The rolling ball of fire refracts in the cabin glass.
‘Good effect on target.’
But what is the target exactly? The thought appears to cross the young gunner’s mind. ‘Sir, that compound was clear, wasn’t it?’
Of civilians, he means. Just combatants-in-waiting or combatants-in-disguise, to him. But if it eases the gunner’s conscience, if it makes him keep doing what he’s so good at doing.
‘Full of bad guys,’ he says to the gunner. ‘No one else.’
Paddy Dobson
4th February 2024