“You act to save ‘America’ and its precious Constitution, a constitution written in part by Société members. The Société has one mission and one mission only: Permit the human race to thrive and grow free of the Darhel! And right now, the Darhel are the biggest threat to your Constitution. So are you going to work with us or are we going to run around in the shadows at odds with each other? Those are the choices. Binary solution set. Get over it.”
The commander considered him calmly for a moment then nodded. “What do you want and what are you willing to trade for it?”
“You’re right that the major needs are for direct action personnel,” O’Reilly said with a nod. “This war has sucked down the available pool of personnel and we have a need for teams, on-call teams…”
Left shook his head. “We cannot act directly against the Darhel. It would violate the Compact. While it may not be in direct support of the Constitution, we feel that the Compact is in everyone’s long-term interest.”
“The Compact, and your actions to bring it about, is what impressed me about you,” O’Reilly said. “Although I think you pulled up short. Five Darhel for General Taylor is a poor trade. Fifteen. Twenty. A hundred if possible.”
“I tend to agree,” Commander Left said with a thin smile. “However, five was the best we could do without… excessive sloppiness. We considered being sloppy as payback for framing us for the Tenth Corps hacking, but it wasn’t necessary. If, when, we have to repeat the lesson, five will be about the most we can guarantee. And since they would be willing to kill the occasional important soldier in exchange for five senior Darhel, we stated plainly that if the person is specifically protected it becomes an all-out war. But the point is, we cannot move against the Darhel. So what would you need teams for?”