‘Nothing, its just, well, it doesn’t seem your sort of thing. It sounds like something the social club would do or something.’ Sam smiled at him, pleased in a way that he had actually taken. "I wasn't so sure you would." Thanks for your vote of confidence," I said with a grin."I understand that you did not get much in the way of reasonable requests." Actually," I said, "this morning, I got quite a few." And how were they?" Polite. Very polite. There were some embarrassing moments, but they weren't really all that bad." So," he said, "would you say you had a positive or negative experience this week?" Both. But overall? It was better than I'd anticipated. I even had a few really.