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to the boxwood hedge and to the curious eyes of Mr. Rivers.  Amy went to tend to one of the children that woke up to the voices.
    The head of Mr. Rivers bobbed up and down slightly as he stood as straight as his elderly body would allow.  He looked a little like a life size bobble head doll with his head constantly moving.  Leah had learned to look past the ceaseless bobbing that plagued Mr. Rivers.  It was nothing more than a twitch that the man had developed over the years.  His eyes went from the large fire and then back to Leah’s face.
    Before she could say anything, he caught her off guard by speaking first.
    “You know,” his head bobbed a little more and his voice seemed to warble with the motion, “I’ve seen that look before.”
    Leah really didn’t know what he meant.
    “I don’t understand?  What look?”  She tried to deadpan her face as much as possible, but apparently it was something that couldn’t be hidden from a man that had seen the hells of a battlefield, and survived a long life after.
    “On your face, Leah,” he said, the curves of a worried smile etched on his face.
    She waited for him to continue.
    “It’s the same look that I know I had on my face the very first day I was in Korea.”
    Leah thought she knew what he was about to say.  The water of tears rimmed her eyes.  He knows what I did…what I had to do.
    “I saw it on the face of every new boy that joined us on the battlefields.  It,” he paused for a second and cleared his throat.  “It’s a look of pain.  A look of question.  A look of duty. That’s the look that is on your face, girl.”
    A tear rolled over Leah’s cheek.
    “Leah, don’t be ashamed of what you had to do,” he simply said.
    She nodded, and moved the tears away from her eyes.  They both watched the fire burn for several quiet moments.
    “I saw them,” he said, leaning his bobbing head towards the fire.  “I saw them when they walked down the street.  I knew their kind.”  He waved a tan wrinkly hand towards the fire.  “As a soldier, a cop and then a defense lawyer, you just learn their kind.  You know what they’re capable of and you know that it only takes a spark to light their powder keg.”
    “I call them freakers,” Leah said, her voice low and quiet.
    “That’s a good name,” he agreed.  “You know in Korea, when we wanted to take some hill or start a campaign, we came in and destroyed what we could by bombing the hell out of it, and then we put boots on the ground to do the rest.”
    Leah nodded, listened to the old man.
    “The ones that were left.  The ones that survived our bombs would always put up one hell of a fight.”  He turned from the fire and looked at Leah.  “I can see that the same thing is true here today.”
    She didn’t know exactly what to say.  He was telling her something from a perspective of experience, but she didn’t quite know what it was.
    “You did a good thing, Leah.”
    She half smiled.
    “It never gets easier,” he simply said.
    “What will never get easier, Mr. Rivers?”
    “Killing people.  It never gets easier.  But,” he pointed an elderly finger at her.  “I’ll say it again, you did a good thing.  We can’t let the world be ruled by people like that, or who ever is trying to take us.”
    “Take us?”
    “Leah,” he said, adopting his lawyer voice. “It’s very plain to see that what’s happening is not some isolated event.  This is the first stage of a campaign; just like we did in Korea.  Someone else sees our country as the hill they want to take.  They’re coming, Leah; mark my word.  But, with folks like you, I know they’re going to run into one hell of a fight!”
    The idea of an invading force coming into America was not one of the scenarios that she and Ian had planned for.  Terrorist strike.  They cause terror; they don’t invade a country…  That’s what other countries do. Realization struck her hard .  This really is our worst