"Okay, what's he got here?"

"It all boils down to one assertion. He says we should win the war."

"Win the...really? Just like that?"

"Oh, there's lots of back-up. He works off the same supposition that we do-that if the war lasts long enough, the word will leak out. But instead of trying to cover up afterward, he wants to finish it before it leaks."

"Does the boy wonder bother to mention how we're supposed to do this?"

"Rather explicitly. We're supposed to outgun them."

"Hire more mercenaries? We've already..."

"No, outgun them. Better equipment. So far everybody's been fighting with government surplus weapons modified for simulated combat. Anything really new the governments are keeping under top security wraps. He's saying we should go directly to the designers and manufacturers and outbid the governments for the new stuff. That would give us enough of an edge to finish the fight once and for all."

"That'd cost us an arm and a leg!"

"Not as much as you'd think. He points out how much the corporations pad any bill going to the government and suggests by exerting a little economic pressure, we could drive the price down considerably. Then again-pull page four out of that stack for a minute."

"Got it."

"What you have there is a document he intercepted. Apparently the bastard has inside information from the negotiating sessions."

Pete was scanning the page.

"What's a 'One-for-One Proposal'?"

"It's some new rule the Oil types are trying to push through. Basically it means the mercenaries would have to destroy equipment and Ammunition as if it had actually been used."

"That's insane!"

"Our negotiating team is giving it an eighty percent probability of passing. If it does, cost estimates for continuing the war go as high as fifty thousand dollars a day."