15 Also, we have letters of financial support from almost
everyone, except for some banks; they don't like your proposals. They
say they will interfere with free commerce!"
16 Gray Boar was about to speak, when suddenly Mountain Glory screamed
"Everybody down!" and shoved him. Everyone there had the sense to obey
her command without question.
17 Almost before she stopped shouting, her automatic was out. She fired
a single shot at a man standing on top of a little hill just outside
the fence.
18 The shot hit the man squarely in the chest, and the bullet took him
off his feet. He fell backward, an object falling from his half-raised
hand. He fell behind the hill and a couple of seconds later there was a
loud BANG, and a cloud of smoke and dust.
19 Guards, their rifles at the ready, rushed the hill, but when they
looked over the other side, they uncocked their weapons. One of the
Guards came back to the fence. "There's not much left," he announced,
"He must have fallen on his own grenade. You'd better keep everybody in
there until we clean it up, especially the ladies."
20 Mountain Glory nodded as everyone climbed to their feet. She put her
weapon back in its holster and for a moment put her head on the fence.
Gray Boar put his hand on her shoulder. "All right?" he asked.
21 "I've probably killed one-hundred men in battle," she remarked, "but it never feels any better."
22 Gray Boar nodded. "If that grenade had landed in the middle of us, a
dozen or more people would have been killed, and many others maimed."
23 Mountain Glory smiled. "I know," she said, "but that still doesn't
take the look on his face when the bullet hit him, out of my mind."
She shrugged, and they went back to the others.