"Of course, sir!"  the young officer answered.  "You could send such a request to The First Speaker.  But would you really want to do that, sir? I mean, would you want to put the burden on someone else?  You're here, you're involved.  They tried to kill you, sir, SEVERAL TIMES!"
     "Still,"  Holiday answered, "it's a job I don't want.  But I suppose nobody would want it.  Anybody got an idea of our casualties?"
     One officer spoke up and said "With everybody here and all we lost in the other bases they're figuring pretty near two million!"
     "What's the population of Mozambique?"  Holiday asked.
     The same officer answered, "I believe somewhere around twenty million, sir."
     Holiday sighed.  "I've got a feeling they may come up short!"  he remarked.  "I've got a feeling they're going to come up awfully short!  Signal The First Speaker I accept the command, and will be awaiting sufficient forces to begin operations.  Send a signal to the Mozambique capital.  'I request your full and unconditional surrender.  If it is given we will be as kind as we can be. If it is not we will use whatever force at our disposal to make you surrender."
     The message was sent.  A few minutes later an officer brought back the reply.  "What is it?"  Holiday asked.
     "It says, sir, 'Go to hell!'"
     Holiday sighed again.  "Well, they've chosen!" he remarked.  "If that's the way they want it, they've chosen!"
      The thunderstorm began to gather, and it was going to be a bad one!

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